#AND THEN THE CHARACTER CREATION?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[heleonor]

I don't know, I just saw your characters and I felt like creating one based on a star, because it seemed like you used the Sun and the Moon as reference for yours, I thought it would be a good idea to have one based on a star, what do you think? reheh

My first baby

And my second baby.

I redesigned them because I didn’t like the fact that Jinks looked green lol

@itsmuffiiee PAY THIS NO MIND. I will not torture you with redrawing them. Not after the kelp prison you’ve been locked in.

Everyone else, enjoy your lunch in the meantime. I have other stuff that I’m working on, but it’s gonna take some time.

Ima leave before I see the decorum leave your bodies. /j

[raystarkitty]

Thinking about my pika sona but more anthro ⚡️⚡️

F2U base credit below the cut!

[14dayswithyou]

I literally have the most amazing and wonderful community in the entire world???? T_T In this essay, I will—

This is going to be raw and unedited because I want to get my initial thoughts out there before I forget n go back to crying /pos, but?? Yawl.... I can't even begin to find the words to express how appreciative and grateful I am for each and every one of you!! ;v;

I've spent the past few hours reading through everyone's personally written messages, then rereading them all again to let it all fully sink in. I'm being genuine when I say that I've never felt this loved or appreciated in any community before in my life.

Those in the Discord server might know about this already, but since the start of this year, I haven't really been enjoying myself (nor have I been as active) in the yandere VN community. There was far too much infighting between devs, parasocial communities, and toxic anons that ruined so much for me — so I withdrew from it all and remained in my own small bubble. Even then, I still got belittled, harassed, doxxed, and even became the target of Tall Poppy Syndrome by others; most of which nearly made me want to leave altogether, but the overflowing amount of support from everyone in the 14DWY community made me want to stay.

And even now, after reading all those heartfelt messages... I think it's permanently solidified the little space I occupy here on the internet :3

So... Yeah, long story short (and a story that will likely end up as its own separate Tumblr post gjskskjd), I wasn't enjoying myself at all in the yandere VN community... but I did have the time of my life in the 14DWY community. And it's all thanks to you guys.

I'm genuinely sooooo proud to have such an endlessly kind, social, and talented community; and I'm glad to have brought such an interactive and friendly group of people together over our shared interest in such a nice concept. 14DWY is essentially a labour of my love — and although I'm ultimately creating it for me and my silly interests — it's still something that I want to make worthy of you guys as well. All the love and support you've shown me and 14DWY motivates me to do my very best, and y'all deserve nothing less. So...

Thank you all for finding a comfort character in my Totally Normal Guy and his Totally Not Eccentric quirks. Thank you for all the insanely talented creations y'all make and share with me. Thank you for sending in your silly (/pos) questions and turning them into inside jokes and AUs for the rest of the community to enjoy. Thank you for talking with me and making this space a genuinely fun place for me to be in again.

From the bottom of my heart; thank you all so much. I really hope everyone has had an amazing year so far, and I hope 2025 will be as kind to you as you all were towards me.

I also want to give a big fat massive huuuuuuuge shout-out to Ashe / @flaneur001 my love (/p) for organising the 14DWY letter event on Discord, and for contributing so much of their time and dedication to the 14DWY community. You say you've only been part of the community for a year, but to me, that was a year well cherished and appreciated. The 14DWY community (and me especially) have all been so lucky to spend this past year with you, and I sincerely hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. You've done so much for me, the community, and the 14DWY Discord server, so it's only fair that you get the recognition you deserve. So thank you, Ashe!! And a big thank you to everyone in the 14DWY Discord who participated in this event as well!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some cryin and sobbin to do <3 /silly /pos

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

did this and then found out in game lighting made the character i created look like five times paler in game lighting than in character creation and my heart fucking sank

Number one rule in gaming: Never leave the character creator.

[candyheartedchy]

Part two of this, so if you want more context on this analysis, please read the first part!

In part one I went over the struggles of SpongeBob’s desire to fit in and how he falls into this perfectionist nature. And because of this, he also falls into being a people pleaser A LOT. Where he’ll put the needs of others (mostly his friends) before his own. He also gets tricked and manipulated constantly by folks for their own personal gain and selfish reasons. Not to say SpongeBob doesn’t have any himself, but he tends to put his own on the back burner in order to please his friends. Again, he’s a people pleaser, he wants everyone to like him. The episode “Not Normal” is another example of him worrying he’s not normal enough and changes his personality and appearance because he thinks he’ll be better. He also worries what his own parents think of him, even though his parents don’t mind his energetic nature and childlike wonder.

Once again trying to prove himself to people. But the question still stands, will he ever “grow up” and “be mature”?

Well, that’s where Coraline (my self insert) comes in.

Coraline is a sea monster. Her species is well known for being scary and dangerous. But she’s not. She’s an outcast. Spending her entire youth bullied by other sea monsters due to being seen as “sensitive” and “weak”. And once old enough, she leaves her trench. Going from town to town trying to find a place to call home, before finding herself in Bikini Bottom and ends up working for Plankton because no one else will hire her. Already sealing her fate of crossing paths with SpongeBob. And once the two do meet, SpongeBob of course wants to befriend her, offering to show her around because he wants to make a good impression. But due to Mr. Krabs threatening him when they find out she works for Plankton, the sponge once again puts others before his own needs, causing Coraline to get stood up by him. And then SpongeBob ends up having to apologize later on.

[More context of this in the first two chapters of the fanfic about them here!]

Eventually he forms a friendship with the sea monster, almost in secret from his own boss.

Right away the two hit it off, discovering that they share a few similar hobbies and interests. But the two also start to notice that they share the same struggles as well. People pleasing. SpongeBob does it to avoid being alone, while Coraline does it to not be seen as a threat. Unlike SpongeBob, Coraline accepts her loneliness, purposefully avoiding folks and will sometimes deny the sponge’s offers in fear of scaring him off, but because she wants to keep peace, she keeps accepting them.

But SpongeBob is scared. Not because Coraline is scary. He’s afraid of being tricked and disappointing his boss. With Mr. Krabs filling his head with the idea that Plankton is using Coraline to get to him to get to the secret formula, SpongeBob starts to get paranoid. While Coraline on the other hand feels trapped because she has to do what Plankton tells her or else she loses her job. But because she’s honest, she’ll let SpongeBob in on the plans, allowing the two to be one step ahead of their bosses to avoiding any conflict between them. The two then start to make a game out of it, sneaking around and being very tongue in cheek whenever they have to “confront” each other during work hours. But once the two starts to catch feelings for each other, it gets messy really fast.

Coraline believes she’s a mistake. Believes every time SpongeBob is nice to her is out of either pity or as a joke. She wants to avoid him but can’t, SpongeBob is stubborn, but so is she, so it’s a constant push and pull between the two. SpongeBob genuinely enjoys her company. He never met anyone who treated him gently before and he doesn’t want to mess up whatever they have going between them because he’s afraid he won’t find it again.

Skipping forward to them dating. For another analysis post on the whole thing about SpongeBob and dating can be found here!

Neither have any dating experiences. The only time SpongeBob had form “relationships” was with a boat, a spatula and a krabby patty.

With “Spatula” he had to get a replacement in order to continue his work and the episode is kinda treated like a “cheating” allegory in a way that SpongeBob chose his work before the spatula, later in tears asking “Spatula” for forgiveness. Again we could see this as an internal battle SpongeBob most likely have that he himself worries about being replaced and sorta acts the scenario out. I know this (and the other episodes) is played for laughs, but I’m making this deeper than it should because I like him to have depth dammit!

“Boatie” comes from SpongeBob’s loneliness of everyone leaving town and once again starts to believe the boat has it out for him while he talks to a puppet of Patrick, again most likely acting out a scenario he most likely fears will happen to him one day. I could also go on about the whole “National No Spongebob Day” subplot at the end of that episode, but that would end up being a rant…

Heck even Bubble Buddy plays into this since SpongeBob created him out of loneliness due to all his friends being busy (before it’s revealed that the bubble is alive).

And then there’s “Patty”. He becomes infatuated with a krabby patty and I think the little teasing comments from Squidward about it triggered the attachment into an obsession from SpongeBob. Because if we once again go by the one comment in the episode “The Chaperone” where he never had a date to prom, it’s most likely he never dated in general.

He wants to feel wanted, but doesn’t know how to get it without it backfiring.

Once getting closer to SpongeBob, Coraline catches on right away that SpongeBob goes to desperate measures to make her happy, which makes her uncomfortable. To her SpongeBob is more mature in her eyes since he has more life experiences than her and she’s the only one who treats him with respect because of it, so once noticing his people pleasing nature, she tries to step in out of concern. Because he doesn’t need to change for her, she already accepts him as is. Which of course throws SpongeBob out of loop because this is what he always does, he has to help others however he can, and he recognizes Coraline’s struggles and wants to help her too. Eventually the pair starts to get frustrated by each other due to this, not realizing that they are both not only forcing themselves out of their comfort zones, but also growing as people from their impact on one another. Causing them both for the first time in their lives to “grow up” and accept being different.

[mossyvil]

i KNOW this is such a common trope but i just think the idea of crewel using you as a model for his clothing lines so cute ehajdkdbebe

it’s no coincidence that crewels favorite type of clothes to design are the ones you like to wear the most 👀 he loves to see you in his creations, to him you’re the most perfect model he could ask for! he won’t stand for any self deprecation, he wants you to see yourself like he does- the most attractive, mesmerizing person he’s ever seen (and that’s saying a lot, he works with all kinds of fashion models and beautiful people, but he thinks you are the best person he’s laid eyes on)

people notice the shift in his designs- all of the sudden his new fashion lines are different from what he would usually put out- but surprisingly enough people love his new work. critics rave about how inspired he seems now, and his fans notice how he talks about his projects has started to sound more proud than it has in the past.

if you’re okay with it, he totally wants to show you off in his creations. he takes you to events and tells everyone who will listen about how you’ve been his biggest inspiration yet, and the love radiating off him is so out of character it gives people whiplash

if you’d rather stay out of the spotlight, he completely understands. he tells reporters that his “special someone” is behind his newfound surge of creativity, but shuts down any attempt at prying into your identity

slightly nsfw thought under the cut COUGH-

ok but crewel making a lingerie line and he has you try on his first drafts AKSHHSJWJE

[jesncin]

I think superhero fans would be in a lot more peace with both themselves and fanon interpretations once they recognize and accept that these aren't real people or real events- they're not even internally consistent under one auteur writer/artist. For capes especially, these are fictional characters that get passed under so many different pens and brushes.

Superman is an immigrant under Gene Yang or he's Not An Immigrant At All Only An American Citizen under John Byrne. Clark has been written as progressive or conservative. A character as old as him is especially mailable to over 80 years worth of different authors all with their own goals. Yes we can argue over which characterization is ideal, but we shouldn't be surprised when other people come to different conclusions. "How can there be racist Superman fans when he's the Champion of the Oppressed since his creation?" Because he's been written by so many different writers since then.

There's DC!John Constantine and there's Vertigo!John Constantine, the same character under two different publishers that drastically change both his politics and how he's characterized. Even within the original Vertigo Hellblazer run, that's 300 issues worth of story where John is written by so many writers that sometimes contradict each other or themselves. Sure, a character can have contradictory ideals because they contain multitudes, but sometimes it's just another writer coming in and retconning something to tell a different story.

Treating these characters' stories as one holistic or consistent history that can not be changed because "it's misinterpretation" or "it's not in character" or "oh somebody doesn't read the comics" or "it's just an OC at that point!" because they don't fit your personal interpretation is just so creatively bankrupt and is inviting unnecessary stress. Even if someone were to take a character and pull them an entirely new direction, why should we be mad? Canon does this all the time. And we wouldn't get creative projects like The People's Joker if we were married to the rules of canon. Let people play, and if you don't like it you really can just scroll away- it's not like it has an affect on canon. Or your own canon.

[bugboi01]

we're all just a slider on the character creation screen of god (or whatever you believe in)

"men and women are so different and can never understand each other" this is the bane of my existence as a non binary person.

Hearing it from cis perisex people is like "lol okay" but hearing it from trans people?? that's nasty vibes yall. We gotta stop that. Men and women are literally the same thing.

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

A Close Reading of Viktor's 'ascended' Form

Disclaimer: These are very jumbled thoughts but I've been trying to articulate this for a while so I'm just baring it to the public flaws and all.

I am being dead serious when I say that Melvik is a lens of viewing that serves to recentre Mel as a major character and reassert her value in the hextech trio dynamic. I will be utilsing this lens to analyse Viktor's choice to make his 'perfected' beings carry Mel's attributes.

Immediately, I will preface by saying, that although I read Jayce and Viktor's relationship as romantic, this choice has nothing to do with Jayce, at least, not in relation to feelings of romantic jealousy or romantic insecurity.

So, what does it mean when Viktor wears Mel's white and gold? I think it shows that he views Mel as the epitome of Piltover priivilege and the personification of the social barrier he could not supercede through hard work and picking himself up by his own bootstraps.

The scene above where Mel seems to be singularly be imploring Jayce to militarise Hextech as defensive action is essential to understanding why Viktor views her this way.

In this sequence, Mel is originally conversing with Viktor and Jayce on an equal physical level until she presents her ideal plan of action then she stands straight and focuses more on convincing Jayce rather than Viktor. This is not an attempt to be cruel or malicious, though it very well be an expression of her irritation because in Mel's eyes Viktor's reasonable protest seems like a juvenile outburst. As a Noxian and a Medarda Mel is accustomed to war and bloodshed she does not want the carnage of such an event to bring Piltover to ruin. However, she is also painstakingly aware that losing a war would be a death sentence. The stakes are life and death, and I believe based on what I understand of Mel's character that she would not attempt to bypass Viktor's opposition in more normal circumstances. She respects him to an extent but not more than she respects her position, her legacy and not more than she fears the consequences of losing a war.

Additionally, I view the way she stands and directs attention at Jayce as a demonstration of how she is by nature of the social system always above him. That she and Jayce, are classist as is everyone conditioned and socialised in this system, and for them as citizens of Piltover, as members of the bourgeoisie, and the council their dismissal of Viktor is not that active of a choice, its a reflex, its a manifestation of their biases. Which is terrible in its own right. Viktor discovers in this scene, that Jayce can and will go over his head despite hextech being a joint creation because his social positioning is just higher than his is. It always was and it always will be. These are unchangeable factors and immovable dynamics.

That is to say, that I think Mel's show of power in this scene, her long-term investment in hextech as well as very likely witnessing her political maneuvers from a distance during his time as Heimerdinger's assistant has cemented Mel in Viktor's mind as the paragon of Piltover privilege.

I like to imagine this reaction to Mel's powers "the arcane stirs within you" as a twisted delight. Magic is a natural force, its wild and uncharted and its presence in Mel has this undoing effect, it perplexes her, to use it she physically exerts herself, it makes her bare her teeth. It's a side of Mel, Viktor would have never witnessed, in her struggle with this he finds a glimmer of kindredness that briefly enthralls him.

When he creates his ideal form, a white and gold, sleek and slim faceless robot with a gentle elegent gait and manner of movement and is seeking to conform the entire world to it, know that Viktor in his mind is equalising both himself and the rest of the world to what he considers the apex of privilege, therefore ridding the world of social hierarchy, difference and struggle.

The grand irony of this act is that he ends up bypassing the autonomy of literally everyone by subjecting them to this much like Mel bypassed him. Meaning, he hasn't rid the world of this hierarchy at all, he's put all these people beneath him and robbed them of choice and freedom.

Separate Melvik spiel:

Mel and Viktor's inherent relationship to each other through nature, disposition and as narrative foils is just so meticulous I can no longer genuinely view Arcane as a text without noticing the absence of an established personal dynamic between them. The groundwork for a romance is embedded in the text, their relation to each other is already by itself canonically quite romantic, all of their qualities and attributes are either contrasting or is eerily similar, everything about them serves to say something about the other within the constraints of the Arcane narrative (I doubt this will continue in game and in the follow up series). His admiration of her is tainted by his resentfulness at her position and the way she's wielded it. So many characters in media have kissed for less than that.

[whiteeyes-is-a-mad-scientist]

viruswing main characters

Our main gal Calamity. Daughter of brightmind and silverscales. Her father recently passed along with her grandfather Darkstone in a mysterious explosion.

Her mother is extremely superstitious. She won't walk under ladders, cross paths with a black cat, place two mirrors facing each other. Etc. While she won't exactly tell her daughter Calamity knows she believes her to be bad luck.

Calamity's life has been boring as she stays in the background going along with whatever her mother wanted. Her grandfather was her best friend for a long time. Now Silvescales is wanting her to marry which is something Calamity hadn't even imagined. Good thing she has 3 mysterious robots to distract her... hey wait-

Muskeg the cyborg. Has bits n pieces from all tribes. Most recent piece being a mechanical eye from a nightwing. He doesn't exactly know why he keeps loosing bits n pieces of his body, he just knows he's constantly replacing them. A gut from seawings, back leg from icewings, heart from the rainwings, an arm from the mudwings, and he used to have wings from skywings... but those go for a lot of gold in the sandwing kingdom.

Overall the story will be following these two as they work toward the mystery behind these viruswing creation and hopefully stopping the hungry creatures from destroying all of dragonkind

[bengiyo]

The Uncertain Melancholy of Our Youth

I’ve been sorting out how I feel about the end of Our Youth, and I’ve yet to arrive at something concrete that I want to say. I’ve been reading reactions from others to see if someone else could vocalize what I’m feeling, and in the process realized I wanted to talk about Our Dating Sim again. 

Like many others, I’m left with a feeling of melancholy from this show. I feel a lot like @small-dark-and-delicious in that I think this ending felt very realistic for them, because Minase has never had friends he can count on, especially the “bespectacled demon” (@chicademartinica). I find myself empathizing a lot with @asiandramas-takeover about how bleak the future feels for them.

With this series overall, I’m a bit frustrated thematically. I was glad to have @wen-kexing-apologist offering insights about the manhwa while we were watching, because, like @worm-priest, I don’t think we did much with the different kinds of people theme. 

However, I am left with some genuinely warm feelings for the characters and the actors. I loved mj’s post reflecting on how Hirukawa connects for people who dread becoming like their parents (@forcebook). Like @memiaatanonymous, I really enjoyed Motojima Junsei in this; I especially loved the way he managed his physicality and expressions when Minase had to flee Hirukawa’s house before the dad began beating Hirukawa again. 

I also agree with @delasaria-blog that Minase in the special does a lot to close out this story; I don’t think I’d feel as positively as I do at the end of this without the effectiveness of the special episode. The implied growth of these two into a relatively stable couple (@incandescentflower) worked well for, especially because Minase was left with separation anxiety (@lurkingshan). I also really liked the way the show approached a closeted couple’s feelings about marriage as an inevitability (@jemmo).

I think it was @theside-b comparing this to the disappointment I know I felt at the end of Love is Better the Second Time Around that got me thinking about Our Dating Sim. In that show, we spend the majority of our time in the present with Shin Ki Tae pursuing Lee Wan again after Lee Wan abandoned him at the end of high school. Our journey with them is about how Lee Wan hurt Ki Tae and himself, and the consequences of Lee Wan's decision. We focus there on how Lee Wan has to grapple with the fact that Ki Tae was open to his feelings.

I think most of why I’m feeling a bit unfulfilled by this project is that I had hoped we’d spend more time in the present. The opening sequence had me waiting in anticipation for their eventual reunion and reconciliation. I had hoped we’d spend the bulk of the show on that, like in Our Dating Sim, rather than on the events leading to their separation. I think I set myself up for this because I brought too much of that to the table. 

Reflecting on what the show did or didn’t do, I don’t think there was much for me to gain from seeing Hirukawa and Minase’s separate montages, though I think it would have been interesting to see Minase getting lonelier and see where he and Hirukawa lost touch over the phone incident. I personally feel like I’d have liked to see more of them getting back together and rebuilding trust, because I felt myself pulling away from this show as it spiraled over Hirukawa’s life getting worse in the middle. There was almost a really great moment of Minase trying to step forward and use his voice only to be silenced by the adults and friends in his life. 

Final Verdict: 8, Recommended With Reservations. I’m not sure how I will feel about this show in the long term, and I want to thank everyone linked above for sharing their thoughts, and all the gifmakers included for their creations. There is a useful kind of melancholy here that I personally enjoy as a person who absolutely loved All of Us Strangers (2023) last year. I am always the type who, even though I know we’re seeing marked improvement in many categories, cannot erase the scars I carry from what I survived. I struggle to find a solid coherent thought I feel coming from this one, and I hope to read more compelling reflections in the weeks to come. 

[zykamiliah]

#su xiyan is my favorite example of this#not even the single scene we get with her is from her pov#<- PREV YESSSSSS#shes painted as this cold taciturn woman#but at the same time she not only fell in love but held so much warmth within her heart that she sacrificed herself so her baby could live#she was clearly a deeply loving person imo#but not in a traditional way#which I think speaks to mxtx's style of character creation a lot

@fireandgrimstone i think it's not random that mxtx has tianlang-jun comparing shen qingqiu to su xiyan, and the comparison is very intentional for the same reasons you mentioned: they are both seemly taciturn people who hide their huge heart behind a cold face and would sacrifice their own lives for the people they love. it's not a coincidence either that at maigu ridge shen qingqiu says that he would never abourt binghe. i think it's an interesting parallel with mdzs in which lan wangji's mom is subtly paralleled with wei wuxian.

I'm obsessed with characters we only hear about second or third hand, especially when those accounts are conflicting. No, you don't get to see them, but here's a warped mirror of what other people thought they were. Enjoy your contemplation of how being known is an act of translation and communicates only aspects of the self.

[lady-loveluck]

Why is like, the controversial/weird part of the fandom plagued by "fun police"?

I don't think this fandom is toxic, far from it! Loveliest experience I've had actually! Yet every fandom has that troubling side, and what has caught my eye is that the troubling side in this fandom is not ship wars, is not people being weird.

Is just... fun police?

"People should stop writing michie that way, is toxic", "if you enjoy Sam sweetly I don't trust you", "you have to write this ship this exact way otherwise you're a bad person for liking it". Where's the headcanon love? The fan creation whimsy?

How can you be so boring to literally throw shade at headcanons or different interpretations? Imagine having to follow 56754986 rules you set yourself to be able to enjoy some fictional fan media. I find it so weird, specially in the Hatchetfield fandom because most characters there are fucking assholes.

I know I'm not usually bringing this stuff in my blog, but yesterday and today I read some things and I just wanted to throw something there.

[raayllum]

Right in front of our faces

So I've been thinking about self-eating a lot. Not only because it's weirdly on brand with everything in Claudia's arc (drinking her own blood, treating her own body basically as dark magic parts just for other people's metaphorical consumption, at least in her head, rather than for her own desires) but also because... Why, y'know? Why have this be a thing, why reserve it for the third arc, an arc wherein with the Archdragons gone Aaravos' main goal will be to dismantle the Cosmic Council?

In some ways, I think I was so focused on Aaravos' side of things—the easiest way to get revenge on the Stars (since they don't care about the destruction of their creation, not really, according to him) would be to kill them but he, for whatever reason, cannot do that—that I was missing the obvious other side of things.

Aaravos asks in 7x08, "Are you watching?" but wouldn't it be really bad for him if they were? What is stopping the Cosmic Council from transporting Aaravos to the same place they took Leola and permanently killing him, since permanently killing a Startouch elf is something we know the Cosmic Council, uniquely, can do? He couldn't stop them before when he was more powerful than he is now as a 'Fallen' Star.

Aaravos' plan hinges on eventually getting the Stars' attention, and they are presumably still at their full power, just no longer involved with Xadia. He is seemingly never concerned, even when making the choice to live and plot against them, that the Stars would just kill him the way they did with Leola.

Or maybe, perhaps, he already has a reason that they can't.

As he collapses in tears at Leola's trial, Aaravos' chest star is complete and right side up. After, presumably, 100 years of weeping, his star is inverted and the centre piece is missing when the Merciful One comes to see him.

The reason I brought up self-eating is because we see it's used as a form of chasing immortality, even beyond what Kim'Dael does. I've long speculated that Aaravos purposefully carved out his chest piece, whether to place it in something or to help create dark magic. He may not have done anything with it, even if it was on purpose, but I wonder... if he ate it, in order to ensure that the Cosmic Council couldn't kill him.

This is especially noteworthy since from what we see of Leola's trial, her destructive glow begins in her chest star and then spreads to her fingers, and the destruction of Aaravos' mortal form is radically different.

This doesn't really make sense. Leola was destroyed while in her mortal form, given that moments before she'd been living and interacting with things on earth, just like her father. Aaravos' destruction stems from the bite mark at first, but then begins elsewhere that's entirely separate (the foot) and never broaches the hands. Leola becomes entirely light, while Aaravos' body seems to be shattered, and does bear a striking resemblance to how dark!Callum crumbles in the 2x08 dark magic nightmares.

Furthermore, when Leola is killed and her star energy is sent down (for lack of a better description), we do see a symbol of a star being inverted, despite that not being a part of her character design.

We also know that Aaravos' body being destroyed differently in 7x09 isn't due to dark magic use, at least not in terms of his body. As of season seven, he hadn't done any dark magic in his new body, which is a soft reset. However, we also know that dark magic affects your soul/spirit (6x06) which would, presumably, be the same no matter the body in this case. Therefore, the reason Aaravos' body might've crumbled (beyond differences in execution style) might be because of the dark magic he's used that created a permanent hole in his spirit/self, and one that Leola, of course did not have.

I also think some of this in my head is connecting to the ideas of sacrifice. Other characters, especially parents, can sacrifice themselves in TDP canon in hopes of a better future for their children / the next generation (the three queens, the archdragons, Harrow, etc). Aaravos divorcing himself from the ability to sacrifice himself, especially after thousands of years with no daughter to speak of (until Claudia, but on her in a second), purposefully robs himself from the ability to make a meaningful contribution to the cycle. Death, permanent death, provides meaning and consequence, both things he's seemingly devoid of.

Sacrificing his ability to die (his heart) and at least, in theory, reunite with his daughter / no longer exist without her to ensure he can 'avenge' her is a hell of a thing, after all. And on a certain level, that seems like his endgame goal regardless. Even if all the above speculation is untrue and wily, unless he can execute himself, in destroying/killing (?) all the other Startouch elves, he will be alone and eternal... forever, with no way out, carrying only the pain of his child's death and withering satisfaction at punishing her murderers, unless he decided to eventually change.

Like I said: a hell of a thing.

[cipheramnesia]

Joking aside, I think it's interesting how cannibalism in horror motion pictures started out primarily used as a way to socially other a variety of outgroups, such as people in poverty or non-whites and then it got shifted. The othering still exists, but cannibalism became a way to show power and privilege - it started to become a component of antagonists who represented authority or wealth or colonization. And after that, it got subsumed into the wealthy and powerful as a romantic act of transgression. Sort of a modern day version of Dracula, where the implicit consumption of the poor by the wealthy was turned explicit in a way intended as enticing rather than othering.

At present, it appears cannibalism is entering a sort of recursive era of detachment - treated as a purposeful reclaiming of othering by a newer generation pushing against the more recent conceptualization as cannibalism as an act of dominance by the powerful. It's moving towards a mix, where cannibalism as an act carries an intangible stigma which also serves to signal other people in your outgroup that you are "one of them," in the sense of being a social outcast rather than social authority.

What makes this all interesting is that cannibalism as othering of outgroups, in its original form, hasn't gone away. It remains as the boogey man of cultures different from those of the USA or Europe, still imposed today on imaginary characters which carry all the same traits historically utilized in oppression of and bigotry towards indigenous peoples, but which are otherwise always explicitly identified as separate from those recognized in modern colonized territories. They wouldn't call these caricatures Cree or Mohawk or etc - merely use all the same imagery once applied to those people and others. Likewise, the "crazed cannibal redneck family" hasn't vanished, merely transformed into people who are even more desperately poor, and further mutated away from identifiably human. In fact, if this kind of purposefully used, othering and violent form of cannibalism did not continue to exist, it's doubtful that the more recent utilization of cannibalism as a unifying act of transgression for signaling between an outgroup could exist.

As a fictional creation - distinct from real-world instances - cannibalism has continued to maintain a remarkably consistent baseline as a transgressive act. It's no longer shocking as it once was, as a storytelling tool, yet it retains some underlying power over the human mind that sets characters apart from social acceptability in ways that related fictions (such as vampires and werewolves) do not. I would hazard a guess that this is rooted in cannibalism as a real-world event. While vampires and werewolves are derived from real people, there are no actual supernatural immortals or wolves that change into humans and back, that we know of. Whereas we know with complete certainty that cannibalism has happened, and will probably continue to happen for the foreseeable future.

Additionally the way cannibalism in motion pictures has been applied to cultures and people that fall outside the general concept of "whiteness" in the cultures of the USA and Europe greatly complicates what specific way it can be taken back as a deliberate transgression. This is not to say cannibalism is some verboten concept that makes everyone utilizing it secretly racist - but there is no arguing that it has a long history of being used specifically as a form of racism and/or colonialism (that's another essay by someone else). Few modern day versions of reclaimed cannibalism address this specific historic element in any substantive way.

It's been fascinating to watch cannibalism slowly working its way back to its roots in a reclaimed way, the poor eating the rich no longer a broad fear but a rallying call. I think it will continue to be interesting to see how far back this reaches, and if eventually it will come around enough to discover who has, as we sometimes say, "been here the whole time."