#And to explain what the original images said. And how I edited them. And who's speaking in what message and aaaaaaa ...i Tried

[seventh-district]

Figured I'd try my hand at some Redacted character post/text edits!

[ 1 / ? ]

Credit to @/sainthowlzon for all the Listener icons, and to @/elisacaleisa for their google drive with all the canon icons!

(slightly alternative version of the Solaires' GC edit below the cut bc i had a lil too much fun with what Vincent would name his contacts)

[spicy-apple-pie]

I WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE COMIC >:))))))

I did warn you…

Okay so idk if a lot of people know this, but Damian was originally given up for adoption right after he was born before his story was reconned.

So in this comic, Damian is 9 years old and in the foster system in Gotham, unknowing who his parents are. He’s never stays long in a home because he’s very aggressive. He’s smart though, so he orders a DNA testing kit to hopefully find a relative to take him. Imagine his shock when he finds out his father is Bruce Wayne.

So this 9 year old walks into WE by himself, toddles up to the secretary, and asks to see Bruce Wayne. The secretary is like “haha okay, let me help you find your parents.” And Damian is like “you can. My dad is Bruce Wayne.”

And then Tim shows up!! And he’s like, “who’s your dad?”

And Damian is suddenly really nervous and shyly passes Tim the DNA test results. Tim looks them over, and Damian thinks he’s going to get turned away. But then Tim smiles at him and asks him if he has time for a drink.

Damian basically explains his life story over a cup of hot chocolate to Tim. Tim listens and tells him that he’ll make sure Bruce sees it and gives him his number if he has any questions (Damian doesn’t have a phone). Damian gets up to throw out his cup but Tim is like “oh I can throw that out for you. Talk to you soon!”

Cut to the BatCave where Bruce is staring at the DNA test results. Showing him and Talia as the parents. Tim stands behind him. “I doubled and tripled checked.” He says. “Not to mention he’s the spitting image of you.” He mumbles under his breath, knowing that Bruce isn’t in the mood for jokes right now. Alfred places some Tylenol beside Bruce using his butler powers to sense his on coming headache.

“And you said he walked into the lobby by self?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, he said he took the bus.”

“Oh dear,” Alfred comments, “that is certainly not safe for a boy his age in Gotham. I wonder if his social worker knows about that…”

So the next morning, Damian finds that he’s out of custody from his foster parents. And he’s like “but I didn’t do anything this time!” And his social workers like “no, they’re getting charged with child endangerment. We already have a place lined up for you.”

Lo and behold, his new foster home is Wayne Manor. And he meets Bruce for the first time and he’s really nervous. And Bruce has to turn away because he almost starts crying. And Damian asks Alfred if he did something wrong and Alfred’s like “no, he’s just very happy to see you.”

And that’s basically it. But I also have this idea of how he discovers his Dad is Batman.

He comes downstairs in the early morning for a snack before going back to sleep to find Red Hood raiding their fridge. He runs to Bruce and he’s freaking because fucking RED HOOD broke into their house.

And Bruce groans and is mildly annoyed about and Damian is like “???? Does this happen often????” Bruce brings him downstairs and Red Hood is still there, but making a grilled cheese with his helmet off.

“Jay, how many times do we need to tell you know masks in the house?”

“I dunno. How many fucking children are you going to adopt?” He gestures to Damian hiding behind Bruce.

“He doesn’t know yet, Jay. I was going to wait until he was more comfortable.”

Jason is a little sheepish because he did give the kid a bit of a fright, so he turns around to apologize and introduce himself. And instantly is like “holy shit, that’s a bio kid.”

“Language, Jay…”

“Don’t language me, where the fuck did he come from???”

“What is happening??!!” Damian finally yells.

And then Bruce shows him the BatCave.

I did warn you I’d talk your ear off. I came up with this circa. 2018 - 2019 but I feel like I finally have the skill to draw it. And I honestly fell in love with it again, so I might lol.

Edit: I did it

[the-eb]

new "things I noticed in the Walpurgisnacht Rising trailer" post: coherent edition

I'm going with the theory (laid out very well here) that the extra Homuras we keep seeing around are the Clara Dolls, either presenting in a different way or having matured into witches themselves. With that in mind:

These two shots show the same doll, Nekura, judging by both the headband and the wavy tips of the hair that homura doesn't normally have. Her eyes are also red, and she's wearing the black collar with white outlines reminiscent of her Doll form.

This looks to be Ibari, though I'm not 100% sure on that, given the colour of the hair. Probably just the lighting. Her role as Pride also fits with the imagery of her scrutinising the audience here, likely Homura in context.

Could also potentially be Noroma (Blockhead), though I don't think the visual fits quite as well. She is said to "laugh at the witch with her eyes," though, which would match with what she's doing here.

Though this Homura has her original purple eyes and white collar, the unusual headband and especially the engraving on the mirror ("Stupid Venus") make me quite confident that this is Manuke (Stupid-Looking). The band isn't a 100% match, but this also makes sense given that Manuke is representative of Homura during the time between the main series and Rebellion, matching with what's shown in the mirror. The headband is also tied in the same way as Madoka's ribbon was in her hair, which might explain the lack of resemblance to Manuke's headwear.

Not much to say about this shot, other than that the style and colours of those stairs combined with the familiar pattern around them resembling Oktavia's tail make me think this is a shot from within her labyrinth.

Other than the clear Icarus symbolism, the main thing worth noting about this shot is the streak of red in Homura's hair, extending out from underneath Madoka's ribbon (or its replacement). Probably an extension of the ribbon symbolically too, showing how bound she is to Madoka.

Unless these are Magia Record characters I'm unaware of, I think that the unadorned ring and black fingernail marking lend credence to the idea that these are the magical girls who once became witches in the original series. The only one I really have a guess on is this girl, where the fact that she's watching over a kintsugi glass holding the garden where Homura and Kyoko met in rebellion, the roses on her purse, and the glasses lead me to believe that this is Gertrud, the Rose Garden Witch. Her Adelbert familiars are said to have 2.5 vision.

This book appears to contain images of witches and their familiars. I managed to spot familiars belonging to Charlotte, Elly, possibly Patricia, Gertrud, and Oktavia, as well as Izabel and Elsa Maria themselves, though I'm sure there are more.

There's a single frame flash of Oktavia here!

The symbolism of the teacup next to the pool of blood makes me assume that this is Mami (or Candeloro!), though maybe I'm flanderising her. The rim of the cup and saucer do have a pattern faintly reminiscent of a flower, which reinforces this a little.

Please feel free to respond with alternate readings/other things you've spotted in the trailer! I crave knowledge

[seeker-ophelia]

Ophelia Rants: Veilguard is Weird

I had another post (Review, Pt 4) composed about how much I love dragons, but the AMA kinda knocked me on my ass.

* * *  

[INTRO]

* * *  

I’m going to share the image I made collected from the results of my survey:

And while everyone only contributed one word for this, it IS possible for Veilguard to be ALL OF THESE THINGS AT ONCE.

Now. We need to take this with a grain of salt and remember that most of these responses came from tumblr, and often ones Social Media Frens are an echo chamber of ones own thoughts.

The words that repeat over and over are all similar; sanitized, shallow, underwhelming, trimmed, incomplete… Fun But Not Dragon Age.

And I could not agree with this more.

Caitie (YT: Ghil Dirthalen BS: Ghil Dirthalen), (Mythal’enaste her and her data-mining efforts) has released so much information from Datamining Veilguard. So much dialogue not used, paths ignored or forgotten, Keep choices abandoned, Lore identified.

Flipping through the Art Book shows how much time and effort and ideas have been put into DA4; all of its iterations. All the creativity, the different worlds, the different possible paths. YEARS of work, abandoned.

Which feels soooo… opposite. I’m not a writer. What’s the word for a complete opposite dichotomy in all things? Contradictory? Inconsistent? Irreconsilable? Antithesis?

How can Dragon Age be Sanitized and Shallow… but so much work be put into it?

* * *

[OPINION]

* * *

After I removed my emotional connection from Dragon Age, IMO, it really does feel like something is missing from this game. Even if one tries to lay down their preconceptions of what the game might have been in their dream world, this game, to me, could not decide what it wanted to be. Narratively, it’s a sequel to Inquisition. Solas’s story matters from Inquisition, the Inquisitor matters from Inquisition… and yet it spends so much time onboarding new players. The story feels simple, the world is straightforward, like its dumbed down for players new to the series.

Inquisition, even though in a gameplay sense it is different from Origins and 2, still feels like its building off of a complex world that the player might not understand. And when I played Inquisition, I hardly understood any of it. That’s part of the joy of Dragon Age. People who read LotR or Malazan or WoT or ASOIAF, don’t expect the author to hold their hand. They’re dumped, unceremoniously, into a world, and they have to figure it out themselves (figure it out through strategically placed tidbits from the author). Dragon Age (O through I), was a masterclass in this, I think. Somehow, no matter how deep you want to dive into the game, whether just playing superficially one-and-done, or playing it over and over to capture as much lore and depth as you can, Origins through Inquisition does that. It gives you just enough crumbs to keep you going, keep you questioning, and to point you enough in the right direction, that when you DID get a lore reveal right, you felt GOOD. Yes, plot-twists and subverting expectations are important, but so is letting your audience figure things out, giving them concrete answers. Veilguard drops you, sure, literally in Minratheous into a Gods Magic Ritual. But then it takes your hand, and skips with you through beautiful landscapes, phenomenal level design, and whirlwind combat, to place you right in front of the information you need. And then gives you a cutscene explaining, just in case you didn’t get it 😉).

We, as fans, need to realize that while the Personality of Veilguard is Toothless, the Lore, The Skeleton, is not.

Yeah, Epler said some things that hurt my feels during the AMA. (I’m ignoring the Solas stuff, because I really do believe Epler is speaking from a personal bias and not from a cannon-perspective. [edit: he just talked bout this on BlueSky]) But do you know why? Because they broke my personal headcannons. They proved MY theory crafting wrong. The real problem with Veilguard is that it came out too late. 10 years is too long to have people care so much about a game and theorize and craft worlds for themselves.

* * *

[LORE]

* * *

Superficially, VG dropped a lot of lore. But Deeply? To the DA Lore-Core? I don’t think they dropped ENOUGH.

[Image Credit: Helena Hansen on ArtStation]

HOW did Soals cleanse the dagger? HOW can Elgy & Ghill control the blight? HOW do they control their archdemons? HOW does the veil work? (How can it be weak with Elgy & Ghilly holding it up but 100%-strong-no-holes-perfectly-good with only Solas providing power for it?) HOW do spirits work? HOW do souls work? WHATS the difference? HOW does a Dragon-thrall-bond work? WHY isn’t Lusacan a Great Dragon? HOW does the rite of tranquility work? WHAT happens to Solavellan in the Fade? Is it different from what happens to a tricked Solas in the fade? WHAT happens now to Hawke/Stroud in the fade? WHAT is an orb? WHAT is a cube? WHATS the difference? WHERE is The Black City? WHAT is the ‘real blight’? (Because according to VG Solas, it’s still in the prison and its still super dangerous and way more dangerous than the blight that’s out in Thedas.) HOW did Solas burn his Vallaslin off? WHAT is the Calling? WHAT is the NEW song in the calling? WHY did ‘Mythal speak the calling’? WHY does lyrium sing? How is lyrium mined? WHY can tranquil work lyrium safely? HOW did Dirth & Falon split? WHY did Dirth & Falon split? WHERE are the rest of the Evanuris? WHERE is the Abyss? WHAT is the Abyss? WHAT do you MEAN there was more than 8 Evanuris?? HOW did you make your lyrium bodies? HOW can Elgar’nan destroy a FEELING?

WHERES MY ELVHEN DICTIONARY.

Obviously not ALL. But SOME of these NEEDED to be answered, or at least strongly alluded to, IN GAME. NOT in an AMA.

“We're leaving that ambiguous on purpose…”

“We haven't been SUPER specific about this…”

“I'm so glad these stories have their hooks in you! We have to leave some threads to tug on for future stories.”

What DID get answered in game?

Some of the Evanuris hats. Archdemons/Old Gods = Evanuris. Solas (w/ Mythal?) tranquil’d the Titans. Solas (accidentally) created the Blight. Solas used a Blood Magic Ritual to create the veil. Solas regrets a lot of things & has mommy issues. Worm-Solas (which, do not get me wrong, a million thank you’s and blessings for werm-Solas… But…) That’s it. That’s IT?

Oh, and there’s a shadow organization that’s been pulling all the strings from behind the scenes but I am NOT getting into how much I hate that idea in this post we don’t have time. Do we? No, we don’t. You know what, fuck it. This is my blog. Once you introduce that idea there is no way anyone NOT the author can know how much sway the puppeteer has over the marionette. ‘Oh it’s just a nUdGe, just a *whisper,* ‘they still have their free will’. Bitch get fucked what does that MEAN. That doesn’t MEAN anything its just a lazy retcon-y way to tie in a new villain to old material. Completely erasing the autonomy of they characters your fanbase has come to love (and love to hate). Do not corporate-speak at me with synergy and circle-back and deliverables. WHAT is a WHISPER? WHAT is a NUDGE? Because unless you lay it all out in an ELI5, NO ONE CAN KNOW- EXCEPT FOR YOU.

Ok obviously I have feelings about that we need to move on.

You can argue Veilguard was about the Evanuris, you can argue that Veilguard was about Solas. You can argue that Veilguard was about Regret and Pride and letting it all go. You can argue that Veilguard was about the ~*Power of Friendship*~ But for me, who has been obsessed with whatever the ever-loving-fuck has been going on in Thedas since 9.30 Dragon, Veilguard is about the Blight.

Corrine from the AMA: What really captures my imagination now that we've resolved some of the mysteries pertaining to the blight and the Elven gods, is exploring the aftermath of this crisis in a deeply destabilized Thedas.

Sorry… What did you answer? We actually know nothing about the Blight except that Solas created it, and with Antonie and Evka claiming the song has changed… what does that mean? Is a Titan consciously controlling the blight now? Is it soothed because Harding Soothed it? Is all the blight from the Kal-Sharok Titan? Are all their orbs/cubes in the Black City? Do the Executors control the blight? What is a calling, then? Will the Wardens never be called to the deep roads again? The Blight is different in a Warden than it is in a darkspawn, or an Archdemon? How? WHY? The wardens are just going to fade from existence because… all the darkspawn are just going to disappear now? Where in game is this stated as truth? Actually, in fact, ZERO questions were answered.

But Wait…

I feel like the news of the AMA COMPLETELY overshadowed the two IGN articles that came out; 1 & 2. Because… holy shit you guys. There was A LOT of lore dropped here.

Unfortunately for Epler & Corrine, and this is a hill I will die on, ALL OF THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANSWERED IN GAME. The fact that it was NOT? Is inexcusable. You cannot drop giant lore reveals like this outside of the game and hope it smooths everything over. The lore dropped in these interviews could have been a DLC, a side quest in game, or at the very least a novel or WoT Vol 3.

* * *

[What IS Dragon Age?]  

* * *

I've used this photo before and I'll use it again I fucking love it so much

I wish Veilguard came out a year later, I would have waited longer, paid more for it, if it was a more a whole, inclusive game.

The problem with dumbing down a pre-existing franchise is that you’re alienating the fans that are carrying you on their shoulders. They carried you through a game-less 10 years, and through Andromeda. And you can bet your ass when they drop you, the new fans you roped in with VG are not going to be picking you up.

Dragon Age feels like it cannot find its identity. That Veilguard, inexplicably, does not feel like Dragon Age.

“But how can you explain what Dragon Age feels like when every Dragon Age that came before it was so different?”

New Protagonists, new companions, new locations, everything is different. On top of more meta things; new gameplay, new combat, new art styles, its all different.

So what makes Dragon Age, Dragon Age?

Well, when I was nervous about the game back in September, I asked Kala, when she got pre-access to the game, if she FELT anything.

“I’d love for you to touch on how the game made you FEEL… Did anything you played in Veilguard make you Feel™?”

She sent me a private message with 1 word: Yes.

We can go into the design decision to have the companions react with each other instead of Rook and how that can be alienating to the PC. We can talk about how shafted the romances were. We can go into how gentrified Minrathous and the Crows were. We can go into how child-locked the lore was. We can discuss the toothless-ness of Veilguard.

But Veilguard still made me Feel.

And, even if that emotion is anger, if Veilguard made you Feel, it did it’s job.

[butchsophiewalten]

03/16/24 Twitter Space Recap

There was a (pretty long!) twitter space yesterday, feat. Martin & Eva, with a later arrival of Crystal, and a (relatively brief) appearance from Coral. Kyle was going to join, but was experiencing technical some problems, so ended up sitting this one out.

-Martin starts the space proper by asking Eva to post some "Jack Walten Photoshoot" images he made back in May of 2022. Here they are:

-Someone asks if Martin could possibly release unfiltered versions of the Walten Files episodes, and Martin said that at one point, back in 2020, he sent HD versions of episodes 1 & 2 to Eva, but later deleted them, thinking 'why would I bother keeping this around, it's all on my computer anyway,' and then his computer died, and they were lost. He says he thinks he has an HD version of TWF3, but that for TWF4, the VHS filter was applied to the scenes individually before the episode was edited together, so there is no 'HD cut' of the entire episode.

-Martin reads a question, "Is it possible you could describe what happened in the Welcome to Bon's Burgers trailer? I swear I saw it back in 2020 after Sagan Hawkes released his his video." and answers, "Uh, the Welcome to Bon's Burgers trailer was basically like, uh, a very low-quality, movie-style trailer with like, royalty free stock trailer music that was like, really action-packed. And it was like, 'We can stop him, Sophie! Welcome to Bon's Burgers!', and it was so cool. I'm not making this up, this is literally what the trailer was like."

-Martin and Eva joke back and forth about Sophie doing really cheesy action movie stuff in the WtBB trailer, like saying 'fuck you!' to Bon, and throwing a grenade at him. Eva than starts explaining some context for those jokes, saying, "Back in 2021, we like, desperately tried to, like, make Sophie this, like, badass epic horror protagonist, and it- it's just really funny, because that's just not who she is, at all. She's just some loser!"

Martin laughs, saying, "We were talking- we were like, she would not be like this, she would not be like this at all, she would be so awkward."

Eva responds, "She's literally just some awkward, like, mentally unwell loser. She wouldn't be this, like, badass epic hero."

Martin responds, "I think it was- in my opinion, that stemmed pretty much from like, Walter White, because we were on like, our peak Breaking Bad phase. And it was like, Walter White originally was so awkward, and loser, and then he becomes 'badass' and 'cool', and we wanted to, like, replicate that.

Eva laughs, saying, "...Now she's literally just some loser- loser girl. And she's like, way cooler now," to which Martin says, "I love Sophie, she's one of my favorite characters."

-Martin reads a question, incredulously, "'Out of the entire cast, who would like yaoi the most?' Nobody! Nobody would like yaoi the most... Well, maybe Brian."

-Somebody asks something about Showstoppers Inc, and Martin says that the series is currently on hold, so he can finish TWF5.

-Someone asks what Martin's favorite non-canon episode is, and he says it's definitely The Mysterious House. He says out of every episode of The Walten Files, The Mysterious House and TWF6 are probably tied for his favorite. He talks a bit more about it, saying, "I know it's not the best- Maybe it hasn't aged perfectly, but just- it just has that vibe. It just has a really cool vibe, that I really dig."

Eva responds saying, "It's such a fun episode. I like how it just all goes to shit.", to which Martin asks, "Wait, are you talking about Six, or The Mysterious House?" and Eva replies, "Well, both. They both go to shit."

Martin says "Yeah. Technically, Six- we've talked about this in private, but Episode 6 is very inspired in The Mysterious House. Like, I wanted to have that feeling The Mysterious House had, because I really love that."

-Eva reads a question asking what Edd & Molly's relationship was like, and she says she likes to think of them as siblings that just fight all the time. Martin agrees, saying he thinks it happens a lot that Molly is really annoying, and Edd gets angry with her very easily.

-Felix's new VA, Connor, sends some audio to Martin and tells him to share it with the space. Transcribed, it went as follows:

"Uh, hey, Jack, it's Felix. You probably won't be able to answer your answering machine, it said it was full, but it's still letting me leave a message. I'm not entirely sure- I already called the police, uh, nothing's wrong, uh. Well- there is something wrong, I- I can't take your kids home. I'm drunk. Uh, and- you've gotta be pissed out of your mind right now, that's- that's fine. Uh, I'm sorry. And if there's a way- way I can make it up to you- I know, that, like, why the hell would you trust me, after I fucked up the first time, but, I tried to take Edd and Molly home, bad idea. I swerved a bit- we didn't- nothing crashed, nothing happened, I just- I lost my balance. The kids seem okay, I hope they are. They didn't seem to notice, but, in that instance, I just- I couldn't do it. I can't. So, uh, if you can, just- I'm near Saint Joanne's right now, y'know, the forest near section 95, but. Uh- hang on, hang on, kids, give me a minute. They're trying to get my attention. We pulled over on the side- Luckily there was a payphone- there was like a gas station maybe a walk over from the highway. Ope, and they're coming out, they want to say hi to you. Well, I'm gonna hang up now, 'cause I don't have the- Hang on! I'm just gonna hang up. Uh, I am so sorry. I- I really am. And again, if there's anything I can do, if there's a future favor you need, I will- not fuck it up. I'd be fucking foolish to. I'm just so embarrassed, I'm sorry."

Martin was surprised that the audio was so genuine and sad, since he hadn't listened to it before playing it on the space, and thought it was going to be kind of joke.

-Eva reads a question, "'Which character would be into some real good yuri?' Jenny."

-Martin talks about "Raw Bunny", a character which originates from The Walten Archives. He says there were originally going to be two dolls, "Raw Bunny" and "Raw Tammy", and that Edd was going to possess Rocket, and Molly was going to possess Tammy. He has no explanation for why they were called "Raw".

-Martin asks Eva if there's any autistic characters in The Walten Files, and she answers, "Uh, Sophie, I guess, Maybe?"

-Eva reads a question, "'Would Sophie read yuri and yaoi?' I don't think she knows what those are." to which Martin says, "Do you think Sophie would respond, like, 'I've never listened to that band'?"

-Someone asks for character birthdays, and Martin tries to joke that Jack and Rose's birthdays are both on February 31st, but misspeaks and says "21st", which later lead to this very funny twitter interaction:

-Eva reads a question, "What did Sophie do in college?", which leads Coral (who has joined the space by now) to say they don't think Sophie ever went to college. Martin says, "She did. She did go into college, but she got kicked out, because she shaved one of her colleagues' head bald... Like, Sophie really fucking hated this one girl in college, so one day, at night, she goes to her bedroom and starts shaving her head." The original question never gets answered.

-Martin keeps talking about Sophie, saying, "I can't remember if it was in school or college, but I had it written down that she broke someone's arm one time, because the person was bullying her." Then a couple minutes later, goes, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember! Yes, it was in school. I had it written down, because I remember, uh, this was after- of course, I can't get too much into it, because we do cover it in the series, but it was after the crash that someone was bullying her, and since she wasn't in a really good headspace right now, she broke a kid's arm. And that's how she got kicked out of school. I don't think she ever, like, returned to school after that."

Coral responds, "She was forever just wandering," and Martin says, "That is very Sophie Walten. Sophie Walten is always just wandering."

-Eva asks, "Which Walten Files character would've had an emo phase?" and Martin says, "If we were talking like, a year or two ago, I would've said Sophie, but now I think- uh, probably... y'know what? Ignoring, like, the time period and everything, if a character were around to have an emo phase, I think it would be Rosemary, since Rosemary's, like, the most artistic. She would just be like an emo for like, a year or two, and then she would be like, the most jolly person ever."

-Coral jokes that it'd be really funny if Charles had an emo phase, and Eva says she thinks it's funny to imagine Jenny going through an emo phase, because she's such a colorful and friendly person. Crystal says "I feel like [Jenny's] the kind of person that will, like, fully commit to, like, a fashion aesthetic, like 110%." to which Martin responds, "Actually, yeah, definitely."

-Eva says, "I like to think Jenny is like, really good at fashion and shit, meanwhile Sophie just dresses like absolute shit." Coral says, "I don't think Sophie knows how to dress," to which Martin responds, "No, I think she doesn't, but I don't- I don't think she has, like, bad- I wouldn't say 'bad style', because I definitely don't think she has any style. But I don't think she wears bad combinations, y'know? She has like, 5%-2% style."

-Martin says, about Sophie, "Her brain is one ketchup tall."

-Martin asks everyone to say something they think Sophie would actually be really talented at. Eva jokes that she'd be good at "Eating spaghetti.", but Crystal says "I feel like she would, like, be a surprise good cook," and Martin says, "Yeah. I feel like, since she worked at the meat store, so I think she would know how to work with all that." Crystal jokes that someone would think her cooking is really good and ask her for a recipe, and she just completely mentally blanks.

-Eva reads a question, "Would Ashley and Sophie be friends?" and Martin says, "I think Sophie would hate Ashley. I think, Sophie- I think she would stand Ashley, but I think Sophie wouldn't be able to stand Ashley like, actually going blindly into a fucking- I think Sophie would be, like, really annoyed at Ashley's obliviousness, to me. I'm not saying Ashley is stupid, I don't think Ashley is dumb in any way, but I think Sophie wouldn't be able to relate to Ashley's, like, motivations and shit."

-They start joking about Sophie getting high? Martin says that she could never be allowed to get high, because she'd freak the fuck out and have the worst trip of her life. Martin says, "I think if Sophie got high, imagine she's, like, looking horrified at the door frame, and she's grabbing Jenny's hand, and she's like 'Jenny, Ronald Reagan's here. He arrived. He's taking me away, Jenny.''

Martin keeps going, "Imagine- imagine Sophie holds Jenny's hand, and she's like, 'Dude. Jenny- I cracked the case. I cracked the case. Jenny- Jenny, c'mere, I cracked the case. I think Bon killed Kennedy. I think Bo-Bon kill- Jenny I think Bon killed John F. Kennedy.'"

-They start talking about if Sophie would drink, and Martin says "I think Sophie drunk, like, at a party, like- imagine it's like, the only time she goes at a party, and it was just because she was, like, going with Jenny, who was invited. And she gets drunk, and then she's like, 'Uh, here's my car. This is my car.' and she doesn't even have a car. She's just trying to, like, break into a random car on the street."

Martin jokes, saying, "The entire friend group is like, talking about, like, 'aw, yeah, dude, y'know, when my grandma passed away, it was so sad,'- and then Sophie goes like 'Dude, when JFK died, it was like a national tragedy.'"

-[Eva] "Sophie would hate The Irishman. If she watched it."

[Martin] "She wouldn't watch twenty minutes of it! She would be like 'Jenny, I don't get this. I don't get this.'"

[Eva] "She would be like, 'I'm turning this off, this sucks.'"

[Martin, laughing] "And Jenny would be, like, so offended."

-Martin says, "I think Jenny would be more, like, artistic, and, like into experimental films. And Sophie would just watch, fucking, I don't know, fucking-" and Eva interrupts, saying, "Sophie would enjoy Adam Sandler movies if she was, like alive today. She would enjoy Adam Sandler movies." Martin laughs, saying, "Do you think Sophie would watch Ted and be like, 'Ohh, that's just like me...'?"

-Eva says, "I just had the worst idea. Sophie would, like, watch those stupid fucking Sigma Male movies, like Taxi Driver, and shit like that, and be like 'oh, that's me. that's me.' Martin laughs, saying, "That is so accurate! Imagine Sophie watching American Psycho, and for an entire week, like quoting the movie." then later says, "Imagine she does the fucking Taxi Driver cut, for like two days, and then starts crying because she regrets it."

-[Martin] "Someone- someone once said- Did I ever tell tell you, Eva and Crystal, that there was this one time when I was high, and I- I heard someone on Twitter going like, 'oh Sophie would love Weezer,' and I started crying. I started crying."

[Eva] "She would! Sophie would love Weezer!"

[Martin] "No! No she wouldn't! And I started crying, because I realized I failed as a creator."

-[Eva] "Someone asked, 'Does Jenny get high?' Yeah, Jenny would get high. Jenny would be stoner."

[Martin] "Yeah. No- I think she- she was probably, like, back in like, the late 70's she was more of a stoner, but then, when she started living with Sophie, she kinda just, started like, just settling down. Into a jolly- Into a silly, jolly lifestyle."

-[Eva] "Sophie would get really irrationally angry over video games, I think."

[Crystal] "I feel like she wouldn't, like, say anything. She would just stare really angrily at the screen."

[Eva] "She would, like, pick up a thing on her desk and just crush it."

Martin says he wants to draw that, and later posts this:

-Eva reads a question asking what Sophie's fears are. Martin says, "I think Sophie's fears, um, to me- and, of course, I cannot explain where this originates from, because again, it's spoilers. But I think one of Sophie's, like, fears she has- I wouldn't say it would be 'losing control', but not being able to decide what happens to her. Like, the idea of not being able to have control of her future. To me, I feel."

-Eva says "[Bon] would occasionally vomit blood, as a treat."

-Martin says "I think Sophie- I mean, I don't think she would be completely competitive, but I think Sophie would secretly be a bit competitive, when it comes to playing games. And Jenny would be more like 'Hey, it's just having fun!' and that's just because Jenny is like, the best gamer ever."

-Someone asks if Jack or Rose would experience road rage, and Martin says, "A lot of, uh, Jack, when I first wrote Jack, was a lot of inspiration from Me and my dad, because both me and my dad have had to deal with anger issues, and we both had to, like, y'know, go treat that. But I will forever remember how my dad would act during fucking road rage. I think Jack would act like that, just- Jack would fucking punch the fucking steering wheel, going 'God FUCKING DAMN IT!', and he would like, get out of the car, and- because this is something my dad would do- Jack would get out of the car and walk to the fucking thing that's causing the traffic jam. And go, like, 'Hurry the FUCK up, HURRY UP!'"

Martin goes, "I think Jack would go up to the driver that's causing the traffic jam, with the most polite, gentle look on his face. He'd ask him to, y'know, put the window down. And then he would poke his head through the window, and he would go, "Heya, man. KILL YOURSELF!!!!"

-Martin goes, "Why do Jenny and Sophie say 'fuck' so many times in BunnyFarm?" to which Crystal responds, incredulously, "You're the one who wrote the script, what do you mean!?"

-Martin says, "I think Sophie would eat the Forever Weed Brownie."

-Eva asks if Sophie would have the same anger issues as Jack, and Martin says, "No, I don't think she would have anger issues, but I do think she would have a big- a big fuckin' temper."

Eva responds, going "Well, no, she fucking broke some kid's arm and saved some girl's head, she probably does have, like, some anger-" and Martin goes, "Well- yeah, yeah. To be fair, yeah."

-Martin says, "I've told this to Eva, Sophie was a shoplifter, for a while."

-Martin says he changed Sophie's height again (For what, like the third time?) She's about 5'6-5'7 now. Jenny's height has increased proportionally, Martin doesn't give a number for her, but says she's still taller Felix, who's 5'7.

-Eva talks about how she was asked to sing a song as Bon for an episode, and the song Martin had sent her had some sexual undertones, so he changed it to be more kid-friendly and told her to perform the new lyrics. But she fucked up, and just sang the normal song, so they're just using that audio anyway, and it's really funny to both of them.

-Martin says, "One idea I had, back in TWF2, that I really want to repurpose someday- Originally, there was going to be a funny scene where Kevin, Hilary and Ashley would, like, play around with the robots, and dress them up, and make them do fucking goofy poses and shit like that. And I think, If i ever get the chance to do it again, I would probably do something like that... I would really love doing a scene like that, in The Walten Files. The caretakers just absolutely doing goofy shit in K-9."

-Eva talks about how she's a bit mildly uncomfortable with cutesy ship art of Felix and Linda, and asks Martin if that's weird of her. Martin says, "I don't think Felix was abusive, per se. I don't Felix, like, abused of Linda. Y'know, I don't think we was, just, uh- intentionally taking advantage of Linda's emotional state, for his own benefit. But I do think Felix was a very neglectful person, who- the way I see it, he was just with Linda just because, y'know? He didn't really- It was just a thing of, 'Oh, there's a guy and there's a girl. It makes sense, yeah, it should be a couple, yay,' Y'know? And the way I've always seen it is that Linda and Felix had, had, a good dynamic. But I don't think it was a good romantic dynamic.

I think they just- They took what could have been a could've been a potential good friendship as romantic feelings, and that was their downfall. And by being a couple they didn't really help each other, and Felix being neglectful eventually took a toll on Linda. Which- is bad! It's a very bad behavior. And I don't blame people who consider that to be emotional abuse, but to me I don't feel like Felix ever had that intention. But it's not a good couple, because they're not healthy for each other."

-Martin continues, "I feel like Felix didn't know how to be- Felix didn't have a couple before Linda. And I feel like, to me, Felix never properly learned how to love? So, to me, it would be like, uh, he wouldn't be emotionally connected with Linda. He wouldn't open up to her, and he wouldn't really try to be close to her. Both in an emotional and a physical way. It would just be like, every now and then, that he remembers, 'oh yeah, my wife', and just, like- a kiss, every one in 500 years."

-"I do think that Linda was a very independent person. And does- she wasn't like, too focused on, 'oh, how much does Felix care about me?', she was just, like, doing her own thing. I think it was later down the line that she started realizing how neglectful Felix was, and started, like, actually trying to reconnect with him, in a way. And since Felix had become worse and worse, he just kinda kept brushing her away until he ended up confronting her, and ended up hurting her feelings in a really bad way."

-Martin reads a question, asking, "Why did Felix start drinking, anyway?" and answers, "Uh, without revealing it too much, I think the reason he started drinking was because, uh, there was a problem, to Felix, that was starting to build up, and he started isolating himself on that problem. And, uh, when he started isolating himself, he started losing all the things he had, to like- all the shoulders he could lean on. So, without nobody he could actually go to, to reach out to them, he started drinking. Because it kinda numbed away those feelings, it kinda helped him control all the frustrations he had about himself, and the kind of person he was. And thus, at first he was just, like, 'Oh, it's just, every time I feel some kind of hatred towards myself and the person I am.' And it kept escalating, to the point that-- The moment he started fully hating himself was the moment he started completely drinking all the time. To kinda, just numb away those feelings."

Martin says, "To me, uh, the way I see it is like The Shining, where they refer to alcohol as a medicine. And to me, I feel like Felix saw it as a medicine, too. Like, as a way that, hey, it's an easy way to be happier with the person you are and the decisions you've made."

-"I feel like, in a way, the way I see Felix as a character- I like to think that he's someone who isn't happy, wasn't happy with the kind of person he became and the kind of decisions he took, because I think he saw a lot more potential in him that he didn't- that he didn't actually use. And, it's like, I feel like that frustration was the one of the reasons he got into drinking. Because it's like, just the idea of, 'Hey, I wasted so many years away not doing the stuff I wanted to do. So what's the point anymore?', Y'know."

-"Felix has- In my opinion, a very realistic, kind of like- I want to say a middle-aged crisis. As like, a way of being depressed over- I like to think Felix is sad that he didn't get to savor his young age very much. Because, to me, it's like, one second it was him and Jack going, like, 'Hey! We gotta do this project, and it's going to be so cool, so great and everything!', and then the other second it's like, having to worry about the paperwork, and the idea that- Yeah, sure, Jack and him are still best friends, but Y'know, Jack has his family now. Jack has other priorities, it's not the funny, 'Hey, we're young, we have our whole future ahead of us!' because now the future is happening, and Felix doesn't know what the fuck he's about to do, what the fuck is going to happen to him. And thus, he instantly thinks it's all doomed, it's too late for him to choose a different way to be, a different person to be with, a different goal to have. He thinks that all the decisions he made lead him to this, and he can't change it, because it's too late for that. I think that's what kinda dooms him, in a way."

-Martin says, "To me, when [Felix] had a low point, instead of trying to get himself out of it, he just accepted defeat, because he thought he couldn't get any lower than that. And, there was another rock bottom, and another one, and another one." He says, "I'm always going to say this- and this is kinda like, a message from The Walten Files- It's not a priority, but it's a message that you cannot live a future you do not want to live. You cannot force yourself to accept and settle down for a future you don't want to live, because you're only going to live in constant- you're going to be miserable with yourself! And you're going to be constantly looking to the past, instead of trying to fix your future.

And I think the main flaw with Felix- and you can even notice now, in the current content, that Felix looks a lot in the past, and he's stuck in the past, and he's so unhappy with the place he is right now, that he doesn't try to get himself out of it. And it's just like, "Ah, maybe if I just keep doing what I'm doing, it'll just magically get better on it's own!', and that's not how life is, so yeah."

-Martin and Eva talk about how it's kinda funny, how for them, Felix's hangups have served as a sort of cautionary tale, because his experiences and struggles are so human and so relatable, that his behavior helps them to understand why you need to work against the kind of thinking he succumbs to.

-Eva goes, "I can't wait until we can have long ass discussions like this, publicly, about fucking Jack." and Martin goes, "God! Jack is so cool, too!"

-Some asks if there's any "canon trans rep" in The Walten Files. Martin says, a little regretfully, that No, there aren't, not because he thinks there shouldn't be transgender people in The Walten Files, but because he doesn't go out of his way to think about applying those sorts of labels to characters as he makes them, he just lets them develop naturally, and sometimes ends up applying concepts like that depending on what he thinks feels natural for them. He says, "I never actually touch the territory of, like, their gender identity and all that. So, I guess you could headcanon any character you want as trans. That's totally fine."

-Martin says, "Felix, his main issue was not talking to people and getting help when he needed it the most, and I feel like the way I wrote it stemmed down from the way that a lot of- especially in that era- there was a lot of toxic masculinity around the idea that you cannot show weakness around other people. That you have to be, like, the strong person that takes care of everyone else. You have to be, like, the man in the group, the man in the family, and you cannot, like- you cannot be vulnerable towards anyone else. And I feel like Felix kinda grew up around that mentality, and he isolated his issues from everyone else, because he felt like showing any kind of, uh, vulnerability and just any weakness at all would make him lesser.

And I feel like that problem amplified itself when he met Jack, who was this collected, smart person, who always knew what he had to say. He was charming, he always had an answer for everything, and Felix felt like- if he- if he showed vulnerability towards Jack, Jack would see him as someone lesser than him, y'know? As someone weak. Not worthy of being Jack's friend, y'know?"

-Eva reads a question that asks, "What're some genuine flaws about Jack, besides his anger issues? Has he ever done something he ended up regretting?". Martin pauses for a while, then says, pretty definitely, "Yeah. He does."

Martin then says, "I feel like we could answer some flaws about personality. I think, like, the one thing I could say is that Jack also stems a lot from that mentality of, like, that you shouldn't be weak, you shouldn't show vulnerability to anyone. And I feel like, uh, he- the only person to me, that Jack was ever vulnerable to, the only person that Jack could tell 'I'm scared', to was Rosemary. And, uh, I feel like Jack is a person who wants to always be in control of everything. He cannot lose control, because when he loses control he feels weak, and he doesn't like feeling weak.

And, uh- He kinda, like- One of the bad things that happened, is that, to me, I feel like he kinda passes those bad habits to Sophie, who also doesn't like the idea of losing control. And doesn't like the idea of showing other people that she cries, and that she's vulnerable. And I feel like that stemmed a lot because of Jack."

-"I think one of the worst things with Jack is that he has a problem with communicating stuff. He cannot, for the life of him, just let out a vulnerable side of him. And the way I wanted to show that is that he's always shown smiling in photos, he never tries to frown. He never tries to show any other face, other than just him being okay, him being happy."

-[Eva] "I find it cool how, like, Jack wants himself to be perceived as like, this ideal dad type-guy, which is also how Felix-"

[Martin] "The perfect- the perfect person."

[Eva] "... In reality, Jack would be like, very- very flawed. Very, like-- I don't know how to describe it. His brain would be very, like- emotionally he'd be very fucked up. Not, like, evil- I mean like. his emotions and shit, he has a really bad way of expressing them, and stuff like that."

[Martin] "He doesn't know. He doesn't know how to express his emotions. And to me, Jack, I feel like- I feel like one of Jack's greatest flaws is that, to him, everything is appearances. He really cares a lot about appearances, and he cares about looking like the perfect role model, like the fucking 1950's magazine, cut-clear perfect dad, and his cut-clear perfect family where everything is fine, and nothing can ever go wrong. That's one of, like, Jack's fears. But if we talk more about it, we'll go into spoiler territory!"

-They talk about how frustrating it is to be so interested in and passionate about these characters, but so little of their stories have made it to the audience so far, so they have to be really cagey about everything. Martin says, "I think, mostly because of Sophie, because to me, the way that Sophie is shown in The Walten Files 3, that's just scratching the surface. That's not an ounce of, like, her character. And I really, really want to show what she does, and how everything goes down, but I can't."

-[Eva, reading] "Which character's story goes the deepest? Which character has the most depth?"

[Martin, immediately.] "Jack. Definitely Jack. (pause) No- Jack and Sophie. I think it's Jack and Sophie."

-Martin says, "Bon is so- a much worse person than Felix, but I really like that he's not as unlikable, because Felix knows what he's doing wrong, and apologizes and says he wants to change, but he doesn't. Whereas Bon is a delusional prick, who fucking- doesn't regret anything. And that's so cool to me." Later, he says, "I wouldn't say [Bon] has regret, but he has a lot of, like, emotion about what he's doing. He's not like a cold, heartless killer."

-Martin answers one last question, "What was your original plan for The Walten Files?" and answers, "The original plan for The Walten Files was actually very different, because it was- first of all, I had two original ideas. Originally, it was going to be just a compilation of, uh, footage of Welcome to Bon's Burgers, and I was just gonna plaster a VHS effect on it, and just be like, 'hey, look at all this cool stuff!' But then, when I scrapped that idea, there was The Walten's Archive, which was gonna be, like, a documental, that was, like, a retelling of the events that happened. Like, a 1990s documental, like, a dramatization of everything that happened, and that's why you'd see everything in like, a cinematic light and everything. And it was going to be, like, ten episodes. And I still have that document, and some of the ideas carried over to the actual stuff, but not all of them."

-Eva wants to answer one last question, too, saying, "Someone asked, 'Is "Bon" a 'it's for the greater good' type of person when it comes to his killings?' I'd say yes. Whenever he's like, killing someone, he definitely knows that they're afraid and that they don't want to die, but he'd kinda like, think of it as 'Oh, you don't know what's good for you,' or 'This is for the greater good,' like, when he's killing them. That's kinda like, a way he would justify it in his mind. Like he would just think, 'Oh, yeah, you want this, you just don't know it,' like shit like that."

[anonimityblog4000]

I actually hate having to post this, but

I feel like I have to post this in response to some recent drama stirring. I will cop to making an alt blog to post this because the hate around this has been virulent.

Recently this post has been shared regarding another artist creating locked tomb fan art

In this post which you should read they make the claim that the creator of these pieces 100% for certain created them with AI image generation software generating quite a lot of attention. The problem is that their supposed supporting evidence is INCREDIBLY flawed to the point of contradiction and nonsense. For example both of these cropped images

are given as evidence of AI generation, claiming that the smudge is the result of AI failure and that the hand is CLEARLY ai generated…except that even a cursory examination and familiarity of what AI image generation ends up looking like would make it obvious that these aren’t AI hands and are just…normal hand drawn hands. As for the smudge we could easily explain that as the artist not noticing a mistake in one of their layers before posting, but we don’t know that. Except we do.

Because if you were to look at the artists blog now you might notice they have made some corrections and small edits to the original piece and lo and behold…no smudge. Now here is where things get properly silly, instead of drawing the obvious conclusion from this that the artist being able to go in and fix the layers of their work means that they actually drew it THEY CLAIM THAT THE ABILITY TO DRAW AND EDIT IN THE EXACT STYLE OF THE PIECE IS FURTHER EVIDENCE OF AI.

WHAT.

I don’t think I need to point out to most people that AI image generation tools do not work that way and they certainly don’t allow you to make subtle targeted fixes and edits.

There is also a claim that the artist admitted to using AI to produce the piece which is a gross distortion of what they explained, the artist openly stated that they have tried using image gen tools to assist with their thumbnailing process. Let us be clear that thumbnailing is NOT producing any sort of final piece but is simply the process of brainstorming ideas and concepts. It’s seriously gross to flat out lie and claim the artist said anything different. Thankfully someone else screenshotted this so there’s actual evidence that accusations are being made that are straight up lies.

It is also at this point we should take a look at some of the artists other publicly available work.

I chose this selection because another accusation in the post that is hard evidence of AI is that because the posted pieces are “too different” in style from other earlier work posted on their blog, it should be fairly obvious how silly this is with even a small sample of what they have produced. This is an artist who obviously has the ability to work in a wide range of artistic styles and mediums but instead this is being used to claim they…can’t art? It’s also worth pointing the obvious that there are plenty of works in that artist’s portfolio in the exact same mucha style, including ones that are literally hand drawn on paper. Works that literally predate the availability of image generation software going back years. It is a complete farce to suggest this person CANT DRAW HANDS.

Frankly it is incredibly disappointing that the community is barraging this artist with insults and hate because of one persons incredibly flawed accusations. A person that I might add has deleted comments on their post that disagreed with them while at the same time castigating the artist for blocking them and deleting their post as evidence of their guilt.

While this isn’t conclusive in and of itself I’ll end with this.

It’s more effort than the accuser went to before rallying a witch hunt against someone else.

[duckprintspress]

Sorry for being a little in the dark, but can you explain what happened with NaNoWriMo? Or at least point me towards some resources pls?

Hey anon!

Never apologize for that. Life is so fucking busy, no one can be apprised of everything going on all the time. Our brains would break even trying. Anyway, multiple things have happened with NaNoWriMo, but for the current debacle, the best answer is probably to read their own words as appended in a reblog to my original post about how to delete.

The TL:DR is, to paraphrase NaNo's own words (after they got a sponsorship from ProWritingAid, an "AI" company), they support using "AI" as part of NaNoWriMo, accusing people who disagree of being ableist and classist.

Having read both their statements, they at least imply that they mean "AI" such as grammar checkers, rather than generative "AI," but they don't actually clarify and it's at best ambiguous if they include generative LLM as being allowed and reasonable. When people got upset with them, they doubled down, saying things like "not everyone can afford an editor," which as someone who personally couldn't afford an editor and so taught myself to edit at a professional level over ten years, I'll own I find a fucking insane and insulting take. A lot of us worked our asses off to learn these skills, and it's not classist to suggest that other people...can learn too. But also...like...if I was certain they only meant grammar checkers, I might be a bit more forgiving (I mean, I use Word's grammar checker, though it's often wrong), but which LLM usages they're actually defending isn't clarified and they jump right to defending their position by tarring people who disagree with them as -isms, and that's some kinda bs argument right there.

To be clear, I think policies banning people from using LLMs in events like NaNoWriMo or on platforms like AO3 is an exercise in futility. Bans are unenforceable, and attempts to moderate will turn into harassment tools. The line between "work written by someone who isn't proficient yet" and "LLM" isn't clear, and policing that line would consume huge amounts of moderating effort for basically no benefit. IMO, for places like AO3 the best bet is simply transparency, as in, people using LLMs should fucking tag it.

To be clear secondarily, putting my "I own a small Press" hat, if someone sends us something verifiably LLM-generated, they will be permanently banned, but honestly, even something I can't verify as LLM-generated, like. Won't be good writing. It might be technically precise but an LLM can't generate a coherent story because it can't think or remember. It's just a word-probability engine. We've never had an LLM-generated submission to the best of my knowledge, but if we did, well. Ban hammer.

Anyway. Sorry. I got off topic. The point is, NaNo basically said we were all ableist and classist because we want people to write (even if they write badly!) for the...write a novel challenge.

And this made a lot of people very angry.

[dcdreamblog]

So growing up I only knew Johnny Chambers as the Quickstart infomercial guy. Come to find out he did a whole documentary series on mystery men after the war. Have you had a chance to see any of those films?

I had to basically watch Chambers' entire filmography in college

(A promotional image produced for Quickstarts internal biography of Chambers. It is often pointed out for this image that Chambers famously refused to make use of his powers during film making as he felt he lost control of the edit's smaller details doing them at super speed)

While like you said Chambers is more well known now for his foundation of the Quickstart lifestyle and wellness brand, now run by his daughter Jesse, he started his career and was mostly known throughout his life as a documentarian. In fact it was his connections, formed from the creation of international newsreels for Warner Bros' "March of Time" series that originally lead him to befriending the eccentric mathematician Dr Ezra Gill who would discover the ancient formula that formed the secret of Johnny's power set. During the war and even for some time after it he never quite got rid of the filming bug, surrounded by such interesting people as he was. Chambers himself was most often responsible for the footage of the Squadron and other teams that would appear in newsreels during the war. His first solo outing would be a 15 minute reel titles "Inside Squadron Home Base!" released in early 1942 which was a tour of the Perisphere complete with some quick introductions to Chambers' core teammates (including an interview with Johnny Quick himself to obfuscate the fact that Chambers was the one filming). He would complete another half dozen Squadron focused newsreels during the war itself: -"The JBA is on the Move!" (1942), that covered the JSA's official absorption into the All Star Squadron and their very short lived renaming to the Justice Battalion

-"Workforce Heroines!" (1942), Starring Wonder Woman, Ms America and Hawkgirl explaining and advocating for women in vital war industries.

-"Our Young All Stars!" (1943) Explaining the formation of the Young All Stars and introducing them to the public at large. Rather infamously this reel was censored without Chambers' knowledge to cut out the interview of the team's Japanese American member Tsunami and even cropping her out of many background shots. -"Above Enemy Lines!" (1943), which focused on the work of the Blackhawks and Freedom Fighters to infiltrate and undermine Axis activity on active front lines.

-"The Mystery Man March!" (1944) Explaining, somewhat, the development of the American Mystery Man, drawing a broad philosophical line from the country's revolutionary heroes a la Tomahawk, through western heroes like Bat Lash and Pow Wow Smith to the modern Mystery Man. The historiography here is RIDDLED with holes but it was the first attempt to do something like what I do and so many details we know now were unknown -"American Mettle!" (1944), A piece lionizing American industry and manufacturing through the mouthpieces of Commander Steel and Robotman. It is almost comical how much Steel does ALL of the talking during this reel. One can only imagine poor, surly Robotman needed to be dragged to the set via forklift. This, of course, being on top of producing his actual workload of regular Newsreels through Warner Bros. Chambers made a vague attempt to enter the nascent television industry post war in various behind the camera capacities for the sake of supporting his then young daughter. It wasn't until much more recent times when he founded Quickstart where he became well known as a motivational speaker, former superhero, etc, etc, etc.

[frankencanon]

So... Anyone else headcanon Buggy as Vivi's long lost uncle?

No? Just me? Okay... 🥹

Disclaimer: Do I actually believe this is canon? No. But do I want it to be? Yes.

My reasoning for this is fairly simple:

Blue hair.

-> Click on the "Keep reading" below for a bunch more nonsense on how I think this could actually work...

---

I did my math, and King Cobra is about eleven (11) years older than Buggy — which is a pretty big age gap but we're not focusing on him — we're focusing on his wife, Titi, who Vivi is apparently the spitting image of.

Queen Titi is the one responsible for Vivi's blue hair, and thus she is the one who I'm headcanoning Buggy to be related to.

And, as it is entirely common for couples to have age gaps of a few years or so... Titi can help to close that afformentioned age gap.

Whereas King Cobra might be eleven years older than Buggy, it's not unreasonable to assume that Titi could've been five or so years younger — shortening the siblings' age gap to a measly five or six years — which is not nearly as unreasonable!

Hell, we might as well throw Franky in there as well! He's got similarly blue hair and he's only three years younger than Buggy!

I last looked up these ages like a day or two ago so here's hoping I didn't remember any wrong!

Now, how could they be related if they all grew up in such different places?

Answer: Their parents are unknowns! For all three of them!

If I'm remembering right, Franky's parents were said to have been pirates who abandoned him.

Buggy's parents are a complete unknown since, unlike Shanks, Oda hasn't told us anything about how he wound up on the Rogers' ship.

And Titi? We don't know much about her at all.

So it is entirely possible that Franky wasn't the only kid his parents abandoned...

Not to mention that Alabasta and Water 7 are fairly close to one other.

And we have no idea where Buggy is originally from, but "somewhere in the Grand Line" is a pretty safe estimate.

So. One wound up in Alabasta, another in Water 7, and the third got picked up by Gol D. Roger himself.

Water 7 has a lot of incoming and outgoing ships, right? So it's not that hard to believe that they all could've been abandoned there originally, but two wound up on outgoing ships...

Titi, the oldest, snuck aboard a ship bound to Alabasta as a stowaway.

Buggy, the middle child, got kidnapped by Roger who pointed at him and said, "Is anybody gonna take this?" And then didn't wait for an answer.

And Franky, the youngest, never left in the first place.

---

Edit: OK, so I checked out Franky's backstory and here's how it apparently went:

Cutty Flam, originally born in the South Blue, was yeeted by his pirate parents at a young age — literally. Those jerks actually threw him off their ship and into the water — for some godforsaken reason.

He was then rescued by Tom the Fish-Man, legendary shipwright.

At some point Tom saw Cutty assemble a cannon out of scrap metal, and after that he decided to take him on as an apprentice.

Iceberg, Tom's other apprentice, decided to nickname him "Franky" because apparently "Cutty Flam" is too weird a name. Pot, meet kettle.

And that's all the relevant info.

---

Hmm... Now what can we do with this?

Well, if his parents were just yeeting kids off the ship as they go... That makes things a lot easier, actually.

How did they end up on different islands, all split up? Easy! Their shitty parents were literally just yeeting them off the ship whenever.

First one to get yeeted got picked up by a ship returning to Alabasta, who took mercy on the innocent child and brought them home. (Maybe it was the royal family returning from the Revelry? That could explain how Cobra and Titi first met...)

The second child to get yeeted was rescued by Roger and his crew, who conveniently were already on the hunt for a playmate for their first child — Crocus and Rayleigh were very insistent that it's extremely important for a child's development for them to have friends their own age growing up...

The third child got yeeted somewhere in the vicinity of Water 7, and was saved by Tom; His story after that follows canon.

---

Why were they yeeted in different locations and at different times, you ask? My answer: Consider their ages.

I don't know what kind of scumbag pirates yeet their own children to their supposed deaths, but perhaps it's the same kind who have children for nefarious reasons...

Perhaps they had some kind of use for a young child — fake hostage? bait? tax break?! — but once they reach a certain age... Suddenly, the kid's not so useful anymore.

And so they get dumped, just in time for their asshole parents to give birth to a new heir.

And rinse and repeat...

And so we got Titi, and Buggy, and Franky — all born a handful of years apart and dumped in different locations after they were no longer useful for their parents' schemes.

---

INFO:

-

Titi (Titi) - Age ??? - ティティ

Buggy (Bagii) - Age 37/39 - バギー

Cutty Flam (Kati Furamu) aka Franky (Furankii) - Age 34/36 - カティ・フラム aka フランキー

-

Age gap between Buggy (37/39) & Nefertari Cobra (48/50): 11 years

Age gap between Buggy (37/39) & Franky (34/36): 3 years

Age gap between: Franky (34/36) & Nefertari Cobra (48/50): 14 years

-

If we give Buggy & Titi the same age gap as Franky & Buggy then Titi would've been 40 pre- and 42 post-timeskip, a total of eight (8) years younger than Cobra. Not unrealistic at all!

Then again, she was their first child so it's entirely possibly they held off longer before giving in and having another child to replace her — not because they cared about her, but because they would've been reluctant to have to start all over again with raising another noisy, annoying baby, and would've preferred to keep running the scam with her, seeing as she was already trained and fairly self-sufficient.

So maybe she's a little older. A year or two perhaps? That would be one year to dilly-dally, and one year for the new kid to be born.

Let's make it a total of three extra years: two years they spent convinced they could get the scam to continue working even as she got older, and then the one year it took for them to have baby Buggy after they gave up hope.

So that makes Titi six years older than Buggy, nine years older than Franky, and five years younger than Cobra.

If she had been alive during canon events, she would've been 43 years old pre-timeskip and 46 years old post-timeskip.

---

Drabble:

As the first and oldest, Titi was well aware of her parents intentions to replace her.

And while as a child her first priority was to survive... As she got older and eventually had her own daughter, she might've found herself wondering about her possible siblings...

What happened to them?

How many were there?

Were they still alive?

Had they been dumped and abandoned as well?

Where were they now?

...And could she find them?

Late at night she would have trouble sleeping, frequently thinking of the other children like her that she never got the chance to meet...

Her husband, Nefertari Cobra, would notice and ask her what was troubling her, and she would confess her regrets...

And Cobra, sweet and kind man that he is, would promise to do his very best to find her siblings for her.

And later, when she passed, he never stopped looking.

Until, one day...

---

Oh, and before I forget:

You're probably thinking something along the lines of, "but there are a bunch more characters with blue hair! What about them?"

I hear you, and my response is this:

Not like this. Sure, Buggy and Vivi's hair aren't colored exactly the same — but compared to everyone else with blue hair? The only ones that get close are Franky (who I actually ended up slipping into this headcanon) and Kyōshirō, who...I don't even know what was going on with him honestly, but he definitely doesn't count.

(And even past the hair color, there's also the similar texture and shape that becomes extremely apparent when Buggy and Vivi have their hair styled the same way — as shown clearly in the images above...

I mean, they've got the same waves and everything! For god's sake, even their hairbands are nearly identical! Like, c'mon!

Coincidence? I think not!)

[eokami]

THEORY THEORY THEORY TIME! Can we really TALK or think about a lot of similirities that hit my head more and more every single day? Maybe I'm biased about this, but lemme explain!

qBBH and qAntoine. Yeah, let's start this way. I really think their lore is 100% related to each other. Why? I have some reasons for this:

-Both are Eldritch creatures. (+ qBBH also being Demon or so Fallen Angel) So, They both may have been… met before.

-The temple image. Antoine was the most insistent with asking aBBH about what he think it is. Maybe to confirm if qBBH REMEMBER something about the past. And qAntoine complain to Cucurucho for this thing being "too soon". I could guess the "deal" (The shake hands yellow and black) is something related to both of them in some way.

-The text in the Rebellion about qBBH. The "It is strange that nothing bad has happened. Or maybe it happened a long time ago." Maybe that is about the pact… or what qBBH recently told to his childrens. He has to leave or could be worse. Or, the way he said after talk to qTina: "The more time I spend in a place, the more dangerous it becomes."

-qAntoine has a tittle said by Cucurucho: "The Watchful Scribe". He already has a lot of information about everyone. And it said that Antoine himself know the role of every character for the need of his own role.

-qBBH confirmed in the "Find the buttom" with qAntoine that he "Always watch from afar." in a omninous way. It's possibly a hint about them like a camaraderie elbow blow or just my biased way to think about a randoom chat.

-We cannot forget "The Watcher" himself. It could be other person. it could be something related to both, or just qAntoine, we don't know.

-Egg Island, where "The Watcher" was, appeared more eggs. qAntoine said to Pomme days ago "I know you as if I made you." (Or at least I understand it that way. Could be wrong) So MAYBE qAntoine is the one responsible for that and-

-Could someone finally give importance to the Census Bureau?!?! Is in FRENCH. And okey, I'm like crazy here for some reason but-- qAntoine confirmed to have 3 faces: "Everyone has multiple faces, I'm the only one showing them all" and "I have four actually, the last one is inside, I'd rather not show it" Can we Talk about Cucurucho's original name being ":)" and that are 2 more of them… AND THEN THE DARK ONE?! Am I crazy or not?! qAntoine created them as well?! Maybe are the Cucurucho prototypes inspired by ayrobot?!

-Dapper with his father have become the ones who do experiments like "Elena", the new misterious worker who aparently is part of the hibrid experiments on other residents like qBaghera. Dapper told his dad it could be dangerous if The Federation knows about his investigations. It's a good parallel/way to fusion the concepts. -(I FORGOT THIS ONE !! (Editing editing)) The first day that qBBH returned to Quesadilla Island from Egg Island, he was surprised to see qEtoiles and qBagi and said "how did you get there if you're not dead?" // When qAntoine returned and was chatting with qtubbo, his comment was "I was dead, I think, but not anymore, I was tired of being dead" LIKE--…WHAT.

Sorry my weird english. I talk spanish and now that the translations with the new system are a posibility I'm trying to get into the french lore. I really really love it!

[melishade]

Attack on Prime Alternate Scene Part 5

Part 4

I FUCKING DID IT EVERYONE! I've finally completed the rough draft for Guren No Yumiya with 56,423 words! I finally written the end game! All I need to do is make edits to Last Ditch Effort and then Guren No Yumiya and I can publish them both! Not at the same time, this is a lot to digest! But I finally made it and completed the climax! FINALLY!

Alright, so which scene am I gonna talk about today?

Actually I can just talk about my multiple edits for both chapter 90 and chapter 91. For now, I'm just going to focus on chapter 90. Next Part will be chapter 91.

So when I had initially started writing up draft for introducing Primus, the Fourth Notebook idea hadn't existed yet. The original idea was that Kenny found the drawing of Optimus' holoform in Grisha's notebook and brought it over to Megatron in a fit of rage:

Erwin and Nile jolted when Kenny kicked open the door to Erwin’s home. Nile backed away when Erwin took a step forward.

“Kenny, what-,”

“Out the fucking way,” Kenny growled ominously. He walked over to Megatron and punched him in the face, startling both Erwin and Nile.

“You fucking liar!” Kenny shouted.

Megatron glared at Kenny before choking him with one arm and lifting him in the air. “You better have a good reason for your insolence.”

“My insolence?!” Kenny strained.

“Megatron, put him down!” Erwin ordered as he tried to pull the arm down.

“Explain this bullshit!” Kenny demanded as he showed Megatron the paper.

Megatron stared in shock as he snatched the paper and dropped Kenny on the ground. Nile went to his side while Erwin turned his attention to Megatron.

“What the hell-,”

Erwin was startled when he saw the paper. It was a drawing. A drawing of…

Optimus Prime in his human form.

“What the hell?” Erwin breathed.

“Where did you get this?” Megatron demanded.

“From those fucking notebooks!” Kenny shouted, “You sons of bitches sayin’ that you haven’t been here! That bastard keeps saying he’s seen his face! I thought you bastards were in a war!”

“We were in a war!” Megatron shouted, “Optimus was stranded on Earth and I was halfway across the universe looking for dark energon!”

“Then why the hell is that bastard seeing your ex?!” Kenny shouted.

Erwin took the paper from Megatron and read the information on the back. “I keep on seeing him. I don’t know if I should share or withhold this information, so I will keep it hidden for the time being. I try to touch him, to speak to him, but he seems to be out of my sights. An after image in the back of my mind. I feel like I have seen him, but I do not know his name. All I know, is that he is referred to…as god.”

“’God’?” Kenny hissed, “Is that bastard fucking insane?”

“He’s seeing Optimus in his memories!” Erwin shot back, “How is that even possible?!”

“Timey-whiney mumbo jumbo!” Kenny answered, “We already said memories can be sent back!”

“Optimus has only been here for four years!” Erwin reasoned, “Grisha has never seen him!”

“But Eren has!” Kenny reminded, “This is bullshit!”

“This isn’t Optimus,” Megatron proclaimed, gaining everyone’s attention.

“You’re joking, right?” Kenny demanded.

“No,” Megatron answered, “This is someone wearing the holoform’s skin, most likely to blend in with the humans.”

“What are you suggesting?” Erwin asked.

“Someone else is interfering,” Megatron answered as he handed the paper back to Kenny, “Someone that has more power than us.”

“Do you know who?” Nile asked.

Megatron grimaced in response. “No idea, and I’m not sure if it’s wise to find out. Leave this alone for the time being.”

“That’s it?” Kenny demanded, “We’re just supposed to leave this shit alone?”

“Shouldn’t this be something we should be worried about?” Nile asked in confusion.

“This is clearly supernatural,” Megatron explained as he rubbed his temple, “And I’ve had my fair share of getting involved with that.

The idea of the humans and Megatron figuring out that there was something supernatural involved didn't sit right with me. Because what was I even supposed to do with it. Where would I even take it? Where would it go? I felt like this wouldn't have worked long term so I figured a fourth notebook with Megatron concluding later on that the Attack Titan can see into the future would be the better option. It allows the characters to be aware of the situation while also keeping the twist that Primus is involved just a little bit longer.

Now when Primus was initially introduced into the Paths, I had him acting just a little bit different....:

“Next memory,” Eren told his brother as he opened the door. He stopped when he saw a man at the door, wearing a large, black trench coat that looked exactly like…

“Optimus?” Eren whispered.

Zeke stared in shock and merely took a step back as Optimus walked past Eren. The two noticed that Grisha didn’t see him as Optimus began rummaging through the cabinets. The two grew confused when Optimus hit his head on top of one of the cabinets.

Optimus rubbed his head as he sat on the ground. “I don’t know why I still have to have pain receptors. Time doesn’t even work here.”

Eren grew stiff. That wasn’t Optimus. That sounded nothing like Optimus! Who the hell was he?!

“Who are you?!” Zeke demanded at the man.

The man looked at Zeke and Eren in surprise and stood up. “You can see me?”

“Yes! Who are you?!” Zeke demanded.

The man smiled and grabbed Zeke’s shoulders. “Great! You can help me!”

“Help you?” Eren asked.

“Yes!” he answered, “I am currently looking for someone. Time doesn’t work here, that much I know. And I am currently limited to this form. It’s been a long time since I’ve had digits.”

The man looked down at his fingers and wiggled them. “What an odd sight, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” Eren shrugged, “But…I don’t know what you’re looking for. Could you describe it?”

“That’s the thing…I’m not sure,” the man admitted, “I have been dormant for eons. I wake up hearing a cry from across the universe, and I can’t go because this was the closest I could to achieving a physical form. I had to send Optimus here to get close.”

“What?” Eren said.

“But I see that the two of you are busy,” the man said, “And I have an eternity to wait,”

The man walked back over to the door, still unnoticed by Grisha. He gestured to the door and smiled.

“I’d like to come with the both of you,” he requested, “Going through this place by myself is difficult. One minute I find myself in a calm setting, the next I find myself in a war zone. I would like some clarification or order to the chaos.”

Zeke looked at the man with warning, causing the man’s smile to disappear.

“I swear to…myself?, I will not get involved with…this,” the man gestured to the scene before him.

Zeke grimaced in response. “Fine.”

Eren eyed the man as he happily followed Zeke into the next memory.

There's obviously no weight to this scene, not compared to the final draft. It feels extremely rushed. But the idea was the same. Primus comes in, Eren and Zeke are surprised, and Primus asks to come with them. Now when writing Primus initially, I was characterizing him as someone who had control of the situation, and you'll see glimpses of that in later drafts. It's almost like he was completely fine with his situation and he knew what was going on. I didn't want to make it too easy for Primus for obvious reasons, but I knew I had to rewrite Primus where he's in a situation that's out of his control. There's also other things that I decided to change, like Primus dropping Cybertronian terminology and Primus swearing to himself instead of the One: the being he originally came from. I wanted there to be more of a build up to Primus' identity and I feel like have Primus swear to himself would have been a dead giveaway.

Now this is one of the scenes that I've changed. It's about Primus learning of Eren's interactions with Mikasa and his kill count and also Primus confronting Zeke for a brief moment.

Eren could only watch as the man tried to interact with his younger self, kneeling down and waving to the nine year old.

“This is strange,” he remarked before looking at Eren, “Is it strange for you to see a younger version of yourself walking around? Or is this only limited to humans?”

“Will you stop?” Zeke demanded.

“So this is normal?” the man asked for clarification.

“No!” Zeke exclaimed, “Can you stop?! I am trying to prove a point to my brother!”

The man raised an eyebrow at the both of them. “You two don’t look alike.”

Zeke growled in irritation. Eren was merely trying to put some pieces together. What did this man mean when he said he sent Optimus here? He clearly wasn’t human. He used a different terminology for body parts and other phrases. Optimus had to tell him something about this, right?

“What point are you trying to prove to him?” the man asked as he pointed at Eren.

“I’m trying to save the world,” Zeke answered, “And our father brainwashed him into believing that the world shouldn’t be save. That our father forced his ideology on him and forced him to use the power of the titans. I’m trying to save Eren, too.”

The man stood up and walked around the people before facing Zeke. “How do you intend to save the world?”

Eren felt the air suddenly get colder and terrifying. Zeke seemed to notice this change, but didn’t associate it with the man.

“I have to free the Eldians,” Zeke declared, “And I will use the power of the titans to free them and end their suffering.”

The man didn’t respond to Zeke, causing the man to grow tense. But they both grew confused as the man placed a hand on Zeke’s shoulder.

“That is very admirable of you,” the man smiled.

Eren noticed that the man’s smile was forced. He wore Optimus’ face, so he knew the subtle changes in his expression and how that related to what he was feeling. Something told him this man knew more than he let on.

“While I am looking for the being I came here for, I can help your brother see the error in your creator’s ways,” the man offered.

“You won’t find anything,” Eren declared, “My father never forced a thing on me.”

The memory shifted into the aftermath of Eren and Mikasa’s first kill. The man looked down in surprise, then horror as he realized that the two children were responsible for the deaths of the three men.

“You did this...,” The man began, “As a sparkling?”

“Those three men killed Mikasa’s parents,” Eren explained, “They were going to force Mikasa into sexual slavery at the age of nine. They tried to take away the freedom of someone else, so I took away theirs.”

Eren noticed guilt appearing on the man’s face before he turned away from him.

“I understand why you did what you did,” the man began as he saw Grisha yelling at Eren outside of the cabin, “But…it is unfortunate that you had to sacrifice your innocence at that age.”

“At least you had a choice in the matter,” Zeke retorted, “I never did.”

“Dad didn’t force me to do anything,” Eren declared as he gestured to the house. “This was all my choice.”

“Grisha raised you freely,” Zeke accepted, “But that does not make him a good man. It makes him a hypocrite.”

Zeke walked away from Eren down the steps, but stopped when he saw the man watching Eren wrap his scarf around Mikasa with a warm smile.

“I don’t agree with the method,” the man began, “But I am happy that you saved her life.”

Eren wanted to throw up as the man looked at him with that same smile.

“Thank you,” the man said before noticing the guilt on Eren’s face, “Are you okay?”

“I…,” Eren began, “You look like someone I know.”

“Oh, I didn’t know,” the man insisted, “I had to get a human form to blend in with humans, but I wasn’t aware this was of someone you knew.”

“You’re acting as if you aren’t human,” Zeke remarked as he crossed his arms.

“Well, I’m not,” the man shrugged before turning back to Eren, “If you want I can find another form.”

“It’s fine,” Eren said, “I can deal with it.”

“Are you sure?” the man asked, earning a nod from Eren.

“But…who are you?” Eren asked.

“Even if I told you my name, you wouldn’t know who I am,” the man proclaimed, “Sorry.”

“I need you to stop interfering with us,” Zeke ordered the man, “I need to make my point to him.”

“But I still need help,” the man reasoned.

“This is more important than you finding some random person,” Zeke declared, “I need to save multiple people. That’s more important than saving one person.”

“For someone who wishes to save the world, you’re not very compassionate,” the man proclaimed.

Zeke blinked at the man’s word before he stormed off. The man gestured to Eren and the titan shifter followed him into the next memory.

“The person I am,” the man began, “Is he someone close to you?”

Eren thought it over before looking down despondently. “He…he’s like a father to me. And after I lost my dad, that was something I needed. But…I’m pretty sure I hurt him.”

“Hurt him?” the man questioned.

“I lied to him, hurt his feelings, did something that made him disappointed in me,” Eren listed, “I don’t think he’s going to forgive me.”

The man seemed to be deep in thought before looking back at Eren. “Perhaps there is time to apologize to him. Even if he doesn’t forgive you, it wouldn’t hurt to try, especially if he means so much to you.”

“I appreciate the thought, but I’m not going to get that chance,” Eren proclaimed.

The man raised an eyebrow at that. “What do you mean?”

Eren shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

The man shrugged. “If you’re willing to talk about it, I’d be happy to listen.”

“Um…yeah,” Eren trailed off, “How…did you even get here?”

The man raised an eyebrow as Zeke began listening in on the conversation.

“Like in this dimension?” the man asked, earning a nod from Eren, “Well as I said before, I had to send Optimus to get close. Vector was the one who had to open a portal at the exact moment in space and time in order to get into this dimension. He said it had to be an exact moment.”

So the main bulk of the dynamics hasn't really changed much, just the dialogue. Primus is trying to interact with the world of the humans. Zeke is obviously annoyed and Eren is more willing to hear Primus out due to him wearing Optimus' face. At this point, Primus hadn't revealed his name to Eren yet, but the younger of the two was still trying to put the pieces together in regards to who Primus was.

In terms of Primus asking Zeke for his intentions and motivations, a few things. I was originally thinking of making Primus aware of Zeke's plan, and wanting to give Zeke a proper chance to explain himself and why he wants to do his plan, but Zeke doesn't give the full details of his plans, knowing from experience that people tend to oppose it. But Primus is fully aware. He's not happy with Zeke's explanation, so much so that his anger and disappointment is affecting the environment around him. But Primus keeps it together for the sake of keeping up appearances.

Same thing with Eren. Primus has some knowledge of Eren's intentions and capabilities but is still playing dumb to get a much more honest reaction out of him. He's aware of Eren's relationship with Optimus and just wants to see the impact. I ultimately decided against Primus being knowledgeable about the AOT world because it ultimately does him a disservice when it comes to giving Eren a choice. Having Primus figure out everything as he goes along just seemed like the better option.

A few other scenes before I go into the final moment in chapter 90:

Primus seeing baby Eren and gushing about him:

Eren looked out of the corner of his eye to see the shadow staring at the child version of himself. There was awe and curiosity in those eyes as the child was playing with his family. Zeke noticed the expression on the shadow’s face and was also confused.

“What’s wrong?” Zeke demanded.

“I want to say something, but I said that I wouldn’t interfere with your dispute.” The shadow explained.

“...go ahead,” Zeke sighed.

The shadow slid over to the family and gestured to the smaller version of Eren. “It’s so cute!”

“Huh?!” Eren exclaimed while Zeke covered his mouth to hide his smirk.

“You were so small, and chubby!”  the shadow exclaimed as he pointed to the smaller version of himself, “Now you're so tall, and thin! And your hair is longer!...it doesn’t suit you.”

Eren blushed in embarrassment while Zeke stifled his laughter.

“Still, I’m curious as to how you’re able to turn from that into this,” the shadow said as he pointed from his younger self to the older child, “Especially in such a short amount of time.”

Zeke stopped laughing while Eren was startled.

“Fifteen years is not a short amount of time,” Eren told him.

“It isn’t?” The shadow questioned, “Hm. Maybe I’ve been in here for too long and my perception of time has been warped.”

“How long have you been in here?” Zeke asked.

The shadow thought it over before counting his fingers. He paused and thought about it again before he continued counting.

“...a long time,” the shadow responded, “There was no linear construct of time when I came to this dimension. I just know that I’ve been here for ages.”

The shadow noticed their staring and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m sorry that’s not a really solid answer.”

“This place does not follow the same construct of time as the real world,” Zeke said, “I can imagine why you would not be able to keep track.”

“I’m just glad that I have some company,” the shadow proclaimed, “Thank you for letting me accompany you.”

Showing Primus' adoration for new life while also revealing information about him to the brothers and the audience.

This scene also got cut as well, it was basically Primus talking to Friede before Grisha transformed:

 “I cannot change what will happen today,” the man told her, “This is already set in stone.”

Frieda hung her head. “My family will die, won’t they?”

“Yes,”

“I…will die,”

The man hesitated. “Yes. I am sorry I cannot save you. The guilt you must have been feeling for so long has tormented you for years. Tormented your family, and tormented your ancestors.”

“…it has,” Frieda whispered.

“You did what you could to end the suffering brought on by your ancestors,” the man proclaimed, “With what options you had, you did not do so bad. But the Eldians now do not deserve that suffering. It will continue to lead in a never ending cycle of violence. I will end the power of the titans; you have my word, but I cannot find out how. Do you happen to know that answer?”

Eren snapped out of his thoughts and yelled at his father. “Kill them right now!”

“No, father! Don’t!” Zeke pleaded.

“What guarantee can you give me that the power of the titans will end?” Frieda asked, “What guarantee can you give me that the Eldians will be safe?”

“My word,” the man answered, “It is not much, I know, but it is all that I can give you.”

Frieda looked up at the man, looked him straight in the eye to determine if he was lying. All she saw was pure honesty…and kindness. Frieda touched the man’s head with her own as Grisha muttered the courage and raised his scalpel.

“For Aunt Faye!” Eren shouted.

“She wouldn’t want this!” Zeke proclaimed.

“You started this story didn’t you?!” Eren challenged.

“That is all I can give you,” Frieda sighed solemnly as she let him go, “I have nothing else.”

The man opened his eyes and smiled at Frieda before placing his hand on her head. Frieda gasped as she saw…Historia, in a beautiful dress, looking happy as she kissed another woman by the ocean. Frieda began crying with tears a joy as the man removed his hand from her head.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“May your next life be one of peace and happiness,” the man prayed.

It was the original route of Primus being aware of everything, but I ultimately didn't go through with it because the way I wrote it out, it was implying that Primus was just going to let Frieda die at Grisha's hand. I just thought it would be better for Eren to cause trouble and have Primus' emotions ultimately influence Grisha's decision. I was also having this be a callback to Primus praying for Kruger's soul in the next life.

And finally this scene:

Eren tried to reach Ymir, to stop her from reaching the glowing tree. He was almost able to touch her, but something stopped Eren dead in his tracks. He tried to move, but he couldn’t. Ymir was almost going to reach the tree, but the man from earlier walked out of the tree. He kneeled down in front of Ymir and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a tight hug. Ymir did not move or struggle from the man, and merely stood in place.

Eren was shocked at the sight, forgetting about his current predicament. He stopped her. The guy stopped her. Who was he? Eren saw the man speaking, but couldn’t understand a word coming from his mouth. He then connected his forehead with Ymir’s in a gesture of comfort. He kissed her on her forehead and wrapped his arms around her once more.

“I found you,” he spoke.

Eren was shocked as he felt the force let him go. Zeke saw what was going on and ran towards the man.

“You can’t do this!” Zeke shouted, “Ymir, I order you!”

Ymir cried out in pain as she clutched her head. The man immediately covered her ears before glaring at Zeke. He raised his hand, and Zeke was forced to stop in his tracks. Eren looked back at the man and froze when he saw his eyes glowing an electric blue.

“Rest, little one,” he told Ymir, “I will be right back.”

He placed Ymir on the sand and laid her down. The man removed his coat and placed it over Ymir like a blanket. She curled into the warmth and fell asleep.

Eren took small steps back as he saw something glowing at the center of the man’s chest. He had blue, glowing veins throughout his arms, and his eyes…weren’t human. They resembled that of a Cybertronian.

“You said you wouldn’t interfere!” Zeke shouted.

“Zeke, shut up!” Eren warned.

“You’re right,” the man began ominously, “But I’ve seen enough to finally step in, Zeke Jaeger.”

Zeke felt himself being lifted high into the air before being slammed into the sand.

“Wait, stop!” Eren pleaded. He yelped when a forced pulled him towards the man. The man grabbed Eren’s shirt and gave an ominous look.

“Eren Jaeger,” the man bellowed, “Son of Grisha and Carla Jaeger, current holder of the Attack Titan, the foolish child who wishes to destroy the world. I’ve seen that look with Megatronus. That looks still lingers within Megatron’s eyes. And now…”

Eren looked down at the hand holding him, seeing blue lightening brim to life around it.

“I see it with you!”the man bellowed in a completely different voice, or voices. It sounded like multiple voices overlapping with one another. It was powerful, and it was haunting, and Eren was scared out of his mind. Eren began to tremble as Zeke forced himself up.

“Who are you?!” Zeke shouted, “Who the hell do you think you are?!”

“I told you, you wouldn’t know who I am,” the man declared.

“Y-you’re…,” Eren began, “You’re the creator of Cybertron, the sworn enemy to Unicron, and the creator of the original Primes. You…are Primus: Optimus’ god.”

Zeke looked at Primus in horror while Primus was surprised.

“Optimus taught you well,” Primus remarked, “But this does not change your current situation.”

Eren began gasping for air as Primus let go of his shirt. He kicked and struggled as an invisible force wrapped around his neck and began choking him.

“I have made my decision: I will kill the both of you, and I will put an end to the titans forever,” Primus declared.

Super rushed. No major impact. This was the first rough draft that I had when writing the ending moment of chapter 90. Primus is still interacting in human form and while I did have Eren be the one to put the pieces together on Optimus' identity, I figured it would be better if he had Primus' name to go off of in order to put those pieces together.

The second revision of the scene is this:

Eren ripped his hands out of his chains, tearing off his thumbs in the process. He ran towards Ymir, hoping to somehow stop her. As he reached out towards Ymir, almost being able to grab her, a blue chain wrapped tightly around his wrist and yanked him to the ground. Eren was in shock, and quickly tried to pull off the chain, but that only made it tighter. Eren cried out in pain, but still tried to reach for Ymir. Eren began choking as a blue chain wrapped around his neck, and pulled him back. Eren still tried to reach out and grab Ymir, but he couldn’t move. He...was going to fail. Zeke was going to win. It was over.

Eren was then shocked as someone stepped out of the glowing tree. It was Primus. He came back. But how? How did he go through the tree? He didn’t understand! What shook him to his core even more was that Ymir stopped in her tracks directly in front of him. She began trembling before she dropped to her knees in submission. Primus didn’t seem to notice that as he glared at Eren with such ferocity. That same gaze was directed at Zeke behind him. His gaze then shifted towards Ymir, and his expression softened. Primus could still see Ymir trembling before an expression of recognition came across his face.

“It...it’s you,” Primus spoke, “Your...the Founder Ymir.”

Primus laughed in disbelief, running a hand through his hair. “Kruger, you were right. She was just a normal girl.”

Primus covered his mouth while tears brimmed around his eyes. He kneeled down and extended his arms towards Ymir and touched her cheeks.

“I have been looking for you for so long,” Primus smiled as he rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs, “You’re beautiful.”

Primus gently placed his forehead against her own in an act of comfort. He gently moved his head from side to side before kissing Ymir on her forehead. He then pulled Ymir into a tight hug and rocked her back and forth. He gently kissed her head before petting her hair.

“After two thousand years, I finally found you,” Primus declared.

Eren could see that Ymir stopped shaking. But she was still frozen. She didn’t know how to react to his act of kindness. She then slowly fell deeper into Primus’ touch. It almost looked like she would hug him back, but-

“Ymir, what are you doing?!” Zeke shouted as he ran towards the two, “I order you! Take the Eldian’s ability to reproduce! Do it now!”

Primus covered Ymir’s ears with one arm before extending his hand towards Zeke. Primus twisted his wrist and a stream of energy flew past Eren, nearly missing his face. It pierced Zeke through his chest, locking the Titan shifter in place. Zeke choked on his spit as Primus’ eyes began to...glow. Eren noticed that same venom in his eyes, but his expression immediately turned soft as he turned his attention back to Ymir.

“You must be very tired, Little One,” Primus began, Eren noting that his voice began to… change? “Rest, and I will return for you.”

Primus laid Ymir down in the sand, making sure to be as gentle as possible. He removed his jacket and placed it over Ymir like a blanket. Primus gave a small reassuring smile to her as he brushed her hair out her eyes. Ymir fell deep into the warmth of jacket and the being’s gentle touch and fell asleep. 

Eren watched Primus close his eyes in confliction before opening them once more. The outline of his iris and pupils were gone, and they shined a bright blue. Primus stood up and extended his fingers before pulling them to himself. Zeke was dragged forward towards him before Primus held out his hand, causing Zeke to stop right next to Eren. Primus grew angry as he took slow, calculated steps to Zeke. Eren grew fearful as blue energy poured out of his chest like air. It flowed around his arms and blue grew throughout his veins. Every step he took left small shockwaves of energy beneath him. Outlines of armor appeared around his arms and legs, and thorns seemed to appear surrounding his shoulders and back in a circle. He was looking less and less human by the second.

“Zeke Jaeger,”  Primus began, multiple voices now overlapping within the being.

Zeke was completely shocked while Eren stared in disbelief. He really did know his name, but refused to say anything until now?

“Son of Grisha Jaeger and Dina Fritz,” Primus continued, “Son to Tom Xaiver. Current holder of the Beast Titan. I once felt pity for you and your situation. You were nothing more than a child who could not fight his heritage, his situation, his creators.”

Primus clenched his fists, causing Zeke to cry out in pain. A small piece of an insect was removed from his chest, floating towards Primus and landing in his open palm.

“But, that feeling of pity is no more.” Primus declared, “You have infringed your own twisted will onto your own people without asking what they want. You force others to do your bidding while ripping away their own humanity. And now, you wish to take away the right to create new life. You are undeserving, and you are a coward who hides behind a noble cause. You do not deserve this power.”

Primus crushed the sphere in his hand, causing Zeke to scream and collapse. The stream between them was cut and faded into dust. Zeke forced himself to sit up, still seeing Ymir laying in the sand. He tried to call out to her, but his voice...was mute. He couldn’t speak, no matter how hard he tried. No matter what, he couldn’t address Ymir.

Zeke turned and looked up to Primus in pure fear. “What did you do to me?”

“You may still have the powers of the Beast Titan, but you no longer have any connection to your royal blood,” Primus declared, “You will never speak to the child ever again.”

Eren grew stiff, staring at Primus with terror as the beings walked over to him and looked him dead in the eyes while he was in his chains.

“Eren Jaeger: son of Grisha Jaeger and Carla Jaeger,” Primus began, “Inheritor of the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan. I am a being that is responsible for creating life, unlike my brother, Unicron. I hold compassion for every being regardless if they are my own creation or not, and I would only raise my blade to those who would threaten that life. I would never take the life of those of the weak or the innocent.”

Primus bent down and stared at Eren with verocious hatred. “However, you are an exception.”

Eren screamed as Primus caused the chains to burn his wrist and neck. Primus flicked his hand and another chain wrapped around Eren’s other wrist. All three chains pulled Eren back and left his chest wide open. Eren tried to focus as Primus raised his hand. The energy surrounding it grew brighter and brighter as he plunged it towards Eren’s chest. Zeke quickly jumped and grabbed Primus’s arm, stopping him mere inches from his chest. Primus turned his gaze to Zeke, and he nearly wanted to drop right there.

“Zeke Jaeger, your punishment was light,” Primus told him, now a woman’s voice coming out of him, “I would suggest that you refrain from this conflict before I take the amount of lives you took into consideration for your punishment.”

“Y-you can’t,” Zeke pleaded, terrified out of his mind, “I need Eren. I have to save Eldia-,”

“By initiating the plan to prevent Eldia from creating new life,” Primus cut off, a deep male voice emanating from him, “Who gave you the right to make that choice for your people?”

Eren was both terrified and confused out of his mind. Where did all this power come from? Why was he using it now? Wait!...he said his brother was…Unicron? The god of destruction from Optimus’ world? Why the hell would Primus call him...brother?

Eren felt his stomach drop and an abyss of despair came into his mind. This...couldn’t be real. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t real! He was going to die! All this time, they were with a higher being! They were with a god!

“Who…?” Zeke let go of Primus and stumbled back into the sand, “Who the hell are you?”

Zeke desperately crawled backward. “I’m of royal blood, but not once have you heeded my orders. You...just came out of the Paths, and...you took my power? Who are you?! How do you know me?! How do you know my story?!”

“Even if I told you,” Primus began, the multiple voices overlapping once more, “You wouldn’t know. It wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

“Y-you…,” Eren choked on his spit as he struggled to breathe, “You said that...Unicron was your brother. That name…Optimus s-aid is the god of chaos and destruction. His blood is currently in Megatron right now-!”

Eren bent over and choked on his spit. He took deep breaths before looking up at Primus. “So the only one who would be able to counteract destruction would be a god of creation.”

“God?” Zeke stared up at Primus in horror.

“You...created Cybertron. You...are Unicron’s sworn enemy. You...created the Primes, including Optimus. You...are Primus: the god of creation, and the god of Cybertron.”

Zeke’s whole body was shaking as he stared at Primus. That had to be wrong. Those titans can’t have gods, could they? And if so, what was one doing here? This had to be a joke; Eren had to be toying with him. He-

“Optimus taught you well,” Primus spoke, “I should have expected that from his own student.”

Zeke shook his head in disbelief. Oh no! All this time, all the times this man was playing coy with them, pretending to be weak and defenseless! He was lying?! He was a god this whole time?!

“Y-you can’t be a god-,” Zeke stuttered, truly scared, “You’re just-...what?”

“One tends to be more honest when they don’t recognize a god in the room,” Primus declared, “But what’s done is done. Now, I will take the Little One with me. I will kill you, Eren Jaeger, and I will end the power of the Titans forever.”

There's more weight, more force, Primus is showing off his power instead of still being in human form. However, with Eren, instead of Primus having controlled anger with Eren, I wanted him to feel rage and fury for Eren. That got me reworking a few other things, like making Primus lack knowledge about the AOT world and about Optimus actually being on that world until Eren blabs about it in a rage.

There were a few other scenes that got reworked, but not too much in order to make a significant difference to put here, like Eren and Primus' conversation atop of Grisha's house, which was initially atop of the wall before Primus revealed his name. Zeke actually getting physical with Primus after the deity says Grisha is a good man. The festival scene and Grisha and Carla's conversation didn't have a previous rough draft, but it was something that I have thought about.

Anyway, that's all I have. Enjoy! I'll talk about chapter 91 alternate scenes another day!

[ageless-aislynn]

List 7 comfort films and tag 7 people:

I was tagged by the always ever-awesome @missoliverstark Thanks, hon!

Twilight

Hey, man, don't judge me. 😐

😂 I can't explain it but, if I'm stressed out, I can put on the first Twilight and just chill. It is what it is. 🤷‍♀️

2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Technically, the entire trilogy fits the bill but I've literally seen Fellowship several hundred times by now. I bought the Special Edition DVD set for Fellowship before I even owned a DVD player, lol! I eventually got to the point where I could not only recite the English dialogue, I could recite the Elvish as well. This movie has been burned into my brain and I wouldn't have it any other way. 🤗

3. The Mummy (1999)

I'm not saying I've watched this movie a lot but... well, I wore out my VHS copy. The image literally faded out in places. It's one of the few, if possibly only movies that I own in 3 formats: VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Considering how much I adore it, I'm floored that I've never actually vidded it yet. Oh well, there's still time; I mean, an Ardeth Bay tribute to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" would totally work, right? 😇

4. Ladyhawke

This one has proved redonkulously hard to find a decent transfer on DVD or Blu-ray, so I haven't seen it in ages. That said, it's another I watched SO many times on VHS and it's definitely one of the formative movies of my life. 😍

5. Beauty and the Beast

I enjoyed the live action version as well but I'll give it to the classic animated version for this reply because I've seen it more. 🤗

6. Godzilla vs Kong

Okay, so is a giant radioactive lizard and a giant gorilla beating the stuffing out of each other supposed to be a comfort movie? Probably not but it's just one I enjoy watching when I want to kinda chillax, so... 🤷‍♀️😂😉

7. Star Wars

Technically, Empire Strikes Back is the one of the original trilogy I tend to default to but I've seen A New Hope and Return of the Jedi a lot as well. Any of them just takes me back to a simpler time as well as reminds me where my love of fictional scoundrels comes from. 😉

Honorable mentions:

TRON/TRON Legacy, Labyrinth, Terminator/T2: Judgment Day, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and Warm Bodies. Yes, I have weird tastes and odd ideas as to what makes a comfort movie, lol! 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️😉

No pressure tags: @coleishere @ghostslillady @authortobenamedlater @mrtobenamedlater @sarnakhwritesthings @helplessdreamersworld @fandomdancer @brianllama

And yes, I lost count but who even cares, right? 😛😂 Also, if you're reading this and would like to share your comfort movies, I'd absolutely love for you to! Please accept this as an official tag from me! *boops your nose politely* 💖🤗

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

First meditation with Khaos, the vast void of space

Quick warnings: this is a pretty long post, but I'm using it as a way to record everything I remember happening during this meditation so it has things other than just what happened with Khaos! This is also actually originally written weeks ago, I just left it in my drafts for ages whoops.

Another note: I won't be using only she/her pronouns for Khaos in the future, although I don't think they give a singular fuck either way, I just am tired today and wanted to get this posted without having to edit it.

UPG disclaimer. Even the title is UPG, my personal associations with Khaos.

So, I had things to do and decided I wanted to have a proper chat with Loki about it. I started up my meditation music, grabbed whatever crystals felt right, and laid down.

One of the first things they did was hug me. I am someone who has issues with receiving love, and this caught me entirely off guard. Of course I go "wtf bitch you can't do that???" And he basically told me something along the lines of "fuck you I do what I want." (Note: Loki is deeply salty that I cannot remember their actual wording, as it did not have the boundary breaking "I hug you if I want no matter your thoughts on it" implications this wording does. Loki is big on boundaries being respected with me. I feel the need to write that down.)

But we chatted about a spell I was planning, and Loki- who promptly draped himself across a couple logs all dramatically- was very enthusiastic about helping. We went back and forth, I also brought up Apollo to say hello, and then I felt... someone on the edge of things. Apollo was pretty abruptly gone, which makes sense for reasons I'll explain in a moment.

Loki stepped beside me, and sort of had their arm over my shoulders in a distinctly protective manner. Thing is, nothing felt malicious, and I asked them why the hell they seemed so protective when I felt perfectly safe. They explained that I was safe, but "she's pretty fucking intimidating so you might need someone to keep you steady."

Enter Khaos. I realized it was her because instead of a humanoid, or even recognizable form, suddenly within the protected astral space I go when I meditate (I'll just call it "homespace" from now on) is this massive fucking orb of void.

Except this is much bigger, and the orb I was met with was only... "half" of one. Like it'd been sliced, a few solid chunks cut out, like when a video game renders wrong and certain chunks won't load. I actively tried to imagine it as whole, to change it- it wouldn't budge. When I took the above screenshot as a reference, seeing how tiny my character was compared to the in-game thing that I compared Khaos to, it brought a whole new meaning to Loki's explanation as to why it was only half of an orb.

"She's trying not to scare you."

Loki assured me that they would be with me the whole time, that we were not leaving homespace and the orb was completely within the protection of homespace, and we walked in. It was pitch black, void all around, and I could see Loki as if he was lit up in the middle of day but that was it. Khaos came out of the void, sort of appearing out of the "wall" of darkness- being formed from it herself as if it were liquid. I asked her what she had to say.

She looked at me, just smiled, and said "good luck."

I admit, I laughed. I pointed out that THAT sounded ominous as hell. I knew what she meant- she was genuinely wishing me luck, since I have a lot of growth ahead of me and working with her is going to be a pretty big deal for me. But at the time, I couldn't help but laugh. Later, when I was recounting this to my mom, I got a very clear image of hands of darkness holding a bright orb of light. Offering it to me. It wasn't just wishing me luck. It was a gift.

Not long after that, I was suddenly made more aware of my physical body in the form of an ant crawling across me. I got the ant off of me, and went back- only to find that I couldn't just go back to the void we were standing in. Loki met me where we originally had started, and confirmed that I wasn't able to go into her space uninvited. I told them I couldn't go through the process of getting further into a meditative state and walking back into the void, and they said it was okay.

And I swear to you, I'm not fucking with you when I say this is exactly what was said next.

Me: "So... It's so interesting- Is the only way to talk to her to go into the void, be consumed by her energy entirely?"

Khaos, suddenly behind me: "Sort of, but not entirely no."

Me, finding out that my startle reflex is just as bad in the astral: "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST-"

Khaos: "No." (As in no, she's not Jesus. /Lh I just feel like it might not be clear!)

You guys. She wasn't even trying to be funny. I adore Khaos already I'm gonna have a fucking great time.

[babyrdie]

A moment to appreciate the fact that Bacchylides basically wrote Heracles talking to Meleager's shade (he's dead) in a "oh my hot friend, how did you die? Oh my god, how tragic! Tell me, is there a pretty thing like you in your family that I could marry? Oh, your sister Deianira looks just like you and is single? Interesting" kind of way. Like lol sorry I can't help but find it funny. Meleager just lamenting his mess of life and early death and Heracles being like "don't be sad, you're so hot"

Some excerpts to explain what I'm talking about.

Here we have Heracles specifically noticing Meleager since Meleager is apparently wearing shiny armor and Heracles is already prepared to shoot him with his bow, but Meleager assures him that there is no reason for Heracles to worry about him being a problem. And then we have Heracles' response, which is basically him wanting to know how Meleager died, but the funny part is that the first line is "what god or mortal raised SUCH A FINE YOUNG PLANT AS YOU?" which is… well. Come on, Heracles, focus on your labor. Don't be thirsty.

Among them, the shade of Porthaon's bold, spear-wielding descendant stood out. When the marvellous hero, son of Alcmene, saw him shining in his armor, he stretched the clear-sounding bowstring onto his bow, and opened the lid of his quiver and drew out a bronze-tipped arrow. But the soul of Meleager appeared in front of him and spoke to him, knowing him well: "Son of great Zeus, stand where you are, and calm your spirit — Do not shoot a harsh arrow from your hands in vain against the souls of those who have perished. You have no need to fear." So he spoke. And the son of Amphitryon was astonished, and said, "What god or mortal raised such a fine young plant as you? In what land? Who killed you? No doubt Hera with her beautiful belt will soon send that killer after me. But that must be the concern of golden-haired Pallas.

And then we have an immensely long answer from Meleager explaining the chaos that was his life. As we already know, his father accidentally offends Artemis, Artemis gets angry, the Calydonian boar thing, there is a fight between two peoples, Meleager kills his uncles, etc etc and, finally, Meleager's mother kills him by burning the piece of wood that was linked to Meleager's life. I won't put it here because is VERY long, but if you want the full text just search for Ode 5 of Bacchylides. Anyway, then Heracles, having heard this long chaotic story from this hot shade, says:

They say that was the only time that the son of Amphitryon, fearless in battle, ever wetted his eyes with tears, pitying the fate of the man who endured grief. And he answered him in this way: "For mortals it is best never to be born, never to look on the light of the sun. But there is no profit in lamenting this; one must speak of what can be accomplished. Is there, in the halls of battle-loving Oineus, any daughter, unsubdued by love, whose appearance is like yours? I would gladly make her my splendid bride."

That is, Heracles gives a quick "well, that's really sad. But what can we do about it? There's nothing else to do" and then he literally asks if Meleager happens to have a sister who looks like him because Heracles is really interested in marrying her. And what's Meleager's reaction? Well:

And to him the soul of Meleager, steadfast in battle, answered: "I left behind at home Deianeira, with her neck like a fresh olive; golden Cypris, charmer of mortals, is still unknown to her."

This is even more hilarious because these excerpts are from Diane Arnson Svarlien's translation, but I actually read this ode in a Brazilian translation and, man, there were two explanatory notes in that edition that… oh my god. I'm going to put those two notes here in an improvised translation. If you understand Portuguese, at the end of the post I'll show you how it's written in the original.

The image of "sprout" Meleager (line 87, érnos) recalls several passages of archaic poetry in which the praise of youthful beauty is constructed in this type of vegetal metaphor, associated with the idea of ​​divine nutrition (lines 86-88). I commented on it in Ibycus Fr.288. With an eroticizing tone, present in Heracles' line in this ode, it's emphasized by the fact that Meleager's beauty is praised again (lines 165-169) when the son of Zeus proposes to marry the virgin who is as beautiful as Meleager and who is related to him.

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 223 nota 35.

If in Heracles' speech the beauty of Meleager is projected onto a virgin he would marry as a way of doing a favor to the suffering dead, the epithet khloraúkhena ("lush", verse 172) reinforces this projection, since it reflects in Deianira the image of Meleager-sprout (verses 86-88). This is because khlorós, which is part of it, characterizes the green of the grass, a metaphor for panic (Sappho Fr. 31), or a mark of the vigor of young plants and young humans, as in its use in this ode, in which it cannot be dissociated from youth and beauty, of an erotic quality inherent to the dimension of gámos (wedding).

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 226 nota 52.

And then I read ANOTHER TEXT in that same edition, a text that was by Pindar (Pythian Ode 9) and not by Bacchylides, and I discovered that there is apparently a similarity between the scene in which Heracles is enchanted by Meleager and the scene in which Apollo is enchanted by Cyrene (detail: the text is literally about Apollo's erotic interest in Cyrene, because of the relationship this has with the mythical founding of the colony Cyrene, which in turn is the home of the athlete being honored in this). Like okaaaaaay guys!

Both questions (verse 34) echo those of Hercules marveling before Meleager (lines 86-88) in Bacchylides' Epinicius 5.

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 262 nota 78.

For context: Apollo's question that echoes Heracles' is the one he asks Chiron regarding Cyrene's lineage.

Anyway, I know that this Ode 5 of Bacchylides actually has a cool meaning and all, connected with celebrating victory while being careful of other people being jealous etc etc and that part of the Heracles-Meleager-Deianira thing has to do with Heracles wanting to please the dead and suffering Meleager by promising to marry Deianira etc etc, but this part is just hilarious.

E aqui estão as notas não traduzidas, para os que entendem português:

A imagem do Meleagro "broto" (verso 87, érnos) recorda vários passos da poesia arcaica em que o elogio da beleza juvenil se constrói nesse tipo de metáfora vegetal, associada à ideia de nutrição divina (versos 86-88). Comentei-a no Fr.288 de Íbico. De tonalidade erotizante, presente na fala de Herácles nessa ode, é realçada pelo fato de que a beleza de Meleagro volta a ser louvada (versos 165-169) quando o filho de Zeus se propõe a desposar a virgem que for bela como Meleagro e que com ele tiver parentesco.

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 223 nota 35.

Se na fala de Héracles a beleza de Meleagro é projetada numa virgem que desposaria como forma de fazer um benefício ao morto sofredor, o epíteto khloraúkhena ("vicejante", verso 172), reforça tal projeção, pois reflete em Dejanira a imagem do Meleagro-broto (versos 86-88). Isso porque khlorós, que integra sua parte, caracteriza o verde da relva, metáfora do pânico (Fr.31 de Safo), ou marca do vigor das plantas jovens e de jovens humanos, como em seu uso nesta ode, em que não pode ser dissociado da juventude e da beleza, de qualidade erótica inerente à dimensão do gámos (boda).

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 226 nota 52.

Ambas as perguntas (verso 34) ecoam as de Héracles maravilhado diante de Meleagro (versos 86-88) no Epinício 5, de Baquílides.

Lira grega: Antologia da Poesia Arcaica por Giuliana Ragusa, pg 262 nota 78.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Armando Mendoza: A Brief Analysis

Hey, how are you? It's been a while. This will be a lil update so if you want you can skip down to the [GREEN] to start with the post :)

It's been a hectic few months. I finally decided to stop setting it aside and get real about my writing and begun the tedious task of editing the final draft of my original manuscript. I'm a perfectionist(Although if we're considering my posts about YSBLF as an example of that, than you wouldn't expect it lol. I suppose that's what I get for writing post when I haven't had a lick of sleep and don't stop to take breaks while writing the posts and then, half brain dead, I sit down to "edit" the grammar). When it comes to something that truly means a lot to me I do not feel satisfied until it has reached my exact expectations. I've made a few updates on my writing and how it's been going. There's some exciting development on it but I want to wait a little more to be able to fully talk about it and share the news with y'all.

That being said; I still have not continued watching YSBLF since the last time I did a post about the show, y'know, life and all but without further ado, here is the post :)

Armando Mendoza: An Objective and A Not So Deep Dive

Now that I've had some time and space away from the show, I can look at the characters in a more objective manner. I've been considering a lot of things regarding them and I feel like this post might come right out of left field —seeing how I normally seem to "defend" Armando, or some might assume I do— and this post will most likely not do that. In reality, it won't. It'll rightfully so call him out.

See, the stark difference between Marcela and Armando, not personality wise, but writing wise, is that Marcela doesn't really have a backstory. Her past is pretty blurry and the very few clear images we get of it always paint her to be the exact same person. However with Armando his past, while also not clear, is more visible and a little bit more precise than hers. In the post I made for Marcela I wasn't as empathetic as I should have been.

Marcela's past is basically unknown and the very little information we do get doesn't paint her in the best of lights. However, that doesn't mean that she deserved or that what Armando was doing to her was okay. I should have said that in her post. I placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that while Marcela had a right to feel what she did, she didn't have a right to act the way she was. Feelings are valid, actions are not.

Well same goes for Armando.

Armando could have been dating a helicopter as a girlfriend, someone who was possessive and controlling of him, but that doesn't justify nor excuse his horrible behavior towards her. While yes, one could assume that his cheating had to do with his lack of control with life, it still doesn't justify or excuse it. Nothing, ever, justifies cheating.

As I said in the Marcela post: This isn't about her so I won't be explaining her reasoning, her behavior, her actions, or anything of those sorts, therefore, don't take it as me excusing her bad behavior. It's simply being mentioned.

With modern times come modern solutions. Nowadays it's very easy to be able to pick up your phone and google something, read a self-help book, find the root of your childhood trauma and even a therapist. Child development isn't easy to understand to the naked eye and you have to have years of experience on the subject to fully understand how point A gets to point B. I'm no expert of it, just done some basic research on certain topics of childhood trauma and such so while I might have some form of understanding, it's not an exactitude on the subject.

We can estimate that Armando had emotionally absent parents, witnesses how his parents turned their backs on his sister for falling in love with a poor man and the way the elite society they're a part of was about the whole subject. How do we draw to this conclusion?

His father doesn't even know what he went to college for or what he got his degree on. His mother coddles him, only when he acts to her standards, enables a horrible relationship that does not benefit neither her biological son or her basically-adopted daughter. Quite the contrary the show does a good job at showing the drastic parallels of Betty's relationship with her parents compared to Armando and his parents. Consider the fact that any time Armando is on screen with his parents they only talk about two things: His relationship with Marcela and the company.

They don't sound like the warmest of parents do they?

I talk a lot about being a writer and how knowing your characters IS one of the most crucial and important parts of developing your story. I mention this because when you write characters, fleshed out ones, you have at the very least an understanding of their past. Not an exact one, but an understanding in order to have them say the things they do and act the way they do.

Roberto was always cold towards Armando, from the very start. He clearly showed signs that he didn't very much care for him. He cared more about the company, his wife, Daniel, Marcela, Beatriz, and then, at the very end, Armando. With obvious reasons we understand why Roberto didn't trust Armando. It's always been told that he's always been a player, doesn't commit, and is immature, plus with the devil on his shoulder he calls a best friend, Armando isn't the most trustworthy.

Yet, that does not excuse Roberto's lousy father role in his son's life. Children need strong(by that I mean emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually present) male role models in their lives, especially father figures. I've said it before that it could be a possibility that Armando's childhood was very much with an emotionally distant father. This creates the perfect breeding ground for a child to constantly feel like they must excel in every part of their lives(perfectionism), have an anxious attitude, a fear of losing the love of their loved ones if they aren't excelling(low self-esteem), and other difficulties. Basically this ball of fear, resentment, anger, perfectionism, and anxiousness(being avoidant) . These issues on their own bring their separate problems that mixed together make for an unlikeable person. I don't know about you, but this sounds a lot like Armando.

Of course there's people who grew up with emotionally unavailable parents and grew up to be fully companionate, kind, loving, and wonderful people. That's the tricky thing about trauma, not one size fits all. Just because two people grew up the same doesn't mean they'll deal with it the same way.

Emotionally absent parents equal physically absent parents when it comes to their children's development.

His mother was the same, though, unlike Roberto, Margarita did love Armando and was present but very conditional with her love. You can have examples of this when Armando and Marcela would be fighting. She always took Marcela's side and pressured Armando to continue the relationship. She also guilted Marcela into staying with Armando. She was never there to comfort her son when he was at his lowest or even before. She was just only ever present in his life and made an effort to talk to him when it came to his engagement to Marcela. Plus, the whole causing Camila to divorce her husband and move to a different country fiasco.

Armando did a fine job of taking after his parents, as he is a perfect reflection of them.

There's one thing that Armando said that has ran laps around my brain for a while now; "I know I did things wrong, damnit I always do!" outside of el Meson.

He's aware of the things he does, even if it's at the heat of the moment, Armando is a self-aware jester, who never cared enough to change until he lost everything.

This change, while outside forces moved him to change, were not the reason why he changed. That's another message that is lost with this show.

Armando didn't change because he fell in love with Betty. Armando only learned to be brave enough to be the person he always aspired to be, because he fell in love. Doesn't matter who he fell in love with, he simply did. The love he received from Betty only taught him to be brave enough to love the same.

The same way Betty was naïve to how depraved any man can be, whether educated or not, rich, poor, or from a "high" society or lower class, Armando too was naïve to what was actually good and bad because he never really had parents that cared enough to teach him. Now this in no way frees Armando from accountability. Lets not forget that the whole point of his personality at the beginning of the story is that he sucks, and is a horrible man.

[TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE.]

Sex addiction is a serious addiction. As I've mentioned before, in one of my earliest posts, that Armando shows to have signs of it but I'm no expert so I wouldn't say he does. For example, his affairs often cause issues in his relationship, his professional life, and for himself. While he's aware of all the risk that these affairs cause in his life, he still part takes in them! These are all signs that he has an addiction. However, I don't think that was the intent behind this part of his personality when he was being written, simply there to show how he was a Casanova of sorts.

These are all things I've already talked about in different posts but I wanted to dive a little bit deeper here in case some people haven't read those.

Let's get to the real juicy stuff now.

Armando's horrible, terrible, abusive, treatment of women.

Yeah Armando defended Aura, he wasn't a misogynist, and he didn't abuse his position of power nor assaulted any women(not talking about the constant harassment of Betty after she found the letter yet). Still, Armando was abusive.

He constantly manipulated women into believing he was serious about them just to use them, he gaslit —not only Marcela but all his side chicks— people in order to control a situation, and at times even got physical. Let's not forget the hair pulling, choking, and dragging of Karla, Marce, and Larson. Let's not forget Betty! While he never hit them, the way he acted, was not okay!

Armando was aggressive, he was controlling, and he was manipulative. God, he was awful!

There's no excuse or even a justification for him in this part.

While you can argue that his intentions weren't to harm those girls, he still did it. The moment they didn't behave to his standards, he removed his "love"(infatuation) from them. Does that sound similar to a pattern? like someone else? (Margarita).

However Marcela for this instance was a victim of his. His constant cheating made her so controlling, resentful, and bitter.

A cycle starts somewhere. Whether it be Marce being possessive from the get go of their relationship or Armando cheating first, somewhere the cycle began.

One thing I want to make clear is that both Marcela and Armando were abusive and victims of each other.

From the start of the novela Armando isn't a good person. He's horrible. However, he was meant to be charismatic, which would cause people to over-look those red flags.

There's a lot of sides to Armando's character and that's what makes him complex.

There's obvious reason as to why Armando, in a sense, has some redeeming qualities compared to the people he's surrounded by. You know, he feels remorse for the way he acts, especially towards Marce and Betty. He feels the pressure of not letting his parents down and the responsibility of keeping people employed. However, even if it's remorse, the problem always lays in the fact that he doesn't truly change.

In this half of the post I'm focusing more on his relationship with Marcela.

I've talked about reactionary abuse, toxic relationships, abusive tactics, and patterns in all of my posts regarding Armando and Marcela. I've explained in a simplified way and yet I feel like some people either reject the idea or only want to blame one party.

What makes Marcela and Armando's relationship toxic and not D.A. is that they both enable each other and their bad habits. See, even if Armando were the one that started the conflicts, Marcela also acts out abusively. Basically they up one another in any fight. As if saying "Oh so you're going to threaten to leave? Fine! Then I'll ruin your life! If you leave me it would be like losing my parents all over again." while the other responds with "Marrying you is simply a favor to you! If you speak up about this than the wedding is off!" get the idea?

Marcela enables Armando by acting out in her rage, further pushing him to act out in his cheating and gaslighting. Armando enables Marcela by his cheating and gaslighting. They both feed the cycle and reject any accountability for their actions.

What makes this drastically different in what a typical D.A situation in where the abused reacts abusive(aka mirrors their abuser) is that they BOTH switch sides. One moment Armando is the abuser, the one with the upper hand in the relationship and then, the next, Marcela is the one that is being abusive and in control. Often times they bounce off each other. It's not Armando constantly and only being the Abuser with Marcela mirroring him. They BOTH DO THIS.

However, at the very least, Armando at the end of the series took accountability and broke the cycle.

When you write two explosive and complex characters meant to be together you have to separate them from each other. By this I mean that Marcela is her own person away from Armando, just like Armando is his own person away from Marcela. Together, however, they are a volcanic eruption. While, for Marcela, this can translate to just being passionate and intense, for Armando it can be an absolute tragedy that must continue in order to keep every party of people in his life "happy" while in the end, at the very least, he has his affairs to give him something.

Together Armando and Marcela are a horrible duo because all they do is cause harm to one another. That's what makes their relationship toxic, not one sided abuse.

One can argue that the ONLY reason Marcela acted this way was because of Armando, meaning, if you remove the cause of the problem, the issue would be resolved, right?

Not entirely as we're often shown and told that Marcela is this way with everyone. She keeps up with public appearances for the sake of their elite society but she treats people outside of her economic class poorly, en fin she treats anyone that isn't to her standards poorly and inhumanly. What does this tell us? That she on her own is toxic and abusive so even if she were in a healthy relationship, her prejudice and expectations of things causes her to be this way.

Armando was a cause of the problems in the relationship! That's where the tricky part and what makes them complex, is.

We know that Armando and Marcela were basically forced to be together, or groomed. From a young age all they've heard is how they must be together to unite the families, how her dead parents wanted that more than anything. That's placing a lot of pressure on two people.

However, even if this were the case(which it is) Armando's go about and treatment of Marcela was not okay. For the sake of this post let's say that Armando is the reason Marcela is the way she is(meaning we ignore her personality all together). He caused her to be possessive, controlling, toxic, and cold. Marcela was once a kind and sweet person who did nothing but show devotion and adoration for him, and Armando's constant cheating and lying pushed her to be this way.

Armando could have handled it a lot better. If he felt obligated to be with Marcela from the get go, he could have at the very least, like the very minimum treated her as a human being, and not cheated. That's the very least she deserved.

Obviously, we don't know how the start of their relationship was like. All we know is that when they got engaged that he made a promise to Marcela to be faithful and that Marcela knew about the affairs. We know that Armando and Marcela at least had somewhat of a "happy" relationship, despite the affairs and fights they'd get into. (Which this on it's own establishes that Marcela was fully aware of Armando's unfaithfulness before their engagement, that and his promises to be faithful show us that it's been a problem for years.)

Let's consider this; If Armando fell for Betty when she was ugly SIMPLY because of the adoration and devotion she had for him, why didn't he do that with Marcela at the start?

Had she held this devotion and adoration for Armando from the start it would imply that Armando would have fallen for her, same way he did with Betty, and therefore Marcela would have never turned out to be the way she did, right?

Let's be honest here. That's the sole reason why Armando even began to have some sort of confused emotions towards Betty. It made him feel good, boosted his pride and ego, and tide with the fact he trusted her, he liked Betty. So if Marcela would have been the same way at the start, don't you think Armando would have felt the same? Therefore he wouldn't had cheated on Marcela?

Again, that sounds like I'm solely blaming Marcela for the dissolvement of their relationship but I'm not.

Armando is part/responsible for Marcela's possessiveness in their relationship and there's no excuse for it.

What is cheating and why do people cheat?

Cheating can range from emotional intimacy with another person that isn't your partner to physical. The physical can range from simple hand holding to full blown intercourse.

(source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-people-in-relationships-cheat/#:~:text=The%20participants%20admitted%20to%20cheating,desire%2C%20and%20situation%20or%20circumstance.)

In the article linked as a source it mentions that most partners cheat due to a lack of validation, love, or due to neglect in their relationship. What does this tell us?

While cheating is not a valid response to whatever is a lack in a relationship, there's always a valid reason the person feels the way they do. Let me say that again. Cheating is not valid, but the emotions of the person who is cheating, are. Cheating is not valid, but emotions are. What does this mean? (Unless we're talking about a narcissistic abuser. In that case, no. They are not valid) This is overall just a an idea of why cheating occurs in otherwise "healthy" relationships.

If you feel like your relationship lacks validation, love, neglectful, abusive, or there's no spark or desire: LEAVE or go to couple's therapy and work on it with your partner(EXCEPT FOR THE ABUSIVE ONE. LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! There is help for you.).

Emotions are valid, actions are not. A person's feelings are valid but that does not excuse nor justify cheating.

While Armando's cheating was a huge reason why they had fights and arguments, there had to be a reason why he cheated in the first place and while his emotions were valid, his actions were not.

His cheating could have very well begun at the start of the relationship feeling as if he had no real control over his life because of his parents persistent push for him to be with Marcela, which means it had nothing to with Marcela, everything to do with his parents, and ultimately this caused Marcela to be so possessive. Or it could have simply been Marcela who was like that from the start because she too had to deal with the ever guilting of Margarita's "this is what your parents always wanted, for you two to be together and unite the families." In all honesty the real villain of this show is Margarita.

Yes, their relationship was a paradox of sorts. If they broke up, Armando would lose the presidency, the company would dissolve, his parents would hate him, and he'd be a failure. Marcela wouldn't have really lost anything except Armando.

We can go with the 'could have' and 'should have' or 'what if's', but at the end of the day all we've got is what is actually canon in the show and not just speculation.

A few weeks ago I saw this video on my IG feed of FG talking about the ending of YSBLF. He said he didn't give them their happily ever after, since Armando was Betty's executioner(verdugo).

If the writer himself is saying that Armando wasn't all that amazing, I suppose that means he wasn't.

Yes, Armando went through a redemption arc but even then, Armando wasn't the best person. He was simply a better version of himself. He learned to be honest, to view people as his equals, women as humans and not properties, and to be selfless and caring, that's a huge difference from the Armando from the beginning but Armando was still neurotic. He was still a control freak, and was prone to his anger outburst.

However, this is realistic! Armando didn't change to be the perfect man that was deserving of Betty. He came to be real. He had his traumas and he was healing from them. The love of Betty didn't fix him, contrary, when she stopped showing a pure love towards him, osea, removed her love from him, Armando had no other choice but to LEARN to love properly. In order to do that, he needed to revaluate himself, his goals, his life, and what had pushed him to such a low point in his life and the ironic thing is that Armando's low point wasn't him drunk and suicidal at the bar that night. Armando's low point was the moment he agreed to manipulate Betty in order to retain her devotion and the company.

The downfall of Armando began the moment the novela started. It was a slow trickling drip from the throne he believed he deserved for simply existing and just as that, so was Marcela's.

Unlike with Betty, who was basically seduced to be bad, Armando and Marcela's downfall began from the very beginning.

So many people dismiss the abysmal abuse that was plain in the novela when it's the women acting out this way but are quick to crucify any male who acts the same way.

Now, I'm not saying Armando was only a victim of circumstance because that's not true. If I believed anyone was a victim to circumstance I'd say it was Marcela or Betty.

Why?

Because Armando, with chest puffed in pride, cleared headed, and sober CHOSE to manipulate these women. That's the abhorrent part of his character. That above all he always wanted to save his own skin and while his feelings were complex as to why, at the very end of it, he didn't want to deal with the repercussions.

While Armando wanted to be good, to prove he could be good, to himself, Marcela, and his parents, there lacked a true conviction in him. He felt like he needed to be good in order to have his parents love and approval and one of those things was that he also marry Marcela but he didn't feel inspired to be good.

There's a difference between knowing what's good, wanting to do good, and feeling inspired to be good. See, with inspiration comes motivation and with motivation comes action.

Writing complex characters means that good motives are acted out wrong. It means that bad motives are disguised as good acts. Not fully good, not entirely evil.

When you get to know your characters the rest of the story comes to you naturally and by that I mean that the actions they take, the words they speak, how they are, kind of rolls out of you naturally. You need to know your characters before you sit down to write your story.

Armando's actions are horrible. He was abusive but he was also a victim and I know someone is probably wondering "well why aren't you talking about the way he was towards Betty when she found the letter?" and that's simple.

Armando perfectly mirrored Marcela and Betty perfectly mirrored Armando.

I mentioned this in the Marcela Valencia post but I'll try and talk a bit more about it here.

Armando's constant abuse and violation of Betty is an exact mirroring of Marcela, however, he still chose to act this way knowing that instead of drawing Betty closer to him, that he'd push her further away and while in moments of lucidness Armando attempted to resolve the issues he had with Betty in a calm manner, she wasn't on the same page.

Armando chased Betty all over the place, threw jealousy fits, and forced himself onto her. Marcela did the exact same to him.

However, here's the tricky part of it.

Betty.

Betty was the perfect mirror of Armando. She lied to him, manipulated him, and "cheated" on him. The same way he was towards Marcela.

Obviously this is a simplified version of it but it's the same thing at the end of the day.

Had Betty never acted this way, would Armando have treated her the way he had?

To a lesser degree, I do think so.

I think he would have manipulated her and that he would have thrown some jealousy fit here and there.

See the thing is that if Betty had never given him a taste of his own medicine Armando would have never changed. No matter how much he wanted to or how badly he was in love with Betty.

Armando, to his core, was a coward. That's what he was in the story. Due to this he resorted to manipulation and cheating.

While some of his actions were due to some sort of trauma or the fear of rejection, and came from a place of hurt and self-preservation, Armando still acted wrong.

At least at the end Armando took accountability for his actions and somewhat changed his ways. Was he deserving of getting the girl? Not entirely but was Betty deserving of getting Armando? Not entirely and see that's the problem with writing romance.

Often times the most important bit of the story is cut out because "people don't want to see the reconciliation, they just want to hear about it. "

From what I know, Betty never took accountability for the way she treated Armando after she found the letter and this I will later discuss whenever I get around to watching YSBLF and write a post about the episode but in simpler words: Betty chose to exact revenge on Armando and yes, her emotions were so valid! but her actions were not!

Betty treated Armando the exact same way Armando treated Marcela.

Lastly, I've said Armando is a complex character from the start and while that may be true, this complexity does not excuse his horrible behavior because complexities never do.

Well, I hope y'all enjoy this long over due post, and I apologize for the long hiatus on the YSBLF breakdown posts.

Also, again, sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, I'm working on it! Lol.

'Til next time :)

[ncisfranchise-source]

Did NCIS: Origins‘ Gibbs create rule 12 because of his feelings for Lala? Austin Stowell thinks so.

“There’s a reason that people who work together sometimes end up getting together. It’s that they understand each other,” Stowell, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly. “There’s a lot of Lala in Gibbs and vice versa that they see a bit of a mirror image. But they’re both very stubborn.”

Stowell noted that the chemistry between Gibbs and Lala (Mariel Molino) could not have come at a worse time.

“At this point, we’re still just months after Gibbs lost his wife and child. Even if those emotions are creeping in, he probably is quieting them and feeling as if he shouldn’t have those feelings,” the actor explained. “If his wife and daughter were still alive, he would be with them. It is only because of their death — their murder — that he blames himself for that he’s even in the position and interacting with the people he’s with.”

NCIS: Origins follows a young Gibbs — a role originated by Mark Harmon — years prior to the events of NCIS. The new series picks up less than a year after Gibbs’ wife and daughter were killed. During season 1, Gibbs starts a new job as a special agent at the NIS Camp Pendleton office while still dealing with the aftermath of losing his family.

“The turmoil that probably causes him [is obvious]. [This week’s] episode was a great example of that, where you see Gibbs and Lala physically getting intimate for the first time and having to work together,” Stowell told Us. “That’s where their bond is created. When you go through experiences with another person — particularly ones where you have to overcome a certain endeavor and succeed — that can be a real bonding memory for the two of you. That event can be the catalyst for something more.”

Despite Gibbs and Lala’s obvious tension, the potential couple is “very cognizant” of the fact that they are coworkers.

“It would not be a good idea. Rule 12, we haven’t seen that rule get written yet. It might be in [Gibbs’] box, I’m not sure,” Stowell explained about the list Gibbs created for himself. “But he might not have had a reason to write that rule if he was with [his wife] Shannon already. So there might be some edits to the rules coming up.”

NCIS fans already know that rule 12 states that Gibbs should “never date a coworker.” Stowell doesn’t know if that’s where the story is going, but he has no doubt that Gibbs really cares for Lala.

“Certainly his attraction to Lala has as much to do with who she is as a person as her aesthetic value,” he continued. “He sees something inside her that lights him up.”

Stowell has a multitude of thoughts about where NCIS: Origins could go — but he doesn’t have any inside information.

“At the beginning, the writers’ room let us know certain overarching story lines that might play out. But what [creators] Gina [Lucita Monreal] and David [J. North] have said from the very beginning is that they wanted to write for us and get to know us and see what works as we’re shooting. So I think we are informing them about their own characters as we go episode to episode,” he noted. “I’m not many episodes ahead. And we still have crimes to solve and memories to go back to. There are certain events coming in the next few episodes that are incredibly important to the story of NCIS and to the story of Gibbs that I’m really excited to share with the fans of the show.”

Stowell couldn’t contain his love for the opportunity to star on NCIS: Origins, sharing, “To have the NCIS universe continue to grow and to be part of this canon now is really great. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of. I just wasn’t anticipating loving it as much as I do. And trust me, I love all the characters that I play. It just has become so important to me because I can feel how important it is to other people. I like that people can look at Gibbs and say, ‘That’s a real person.'”

He added: “The fact that I’m playing a character who is dealing with his own issues with mental health — something that’s very near and dear to my heart — and how to overcome those issues or certainly how to face them. There is reason upon reason for me to love this and to feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I feel like this was meant to be.”

While reflecting on the show, which received a full season order, Stowell credited the entire cast and crew for NCIS: Origins‘ ongoing success.

“That is what I think makes our show so special and it’s what drew me to it from the very beginning. This all starts with our roadmap — these scripts and this incredible writing — that we’ve gotten from David and Gina, who were writers on the show on NCIS for 20 years,” he detailed. “They’re arguably taking the biggest risk out of all of us because we’re all probies. The whole cast is probies. But [the creators] were the ones who came from the mothership, who had a responsibility to tell a story that the fans would love.”

Stowell was extremely proud of the impact that NCIS: Origins has had, adding, “The fact that David and Gina went out on the limb that they did and created what I consider is a network-changing story line, I cannot thank them enough for it. Personally, this is a character that I jump out of bed to play in the morning. I am very honored that I have been tapped to be Gibbs. It means a lot to me and I didn’t expect it to mean so much to me. Just in the first five months, I have grown so much as a human being. I am Gibbs’ biggest fan now. It’s a dream job.”