#there's lots of good stuff in resurrection but this seemed like a really good place to start with the Tolstoy excerpts

[queenlucythevaliant]

On one side of the gallery above stood the men sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia, who had been let into the church before the others. Each of them had half his head shaved, and their presence was indicated by the clanking of the chains on their feet. On the other side of the gallery stood those in preliminary confinement, without chains, their heads not shaved.

The prison church had been rebuilt and ornamented by a rich merchant, who spent several tens of thousands of roubles on it, and it glittered with gay colours and gold. For a time there was silence in the church, and only coughing, blowing of noses, the crying of babies, and now and then the rattling of chains, was heard. [...]

The priest, having dressed in a strange and very inconvenient garb, made of gold cloth, cut and arranged little bits of bread on a saucer, and then put them into a cup with wine, repeating at the same time different names and prayers. Meanwhile the deacon first read Slavonic prayers, difficult to understand in themselves, and rendered still more incomprehensible by being read very fast, and then sang them turn and turn about with the convicts. The contents of the prayers were chiefly the desire for the welfare of the Emperor and his family. These petitions were repeated many times, separately and together with other prayers, the people kneeling. Besides this, several verses from the Acts of the Apostles were read by the deacon in a peculiarly strained voice, which made it impossible to understand what he read [...]

No one present seemed conscious that all that was going on here was the greatest blasphemy and a supreme mockery of that same Christ in whose name it was being done. No one seemed to realise that the gilt cross with the enamel medallions at the ends, which the priest held out to the people to be kissed, was nothing but the emblem of that gallows on which Christ had been executed for denouncing just what was going on here. That these priests, who imagined they were eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine, did in reality eat and drink His flesh and His blood, but not as wine and bits of bread, but by ensnaring “these little ones” with whom He identified Himself, by depriving them of the greatest blessings and submitting them to most cruel torments, and by hiding from men the tidings of great joy which He had brought. That thought did not enter into the mind of any one present.

From Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

#it's a pretty short scene in the scheme of things but definitely long for a Tumblr post so i had to trim it down #but i still remember the feeling i got in my gut the first time i read this passage #the chapter title here is 'the husk of religion' and like. yeah #the juxtaposition of the prisoners and their clanging chains with the opulence of the church and golden robes and incomprehensible prayers #the 'hocus pocus' nature of the way they do the sacrament #and the people right there are in chains #it's a really powerful image #as far as church scenes go it's neck and neck with the one at the beginning of moby dick for just pure on the nose symbolic imagery #and we know that some of these people are innocent! this is injustice #it's just such a sharp and heavy scene #there's lots of good stuff in resurrection but this seemed like a really good place to start with the Tolstoy excerpts #happy birthday Tolstoy #russia where are you flying to? #literature makes us more human #pontifications and creations #the unquenchable fire #also for the record Ivan Illyich had Tolstoy on the outs with the Russian church for calling out religious hypocrisy #and this got him straight-up excommunicated #which is pretty badass

[ballad-of-the-lamb]

I've been bingeing your art in this blog for, like, the last hour. Sooo much good stuff!

Can we hear more about notable members of the Cult? Cheese Parm's s/o and such

cult info below cut b/c i'm gonna be typing a lot;

Everyone listed here are basically the main runners/cast when it comes to plot relevance in the story in itself. there are plenty of cast & characters that aren't- but they wont pop up for anything other than background characters perhaps staring on in horror at god antics or one another's antics.

we'll start from the top;

GALLOWS [ girlyed cheese ]

the most recent member of the cult to be saved specifically by the lamb themself from sacrifice within Darkwood.

a lot of cult conflict will begin with the uninitiated, the unknowing. and the influence of the twin gods will be seen on her in real time as the story progresses.

she is generally a very generic playful-but-tricky fox character, but there's a lot she hides; much like the rest of the cult members. her past is not happily talked about, or seldom is.

she was a native to Darkwood. She is chaotic because of it.

she was meant to be burned at the stake.

EKPYROSIS [ asbestos ]

This word derives from a Greek word for a great fire. It represents a belief held by some scholars of Stoicism, that says that the universe has no beginning or end, and instead is destroyed and remade in a great conflagration in a cyclic manner. Just as life & death ever are.

Her name stands out among the rest of the cult because it was the name that the Lamb bestowed upon her upon being given the title of disciple. Just as Narinder took Baal & Aym to learn from him, the Lamb took her.

Her previous name is not known to anyone mind the Lamb themself, Narinder, and cheese parm.

She is more inclined to using and being influenced by the eldritch artifacts & relics the Lamb or Narinder tend to return with.

She leaves an uneasy and terrible 'uncanny valley' feeling tenfold within her vicinity, which makes her hard to be around. It is not just being outright creepy- but it's a lot more akin to literally feeling reality dip and bow around you into something not quite right.

She does not move like a normal person. The way she walks, runs, jumps- it's all too impossible to replicate without someone shattering every bone in their body.

When she speaks, her voice is delayed from her mouth. And it doesn't always line up perfectly.

most notably; cheese parm hates her. for good reason.

OTHERA [ bong water ]

An average cult member on the surface. They are a caretaker, they are matronly, they work as the local therapist. Generally just likes taking care of people.

When the Lamb, Disciples, & Narinder aren't around to listen to confessionals in the booth they are typically who does.

It's an unspoken rule to not make them angry or let them get to '1' when they start counting down from 5.

He is typically known for the reason morale is good. A good shoulder to rely on.

He is the third oldest member of the cult, resurrected multiple times over to serve his purpose, next to cheese parm & his sister. they are also the only one that asbestos seems to actively fear besides cheese parm.

EUNOMIA [ they/theminem ]

Eunomia was a minor goddess of law and legislation, whose name means "Good Laws", and is specifically a goddess of order according to good governance.

The second disciple. Known for learning the use of the Lamb's personally created curses specifically, though does know the ones Narinder passed on. They do not deem themselves worthy enough to use those.

Generally a very angry & spiteful person for a multitude of reasons. It mostly comes down to 'bearer of the curse' and the curse being knowledge.

They are the only one really permitted to 'backtalk' due to how much they actually do know their place.

they are very heavily disciplined under the rule of self-flagellation, and know the tenants and rites better than anyone else in the cult. even the head ritualist.

as said on paper. cheese parm's s/o. the significantly scarier one. they have not had a reason to be scary in a good couple hundred years! don't make them start now.

has 2 adopted kids w/ cheese parm they raise.

PANKRATIAST [ cheese parm ]

The Pankration is a sport of unarmed combat that featured in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece. This specific association fits as he's specifically an unarmed fighter first and foremost.

While not a disciple, is considered one generally in 'importance' to the higher ups of the cult. While he is no more important than Gallows, Othera, Minced Meat, or any other average member- he has the veteran's respect.

Was given a name by the Lamb, and since he does not speak, it's not like he can correct anyone otherwise.

well. doesn't talk. only ever communicates in vague grunts and noises that voice displeasure or a neutral 'ok'

Generally considered stoic, he does not feel strongly about most things.

The village executioner. The head missionary. Bartender. Does all the jobs no one else wants to do, and even others when no one else does it.

Smells of gore & wet dog constantly.

Knows. Remembers. Knows why death is broken, knows how it broke, will not tell Lamb or Narinder. He is a Witness.

Knows all the weaponry the Lamb uses & can use it just as effectively on a physical level.

The first of the flock. Will be there even when there is no more flock to have. As it will ever be, pinkie promised back in the Silk Cradle back where he was first found.

ILONA [ taco bell qsdea ]

a specialist in alchemy, cooking, & plants. Tends to the farms, gardens, & warding stones.

The first of the cult members Narinder warmed up to directly after descension. They brought him food every day, they gave him supplies, and other than the Lamb- they were the first to not be terrified of him.

They are very blind and often need a guide when they are not allowed to use their clicks and noises to find the way.

They are immune to Gallows' tricks and run off of the 'fae logic' of most things.

Their name means 'joy'. A name they decided on after speaking to Narinder for a time.

The first cult members recruited directly after Narinder's descension.

Immune to the horrors Somehow. There is something hiding behind those big ol eyes

Can fly. They have wings attached to their arms, and for it, require special clothes.

will be involved a lot in narinder plots

MINCED MEAT [ childbirth gambino ]

head cook but kind of as a threat. the lamb put them there for a reason. they are pretty mid.

constantly paranoid and in a state of fear or unease. Does not sleep because of it, and instead compulsively cooks almost all day and night.

most random screeches or noises in the cult come from this little guy

absolutely scared shitless of the Lamb.

The first Dissenter since the Lamb's ascension. They were made an example of. Now they will never. They have seen god's wrath, and would rather die.

narinder likes to bully this thing by hissing at him in the night

attached to beansnesed'd bsbisebies hip when in the chapel or out and about.

the prime example of 'the lamb is not a good person.'

ALOPE [ deep dish pizza ]

cheese parm's little sister. and borderline clone. she copies everything he's done up until adulthood when she started to become her own person. though it's been hundreds, if not thousands of years, she's still trying to figure out who she is.

made a pinkie promise to the lamb, just like cheese parm, to always be there. and she has!

ripped as fuck. like, more than cheese parm. huge. absolute beast thing.

the lamb prevented a fated death in her, the first time he ever did so, and for it her title is technically 'Saint Alope' within the cult for being the act of a miracle.

like her brother, never speaks vocally, never shows her face. gets across feelings through vague grunts. uses sign language where cheese parm does not.

the fastest in the cult. rivals narinder in base speed without using necklaces or unnatural abilities.

uses two ritual dirks or daggers at any given point, throwing knives, things of that sort. protects the village next to cheese parm, and you'll never hear her coming. totally, absolutely silent.

#cult lore #cotl oc #i also have a guy names lady gagita but you guys will have to meet them through the plot eventually they're a bit too sppoillery #edit: added my cheese parm playlist

[v3nusxsky]

Can I please request I wouldnt call it smut really but I dunno... some titty sucking 👉👈 ( . )( . ), Lady Lesso x reader where they're laying in bed and stuff. Fluffy, soft, lots lots lots of praise and mommy kink. Reader being called 'good girl'. 🥲

*Authors note~ oral fixation people this is for us, how I wish I could be reader in this like boobs yes please. Drabblleeeee*

*A/n~ I kinda strayed from the request I hope that’s okay it became purely self indulgent*

Trigger warnings~ praise mommy kink oral fixation suckling on breast for comfort nightmares

Prompt~see ask^^^^^

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

You had a particularly rough day and after having a nice soothing bath with your lover you'd settled into bed with one another. Leonora was happy to hold you and comfort you as you drifted off to sleep with her slender fingers scratching softly at your scalp. You happily nuzzled into the Dean of Evil who happened to be wearing one of her longer white shirts, a few buttons undone to allow the cool summer breeze to cool her already warm body. You were like a little space heater.

It wasn't uncommon for you to have nightmares, but recently they've been bad. So bad that you're subconsciousness began to become more violent. Your hands and legs hitting out in your sleep, tangling your limbs in the sheets as your fought the demons in your mind. The demons from the past you attempted to bury deep in the sand of memories. They always seemed to resurrect themselves at night, while you were at you were at your most vulnerable.

Leonora had tried to help you through those nightmares but her voice was no longer working and she learned all too quickly that touching you during these episodes of night terrors was simply not the way to go. You were small yes but no way were you weak like this, Leonora often struggled to restrain you in the throes of terror, she'd never admit it out loud but it was distressing for her to see. Her heart always broke seeing you become so disconnected from the real world, you often woke up to your own screams pulling you from your mind as you sobbed and clutched at the redhead. Those nights neither of you really had much restful sleep.

Tonight was no different, you started off the same way, whimpering broken pleads to make it stop, Lesso trying to soothe you with her voice which seemed to work for all of fifteen minutes before you again back to beg and plead for them to stop. Calling out for Leonora to make then stop. "Help me Leo, Leo! Help me" you sobbed in the throes of the past, there was no Leonora then to save you, but she was here now and she'd do anything to protect you.

In your terrified state, you moved closer to your girlfriend throwing your hand haphazardly to your right, coming into contact with her soft boob. It was like a light switched on in your dream, you shuffling closed until you had her shirt moved and your mouth latched onto her pert bud. All Lesso could do was stare at your shadow in shock while light suckling noises filled the room. The tension seemingly leaving your body and your fallen tears drying as you made content sleepy sounds.

Leonora had no idea how long she lay there, you happily suckling her breast in your sleep, she brought her hand to your hair to gently scratch your scalp in a soothing gesture, overwhelmed how such a small act could help you, and it was something Lesso enjoyed. You always loved to shower Leonora is kisses and hickeys, she was always so responsive to your light sucking on her skin. Of course this was how you needed to be soothed. It made perfect sense, you would suckle on your bear as a teenager until some cruel idiots tore him apart in front of you, that's when you began to have these episodes. You'd never found away after that to soothe yourself, you loved to have things in your mouth though, in a sexual way or not if you thought you were alone you'd place pendant of your necklace in your mouth. But none of it was the same, until tonight.

You realised a little angry whine when her nipple slipped from your mouth. Temper clearly present at having your comfort taken from you. The cool air met her wet skin which caused her to shiver. Lesso guided you back to her breast, "sleep darling you're okay now" she murmured soothingly to you. That was the first night in a long time you both got some much needed sleep.

From that night on any time you needed soothing from a distressed state all you needed to do was go and find Leonora and whisper "blue" which immediately let her know what you were seeking. Lesso always made time to give you that, although initially you were embarrassed about needing and wanted her like this you soon became more confident to ask her for that comfort when you saw the enjoyment she got from soothing you. She may be the Dean of Evil but with you she was anything but. Always willing to be soft and caring for your benefits.

Word count~ 873

#anon answered #v3nusxsky answers #fanfic #anon requested #lady lesso #sfgae #leonora lesso #lady lesso x reader #lesso x reader #lady lesso x you #leonora lesso x reader #lady leonora lesso #dean of evil x reader #dean of evil

[somer-writes]

ugh ok ok ok i am running wild with this gloom infection concept so i wrote a bunch of stuff down before i forget. subject to change bc im kind of just spitballing as of rn

CW for horror/gore/outbreaks of illness/discussion of violence

Twilight

19

Comes from Ordon. Ordon was one of the last places for the gloom to reach. Twilight’s not sure if he’s the only one left, but he’s searching for the others despite the village being more or less destroyed.

Was infected with gloom, was “cured” in Faron Spring (read died and resurrected via light spirit shenanigans)

Instead of Twili markings he has gloom scars. He keeps his left arm in wraps where the gloom left his bone exposed at his wrist and upper arm. The wounds are just kind of there and don’t seem to get better but aren’t getting worse. They no longer give him pain and don't bleed. He also has scars on his cheeks/forehead. The whites of his eyes are a little dull

Gloom did weird shit to him! He doesn’t see well but he has sharp smelling and hearing. He’s very slow to bleed so can sustain more damage but is also very slow to heal. Sunlight’s not great for him and he's pyrophobic

Gloom infected people don’t come after him anymore

Around large groups of infected he sort of joins the mob but can be brought out of it with distance

Somewhat forgetful

Brawler - will use improvised weapons or just go fully barehanded against infected

Wild

17

Comes from Hateno

Got trapped in a house fire set by a neighbor, managed to survive through divine intervention

Lost his memory, covered in scars. The scars cause him mobility issues

Selective mute as a trauma response

Long hair :D but more like TotK length and not LU length

Agile - good at climbing, uses a compound bow and hunting arrows (or makes his own in a pinch)

Wanders aimlessly without a home to attach himself to or people to look for

Makes elixirs/good cook

pretty reckless, enjoys looting to find Good Ingredients XD

Wars

23

From Castle Town

Military background - one of the few survivors of the initial outbreaks

Had to put down a lot of his own men and civilians

Very outwardly aloof and avoidant of his trauma

Control issues, compulsive need to be "hygienic" (sometimes to the point of harm)

Adept with firearms and will use improvised weapons to spare ammo

Left Castle Town to go to Outset Island

Wind

14

Outset is mostly untouched by the gloom, but the island is quarantined

Mainlanders tried to flee to the islands and it caused chaos leading to riots

In the chaos of the riots, Aryll was mistakenly taken to the mainland and Wind went after her

Really good at making and setting traps

Terrified of the infected

Gloom

Outbreak caused by Ganon’s tomb being unsealed and his curse being unleashed

The gloom is spread through bodily fluids like blood or spit. Most commonly it’s spread through biting and scratching

Gloomhands can also spread the infection and expedite it into hours rather than days

Infected wounds can be treated with brightbloom seeds which only grow in the very gloom infested depths under Hyrule which makes the medicine hard to come by

Gloom slowly rots the infected while they’re alive. It also degrades mental capability such as cognitive function and sanity. Progresses very similar to dementia except it causes aggression and violence

Gloomhands are borne from several infected corpses piling in one place

Gloom scars are called “gloom burn” because they resemble burn scars. A lot of times the flesh doesn’t entirely heal with successful treatment

The Chain

They converge at Lon-Lon through coincidence

Tasked by Hylia to beat Ganon and end the curse

The Zelda’s all wield light magic which can cure gloom infection and with enough strength (usually through multiple of them gathered) can reverse the effects of gloom and create safe oases

Aside from needing to mull over the rest of the chain, i'm also considering appearances from Midna, the resistance, ravio & hilda, and phantom ganon

the map will be mostly based on totk with some adjustments. modern contemporary setting with fantasy elements.

#somer writes #lu fanfiction #linked universe #lu chain #the infection trend but its gloom and its zelda not ponies #this would trend towards a dark series #probably a lot of body horror and general gore #pestilence au

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Movie 1: Broly (2/3)

Well, enough of that flashback stuff. Let's move on to the present.

So after the destruction of Planet Vegeta, uh all of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball Super happened. This is kind of a weak point for this movie, because it's story is rooted in Goku's origin tale, but the climax takes place when Goku's a middle-aged man, so a lot of lore has happened in between. There's a similar thing going on when Raditz and Frieza show up in DBZ, and when Broly made his debut in the 1993 film, but Goku was 24-30 in those stories, so it wasn't quite as big a strain.

The thing is, the stuff we had to skip over was extremely important, and the movie simply can't go over all of it. If someone who knew nothing about Dragon Ball watched this thing, they would probably think that this is a story about Goku and Vegeta trying to avenge their people by defeating Frieza, except that already got dealt with in 1991. Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza have each been killed and resurrected... twice. This movie doesn't have time to explain all their baggage, much less how Goku and Vegeta became pals. So no one even tries to fill in the audience on who this big purple cat man is. You either saw Battle of Gods or you just have to roll with it.

And you know what? Good. No one was there to explain Ox King or Mr. Popo to me when I first got into this thing. I've been watching this stuff for a quarter century, and I still don't know what the fuck Tien's third eye is all about. Context is for the weak.

Anyway, this scene takes place on a private island Bulma bought some time ago. She had a resort built here so Goku and Vegeta could spar without damaging West City. And the food is good, so Beerus and Whis tagged along, although neither of them really have any impact on the plot at all. Whis asks Goku why he wants to get stronger, and Goku explains that he's feeling inspired after the recent Tournament of Power arc from the tail end of the DBS anime. Vegeta, on the other hand, is only concerned with Frieza, who was restored to life during that storyline. Frieza's more powerful than ever before, and Vegeta expects him to get even stronger and menace the Earth again.

Sure enough, Bulma gets a call from Trunks as Capsule Corp, who informs them that Bulma's collection of Dragon Balls and the Dragon Radar have been stolen by goons wearing Frieza Force uniforms. But the joke's on them, because Bulma only had six of the Dragon Balls collected. The seventh is on the Ice Continent, so they know exactly where to go to intercept the thieves. Beerus doesn't want to tag along for the trip, so Bulma leaves her infant daughter Bulla with Beerus.

So what was Bulma planning to wish for? She admits that she was going to ask Shenron to make her look five years younger. Why only five? Because if she got too young all at once, people would think she had work done.

So what does Frieza plan to wish for? Immortality was what he wanted on Namek, but not this time. No he only wants to grow about five centimeters taller. Why not just use his second or third forms to be tall? Because he wants to be taller in any of his forms. Why only five centimeters? Because he wants it to seem like he's still growing.

I've never been too happy about this gag. I mean, it's a good gag, but I liked it better the first time, when Commander Red planned to use the Dragon Balls to make himself taller. It does add some complexity to Frieza's character, though, since he's not just stubbornly trying the exact same routine that got him wrecked on Namek, and then killed on Earth, and then re-killed on Earth again.

This time, he's not trying to take the Dragon Balls by force, because he knows Goku and Vegeta are too powerful to challenge head-on. So he's using stealth instead. The minions he sent to Earth are weaker guys, which mean Goku and Vegeta wouldn't sense their ki. And it seems like Frieza's plan is to just sneak down to Earth, make the wish, and head out before anyone can stop them.

And he's not pursuing the same wish he had twenty-odd years ago. Really, Frieza was never that interested in immortality in the first place. He only decided to wish for that because it was the one thing he didn't already have. But now he's been dead twice over, and that's given him a new perspective on life and death, and he seems to think being unable to die would be similar to the unending torment he experienced in hell. Neither does he seek an invincible body. I'm not sure Shenron could give him greater strength, but Frieza feels that would take all the fun out of "the game". If nothing else, it's interesting to see Frieza consider this at all. Back in the Namek Saga, he never thought about wishing for greater power, because he believed he already was the strongest in the universe. Now that he knows otherwise, he seems fairly content with that.

Meanwhile, we meet the last two players in this drama, Leemo and Cheelai. They're operatives in the Frieza Force, but they're not warriors. Leemo's been with the Frieza Force from the beginning, and Cheelai's a recent recruit, having joined up to avoid the consequences of stealing a Galactic Patrol ship. Their orders are to find more warriors to join the Frieza Force, since their ranks are pretty threadbare. Remember, when Frieza destroyed the Saiyans, they made up half of his fighting force. The other half was still quite formidable, but all of his best troops ended up getting killed during Frieza's disastrous invasion of Namek. Then Frieza came back and tried to attach Earth in Resurrection F, and he brought like a thousand soldiers with him, and those guys all got killed as well.

As Cheelai observes, Frieza is down to women and old men like herself and Leemo. There just aren't many warriors available in the universe these days, because all the good talent got killed off a long time ago. As they discuss this, Leemo picks up a distress signal from Planet Vampa. Thinking their might be a reward for it, they head over to answer the call, and find...

Paragus! Also a bunch of alien monsters. Fortunately, Paragus isn't alone...

They also find Broly on Vampa, and he's all grown up and stronger than ever. Their scouters measure Paragus' power level at 4200, which isn't too impressive these days, but it's way better than anything the Frieza Force has at the moment. And Broly's power is too high for the scouters to measure, so they definitely want him to come along. On the way to Frieza's ship, Cheelai feeds Broly rations and takes a liking to the big guy.

When the four of them report to Frieza, Paragus explains that he had to cut off Broly's tail because of the frequent full moons on Vampa, which cause Broly to lose control of himself as a giant ape. Occasionally, Broly still loses control of himself anyway, but Paragus can rein him in using...

... a shock collar, which he can activate with a remote control. Leemo and Cheelai are horrified to learn of this, but not so horrified that they turn down the generous reward Frieza gives them for their discovery.

Now, one thing that always bugged me about this movie is that Frieza immediately starts making plans to use Broly against Goku and Vegeta. He wasn't planning to attack them this time around, but now that he has Broly on his team, it seems much more favorable. Later, when the fighting starts, Frieza is disappointed to find that Broly can't transform into a Super Saiyan, but why would he expect Broly to be able to do any of that? Sure he's a Saiyan, but Goku and Vegeta have mastered power levels far, far beyond what other Saiyans have ever dreamed possible.

But I keep forgetting that Frieza can sense ki these days, the same way Goku can. Back in the Namek Saga, Frieza had to rely on scouters like the rest of his goons, but when he trained to become Golden Frieza in Res F, he learned to sense energy. So when he sizes up Broly, he's not just guessing at how strong this guy is. He can actually perceive the untapped potential in Broly's body, and he seems to recognize that Broly would be capable of giving Goku and Vegeta a hard time. So it makes sense.

Anyway, Paragus is happy to cooperate, since he still despises King Vegeta for what happened, and he's down to attack Prince Vegeta to even the score. And Broly has to do whatever Paragus wants or he gets another shock.

Later, Cheelai tries to get to know Broly better, but Paragus forbids Broly from speaking. While they argue over this, another henchman tries to drunkenly hit on Cheelai. I really like how Leemo tries to defuse the situation here. He's not a fighter, so it suits his character that he'd try to employ a nonviolent solution, like offering to buy this guy a drink. Being a noncombatant in the Frieza Force, he's probably grown accustomed to swimming with the sharks like this. But it doesn't work, and then Broly steps up to use a non-nonviolent solution, which is violence.

But Paragus doesn't want to offend his host, so he gives Broly another shock. Cheelai confronts him over this, and while she chews him out, she swipes his remote control. Then Paragus gets summoned to talk with Frieza. While he's gone, Cheelai destroys the remote, and they listen to Broly tell the story of his green fur wrap.

It's a pretty simple story. The closest thing Broly had to a friend on Vampa was one of the large green creatures on the planet. Paragus used the creature to train Broly, goading it to attack, and then having Broly dodge it. But over time, the creature became accustomed to Broly, and they became pals. But Paragus wanted the creature to be hostile, so he shot its ear off with a laser pistol to piss it off. Ever since, Broly has kept the ear and wears it as a memento of their friendship.

I like how easily Cheelai and Leemo sympathize with Broly in this movie. They're not good guys at all. Cheelai's an opportunistic thief, and Leemo's a cog in Frieza's evil empire. But they're not heartless, and Broly's story is so tragic and innocent that you can't help but feel for the guy. Leemo compares Paragus to his own rotten father, so you can tell that he can relate to what Broly is going through. And Cheelai can tell when someone's being used. Paragus can dress it up all he likes, but he's just using Broly's power to serve his own selfish interests.

Moving on, Frieza's team on Earth have located the seventh Dragon Ball, and Frieza's fleet moves in to join them for the wish-making. But Bulma, Goku, and Vegeta get their first. They probably would have arrived sooner, but Bulma wanted to stop somewhere to buy cold-weather gear. Let's just take a moment to admire her safety-yellow snowsuit. She looks like a baby duck in this thing and it's great.

Frieza confronts Goku and Vegeta and introduces Paragus and Broly. I never really noticed these guardsmen who stand by while Frieza steps out of the ship. Paragus should have gotten one of those uniforms, since that pink shower curtain he's wearing looks dumb as hell.

I mean, look at Goku. Bulma got him a sweet blue coat and he looks like a million bucks. He tries to convince Paragus and Broly to get along as fellow Saiyans, but that doesn't get him anywhere. You'd think he'd know better by now.

So Broly's rarin' to go, and Frieza sees no reason to make him wait, and it's on. Broly attacks Vegeta, and that brings us to the final leg of this movie, which we'll cover next time.

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #dragon ball super #dragon ball super: broly #broly #goku #vegeta #frieza #paragus #cheelai #leemo #bulma #whis #beerus #bulla

[paradoxcase]

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

'baby-soft skin hammocks'...from a necromancer..gives me the icks.

I mean, I don't think it's any more gross/weird than a lot of other stuff that has happened in the book so far. John already wears baby fingerbones in his hair for adornment

I find it fascinating that John says he could cure cancer....and yet we have Cytherea...

@turtletotem:

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess John could have cured Cytherea :) at any time :) instead of letting her suffer for 10,000 years :)))) no wonder she wanted him dead

Oh wow, I didn't make that connection, but yeah, he could have. But instead he really was just like, the only way for you to live is if you become a Lyctor and help me kill resurrection beasts while you suffer from cancer for 10,000 years. I can't imagine what he was thinking, but I also have no idea what he was thinking by just letting the other Lyctors think that the cavalier had to die to achieve Lyctorhood

@eye-lantern:

For the Jesus comparison the nurse gave: she isn't saying it was what made the Romans kill him. Jesus (in the texts) knew that he gave too much for his own good. And he knew the Romans would kill him and he knew Judas would betray him. But he did it anyway because he gave himself to others entirely, even if I meant it killed him. She is saying John needs take care of himself even if it meant refusing to help some people, or he would die wich doesn't help anyone.

Which makes an interesting parallel with the actual Jesus parallel that is Griddle, who died for someone on the iron fence instead of a wooden cross,for someone that would have preferred her to live even if it meant not receiving her help. Gideon spends the entire first book helping everyone, without asking for anything in return, and it litteraly kills her. Maybe twice if we consider avultion. John may have had the apostles but Gideon had the self-sacrificial drive

Oh, right, I guess the sort of canonical interpretation is that Jesus died in order to save everyone else, etc. That is an interesting parallel, I wonder, since presumably Gideon is getting brought back to life at some point, probably by John I would guess, if John is ever going to tell her this story and this particular piece of advice he received?

I don't know if Jod is dreaming with her. To me it could absolutely have happened and she is just dreaming of a memory. The narrator never says something out of place, except for calling him lord, and he only says Harrow. Everything else could be an actual event where names are "translated" to something that makes more sense to harrow, and the crossed-out names are not replaced because she has no idea what to replace it by

@racefortheironthrone:

My interpretation is that Harrow is semi-lucid dreaming Alecto's memories.

That's true, I guess, this could just all be Alecto's memory. But if John telling Alecto this story actually happened, I guess that means Alecto was not around to perceive it at all while it was happening?

@eye-lantern:

I do like that we can get a vague time frame and something more of John's religious background when says he went to Parachute when he was younger. So he's most likely a Millenial or Gen Xer (since it seems that festival was from the early 90s to 2014). Not sure that says anything deep about him, but I find it interesting.

Ahh, that part didn't mean anything to me, haha. That's interesting, though, I'd sort of expected this story to be happening further in the future than that, like the way he is describing people's thoughts about climate change don't really align with the way they are currently, I don't think, it feels like this is happening at a later date, and John isn't described as looking old in the story. Like, if John is Gen X, he'd be 40 at the absolute minimum right now, in 20 years from now he'd be 60+, and I had the impression that this had to be least like 20 years in the future

#the locked tomb #wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess #turtletotem #eye-lantern #racefortheironthrone

[racefortheironthrone]

The 2023 Hellfire Gala stacked its tragedies higher and higher, after the initial party crashing, in parts similar to the Red Wedding. What are your thoughts on the event?

Anonymous asked: What did you think of the Hellfire Gala 2023 one shot and specifically how the new team of X-Men were treated?

I would recommend first listening to Gerry Duggan's interview on the Cerebrocast podcast, because I think he gives some important context for the artistic intent behind the 2023 Hellfire Gala.

Then I'm going to talk about some spoilery/speculative stuff after the cut. You have been warned.

Introduction

So let's start with my overall impression: the Hellfire Gala was really tough to read and I found myself reading in chunks of a few pages at a time and then putting it down, because either I was dreading what was about to happen or needing a minute to process what had just happened.

None of that makes it bad comics, because it's very clearly intended to be tough to read - as a recapitulation of the original Mutant Massacre which originally ended with the X-Men decimated, spread across the world, and faking their own deaths in order to strike back from the shadows, this event is supposed to put our heroes in the absolute worst position possible, "put their backs to the wall" as Duggan put it, to see how they get out of it. And I do think there are both textual and metatextual clues for how they get out of it.

The Prelude

Just to start with everything that takes place before things start to go to hell: as previewed, it is revealed that Kamala Khan is both a mutant and an Inhuman, as she is restored to life by the Five. Following up from some of her increasingly cryptic comments in Immortal X-Men, the FCBD Uncanny Avengers one-shot, and Rogue & Gambit, Destiny is trying to GTFO to avoid the Massacre but Mystique wants to stay and help Rogue, which causes a fight and ultimately leads to Mystique's seeming death (although we never see the body).

After Professor X expositions a bit of Ms. Marvel's new status quo, we get an interesting scene between Ms. Marvel and Rasputin IV in which we learn that in Rasputin's future, Kamala is a figure of legend as both a mutant and Inhuman and something of a hero of Rasputin's (following the theme of Rasputin as fangirl). What I find a bit strange is that the Sins of Sinister timeline took place before Kamala's death and resurrection - so how is it that Rasputin knows about her as a mutant? Also, I'm a bit confused when it comes to the mention of the "breeding pits," because I don't remember those being mentioned in the SoS timeline and instead the chimeras seemed more purpose-built rather than mass produced.

To weaken resistance to their plans, ORCHIS sets off their distraction attacks at the Treehouse, D.C, and the Brooklyn Bridge, which cause Cyclops, the Avengers, and Rogue to leave right before everything goes down. (This is a better explanation for "why didn't the other heroes help" than we've gotten in a while - ORCHIS has worked out contingency plans, and those plans are setting up Uncanny Avengers.)

The X-Men Vote

Here we get to the first big gut-punch moment of the event: the new X-Men team is voted on and revealed, and it's a lineup that a lot of people were really excited about: it's the most diverse X-Men team since HOXPOX (half poc, half women of color, and the first elected human X-Men), and it features a good mix of well-known characters like Jubilee and Juggernat as well as more niche fan-favorites like Frenzy and Prodigy.

Then Nimrod drops in from terminal velocity and wipes out almost everyone on the team, and for some fans it felt like a very charged slap in the face, given the rise of far-right violence against minority communities and how that's evoked by these dead mutants of color. Leaving aside that I think it's a very deliberate invocation of that by the creatives, I can understand why people are upset by these deaths (and indeed, the deaths of Bobby, Jean Grey, Mystique, Lourdes, et al.). A lot of characters that we all care about died in gruesome, painful fashions - and I think it's ok for people to feel bad about that.

However, I'm not as devastated as I could be, because I know these characters aren't really dead for good - and I don't mean that in the "no one stays in comic books" long-term sense. Part of this has to do with how I interpret the ultimate fate of the Five and the population of Krakoa, but also part of it has to do with the fact that I've seen solicits and previews for forthcoming Fall of X books, so I know that some of the characters we see dead are appearing soon in major roles - Iceman's got a solo book, Jean Grey's got a solo book, Juggernaut's on the cover of a forthcoming issue of X-Men, etc.

I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that the X-Office did not go through the rigamore of an X-Men election and putting together a team lineup to not use there characters in Fall of X. But it's meant to be a surprise when they suddenly turn up to save the day.

Two minor points involving a status quo to people's powers: when ORCHIS attacks, it is revealed that Magik's powers have been interfered with by Dr. Stasis' nanite infection (as part of ORCHIS' focus on cutting X-Men off from teleportation), and Iceman gets jabbed with what seems like a similar device by Nimrod (which helps to explain why part of his storyline for his upcoming book seems to be him having trouble with his powers).

Forced Surrender and Survival

It's at this point that Dr. Stasis and Karima make a dramatic tango entrance and reveal their masterstroke: they reveal the killswitch that Stasis and MODOK have built into Krakoan medicines, and use that to force Xavier into surrendering and mind-controlling mutantdom into leaving Earth.

Even though Duggan et al. have been foreshadowing this for some time - we've known Stasis had been fucking with the meds generally since the first Gala, we've known about the killswitch for a couple issues of X-Men, etc. - the twist that it would be used not just to blacken Krakoa's reputation but to blackmail Xavier into using his telepathy against Krakoa is a very good one. By taking millions of human lives hostage, ORCHIS is essentially forcing Xavier to undergo a real-life trolley problem experiment, counting on his very empathy and humanitarianism to win them the day.

(My one critique is that it's not really explained why Xavier couldn't use his mutant powers to mind-control Stasis and MODOK and prevent them from activating the kill-switch in the same way that Jean Grey does a bit later. I think the storytelling reason is that they don't want to repeat the Jean Grey/Moira beat, but it is awkward and ungainly that Xavier is uncharacteristically passive compared to later in the story and it's not explained why.)

This then kicks off a series of dominos:

Jean dies, and Scott is taken away in another dubious ambulance - we know from solicits that Jean is doing some sort of rebirth/time-travel stuff in her miniseries, so that makes sense, and Cyclops is apparently going to be a prisoner of ORCHIS. This also has the effect of reserving the spotlight entirely for Synch and Talon as the new leaders of the X-Men, as Jean and Scott are not going to be active drivers of the plot.

In a very good plotline, Jean chooses Firestar as a retroactive undercover agent within ORCHIS, playing on Firestar's reputation as someone with a rocky relationship with mutantkind - but without any clear way of proving her true loyalties to surviving mutants.

This is a key moment that has really important context for what comes next: as the mind-controlled mutants walk into the gates, Mother Righteous does something to alter their destination and traps Krakoa's Atlantic island in one of her magical lanterns. This is very important, because among those who go through the gates are the Five - and depending on what you think happens to them, that really affects what you think of the death of the X-Men lineup or the broader Fall of X scenario. (Notably, as this happens, Destiny turns to the camera to tell Mystique and us the reader that this is the only way for mutantkind to survive, which is an important bit of signposting to reassure the audience that the writers are playing fair rather than doing a screwjob.)

Those mutants who are going to be the main characters in Fall of X, whether it's Kurt in Uncanny Spider-Man, Emma et al. in Immortal X-Men, Synch and Talon et al. in X-Men, the whacky Limbo crew in Dark X-Men, and so forth, are distinguished from the rest of mutantkind by their red triangle defense that Gerry Duggan borrowed from Al Ewing. (I like linking the Red Triangle to the letters of the word resist, that's an instantly iconic bit of worldbuidling there.) Interestingly, some of the characters who you would have thought would get the red triangle training - like Ilyana and the crew from Realm of X - stil go through the portals and others it's left ambiguous.

With psychic assistance from Emma Frost, much of the cast of Fall of X manages to escape to New York City, although Lourdes is killed in the process of teleporting them to safety- once again returning to her original origin and death in Classic X-Men. Emma finds out that mutants have been locked out of the gates to keep them from escaping and to keep them divided at the cost of her nose, but for some mysterious reason Kate suddenly can pass through them and winds up in Jerusalem. Note the emphasis on surviving characters being scattered and divided - so that they can reunite in Rise of X.

The Genocide that Didn't Happen

And here we arrive at the denoument: having held his shot for some reason, Xavier tells Rogue to smash Moira and flee the Gala, only for him to find out that he has been made the unwitting and unwilling agent of mutant genocide - fulfilling Magneto's prophecy, Xavier's completely understandable attempt to save millions of hostages seemingly led to the deaths of all 250,000 mutants on Krakoa. We end with a complete existential destruction of Charles Xavier, as he is left alone and bereft on Krakoa's Pacific island.

(Interesting that ORCHIS' plan seems to have left the home island at home, so that Krakoa itself is still alive and where we left it.) I say seemingly, because Xavier only thinks that the Krakoan people are dead. As we have seen, Mother Righteous has her own agenda and altered the gates - we know that some mutants who went through the gates ended up in Vanaheim, and others ended up on the Atlantic island in Righteous' pocket dimension...including the Five. And as long as the Five live, so too does Krakoa. I again will bet dollars to donuts that we will see mutants who died at the Gala brought back to life by the Five at a dramatic moment to take their places in Fall of X and Rise of X (because comics never stopping cuts both ways).

So what we have is something that feels like a genocide in terms of its emotional impact on the reader and the psychological impact on Charles Xavier, and that certainly hearkens back to Hickman's recontextualizing of mutant genesis with the dramatic focus on Xavier and the helmet (he's even kneeling in water again), and the population of Krakoa falling to one...but that isn't actually a genocide. The overall purpose is clear: just as one is supposed to put one's toys back in the box for the next writing team, it's also important not to play so rough with your toys that you end up breaking them.

At the same time, I have to admit I feel kind of a way about playing the symbolism of genocide in a comic fakeout sort of way. I know that it's going to result in a triumphant moment and it follows on from HOXPOX using resurrection to promote the idea of reversing genocide as a liberatory act of science-fiction, but I think it's fair to say that it left me a little raw and I feel like the X-room is going to have to do some aftercare to soothe their audience.

#xmen #xmen meta #fall of x #fall of x spoilers #spoilers #krakoa #mutant metaphor

[lazaruspiss]

So, I'm writing a long fanfic based around the characterizations of the various Bats in the 80s-00s time frame, and Nightwing is gonna be important but I don't have a good grasp of his personality yet. I'm currently reading through The Resurrection of Ras Al Ghul, but that and a few of the 2016 issues are all I've got to go off of right now.

Do you have any comics you'd recommend for getting a good grasp of his personality and general vibes?

I'd also be happy to read any kind of ramble about his personality/appeal you feel like writing. Having read your fanfiction I feel like (sincere compliment:) you are the exact kind of unhinged I want to get character opinions from.

(Also you mentioned Dick being in the mob which sounds Very Fun and I wanna know what titles so I can read that)

-redhoodinternaldialectical on anon cause sideblog

ok first of all. im flattered. i feel so powerful rn.

and second of all... my 'to read' list is embarrassingly long, and dick's been around and in a lot of comics so i have a lot of trouble keeping up ;-; but i will try my best!!

The New Teen Titans gets recommended a lot as a starting point for Dick as Nightwing, and while i havent read much of it, the stuff i have read has been pretty solid and i get why its so popular.

Nightwing 1996 is my personal go to comic for Dick, mainly bc it was his first real solo run. (it's often listed as "volume 2" of nightwing, but volume 1 aka Nightwing 1995 was really more of a test drive just to see if they should make a Nightwing solo series) It's also where Dick joins the mob! although that came off the tail end of a lot of different plot points.

(This is a bit unrelated, but in general I think knowing a bit of irl context to certain comic events is important. Like, at one point Bludhaven is nuked off the map. It doesn't make sense, and it was most likely due to some higher up DC nonsense. And Nightwing 1996's second annual is written by a man. etc etc.)

... I actually have a guide I've been working on, main reasons being quick reference for what happens where, and that writing these things down helps me remember them better

as you can probably tell, I still have a ways to go. looking at this now i'm starting to realize that i am really down bad for him lol

Mobbed Up (where Dick gets adopted by a random mob boss who took one look at his depressed mug as he was getting fired from the police force and said "new son?") is issues #107-111

I feel like I should get back to character thoughts.

Dick on his own is deeply serious, he has a job to do and it's incredibly important that he does it right. In the beginning this serves as an invaluable asset, but as he loses more people it starts to turn into more destructive. A trait that is morphed by his traumas into obsessiveness.

Dick when Tim comes to visit (or just when he's around people he cares about) is a bit softer, it's subtle, but it shows that he's aware of/cares for the people around him.

Dick with Bruce around seems to worry so much about proving himself, about being seen as a respectable peer, that it backfires into making him come off more insecure and as a bit of a "rebellious teen". (which is exactly what he's trying to avoid when he strikes out on his own) I've read various arcs and issues but I haven't actually read any focused on Dick and Bruce aside from the ones towards the beginning, so I'm sure their relationship must change, but this is how they were when Dick had first moved to Blud.

I feel like Bludhaven is also important to talk about. It's very much meant to be "Gotham, but worse". It's a place that even Batman wouldn't bother with, a place beyond saving. I'm... kind of breaking my own heart, thinking about how much Dick put into this city, only to. To fail? In a sense? A hero's home city isn't usually obliterated like that. The only other example that comes to mind is Hal Jordan's, and Hal literally went insane and became a space terrorist to bring it back. Dick is just... forced to move on.

And Dick goes back to NYC. Nightwing patrolling Gotham with any regularity feels very modern. He shows up when there's a major event and DC wants to capitalize on having a bunch of names in the same series, and he shows up when something drastic changes (like a new robin, or a death). Dick has however spent a lot of time in NYC, either because of the Titans or because. yknow. home go boom.

Anyways. Arc recs. Unironically I need you to read Brothers in Blood. Get past the initial gross out factor of Tentatodd and it's a great look at Jason and Dick's relationship. This is #118-122 and right after Bludhaven gets nuked. Dick has just experienced the lowest lows that one could low. Jason seems to know all about it, and tries to help in the worst way possible. Jason is right and blunt and convoluted and so so insecure about where he stands with Dick. Dick doesn't know where he stands with Jason either, on account of all the murder, and his tactless approach to trying to confront Dick on the copious amounts of trauma that Dick is dealing with. BiB is my Jaydick bible.

I'd also say to just give the first few arcs a shot. Beginnings are meant for introductions! It gives a good sense of who Dick is, why he's here, and what his goals are. Exposition baby! And I'm once again thinking about how ultimately Dick kind of fails said goals. I love him but he makes me so emo. Blockbuster has also been his main villain since the beginning, up until. Yknow. He became deader than his namesake. There's also a few fear toxin based issues that are good for. well. understanding what his fears are. There's also a fear toxin scene in Batman: Orphans, but i'll just reblog the post i made of it so u don't have to read that one. The art is fun, the story is weird and just kinda. meh.

#60 is when Dick joins the force. The beginning of the end, so to speak, but we don't meet Catalina until #71.

#93 is That Issue. The infamous rape scene. The thing about his time with Catalina is that it was almost definitely meant to be explored for what it was- an abusive relationship. But DC wanted Nightwing in an event. It doesn't have any satisfactory end, Bruce (DC) calls Dick to fight in Gotham. He does. His story falls to the wayside for the bigger title. The worst thing that can happen to a DC character IMO is getting a Batman crossover. There was supposed to be an entire arc dedicated to what would happen to Dick in this abusive relationship. But we got 2 issues. And War Games. It pisses me off to absolutely no end. DC needed more mouths to kiss the ground that Batman walks on. They don't give a damn about the stories that exist outside their cash cow.

After all that, eventually Dick is back to his utterly depressing life. He joins the mob, finds a family, bad things happen to said family. (Mobbed Up, #107-111) He wants to protect the daughter, Sophia Tevis, and then Slade holds Sophia hostage to get Dick to teach his daughter Rose how to fight. He does, but he also teaches Rose how to question authority (aka her dad). Slade is not happy about that, and nukes Bludhaven. (Renegade, #112-117) See my earlier note about IRL reasons for dumbass plot points.

Nightwing 1996 has 2 annual issues (despite running for much longer than 2 years). The first annual is a fun murder mystery and i think a good look into how Dick handles relationships. He also reads as very aromantic/demiromantic who doesn't know it yet, but maybe that's just me, lol. the second annual is dog shit. Mark Andreyko can get bent, it sucked total ass and isn't worth reading.

#asks #redhoodinternaldialectical #this isnt the /most/ well organized but i hope it was at least a little helpful #now to go find the batman orphans post i mentioned

[balanceoflightanddark]

That's a cool analysis on Dimitri! I never really considered that perspective before, but it really makes a lot of sense.

Kind of curious what you think about Claude. He's my personal favorite, but a friend of mine doesn't really like him because they think he's too caught up in making sure no one dies that his plans usually stagnate.

Ah. Claude...well I don't have really strong opinions about him. I mean I sort of do, but not as bad as Dimitri's. What I'm trying to say is that I'm kind of coming at this as an Edelstan, so forgive me if I come off as harsh. Which I'm not really trying to be. Honest. Feel free to disagree with me if you want.

Alright.

If Edelgard is the extreme of change and Dimitri is the extreme of tradition, then Claude falls somewhere down the middle of the spectrum. Leader of the Golden Deer House, and the Heir of House Leicester, Claude is not actually a native of Fodlan. In fact, he is the Crown Prince of Almyra and is essentially coming into the conflict as a bit of an outsider. Not well-liked in either country due to his mixed heritage, he was raised in the Leicester Alliance and basically is representative of their policies.

Mainly being secretive, vague, and having a long-term plan to fulfill his ambitions. This is reflected in his character since a good portion of the time, he doesn't share his plans with his allies and often manipulates them in order for them to go along with what he wants. Now in of itself, this isn't inherently bad. Like Dimitri, he's a product of his environment where secrecy and manipulation is essential to one's survival. Particularly since his mixed heritage means he needs to be a bit more cunning and scheming if he wants to stay ahead of the game.

Which comes to a head in the war. When Edelgard declares war on the Church, Claude effectively decides to stay out of it. Mainly, he essentially locks the nobility of Leicester in a bit of a stalemate for 5 years to keep themselves out of the war. His long-term strategy is to get reinforcements from Almyra so they could effectively steamroll the Kingdom and Empire who bloodied themselves from all the fighting.

By all accounts, in a narrative with a very gray and grey narrative (mainly that all sides run the whole gambit of morality), he seems like the best choice. After all his intentions are noble. He wants to repair the strained relationship between Fodlan and Almyra. He pushes for reforms, but not to the extent that it would alienate the old school. Verdant Wind even has him deal directly with TWSITD like Edelgard and even face Nemesis, the one they're trying to resurrect. All in all, he seems like the best choice for a "golden" route should we say.

...except it really isn't.

Don't get me wrong. Claude is NOT Dimitri. But his flaws hamper his cause and bites him in the ass. Him leaning back on his scheming and secrecy means that his allies don't really trust him a lot. Even when logically, he needs their support in order to get stuff done. This leads to disastrous consequences since we have stuff like his subordinates choosing to disobey his orders by standing and fighting instead of making a tactical retreat. And his focus on relying on his Almyran reinforcements isn't even foolproof in of itself since...well, he's relying on foreign troops arriving in a country that hates their guts. Even if the war goes in his favor, that's a bit of a hill to climb.

And while he does succeed in defeating TWSITD, again, he's not focusing on the ones that basically enforced the Crest System which led to this whole mess in the first place. The Church of Seiros. So even if his outcome is not as extreme as Edelgard's, it doesn't really do as much to ensure that nothing like this happens again. Admittedly I can't be too hard on him in this regard since he's not necessarily from Fodlan and he's coming at this from an outsider's perspective. But that doesn't really scream the guy Fodlan needs.

I'd describe him as a deconstruction of the golden route or centrist view. Mainly by trying to please everyone and stay out of things, he gets his people involved. Especially since his habit of playing the long game puts him on Edelgard and Dimitri's radar since they KNOW what he's like and they KNOW they can't exactly afford to let him do what he wants unabated.

That being said, I do think there's a reason why he's the only lord who can potentially survive all the routes through either escape or being spared. I don't think he's a bad guy. Not at all. It's just he's a bit in over his head. And who knows? Maybe even in the routes he loses, he can do some good by repairing relations on the Almyran side of things.

#claude von riegan #claude fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem 3 houses

[essskel]

What are your feelings about game!Ciri as an adaptation of book!Ciri because while I don't dislike her character in the games, they definitely ignored most of the trauma congo line level whump she went through in the book saga and made her into "generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal" and even her character personality seems less a lot more watered down to the tons of personality she had in the book, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she’s simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what’s changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards.

Sorry for the late response! Thanks for asking, and I think we’re in agreement. I enjoy her a lot in the game, I find her scenes engaging and emotional, I retroactively miss her in TW2, all that good stuff. But the influence of book lore and established character traits/arcs is….. it’s hard to find.

I understand of course that CDPR was telling a different story, that there was a big time jump, and that the games take on a different tone - generally a lighter one - but I would have liked a more clear explanation for the off-screen character arc Ciri appears to have gone through, as well as a more complex characterization than we got.

Geralt has this in part from his extensive Game 1&2 amnesia plot. That’s a big deal, it changed who he is, affected his relationships, his motives, his characterization, ect, there is a justification for the changes and, to me anyway, they don’t end up reflecting an ignorance of book material, just a distant respect and inspiration. CDPR wanted to write their version of Geralt, but they had to push him there, and they did. Not saying game!geralt is ‘just as good’ that’s a different can of worms, but the structural work of a character translation was not neglected, and he's still an interesting and compelling character to watch.

Ciri I can’t really say the same for. She’s been on her own, been on the run from the wild hunt, but that’s normal for her, nothing new. We’ve seen her react to this situation, and it wasn’t with the happy-go-lucky attitude she suddenly gained. It's like you said, “Maturity?” Is that it? That's the best we can do?

And I guess... in vague defense, her final book scene with Galahad does seem to imply a more emotionally sound Ciri than we saw with Vysogota, for example. She rides off towards a future she’s ready for. Her book character arc does not end with succumbing to her trauma and loss, but learning to live with it (but it's not ...gone??) I don’t think CDPR is completely off base to then portray her as a more controlled, loose, healed version of the character we’re used to, especially a few years down the line. Fine, she grew up, whatever, I get it I guess.

But still, why water down her temper? Why hold back on her emotional response to seeing Geralt or Yen again? Why make her (second) confrontation with the lodge so deeply underwhelming? Why not get personal over her past with Eredin? Why not address her bisexuality apart from an optional dialogue choice, especially when it’s so highlighted in the books? Why did she need Geralt’s permission to trash Avallach’s lab? Why didn’t she have more questions or insight about Geralt’s resurrection? Was there really nothing deeper or uglier to be done with her updated relationship to Emyhr?? I have questions!!!

So you’re right, it ends up feeling shallow at the end of the day. I understand that she matured, and that the trauma she endured from the books has not won out over her enjoyment of life - I don’t TRULY mind this, I DO want to see her grow and reach a better place emotionally - but there are ways to ‘mature’ a character’s personality without sanding it flat.

#I love snowball fight and all but I wanted her to flip out and scoop ered/in’s eyes out. is that so much to ask for #thank you again!!! hope you don't mind me rambling and complaining to you lmao #the witcher books #cirilla fiona elen riannon #ask #anonymous #double shot

[blu3cl0v3rs]

I'd like to hear why you don't like the Oni Trilogy!

Alright, here we go!

First off, the "romance" (I wouldn't even count it as romance tbh, it was all manipulation-) between Harumi and Lloyd felt super forced and kind of out of character for Lloyd, did not like it. Sure, it made sense in a "it's all a part of my evil scheme" for Harumi, but Lloyd, while he is very quick to trust, doesn't seem like a "love at first sight" kind of person. Also, the age gap is kinda weird because Harumi was probably around Lloyd's age, but then Lloyd aged up and so it's kinda... y'know.

Second, I did not appreciate that they resurrected Garmadon. Sure, I loved and hated and sobbed over Garmadon's sacrifice, and do feel that it was unneeded, but Garmadon's story was over. Done. Finished. The end, that's it. Especially considering he sacrificed himself, it was a very dramatic and pivotal scene in Season 4, and all the more sad to see Lloyd and Garmadon's final goodbye in Season 5. It felt very demeaning to me (remember this is all my opinion) that they not only brought him back, but made him evil again.

On the topic of Garmadon, another thing that bugged me is that they removed Lloyd and Garmadon's relationship. The two things that made Garmadon an interesting villain was that he didn't actually want to be evil but was instead corrupted, but also that he loved his son. His relationship with Lloyd is what made Season 2 so interesting to me, because it was literally just Garmadon dancing around having to fight his son while also trying to take over Ninjago. So, in my opinion, Garmadon feels bland because he doesn't have that reluctant evil mindset, but also he does not care for his son. He does not drop everything, team up with his brother and the Ninja, and fight several Serpentine to save his son. Any sort of characterization or flavor that the writers have given him was sucked out.

Garmadon spent almost his whole life trying to not be evil or accepting that he could never be good. He hated being evil. It was amazing that he was "purified" (I think that's what we're calling it) and that he can live without being forced to be evil, so it felt very... out of place and inorganic to completely relapse back into the "Garmadon is evil" thing.

Also, I believe Season 9 should've ended with Mystake dragging Garmadon by the hair to his jail cell and Zane should not have utilized Cole's fear of singing that way in Season 8 (it felt insensitive and out of place for Zane's character, even if it was to pull of a plan), but that might just be me.

Third, the Oni were so weird. Weird as in out of place. Weird as in "why the hell are you here?", weird as in Season 10 didn't need to exist, in my opinion. Literally, you could watch Ninjago without Season 10, and the only out of place part would really be Garmadon's cryptic warning at the end of Season 9. Also, Cole's fakeout death was resolved way too soon.

Fourth, Season 8 and the Oni trilogy as a whole was a very weird way to wrap up Season 7. I thought I missed a special or something. I don't like how the Time Twins just... disappeared, and were never talked about again. I feel like we should've spent more time with the Ninja exploring and searching for Wu. To me, it was very disconnected and in general kinda weird.

I also didn't like how they ditched the iconic intro. Sure, it was cool to see more of Ninjago City, but what the fuck happened to "JUMP UP KICK BACK WHIP AROUND AND SPIN"??

I'll give a quick list on stuff I do like about it and things relating to it though, just to show I'm not incessantly shitting on it:

I like Harumi's character. Her motive, if you look from her point of view and ignore any extra details that you as a viewer would know, it makes a lot of sense. No, it doesn't make sense why she targets Lloyd specifically, but it makes sense why she hates the Ninja and admires Garmadon.

I like how they show Lloyd actually being affected by Harumi traumatizing him. Wish they would've done that with literally any other season before (cough cough Season 5 cough cough), but I'll take a win where I can get it.

I like that they actually had the villains win. The sort of apocalyptic vibe they had going in Season 9 was great.

The Oni masks were kinda cool

I liked Ninjago City's designs, it was interesting

I liked how we got the Main 4 being dumbasses without Lloyd, Nya, Wu, or Pixal to bail them out in Season 9

I liked the GB dynamics we got in Season 9

I love that they brought back some of the other elemental masters

Baby Wu and kid Wu were unhinged, and I demand a prequel show that's just the utter chaotic bullshittery that would be young Garmadon and Wu, with FSM making his appearances

Teen Wu is precious

In general I liked how the Ninja stepped up to sorta parent Wu as he rapidly aged up

Mystake. Enough said.

The Dragon Hunters were interesting (barring the Baron)

Faith. Also enough said.

Pixal showing up with her own body and revealing herself as Samurai X was... unneeded but still cool. I mean unneeded as in I don't think she needed to hide it.

The Pixane scene when they were crashed in the jungle was cute

Jay panicking about proposing and the proposal as well was also cute

Kai older-brother-ing again in Season 10 in that one scene with Nya was great

I like most of the Ninja's new designs (as much as I hated Nya's original hairstyle, the ponytail feels really basic. Also, Kai needs to take off that FSM damned bandage)

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago season 8 #ninjago season 9 #ninjago season 10 #oni trilogy #lloyd ninjago #jay ninjago #cole ninjago #kai ninjago #zane ninjago #nya ninjago #harumi ninjago #garmadon ninjago #wu ninjago #ninjago elemental masters #ninjago sons of garmadon #ninjago hunted #ninjago march of the oni #blu3's rambles #long post #answering asks #mystake ninjago #dragon hunters #faith ninjago #pixal ninjago

[systemic-dreams]

Karlach has a happy ending. Going to find a fix for her engine with her best friend(s)/potential lover? Fun. The epilogue party even mentions that they have a lead on a fix if she goes with Wyll. Just because it's not explicitly shown on screen in a 2 minute long cutscene doesn't mean she doesn't get to be happy.

lol, you went on anon to give me this milquetoast take?

I don't even know what you're responding to.

Maybe you should get together with some friends and play Dungeons and Dragons?

I recommend Descent into Avernus which is the campaign that canonically takes place before and leads into the events of Baldur's Gate 3. It features our favourite damsel in distress and Wizard of the Coast's favourite punching bag - Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, aka Wyll's dad. With a guest appearance by the Archdevil Zariel, whose Evil Minion you can become. Get experience first hand of how not fun Hell can be for people like Karlach by enlisting in Zariel's army today! Well, not today, because the first leg of the campaign will take a few sessions.

Without getting into spoilers, I can tell you that some very interesting stuff happens in the lead up to bg3. None of it really makes me believe that Karlach is going to have 'fun' or 'be happy' during her time in Hell. But it will probably make for a good novel. Hopefully they don't kill her off.

Oh, and this ending you're talking about was only made available after Patch #5 (Nov 30th 2023). It was explicitly released in response to fandom complaints that there was no happy ending for Karlach so... I guess it worked? If randos are coming out of the woodwork to tell me she gets a happy ending. Though, I question the choice to send her back into Hell when you had the Gondians and the Ironhands who could make City Watch robots and blackpowder bombs. Could they not fix her engine maybe? With one of their engines. That seems like a plot hole.

If that's not an option, what about asking for Divine Intervention from one of the party's many Gods? Or, you could do Resurrection when Karlach does die since you get that spooky Thay Grimoire and unlock its secrets in Sorcerous Sundries. Or maybe you could do Reincarnation since we have twO druids in the party for some reason.

Polymorph? High level polymorph anyone?

You could go to Waterdeep and talk to the Wizards? Elminster could get off his lazy cheese-loving ass and do something? Like cast a Wish spell? How about an item that casts a Wish spell? You could go on a quest for that. Or, what if, get this, you could bargain with Raphael, for Karlach's freedom? 🙃I think I would actually give him the tadpole for that one.

Anyway, I still think there's no true happy ending yet but maybe they'll patch that in too. Act 3 needed a lot more polish imo. And I don't think anyone should be turned into a squid if they don't want to be.

#bg3 spoilers

[utilitycaster]

Episode Thoughts

Just putting a bunch here, in some kind of mildly intoxicated ramble. Turning anon back on after, but if you're weird about it I'm turning it back off.

I already talked a lot about combat earlier, so I'll leave it at my issues with the structure of the combat still stand, but the choice to have Otohan leave was the correct one, and I think were I not dealing with a lot of questions about the plotting of this campaign I would have been far more generous with misjudging the strength of an NPC and doing a weird panic pivot, which is what I suspect happened.

The resurrection was pretty fraught but understandably so. I will say FCG has been a surprising highlight. The murderbot reveal in and of itself didn't do much for me...but the interaction with Dancer (only a few hours pre-combat, in game!) and FCG this episode were both absolutely stellar. I hope the quiet, nascent interest in Avandra continues because I find that fascinating and exciting, and I'm always down to hear more about Aeor. Fearne's resurrection (which was, honestly, the one I cared about) was touching, and props to Sam: when he's on, he's ON. My issues with the subclass are going to remain, but we're moving in a really promising direction; recently, FCG and Ashton's relationship has finally started to click for me, and we've seen some great stuff with both FCG and Chetney and FCG and Imogen throughout the campaign that's starting to pay off.

I do think that Laudna's death should stand. I think, to be honest, that while I enjoyed the potential of Imogen and Laudna...it was yet unrealized. The past few episodes have felt, and I know this is cynical of me, like the John and Marsha sketch - emotional yelling of names with no context. It was unsurprising but also baffling that Imogen had such little knowledge of who Delilah was, given that the two of them had traveled together for two years. I understand her grief...but I think that it would be good to keep that grief in the story. It also seemed to gently guide Imogen's discussion of her powers into a more honest place. And, as I've said a few times today about Orym so I won't repeat it in detail...I think cutting the ties to Campaign 1 will only improve things because I feel it's painting the campaign into a tough corner.

Chetney and Ashton were also highlights this episode. I have to admit, after last episode, I did not necessarily see a way forward for the party as a whole, even if they survived, and I felt that these two have been shouldering the brunt of...well, frankly, everything. Their backstory teases were a lot of fun. I should also note that Travis and Taliesin are consistently two of my favorite actors at the table (even when I haven't vibed as much with their characters, I've always felt they had a sense of purpose and deliberate choice about them such that my feelings were just me not vibing rather than poor build or concep) and I think that's served them in this campaign. Ashton's anger, frustration, and leadership with regards to Treshi and Chetney taking the lead on dealing with the boxes were both a lot of fun.

I do remain frustrated with the plot...but it's not that it's a vast conspiracy, which I love, or even has a whiff of a Chosen One plot, which I enjoy in fiction though usually not D&D. It's that these both require a slower burn, not a quicker one, than a more "typical" D&D game. They require more connection to the setting from the characters (I am not saying everyone has to be from Marquet...but they do need decent ties to it, and I could make a whole other post, and basically have, about this being one of my issues). And they require a villain who isn't just Powerful And [footage not found]...like, Ludinus or Vess did a lot with their minimal appearances that Otohan just isn't hitting.

I think that's kind of the issue I have with the campaign overall - a lot of the concepts are so close to good (Orym and Laudna would be fine, honestly, with some smart tweaks; the plot would be fine with a little bit of editing; I really, really think that like...a single 2-4 hour group session zero could have addressed almost every criticism I have.I'm sure there's more to say, so I guess feel free to ask, but this is already pretty long.

Finally: this came up last week and I wanted to address it. I am still enjoying myself. I love complaining, first off, and I truly do like the characters, most of the NPCs, and the setting. At the end of the day these are all still great actors playing D&D. I don't like the campaign as much as previous campaigns, and I'm going to talk about it, but...look. I made my point about toxic positivity and the reluctance to handle even measured and minor criticism in the fandom, and I don't think it's worth making it again, but also at the end of the day this is my blog, I'll say what I want, and you are encouraged to engage or not engage depending on how you feel about the things I say. I'm not going to pretend I understand why people are weird about criticism, because I never will, but I will defend your right to choose who you follow or don't follow on social media. I only ask that you be open to the idea that some people (me) can find profound flaws in a work and still also find a lot to enjoy.

#long post #critical role spoilers #cr tag

[queen-caramilflinda]

I’m really disappointed with the ending of episode 3 of Neverafter. I’ve seen a lot of theories flying around about how the show will recover from this, but none of them instill me with confidence about the rest of the season. I want to explain why I feel this way by going through some of the theories I have seen posited here and on the discord and why I don’t think any of them really hold up with the information we currently have. This post is going to be long, sorry.

Theory 1 - Full Time Loop Reset. This is the theory I have seen listed the most and is my least favorite. In this case, the next episode would open with the PCs in the same places they were on the Shoeburg Caravan as they were in episode one and nothing will have changed. Whether or not the PCs retain their memories of previous loops, time loop plots are extremely hard to pull off without becoming repetitive, tedious, or impractical. In a time loop would the entire party have to die every time to restart? What if only one PC dies, what happens to them? Will they have to go through the motions of rolling all their death saving throws every time? Because that takes a while and is kind of boring to watch. A complete time loop where death is inconsequential in the long run also takes some of the stakes away from combat, because we know we can’t lose a PC, they’ll just have to start over from the beginning

Theory 2 - Partial Time Loop Reset. Think of this like the Good Place, where somethings stay the same, but certain small things change, such as the PCs having vague memories of what happened before. Again, this creates a lot of problems from the perspective of repetition and viewer engagement. I watched all of Once Upon a Time (another fairytale retelling show) as it was airing and the number one most annoying thing about the show was the continuous resetting of the timeline/plot. If Neverafter does this and doesn’t come up with some very good mechanics to keep this from getting old, (such as the ones used in The Adventure Zone Balance Eleventh Hour arc) it will get boring very fast.

Theory 3: The Book. I’ve seen some theories that they will end up in the book after this. I like this idea I guess, but it would be kind of weird to abandon all of the plot threads with the sisters and the fairies and everything to just focus on the book. (Speaking of which. That’s something I can’t get over, why do your Big Thing in episode 3? Why not episode 1, where everything is still getting set up and the norms of the season are still being established? Why lead us through all the stuff with the fairies and Shoeburg and the mice if it’s going to be immediately shunted to the side for something else in the name of shock value?). This theory (IMO) goes along best with the “once upon a time…” monologue at the end of ep 3, because it ties into the book and the ability to change your story.

Theory 4 - Reincarnation. Every PC rolls a new character, keeping some aspects of their old character in some way. The idea of doing a full party switch in episode 4 is insane to me, even if they stay the same in other ways or keep their old characters memories or whatever. In an extremely deadly season (which considering the new mechanics, I would argue this is more deadly than acoc in some ways) the prospect of having to create new characters every time you die seems untenable. This would maybe work if 1 or 2 or even 3 of the PCs died, but because it was all of them we would have to start all the way from the beginning with character introductions (both to the audience and each other) and new plot points? Like if they keep all their memories anyway why not keep the same characters and if they forget everything then we have to start from the beginning and basically forget about the old characters for a while, despite still mourning them.

Theory 5 - Resurrection. Somehow, the characters all come back to life, like in Fantasy High. If this is the case, not doing it at the end of that episode just for shock value of everyone dying is… unlike D20. It’s a way more interesting cliff hanger for them to be like “and then you all wake up, in new zombie bodies!” Or whatever and see the cast react to that. I feel like this option has a lot of possibilities, such as the characters continuing their adventure in hell (since a lot of fairytales take place in hell and with the devil) or having them come back different and worse somehow, in a cursed sort of horror way. But this option also makes me think that the TPK was entirely unintentional and if all the characters can come back at level 1, even if they come back broken somehow, it still undermines the stakes of their deaths. Like as I watched the first PC die this ep I felt shock, horror, sadness, but as we got to the 5th and 6th ones it had lost a lot of the meaning. Imagine that happening over and over again. You start thinking “ok let’s get these death saves over with so they can be resurrected again” instead of “oh no! My blorbo!”

#neverafter #2 out of 2 #never after #d20 neverafter #dimension 20 #d20 theory #neverafter theory #d20 #Cienna talks #I need to go back to sleep I don’t have the energy to keep tagging these

[gensnix]

I'm gonna combust if I don't get this out

Totk rant underneath

I know I did review and I put a small rant in it but I got more shit to say and yes I might be repeating things because I have the need to point shit out

The writing is bad a lot of characters I loved in botw have turned into stale biscuits

I can't take the fact that the game goes against its own lore multiple times

"to become a dragon is to lose oneself" K. why tf was Ganondorf still fighting us in dragon form.

Also Zelda knowing when to join the fight or the fact that she cries her memories into the ground and the fact that she's perfectly fine at the end. Zero repercussion

Link your arm is fucked beyond repair... jk lol it's fine

Everyone talks about the shrines and sheika towers but no one talks about the giant sheika pillars that surrounded Hyrule castle I miss them :(

Link would you please react to something besides food and horse points I know you can, especially in a place where you were completely alone

Nope I'm not accepting that the ancient hero is part Zonai cause 2 things. there were only two zonai left that I don't see Mineru having kids and wouldn't that mean that hero and princess would be related or why isn't it just the princess. That is NOT A ZONAI WTF IS THAT IT IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE TAPESTRY mf got blue skin and clearly wearing boots in the pic and I know that Hyrule can be racist but if the zonai were sooo important why would they make him look like a hylian(gerudo?) it really just feels like they just put Zonai stuff everywhere without actually thinking

I like the idea that the three dragons were once Zonai and went through with swallowing secret stones but shouldn't they have three eyes? Idk that's just a nitpick In fact, who even made the secret stones we get no explanation why do they do that.

another nitpick I have is that they should not be speaking the same langue in the past. Zelda shouldn't be able to understand a word of what they're saying

If Zelda gets her light magic from Rauru and time from Sonia why in botw does the triforce appear when she seals Calamity Ganon Sonia is the one with a triforce tattoo and yet they don't even talk about the triforce once in this game and correct me if I'm wrong but don't Sonia and Rauru not know what the master sword is

This game is trying way to hard to convince me that the Zonai were good people. An entire race of good people doesn't die out like that. They also don't have robots that kill everything on site. or doors that drain the life out of people. Or not correct anyone when they are called gods. Or have mining facilities everywhere underground. Or have a gerudo cemetery near all their underground shit

I want this game to stop trying to be Ocarina of Time it's not working.

Why are the labyrinths different especially the one that had all the guardians down there. All of them are gone. Who even went there to get them was it Link. The Zonai researcher makes it seem their the first one to ever go there

I usually see this on twitter saying that the missing sheika tech was stated to be decommissioned in Purah's diaries. Except what the FUCK are you talking about like is it different in other languages or are twitter people just saw one person say it and decide to spread it around. Please ya gotta tell me I know how bad American Nintendo translates their games

also about the shrine of resurrection I see a lot of people say that the yiga took it down. but uh... the whole reason the yiga started is cause one of the old kings banded their tech shouldn't they y'know use some of it and at least fuse it in some designs I know they can

As much as I love them I don't think the yiga really fit in this since everything sheika related got pushed off a cliff

I love the depths but there really isn't much there Like I feel like there should be some sheika stuff down there all destroyed and stuff. cause a lot of chasms are where old sheika shrines were wouldn't it be cool to go down there and see an old sheika shrine in ruins

demon king??? Secret stone????

Idk why I seem to be the only one who wants to know where the actual thunder helm is. I looked high and low for it. I even wore the replica to see if I'd get a reaction and I did but it's only for the speech bubbles above the gerudo's heads Most of them being "that helm..." one being "I want a helm!" Even RIJU with the fucking "That helm..." GIRL WHERE IS THE ACTUAL ONE. This game makes me confused about which side quests are apparently actually canon. Did Link lose it?? Why would they react like that?

Yunobo I love you please please please use your shield why are you not using it

Yunobo why won't you question why Zelda gave you a mask that possessed you please my baby boy don't let people treat you like a doormat be mad you are allowed to be mad that you got possessed

I will never not be mad they sidelined Teba. I didn't spend all those years convincing my friends that Teba was a crazy bastard cause they don't talk to npc's like I do and then proven right in Age of Calamity for him to not even get a redesign. Hell, he's fucking bored as an elder and he doesn't say the injury he got while fighting Medoh was lethal he shouldn't be standing if it was. In botw his wife, best friend, and elder all talk about how Teba acts without thinking and has been like that since a child. Who are you what have you done to my crazy speaks his mind bastard. It's hard being one of so few Teba simps but hey at least I'm not a Sidon simp who had to go through with his marriage.

Saki didn't even want Tulin to be a warrior why is she so ok with him being a Sage

Once again cause this pisses me off the most. In her diary Zelda says that Link follows her everywhere in there attempt to rebuild Hyrule. Everyone and their mothers knows Zelda she's the princess. But they don't recognize Link..? Does she not talk about him to them. Strange since she was so happy to share about him with her ancestors. They should know him he carries the fucking master sword and is always with Zelda. Hell I believe that they live in the same house but I guess Link's not important to them. Even though he's the reason that Zelda was able to seal away the calamity away.

Why does all of Hyrule just accept she's the princess? You guys haven't served under a monarchy in 100 years. You guys are so skeptical of Link but not her... and you're not gonna question anything she does. Even if it seems evil cause yeah that was a plot point in game that was completely dropped. the evil zelda thing could have been great. Get people questioning shit but you know whatever I guess

I don't know how true it is but I saw someone on twitter say that botw and totk take place in different universes (not from the timeline who cares about that but from each other) as stated on an official Nintendo site, even showed a picture, but it was in Japanese so I wanted to try and find this website cause it's easy to be fooled but couldn't cause once again it's Japanese I can't understand Japanese and I don't remember where that tweet was. And at this point I am going to believe that proof or not cause what is this story I know Nintendo is gameplay over story but I have never been upset at a plot like this before.

#I want this game out of my brain #You are not good enough for my brain and I don't want you near it ever again End Of Story #Totk:... So why don't you give me one mor- #Now that I got this out of my system I should be ok #sigh #Anyways *does an anime girl pose* I'm gonna go play Pikmin #totk #totk rant #tears of the kingdom #zelda #Snix talks

[unseelie-robynx]

Cult AU Snippet

So this is a snippet from my Curse AU (breakdown can be found HERE) placed somewhere midway through Xiaotian’s backslid into his cult upbringing, where he still doesn’t believe that what the cult wants is good, but he doesn’t not believe that either. This snippet is about the gang finally starting to learn what’s actually going on with the cult, (courtesy of a certain pair of demon brothers), beyond just the basic ‘there’s a creepy demon worshiping cult that wants to maybe destroy the celestial realm but also maybe destroy Yama / we know they think there’s some king that supposed to do all of this and-slash make things quote-unquote ‘better’ by taking over’.

It is under read more because long, please enjoy.

(No real warnings apply I don’t think, beyond mentioning a cult)

Xiaotia- MK was twitching. He was trying really hard not to be, but he was. He’d had to shove his hand behind his back, to hide the fact they were shaking, and it was taking more self control than Xaio- MK knew he had to keep from just throwing the demon twins out of Pigsy’s shop altogether.

Because that would be suspicious. In like, the worst ways.

So instead, he was stuck, listening to the twins spill information they had NO BUSINESS KNOWING and he was going to have to tell Shifu about- no. No he wasn’t involved with them anymore. He was MK, was the Monkey Kid, and he didn’t know anything about anything Yin and Jin might be babbling on about. He didn’t.

And man did the two of them have a lot of things to go on about. It was like they’d never had a good meal in their lives with how savagely they were tearing apart the noodles Pigsy had given them, and while their manners were atrocious and Xiaotian ignored the suspiciously familiar voice in the back of his mind that was wrinkling its nose as said behavior they were appreciative, and dumping out a lot of information between bites.

“So like, I really don’t see how you don’t know this-“ Jin said around a mouthful of noodles.

“-like *really* don’t see how you didn’t know.” Yin added around his own.

“I mean, honestly-“

“-considerin’ the subject matter-“

“-the fact that you don’t-“

“-almost seems like-“

“-could be an oversight on their part. But then again-“

“-might be a reason, you know? Don’t want you findin’ out before the ‘end game’ or whatever. Although-“

“-how that would work-“

“-considerin’ how said ‘end game’ is supposed to go-“

“-kinda goes back to that oversight on their part thing, ya know?”

At least Xiaoti- MK, wasn’t the only one getting annoyed. He could see Xiaojiao’s eyebrow starting to twitch, and honestly the fact that Red Son hadn’t flipped his top yet was a minor miracle. Maybe, if he was lucky, one of them would get fed up first and throw the twins out preferably before they spilled anything that was actually important or made sense without preexisting context that the others didn’t have, so that MK didn’t have to be the one to break character and do it.

But of course, Xiaotian was never lucky.

But… was that true? He’d been lucky that Shifu found him, had taken him in and raised him and given him a home and the truth but- NO. Because… because it wasn’t… it was a c-… was a… that. His friends all said so, MONKEY KING, said so. So it… it was and he was right to try and get away but then Shifu reminded him that Monkey King couldn’t really… that he… Xiaojiao’s sword came down in a streak of lighting, halting right above Pigsy’s counter (which was good because he would have killed her, resurrected her, and then killed her again if she’d actually broken it). It was enough to both snap MK out of his thoughts, and shut the twins right up, and the both swallowed HARD before turning in jerky unison to stare at the glaring (and glowing) girl.

“So since Pigsy was kind enough to convince me to not chop you into little pieces despite you trying to break in and steal his stuff, why don’t you get to the POINT, m’kay?” Xiaojiao hummed out, tone entirely too cheery for the murderous expression on her face.

The demon twins both swallowed in unison, turning to look at each other and doing that silent ‘twin communication’ thing with their eyes before turning to the group and moving in eerie synch to point… at Monkey King.

Shit.

(He should have taken the opportunity to throw them both out the door when he had the chance)

There was a bit of confusion as everyone looked between the pointing demon brothers and Monkey King and back again, which was only compounded when Monkey King himself raised a confused finger, pointing at his chest as if to confirm ‘Me?’, while still looking just as lost as everyone else about what was going on and what Yin and Jin were talking about. And this was bad, this was really bad Monkey King couldn’t know. It’s not like he didn’t know but THEY couldn’t know that he knew and they were watching (because they always were) and if Monkey King ‘found out’ they would know that he knew and probably do something even worse than what they already had and!

 “Yah um, we’re going to need a bit more than that, actually.” Mr. Tang’s voice cut in his voice was so similar but so wrong and even after all these years Xiaot- MK had still never fully gotten used to it, gotten over the way the similarity felt so wrong.

MK knew he needed to do… something, but he didn’t know what and the more he panicked the less chance he had to do anything, just like now because the twins were speaking again and-

 “Well it’s obvious, aint it Yin?”

“Totally obvious Jin.”

“I mean, It’s not like they even tried that hard, what with the name and all.”

“Nope, didn’t try hard at ALL Jin.”

“Great King-“

“-Great Sage-“

“-Equaling Heaven-“

“Uniting Heaven and Earth?”

“Use the same kanji and everythin’-“

“-really aren’t trying all that hard to disguise it.”

“Plus I mean, with all their ’natural order was disrupted’-“

“-’the new age where the heavens are PROPERLY overthrown’ and all that-“

“-makes it hard not to reference what they’re takin’ ‘bout, you know?”

“Not that WE want anything to do with any of that.”

“Oh absolutely not. We done saw what it was like the first time-“

“-and if they’re planning on any sorta carnage like the last time, Whoooooh boy.”

“Nope”

“Nu-uh.”

“Not happenin’.”

“No offense-“

“Mr. Great Sage-“

“-but you was terrifyin’ back than-“

“-not that you aint now-“

“-oh no, you’re still plenty terrifyin’ now-“

“but like, you get it, yah? There’s like-“

“-levels of terifyin’ and you used to be on a whole different one.”

“And not that the Celestials are all that great-“

“- I mean we definitely jumped ship soon as we got a good chance-“

“But like if that’s the kinda thing these guys are seein’ as the ‘ideal’-“

“-that just gonna be like, slaughter for most people.”

“You understand?”

 There was silence around the room for a few long moments as everyone sort of… digested what the twins had said. Everyone but him. Finally though, Xiaojiao broke the silence.

“Wait. So you’re saying that the creepy doomsday demon cult, and their whole ‘evil demon king to destroy the three realms’ and all of that, that they’re talking about Monkey King?”

The disbelief and incredulability in her voice was blatant, but not in a way that she disbelieved the twins, oh no. That would be to easy and nothing in Xiaoti- MK’s life could ever be EASY. Instead it was disbelief at the quote unquote ‘stupidity’ of this ‘cult’.

And a part of him rankled at that tone. What did she know after all? Nothing. Nothing true, anyways, nothing important. She didn’t understand, had never been shown how things would be better, why they would be better. She only knew the painful reality they were stuck with, and the layers upon layers upon layers of masks that Sun Wukong was compelled by enchantment and self-preservation to wear. She’d never learned the truth of who the Great Sage truly was. (But Xiaotian had. And he’d learned it sitting in the lap and by the side of one who had managed to catch glimpses of the truth for himself)

“So, um, gonna have to actually agree with the twins on this one.” Monkey King pipped in rubbing at the back of his neck. “Never thought I’d say that one.” He added in a softer tone before continuing. “Just, I feel like if I’m supposed to be like… important, to this cult, they probably should have like, you know, told me, or something. I mean, I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to be this ‘Great King’ of theirs if I, you know, don’t know I’m supposed to be doin’ the job and all that.”

It was clear that Monkey King was trying to be funny, to play the whole thing off. To distract the celestial realm, to not let his watchers know that he already knew.

But it was also clear that it… wasn’t working. All that well.

This whole thing was making Monkey King anxious, and it showed.

And Monkey King being anxious was making him anxious, because what terrible thing was going to happen to his mentor (slash kinda father figure but he was really trying not to think too hard about that right now) because of this? What ‘punishment’ would the celestials come up with simply for the crime of other people knowing the truth and wanting to see justice done?

Not that, that he thought it was justice, or anything. Because he… he didn’t. But he also knew that what the celestials did certainly wasn’t justice, and Monkey King didn’t deserve any of what they would probably end up doing to him because of this.

“So wait,” MK finally found his voice to cut in. “Do you guys like actually know that it’s Monkey King, or do you just think that it’s Monkey King based off stuff you’ve heard?” (Please let it be the latter, please let it be the latter)

“Oh no, it aint speculation-“ Yin quickly pipped up to defend his honor, or something.

“Not at all!” Jin agreed.

“What do you take us for?”

“Charlatans?”

“You think we’d just go ‘round,”

“Givin’ out fake information like that?”

The twins were giving their own incredulous looks, while everyone else in the room suddenly had something else to look at.

“Well we aint!” Jin declared, evidently incensed by the unspoken accusations.

“We most certainly aint!” Yin agreed right on cue.

“We’ll have you know that we got his bona fide information the hard way!”

“That’s right! And it was a real mess of a situation believe you us!”

“Why when that Monk came in I thought for sure we was-“

 CrAsH

 MK had never been more grateful for a demon attack on the city in his life.

#lmk #Lego Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid #cult au #i actually made something #lmk xiaotian #lmk qi xiaotian