#“if there’s an afterlife im gonna come back and fucking kill all of you”

[unholiervenom]

i am the face of love’s rage.

i am the face of love’s rage.

[lyss-sketchbox]

Ok coming off anon because I'm trying to conquer the constant social anxiety lmao (same person who sent you Longass Thoughts on Natlan AQ) - SO YEAH personally I like Ei's character but foaming a bit at the mouth because I feel like my favorite parts of her character (namely she was NOT ready to be the archon when makoto kicked the bucket, she's got that good ol' warrior-weapon mindset knocking around in there- having her actually confront the ugly truth of the consequences of her actions was such a missed opportunity. it would've been SO good to see her actually get confronted personally without any sugarcoating. i think her learning to be less of a shitty archon would've been so much better then)

also like. im sure there were a lot of ways to improve Inazuma's story but personally i thought it would've been cooler if kokomi was a bit more. morally grey lmao. like willing to do not-so-nice things to fight god because that's what they're doing. mortals attempting to defy the god that holds dominion over their land (bc the electro archon isn't really Watatsumi's god specifically!! bc uh lmao ei killed him lol)

but yea for real in natlan every "serious problem" was severely undercut by "actually it's all good now" like "kachina is totally fine after being chased by the abyss in the afterlife, she was protected by the wayob so it's all good and she's also mentally ok" and it's like what. what are you talking about.

AND THE ARchON thing i feel like im the only one who has a gripe. tbf the story is not done yet BUT MY QUESTION IS CELESTIA ALLOWED A HUMAN (MULTIPLE EVEN) TO ASCend to the divine throne???? Like what??? IT feels like it runs counter to everything-

and like uh feels like we got really really far away from like. when you talk about the archon war in liyue it was a literal bloodbath. sacrifices upon sacrifices were made, the modern day liyue was built upon the corpses of friend and foe alike because there was no other choice. you couldn't abstain, you would die.

but in natlan???? no gods??? what???? im just losing it more than a bit over here that natlan is trying simultaneously to be a grim land of constant war but also sunshine friendship and rainbows.

at this point im prepared to be disappointed and just crossing my fingers the good writing comes back for snezhnaya's AQ bc if they fuck up snezhnaya i will literally never forgive them

Its all good man, youre so welcome to debate and talk off anon, we may disagree but never hate.

Im putting all my ramblings under cut since its gonna be as equally long and spoilery hdjsnsn

About Ei

I completely forgot about how Ei was originally a kagemusha, a weapon for her sister, her sister did all the archon work while Ei simply stood by her side. Its makes perfect sense that after the death of her sister, she would make very bad not thought out decisions and because she is an archon now, those bad decisions has really really bad aftermaths.

I personally do not have any gripes about her being basically clueless about the outside world. Grief manifests in different ways and locking yourself away and justifying it as a twisted way to gain enlightment of eternity the way your sister did, it can make sense. It is a consequence!! She is clueless of how to be an archon and what is going on in her nation, her SQ could have been used to show her trying to understand and emphatize with her people to be a better archon. NOT A REASON TO MAKE HER AN uwu sad defenseless waifu cant cook and doesnt know anything. Brother she fucking killed people and almost destroyed her nation.

About Kokomi

I like the idea of morally grey kokomi actually. It makes alot of sense. Kokomi and the watatsumi people might have some vishap descendance but they are still humans, even less so with visions. Theyre also lacking the supplies and expertise needed to continue a war with an entire nation and its archon. It would make sense that she would accept the fatuis help since they share the sentiment of 'getting to inazuma and its archon'.

But it was shown she wasnt even aware who the anonymous donor is, hell she wasnt aware people where using delusions until people starts dying. And for a girl who wrote an entire guide book with 100 different alternate plans, HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THIS COMING...............

About Natlan's system

Yeah they really brushed off the dying part and potentially being stuck in genshin limbo if you dont get out in time too casually. The tiny child you retrieved from limbo also is... very chill and not mentally scarred or anything, she wasnt putting up a brave face, she was simply unaffected?????? One on kachina's voiceovers is gonna talk about her death but im not friendship 4 with her yet. I hope it explains SOMETHING.

Yeah the first time i heard that the archon was human and has been replaced multiple times had me gawking too, i can excuse that Celestia has been strangely inactive FOR NOW.

I wanted to bring up how the hydro archon throne being broken and Neuvi regaining his sovernity didnt even call Celestia to action but GUESS WHAT??? I DONT KNOW IF NATLAN HAPPENED BEFORE OR AFTER FONTAINE BECAUSE THEY DECIDE TO LOWER THE REQUIREMENTS TO DO NATLAN AQ!!!!!!! But well if it happened after (since Neuvis end dialogue told us to go to Natlan next), well... Celestia isnt called either so theyve just been inactive for 500 years of Natlans weird system ig.

About the """Nation of War"""

Yeah man. Sacrifices and war was dealt better in liyue. Same as Natlan, it is a nation built of war. There was war in the past, sacrifices were made to built the liyue we know now. But the sacrifices in liyue was not brushed off or belittled, those sacrifices had meaning and the people of liyue hold very high regards for the fallen. In Natlan? Its treated like some sort of sick hunger games event, they made war into entertainment.

Oh but they need the tournaments to keep the natlan fire alive. THEN RUN A SEPERATE FUCKING TOURNEY?????? MAKE EVERYONE WHO HAS AN ANCIENT NAME HAVE PROPER TRAINING AND GO TO WAR IN ARMIES PROPER???? THIS SHIT DOESNT NEED TO BE ENTERTAINMENT AND YET YOU DID. Maybe the flames are small BECAUSE YOU PICK ONLY 5 PEOPLE EVERYTIME WHEN THERES LITERALLY NO REASON VETERANS LIKE KINICH AND MUALANI TO SIT IT OUT JUST BECAUSE THEY LOST.

Oh but the ode of resurrection only works on limited people THEN SEND OUT THE BEST PEOPLE THEN???????? MUALANI, A 3 TIMES VETERAN, LOST TO KACHINA. CLEARLY THE TOURNEYS ARENT RELIABLE TO PICK WHO TO SEND.

While i can understand that while Liyue is past war and Natlan is still in war, this is... not how people in war act. The entertainment the happiness the hospitality. Its not efforts to keep morale high its literally just... happy people, sometimes they get attacked by abyss monsters yeah cool but otherwise theyre completely happy just living like that. Thats why the Nation of War thing isnt working at all, these people are not how people STILL IN WAR act. Theres no anxiety no uncertainty no worry at all, not even a smidget. These people live like happy prospering people.

You know what happened to people tryna be happy prospering people while still in war in liyue? Havria.

I hope they bring back the high AR requirement for snezhnaya so snezhnaya can be chronologically correct. I hope they take snezhnaya seriously. I hope Natlan atleast wont pull an inazuma and tripped at the very end

NONE OF THAT POWER OF FRIENDSHIP BS EITHER I didnt believe it when mualani fucking knocked it over our heads over and over and over again and its not gonna work now.

[enchxanting]

our love is god [ethan landry x reader] pt. 11

read part 10 here || all parts

pairing: ethan landry x fem!reader

warnings: discussion of suicide, attempting and faking

a/n: back from the dead. the party ended an hour ago and she's still here (me still writing this fic when the scream vi/ethan landry fandom is basically dead and it's almost 2025). i'm gonna finish this even if it kills me bc my mom didn't raise a quitter. im also on ao3 btw

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wake up.”

Fuck, I must have fallen asleep on my desk. I lift my head up groggily, unsticking the open page of my diary from my forehead. I look around for the source of the voice before feeling a tap on my shoulder. “Boo.”

I turn and my blood goes cold. Tara stands in front of me, lips and chin stained with a disgusting blue, leafing through my copy of Moby Dick. She grins, and her teeth are bloody. “Surprised to see me?”

“What the actual fuck,” I say. “How are you here?”

That makes her laugh. “It’s your guilty conscience, Y/N. But I’m glad for the reprieve. The afterlife is so boring.”

“Tara,” I begin, “I am so, so sorry. I had no idea–”

She waves me off, taking a seat on my bed. “Save it. There is literally nothing you can say to make this,” she gestures to her face, “okay. Let’s move on.”

My eyes well with tears. I know this can’t be real, but even then, it feels so good to see her again, to hear her voice.

“You haven’t called Anika,” she says, after a moment.

My heart clenches. “Fuck, I know. It’s just all been so crazy. And I’ve been with Ethan…”

She rolls her eyes and stands, crossing her arms. “Not that she’d be able to pick up the phone, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was on the news, Y/N. She stepped into the freeway holding a suicide note. A real one.”

My blood goes cold. “Oh my god, Tara, is she dead?”

She doesn’t look at me. “Just some broken bones. The car wasn’t going fast enough. Trying to imitate me, I guess.”

“Jesus Christ, that’s not fucking funny.” I’m crying now, face hot and heart thumping.

“Sorry, you’re right. What’s funny is you're still listening to your psycho boyfriend even after he killed me.”

“What happened to moving on?” I choke out.

She sighs. “Sorry, you’re right. That’s one of the things I’m supposed to be working on, up in heaven, you know.”

I sink back into my desk chair. “Everything is so fucking wrong.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“I have no clue. Ethan is psycho but I can’t get rid of him. If I go to the cops I’d have to admit my involvement in the whole thing. Plus, he’d probably find a way to pin it on me. He’s so persuasive. Every time I’m with him I get confused.”

“Well, see if you can hold strong this time.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

She points to the window. “Knock, knock.”

I go over and peer through the blinds. Climbing up my tree is Ethan, eyes wild and pistol between his teeth. I gasp and stumble back from the window. What the fuck do I do?

“Yo, girl, fucking keep it together,” Tara says, and she’s right. I have to stay calm. What would Nancy Drew do? Or Wendy Torrance?

Or better yet– what would Ethan do?

I hear a solid thump as he lands on the roof of our porch, right underneath my room. I run into the closet, barely locking it behind me as I hear him climb through the window. 

“Hi, Y/N. Sorry for barging in through the window– dreadful etiquette, I know, But I thought your parents wouldn’t let me in.”

“Get out of my house,” I say, voice hoarse. “We’re done.”

“Come on,” he whines, “I thought all was forgiven. You and I, we’re like Bonnie and Clyde.”

“You’re sick.”

“You like that,” he hisses, and I can tell he’s right up against the door. “Seriously, Y/N, what happened to ‘I love you?’”

I don’t respond. Instead, I reach for an old belt and footstool tucked away in a corner. His fist slams against the door. “What, you’re not going to say anything?”

Using the footstool to reach, I tie the tail end of the belt to a beam on the ceiling. Carefully, I loop the other end around itself, sure to actually slide the buckle through the tightest hole, snug around my chin. God, I hope this works.

I hear Ethan step away from the door. “Y/N, I’m going to count to three. Come out of there.”

He pauses for a second, and when I don’t respond, he scoffs. “Fine. One… two… fuck it.”

He slams his whole body against the door, and I close my eyes, kicking the stool out from under me.

I hear him gasp, and the sound of his knees hitting the carpet. “Oh my god– Y/N–” he chokes out.

I feel him grasp my leg, and it takes everything in me not to flinch away. “Why would you do this?” he sobs. “You were the only person I had left… we almost…”

After a moment, he lets go and rises to his feet, and I hear the rustle of his jacket as he wipes away his tears. “I wasn’t going to go through with it. But if I can’t have your love, he’s right. Everyone has to suffer.”

Who is? I think, but I hear Ethan’s footsteps retreat back to the window. I wait until I hear the sound of his tire treads screeching against the asphalt to open my eyes and grab the shelves on the side of my closet to steady myself, pulling my head out of the loop I'd made.

“Clever,” Tara quips. I’d forgotten she was there. “I guess through the tears he didn’t realize you weren’t actually choking. He’s a little melodramatic, huh?”

“I have to stop him. No one else can do it, not the FBI, not the CIA, not the PTA. I don’t know what he’s planning, but someone is going to get hurt.”

“Well, don’t forget that.” I look to where she’s pointing at the bottom of my closet, where Ethan’s gun lies, forgotten in the heat of the moment. 

“Shit,” I say. 

“He finally slipped up.”

Tara and I look at each other. I give her a half-hearted smile. “You know, I might be seeing you soon if this doesn’t work out.”

“Don’t say that, Y/N. Go fucking get him. For Mindy, and Chad, and Anika, and me.”

She grabs my hand, and my eyes well up again, but when I blink them away, she’s gone, and I’m standing alone in my room, hand outstretched to the air.

I sigh. “One more dance, Ethan.”

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[ipatrichor]

dead boy detectives episode eight thoughts

oh my god we're here... the finale... god i have so many thoughts with this. im gonna try to keep things slightly organized and do a little wrap-up at the end but. we'll see!

moved spoilery stuff under the cut haha. but also technically everything is a spoiler? so it's just all under the read more 👍

first of all... niko my love my heart. i've moved past the shock i'm just sad now... my girl!!! i hate being right sometimes like... god she was so kind and she tried so hard and and. huauaauaghh i don't have the words for this just know im absolutely gutted 😭😭

and crystal... god i love the way they did her memories and i love that she was an asshole, but also she was a neglected kid with parents who didn't even notice when she went missing!! god. it sure does explain some things huh... idk i love the way she reacted, how scared she was of the person she used to be. but ultimately, of course, the only way she can go is forward. the only thing she can do is live with who she used to be and choose who she wants to be going forward, and she won't be doing those things alone

JENNY IM SO GLAD JENNY CAME TO ENGLAND WITH THEM. it sucks that her shop got exploded but also i think it'll be good for her, to get a fresh start somewhere else after the shit she's been through. i'm glad she's staying with the group i care her ^^

monty helping save them... alright man. you're on thin ice but you're at least back on the ice instead of falling right through so. you have earned a little bit of my respect back and im sorry that you were bound to such a shitty witch 👍

ALSO HEY SPEAKING OF EDWIN'S LOVE INTERESTS. can we talk about the gorgeous animation for the cat king's story????? HELLO that was beautiful and so impressive!!! it really transported me into the story being told and it looked so classic disney which made a wonderful juxtaposition with what was happening. i love that so much!!!!!

esther... god what do i say about esther. her acting is phenomenal, she's so well written to be funny and absolutely terrifying, i love her story and i love the way it was resolved. i absolutely LOVE that she wasn't beaten by the gang overpowering her, it was karmic. it was the retribution for the lives she's taken, all the little girls she's killed for her own selfishness, and their retribution comes to claim her. who gets justice for them, indeed

OKAY can i just say. i am absolutely thrilled with how the lilith thing went down i didn't even think they would use the image of her in esther's memories to contact her!!! i hoped she would be involved somehow, would right the wrongs that had been done to those little girls, but i did not expect it to be this amazing!!!! god i love that they put those pieces into the show so early, so we were able to guess that they'd come together and then they DO in such an amazing way!!!

and once again niko saves the day by being genuine and talking to people... god i love her so much. she learned the exact information they needed for this fight episodes ago, by talking to the woman near the beach because she likes talking to people and learning things!!!! niko sasaki the woman that you were.... god the fact that it's were instead of are. im gonna fucking cry

and the ending!!! they aren't on the run anymore it's been recognized that they're doing good so they're allowed to keep doing it and helping people!!!!! GODDD that makes me so happy i love that so much!!!!!!

ALSO I WILL SAY. when the superior didn't give them her name and then said the thing that tragic mick (finally learned his name!) told niko before she died... im not gonna lie my first thought was that she Was niko like somehow after dying she ended up in the afterlife outside of time or whatever. i don't think that's true i think it's just the theme of the show and that's why they said it twice but. for a minute i was like HELLO???

but the very ending scene!!! niko and the sprites? i think? idk im really bad with faces and recognize people through their hair so. did not help that they were dressed sensibly for the weather and their hair wasn't showing haha. BUT STILL. was that her afterlife? why are the sprites there?? what does that scene Mean is there still a chance for her to meet the group again??? please i need answers you can't just leave me hanging about my girl!!!!!! 😭😭

god this whole show has been amazing i'm so glad i watched it... thank you noble for introducing me to dead boy detectives!! i have had such a good time, it's been an emotional rollercoaster and i'm so sad it's over. i'm off to the tumblr search to reblog whatever i find and then it's to ao3 for me, with noble's profile as a starting point and then i'll scour the tags haha. thank you guys for coming along with me on this lovely experience! i'm doing a little wrap-up summary below to end things off

FAVORITE MAIN CHARACTER: god this is so difficult.... it's gotta be niko or charles, but know that i say this with the other two very close behind. they're all fantastic, it's rare that even when i imprint on a character (in this case charles) the others are all so good that it's still hard to pick a clear favorite, with niko even rivalling that imprint

FAVORITE RECURRING SIDE CHARACTER: jenny it's gotta be jenny!! i love her scenes i love her personality she's so fun i love how no-nonsense she is only to consistently be dragged into the Most Nonsense. she's a delight i love her and her proficiency with knives

FAVORITE ONE-OFF CHARACTER: kashi!!! fish guy!! he is such a goddamn delight he is the first character whose name i learned On Purpose instead of through the natural course of the show. i love him he showed up for one episode, performed his role magnificently, and swanned off to implied further fascinating adventures. love that guy

FAVORITE EPISODE: okay surprising no one ever, probably episode seven? i love what it does with the characters, i love the scene of edwin and charles meeting (well worth the wait!), i love all of it

SECOND FAVORITE EPISODE: okay this one has gotta be episode four or the jock one. five maybe? idk im torn between those two bc of the excellent charles characterization and development we get, and i've mentioned before what a soft spot i have both for the scene where he first breaks down and the scene where he and edwin hug. i love them both i cannot choose!!!

FAVORITE LOCATION: this has gotta be the dead boy detective office or maybe the inside of the fish. idk they're very different locations but they both serve their purpose very well and have a lot to offer!! oh wait shit actually i take it back the inside of crystal's mind with the tree. that's absolutely gorgeous and i love it so much

LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER: daniel. the demon ex sorry i choose not to remember his name <3 he is daniel To Me. anyway they just did a really good job of making him a shitty asshole who also happens to be a powerful demon

FINAL OPINION ON THE CAT KING: uh. i mean i still don't respect him but he's a very fun character and i do enjoy his vibe. i actually liked him a lot better when he wasn't essentially holding edwin prisoner (imagine that!) so i think the coercive nature of that original dynamic is what really threw me off. i found myself enjoying his character a lot more with the bracelet off and them interacting on even footing!

and finally, i couldn't possibly choose so here

LIST OF FAVORITE SCENES

- charles dying and meeting edwin

- charles having a breakdown at the night nurse

- every kashi scene

- crystal speaking to lilith and when she appeared to claim esther

- simon seeing the blue light and possibly leaving hell

- pretty much all of niko and edwin's one on one talks

- the conversation between niko and crystal when they first opened up to each other

- edwin telling the cat king the binding bracelet is all he is and leaving to save his friends

- charles hugging edwin after edwin comforts him

- esther killing the cat king

- charles getting stuck in the loop of the devlin murders

- niko going out into the storm to save her friends

- niko's reading comprehension skills <3

AND MANY MORE that i am forgetting but here you go ^^ goddamn this show is good. hit me like a trainwreck though i need a fucking nap

[here-there-be-drag0ns]

Riptide theory’s mayhaps???

HI HELLO YES

okay so im still on my "Queen is Reborn and also The Dread Queen" bullshit because im not letting that die until grizzly kills it

but anyway episode 110 gave me shit to work with here okay okay okay im genuinely so feral about this

Niklaus said the Dread Queen willingly went into the Astral Plane to try to discover the secrets of life and death so that she could conquer it. The Astral Plane is where souls go after death and are held until they find the next plane they settle into for their afterlife. The Astral Plane has its own natural cycle for souls entering and leaving and when and how this is meant to happen. By willingly entering the astral plane through a means other than how she was naturally meant to enter it, she effectively threw off the cycle and balance of it for her own soul.

The concept of Reborn as a player race is just someone who has "escaped death" through uncommon means. They 'died and came back wrong' or were 'touched by death' or however you want it to be phrased.

By entering the astral plane the Dread Queen effectively died an unnatural death, and by leaving the astral plane she would be resurrected, or reborn.

According the the entry for reborn: "Reborn suffer from some manner of discontinuity, an interruption of their lives or physical state that their minds are ill equipped to deal with." And, well, I would say entering and leaving the astral plane outside of its natural cycle is one hell of an interruption. Dying and coming back to life in the least conventional means possible will absolutely throw someone off, and the knowledge gained from the astral plane for sure wasnt meant to be understood by mortals, which could absolutely fuck with memory and consciousness by D&D and fantasy standards.

Plus, leaving the astral plane, or plane-hopping, might not necessarily drop her right where she entered, and very easily could drop her in All-Port, the center of the world. It would explain how Queen just kind of Showed Up in All-Port with no memory of how she got there or who she was before.

On top of that, in the Reborn entry it says "Whatever their origins, reborn know a new life and seek experiences and answers all their own." and as of episodes 109 and 110 Queen has now outright stated a drive to find out who they were before this and what happened to them.

ALSO BEFORE ANYBODY COMES AT ME ABOUT THE DREAD QUEEN IN THE SAC AND THE HEART THING!! The body in the sac was emphasized to be puppet-like, and constructed. In other worse, that is not the Dread Queen. That's a vessel meant to hold her consciousness if Captain Widow had gotten to finish her spell. The Dread Queen is not inside the sac yet, and thanks to Niklaus stealing the magical heart (heavily implied to not be human or natural) the Dread Queen will not have the chance to be pulled into that vessel.

GGRAAAHH IM INSANE ABOUT THIS THEORY ACTUALLY IM NOT LETTING IT GO GRIZZLYS GONNA HAVE TO PRY IT FREE FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!!

[sketchzecri]

Tell me Abt choco pretty please. R they a cereal mascot

Worse.

Choco is a very pathetic sopping wet cat of a man (ive comissioned molty for him twice!! :3)

Literally where do i begin.

So. Necromancy in my world is very complicated magic. And verrry forbidden because instead of just making a corpse move it drags their spirit back to their body repairing the damage if done right. But thats HARD to do. Like super duper hard. In fact, the only way to consistently and effortlessly revive people like that is to have it in your bloodline.

Obviously this kind of magic is scary and weird. So it becomes punishable by death, (some places killing you just for having that magic in you at all. Fucked up)

But they never caught my girl FREYJA AYYYYYYYYYYY

Freyja is Choco's mom. She escaped the law by leaving the city walls and living in the woods :3 She has Choco first then later Cloud. Both of them inheriting her magic. (They also have a skeleton cat named Keke but shes largely there to be cute)

One day, while fucking around in the forest, our young Choco runs into Kaveah, who had ran away to explore the woods. After freaking out about seeing another person, the two hit it off quite well! Choco shows Freyja his new friend and Freyja is like what the fuck that is literally the princess what. Kaveah promises to not tell anyone because she would also get in heeps of trouble for sneaking out.

Womp womp her dad finds out

And he is FREAKING OUT.

Mars has like. A whole onion of issues but tldr he freaks, attacks their family, kaveah defends them, she loses her eye in the process oopsies

After calming down (and realizing he just nearly killed his daughter oops) he stops sucking and is like you know what you mean a lot to my daughter and youve cared for her so much so for as long as i remain king i will keep you and your family safe (to freyja) and they cool now

Womp womp fire

So remember how i mentioned cloud? Yeah that's choco's dipshit brother from hell. He lights the cabin on fire with the intent of killing Freyja and Choco (he's like. Maybe 7 here i think i cant remember.) But dumbass gets HIMSELF killed instead! And freyja

Choco gets out of there

And my boy is NOT doing too hot pun unintended

From then on he lives in the palace with Kaveah then they grow up get married yadda yadda have a son hisbname is Taffy (picked it out himself (hes trans))

So heres where it gets messy. Im not gonna try to come up with anything on the spot but Taffy gets impossibly sick so he calls upon a spirit of some kind to fix him it works YAY

Something happens so he goes to do it again but GUESS WHO ITS CLOUD BITCH KABLAMO and so cloud switches places with Choco. Stealing his body and sending Choco to afterlife hell (its not really hell its complicated not gonna talk abt it here)

And thats kinda it for choco. Theres a few plotpoints that he helps in with other characters but in terms of big events thats it.

There is something here about multiverse travel but thats post-story fluff and roleplay physics

[ghoul-wizard]

a thing i really like in AoS is how fuzzy the term "reality" is in canon. Basically everything can alter the very fabric of agreed upon reality, given that magic is just altering the very fabrics of it. The shape of the world is not set, and in constant, literal, physical flux. This is especially true in the outer reaches of a given Plane, where everything turns into primoridal magical ooze or Gmod ragdolls across the void.

Utterly implausible things can happen through the sheer will of a given number of people. They dont even need to be magic they just have to be devoted to their version of an ideal reality and as a result *reality itself shifts to meet that ideal*. Every battle is not just a conflict for land, or resources, but to battle for the very fabric of reality itself.

Warriors of Order can bind wild magics, heal, kill, and conjure wonders, but they are all themed to be matters of control and influence over the untamed wilds that are, literally, ruled by the forces of chaos.

Chaos is the primordial overwhelming power of entropy, change, and disorder, and as a result, it can completely disrupt the very notion of "reality" splitting space open like a fabric, folding time into itself, and warping the flesh of anything it may encounter, acts that are fully outside of physical reality but which happen regardless.

Death is especially interesting (i am bias) because its magic is about ENDING reality. Famously in lore, the god of death tried to do one over on everyone a built a big magic pyramid to kill everyone, he fucked up and a lot happened but relevant to here is that the pyramid fell into the plane of death and KILLED IT (sort of). Now the plane of death, the afterlife, is being invariably, slowly pulled into a pit of death magic so powerful, it kills even the undead. Extrapolating from this, all death magic, which comes from the death plane, is about reaching the inevitable end of all reality, and accelerating that process.

Finally Destruction is a departure from this established structure, because, well, destruction hates established structure. Now im gonna admit here that i dont know enough about Destruction magic on a larger scale, but i do know that, fundamentally, the hordes of Orks, Goblins, and Ogors are *very* loosely tied together by their mutual need to destroy everything. Not end, like death, or unravel, like chaos, or conquer, like order, but to reduce to rubble and leave nothing. Orks seek to destroy and terrify simply because they can and they want to, and through their will their magic allows them to collapse the largest towers and cow the bravest champions. Ogors devour everything in their endless starving rampage, and Goblins... actually i dont know whats up with goblins i know they like to eat mushrooms and worship an evil moon ill get back to you on that one.

Ultimately, what im saying with this post that got out of hand is that AoS has performed a neat little trick where the writers, players, fan artists, and whoever else full narrative permission to do whatever weird shit they want and have it be canon. GW does this a lot, 40k is also like this to a degree. AoS is clearly inspired by the better parts of 40k, effectively doing a "cultural" exchange as WFB feeds into 40k, so too does 40k feed into AoS.

anyways whats up with goblins?

[genolover]

IM BACK AND FEED LETS DO THIS

So narinder works on the ritual, shows it to his siblings and they're like, dude, this is literally fucking with the laws of nature. And he's like, ah yes, because being the Gods of War and Chaos is so natural. And they're like, what about her? *points to Forneus* Listen, trial and error are a part of the process.

So anyways, misunderstandings happen and nari is sealed away. So sad. Many years later, two babies pop up and for 2 seconds nari is like, oh sick I love kids. Then he realizes that kids really should not be here. Now he's got 2 children to raise and while he's done this before, last time he wasn't chained to one spot, had a whole cult to rely on, and had resources. Do you know how awkward it is to ask a vessel to bring you breast milk in the afterlife? 0/10 time.

Anywhozles he raises those kids the best he can. Reba would be proud. Then the lamb comes. Kills the bishops, kills nari : (, nari gets indoctrinated : ). He spends time healing from his wounds and kinda putters around the cult. Everyone is weary of him because, ya know, toww. Those who join later find him to be the weird hermit guy.

One day the lamb brings in an orphan. They're a busy cult leader/God so they tell the girl to wait while they get someone to watch over her. While they're gone, narinder waltzes up, asks if anyone is gonna take this, then doesn't wait for an answer. What's he gonna do, leave a girl oozing grief from her pores by herself? No thank you. She's like, you gonna kill me? He's like, I can but we gotta do some stuff before I do if that's alright. They go to make effigies of her parents to bury in narinders garden for closure and be sad together for a while. Meanwhile the lamb is freaking out because the kid they just rescued is missing and no one knows where she went. They start to think she just ran away. Imagine their surprise when they see her during a sermon a week later next to the local antisocial goth cat.

They find nari later and are like, hey where did you get her? Nari's like, grew her in the garden. Lamb goes, nah I'm pretty sure I brought her into the cult.

Well if you knew the answer then why did you ask? Loathsome beast.

This interaction clears up nothing for the lamb. Asking the girl directly brings the same thing (he found me growing out of the cabbage patch). They (as in everyone) finds out he's weirdly good with kids. They also found out the reason no one can find him for duties or chores is because he hasn't been home, he's been at another older woman's house. She volunteered to baby sit 2 children as she used to have some grandchildren of her own before she... found her way to the lamb. Word got around and she ended up with like 7. Some infants, some toddlers, too many for a single woman. Narinder heard the crying one day and was like, nope, we're not doing that. Came right in and started helping. He's literally been babysitting for, like, a year and no one noticed. Lamb should really work on the cult's situational awareness. No this doesn't count for them. Shut up.

When aym and baal come back they do the thing again (stork delivered me to him. Like a package. But better.) They kinda just look at her before baal gets happy.

Yay a sister!

And aym is upsetty spaghetti.

I knew you loved baal more.

You wanted a brother to replace baal, baal wanted a sister to add to the family. You are not the same.

Falsehoods!! Baal was going to replace me too!

Perhaps but I was subtle about it.

Oh crap, you all do that. I thought it was a creepy hermit thing.

Moving on from those dumb ramblings, eventually narinder becomes the cult's secondary babysitter. A lot of them are cautious of him but the kids love mister nari. By the time the narilamb is trying to kick off, the lambs biggest ops are not the newly revived bishops (we care not what you do with our treasonous brother, cur) but the gaggle of children who have varying opinions on whither or not the lamb, who they know fully well is their God, is worthy of their mister nari. Is narinder aware of these debates? He is too busy trying to figure out if this random child sleeping in his bed is supposed to be here or if he's gonna be accused of kidnapping again. Op, too late, the child is tucked in and various snacks are being prepared for when the child is awake enough to convey their dietary needs.

It took me several hours to type this up as the need to pace is all consuming. Feel free to ignore me.

Listen. I was over thinking at work again about narilamb. So many fanfics have narinder unsettled by/intimidated by/uninterested in having children and, like, great. Good soup. Will read the trope all day. But. I just always go "didn't he literally raise aym and baal?" Like he did that in a place not meant to support living creatures. And, like, he made the resurrection ritual for a reason.

I'm just saying I would 100% make a fic where he's still in his cult and it's made up of warriors and those tired and weary of life. Not many young ones, ya know. So when 2 devoted followers are like, "hey, we know this is a death cult, but can we have a kid?" He's like, "ye, sure, idgaf."

Then he sees the egg and he's like, wtf is this? Are we gonna eat it? There's a baby in there????? Are you sure? And he doesn't remember his original family and shamura and kallamar were older than him when they found him and heket was like him, young but relatively self-sufficient, and leshy was a baby when they found him but he also had a crown so he was weird. In other words, he is completely baffled by how babies work. What do you mean she can't eat this yet? How will she grow strong? Well leshy ate everything when we got him.

Then he grows unexpectedly attached to his kids. When the parents eventually die, he's unbothered. That happens. Whatevs. Then the first child dies of old age and he's like, oh. Oh no. Do not like that. And then he starts thinking that, ya know, he's learned a lot about how the other crown bearers worked and duality and such from shamura. Things are prone to change. If he's the God of Death then why can't he reverse it?

First successful resurrection doesn't go as planned. Yes, Forneus is back, but he definitely did something wrong with her lifespan.

I have to go because I've been working on this on and off since the end of lunch break and I need to go home now. Will be back with more overthinking.

[my-lunaberg]

Ive liveblogged too close to the sun and hit the post limit so now I gotta do this in my notes app. Right now im on minute 47:15 of tommys Tommy and Tubbo Finally Kill Dream... vod and Im gonna hopefully manage to finish the finale today

*

Man its been a hot minute since Punz made me this nervous ngl

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Erynnnnnnnnnn

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No Eryns gone :(

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You just know Punz is gonna punch a wall after these two jokers leave his house

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NOOOOOOOO dude dont bring capitalism onto the server didnt you see how Las Nevadas turned out

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Fighting the prison industrial complex with capitalism

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Oh god Punz is gonna murder them in his basement isnt he

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This is so insanely sketchy dude

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Honestly i was half joking when I said that Punz is gonna murder them but that stone tunnel just turned into a blackstone tunnel these boys need to run

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Punz is having an Eret moment yea

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TNT IN THE WALLS??????

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WHAT THE FUXKWHATTHE FUCKI WHAT TSBE FUSCK WHAT THE FCUKWHAT TEH FUCKWHAT THEFUCK

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DO YOU REALLY THINK DREAM WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO AHS ACCES STOLO THE REVOAVAL VOOJK

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Bro i kneww this was coming and yet

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ITS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT MONEY, SAYS PUNZ

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broooooo im having such a good time rn, not jusz bc this is juicy as hell but also bc I started writing this au fanfic like a month ago and for some reason i decided to start with Punz' pov and i lowkey nailed his characterization despite me not knowing anything about him

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Dude....... Tommy protecting Tubbo......

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Og god fucked up noise

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DREAMS BACK

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quick whats the conversion rate in the afterlife again how long was he there

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theyre down there

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What are they gonna do

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Okay its over cliffhanger moment

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I dont think i'll watch all of tubbos vod bc its just gonna be the same thing probably and by god i need to finish this shit today man Ive got AUs to conceptualize

*

burying my head in my hands rn man

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"Im just here to help him with his closure" is such a heartbreaking statement man

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God watching their optimism again right after watching Dream and Punz get them is so horrible i cant watch this man

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Lookat the glowing women sign in the sky nature is healing <3

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Okay Im not watching the rest of Tubbos vod No Way Home time

[prisonguards]

I am sending this ask because I need something to distract me while I am out of internet so feel free to ignore, or delete this. So hi! It's the person who mentioned the smallidarity life series partners thing and I am being pushy by just saying it now LOL

I think if they teamed up for a series, it would start with them finding each other and Jimmy wanting to team. Joel would light heartedly half joke about how he'll do it but only to show he's clearly the Superior player in the series bc he will be the first to MAKE SURE Jimmy doesn't die first as his partner.

They'd build a base together and Jimmy would be dragged into conflict after conflict because Joel likes to cause problems but Joel will come running to help him if HE causes problems too even if he's "late" (he was there as soon as Jimmy called) and complains about needing to save Jimmy from himself afterwards.

They are both loyal, but I think Jimmy is more loyal in the sense that I don't think he'd be capable of betraying Joel or hurting him in a way that matters while I can imagine Joel choosing to betray Jimmy but ONLY if it will garuntee him a win or at the very least something as valuable as a life when he needs it. [Joel is attached though. No matter what, he'd be so very attached despite his best efforts not to be.]

Jimmy dies first. I know Joel was the reason for at least one of Jimmy's deaths. Whether he lost his final life because of himself or because of Joel doesn't matter. Joel will be upset either way, and he will kill whoever caused Jimmy's death directly. And if he did it to himself, then he will kill whoever took any of Jimmy's other lives as revenge. He'd be a lone wolf for the rest of the series and while he may make an alliance of obligation with other reds or other non reds, he will never be loyal or attached to them like he was Jimmy.

Every episode he does without Jimmy will be spent making jokes about him while also simultaneously missing him and admitting to it on the very rare occassions. I don't think Joel would win but if he did, it'd be bittersweet I think. He won, he's happy, he kills himself to join his little buddy in the afterlife.

OH PLEAAASEEE. my internet was. SO BAD when I got your ask and I prommy I tried to answer it SUPER enthusiastically but it got eaten. twice. because of the bad data and then I forgot to answer it when I had better connection cause Im so scatterbrained. AND THEN I got back from vacation and got swamped with work and couldnt finish replying but seriously I could nawt want anything more. Life Series Smallidarity is my evvvveeeerything they mean. SO SO SO fucking much to me. you and your thoughts are ALWAYS ALWAAYYYYYSS so so so fucking welcome here in my inbox. PLEASE.... I adore them

ALLLLLL OF THIS IS SO GOOD AND SOOO REAL. you know them Perfectly. this all feels so so real. I need this more than anythiiing next season. I really do. I just MMMMNNGNMMMNG. you got them so perfect Im gonna SOB. I think they would meet eachother First again too. Like Joel is the first player Jimmy sees all season, and yup. they do their whole spiel where Jimmy asks something of Joel but this time Joel accepts it— its only to prove hes so much better than everyone else, than Scott and Tango and the whole goddamn Southlands because hes the fucking best and hell keep Jimmy by his side and alive when they couldnt.

They really would cause. soooo many problems. Joel is. Always so annoying (endearing) and so fighty and shitty and when Jimmy gets a little touch of confidence and ego hes SUCH a shithead too. theyd talk their way into a lot of problems theyd have to fight (or cowardly scurry) their way out of.

dunno if this is as realistic/in character but thinking abt Joel being the first red name again, or an early one. through either his own overconfident idiocy or. even. semi on purpose so he can be a violent mess. but they ignore the red rules and him and Jimmy stay allied. maybe Joel claims he keeps attacking Jimmy and trying to chase him off, but its not working. Jimmys too stupid (read; too loyal) to keep his distance. just the vibes of that 3rd Life era red x yellow/green allyship combined with Joels insane longevity and threat level as a red name in Last Life.

anon. anon I am speaking directly into your ear you have no idea how insane Joel post Jimmy death makes me. Joel expressing his loss and mourning through vengeance even if its (at least partially) his fault OOOOOOOHHHH. OOOOH OH. you get HIM and you get ME. the joking about him in his absence intercut with genuine care and missing him. when he does that it drives me CRAZY it would be even more batshittttt if they were direct allies

HE WON... HES HAPPY... HE KILLS HIMSELF TO JOIN HIS LITTLE BUDDY IN THE AFTERLIFE.... ANON YOU BROKE MY FUCKING HEARTTTTT. I think a Jimmy first dead and a Joel win while theyre allied would be INSANITY it would be PEAK thematic yumminess. especially with Joel being responsible for taking one of Jimmys lives. oooooh you have to sacrifice what means the most to you to win. this is a cruel fucking game and only loss and sacrifice and loneliness wins it for you.

anon you have made me do something drastic. help.

HELP

(I have started a traffic smallidarity PMV)

anyway silliness aside youve really got to the heart of why they would be suuuch a powerful and heart wrenching team and why I love traffic smallidarity so much. all of this is so real and canon feeling because so much of it has. happened before. even with them being only loose allies and there being. so little content technically. theres just so much potential there and if they were teamed it would be amped up even more and absolutely destroy me. anon I have been rotating everything you said and the traffic smallidarity possibilities in general in my head since I got this, youve really made my week (SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG I HATE BEING BUSY,,,,) and you really have such an excellent read on themmm, this is why traffic smallidarity is still my fav and what got me crazy abt them. augh. me when theres Them.

[hopalongfairywren]

c!eret lore liveblogging part one probably because it's so long

stream hasn't loaded for me and i already feel sick great ok

nah the stream hasn't even started yet

I honestly have so many conflicting thoughts on c!eret

OH FUCK ITS LIVE

It only took like a month more but the lore book that was supposed to be opened in like, august is finally here!

At least i'm home alone so I can scream into the computer at blockmen without judgement

YES JUMP IN WE HAVE BEEN WAITING

I KNOW PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T DO MUCH LORE ARE GETTING DRAGGED INTO THE SPOTLIGHT BUT ANTFROST? R-red banquet mention?

6 MONTHS

'not sure if i'm gonna see him again' n o.

he said it. Eret said he wronged wilbur. Mark this down.

so scared so scared

"You didn't deserve." Oh wilbur. OH wilbur this is such a red flag what the fuck yeah he's commiting suicide and shit

I mean, are people gonna forget your little murder fiasco

oh fuck he's confirming that ppl in the dsmp will die of natural causes one day. existential dread....

DSMP afterlife? In the desert? Hmmm...

UTAH? Ok actually death is preferable to Utah. Wait is c!Wilbur getting fucking abducted by aliens? Yeah. Ok. I'm ready for dsmp space addition

Las fucking NEVADAS

oh shit that ozymandias sad-ist animatic i knew it would come back to haunt us.

Ozymandias actually works for so many dsmp characters actually

The hesitant optimism. The tender music. The existentialism. The optimistic nihilism. It's all so good but in a painful way

"Maybe in some alternate reality it was meant to be." What if I cry?

So let's move on. I feel better. I feel like this stream adresses us the audience

The music. The reminder of mortality. Life is such a fragile thing. Just leave something behind. Something greater than you. So maybe one day you or someone can look back on the past and be amazed by how far we've come. Yeah, that is kinda the message of the dsmp. Or at least the hopeful interpretation of it?

You know it would be really funny if after all of this sort of erily comforting lore eret flipped to the last page and it said 'btw im killing myself/j'

Eret you are such a good actor. Fuck i'm gonna pass out.

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[kinnsporsche]

no words for this episode!! i’m absolutely speechless!! it killed me and i went to heaven. typing this from the afterlife. this was the cutest, softest most perfect episode ever. god I love the honeymoon phase. they were so giddy and in love and horny <3. it was a much needed episode for my heart. their date was adorable and I loved how p was asking for advise because he wanted it to be perfect <3 but kinn was just happy to spend time with him and indulge him with his photos bc he loves him 1/4

I also love the running joke of the other bodyguards thinking he always gets punished. yeah I’m sure his legs were shaking but not why you think :) also, who’s doing product placement like kinnporsche? I never wanted to buy bread so bad in my life. I literally can’t say anything else except that it was a perfectly cute episode. one thing that was a little weird is kim saying p could be korn’s son or something? wtf is up with that? I really hope that was just a throwaway comment but idk why they would even suggest that. anyway, I don’t even want to think about the possibility so I will choose to ignore it. and kim!! boy you’re on thin fucking ice. I just know he’s gonna break porchay’s heart real soon and I’m not ready for it. however, I’m more than ready for a little tawan drama. I’m actually feeling better about this storyline since we found out that k didn’t shoot him out of jealousy. he deserved to get shot for betraying him like that lol I’m curious how he survived or what went down exactly and why he’s back. also, I was dying to see some vegaspete but that didn’t happen so I’m a little disappointed but oh well. it was a perfect episode for kp’s relationship so I’m not complaining. looking forward to the pool scene next week 👀

kp anon unfortunately its illegal for u to die how do u expect me to live without your asks hm? illegal come back to me right now

porsche asking for dating advice because it's his first real relationship and he wants it to be good for kinn is something that can actually be really personal. god and his little self-deprication creeping in at the end of it when his plans kinda got ruined and kinn's just there with the fattest fucking grin on his face because this is the best date he's ever had. and i thought about this during the week but, porsche being the one to take kinn out is probably something he's also never had before, you know? he has money, he's fucking loaded, so he's always the one buying people things, probably was the one who took tawan out, etc. but porsche is like nope, fuck that, it never ben occured to him that kinn would be the one to do all this, HE'S the one who wants to take KINN out and i bet kinn's never had that before i bet it made his heart do dangerous things!! and yes!! the photos god, the way his mafia boss persona just drops around porsche when they're alone, he's just this guy who'll do anything to make his boyfriend happy, he's so whipped for him im 🥺🥺

NOVEL SPOILERS NOVEL SPOILERS NOVEL SPOILERS

from what i've seen/can remember from what i've been told in the novel (🤮) there's an actual angsty sub-plot about them potentially being related (they're not in the end) so im guessing the show was just lowkey throwing shade at that? bcs i really doubt boc would go there after all the changes they've made to the series so far. and also, re: vegaspete, in the novel that starts around the same time as the tawan sl so it will probably pick up this episode or next episode!!

i know a lot of people were calling this episode a filler which is such a disservice because it's such a necessary episode? how are we expected to root for a couple that are only thrown together in life-or-death situations without getting to see their progress, without getting to see their softness when they're with each other, without getting to see their feelings, without getting to see how the two of them could just be if their lives weren't entangled in such a mess, you know? just because it didn't necessarily drive the plot forward a huge amount doesn't automatically make it a filler episode!

and i know a lot of people are also worried about tawan coming between them but i genuinley dont have a single worry about that. kinn is so GONE in porsche, and he's aware of the fact that tawan never loved him, idk why people think he would possibly even think about going back to him? is tawan going to get into porsche's head? yeah, absolutely. but i have no doubt that kinn's gonna prove his devotion and probably bang all of porsche's insecurities out of him so he cant use his legs for approximately 48 hours 🥰🥰 whether that pisses tawan off more and makes him do something more drastic to get to them both idk im not sure yet but everybody even tawan's actor keep saying how much of a bastard he is so 👀 lets go villain arc

[g0dspeeed]

Liar, Liar

For @constantzeigarnik

"V unabashedly flirting with Viktor, just laying it on real thick for the ripperdoc, and Viktor just not being prepared for it in the slightest."

“Liar, liar.”

The words came out in a tired sigh with a voice that hopefully sounded as indifferent as V intended.

The pair was laid out on the hood of Panam’s latest wheels, eyes closed, and cold drinks in hand. After helping the Aldecaldo get the ride from a locked storage yard, V had offered to relax beneath the shade of a highway overpass while they waited for the client to arrive. Panam accepted without a second thought. Between the two of them, a break from daily survival in Night City seemed in order.

Supposed to be chill.

Just two friends sippin’ on a dry afternoon.

No worries.

No stress for an hour.

That was before their present conversation, one that V was trying desperately to avoid.

“Yeah, I’m the liar here,” returned Panam. “And Night City is family friendly. At least I’m not the one in denial that my ripperdoc has the hots for me.”

V turned to shoot her friend a dark look. The nomad smirked as the warning fell flat. Despite V’s best efforts, Panam could see right through her: She was absolutely fuckin’ right.

“Think ya’ got it all wrong,” V maintained in a cool tone.

“Oh, do I?”

V cringed.

“Only met the guy one time,” Panam said. “Felt like a third wheel between the two of you eye-fuckin’ each other. Almost walked outta there see what that psychic girl was sellin’.”

A new warmth began stinging V’s cheeks and Panam frowned at her friend’s lack of response.

This was new territory. Seeing V react this way was beyond strange. One of the most capable people Panam had ever met was turning red over a man. Borderline bizarre. Truly, the entire conversation was out of the norm.

“Shit,” muttered Panam. At her best efforts at being soft, she added, “Don’t feel bad, V. The guy’s stacked like a fucking truck.”

At that, V finally let her guard down. She grinned as Panam gently shoved her shoulder.

“There she is. Just let that denial fade away-”

“Fuck off.”

“What the hell are you afraid of?” asked Panam. “Rejection?”

V looked at her energy drink, swiveling the liquid around before relenting.

“I mean, yeah, kinda.”

An eye roll and a heavy groan came from the woman beside her.

“Yeah okay,” said Panam. “Like he’d reject a woman half his age, much less a badass like you. V, I saw it for myself. The guy thinks you’re hot. Caught ‘im lookin’ at your ass. Not only that, he cares, like genuinely cares about you, which says a lot for people like us. Next time you see him, just lay it on thick and be done.”

V scrunched her eyes shut at her friend’s advice. Just talking about openly pursuing Viktor Vector made V’s stomach twist into knots. As much as she was the badass that Panam knew her to be, for V to explore an actual romantic relationship outside of ‘eye-fucking’ and the occasional one-night stand with some rando from Afterlife was not something V was familiar with. Her days were chaotic. Her lifestyle was that of constant motion. Viktor, in all his edginess, was stable, consistent, and secure. Also, she enjoyed the subtly they shared, the skirting around the topic of their flirty friendship, or whatever it was, from the safety of fleeting looks, suggestive undertones, and the occasional wink.

Then again, if V were honest with herself, it never seemed to be enough. V couldn’t deny that each time she left his clinic she wanted more. Craved more. More time, more privacy, more touch. She was her own worst enemy in all of those categories, always the first to shy away, to change the subject, to wander off.

“Worst case scenario,” breathed Panam. “He’s not interested in dating someone younger. Or just wants to be friends. That’s fine. Whatever. Should that happen, you delta outta there, lay low for a few weeks, find a new doc, and move on.”

“I can’t just delta out of his life,” groaned V. “He’s been my ripperdoc since I came to Night City. He’s also one of my closest friends-”

“Ok, then suffer. Fuck! Just do something. You’re killing me with this in between bullshit.”

Hours later, their conversation from under the overpass played on repeat inside V’s head. Panam cannot sugar coat anything. She might be physically incapable of doing that. Her words came straight from the heart and that’s what made what she had to say so sincere.

That is at least what V was telling herself as she steadily made her way down the steps to Viktor’s clinic, hands clammy, and body keyed up.

Part of her hoped that he was out or tied up with a patient. Maybe he would tell her to come by later.

She scoffed.

What a stupid thought. She was too quick to forget how often he invited her to stick around if he were operating, how she would wait at his workbench or nap on his crusty couch in the back. Sure enough, she could hear the man whistling below, the cheery sound echoing to where she hesitated. She swallowed.

With a final deep breath, V summoned up the bravery to walk through the metal gate.

Hunched over his operating chair, Viktor appeared to be wiping down between appointments, his rich voice humming along to some song in his head. V watched for a moment, taking in the serene sight before approaching the ripperdoc.

“Surprised you’re not watching a match,” she said.

The humming stopped. His head cocked at hearing her voice.

Without turning he responded, “Aren’t any on right now or you know I would be.”

The rag was tossed down and Viktor shifted to look at her.

V’s stomach flipped. His blue button-up was stained with a dark, oily substance all over the front. The top buttons were either missing or dangling from bits of string, leaving the shirt partly undone and exposing his undershirt. V’s eyebrows furrowed as she noticed a small crack that cut in the corner of his glasses just above a small nick on his cheekbone.

“You look-”

“Like shit?” he finished with a grin.

Viktor crossed his arms, drawing V’s attention to his thick biceps in a knee-jerk reaction.

“Bet so,” he continued. “Someone brought in his friend after a run in with the Tyger Claws, all blood clots and broke teeth. The gonk was scared out of his goddamn mind. Took a toll just to sedate ‘im.”

His smile had turned into a smirk, something confident and full of swagger as he told his story. He wore it well, mastering the balance found only in seasoned residents of Night City, of those who earned their street cred by way of blood, grit, and never backing down. V’s lips pursed at how his eyes looked to hers past those dark lenses.

Here would be the part where V ran away, ran from opportunity, from her feelings. He dared to look at her the way he did in that moment, so smooth, so confident. The man had to know. Viktor had to recognize how he affected her, had to notice how her eyes appreciated his physique, how her complexion warmed when he touched her. His frame had turned to face hers, all broad shoulders and aftershave.

She could step back.

Look away.

This was where she could coolly suppress her attraction and change the subject.

But not today.

“Here,” she said warmly.

V stepped close to the ripperdoc, shrinking the gap between their bodies as her fingers gently plucked the man’s glasses from his face. Viktor blinked in surprise and swallowed as she studied the damaged lens with a critical eye, her own smirk pulling at her full lips.

“Gonna need new ones, doc,” she told him.

Next, V carefully folded the glasses and slid them onto the collar of her top. Viktor’s eyes tracked her movements before quickly glancing away. Ever the gentleman.

“But don’t worry,” continued V. “The rest of you I can remedy.”

He chuckled.

“The rest of me?”

V looked up. She nearly gasped. For Viktor to wear those damn shaded glasses was a sin. The bluest blue that V had ever seen, his eyes were deep like ocean water. There was longing in them. Desire. He adored V for standing so close and showing such concern for his wellbeing. Christ, she could get lost in those eyes if he kept looking at her like that.

To answer his question, V tugged at the hem of his soiled shirt. He stiffened.

“Are you tryin’ to say that you like being covered in… whatever this is?” she mused.

“Well, no-”

In a near whisper, V begged, “Then come on, Vik. Let me play doctor for once.”

Fuck.

The way she was looking up at him with that smile, those bedroom eyes, leaning close like that with her fingers tugging on his shirt and talkin’ in that sweet, sexy voice.

Who was Viktor to deny her?

He sighed out a ‘Fine’ and nodded in agreement. Consent confirmed, V went to work. V’s fingers moved to undo the remaining buttons of his shirt, but Viktor stopped her hands. His own hands were warm, a little rough with scars and callouses on the tips and knuckles. In response to V’s questioning look, Viktor grabbed his shirt and ripped the buttons loose with a jerk. They pattered at their feet.

“Trash,” he stated as he slid his arms free from his shirt. Like the buttons, it went airborne and landed in a nearby biohazard bin.

“Hey now,” warned V with mock annoyance. “I said let me play doctor.”

“Oh am I being a bad patient?” returned Viktor.

To his surprise, V placed her palm at the center of his chest. Her fingers flexed gently against his undershirt, making Viktor’s heart race. She then gave a gentle shove.

“The worst,” she teased as Viktor let her push him back into his own operating chair.

Even if he wanted to, there was no way that Viktor could hide his smile. He was at a loss. What in the world had gotten into V? Not that he was complaining of course, but he was so used to waiting. The flirting, the winks, all those playful innuendos had been going on for such a long time. By now, Viktor simply accepted that she wouldn’t push it further, that their friendship or whatever they had, consisted of only those teasing moments. Nothing more. In the end he believed that V didn’t want anything deeper with the ripperdoc. And that was fine. A bummer, but fine. Didn’t feel bad about it. Didn’t resent her. She was younger, a wild one who made a hobby out of recklessly injuring herself doing God knows what in the city. The man wasn’t new to women or intimacy, and with a woman like V he thought it best to let her set the terms, especially considering that she was after all his patient. A patient who ate his food, slept on his couch, completely ignored his work schedule, and called him ‘pretty boy’ on the regular. A patient no less.

So imagine how fast his heart was racing as her fingers softly cupped his cheek, at how her body leaned in close as she inspected the small cut beneath his eye. Viktor tried his hardest to look off into nothingness rather than at her breasts. Tried to ignore how delicious she smelled. Was she wearing perfume-

“Breathe, Vik,” she mumbled. “Can’t have my first patient black out on me.”

She fucking winked and that goddamn smirk of hers graced her lips.

“I, uh,” he began. He laughed, a bit too nervously for his liking. “I’m sorry, just, just distracted. It doesn’t hurt that much, ya know.”

“How’d he get ya?” asked V.

To Viktor’s disappointment, V stepped away from the chair and walked towards his workbench. He didn’t miss how her hips swayed or how she bent over to grab his medical kit in a nearly exaggerated manner. The way she looked into his eyes while she straightened, all slow and sensual with those curves of hers, went immediately to his dick. He swallowed.

“Um,” he said stupidly. “He, uh, headbutted me. With his head.”

“Ouch,” she replied.

Before she returned to the flustered ripperdoc, V shimmied out of her bomber jacket and tossed it on his workbench. A tattered crop top pulled against her skin as she shook out her dark hair.

Viktor had the decency to rest his hands in his lap to shield the effect that the merc had on him.

Her tongue wet her lips as she fished through the kit for what she wanted. The glance she shot in his direction proved that there was no innocence in the act.

What the fuck was happening?

That question repeated itself over and over again in his mind as she again bent closely towards his body to apply a Q-tip to the wound, offering another delicious view of her ample breasts.

“Can I get some feedback, doc?” she asked quietly.

Viktor swallowed, his mouth dry like sand.

“Yeah, kid,” he replied lowly.

V paused her work to truly look at him, to gaze into those gorgeous eyes of his. Then, all calm and collected, V perched herself next to him at the edge of the operating chair. Viktor allowed her some room as she cupped his cheek with her other hand, her breasts resting on his torso as she leaned into him. Her thumb ghosted his skin, tempting. Teasing. Viktor ignored the urge to press against the throbbing hardness in his pants. The cut long forgotten, his attention was caught up in V’s eyes, the warmth of her skin, her smell, the sultriness of her voice.

“Do you want me?”

Her mouth was so close to his. The warmth of her breath tickled his skin like static. Viktor’s eyes shut in anticipation as V slowly drew herself to his lips.

He felt nothing, but heard the soft tear of paper. Viktor’s eyes fluttered open, brow crinkling in confusion. V had sat up and was unwrapping a small bandage, her eyes fixated on the task while he gaped at her. When it was open, she reached out and carefully applied the bandage to the cut on Viktor’s cheek.

“All done,” she stated in a chipper tone, a wide smile stretched from ear to ear.

Viktor smirked.

“Oh yeah?” he questioned. “Think you’re hot shit giving this old man a heart attack?”

“Think I gave you more than that, pretty boy.”

Her eyes flickered to his lap and back to those ocean eyes. Viktor sat up in the chair, his hands not budging as if his life depended on it.

“You never answered me,” said V, the playfulness gone from her voice and replaced with a feeling that Viktor found it hard to describe.

There was no mystery, however, to how he felt in hearing it. His heart melted at her words, at how the game was finally over and that she, beautiful V, wanted to know if he wanted her. A stupid question, really, but an important one all the same.

“Ah V,” he said with a sigh.

Panic alit her eyes like fire, but it was quickly doused as Viktor took her by the hand.

“Of course I do,” Viktor replied earnestly. He gave her hand a small squeeze. “I’d be a fuckin’ liar if I didn’t.”

For whatever reason, Viktor saw V blink as if there was something odd in what he said. The moment was short and quickly forgotten as V embraced him so hard that the pair fell back in his operating chair, his arm wrapped around waist and his lips pressed into her hair.

[madlilsongbird]

Watching The Amazing Spidernan movies so that I’m all caught up before No Way Home. Will add my thoughts as I have them. Note I am not some big Spider-Man fan nor have I read the comics so if my thoughts sound kinda stupid they probably are.

First movie:

That’s a good trick with the broom. Making a mental note as we speak.

Actually seeing Peter say goodbye to his parents is horrible and I would like to never experience it again

SALLY FIELD IS AUNT MAY?! Why does this one have the good cast? (not good as in better but good as in more well known)

The sexual tension in “good morning flash…good morning Peter” (this is a joke I’m not shipping him with his bully)

Jesus roid rage much?

Shut your blinds! I don’t know who would be looking in your window at this exact moment but close them anyway!

First careful, you never know who is watching what you search (when did I become this person)

Second…curt connors is ableist.

Poor Rodrigo Guevara

Oh internalised ableism. And that is the only comment I will make going forward because my disabilities do not include limb difference and I dont want to overstep.

Stop following the man, you are not subtle…wait wtf how’d he do that?!

This is where he gets his powers right?

Okay but when would 5 men make that much of a fuss over a woman that only 1 of them seems to know?

Same. (This is in reference to smashing the alarm clock)

Oh my god is it really necessary to show all the different kinds of spider bites.

Actually just going back to the internalised ableism thing…he is allowed to feel whatever type of way about his own disability that is his right. But insinuating that all disabled people are weak and wanting to breed out the weakness is eugenics and just kinda gross. THIS is the final comment I will make on the matter.

No but seriously he is way more aggressive than regular teen boy aggressive so either he’s on something or he’s overcompensating for something

The way he looks at him doe (again all jokes am not shipping flash and Peter)

Why is this so awkward? And not like teens navigating a crush awkward just genuinely awkward. I feel no chemistry between them.

I like the song, it’s an interesting choice for this scene but I like it.

Stop does uncle Ben die now? Like I know uncle Ben dies at some point but I was really kinda hoping he just wouldn’t in this iteration. I was going for a ninth doctor moment “just this once everybody lives”

MOTHERFUCKER

God Sally is incredible

Don’t show me moments of Flash being human I might accidentally start shipping them for real and that simply can’t happen.

Oooh he’s a fashion designer

I just really enjoy how he takes the piss out of his victims? Arrests?

Is Gwen aware that the school nurse can’t cure everything? Both legally and just like generally doesn’t have the knowledge to cure everything. She suggests going to the nurse a lot.

This family gives me bad vibes

This is a long movie…it’s not even half way through

Well that’s one way to tell her

NOT GEORGE FOYET!

I think with what I remember of SpiderTobey and what I know of SpiderTom, Andrews Spider-Man is definitely better with the people he’s rescuing. Smoother, good bedside manner.

His sons name is Jack. Why does that make me angry?

So he’s just not gonna rescue the other people hanging off the bridge?

It’s almost poetic that the son of the man tried to stop him the first time will be the one to stop him now

Now how is he getting enough power in the sewer

No means no Peter

Does she die in this one or the next one? I don’t imagine her dying will help captain stacey see him as a good guy

Stan 🥺

This movie is exhausting and I don’t know if I mean that in a good way or a bad way.

MoThEr HuBbArD aRe YoU sErIoUs

He managed to get three whole words out and you didn’t think to ease up on the trigger a little to hear what those words might be?

She’s very clever and I will be sad to see her go

That wasn’t her scream. Or it was but from a different take.

Foyet about to be coming in clutch

I’m going to cry.

He’s so ugly. Some lizards are really cute but lizard + human, kinda gross looking.

Well shit. I didn’t know that happened. I guess what I said about him being upset with Peter about Gwen is irrelevant. Unless it isn’t, like if you believe in the afterlife, imagine how pissed he’s gonna be when Gwen arrives.

He finally got the eggs 🥺

As someone who’s boyfriend at the time didn’t go to her fathers funeral I feel ya Gwen. I mean I don’t care now but at the time it sucked.

Dr Connors was just in a silly goofy mood. He seems to show genuine care for the boy (this is mostly sarcasm).

Second movie

Oh we’re going back to peters dad.

How do they have access to a private jet?

Miss Honey is badass

Ngl I’m actually quite relieved they both died before the plane crashed. Stil devastating though.

Okay so this is first up on the list of potential mystery villains in No Way Home…he looks like a tool.

HeLLo PeDeStRiAnS

He really just let Spider-Man put his hand on his tongue. Sir do you know where his hand has been? Not to mention just in general the feeling of spandex on your tongue. I feel ill.

No respect for the proper care of plutonium.

Please don’t ever say “come to daddy” again 😂

I’m kinda sad Jamie Fox becomes a villain, his character seems kinda sweet so far from the 2 seconds I’ve seen of him

You mean to tell me he missed his girlfriend’s fathers funeral AND her valedictorian speech?!

Stan x2 🥺

Because you can’t lose me you’re going to lose me? 😂

I love her jacket

Why are they still pretending like she doesn’t know?

I may have spoken to soon about Max

See I would be speeding up daddy’s death if he told me he’d passed down a genetic disease and just decided not to tell me.

Friendship.

Okay max is still a little bit nutty but you gotta feel bad for the guy. He must’ve been so scared.

Don’t smile that’s not cute, if he was a regular boy you’d file a restraining order.

Oh I see Spider-Man is gonna fight him which will make him turn and become the “bad guy” whether he will actually be a bad guy is still unknown.

This scene is actually kinda just making me angry (the time square scene)

Cops suck man. Peter was talking him down just fine.

Did nobody teach these people not to touch metal when there’s electricity about.

Interesting that I didn’t pick up any chemistry from them in the first movie weren’t they an actual couple for a while?

Another good song with an interesting placement

I’m sorry did the caller ID not say Mary Parker? How was it Harry on the phone?

Run Gwen!

This version of Harry is kinda creepy I’m sure the actor is swell but the character is terrifying. Original version Harry was swell whereas the actor is…

“Maybe everyone has a part of themselves they hide” gives him the eye

This movies shorter or at least it feels shorter

An excellent show of what happens when you tell a rich daddy’s boy no for the first time.

This makes me very sad. She’s so excited for the possibility of Oxford.

As much as Harry disturbs me, I want him to burn his entire team.

His daddy really did love him!

I think it’s mostly his eyes, his behaviour can be explained by trauma (why I find Harry creepy)

Okay most of his behaviour. The taking joy in killing people that’s just him being nutty and not a trauma response.

This is fucked up. And where is Peter? he is off chasing a girl who has broken up with him twice now.

PLANES NEED THE POWER!

I really like SpiderAndrew, the movies are fine but as a character I thoroughly enjoy him

Sorcerers apprentice who?

Captain Stacy can’t blame him! She’s clearly stubborn as hell and her own free woman

I quite literally stopped breathing (in reference to the almost plane crash)

Is this why they made it Gwen and not MJ so that he could kill her and be an actual bad guy? From my little knowledge of the comics and what I’ve seen from the movies Harry would never hurt MJ so it had to be someone else important to Peter but not super important to him for him to a real bad guy

I like that Harry actually looks like a goblin.

What was the disease he’s supposed to have?

This poor family. I know I said they gave me bad vibes in the first movie but nobody deserves this.

He looks less like a tool with his suit on…but only slightly less

Baby you better get back behind that baracade!

Nobody talk to me I’m very emotional. This child looks very much like a magical mix of all 3 of my brothers put together and seeing him stand there so brave but so scared is doing something to me.

Final thoughts:

So I think SpiderAndrew might be a close second favourite for me. I like the relationships of the original the most, the comedy of the mcu version the most but this one was like a nice in between. Im a little disappointed there won’t be a third not cos I think I would have enjoyed it just cos the original had 3 movies, the mcu version will have at least 3 movies and this one is left out with 2. Don’t think I would have loved Shailene Woodley as MJ though so I dunno. I think the only thing I would have wanted from a third movie is to know who fedora guy is…and for Peter and May to acknowledge that they both know that he is Spider-Man. Apart from that it was fine and I now feel fully prepared for No Way Home.

[graffitibible]

can you explain how a draculoid becomes a deaculoid (if that makes sense)

sure! we do get a handy explanation for how it works in the comics’ external materials but it leaves a lot up in the air as well. i use that as my baseline though since things that are actually Fucking Explained in this canon are a rarity so i take what i can get. 

im gonna stick this beneath a cut cause fuck it got Longe

transcript of the image above:

DRACULOIDIZATION (The act of becoming a Draculoid)

Dracula is scary. Draculoids are scarier.

Draculoid masks are used when a prisoner or detainee is deemed suitable to serve as a BLI employee. A suitable candidate consists of a physically fit body with no previous ailments or damage to said body. Mental ailments, beliefs, or morals need not be taken into consideration while evaluating the candidate, since the mask will wipe all personality away. Draculoid masks can also be used to downgrade a higher-ranking BLI official, such as a S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W/, if the situation is appropriate. They can be used on the living or the recently deceased that have died with minimal bodily harm.

INSTRUCTIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

-After assessing the candidate and determining that it is deemed suitable for BLI employment, place a Draculoid mask on its head.

*Warning. Placing a Draculoid mask on a candidate’s head will remove the soul of the candidate, wiping the body clean. You might experience a slight shock or be temporarily blinded for a moment while the life is being extracted. This is completely harmless to you and should cause no need for alarm.

*FAQ: No, we are not sure where the soul goes, nor is that any concern of yours or ours.

So in short, anyone can be turned into a drac (or “dracked” as my version of canon calls it). We see it happen in the comics once, and we get an insight into what the person who has been dracked actually sees - they envision former friends and allies as murderous, insectoid creatures, nightmares out to get them, and react accordingly. it also appears to be a pretty immediate process. the mask goes on, there’s a bright flash of light, and the candidate is now a freshly turned draculoid.

so what do we know about people who have been dracked, based on the information we see in the comics and music videos?

dracs are capable of basic cognition. they can talk, they exchange information with each other and with draculoids-to-be, and they can take orders. their personalities are fairly homogeneous however, and they seem to miss the subtleties of humor or rhetorical questions.

dracs are capable of emotion. the initial concept art describes them as flashy, arrogant, and mentions that they “love to party.” we see them emote on occasion, such as issuing cartoonish laughter when they capture the girl in the “na na na” mv.

dracs are obedient. related to point one, they follow orders and bli ordinances unquestioningly. since you don’t need to be ALIVE to be dracked, it stands to reason that being a drac doesn’t require a great deal of critical thinking. you’re meat. you follow orders. you do what’s required of you. you are, in essence, cannon fodder.

dracs are soulless. this is explicitly mentioned in both the external materials and in the comics themselves. cherri cola discusses this with the girl.

The text above: “Draculoid masks are a different story. The souls these masks take are lost. But I still have to try. There’s MORE than electricity coursing through Bat City. It’s littered with innocent souls, trapped in the city’s electricity. Souls that cannot find their way home.”

cola sends drac masks to the phoenix witch via mailboxes, the same way one would killjoys, based on the premise that anything “close to the soul” (direct quote) would help guide the soul “home” to her.

now i think a VERY important distinction to make here is that cola is incorrect. the souls the masks take aren’t lost, not fully. we see an explicit example of this when, after we learn that the girl’s mom was turned into a draculoid and we get a good look of what she looks like, we see that her soul has been returned to her by the comics’ end - she’s the draculoid that approaches the girl. i think it's reasonable to assume based on the context - the fact that the girl recalls this specific quote about there being more than electricity in the city, the fact that her mother is returned to her after being deemed soulless, the fact that bli does not know or care where the souls of dracked victims go but that they’re noted to flash brightly when they exit the body - that battery city is teeming with the souls of those who were turned into dracs. i think it’s reasonable to deduce that battery city is to an extent literally powered by lost souls. this raises a lot of questions about what exactly is in those masks, and how they manage to siphon souls straight into bat city regardless of distance.

now the girl is pretty special. she had the power to reverse that and return dracked souls to their owners. but when the girl meets the phoenix witch, we do see the witch putting drac masks (left by cola) into her shopping cart that she uses to carry souls away. this suggests to me that those souls aren’t lost permanently.

based on all that canon info we get, here is my read on how the draculoidization process works:

candidate is chosen. maybe they’re a prisoner, or maybe they’re a corpse. for the purposes of this, it doesn’t really matter. the end result is the same.

draculoid mask is put on. this zaps the soul out of the body, whether alive or dead. the witch shepherds souls to the afterlife, so they don’t necessarily move on without her interference. maybe the soul just kind of coasts around by default, but the draculoid mask siphons it into bat city where it’s used to power shit.

draculoid is now an active footsoldier. it walks it talks it shoots it does everything it’s supposed to do. all dracs come with a sort of preprogrammed understanding of what they’re supposed to do, a handy framework that defines everything for it. those things in the desert are scary insect-creatures, and they are bad. your fellow draculoids and bli are good. and so on.

draculoid operates until death. if the draculoid is killed, then the soul that its body once contained has no guaranteed route to whatever lies past that. in this universe the body is a tether, a physical construct, but it’s the mask that truly houses the soul. if the mask is gone the body is the only real imprint of that soul’s life that it still has, and once the body’s gone...well, tough fuckin titties i guess. if the draculoid isn’t killed but one seeks to reverse the process....wellllll that’s where things get trickier and you might need some potentially next-level interference if you want to actually cram a soul back into a dracked body. it’s not as simple as just taking the mask off. that poor bastard’s soul is floating out there somewhere but it’s being used to power bat city at that point and what’s left behind after you rip off that mask but a husk?

hopefully this covers what you wanted to know! i’m leaving some stuff out because /handwaves i’m still hashing some of this shit out and some of it is future fic spoilers but i tried to include as much as i could

as always this is just my read on things so take it all worth several mines of salt