#And- in this situation- it would potentially look like an 'evil' sorcerer was trying to take advantage of the situation to kidnap Arthur

[olivialau]

Shadow's Embrace Ch.2

Sukuna x Reader

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fanfiction based on the universe of "Jujutsu Kaisen," created by Gege Akutami. The original manga, anime, and characters belong to their respective owners and creators.

Notes:

This story unfolds in the Jujutsu world, set in a slightly altered universe where Sukuna inhabits his own vessel distinct from Itadori Yuji's body, making him a separate entity.

Summary:

Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, becomes fascinated with a female sorcerer rich in potential but lacking control. Initially seizing her for his destructive plans, Sukuna aims to bind her abilities through a contract. Yet, as he tries to dominate her, he finds himself intrigued by her strength and determination. Over time, his interest evolves from strategic advantage to a deeper, personal connection.

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CHAPTER 2 - Evil Proposition

The moment your eyes fluttered open, a sense of disorientation and dread washed over you. The atmosphere was heavy, an oppressive white fog that seemed to seep into your very bones.

As your vision cleared, you took in your surroundings with growing apprehension. The once familiar walls of your dorm room had been replaced by a dark, eerie space, the floor beneath you damp and uneven. Jagged rock formations jutted from the ground and walls, bones littered the area, casting unsettling shadows. The sky above tinted with dark hues of green and blue.

You realized with a sinking feeling that you were no longer at Jujutsu High, but trapped within what could only be an innate domain – a manifestation of a sorcerer's cursed energy that warped reality itself. And you knew, without a doubt, whose domain this was.

Sukuna.

Gritting your teeth against the throbbing pain in your wrist, you attempted to rise, only to find your movements hindered by the wet muck under your feet. Panic began to set in as the realization of your situation dawned on you. You were at the mercy of the King of Curses, trapped in his own twisted realm.

A low, chilling chuckle echoed through the chamber, sending a shiver down your spine. "Don't worry, this is only a manifestation of my innate domain," Sukuna's voice reverberated, his presence suddenly looming over you. "I haven't imbued it with my cursed technique... so you should live a moment longer."

Your gaze instinctively followed the sound of Sukuna's voice, and there he was, perched atop a towering pile of bone and skull, looking down upon you with an air of absolute dominance. The contrast in your positions was not lost on you – he, the mighty King of Curses, seated high above, while you, a mere mortal, remained trapped and vulnerable at his feet.

Sukuna's crimson eyes gleamed with twisted amusement as he observed your apprehensive expression. "Ah, I see you've finally graced me with your attention," he hummed, his voice dripping with condescension. "Tell me, human, how does it feel to be in the presence of true power?"

He leaned forward, his gaze boring into you with an intensity that made your breath catch in your throat. "Do you understand now, the futility of your defiance? This is my domain, my realm, where I reign." A cruel smile curled his lips as he spoke.

Slowly, Sukuna rose to his feet, the bones beneath him crunching as he descended from his makeshift throne. With each stride, the oppressive weight of his cursed energy intensified, bearing down on you like a tangible force.

His approach sent a fresh wave of terror through you, the memory of the pain he had inflicted still searing in your mind. Yet, amidst his overwhelming power, a spark of defiance flickered within you.

Cursed energy surged through your veins, a raw, untamed power yearning to be unleashed. Deep down, however, you knew a direct confrontation would prove futile.

As Sukuna drew nearer, his looming presence casting a shadow, you steeled your resolve, refusing to cower. "If you expect me to submit, you're sorely mistaken," you spat, trying to force a sense of bravery that contradicted your immense fear.

Sukuna smiled amusedly, "Oh, I don't expect submission willingly, little sorcerer," he spoke "That's what makes this all the more... entertaining."

Reaching out, his fingers grasped your chin, forcing you to meet his gaze. "You intrigue me," he mused. "Your defiance, your spirit – a refreshing change from the groveling insects I usually deal with."

His grip tightened, a surge of cursed energy coursing through you. "But make no mistake," he growled "I will break you, one way or another. You will serve me."

You glared at him bitterly, resisting the urge to strike. "What do you want from me?" You demanded, unable to grasp why Sukuna would take interest in a young, inexperienced sorcerer such as yourself. You had little to offer, barely a freshman.

"What do I want?" he echoed. "Why, nothing less than total domination."

He leaned in closer, his hot breath caressing your cheek. "You see, I grow weary of the pathetic squabbles and petty power struggles that plague the Jujutsu society. It's time for a change, a true reckoning."

Sukuna's grip loosened slightly, allowing you a brief respite from the agony. "And that's where you come in," he purred, his tone almost conversational. "I need a pawn, someone to infiltrate their ranks and lay the groundwork for my grand design."

His eyes narrowed, a cruel smile curling his lips. "A small... massacre, if you will. Just enough to sow the seeds of chaos and fear."

Sukuna's fingers, now traced the delicate line of your jaw, the sting of his sharp nails like a warning. "And you, are the perfect vessel for this task. Still inexperienced, easily molded, but with great potential."

He's insane, you thought to yourself, absolutely mad. Why would anyone give up all autonomy and throw away their life? Who would willingly agree to something so evil and wicked?

Just as you had found a new purpose in life and promised to use your abilities to protect others from the same fate that befell your dear friend- Ayumi, he was asking you to join a plan that could lead to hundreds of innocent deaths? Never.

It seemed as if Sukuna had been able to read your every thought as he spoke

"Of course, I'm not expecting you to simply agree, not after your feeble attempts at defiance so far," his voice tinged with annoyance. "No, I have other methods in mind."

He took a step back, finally granting you some breathing room from his heavy aura.

"I'm quite familiar with the power of Binding Vows. A contract, if you will, that binds one's soul to the terms of the agreement,"

You had learned about these vows in your first week at Jujutsu High; they were the foundation of Jujutsu Sorcery, and breaking them carried dire consequences.

Sukuna continued, "And once such a vow is established," he paused for effect, "you will have no choice but to obey my demands," his eyes burning with a dangerous light.

Leaning back in, Sukuna's lips hovered dangerously close to yours, his hot breath brushing your skin. "So, it leaves you with a simple choice. You can form a contract with me now, or I can break you, piece by piece, until you beg to bind yourself to me." His voice held a chilling promise, laced with threat.

Then, with a hint of annoyance, he continued to explain, "However, there is a troublesome condition to a Binding Vow that I must adhere to," he sighed as if displeased by the drawback. "You see, it is a two-way street. It needs to be mutually beneficial, or it holds no power."

You couldn't think of a single beneficial condition that would convince you to enter into a contract where you'd have to obey his every command. You valued your autonomy above all else. What could he possibly offer you in return?

"So, that's why I'm granting you the opportunity of a lifetime," his lips curled into a smile. "In exchange for your unwavering obedience, I will train you. Teach you how to channel your cursed energy properly, unravel your cursed technique, and refine it to perfection. I could make you the most formidable Jujutsu Sorcerer of this era." He spread his arms wide, imposing, as he laughed deviously. "How many can claim to have learned to fight from the King of Curses himself?".

The offer was tempting, you had to admit. The chance to harness your cursed energy, to become a true sorcerer, was a tantalizing prospect. You had always had a crave for power, one that scared you at times. But the price was your freedom, your very soul... Besides even with such power, what good would it do if you could only use it to sow destruction and suffering.

So with unyielding resolve you denied him. "Never," you declared. "I'd rather die than become your pawn" your voice unwavering.

Sukuna's eyes glinted with cruel amusement as he listened to your defiant refusal. "Never, hmm?" he mused. "How... disappointing."

"You know, I had such high hopes for you, woman. The power you possess, the potential you hold – it's truly a shame to see it go to waste." He pressed his hand to his face, fingers splayed across his forehead, and let out a long, exasperated sigh, his eyes briefly closing as if to gather patience from within.

Then he continued "But if you insist on this foolish path of resistance, then so be it." His words carried a dark, threatening edge.

Unexpectedly, with a sudden violent kick to your ribs, he blasts you away into the center of his domain. You crash into the wet, gravelly ground, and in the blink of an eye, Sukuna is back atop the massive pile of bones, like a king on his throne. He regards you with a daring expression as he asks. "Are you up for a little game, little sorcerer?"

The impact knocked the wind out of you, leaving you disoriented and gasping for breath.

With every movement you had to grit your teeth against the throbbing pain in your ribcage. You knew this was going to be bad, so you braced yourself, adopting a defensive stance. Maybe to muster a false sense of bravery?

Deep down, you were painfully aware that you were unprepared for whatever twisted "game" Sukuna had devised.

Before you could begin to recover, a sharp snap of Sukuna's fingers sliced through the air. His sinister cackle followed, soon joined by low, rumbling echoes reverberating through his domain. The sound was unmistakable – the presence of curses.

Your eyes scanned the area, taking in the sight of the rock formations that surrounded you. With a sickening realization, you watched as several Grade 3 curses began to manifest, breaking free from the earth itself.

Panic gripped you as the malformed entities emerged, their soulless eyes darting around until they settle on you. You knew you were no match for them in your current state, your cursed energy untamed and messy.

The curses surged forward, their contorted bodies converging on you with relentless ferocity. You still weren't used to the sight of these hideous monsters; they disgusted you, especially knowing the harm they inflicted on innocent people— the harm they had inflicted on Ayumi.

Struggling to stay focused, you summoned your cursed energy, unleashing haphazard bolts from your hands in a desperate attempt to fend them off.

But your attacks lacked precision and control. The Grade 3 curses easily evaded your erratic strikes, closing in on you with each passing moment.

As they closed in, you took hit after hit, your body growing more bruised and battered by the minute. Sukuna reveled in your inexperience and struggle, his delight evident in his expression.

The curses' relentless assault was quickly overwhelming your limited abilities.

Sukuna's laughter, rich and taunting, echoed through the domain, his crimson eyes gleaming with a twisted delight as he observed your futile struggle. "You're putting on quite a show, human" he hummed.

His disdainful remark and complete disregard for you fueled your anger, igniting a surge of energy within. With newfound determination, you unleashed a powerful blast of cursed energy, successfully obliterating one of the curses with a single blow. Sukuna appeared mildly surprised, his eyes widening ever so slightly.

But your moment of triumph was short-lived, as the remaining curses quickly refocused their attention on you and resumed their assault. Battered and exhausted, you struggled to maintain your footing, your body aching from the relentless string of attacks.

Just as you felt yourself succumbing to the weight of your injuries, Sukuna's voice rang out, commanding the curses to pause. A hush fell over the domain, and you found yourself staring up at the King of Curses, his crimson eyes fixed upon you with a calculating gaze.

"Let's make this a little more interesting, shall we?" he called out, his voice laced with a foreboding edge.

With a casual gesture, he reached within the folds of his white robe, and to your surprise, he withdrew a gleaming silver blade with a thick handle. Your eyes widened in suprise as he casually tossed the weapon down the pile of bones, clattering to a stop at your feet.

"A cursed tool," Sukuna went on to explain

"A weapon purposefully imbued with cursed energy, highly effective against curses."

His gaze bore into you, a twisted smile playing on his lips. "I want to see what you can do with it, little sorcerer."

The curses, still held at bay by Sukuna's command, stirred restlessly. With a single snap of his fingers, he released them. They immediately launched another attack, but this time you were armed.

Despite never having wielded a blade before, defending yourself with it felt instinctive. You were certainly relieved that Sukuna hadn't destroyed the wrist of your dominant hand now.

The cursed tool moved like an extension of your own body, allowing you to fend off the relentless attacks with a grace and precision that surprised even you. The blade sliced through the curses one by one, causing them to let out a guttural howl as they disintegrated.

Sukuna watched you from his perch, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of surprise and intrigue. 'Well, well, it seems you're not as helpless as I had thought... but still, nowhere near the level of a high-grade sorcerer,' he exclaimed, dismissing his initial approval.

After what felt like hours, you fought off the last curse, successfully slicing it in half with your blade. Then as if a switch was flipped, you felt the toll of previous injuries catching up to you. It seemed you had pushed your body far beyond its limits.

Suddenly, all strength left your arms and legs, the blade slipping from your grasp and landing on the floor with a loud thud.

Your vision grew hazy, and through the blur, Sukuna's intense eyes locked onto you, the corners of his mouth twisted into a taunting smirk. The world began to tilt and spin, and everything faded to black.

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Thanks for reading and see you the next chapter!

[thewaterrogue]

The THH cast and what I think they’d play as in D&D

because it’s currently hyperfixation hours and has been ever since my party avoided an entire boss fight and recruited an adult black dragon with social anxiety who was hiding in a swamp, and honestly that’s not even the greatest thing we’ve ever done. It’s all under the cut because this is a long post.

Makoto Naegi: Neutral good halfling bard! Not only would he have the ‘Lucky’ trait, allowing him a reroll when he gets a Nat 1 on a D20 in most situations, but he would also have the ‘Brave’ trait which gives him advantage on saving throws against being frightened which also suits him in my opinion. As for being a bard, he inspires people through his words a lot, and a bard doesn’t necessarily have to play an instrument to give another player inspiration.

Kyoko Kirigiri: A lawful good human sorcerer/rogue multiclass. Family history regarding talent? Check. Ability to sneak around unnoticed? Check. Rogues don’t have to be chaotic. Some of them do investigation work rather than the thievery the class is stereotypically known for, and I like to think that she’d make this quite clear during the game and look absolutely badass while doing so.

Byakuya Togami: True neutral high elf sorcerer. Sorcerers get their magic through their bloodline most of the time, and that’s how Byakuya got his talent in the most basic of explanations. I don’t really have any further explanation for this one, I just think it fits his vibe.

Aoi Asahina: I think she would absolutely play a chaotic good triton fighter! Tritons are an amphibious race, meaning they can breathe in both open air and in water, plus they have a swimming speed of 30ft per movement, which I think suits Hina perfectly! Plus, they gain a +1 to their strength score, which perfectly suits her athletic ability. However, should her party need a healer, I could also see her playing as a water genasi cleric due to her kind-hearted nature. She also brings the snacks for the group. Her taste in doughnuts is impeccable.

Yasuhiro Hagakure: Either a really good DM or a chaotic good human wizard. He is either one of the most difficult DMs to mess with due to his fortune-telling ability (even though he isn’t 100% accurate), or an absolute glass cannon who comes up with the most outlandish and potentially dangerous solutions to complex problems in the most well-intentioned ways that somehow work, and you know what? We love him for it.

Toko Fukawa: True neutral human bard. Again, bards don’t have to play an instrument, and I believe her writing would absolutely be enough to inspire someone, plus bards are known to quite knowledgeable as they often research what they write about, whether that be through literature or first-hand experience.

Syo: Chaotic neutral human rogue. I think Syo would absolutely love a backstory where she was a hired assassin and I think she would genuinely love a side-plot where she was being chased down by whatever authority governs the setting (if any) due to the thrill of it and it keeping her on her toes. I also like to think that she does her best to keep it away from the party though so they can still enjoy the game without fear of being arrested due to association. She’s chaotic neutral, not evil.

Sayaka Maizono: Neutral good human bard. Pretty self-explanatory, but I also like to think that she specifically plays a ‘College of Swords’ bard and uses a sword as if she’s dancing as she fights! She also LOVES the roleplay, especially if in involves her giving a performance.

Mukuro Ikusaba: True neutral human gunslinger/fighter multiclass! She’s both an expert in firearms and melee combat, and it shows. She’s one of the main damage-dealers for sure, and she’s a master strategist when it comes to combat, often trying to discern who would be useful for information during a fight. I don’t think she’d engage too much with the roleplay, but when she does, she’s really good!

Leon Kuwata: Chaotic good human fighter/bard multiclass! He is absolutely the player who tries to flirt with the NPCs the most, but more often than not it ends in hilarious failure that gets the entire table (including him) laughing as I see him to be the most likely to roll a Nat 1 at any given time. However, when he DOES get a Nat 20, it’s one of the most absurd yet glorious things any D&D player can behold.

Chihiro Fujisaki: I think she would play a lawful good wood elf cleric/artificer multiclass! I would trust her with my life, and I would imagine she would homebrew a D&D rendition of Alter Ego as well because she’s just that powerful. I imagine that she’s actually really good at the roleplay aspects of the game, and she is insanely useful during combat as well with both healing spells from the cleric class and offensive abilities that come with levels in artificer, showing that physical prowess isn’t the only way to be strong.

Mondo Owada: Chaotic good human barbarian/fighter multiclass. I refuse to say that this man would only play a barbarian and not include some levels in fighter too, this man absolutely applies strategy to his fights rather than blindly swing at things until he hits something and I will die on this hill. That being said, he hits REALLY hard and is probably the second-most consistent damage-dealer in the party. However, I think he would have a tendency to not really think about his own health a lot while taking hits for other party members so it would go unchecked until suddenly he is very nearly at 0hp, at which point Chihiro has to heal him for several rounds and Taka rants at him about how he needs to be more careful. He also has a canine companion for backstory reasons. Because I said so.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: Now I know the common take is lawful good human paladin, which to be fair, is a reasonable one as paladins gain their power from their oaths as much as they do the gods in D&D and I absolutely could see him playing as one. HOWEVER, I’m not entirely sure that Taka would entirely want a character whose power came from a higher deity and an oath rather than years of hard work, because it’s Taka. He is the human embodiment of hard work. So instead, I raise you this; neutral good human artificer/bard multiclass. Artificers, as far as I know, typically spend years studying and put a lot of both physical and mental effort into their craft, and the bard part comes from his want to be involved in politics. Also I like the idea that every now and then he’ll have to roll for damage because he accidentally casted ‘Vicious Mockery’ by being brutally honest towards an NPC or another player, which is also why I think he would be neutral good rather than lawful good.

Hifumi Yamada: I won’t lie, I struggled with Hifumi, but eventually came to the conclusion that he’d probably be one of the best options for the main DM. However, I think if he were to become one of the players, he’d be a neutral good human ‘College of Lore’ bard (wow there are a lot of bards in this class) due to his proficiency with words, artistic nature, and love of differing pieces of media.

Celestia Ludenberg: If they somehow managed to rope her into playing, I’d be willing to bet that she’d want to play as a neutral evil homebrew vampire necromancer masking as an neutral good high elf. Summoning the dead to do her bidding and serve her like the queen she is while she joins in with the vampiric aesthetic? Yes please! She loves trying to hide evil intentions, although half of the time she will be caught out by Kirigiri. But hey! That just makes things far more interesting for her!

Sakura Ogami: Lawful good human fighter/monk multiclass! Sakura hits hard, fast, and multiple times in a single round, making her the biggest consistent damage-dealer in the party by a long shot. As well as her usefulness in battle, I also see her as one of the main people to speak for the party in a roleplay scenario due to her naturally calm nature. She is an absolute queen and a major asset to the party.

Junko Enoshima: Probably a true evil warlock/bard multiclass! However, I think she would insist that she be the main villain and then work with whoever was the DM to formulate a plan to go against the party. The DM would stop her from doing anything that would result in a TPK (Total Party Kill), but holy shit she would try.

Welp, that’s the class! If you have any thoughts on what their D&D characters would be like, please let me know because I am curious what other people think and I could talk about D&D for ages.

[dmsden]

Stranger to Our Ways - Personal Plot for the Outlander

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This month, our Personal Plot article brings us to a background I feel gets a lot of misunderstanding - the Outlander. When I’ve seen Outlanders before, they’re really treated as the default barbarian background. While I agree that’s an excellent way for the background to be used, I think that’s really a disservice to what could be a very interesting background when explored in other ways.

Outlanders are people who grew up away from towns and civilization’s softness. A look at the skills it gets (Athletics & Survival) definitely calls to mind someone running through the wilderness, and the addition of a hunting trap and a trophy from an animal you’ve killed solidifies the image of the hunter in the wilds. Their signature ability, Wanderer, helps cement this image further by letting them forage or hunt for food and water. But you’ve also picked up a musical instrument and a language of your choice, so there must’ve been more to it than that.

When considering the story elements around an Outlander character, I would definitely talk to the player about what their character’s upbringing was like. Were they a feral child, raised by wolves, until a ranger pulled them out of a den and started teaching them better? Were they part of a nomadic tribe of some kind? Raised by a reclusive single family member in a cabin deep in the forest? The answer to this question could help springboard all kinds of story elements.

I could see many folks taking the Outlander background that might not be immediately obvious. Sure, barbarians, druids, and rangers seem natural for this, but imagine a storm sorcerer who was raised in the wilderness because they were almost stoned to death as a child. Imagine a paladin raised in a chapel deep in the woods by an eccentric hermit. Maybe the daughter of an old reclusive toymaker who lived in the woods began to have visits from a strange prince, and now she’s a warlock with an archfey patron. Outlanders don’t just have to be character classes with a wilderness bent.

The other immediate question that comes to mind is why they left this situation. Were they called on by the Primal Spirits to combat an incursion by the Far Realms? Did a mighty king call on their tribe to fulfill an ancient oath, and the PC was sent forth as a champion? Did another people wipe out their family unit, and now the PC is seeking vengeance and to reclaim the ancient sword that is their birthright? These ideas are rich with story potential.

While they’re always going to shine most in a wilderness setting, if you have an Outlander in your group, you have wonderful opportunities to run some subplots around the whole “fish out of water” situation that they’re in. Imagine if the whole group has to act like a group of proper nobility at a formal dinner. Will someone who’s used to devouring raw fish with their bare hands know which fork is the salad fork? Will they face prejudices and stares in more “civilized” lands? Are they from a cultural group that’re largely condemned as raiders by the very places they’re trying to save?

Before embarking on storylines that play up those elements, I would definitely talk to my player and see if that’s something they’re comfortable with and/or hoping for. They may not be looking to be treated differently than the other PCs, and you could actively make a player feel awkward or strange by seeming to “attack” their PC through this. When I played a half-orc paladin, I encouraged my DM to have the people of civilization actively uncomfortable around my PC because of his nature, because I wanted to roleplay overcoming those prejudices and dealing with that outsider feeling, but not everyone is going to want to do this.

In the end, it might be the character’s Outlander nature that helps save everyone. When the PCs are being blinded by the fiendish temptations wrought by a devil-possessed nobleman, you’re well within your rights as a DM to say, “The trappings of civilization hold no temptation for you. You’re free to act as you wish.” I often use PC backgrounds to temper my story in various ways, such as hand-waving an Intelligence (Religion) check for an Acolyte or giving a Soldier insight into the workings of a military group. Why shouldn’t the Outlander get some consideration? Often in the Conan stories, his primal nature gets Conan through a bad situation when his strength and speed aren’t quite enough.

I hope this has you thinking of the Outlander in a new light. It really has as much potential for story as any other background. Next month, we dive back into the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion to look at the Goliath. Until next time, stay safe everyone.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 7 Review/Remix

Last episode before the holiday break. The long long long holiday break. And here I am only posting my review the night before we come back... I was having a lot of fun playing my new video games, okay? Let’s just get right into this with the joke everyone has already made. War: What is it good for? Actually a lot, if you can believe it. Only in this specific context though, because the warfare in the American streets these last few days is disgusting and emblematic of what has been wrong with the country for a while. A government leader sending his followers into the nation’s capital on a mission of rage and personal catharsis? Ick. At least in RWBY the tyrant isn’t attacking members of his own population... Oh wait, Mantle. :P

For a moment you might be fooled into thinking we’re starting back in the farmlands of Mistral, maybe getting another look at Oscar’s earlier life or seeing a little more of Nora’s mysteriously tragic past before she and Ren met. But no, these are the wheat farms on the outskirts of Atlas and Sabyrs are charging through like raptors through the tall grass in Lost World. A battalion of Atlesian soldiers, human soldiers I might add, stand armed to meet them. But even if they’re armed they are by no means ready. Monstra keeps coughing up a new wave of Grimm, and I do mean a wave, every minute or two and Atlas is pretty damn whelmed in the face of it. There are some big bots with guns standing in straight lines, but the majority of the defense put up by Remnant’s supreme authority on military power and strength is mortal men with fear in their hearts rather than expendable robot soldiers. And the big bots seem to be lined up in a way that the ones in the front block the ones in the back, so that’s just poor planning too. It’s just a concerning sight all together, and they are not efficiently handling the coming enemy. We cut up to Ironwood in his office, and it seems he is not dealing with this situation well at all. We know he’s under a lot of stress from all the recent events, but they are in fact mostly his own fault due to his poor decision making skills in times of crisis, and his single minded drive he calls a Semblance. Speaking of the eternally expanding list of Ironwood’s bad ideas, he decides to evacuate all the civilians into Atlas’ below ground subway tunnels. Fun fact: There were Apathy among the Grimm Monstra has been spitting out. Second Fun Fact: Apathy were last seen thriving and murdering in an abandoned underground tunnel system beneath a well. If one is familiar with fantasy television pop culture of the last decade, the Crypts of Winterfell might pop into your mind as a similarly poor place to hide all your unarmed women and children. Y’know, cuz in Game of Thrones they were facing a guy who could raise the dead as his minions and crypts are just tunnels full of corpses. Just saying, this could end up being a non-birthday massacre. Whatever captain of lieutenant Ironwood was talking to is hesitant to go along with this idea, but Ironwood puts his foot down by putting his fist down. And so his voice comes on over the city-wide PA system to tell everyone they need to get down into the subway for their own safety. Compared to the organized marching and relative calm of the poor folks down in Mantle, these rich fat cats practically trample each other to run and scream down the stairs. A father is concerned his daughter is going to get snatched up by a swarm of Lancers, but seems even more upset by the squad of airships swooping in to combat them. 

Speaking of airships, we cut to the one Marrow and Harriet are flying. The Ace Ops have arrested YRJ, because of course they did, and they all hear radio chatter as pilots are reporting in about how Monstra is too tough for them to pierce from the outside with any of the weapons available to them. Winter checks in over comms to report her team’s limited successes, and Ironwood tells her to stay on jailor duty for a bit. Yang snarks at Winter for continuing to follow orders despite the circumstances, but conversation is stifled by Monstra coming into view for the group. Jaune laments that the beast now serving as Oscar’s confinement is larger than they had imagined from a distance, and Vine continues to be rigid in his assertions as to just what Grimm can and cannot do. “Grimm don’t take prisoners” he says, as if that’s an irrefutable fact. It’s not like any Grimm have done anything new or unheard of recently, like talk or grow wings or exist within a river of evil sludge or shoot up miles into the air as a geyser or have gravity Dust crystals in their underbelly to fly, or as you are witnessing right now belch out ponds worth of sludge from with waves of Grimm are emerging to fight your ground troops. Yep, we definitely know every single thing a Grimm does, especially one brought here by the mistress of the entire Grimm collective who is commanding most of them here. You sure are smart, Vine... Yang continues to be riled up and ask they be let go to help, but Elm and Vine hold her in her seat. Ironwood is heard giving the Manta jets new orders and reveals Command is working on a solution for Monstra. Winter, naturally wanting to be kept in the loop, asks what that might be. He reveals the science team is putting together a bomb that might be able to take the whale out if detonated inside it. That means Winter and the Ace Ops will be delivering it into the literal belly of the beast. I don’t know if he intends for it to be a suicide mission with the bomb going off as soon as they’ve got it inside, or if it’s just incredibly risky to try and get inside Monstra at all, but Winter pales at this news and her eyes go wide before sadly drooping closed again. She composes herself and grows determined again as she accepts the new marching orders. Jaune and Yang are again audibly against these plans due to the risk to Oscar’s safety, but they are subdued as needed, though we see Winter’s act isn’t absolute and her hands are shaking.

Meanwhile, Salem is having the time of her life doing her best Mickey Mouse impression. Classical music plays as she conducts the waves of Grimm sludge out of Monstra’s mouth like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice playing conductor to the stars themselves. Emerald watched from a distance, and seems less than thrilled about the whole thing. She heads down the halls and has to use her Semblance to keep a Seer from noticing her and potentially reporting her going where she doesn’t need to be to Salem. And where she’s going is the door outside Oscar’s torture room. He’s coughing up blood, and Hazel is still insisting he start telling the truth before Salem loses her patience and just kills him despite how futile it’d be. Instead Oz starts asking some questions of his own: Does Hazel know why Salem sought to recruit him in particular? It turns out she approached him with the promise of making a new world order where there won’t be any kingdoms or Huntsman Academies. Oz just has to laugh at that naiveté. When Salem gets the 4 Relics, there won’t be a world at all. She’s been around for so goddamn long, all she wants is for it to end, and she thinks taking the whole world down is the only way to get it anymore. This just frustrates Hazel, and we learn why. He’s pretty damn sure Salem can’t die at all, because when she first approached him about working together he spent the better part of a day killing her over and over and over again. This man, whom we know from the Battle of Haven to have massive reserves of Aura and strength to endure and keep fighting, kept fighting until he was too worn down and exhausted to lift his fists again. And in that time of weakness and awe at her power, Salem made her sales pitch that even if he couldn’t kill the one leading the Grimm he could at least have vengeance on the establishment sending young people to their deaths against her. Oz points out that that’s exactly why she went to him, because she could make him believe this was the right way, that it would bring him closure. It’s what Ozpin deserves, Hazel argues, and Oz does not disagree. But does Oscar deserve it? Do the innocent people who haven’t been affected by Salem or Ozpin yet?  No, this isn’t for justice, this is personal. Because Salem said it would help Hazel. Has it?

We don’t get an answer to that, instead going back up to Weiss’ room in Schnee Manor where she’s reapplying Nora’s bandages. Still mostly unconscious, Nora mutters “Now what... am I good for?” I can think of a great many things Nora is useful for outside of her great strength and straightforward approach to combat, but its a damn shame no one has actually bothered to tell her that before now. Before Weiss has a chance to offer any, Blake and Ruby enter the room with cups of tea. I’m not ashamed to admit I initially thought they were hot chocolate cuz I’m not used to tea being that sort of amber color. Weiss admits that she’s done the most her limited medical knowledge can offer, and Nora needs more than that. Blake expresses her concern for the other half of their group, but almost slips up and says... well we’re just not sure, but we like to assume she was gonna say she’s especially worried for someone in particular. The shippers can fill that in how they like. Their moping is interrupted by May entering the room with some less than stellar news from Fiona and the others down in Mantle. They haven’t seen Yang’s team in a while, and with everything going to hell like this a search party is at the bottom of the priority list. She’s about ready to get back on the airship and head back down to Mantle, but Weiss protests and this sparks a debate. May points out that Mantle doesn’t have the luxury of the Atlas military protecting them so Ruby’s group and the Happy Huntresses are the only thing keeping the people safe from the chaos of the invasion, but Weiss argues that there are still people suffering up her and I have to agree. Just because a police force is around doesn’t automatically mean they’re doing the best job of keeping everyone safe. But Weiss pushes the wrong button by asking about May’s family. The Marigold’s were ashamed of the way their “son” acted, wanting to help the suffering down in Mantle. And so May would no longer let herself be called that, she became a woman proudly working as part of the Happy Huntresses for the service of the people. She kicked her Marigold name and reputation to the curb and her cousin Henry stepped up as the socialite snob instead. 

This cannot have been an easy scene for Kdin to record, but we all need to give a standing ovation for her performance in it. Powerful words that likely hit very close to home. What a queen.

May is sure Weiss gets where she’s coming from with their families casting them aside in favor of a more obedient heir, her being replaced by Whitley after her outburst at the charity concert. Weiss wants to voice her disagreement, but May questions whose side she’s on in all this. Blake doesn’t like that, they’ve heard this talk about taking sides before and judging by her tone she’s none too happy to be hearing it now. May is about to give her a strongly worded piece of her mind too but Ruby stands between them to remind everyone there are no sides. All of humanity needs to be united, and Salem is the one creating the tension that’s dividing them so their real enemy is her. The only question now is how do they get out of this problem? The solution might be hiding just around the corner, literally. Whitley has been listening from behind the door, and he seems a little inspired.

Meanwhile Oz seems to have just finished telling Salem’s dark cursed backstory to Hazel, and it seems her final plan really is to have the world so divided and ruined that when the gods are brought back to judge it they will deem Remnant a failure and destroy it and hopefully her with it. Hazel seems less than inclined to believe this story though, he still holds a damn hard grudge over his sister. Oz is getting nowhere so Oscar asks to be put back in the lead, and so he is just as Hazel is about to wallop them again. Oz is willing to trust him so he can earn Hazel’s trust in return. So he goes right ahead and tells the big guy Jinn’s name and that it’s how you summon her for one last question. Hazel seems mad that Oscar gave up the info so effortlessly after all that, but Oscar asserts that he’s not telling Salem. He’s telling Hazel, and letting him decide what to do with the knowledge and the chance to gain deeper knowledge still. Pretty rad strategy. Wouldn’t you know it though, Emerald is still listening outside the door and heard everything. She goes to tell Mercury, but he’s busy packing a duffel bag for a trip to Vacuo. Guess Salem doesn’t need him here right now so we’ll get to see him again in Volume 9 or 10. He’s less than convinced that they should try and use this behind the scenes knowledge to go against Salem, cuz if Hazel couldn’t do it then why would he change his tune now? And why would they risk their necks too? It’s not like Oz was telling the truth, right? Salem isn’t really gonna destroy the world! But the teens get another surprise lecture from Uncle Tyrian: Of course Salem plans to destroy Remnant!! You couldn’t tell from the start? Everything about her screams end of the world, and it is beautiful! And if you thought she’d do anything different then you must really be crazy... Bold worlds from a psychotic serial killer, but we already know he’s unhinged. Mercury doesn’t much like getting this rude awakening though, especially since Tyrian will be the one going with him to Vacuo. Merc and Em share one last sad look, but he’s made his bed and now he’s resigned to lie in it. Bye bye Mercury, see you after Emerald has probably switched sides and will have to face you as an enemy...

Speaking of ships soaring through the air, we go back to the Ace Ops and YJR heading for Monstra. Yang is protesting the bombing plan since Oscar is still inside, but Vine insists they can’t afford to wait and risk further death and destruction. Jaune offers a side plan, send the three inside Monstra ahead of the bombing squad to scope things out for them and try to rescue Oscar while they’re doing recon. Marrow is shocked that they’d be willing to go into the literal belly of the beast alone, but Yang asserts he’d do the same for one of his teammates if they were in this position, right? He doesn’t have an answer for that. Elm argues that trading their lives just for one other person is stupid, but amazingly it is Ren who objects. Oscar is their friend, and they will do whatever it takes for someone they care about like that. A real turnaround from his attitude of closing himself off emotionally, but I guess he’s realizing how ridiculous it sounds coming from other people? Harriet gets out of her seat to do what she does best and start talking down to someone as naïve and wrong. Feelings are stupid, the job is what matters. When you lose someone you just replace them and forget about them. We find out that Winter is indeed meant to be the new leader instead of Clover, and before Marrow there was apparently a member of the team named Tortuga, but Ren is not about to let anyone tell him that someone is replaceable. You don’t say that to Team JNPR, and we definitely don’t say that about Ren... Not now. In his outrage, Ren suddenly finds... clarity. He starts seeing the world a little differently. In less cryptic terms, his Semblance seems to have evolved and he now sees people’s emotions swirling around them as colorful bursts of flower petals. Harriet is actually furious about losing Clover, she’s lying to herself and trying to suppress her feelings. She does not like being called out like that, but the rest of the squad needs to be put on blast. As opposed to Hare’s red petals Marrow is surrounded by blue that I guess would mean sadness or depression, Elm has orange and some red, and Vine is clouded with green. The meanings of the last two are a little less clear, but they’re all definitely feeling some strong things that they’re trying to hide under a calm façade. This is the reason the Ace Ops lost to RWBY, they’re all held back by trying not to connect with each other so unity and team bonds never formed. Elm does not like being told she’s a loser because she won’t make friends, but at least it’s a a reaction, which means he’s absolutely right. She’s about to deck Ren in the face but Winter steps in to get everyone calmed down. She looks these three “fugitives” over, and makes a decision. She’s going to trust her sister’s friends. They will get the teens in close and give them a small window of time to try and get in and out before the Ace Ops need to bring in the payload and blow it all away. Harriet is pissed Winter is giving these “traitors” a chance, and questions her decision thusly. But you’re outranked, you boob, and you can’t do a damn thing to stop her from showing human decency. They have a very tight schedule to attempt this rescue, and Jaune accepts that fully. The three get uncuffed and are given their weapons back as the ship lands at the front lines. Ren tries to appeal to the doubt and regret he can see in Marrow to get him to switch sides while the getting’s good. Marrow wants to, but he sticks to the job for now. Yang and Jaune head out first, while Ren lingers to tell Winter he knows she doesn’t want to be a part of all this anymore either, and we see a rainbow of many emotional petals around her head. Either she has a balance of many emotions in check and is the most levelheaded of the Ace Ops, or she has the most emotions repressed and her mind is a tempest of feelings that aren’t being addressed and may spell her end... take your pick.

As this militant Schnee considers her options, we go homeward to see Weiss and the others heading for the front door. May isn’t keen to stay her any longer than needed, and the kids need to make a choice about where she’s dropping them off. Either they go to the front lines here in Atlas or back down to Mantle to help with the chaos there. No other options, and especially no breaking their jailbirds out for an assist. May doesn’t have the optimism and heroic hope that Ruby still holds dear, she won’t entertain the idea that this can become a complete victory all around. This isn’t that kind of world. Either they help one place, or they help another. And even then, that’s no guarantee wherever they go will be successful at stopping the invasion. It’s very depressing, and it’s on these kids to accept the facts and make the hard decisions. If you take a look at the last few Volumes, Ruby does seem to have a bit of a habit of ignoring the dreadful possibilities/facts in favor of pursuing a hopeful and bold plan that could fix everything immediately so she doesn’t have to cope with reality and actually grieve her mistakes and losses... I’m not saying it makes her a bad character or that she’s wholly wrong for trying to see a bright side whenever possible, just that this is an unhealthy strategy for a leader with so much on her shoulders. But before anyone has time to make a decision right now, there’s a hard knock on the front door. Everyone draws their weapons and approaches slowly, before Weiss cautiously opens the door. In a most definitely welcome surprise, she is greeted by Klein!!! She missed him dearly, and apologizes for whatever fault she had in his being fired, but while cycling through personalities he assures her she has nothing to be sorry for since it’s all Jacques’ fault, the bastard. Turns out, Klein is here to use his medical knowledge to treat Nora. What, didn’t you know all butlers to heroic millionaires have field medic training? Alfred Pennyworth set the gold standard, I dare say~ But of course, Weiss didn’t call him and none of her friends know his number so who told him to come?... Would you believe it, Whitley is responsible and we could not be more proud of him! Weiss certainly is, and she gives him what might be his first genuinely loving hug in years. Klein heads upstairs to begin treatment, while the rest of the group share a hopeful moment. But this silence too comes to a crashing halt as there is further ruckus outside. This time Ruby answers the door, to see a smoking crater in the front driveway. RWB rush outside and kneel at the edge of the crater as the smoke clears. Penny has crash landed, and lies there in a pool of what we can only presume to be her green synthetic blood. All she has the strength left to do is apologize before she passes out and the screen darkens with her. There lies the end for the next 6 weeks, and we were left to panic and speculate all the while. Too bad I’m a lazy bugger who only got this review out now and there’s no tension left before the thrilling continuation comes tomorrow morning. So lets all get one last panicked sleep in before the living nightmares come for our girls! Penny is totally gonna be under Watt’s control, the Hound is coming, it’s all gonna be a huge damn mess... Can’t wait, can you?~

[johannas-motivational-insults]

Glimmer’s Upcoming Villain Arc

So, I’m pretty sure Glimmer’s going to become one of the villains at some point in the final two arcs of SPOP. Not a Horde-aligned villain, obviously, but I think she’s going to have a villain arc and may even end up fighting against Adora. Sound crazy? Well, there’s actually precedent for all this in the Buffyverse, with the Dark Willow story arc. I will get more into those parallels below.

First, though, let’s look at Glimmer and her situation in isolation.

Glimmer is currently in a vulnerable position. She’s grieving the loss of her only remaining parent (so far as she knows) and she’s now going to be saddled with the responsibilities of ruling Bright Moon, all while lacking a parental/mentor figure to guide her. And who do we know who loves to guide and manipulate young people with magical powers? Shadow Weaver.

Some people saw Shadow Weaver allying with the Rebellion as the beginning of a redemption arc. However, it actually makes a hell of a lot more sense for the writers to have put her there to gain influence over Glimmer and kickstart her villain arc, starting with their unexpected connection in season 3. Though Glimmer clearly hadn’t forgiven Shadow Weaver for torturing her in season 1 or for emotionally abusing Adora throughout her childhood, she decided the Rebellion needed this evil woman’s help. It was a means to an end. But now that that mission to save Adora and disable the portal was a success, she probably won’t hesitate to ask for her help again.

Not only did Shadow Weaver gain a bit of Glimmer’s trust, Glimmer loved the boost in power she got from Shadow Weaver. She’s complained several times about how she thinks her powers aren’t that useful or strong, but Shadow Weaver fed her ego and gave her a chance to increase her powers. When she successfully teleported the Princess Alliance into the Fright Zone, she was ecstatic.

“We did it! I did it! That was amazing!”

Simply put, Glimmer is power hungry. Just look at her eyes when Shadow Weaver is talking about her potential to be a great sorcerer like her father.

This scene and the following scene in the tower gave me the creeps so bad, you could just feel Glimmer being pulled to the dark side by the promise of power. And now post-season 3, not only will she be craving that feeling of power again, there’s an inciting incident prompting her to use it.

With her mom trapped in an empty dimension forever, which is essentially hell (especially for an immortal person ffs), Glimmer will probably do everything she can to get her out. I’m guessing she’ll go to her Aunt Casta for help, but Casta will say there’s nothing to be done (at least not without resorting to dark magic), so Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver out of desperation. Even if Shadow Weaver could come up with a way to bring Angella back, she’ll say she can’t, because she can use Glimmer’s grief for her own ends.

Shadow Weaver’s motive for defecting to the Rebellion was to take down Hordak and Catra, and at this point she could easily convince Glimmer to help her get revenge on Catra. In fact, there’s a chance Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver herself looking to team up and get this revenge, though it’s more likely Shadow Weaver will plant the seed and manipulate her into thinking it was her own idea.

Inciting incidents aside, Glimmer has always been someone who had the potential to break bad. Like Catra, she’s power hungry and eager to prove herself, brash and impulsive, and quick to resort to violence. She’s easily blinded by emotion and can be quite heartless, both of which were illustrated in 1x01-02 by how she treated Adora because of what the Horde had done to her father.

She’s also morally gray, willing to go to extremes to achieve an outcome that she considers to be good or just. Her decision to free Shadow Weaver and use her to access the Fright Zone is a great example. Another notable instance was when she had Catra as a hostage in 2x02 and threatened to kill her to counter Catra’s threat against Entrapta. She was eventually talked down by Bow, but only while complaining about how having to take the moral high ground isn’t fair. She was clearly frustrated that entire episode by the constraints of being one of the good guys, and it culminated here.

Fighting for the rebellion, Glimmer is a force for good. But if she decides to chase her own agenda, her powers and personality could easily be used for evil. Especially when there’s someone there expertly guiding her down that slippery slope. 

Now, if the plot does indeed go this way, it will put Adora in a rather unfortunate position. If it comes down to a situation where Shadow Weaver and Glimmer have an opportunity to kill Catra, Adora will have to intervene on Catra’s behalf, for several reasons. 1) Catra is the most important person in her life, as we all know. 2) She cares for Glimmer’s soul. She knows that if Glimmer murders Catra it will haunt her and change her, and she doesn’t want that for her friend. 3) She feels the need to protect the helpless. Catra will probably be all alone in the world at this point, having pushed all her friends and allies away. So not only will she not have allies to fight with her, she’ll be in a poor state mentally, maybe even welcoming death. Even if she was in good shape, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Glimmer and Shadow Weaver’s combined magical powers. And since Adora can’t stand watching defenseless people get hurt, this will force her to step in and protect Catra despite all the negative feelings she has for her right now.

There are two people I could see pulling Glimmer out of this spiral, bringing her back to the light: Bow or Micah. Adora isn’t the best at sympathizing with someone’s dark impulses while fighting tham, as we’ve seen multiple times with Catra. Her job is to protect the world, and she will prioritize that over everything else, including her best friend (don’t we know it?). So that leaves Bow to talk Glimmer down, either by appealing to her morals (somewhat likely, but wouldn’t work at that point) or by reminding her of her innate good side, of the person she is deep down and the love he feels for her. The other way this could go down is Micah escaping from wherever he is trapped (he’s alive, yo) and convincing Glimmer to stand down with a dose of parental love and wisdom (and a big hug).

There are so many parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this potential situation, and here’s where we get into the Willow comparisons. SPOILERS for BtVS under the cut!

The comparison between Catra and the rogue slayer Faith has been made many times before, along with the relationships these two characters have with the respective heroes of their shows. But if Catradora is Fuffy, that leaves Glimmer in the Willow role. And there are actually a lot of similarities between the two characters, both being fiercely protective but tempermental magical sidekicks to the hero (who hate being called sidekicks, btw). Both have had trouble making friends in the past, and both have a dude they were best friends with for years before the hero came along and turned them into an inseperable trio.

And now, there are notable and worrisome plot parallels between Glimmer and Willow in seasons 5 and 6 of BtVS.

Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world at the end of season 5, and the “Scooby Gang” believes she was sucked into hell in the process, so they decide to try to bring her back via magic. There is some dissent among the ranks, but ultimately they defer to Willow (who leads in Buffy’s absence like Glimmer will be leading the Rebellion in Angella’s absence), and Willow is not afraid of dark magic. In fact, we already saw her use it in season 5 against Glory (that season’s big bad) after Glory temporarily stole the sanity of Willow’s girlfriend, Tara.

Willow’s attack on Glory was emotionally motivated - she went off on her own after the others thought they had talked her down, thinking an attack was unwise. It was clearly motivated by revenge rather than strategy, which was made exceptionally clear by what she said to Glory.

(This scene actually reminds me a bit of the aforementioned incident with Catra in 2x02, only more extreme. The situations were obviously different, but the vengeful overtones and the mages’ frustration with allies trying to constrain their powers were similar. Both of them were struggling with impulsiveness, morality, and vengeful desires.)

Willow is ultimately successful in bringing Buffy back, though it turns out to not be entirely a good thing. If Glimmer fails to bring Angella back, as I theorized above, she could easily skip ahead to the end of Willow’s season 6 arc, the next time Willow suffers a great loss.

(The middle of Willow’s season 6 arc is her getting addicted to magic and using it in morally dubious ways on Tara and her other friends, which causes Tara to leave her until after she stops using magic and recovers from the addiction. SPOP’s writers could include something like this, but I don’t think they will, for time’s sake. More likely they will just continue to show Glimmer being tempted and corrupted by power as she gets closer to Shadow Weaver, rather than using her powers on her friends.)

The end of Willow’s season 6 arc starts with the notorious shooting death of Tara Maclay. When Tara is hit by a stray bullet and dies in Willow’s arms, Willow attempts to use magic to bring her back, but is denied. This sends her into a spiral of rage and grief, and she spends the next two episodes attempting to kill the shooter and his hapless allies. She catches up to Warren and flays him alive, but the others escape with Buffy’s help. (In the finale she tries to end the world because she believes it is for the best, as life is too full of pain. SPOP definitely won’t pull this same plot point twice, but the revenge quest up to that point is absolutely something that would work for Glimmer.)

Speaking of Buffy stepping in, let’s look at parallels to the situation Adora will find herself in, if my theory is correct. 

Buffy tries to dissuade Willow from murdering Warren because she believes it’s wrong and she doesn’t want Willow to have to live with it after. When she finds Warren’s body she decides Willow has gone too far and stands against her when she tries to go after Warren’s allies. Willow is tired of Buffy’s lectures on morality, of living by the good guys’ rules. She wants revenge, and Buffy is standing in her way. She’s also tired of being treated like a sidekick and is eager to show Buffy who is more powerful. They end up having an epic fight scene before she decides to end the world.

With the way she gives in to her dark impulses, fights against Buffy and their friends, and tries to end the world, Dark Willow actually ends up being the big bad of season 6. Her best friend Xander is the one who ends up saving the world - not by fighting her, but by blocking her magic with his body, reminding her of who she has been all these years, and telling her repetitively that he loves her. He literally saves her (and the world) with the power of love and friendship, a recurring phrase on SPOP.

The perfect parallel here would be Bow stepping in and reminding Glimmer of the goodness inside her. Perhaps he’d face off with her while Adora is fending off Shadow Weaver. But yeah, for the reasons I outlined above, Bow would be the perfect candidate to call Glimmer back from the brink of becoming a murderer. He’s known her longer than Adora and is more empathetic. Xander is often referred to as “the heart” of the Scooby Gang, the one who lacks magical powers but makes up for it with his empathy, courage, and enthusiasm. Bow fills that same role in the Best Friend Squad and Princess Alliance, and he wears a literal heart on his chest. (Yes, Xander is problematic in some ways but damn it that’s so off-topic and I’m not getting into it.)

I don’t think Glimmer will actually succeed in her quest for vengeance, or at least it won’t culminate in Catra’s murder. SPOP deals with some dark themes but it's meant for a younger audience than BtVS, plus Noelle surely knows better than to kill a fan fave wlw. But Glimmer will probably have an opportunity to kill Catra and be dissuaded at the last second, then have to embark on a redemption arc of her own.

Again, this is all just a crazy theory, but the idea of Glimmer going dark is both scary and exciting. She’s most interesting as a character when she’s struggling with her darker urges, and I think SPOP has been hinting at and slowly setting this up over the first two arcs. Now with an inciting incident at play, she could easily give in to those urges in the wake of her grief, letting her vengeful streak bubble to the surface like it did for Willow. I can’t wait to see where the story takes her in arc 3.

[samaelserpentine]

An Odyssey Through Music, Muses, Madness and Magic

(Buckle up Tumblr, this is a long poem) 1. The isle guardians of vinyl Unwittingly nervous to the necromancy I have planned An inner storm so terrible But I was Struck by his Occult missive So laden down was I By all the lyrics, the words With characters told through dark supergods As Aleister Crowley is to Led Zeppelin is to David Bowie And now me Lost among them Buried within them The pages of ancient texts And the liner notes of the albums Held far too close to the heart Though I tried, perhaps I merely formed mystery at my own doom The records of the sorcerers Performing an infernal scratching on my psyche Breaking down what was there and carving out what could be But whether it should be Is still uncertain to me. 2. I found the darkness in riffs The wall of sound I was into Inhabited by self-admitted aliens Aleister’s hellfire brought to light My heavy work held up The symbolizing of some god Archaic and forgotten Through a ring Art cracks All the people that stare loveless Into your eyes But I would be different I would be realized Something broken Mended Yet still wrong But I would Make myself into something else With your words The fascination told fables A way out, a way through I would find my way to you Through the cracks. 3. Once artwork I became their voice Lurking in the shadows of time On the periphery Of reason Madness could be a thrilling companion And with the records transcendent And the races lost The shout rang out Are You Experienced? I am and am not Like an abysmal and sunken ship Lost in the depths of the ocean Alone and devoid of meaning Abandoned everything to Grooves, characters, truths And once there inhabiting these my psyche Broke open spilling out visions, words Like arcane knowledge Dancing carelessly over the line Between the sacred and profane Whispering it’s so nice to see you here again And my mind became a bookshelf filled with ancient wisdom A record player Playing albums that told lies like they were the truth I uncovered the Necronomicon Had lives in Atlantis Sat with the sound and vision Of a populated landscape Woven through history Like a single thread Linking everything I became a fixture Fantastic Within the hidden music of a paperback I would not be forgotten there. 4. Of those who sought And those who chose A wriggle of religious fanaticism in claim And its origins an apparent expression of salvation I say You are nothing and have nothing for me With your hierarchy and worry over the threat Of music and sexuality And your constant waging of war against me When mine and yours is a history of burning I have nothing to give you You’ve already taken too much from me I want what was mine back With your wicked face as old as These chords I worship And your evil work to further ministers As meaningful to me as a rotten turnip Yet of my conjuring powers You disbelieve When honey, you should fear me And not the other way around I hope that when you are most afraid You say my name. 5. Mobs make parents worried They claim the rock audience chaos Is just hormonal fury A response to what is true Inside of both me and you There is more than this A kind of magic If you look for it Religious In the way we turn musicians Into gods and goddesses Idol worship But is that all it is? In the truest sense An ancient rite Long buried and forgotten Rising up inside us all Those who dare to dance And by prohibiting and demonizing The ones who shake their fists Lose their sense Always the sound of agitation But I saw these pagan spirits first Before I heard your protesting words Theirs speak louder to me Than your hatred ever could. 6. To the electric teenager Finding your way Rebellion is autonomy It is tradition To push boundaries Yet each new generation of adults Somehow forgets these Eternal truths It's not your fault They're afraid of your youth Don't listen Hold on Your fire will make the world a better place For you. 7. Could this ancient thread Of reality and magic infused with dangerous potential Normally inhabited by far greater Magicians than I could ever be Break me? I am traversing this rough terrain Of shared perception With aliens These common visions a violence What could I even be? Nothing more than a mystery To those around me Lost in this metaverse I have accessed Through song, collage, words Chaotic, such occult meanings They and often I End in something Beyond reason Scratching out messages of methods The angels referenced spoken vast by terrifying qualities These opposing sorcerers Like a guitar screeching endless feedback Which demons? Sex? Drugs? Words? Palpable as suggesting a penultimate hidden secret Impenetrable beyond nothingness and Nonetheless I must find it Even if I have to destroy myself trying Nothing is more important Than this truth. 8. Years go by and I come about left handed Shaped by a tarot card about the arts and earlier The room Space Death I know spirituality I see it in my brother’s eyes Only the inner outer world collides But of the Beatles or beetles They didn’t understand How To make the world bend at your command Of this phenomenon devotees are Reckless Breathtaking in their beauty And chaos It takes a certain kind of madness Or perhaps maybe genius To choose this path To withstand the pressure Of reality kneeling At your feet Bending to your will I will break it before it breaks me Oh brother, don’t you worry I always find my way out of the darkness And besides, hell has never bothered me I am the master of my own design The maker of my own making Nothing else can touch me. 9. Imagination turns listeners into participants Gives power to the powerless Those converted shaped by few ideas Dreams Had rock’s Hare Krishna LSD Asking questions Whose inner world could I be? And as it moves, a cultural generation Becomes magical More magical than entire rock bands Than holy men and women Fashioned by the young The carbon copy progressives Lying like Houses Already vast Led by the words of the Bhagavad Gita You should have listened to me When I had the cards already free I tried to warn you what was coming But no one ever hears me Invisible as I am Until so repulsive, so strange You can’t look away from me You really should have listened You can't say I didn't try to warn you. 10. This is bigger than I am Stretched too thin like skin Over bone was and into The board, into the planchette Could enchantment make me forget? The board is vibrating Shaking like hands The grazing of sleeves Culture, vinyl Seemed out from under our covers Like what was hidden There, even tucked away those records Though of nothing gatefold came No reason to be afraid Other than the fingers that have become potent The light that has now dimmed And what could I have been To all who pulled that woven magic Out of my childhood? Could it be the way was manifest Curled up snugly against your breast? As warm candlelight over the Ouija Plastic memories came From which I had imagined the feelings like air between Bewitched but hovered from Somewhere above our heads I wished that I was dead Or that something would end. 11. Experiences divorced from reality Covers rock personas Cut out images appear worse But Dionysus would love this His child Who has people staged Like personal shamanic relics Thinking writing something mystical That I would seek this That I sought this Is surely a form of madness But all the logical illogical reasoning shows A kind of rare dedication to the cause These rites are magical Why speak of demons And why speak of devils? I have conjured and created Something new out of the ancient Like nails Scratching deep grooves into a record album I have altered something Broken it As their gods create chaos simulating insanity As if they even have to in me I am the false image of a human performed By a front magician Playing at being god In these moments of desperation Carrying the weight of lives As though my power were absolute My belief almost religious Fanatical My concerns become concerts When I am on my own Wondering why happiness has abandoned me And where all the merrymakers have gone Why I am more Anubis than Pan Why myth seems written in lyrics As musicians play me like a fiddle Play me for a fool I am possessed Into thinking I am appearing as many legends Something older than time itself A life bringer A life destroyer With the power to stop or start it all I needed to believe I had the power To save all of you To destroy all of you To protect myself If I needed to And I don’t know if I can save myself From the things I want to do As the darkness envelops me And my mind becomes unglued So go ahead and do what you always do And blame it on the music When we all know the truth It’s always been you. 12. Rumination is realization I wandered alone Within the elements and to God Unintelligible Words became strange as Rogue faeries genuine Approach looking wing Impenetrable as I have become What I’d produced went away from me Flew out of my control Reborn in catastrophe When where into situations I went From film to film I sense in time a song Things start about a room and again Became revolt But maybe that’s just what happens when you’re Involving the occult Bring out the old rock n roll safeguard Make it out of symbols and sigils A complete thought catalogue so arcane It would leave you spellbound for days My mind prison And that in myself some Christ was born A thought so seductive to be sure I would take control of these pursuits But unlike you Hatred would never do I would never fight against passion Your fear I came to hear Against spaceships, rituals, the mystical, Sex, magic Your terror So absolutely Psychological I felt protection close at hand And I was real myself, as I really am In and out of my depth Battling against you and your demands I came out cleaner Stronger And what became of you? Shhh, no telling I won’t spoil the ending No good to warn the enemy Of what is coming But You really should have been listening You should have been watching What was happening. 13. He said, you should have started with Kether Been sure of the path you were following After all Magic, like blood, stains But these moments were wonders They could drive out the fear of fortune, destiny Hanging over my head I was taking control Creating my own instead As thin as the thread that links us all Tenuous, fragile Like a mind on the verge of breaking Under the weight of a cruel reality The walls would speak to me Whispering When will you come to me From here or there And find me in a room High above the clouds Where we could build our love? It’s not enough It’s a drug And I need it As lovers we were And I, such as the mountains Looming, shy Unable to look you in the eye But here is the stuff of legend Sound soars like a movement Lost to the ages I never thought myself better than this moment Lost as I once was Now flashing light and colour Connected to everything Raising you like the devils they spoke of Dancing my way to Malkuth A fearless necromancer Disregarding all the rules. 14. I am the sun I am the ocean I am the mountains and the streams I am the demon who would be with you In all your wildest dreams Where men circle around you Desperate to keep you You land like sand flowing through my hand I did not try to hold onto you So you let me keep the thread Through this glass I was searching Broken as the cracks But now I am returning Now I am mending And once you were evasive Elusive Like a high I was chasing Or the first drink, the tenth, or the last But now I find you woven into everything Believing we were thrown together like darts Bending like space and time I was searching for this Searching for you In desolate stations We would be protected Dredging the world to a ditch Just to find you Just to become more than this You are a wonder Among wondrous things And I am bird Who has found his wings Overlooking humanity From up on high I have found me in you This time And of all the things they can take from me That will never be one of them For I am the sun I am the ocean I am the mountains and the streams I am the demon who would be with you In all your wildest dreams But above all else What is more I have found peace Dancing in the flames of this madness They tried to call a disease I am me I am me I am me.

[alrighty-vigilante]

Felix Faust and his one braincelled offspring – an epitome of DC's lost potential; a himbo,a dumbass and a fucking rat

It's not like any of you asked but it's the thing that wakes me up at night. DC created a lot of great characters: good, evil and morally grey.

And just like that... They abandoned them. Not like "stopped using them in their stories" – stopped caring.

Let me show you what made me so obsessed with DC's Faustfamily: the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good

Sebastian, the firstborn of Felix, Abraham to his Isaac, is constantly haunted by the sins of his father and bashed for them. Around him heroes are not heroes anymore, too distrustful to treat him with decency, always suspecting scheming.

The Bad

Since every magic user pays some price for their skills I feel like his price is not being able to experience love or not for long. In Outsiders (1993) it was stated, or so I believe, that he has a hard time experiencing feelings because of his lack of soul. Even if not: since Halo was reborn many times, she doesn't even remember Sebastian. June Moon was completely apathetic after Enchantress persona was ripped out of her. Zatanna is Zatanna, I think their relationship was only mentioned in Mystik U so it's thankfully not anywhere near canon. In totally awful Suicide Squad: Black Files it's told Sebastian's wife is dying (and pregnant) so he enchanted her until he finds a cure. Even motherly love he cannot experience – no matter the author's approach, his mother is not around him for long and he feels responsible for her death which may have be the reason why she tried to look after his sister for as long as it was possible. Sorry I need a moment...

I'd have to be naïve to even hope for anyone in DC being so competent to show Sebastian as aromantic/demiromantic without showing people on this spectrum as soulless.

Fauna lived to be "lesser than Sebastian". Suffered the same fate as her brother but was neglected by her father from the start, unlike Sebastian who was taught by him some time. I don't think she and her father nor she and her brother ever bonded in any way. For me Fauna is the embodiment of the anger only an abused abandoned teenager can feel. Raw blinding rage not directed at anything in particular but everything and everyone including herself because she is not sure what and who should she hate the most. And in the end, it is she who suffers the most. It drives her a path of evil. All her attempts at being better than everyone and most of all – better than her father, are in real just attempts to get his approval.

The only time she felt free was when she got with Syonide (yeah folks she's lesbian) but, well, it didn't last long.

One thing about her that especially wakes me up at night is how in Raven she mentions her ancestors but stops, saying she's better than them anyway. Well, there are no such characters in whole DC. No Majica the Magnificent or whoever. Let's pretend it's not just a hole in the universe because probably it is just that: it leads to conclusion that Fauna made it up herself to back up her narcissistic attitude and the right to do what she want and take what she want OR her father made that up, and that leads us to Felix Faust himself.

The Ugly

WHERE DO I EVEN START, if I start to lost what's wrong with him you'll be reading this to the end of your life.

The most prominent personality trait of his is that Dumb bitch hours are 24 hours. Second: he is full of opposites. Is he intelligent? As hell. Is he still a gullible idiot? Oh yeah. Is he doing bad things? Yes. Is he a villain? No, he had his time of being neutral/good. He is driven by the need for power. What would he do if he gets it? The most probable scenario: nothing. What would he need it for, then? I can bet all my money, which are around 5$ and a bagel, that what he really want is respect (and that ties neatly with making up his genealogy tree). Now, his background varies depending on the author, of course they couldn't develop consistency, but many things are common nonetheless. So, if we just generally look at him, we see a man who, before being possessed by 5000 years young ghost, was nothing more but street magician – guess how much respect he got. This old sorceress that eventually took over his body also was humiliated in a great defeat. In the 70s he was called the greatest foe of the Justice League. Nowadays, even some drunk warlock junkie rat (yeah, I mean Constantine lol) makes fun of him. What could he crave more than some basic "this is Felix Faust, the greatest sorcerer alive who hoards all the knowledge"?

I would say it doesn't matter whether he sacrificed his son to help his dying wife or to get more power (he later sacrificed his daughter just for the latter reason. He just never learns). Generally sacrificing your children is shitty thing to do so there's no justification for his actions. He doesn't know when to stop and even if he feels regret for things he has done, he just keeps going in an everlasting chase.

Damn, in a way he is quite relatable: despite the efforts, he fails every time. Despite the education in three majors, he is so gullible. Making him not talented enough to match his knowledge truly is tragic.

What DC never explored, and never will, is he was a single parent, who didn't know how to carry on without his wife, how to bring their children up. Too focused on his "career" he neglected his children. Having Sebastian to grow up to be a better person and better sorcerer than he ever will be visibly drives him up the wall. At the same time he struggles, trying to get close with his son a bit – these clumsy attempts to scold him are actually meant to be compliments. (No such scenes with him and Fauna because apparently writers forgot about her completely smh).

I don't enjoy New52 events but I think a lot about how Faust was trapped in the Tower of Fate with Neron, the ruler of hell and also his abuser. He kinda had it coming but it's traumatic nonetheless

Another thing that could be explored by DC more is that in a way, heroes are pretty much the guardians of the status quo. Not only Sebastian takes the blame for everything and is not trusted by them, but they also haven't done much to keep Felix on the good side, never thanked him for his service nor did they tried not to push him into villainy. But such behaviour also affect other characters so I won't be focusing on this.

To sum it up nicely: just because this is about fictional magicians doesn't mean their story is unrelatable. People out there are emotionally absent in their family's life sometimes because of tragedy they went through or because they were not ready, or because something else. People may hate their abusers, love their abusers, be children of abusers. Parents put their children through harmful situations. Family are not always bonded and happy. Family members may long for contact but don't know how to get it. Etc etc, you probably got it.

Not only these characters suffers from lost potential but many, many more. Instead of seeing same characters like Batman or Wonder Woman over and over again, I'd prefer creators to go back and develop what they already have.

[obeyme-and-you]

King Solomon the Wise Part 1

(Take 2)

What wisdom will you bestow upon us today?

Since he decided to drop a bomb on me after I practically finished the first draft :)

Gabriel is Italics

Kimimela is Bold

Verses are Normal

King Solomon is a big figure biblically, having his life primarily discussed in three books, has two Psalms with his name, wrote three canonical books, has two books of poetry bearing his name, is attributed to “The Wisdom of Solomon”, has a legend written about him in the “Apocalypse of Adam”, “wrote” the “Testament of Solomon”, “The Greater Keys of Solomon”, and “The lesser Keys of Solomon.” I am being punished for my hubris. So, because of this Solomon will be a multipart affair :)))). I am unsure of how much of any of these will actually be of use and how far I’m willing to dig my grimmy little fingers into this but that will be a problem for future Gabriel. The webpages I’ve used to gather some information:

http://www.lastgasps.com/Solomon_-_The_Testament_Key_and_Legematon_of_Solomon_(unabridged).pdf

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon

(Do NOT at me for using wiki, this isn’t for some English class so I don’t particularly care)

The last two were just for gathering some information of where he appears in the biblical canon and it turned out it was much worse than I realized since he also has other books about him or written by him. Everything I quote will be directly from the pdf file which is a transcription of The Testament of Solomon, The Greater Keys of Solomon, and The Lesser Keys of Solomon. This particular essay will only mention The Testament of Solomon, which is the first 35 pages of the pdf. There is a good chance that this may later be revisited and edited based on what Obey Me decides to throw at me, since, ya know, already doing this a second time cause Obey Me Solomon is a coward while cannon Solomon is,,,wild. 

*Note: even though I am using the Testament of Solomon because it is important in understanding and explaining Solomon in Obey Me, it is not considered a biblical canon. In fact, even though it’s said to be written by him, it’s debated on when it was actually written. Even in real life Solomon is shady.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_of_Solomon

Well, let's get to it then.

MAJOR OBEY ME SPOILERS UNTIL CHAPTER 36

King Solomon the Wise Part 1

What wisdom will you bestow upon us today?

The Testament of Solomon is about King Solomon forcing demons to follow his orders in the construction of the First Temple. He was given a ring by God, delivered to him by the Archangel Michael, that would allow him control over any demon. The majority of the text describes the demons brought before him, and who they are weak to (usually the name of an angel that when used forces them to leave). While some of the demons mentioned are important to mention, they will not be discussed in this essay. Instead, we will look into prophecies stated by demons, and some events that transpired with King Solomon.

Page 2, paragraph 5

(In reference to a child being attacked by a demon nightly)

"Now when I Solomon heard this, I entered the Temple of God, and prayed with all my soul, night and day, that the demon might be delivered into my hands, and that I might gain authority over him. And it came about through my prayer that grace was given to me from the Lord Sabaoth by Michael his archangel. [He brought me] a little ring, having a seal consisting of an engraved stone, and said to me: "Take, O Solomon, king, son of David, the gift which the Lord God has sent thee, the highest Sabaoth. With it thou shalt lock up all demons of the earth, male and female; and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. [But] thou [must] wear this seal of God. And this engraving of the seal of the ring sent thee is a Pentalpha."

In Obey Me chapter 2 part 2 Lucifer says to MC “Seeing as you’re both human, it’s fine if you associate with him, but know that he can’t be trusted.

He may be a mere human, but he has a ring imbued with wisdom, and he wields powerful magic. He’s the type of man who will try to subjugate even a powerful, greater demon if he gets the chance.” 

So we do know that Solomon of Obey Me has the same ring that King Solomon was delivered to him by Archangel Michael. 

Obey me chapter 29-5 Solomon says “It’s the ring of wisdom. Made from brass and iron. I got it from Michael long ago. It was at a point in my life when I was a bit lost and unsure what to do. That was when I met Michael, and he gave it to me. When I put this ring on, it granted me the power to control demons.”

While MC has yet to meet Michael, he is a named character in game. We also know that Solomon has been to the Celestial Realm before (chapter 23-5, Solomon to Mc, “Well, looks like we made it here in one piece, huh? This is actually my second time in the Celestial Realm.”), and while it doesn’t state that King Solomon has been to heaven, it is important to note because this shows that Obey Me’s Solomon has a close relationship to the Celestial Realm the same way King Solomon had to God. King Solomon was able to control demons (keep in mind, by force, not through pacts), with a ring, while OB Solomon “has a ring imbued with wisdom, and he wields powerful magic.” King Solomon’s ring has the power to lock up demons and use them with force, and Lucifer states that “He’s the type of man who will try to subjugate even a powerful, greater demon if he gets the chance.” (Which he in fact has but alas, that’s a different essay). 

Note: Chapter 29-5 Solomon says he originally had to force demons to obey him

“Anyway, I’m not sure if it’s because I had to use force to get them to obey, or because I expended more magical energy than necessary…

…

“I mean, nowadays I can do that sort of thing with no problem at all. But not then.”

On pages 18-19 King Solomon is told a prophecy by a demon he gets under his control.

Pages 18-19 paragraph 65

“I used the seal of God, and the spirit prophesied to me, saying: "This is what thou, King Solomon, doest to us. But after a time thy kingdom shall be broken, and again in season this Temple shall be riven asunder; and all Jerusalem shall be undone by the King of the Persians and Medes and Chaldaeans. And the vessels of this Temple, which thou makest, shall be put to servile uses of the gods; and along with them all the jars, in which thou dost shut us up, shall be broken by the hands of men. And then we shall go forth in great power hither and thither, and be disseminated all over the world. 

And we shall lead astray the inhabited world for a long season, until the Son of God is stretched upon the cross. For never before doth arise a king like unto him, one frustrating us all, whose mother shall not have contact with man. Who else can receive such authority over spirits, except he, whom the first devil will seek to tempt, but will not prevail over? The number of his name is 6442 , which is Emmanuel. Wherefore, O King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given.””

From the information that can be gathered from this and Obey Me, we do know that both King Solomon and OB Solomon have built a temple. In Obey Me chapter 29-5 Solomon mentions a “large house” he built. “The first time I put multiple demons under my control, I was trying to build a house. Let’s just say it was a bit larger than your average house.”

In the Testament of Solomon, King Solomon is actively getting demons under his control while the Temple is still being built. In the beginning of Obey Me Solomon already has all 72 demons under his control (This is Stated in a Devilgram Guided by Desire) and says that he had once built something long ago (big house my ass). Because of these two factors we can assume that this has already happened, at least in part. 

Theory time (I guess look away for potential spoilers for later into the story?)

I believe we’ve already seen the temple built by OB Solomon, in fact we have been there multiple times. Where could we have possibly visited that would’ve been King Solomon’s temple?

Lord Diavolo’s castle

So we do know that Solomon from Obey Me built something but why would it be Diavolo’s castle? What could possibly suggest that?  (this also wouldn't be the first time a human structure ended up in the Devildom considering the story about the House of Lamentation)

“And the vessels of this Temple, which thou makest, shall be put to servile uses of the gods”

I cannot say with certainty who the vessels are for sure in this sentence but my two guesses could both work in this situation. 

It’s talking about King Solomon specifically or

The demons under his control

(I’m pretty sure it’s the second one when discussed in The Testament of Solomon)

Technically, in the case of Obey Me at least, it could be both of these. We know that OB Solomon was already picked for the exchange program when it was first suggested. This could have been because he is referenced as the “the most powerful sorcerer in the history of mankind.” by Satan in chapter 2-A, but it could also be because he’s already working under Diavolo. We know that he has been working with Diavolo because in chapter 28-8 Diavolo has to leave your discussion early because of urgent business and instead of taking Lucifer he asks Solomon to go with him.

(Diavolo) “There’s no need for you to come along, Lucifer. Solomon. Would you come with me?”

(Solomon) “Wait, you want me to come along instead of Lucifer…? I don’t mind, but…”

(Diavolo) “Wonderful, let’s go. Take care, Lucifer. And you too, MC.”

Chapter 28-C Lucifer and Diavolo have a conversation about Diavolo taking Solomon and not him

(Lucifer) “Where did you and Solomon go yesterday, and what did you do there?”

(Diavolo) “...It still isn’t the right time for me to share that with you.”

If it’s the demons under his control this could still play into the fact that he has to listen to Diavolo, since he controls the demons with his ring, Diavolo Controls the demons via Solomon. We do know of two demons that have been named in Obey Me being under Solomon’s control that are both technically under the control of Diavolo too. In chapter 2-A Asmodeus says “Take Solomon and me, for example. We’re in a pact together already, right? ...Oh yeah, and he’s got one with Barbatos, too.” Asmodeus is one of the seven student council members that work under Diavolo, and Barbatos is his servant that directly works for him and follows his orders. (Boy I can't believe I missed this to be honest in the SECOND chapter)

“Shall be put to servile uses of the gods”

While Diavolo isn’t technically a god, he is a very powerful demon, and is the prince of the Devildom. Even though we don’t know many details about his father, it is possible he’s either strong enough to be considered a god, or is a self proclaimed god. Remember kiddos! Lucifer may be the avatar of pride, but every demon is a prideful bastard! 

“Wherefore, O King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given.”

This sentence plays into the last part and the fact that I’ve been suspicious of OB Solomon since the second we were introduced to him. You can’t tell me he’s not evil. I will bite you. What evidence do we have to suggest that OB Solomon is evil though? Couldn’t he just have an evil smile and actually be a good guy? Good question! No.

When you’re first introduced to OB Solomon after he picks up MC’s DDD after they dropped it (i have a whole other theory about how he did something to it when MC wasn’t looking but that is just based off gut instinct and my trope sensor going off and i have no proof so i sit here in a silent scream). When he leaves Lucifer mentions how he can’t be trusted. 

2-2 “Seeing as you’re both human, it’s fine if you associate with him, but know that he can’t be trusted.

He may be a mere human, but he has a ring imbued with wisdom, and he wields powerful magic. He’s the type of man who will try to subjugate even a powerful, greater demon if he gets the chance.”

“But Gabriel! Lucifer’s a demon! Of course he wouldn’t trust someone with power like that!” Neither do I. While that is true, it’s important to note because Lucifer at this point doesn’t particularly care about MC, but still makes a note to point out his distrust of Solomon. Lucifer has been alive for a very long time and has not at any point been shown to be an idiot, not to mention he’s also the avatar of pride, someone with that much pride isn’t going to admit distrust about someone, to someone they barely know unless it’s a big deal. These two factors show he has the intelligence to know that someone isn’t trustworthy, and the fact that he would admit it even though he is the embodiment of pride, raises red flags. 

2-A “Now, now, I’m not like you demons. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t accuse me of behaving like one. I am but a simple human, an innocent lamb.”

(Satan) “I’m surprised you can say that with a straight face, considering you’re the most powerful sorcerer in the history of mankind.”

After Solomon says he’s completely innocent and a simple human, Satan calls him out on it. This could be argued that Satan was specifically talking about him being a simple human (which is a fair argument i’ll admit) but i personally don’t believe that’s the case for two reasons. The first one is that Satan is very intelligent and would know about Solomon’s power and ability and no competent demon will completely trust a human like that. The second reason is the wording Solomon uses. 

“Now, now, I’m not like you demons. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t accuse me of behaving like one. I am but a simple human, an innocent lamb.”

This wording alone raises red flags because, let’s be honest here, no one who’s innocent calls themselves “an innocent lamb” that’s reserved for people hiding something that makes them in fact, not an innocent lamb. Not to mention the “Now, now, I’m not like you demons.” reads like someone who goes “I’m not like other girls” and it’s like yeah you are, there’s nothing wrong with it but now you’ve made an ass outta yourself so like, congrats I guess. 

7-7 (Mammon) “And it’s not like Solomon and Satan and me realized we’ve got shared interests and common goals because Solomon wants some magical items that belong to the Demon King…”

Solomon wants something from the Demon King’s castle, that much is obvious, but what is he looking for and how does this make him evil?

6-4 (Beelzebub) “The grimoire Luke is holding has the power to control a demon-to make him do anything, even if it’s in violation of a pact. Everything that we are rides on that book. We can never allow it to be stolen under any circumstances.” 

Look, you don’t drop a bomb like this unless it’s going to happen later on. 

“But Gabriel!” you say, “You said that his ring was all controlling of whatever, what could he possibly need that book for?”

(I’ll being coming back to the second half of the sentence “Wherefore, O King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given.”  but i have to discuss something else first)

Page 34-35 paragraphs 129-130

“And when I answered that I would on no account worship strange gods, they told the maiden not to sleep with me until I complied and sacrificed to the gods. I then was moved, but crafty Eros brought and laid by her for me five grasshoppers, saying: "Take these grasshoppers, and crush them together in the name of the god Moloch; and then will I sleep with you." And this I actually did. And at once the Spirit of God departed from me, and I became weak as well as foolish in my words. And after that I was obliged by her to build a temple of idols to Baal, and to Rapha, and to Moloch, and to the other idols. I then, wretch that I am, followed her advice, and the glory of God quite departed from me; and my spirit was darkened, and I became the sport of idols and demons. Wherefore I wrote out this Testament, that ye who get possession of it may pity, and attend to the last things, and not to the first. So that ye may find grace for ever and ever. Amen.”

You like how he blames her even though he was just horny even though he claimed to have 700 wives and 300 concubines? All men are idiots in the bible, I swear. (He had one job)

King Solomon let his new wife convince him to worship her gods and build temples in their honor which angered the Jewish/Christian God, and caused him to abandon King Solomon. When God left him, King Solomon didn’t just lose his God, he became weak, foolish, his spirit was darkened, and then had to deal with all the demons left with him. What could he have lost to make him weak and also now stuck with these demons that were under his control before? His ring would have had to stop being powerful enough to properly hold them. Now, biblically, it probably meant permanent, as in, he has zero control or now they have control over him. In the context of Obey Me, it would be a different take on this, because we obviously know he actively has pacts with 72 demons. I theorize that instead of having full control like he would have with the ring, he lost that and instead had to have control via pacts. So in Obey Me, the ring still works to an extent, but now it actually takes him magic and wisdom to control them instead of being able to do it at will because of God. 

Edit: We do know that he did struggle with muscle pain when he first used to control the demons, and he’s unsure if it was because he had to force them to obey or over used his magic. Which could also suggest that he did actually force them into pacts before he was left.

“my spirit was darkened”

His soul would have darkened after this transpired. That “innocent lamb” comment was probably very much a joke to him, because he is very much aware of who he is. This also explains why Lucifer is suspicious of him; his soul isn’t exactly pure.

“I became the sport of idols and demons.”

Having 72 demons under your control, and then suddenly having God not in your corner anymore can definitely put a small damper on things. He went from having no demon able to talk him into anything, to having 72 right in his pocket wanting a piece of his mind and being able to. 

Okay, so now that this has been mentioned, lets go back to the sentence “Wherefore, O King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given.”

Who were King Solomon’s servants? 

:) Well, there was about 72 of em 

(Note, in the Testament of Solomon it doesn’t name all 72, later ones are mentioned in the other books but everyone says King Solomon and his 72 demons, I’m not about to confuse myself and everyone else because he had less than that in his Testament)

So, now King Solomon is under the influence of a bunch of demons, and was told that this temple he had built was going to be given to his servants, which were demons, and to top it off his ring isn’t quite working right, now what? Remember what I said about Diavolo’s Castle being the First Temple? That’s what.

Considering everything OB Solomon has eluded to with him being THE King Solomon (he straight up called himself King Solomon the Wise, it doesn’t get more obvious than that) and all the information that has thus far been presented in general, it’s safe to say he’s not a reference to King Solomon, but is King Solomon (In Chapter 36, brand new when this was edited, he says he is  very old. I took satisfaction at calling him an old man.). Then taking into consideration the information that has been used specifically from The Testament of Solomon, it makes sense that this information could’ve been used within the game. The First Temple is very important to the story of King Solomon, and Diavolo’s castle has been an important story element within the game too. Then we have the relationship between OB Solomon and Diavolo that seems like a weird professional dynamic. To me, there seems to be information pointing towards his castle being The First Temple.

 “to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given”, King Solomon’s servants were technically demons, so his kingdom would be given to the demons. And all the demons, at this point in time, are under Diavolo’s rule, so therefore, OB Solomon’s kingdom is now his. He lost his temple to Diavolo’s father, but because he’s sleeping, Diavolo is in charge. 

“Okay so why did you include the whole grimoire bs?”

I’m glad you asked! 

Because I needed that in the back of your mind when I discuss a future essay! :)

(I wanted to put it in this essay but it’s gotten way to long so it’ll be talked about later)

Hopefully I tied up loose ends cause otherwise I might just make zero sense hahahaha.

Summary: This essay definitely went a completely different way than I imagined anyone expected, including myself. Solomon sucks, he’s evil, I called it the first time i met the guy, he got bad vibes all over. God I just feel like there’s so much I want to say about this man but like, all of it is just conjecture and there’s a good chance I make zero sense but at this point it's too late ya know? God, I hate this man so much.

[arthur-rex]

meta: pendragon paranoia (aka the brainwashing of Arthur Pendragon)

Quick summary: Uther seriously fucked up Arthur’s head when he was a boy, brainwashing an abiding fear of magic in his son (selfishly to ensure that Arthur could never repeal the magic ban on his own). The subsequent suspicion Arthur harbours towards the magical community is deep-rooted, although he doesn’t share the same hatred of sorcerers as his father. However he can and will turn extremely hostile should he feel magic is threatening the kingdom he loves and the people he has sworn to protect. 

RP Relevance: So I’ve got a dedicated verse for Arthur going bad like his father. It’s here. So unless something is already plotted looking at a certain someone anything truly dark and nasty with the muse will probably go in there. 

Addendum: You (hopefully) won’t see me RP this side of Arthur very often. The situation has to be complex enough to involve a large number of triggers to push Arthur (who is still one of the good guys) into this mindset. But I will continue to occasionally reference it in RPs throughout the verses because it’s there in my Arthur’s psyche. We can’t just cut out and/or ignore the nastier side of his upbringing by Uther.

This summary ought to do with a bit of unpacking though. Ok, let’s get the definition up (from good old Wiki)

Paranoia is an instinct or thought process which is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself (i.e. “Everyone is out to get me”). Paranoia is distinct from phobias, which also involve irrational fear, but usually no blame. Making false accusations and the general distrust of other people also frequently accompany paranoia. For example, an incident most people would view as an accident or coincidence, a paranoid person might believe was intentional. Paranoia is a central symptom of psychosis.

... that was a long definition, sorry. But it’s a useful reference point going forward.

Arthur Pendragon is a psychological mess. He hides it very well as a good prince / king / leader of the people must, but it’s still there.

Most of that is due to the huge amount of stress he is under to live up to a high level of expectations. To Uther, he’s the Crown Prince of Camelot and heir of the Pendragon dynasty. To Merlin, he’s the Once and Future King with that great big destiny to fulfil. To the people of Camelot, he is their Champion and Protector. He is literally the one who keeps them all safe at night. That is a lot of responsibility and pressure for anybody at any age. Which... is the reason why I headcanon Arthur indulges in sex quite a bit. Poor boy simply needs the release.

Sometimes, Arthur just wants to take a break from it all and go off to live on a farm with his girlfriend and manservant.

But Uther is a very controlling father. 

Arthur is not allowed to just leave. Uther has invested a lot (e.g sacrificed his own wife) into getting what he wants, and that is a son and heir worthy to continue his legacy. Now he has to make sure the investment pays off. 

So Uther made his own plans for Arthur, putting him through intensive knight training from birth to ensure he became the greatest warrior of the five kingdoms. He also organised an arranged marriage for Arthur when he is old enough to further cement Camelot’s position. Throughout it all, he was trying to mould his son into becoming the king he wanted him to be. It was about making sure Uther’s legacy following the Purges was upheld and that Camelot’s laws forbidding sorcery prevailed. Arthur could not show any signs of deviating from Uther’s vision on this point. In the final push, Uther had to make sure his son not only acted in the way he was expected to - but he also thought and behaved in the way he was supposed to as well.

And he could only guarantee that level of instinctive behaviour by making sure Arthur carried the same fear and suspicion of sorcery as he had. Because emotions cannot be so easily challenged and/or removed as misguided beliefs. Uther knew his conditioning would stay with Arthur, influencing his decisions long after he was gone. Even if on a conscious level Arthur later rejected his father’s teachings, even if he grew to resent what had been done to him - those warped feelings towards the magical community would remain. Uther’s brainwashing had already gone too deep.

Arthur was always going to be an easy target for such abuse. He loved and respected his father. Uther was the only parent he had growing up. He had no other role model. Arthur would have readily absorbed any horror stories Uther told him about magic as gospel. He was probably only 7 years old when the emotional conditioning started. 

In fact, I’ve already documented some of this childhood abuse already in RP. The warning signs have always been there.

Sorcerers. They are the worst kind of traitors known in our kingdom. You must be vigilant, Arthur. Do not allow them to influence your judgement. They’ll come to you, as a friend, promising to offer you help. And then they’ll take away the very thing that you love most in this world. That is why they cannot be trusted. That is why they must be hunted down and exterminated. All of them.    

( x - RP with @aquestionthatsneverbeenposed​ )

Listen to me, Arthur. They are an evil people. You must never trust a sorcerer, nor lower your guard in their company. The laws of Camelot are the only force we have to save us from their depravity. Closing his eyes, Arthur can still hear the distinct echo of Uther’s voice in his head from all those years ago. Viciously imprinting his doctrine into the impressionable mind of a young blond boy.    

 ( x - RP with @lespendragons​ )

There are plenty more examples scattered throughout my writing, but... you get the gist. I’ve also compiled a short list of some of the nasty things Arthur saw in the court of magic users abusing their powers and hurting his people here.

Right. So why did I choose to give the muse this gaping mental flaw that sets him up as a possible antagonist for future RP interactions? Besides some interesting narrative possibilities, of course.

Two reasons: 

1. It goes some way to explain why Merlin in canon continues to withhold his secret from Arthur, even after Uther died. 

2. It gives further insight into why Arthur has always been so desperate for his father’s approval. Arthur’s fear pushes him into a habit of turning to strong rulers, instead of relying on his own judgement. We see this behaviour throughout season 4, where Arthur seeks advice from Agravaine when his kingship is tested because in his paralysis he needs to be told by an authority figure what to do. We see it again in S5E3 where Arthur summons his father’s own damn ghost because he still needs Uther to tell him he’s doing the right thing for Camelot. The paranoia of his perceived enemies closing in around him drives him to seek that level of reassurance.

This is the Pendragon paranoia. It’s a major headcanon. The reason I’ve dedicated a whole meta to it is because it’s the biggest hurdle in the reformation of Arthur’s character for him to overcome if he’s to accept magic back into the kingdom. 

Arthur is not a saint, he’s a flawed hero. His weaknesses must be addressed if he’s to successfully become the King Arthur that Merlin and all our other protagonists aspire him to be. And Merlin in canon has already started this healing process with every conversation they have about how he’s different from his father, and that’s ok. There are other ways to be a strong ruler rather than simply following his father’s ingrained example. 

Canon Arthur knows this, as does mine, and they both will/do get there in their respective understandings eventually. Just. Watch out for any dramas if things are pushed too quickly in that direction. And/or other events spiral out of control. Dark!Arthur is real and a potential consequence.

[madam-o]

Six Potentially Controversial Opinions about Loki (MCU)

(Image from the upcoming Loki #1. OH YUSSSS.)

I feel like Loki and the Hiddles have such a massive following, and with the fandom having various headcanons/preferences/kinks about the character, sometimes the subtleties behind him can get lost. So here’s some of my personal takes on Loki as a Marvel/MCU character and his general symbolism.

1. It’s almost unfathomable to me that anyone can believe that his character in the MCU is actually dead dead instead of comic book “dead”. He may currently be, in fact, physically dead, but this is almost 100% likely to be a temporary situation. There’s too many hints that this is not the case. For instance, there are Loki comics, novels, and a friggin tv show (with Hiddles IN IT) coming out this year. And Loki was acting so WEIRD right before he died. There must be an explanation.

2. Loki dying heroically after redeeming himself is not actually a good arc for his character. Loki is not a hero. He can do things that are heroic, but he is absolutely not a hero. He is always either an antagonist or a deuteragonist and he can even sometimes play the protagonist, but his morality is always firmly grey. It is a defining trait of his character to be neutral chaotic.

3. Loki faking his death “yet again” is not actually bad writing. For one thing, that’s what comic book villains and trickster types DO. Constantly they’re doing the thing with the not actually dying! For another, Loki actually only faked his death once before in Thor: The Dark World. In the first Thor film Loki was trying to commit suicide by falling into a wormhole thingy after his father Odin had completely emotionally destroyed him by revealing that, whoops, he forgot to mention that Loki’s really adopted AND a frost giant and then he rejected Loki’s “gift” of trying to kill all the Jotunns. Loki couldn’t have believed he’d survive that ‘cause being an Asgardian/sorcerer/Jotunn only gives you so much invulnerability. And how the hell would he even know that he’d get picked up by Thanos and his goons after that?

4. Speaking of Odin, he’s not actually a bad father; neither is he a perfect father. Odin is actually an extremely complicated character. His past as a conqueror is extremely ugly and he’s been trying to make up for it for centuries. He makes mistakes but he’s also wise and loving to his family and his people. Everything he does and says has a purpose. He loves both of his sons and he knows all of their virtues and flaws. There’s a certain level of fate at play in all of this that Odin is fully aware of: the cycle of destruction and rebirth of Ragnarok and of Odin paying for his all his accrued wisdom and power by having everything he built fall apart while his sons turn against him and each other.

5. Loki isn’t misunderstood or unjustly abused. Loki isn’t good. Loki isn’t evil. Loki is a person who is always motivated by his personal feelings and desires rather than by grand ideas or a bigger morality. He is not guided by principles or ethics but by his ego and emotional whims, which is why he serves as an agent of chaos narrative-wise. He does good things when he wants to help someone he loves; he does bad things when he’s angry, jealous, or ambitious. He will do a virtuous act for an evil purpose or an evil act for a virtuous one. He’s very sensitive and insecure, as well as occasionally megalomaniacal and mentally imbalanced. He would enjoy watching the world burn, but only if he could have the option of putting it back together again after. He actually has a lot more in common with Odin than Thor does.

6. This is very much speculation on my part, but I believe he will be important to the MCU's concepts in phase 4, which is why he’ll be around. Phase 4 looks very much to be about going past the age of traditional heroes into the modern era, with more representation and unexpected heroic figures. The modern Marvel comics Loki is one of the few lgbtq+ characters in existence. He is a literal representation of genderfluidity, a shapeshifter who can choose to be anything - a child, a woman, an animal, a man - whatever he wants to be at the moment. He doesn’t really care about being labeled or defining himself as anything other than being himself. The new Disney+ show might explore his current comics character development, or it might be a flashback/aside to what’s been going on in the movies. But his popularity means he’s an easy investment for Disney, so don’t expect the character to be going anywhere even when Hiddleston eventually departs.

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 4X01 - A Tale of Two Sisters

Awww! The Frozen Arc! It’ll be ICE to see it again!

Let’s hope my review is better than my puns! Give it a read below the cut, if you are so kind!

Main Takeaways

Past

I can’t get over how GOOD the casting and chemistry was for the Frozen cast. I’m partially convinced that Disney has machines that construct people from their CG counterparts! XD I feel like the story fro this episode is perfectly good. This segment really just had to show off that it understood the Frozen cast and delivered a story that allowed for the story to continue in an engaging way, and I think they did a pretty solid job of it!

Present

”Your intentions don’t matter.” While this phrase is often a good point in terms of actions mattering more than intentions, it’s not here. While yes, I know that this ends up being Zelena, at the time, Emma was saving an innocent woman. I get that Regina’s upset and it makes sense for her character to be upset in this situation, This is a hard arc to watch. That said, I do like that Emma stands her ground here. While she’s sorry she caused Regina pain, she won’t apologize for sparing Marian. “That was the person I was, not the person I am.” But the thing is, you still have to answer for the sins of the person you were. The harm she caused didn’t go away because you’ve done better. It honestly frustrates me to see Regina deflecting back to this aspect of her character. That said, as I’m often one to defend Emma from criticisms against her walls popping up all the time, I want to make the effort to do the same for Regina. And I do think that not blaming others for her mistakes is the general trajectory of her character, and this arc is interesting because we see a more redeemed Regina put in a similar situation to the very actions that made her The Evil Queen to begin with. The immediate show of growth honestly helps here too. It’s clear by the end of the episode that Regina won’t go back to her old ways, and the engaging part now is how she reconnects with the rest of the mains.

I gotta say, I remember LOVING the initial idea of Marian coming back to life and I still do in the universe where more had been done with it. So much of Storybrooke has forgiven Regina because they’ve seen her take on Pan’s Curse and Zelena, but here comes someone who not only hasn’t seen this redemption, but has a strong connection to Regina’s boyfriend. The conflict there just SCREAMS of potential for all involved. Marian’s got a strong personality, Regina would get to truly prove her redemption to someone with no faith in her, and Robin would get a more intricate conflict and potential for deeper characterization that could contribute to him growing as a member of the main cast. And...nothing like that really happened. I think watching this episode tends to open up old wounds for me because this was an arc that I really looked forward to getting into the meat of and because the meat amounted to that found on a chicken’s foot, I can’t say that I’m that happy.

Basically every line at Neal’s grave had me filled with feels! What a beautiful and touching goodbye from Rumple to his son. It’s such a powerful moment. When it comes to Rumple this episode, they set him up so much to make the ultimate change just to not. Now, in the context of the episode as a vacuum, that’s fine and is a pretty classic Once-y twist. However, I feel like in the service of the arc as a whole, it would’ve been better maybe to show more of the reasons why the Sorcerer’s Hat was so tempting, and if not here, then in another episode. The closest we’ll get is Rumple’s speech to Regina in “Heroes and Villains,” which merely touches upon the effects of dying, being a slave at Zelena’s hands for a year, and losing Bae. And look, I like his declination back to villainy for that reason. Bae was his moral compass -- the person who had just enough doubt and love for Rumple that he would be able to keep Rumple on the path of good just with his willpower and lack of full trust -- and losing him at the end of what amounts to a torture conga is the kind of thing that would cause him to get more slippery with his morals. Belle in certain contexts can be easy to fool and I can see those small rationalizations build up in a way that would match up with the following arc.

”I know you, cause you’re like me.” Not to get too shippy, but I feel like the interaction between Robin and Regina in the office where Robin points out their similarities is a character point that should’ve been given more focus. Yes, from an abstract point of view, Regina and Robin are similar because they used to do villainous things, whereas Robin was a thief, Regina murdered, and that’s an entirely different league of villainy. And I swear I’m not trying to put Regina down here, but I think that difference is one that should be a focal point of their dynamic. Robin went through a redemption arc of his own in a way, and seeing him try to pass on those tactics and fail because they’re not compatible with Regina’s brand of villainy and grow from that to have a better understanding of Regina and take on a different approach to helping her. Getting into the meat of that and establishing those differences could’ve made them stronger for me.

I hate the way “monster” is used in this episode. The context of the episode frames “monster” as something undeserved being thrust upon someone, applying to Regina and Elsa. However, in the context of the episode, Regina’s being called a “monster” by Marian, someone whose most recent memory of Regina is saying that she’ll be happy with her head upon a spike and Marshmallow is being called the monster in Elsa’s case, though she attributes that as an extension of herself while Marshmallow is literally attacking a town. Just...this isn’t like The Beast being called a monster when he’s not attacking anyone and I don’t feel like the framing was entirely there for it. THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I do think the retraction of “monster” towards Regina was well deserved! She saved Marian, even with all of that rage in her heart and that’s pretty freakin’ great!

Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

-This opening may have one of the most fantastically created storm. Look at the water and the panic of the crew as they try to fight it off!

-So while I don’t blame anyone from being a little nervous at the possibility of Regina going evil again (She spent half of the scene talking about how being a hero screwed her over and she does try to plot to kill Marian with Sidney in the vault), props to Henry for his faith in her!

-Dab, Elsa! Dab!

-”And once more, I’ve started it with a lie.” That was a really poorly-worded segue. He wasn’t talking about lying in the previous part of that speech and it’s not like he brought up lying about Milah’s “death.” It’s just one line, but it could’ve been better constructed.

-”I’ll spend my life repaying you for that.” Well, you’re not wrong.

-Damn, there’s a really interesting contrast in Robin and Regina’s scenes in the office between the finale and here. In the finale, they were on the floor, relaxed, and touching whereas here, they’re sitting on the couch, stiff as boards, and the distance between them looks more like a chasm.

-Okay! Watching this episode after the auction and seeing everything everyone bid on is hysterical!

-As we’re spending a lot of time in the mayor’s office, I’ve got to say that I LOVE the interior design here. I love the black and white that allows for the colors (Especially the reds) to pop against it. I love the forest-like wallpaper. It’s just so pretty!

-I gotta say, I’m really happy seeing Sidney again. The actor just rocks!

-Breaking and entering honeymoon? Sign me the fuck up! :D

-I need a map of Storybrooke SO badly. For a while, I HC’d the mansion as being closer to the town line, but I guess it’s closer to the docks? Thoughts?

-I gotta say, I think it’s a little dumb having Rumple be able to stop people in their tracks like that and have it only happen again like one or two times.

-Speaking of the auction, kind of weird that the Sorcerer’s Hat never came up in it.

-I really like how The Enchanted Forest was given an actual name. It’s not that I don’t like calling it The Enchanted Forest, but calling it Misthaven makes it feel more like a place with a history and a life to it rather than just...a place.

-”I need my beauty sleep.” Woowww, Pabbie. Way to leave in the rudest fucking way ever! Like, I’m bored, byeee! Your in-laws are there, clearly upset about this! Put in some more fucking effort!

-Anna, I don’t think Elsa’s “making excuses” when she’s the queen and can’t abandon her country!

-One of my favorite jokes that’s so underrated is how the “DO NOT BLOCK GATE EVER” fence just gets fucking stepped over! XD

-That snowman doesn’t even look scared! He just looks annoyed! Someone, make this dude a tiara!

-Nathaniel--I mean Kristoph! It’s you! ...I think watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend might have made it impossible for me to fully immerse myself into this character.

-Fuck yeah, Marian! Going in for the fight! ...I do wonder. I guess had Regina not decided to save her, Zelena would’ve revealed herself in order to not die.

-”I don’t know what that [Netflix] is but sure.” I love this line so much!

-”Unless...another monster appears and kills me.” ...Welcome to your life, ma boy.

-I’d like to think that during that pause when Sidney wouldn’t appear, he was talking to Ingrid and plotting.

-Damn, Belle! You pull that off! Or rather, I suppose it was pulled off of you! ;)

-RUMPLE AND HIS SEXY ASS ARMS! WE HAVE RUMPLE AND HIS SEXY ASS ARMS! NOT A DRILL.

-...Anna, that’s not how you wear a necklace!

Favorite Dynamic

Emma and Regina. You would think given how I really don’t like what’s to come that this episode would’ve done no favors for me, but honestly, I love Emma and Regina’s dynamic here! As I said before, while I roll my eyes at a lot of the lines given to Regina here, I do think it makes absolute perfect sense -- not deserved, but make sense -- for Regina to be angry at Emma. And Emma is adamant that she doesn’t regret saving her life, but still feels terrible that Regina lost Robin in the process. It’s a very nuanced aspect of this conflict. I also feel like their reactions to their fight were really well written. Emma is trying to live up to both her job as the Savior and her resolve to fight against her walls by trying to find Regina to talk while Regina’s more reserved character aspects kick into high gear and she slinks back to think on the matter.

Writer

Adam and Eddy are our main guys today, as per usual with season openers and they did a great job! In a vacuum, so much of this story is great and sets up a lot of the conflict and mystery of the next half season. And while the rest of the half season doesn’t hit bullseye at every point, they do succeed more often than they don’t.

Rating

9/10. This episode is a little hard to watch in hindsight because of the potential of some things that just really didn’t pan out, BUT within the context of this episode, the initial quality of these arcs is so present and that’s what this review is mostly here to judge. While not balanced in the sense of giving everyone something to do, I do think that there was a perfect balance of character usage. Everyone placement and actions feel right and appropriate for their characters. Finally, I know I’m in the minority, but I LOVE the Frozen cast. They added a nice bit of charm to the episode and made a very memorable first impression.

Flip My Ship - The Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness”

Captain Swan - I really like the CS plot here. Romance, especially after Neal’s death, isn’t the easiest thing for her and especially given what just happened with Regina, she doesn’t want to let herself be happy, but Killian’s making sure that she gives herself that chance. So, also, I always grinned when I saw Emma fall right on top of Killian. I love when that happens with romantic pairings! And their kiss is just fantastic here! Emma is still very much interested and she feels guilty putting Killian on the side while she deals with her feelings and circumstances.

Rumbelle - I freakin’ love the breaking and entering honeymoon! RUMBELLE PORN! Just...that dance. That music. Robert Carlyle’s smile. My only regret is that we had to sacrifice the awesome outfits Rumple were already wearing (Though they make it up later in the bedroom! ;) ) AND SPEAKING OF THE BEDROOM. Yeah, Belle looks pretty freakin’ satisfied with whatever kinky shit they just got up to!

-----

Hey everyone! So, I altered the review style a little bit. I don’t know whether or not I’ll stick with this or return to the old format, but I feel like this was a better way to condense my thoughts. The Season 3 Overview will be posted...at some point, tbh. I don’t know why, but it is really hard to write right now and since I’m already behind, I figured that I’ll just jump into Season 4!

Thanks to the fabulous folks at @watchingfairytales and to my badass boss of a friend @daensarah! Finally, thank you to my loyal readers! Happy holidays to you all!!!

Season 3 Total (9/230)

Writer Scores: Adam and Eddy: (9/60)

*Links to the rest of my rewatch will no longer be provided. They take posts with links outside of searches and I spend way too much time on these reviews to not give them that kind of exposure. Sorry for the inconvenience, but they still can be found on my page under Operation Rewatch.

[paladin-andric]

The Lethal Tag

Tagged by @corishadowfang! Thanks, I enjoy doing these.

Rules: Answer these five questions for whatever characters you want, then tag some people.

I suppose I’ll be doing Blackheart, since nothing else I have on my mind is really tangible at the moment...

(Long post, so answers below!)

1) What is your OCs’ favorite weapon type (and if they don’t have one, then just answer hypothetically, and that goes for the rest of the Qs)

Alexander: Despite spending the entire story using a sword, it’s actually not his go-to! A sword and shield may be his primary pick on the ground, but he’s usually atop his horse (he doesn’t bring her to the infested city due to terrain, cavalry charges aren’t exactly effective in an urban enviornment). As a heavy cavalry knight, Alexander’s usually using a lance. The might of a lance charge atop his steed, Dragon, can fell even the toughest warriors in a single hit. Cavalry supremacy is the way the Geralthin army fights, and it’s led them to victory against foes on all sides.

Senci: He uses a longsword, though being a kobold, his size means he has to use it like a greatsword. He’s really good with it though, and becomes quite experienced in the art of combat during his journey!

Leianna: A spiked mace is her trademark. Though she’s a cleric, she uses it out of personal preference. Cracking skulls is just her style. She also uses a shield with it as well. She’s a pretty balanced warrior, though at times reckless.

Lexius: A short sword and small, wooden shield. Very plain and simple.

Razorwing: The great hero, a famous archer! He uses a longbow, it’s his staple! He also has a dagger as an emergency fallback, though as one of the avian koutu, his maneuverability means he shouldn’t really ever need to use it.

Paul: He’s a bounty hunter kitted out for any engagement. His primary weapons are his miniature crossbows. He also has a broadsword and daggers in case he needs to fight up close. He’s known to use tricky support weapons like smoke bombs and nets as well.

Wurie: The wolfman, and Captain of the Guard Wurie uses an arming sword, and nothing else! He’s spent plenty of time mastering its use, though. The same, old but maintained blade has brought him through many years of service, from his start as a caravan mercenary, through the height of his career as the founder and leader of a mercenary company, and finally to his years as a guard for the city of Palethorn.

Andric: A claymore! He’s strong enough to use it with one hand, though he tends to use both anyway. Having a free offhand is helpful with casting his holy magic though, being a paladin and all.

Tourthun: He’s a red, firebreathing dragon! Soooo...claws and fire.

Charles: Half-human, half-dragon, all magician! He doesn’t use any weapons at all! Not physical anyway, as he has an array of spells to choose from. If for some reason he couldn’t use any magic, he’d probably just use his claws.

2) Do they own such a weapon? How does it look like? (Add drawings or pictures pls!)

Alexander:

Senci:

Leianna:

Lexius:

Razorwing:

Paul:

Wurie:

Andric:

Tourthun:

I guess? That’s the closest I can think of a picture to his “weapons”. (He’s actually really nice though so don’t worry, he’s not actually plundering gold or frying people)

Charles:

3) How did it come into their possession?

Alexander: He commissioned a renowned blacksmith and armorer to forge his equipment.

Senci: A gift from his tutor and foster father, Andric!

Leianna: Granted to her by the Order of God, the religious order she serves.

Lexius: The monk scraped together the tiny bit of personal wealth he had and got his sword, shield and chainmail quickly made by a nameless blacksmith, hence their dubious quality.

Razorwing: After becoming a very skilled bowman, he put in a lot of time learning to how both make and maintain bows and arrows. His current longbow is one he made himself!

Paul: He was careful to have his armaments made by well-established blacksmiths with reputations for high-quality, reliable merchandise. Can’t have a breakage or malfunction in the middle of an important mission, after all.

Wurie: Part of a dual deal, actually. When deciding to become a mercenary, he mentioned his lack of armaments to the caravan company he wanted to sign up with. The head merchant actually pointed him to a company blacksmith, offering a moderate discount. This was to hopefully foster some loyalty so that Wurie would stay on with them for future trips. The wolfman did indeed stick around with them for a long time.

Andric: Meticulously crafted by a master blacksmith, and then enchanted by himself. The top quality steel is deadly and reliable, and the paladin’s own blessing makes the claymore tear through the scales and flesh of demons and evil monsters with ease.

Tourthun: All dragons are born with their claws and breath powers.

Charles: Everyone’s born with magic already innately inside of them. It’s simply a matter of training to draw it out and learn to use and control it...

4) Who taught them to use it?

Alexander: That would be Sir Gabriel Winthorperry! A knight that arrived to the house of Angelus to serve Alexander’s father, he took on the role of tutor when Alexander expressed interest in becoming a knight. He trained the child for many years in the use of knightly weapons, combat and conduct, until Alexander was finally able to set off as an knight on his own. He’s become a great tactician from his time commanding armies as well.

Senci: Sir Andric, the paladin and one who raised Senci! He drilled Senci vigorously. At first he didn’t want to, but Senci begged and pleaded, wanting to become a hero like him. He made sure the kobold would be strong and skilled enough to survive out in the harsh world that Senci still sees as a dreamland.

Leianna: She began training to become a cleric as she reached maturity. As a child, she had to run away from home for reasons. A priest found her out in the forest crying, and took her back to the monastery. There she grew up learning about the holy scriptures, church tradition, and God. After they accepted her request, she started training, and became proficient at channeling holy magic and using blunt instruments.

Lexius: No one! He has absolutely no combat experience or training! He’s totally out of his league...though he IS very skilled at healing magic, and has quite a bit of potential that will become apparent later down the line...

Razorwing: An archery tutor who turned out to be a pretty nasty man, actually. He started a toxic, abusive relationship with Razorwing while he was young and naive. A traveling human helped him break free from that, and Razorwing began training himself after that. He quickly rose to become a master archer in due time. and is pretty famous as an adventuring hero now.

Paul: Self-taught. He started small, but his natural combat awareness, sharp senses and streetwise nature helped him stay alive long enough to become VERY good at what he does.

Wurie: Trained by a barbarian tribe as a warrior at first. He ran away and fled to Geralthin, where he became a mercenary. He got a lot of training and firsthand experience with kobold raids on the caravans he protected. After becoming the head of his own company he set off on many missions against all kinds of monsters. By the time he became a city guard he was a seasoned veteran of war. In that time he became skilled in the art of mediation and diffusing volatile situations as well, since the job required it.

Andric: Trained by the church, and forged in the crucible of war. He’s spend decades fighting cults, monsters, and even slaying dragons. He’s one of the most battle-hardened and highly-skilled paladins in the world at the moment, and his mere presence can turn the tide of war.

Tourthun: He doesn’t fight, nor was he trained. He’s borderline pacifist, though certain events will force a change soon enough. As a great, mighty dragon though anyone but a great wizard or hero would be hard-pressed to defeat him if they wanted to...not that most would. He’s developed a fiercely protective attitude towards humanity, and wishes to defend them from other, more evil dragons.

Charles: He went to college for the magical arts. He’s still young, but his natural ability, great mind, and fast learning along the powerful desire to become better means it won’t be long before he’s a master sorcerer.

5) Does your OCs’ have a special boss-killer move? What is it?

I like to imagine this question as making a “Finisher” or “Ultimate” move from a videogame, so I’ll try my best to use that as inspiration.

Alexander: He’s just a knight. A good one, but still a knight, having no magic or superhuman abilities. I’d imagine his ultimate move would be him using a rallying horn, and an army of knights appearing and running down his foe in a crushing cavalry charge full of lances.

Senci: Some sort of reckless and wild flurry of swings, ending with a front-flip cleave.

Leianna: Beating the stuffing out of her enemy, knocking them over, and slamming her mace into their skull.

Lexius: The spell Destroy Evil! I’ve written some lore on magic before, so here’s an excerpt about the spell:

“Caster creates an aura around them of pure good, destroying anything evil, both physical and in concept. This will spell destroys not only beings born of evil, like demons, and tears the corruption from tainted objects, but also seeks out and destroys evil within normal beings. Selfishness, hatred, greed and jealously are burned away from people in the aura. This process is extremely painful, amplified by how “bad” of a person the target is. Even good people will feel great pain, but the truly wicked will be wracked with such horrific suffering that they will likely die of shock before the process is complete. Once these thoughts of darkness and wickedness are burned away, those affected will feel different, calm and at peace with themselves. They might no longer feel temptation to do bad, or may begin to see the faults with their old ways. Stripping away free will is a huge taboo in human society, so this spell is generally only cast on either the willing, on defiled objects, or in groups where demons are suspected to be hiding in human disguises, the holy person gauging the reactions of those affected. Demons will screech in horror before burning away completely. Sometimes used by holy men and women to purify themselves of temptation and sin. An extremely difficult spell to cast.”

Razorwing: A flurry of arrows fired while he’s flying in the air, followed up by a cinematic headshot.

Paul: A smoke bomb and him dancing around the enemy unseen, landing hit after hit, ended with a shot to the back while the enemy’s trying to find him.

Wurie: Rallying the Silver Shields, his mercenary company, to come in and overwhelm the enemy!

Andric: Calling down a pillar of pure divine energy, smiting his opponent and enveloping them in holy flames.

Tourthun: His *SPOILERS* appears and the pair drown the enemy in a sea of flames.

Charles: Probably the spell Ritual of Pain. Here’s a description from the lore excerpts again:

“The caster, before casting this spell, must draw blood. The more blood, the more powerful the spell. Generally, the sorcerer will stab their hand or arm with a knife, dig into the wound to let blood pour freely, and then hold up their hand and cast the spell. A torrent of acidic blood will pour from the caster towards the intended target, drowning the victim in boiling acid. This extraordinarily powerful spell costs the caster dearly, who will be terribly wounded afterwards. Anyone casting this spell is either desperate enough to risk death, or has a healer handy. Use of this spell is frowned upon in many places, though in antiquity it was one of the powerful death spells used to defeat the dragons.”

Tagging @lady-redshield-writes, @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword and @sheralynnramsey!

[dmsden]

Touched by the Elements - Personal Plot for Genasi

Hullo, Gentle Readers. It’s time once again for another Personal Plot article. This month, we’re delving back into the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion for the fascinating Genasi. If you need a copy of this free official supplement, you can download it at https://media.dnd.wizards.com/EE-Players-Companion_0_0.pdf

By the lore of the EEPC, Genasi are unique, one-off creatures, usually stemming from a mortal and a genie of some kind producing offspring. This is a perfectly acceptable bit of lore, and it would work for any campaign. In my own campaign world, Genasi originated as mortals from the country of Bedourin who were taken prisoners by the Primordials during the ancient war at the dawn of time. They were imbued with elemental power to help them survive their time in the Elemental Chaos. When the Primordials lost the war, the Genasi returned to the world, profoundly changed, and have done their best to rejoin Bedourani society. Whether your campaign uses one of these kinds of origins or something totally different, looking at what makes Genasi unique gives all kinds of fertile ground for storytelling.

Let’s say you’re using the “one off” origin. You could do all kinds of storytelling related to the Genasi’s Genie parent. After all, if the people you think of as Mom and Dad are human, and your skin is light blue, a breeze constantly follows you, and you have crystals embedded in your scalp, you’re probably going to realize there’s something different about you. Eventually, a child in that situation is probably going to have questions and maybe want to meet the parent they’ve never known. This could be the basis of a major adventure, as the players find a way to get into the Elemental Planes, seek out the parent, convince them to grant an audience, etc.

What will this meeting be like? The EEPC suggests that most genies don’t desire contact with their genasi offspring. That could make the meeting very bittersweet at best and almost hostile at worst. On the other hand, what if the genie decides this mortal spawn is useful to them? They could send their child on all kinds of adventures. Or what if the efreet general they’ve been seeking to help bring down turns out to be the genasi’s parent in the end? It’s a rich tradition of storytelling to explore.

On the other hand, if genasi are elementally-charged race with their own communities and such, how does the rest of the world react to them? You could have people react poorly, being suspicious of the possibility that they worship the Primordials. Or, conversely, people could start showing up to seem to recognize the genasi PC as a chosen one among his kind, seeking to have the Genasi lead a cult dedicated to Imix, Ogremoch, or the Elder Elemental Eye. If a PC chooses a race like a Genasi, they are saying they want to be marked as different, and you should discuss with your player where they want to go with that idea.

One thing that might be interesting to explore through story is the PC’s relationship with the element they embody. Do they love and accept it, or do they fight against it? The story of someone trying to fight their own nature can always be an interesting one. What if the fire genasi lived in a tavern as a child, but the building burned down, killing their parents? They fled, as townsfolk pointed accusing fingers, and now they have a hatred of fire and try to suppress their nature. A fire genasi monk trying to maintain an inner calm to avoid any flare-ups would be quite interesting. 

On the flipside of this, learning to love one’s own nature gives a lot of story potential. Perhaps the earth genasi lived among miners, or the water genasi was a sailor, or the air genasi plies a trade on an airship or guiding people high into the mountains. The character could be seeking to more strongly build their affinity to their element, which could mean seeking elemental fonts around the world which grant boons based on the element they’re charged with. Once again, a jaunt into the Elemental Planes is something that should definitely happen at least once, to allow a genasi to really embody their power.

One thing you might want to consider is that, since genasi embody the classic four Greek elements, each element had an element in opposition. Fire and water are in opposition, as are earth and air. You could use this idea to craft a nemesis or rival for the PC. It doesn’t have to be a literal other genasi or genie, but maybe it is. A fire genasi might have a childhood rival who’s a water genasi. A water genasi might be opposed by an efreet. An air genasi might have an enemy who’s a xorn. An earth genasi could be hunted by an invisible stalker.

It’s always a great idea, often around the middle of the campaign, to ask the player where he’d like to see his PC end up. Asking at the beginning yields some interesting ideas, but it often isn’t until they’ve been in a character’s skin for a while and seen them evolve and change that they know where the character would want to go. Maybe the PC decides they want to throw down their efreet pasha father, crush the attack on the Prime Material Plane they were planning, and take their crown. Maybe the air genasi PC wants to free their djinn mother who has been imprisoned in a lamp by an evil sorcerer. Maybe their goal is to get purged of the elemental influence and become just a mortal human. Odds are, at the beginning of the campaign, that they won’t have an idea what that goal is yet. They may have a goal they think is the final one, but it’s likely to be different as things move along.

As one extra little note, there used to be five kinds of genasi. Stormsoul genasi were kind of an odd bit, but I always liked them. Since they exist in my campaign setting, I did create them as a subrace for Genasi in D&D Beyond, and you’re welcome to use them. You can find my work ready to play at https://www.dndbeyond.com/subraces/12762-storm-genasi

I hope this article has helped spark some ideas for you. Next month we’re back to the Player’s Handbook for the Outlander background. Until then, may all your 20s be natural.

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Balancing Homebrew Classes

I get a lot of questions about homebrewing so I decided to make a big ole list of things to look at when making a subclass or even a class for D&D 5e. I've learned a lot from making my own brews and getting critique from others and reworking my own work, and I think everyone can benefit from these. As you are going through your finished homebrew, check for these:

image credit: Randy Gallegos

Balance Your Features

Action Economy

Players get several different types of actions each turn: movement, an item interaction, a bonus action, a reaction, and an action. There are several potential problems when it comes to assigning abilities to these different types of actions. On one hand, you could put too many options on one action type. If every feature in a subclass costs one action, the player has potential bonus actions and reactions it isn't using. Also, if this is a subclass, be aware that you are competing with other features of the base class.

A rogue subclass that has a ton of bonus action features won't be able to use them if it's using its Cunning Action every turn. The rogue also has its Uncanny Dodge taking up its reactions. This leaves very few actions to deal with as far as a subclass goes, which is why the book's subclasses either offer passive features or spells (for the trickster).

The competition for actions can also be a good thing, but try to limit it to two distinct options. Players shouldn't have to choose between a hundred options each round when you could give them two choices. In the case of the rogue, "do I use my reaction for this attack of opportunity, or wait in case I need Uncanny Dodge later?" Two very different options for one action that can lead to very different outcomes.

Ability Score Economy

Keep an eye on how many ability scores your class cares about. A good class really should only care about two of them. If you introduce a third one, make sure it's tertiary and does not require as much effort to make it good, yet not breakable if the player ramps up to 20 in that stat. For instance, my Commander fighter subclass during fighter week was really reliant on CHA for a class that needs STR and CON to be good. When this was pointed out to me, I have since reworked the class entirely to not need saving throws, and instead gains a number of uses based on WIS plus a flat number. This means that even a fighter with no WIS still gets to use the abilities, but rewards the player for having a few extra points. Since the features no longer have saves, the player isn't punished for having a low tertiary score.

Compare Similar Mechanics

The most basic way to check your classes is to compare it to other existing mechanics, but some people forget to do this. There are a few classes I made that essentially gave other classes a ranger's animal companion. To do that, I made sure to look at the ranger's companion feature when making those classes.

Compare Average Damage

Compare the damage output against the damage of similar classes. What matters most is damage per round, which you should usually assume takes place over 1 minute. You can use this link to calculate damage per round for fighting classes, as compiled by Kryx. There are some parts of the tables I still don't understand, but in general this is very helpful.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d-9xDdath8kX_v7Rpts9JFIJwIG3X0-dDUtfax14NT0/edit#gid=2091322934

It doesn't contain spellcasters (except for the bladelock) but I have a quick way I judge a caster's damage output. A spellcaster ideally will be frontloading its most powerful spells with some cantrips between. Assume that the class in question casts its highest level damaging spell once followed by a cantrip the next round, then the next-highest level damaging spell the next turn, then a cantrip, etc. until 1 minute (10 rounds) passes. Use the average damage for each spell and cantrip. Add all those averages together and divide by 10 to get the average damage that the character did over that minute. Overall, spellcasters tend to have a higher average damage than fighting classes, but they become balanced thanks to their limited number of slots each day. Simply because a creature has access to Cone of Cold doesn't mean it can cast it every single round. Bear that in mind and compare to existing classes.

Check Drawbacks

Honestly, I dislike drawbacks in homebrews unless it's for a thematic reason. There shouldn't be a downside to something to gain an upside that is far beyond what another similar class could accomplish. Instead, that upside should simply be balanced appropriately for the situation. Drawbacks can always be negated somehow, so make sure they either can't be worked around or ensure the effect is fully balanced. For instance, paying health can simply mean spending hit dice during a rest unless you also reduce their hit point maximum.

I was making a class that gave offerings for magical power, so I had it apply effects similar to a sorcerer's metamagic to their spells in return for a sacrifice of gold each time. However, a player's wealth very much depends on the DM. I ended up using a chart based on a character's average wealth as they leveled based on treasure hoards to help choose how much gold it should cost. In the end, I decided that it should probably cost no more than a typical Potion of Healing but the effect applied to the spell shouldn't be too much more powerful than a sorcerer's abilities. Even if the character did have limitless wealth to use the effect on every spell, it shouldn't be enough to break the game.

image credit: Sandro Rybak

Edit Your Text

Be Concise

Make sure your wording is detailed and specific, and yet short and succinct. Keep an eye out for sentences that could be interpreted in a different way. Ensure the antecedent is clear. I recently noticed a spell I made referred to "creatures on the side of the wall you designate." I meant for the caster to choose a side of the wall, not choose which creatures get affected, but it could have been interpreted both ways. Careful wording helps prevent players from absolutely busting your homebrew.

Being concise also helps overly wordy things become easier to understand. I guarantee that few players will actually read through your entire homebrew if it's too wordy and doesn't get the point across quick. In my future edits of my classes, I have since removed a lot of the different options that were available for things like the Xammux wizard from my wizard week, which wanted to be a hundred different classes complete with evil flesh grafting rules. Distill your class down to its essence.

What also doesn't hurt is summarizing a feature with a sentence before defining the rules, cluing players into why the rules are that way. "A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame." Okay so it deals an area of fire damage. Got it.

Check Syntax

Try to use similar terminology that Wizards uses in their classes. I still sometimes use terminology from 3rd edition because that's what I grew up with. For instance I will sometimes say Handle Animal instead of Animal Handling when referring to the specific skill. Just as well, I often refer to skill checks when they are technically ability checks that just happen to use a skill. I should be saying Strength (Athletics) check, not just an Athletics check. Even though it's easier to say out loud or in-game, and on Tumblr posts I will often do so to make things easier for myself, it's not technically correct. Look at similar existing spells and class features to figure out your wording.

image credit: James Ryman

Test Your Class

Theoretical Stress Test

It is difficult to always run numbers and playtest if you are working mostly by yourself (like me), but there are some intense examples you can test your class against to see if it can be easily integrated into the game. Imagine each of the following for your class:

Imagine the whole party was composed of this class. Would its features still be balanced or is there a way to break them? Has the damage become absurd or awful?

Imagine the class in the ideal party, with a cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. Have your class replace any one of them and see if the party can still function. If it can't, the class might still need balancing to be useful.

Imagine someone is multiclassing into this class after 5 levels of Fighter, or some other class that grants an Extra Attack by then. Basically, does your class become unbalanced if you give them an extra attack? Keep in mind that 5 levels is still an investment, so it usually won't be a problem, but if the class has an extremely powerful ability that gets even MORE powerful if you can attack more than once in a turn, it might need balancing.

Imagine another class multiclasses by dipping a few levels into your class. While you usually want the class's earliest ability to be their "schtick" that they use very often, you have to make sure it's not so powerful that other classes can become overpowered by taking only 3 or so levels in your class. For instance, during Sorcerer Week I made a swarm hivemind subclass that essentially became a swarm, granting it resistance to physical damage. It made sense flavorfully, but someone pointed out that if a Fighter or other combat class dipped into it, they would suddenly have the resilience of a barbarian for almost no cost, in addition to all those spells. I tried fixing it and left it up but in the book compilation I'm making I actually ended up removing it to replace it with a new class.

Try thinking of other ways to test the limits of the homebrew. Chances are someone out there will want to be able to min-max your class so you have to be ready for anything.

Self-Playtest

While it's unfeasible to playtest every single thing you make in large focus groups with detailed data collection, especially if you are by yourself and make a bunch of it like I do, you can always run through a self-playtest. All you have to do is play the class or mechanic in question in turn order against enemies of an appropriate challenge rating. Use turn order and run through the mechanic precisely as you wrote it. Check what happens if a check is failed OR succeeded to cover all your bases.

For the spells that I make, I will imagine the entire process of the spell from casting to effect (usually more for spells with a duration). Use props for minis if it's easier. This helps the distinctions for "start of turn" and "end of turn" effects become more clear. For instance, if I have a disabling spell that requires an initial save and then give the creature a new save at the start of each of their turns, the creature might fail their initial save but then pass their start-of-turn save, meaning they will never have a single round inhibited by the spell! I might get rid of the initial save or change the recurring saves to happen at the end of the creature's turns, so the creature will at least lose one turn on a failed save.

[laneypenn]

i’m super emotional about chrysdric lately... like okay so, they’re really different in a lot of ways, but if they were in a relationship, they’d be growing and learning from each other all the dang time... it’d be so adorable. also they have so many differences in virtues and vices that i cant help but compare them

i think this’ll get long so under cut

like, i can imagine chrysta asking cedric for help with being a teacher because he’s so much better at teaching than she is. like, for example, in “the princess and the protector” (sorry for no screencaps this episode isnt on netflix or disneyNOW so), chrysta’s introduced as sofia’s protector trainer who’s judgmental and rude, and she keeps claiming sofia doesn’t have the potential to be a protector just because she’s a princess. 

sofia calls her out on it and she learns her lesson by the end of the episode, but chrysta is just lucky to have sofia as a trainee. if it was someone else, say, princess vivian, chrysta’s trainee would not have gotten to their enchantlet by sundown. sofia only succeeded because she’s stubborn, headstrong, and she doesn’t give up on what she wants (which i might say is actually because she’s had cedric as a friend/mentor for a few years, but that’s a whole other post)

cedric, on the other hand, is actually a pretty fantastic teacher. like in “substitute cedric”, he gives a more detailed description on how to do the spell that sofia’s class was learning (chrysta’s explanation of what feather walking is was longer than her explanation on how to do it. her instruction was “put your feet down as gently as possible and float over the surface, light as can be.” which basically is just “walk lightly!”)

cedric isn’t a great teacher at this specific part of the episode, but that’s mostly because he’s focused on something else and the class was learning this spell the day before. he’s still easier to understand than chrysta and when sofia asks him to show the class the spell one more time, he (begrudgingly) agrees to, whereas when sofia asked chrysta to let her try to feather walk again, chrysta doesn’t let her, claiming that since it only took her two tries to get it right, sofia shouldn’t need more than three

the only time cedric insults sofia’s class outwardly is at this point, when he’s frustrated that all of them can’t do the spell and has to stay in there showing them how to do it, cutting into his time at the greenhouse

this is more of a case of cedric just being a general asshole than it is cedric being a bad teacher, though. he actually stayed with the kids and kept showing them the spell to help them get it right, which he really didn’t have to do

cedric really starts to glow as a teacher when the kids from hexley hall stick him to a chair and he has to show the royal prep kids how to do the disappearo spell

he can’t even move to show them how anymore, but he still explains clearly how to perform the spell and doesn’t get mad at the kids when they can’t do it right. it’s quickly clear why he isn’t mad 

(i love the di-di-di-di-di-di noise he makes here and i find it funny that netflix subs it as “now, now” because thats not what hes saying at all)

(for space im cutting the little part where vivian does the spell)

please ignore his very evil look, it’s just his face. also, i love this song, so listen to it if you haven’t lately

anyways, cedric is more competent than chrysta in the right situations. he encourages the kids to keep trying, build up their confidence, and pushes vivian to actually try to do the spell instead of just giving up like she wants to. chrysta, in contrast, pushed sofia to give up when she failed to teach her well and kept taking personal shots at her for being a princess.

also, i think it’s worth mentioning that chrysta only has to deal with teaching sofia, the girl who can learn quickly and understand confusing instructions while asking minimal questions, the girl who was the one who had to teach her class to do a spell while cedric was stuck, and she still thought that it was a burden. 

moving away from the topic of teaching, cedric and chrysta are both trying to be better people and stop pushing people away when they want to be friends. cedric pushed people away all his life because everyone mocked him relentlessly, so he vowed to himself that he’d get super powerful and screw them over one day... so if anyone ever reached out to him to try to be his friend, it’s safe to assume that he just never let anyone get close.

meanwhile, chrysta actively tried to make friends with other fairies, but she was more rough and tumble than the people she wanted to be friends with and couldn’t be their friend after a couple of tries, so she gave up entirely. 

then, when she became a protector, she didn’t want anyone to worry about her and feel obligated to be her friend, so she’d tell lies about how extravagant her wassalia was to keep anyone from worrying for her. (this ep isnt on the disneyNOW app either so no screencaps)

both cedric and chrysta have a hard time making friends (cedric moreso than chrysta) so it seems likely to me for sofia to want to introduce them to each other.

another big thing that i was very interested in is their capacity for giving up.

chrysta is stubborn, of course, but she gives up a lot. she gave up on sofia before she even met her. she gave up on becoming friends with the other fairies after maybe three tries to hang out with them. and since she’s clearly allowed to try again as an adult in “undercover fairies” -

she gave up on getting her fairy wand, too.

cedric, however, has a very hard time giving up. for three seasons of the show, he’s trying all the time to claim the throne of enchancia because that’s what he’s wanted ever since people turned against him when he messed up his sister’s hair. but not giving up isnt always a good thing.

in “day of the sorcerers”, he has to talk himself back into taking over the kingdom because it feels wrong, he isn’t sure that’s what he wants anymore... but he can’t not do it, it’s what he’s wanted for so, so many years...

he only gives up when it looks like he’s in physical pain at the idea of hurting sofia this way

(and he does give up, he’s not just defeated by sofia. he does everything short of just handing the wand to her)

so like, cedric doesnt give up easily, and chrysta does. i mean, looking at it from a smaller lens can make it seem like the other way around, with cedric failing at all his schemes and chrysta always seeming to succeed, but it’s clear in the big picture that this is the case.

tl;dr, shipping goggles make you look at everything in new lights and at first glance, it seems like cedric’s not good enough for chrysta, but upon inspection they’re both kinda flawed characters that would make for an interesting relationship. thanks for coming to my TED talk

[rugeon]

Learning to butterfly the videogame chicken breast

New year new potential projects. For final year project 2018-2019. Might as well start with the new ‘ideation document.

Ideation Document

Contexts:

Systemic gameplay - systemic narrative, and otherwise

Gamefeel/ Player Satisfaction/ Juicing

Strong unusual sense of place and people

Unique methods of interactive media storytelling (NITW Text boxes)

Coziness in games

Non traditional methods of mechanical interaction ie. traditional control methods, with more unique player expression

Having an Interesting failure spectrum (Tom Francis thoughts on why MGSV is a fun stealth game, due to its wide array of failure states)

Analogue/varied means of  expression within one mechanic or activity (jumping in mario, building a snowman in NITW prologue game, Lost Constellation)

Ethos of messy fast prototyping iterartion and production (inspired by Jenny Jiao Hsia talk about prototyping)

Affecting audio  

Techniques 

Interaction Design

Branching Narratives + Dialogue

Games AI

Procedural Generation

Advanced Audio and Visual Processing

Inspiring Works 

Heat Signature - Suspicious Developments, Tom Francis

Roguelike, top down action/ stealth/ heist game where you play as different intergalactic heist/bounty hunter people that breaks into spaceships. Extremely systemic game that encourages players to find interesting solutions to problems by providing a wide variety of interesting sci-fi tools to the player. Systemic gameplay+ systemic player narratives as told through gameplay plans  being made and then changing/going awry as well as conditions constraining players to be creative.

Hotline Miami - Dennaton Games, Jonatan Söderström. Dennis Wedin

Surreal, hyperviolent top down action game about the trancelike sprees that a masked killer enacts, that strongly highlights the violent obsession of videogames and culture. Has several factors that contribute to a sense of good gamefeel, and making what should be a frustrating experience instead induce a flow state.

Sid Meier's Covert Action - MPS Labs, MicroProse

Interesting systemic narrative that the player experiencing by foiling and interacting with various agents and stages of a spy plot. Systemic narrative that is expressed by the gameplay systems. Feeling of the ai acting irrespective to the player. Narrative experience of player feels quite systemic.

Night in the Woods (NITW) - Infinite Fall, Scott Benson, Alec Holowka, Bethany Hockenberry + Finji Adam Saltsman, Rebekah Saltsman, Em Halberstadt

Anthropomorphic animal narrative, platforming, adventrue game that tells the story of a 20 year old that comes back to her home town and and friends after leaving college. Tells an emotive story unconventional by games standards in a very playful way that has some traditional gameplay elements (platforming) but also makes interactive more unusual verbs (a pizza eating section, and pretzel stealing microgame). Creates an extremely strong, cozy sense of place. Expressive within the limits of its digital medium+storytelling (wide variety of personality conveyed through text box animation).

Minit - Vlambeer, Jan Willem Nijman, Kitty Calis, Jukio Kallio, Dominik Johann

Small, short adventure game where you die and every minute and respawn at the same space, learning about the world, optimising your route and changing the world slightly with each successive run. Very polished game with superb gamefeel (all vlambeer games have great gamefeel+juice)

Kentucky Route Zero - Cardboard Computer- Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, Ben Babbitt

The great american novel in game form. A magical realist story about debt to the past. Extremely important and affective narrative game. ‘The Entertainment’ - Interlude, elucidates relationship and interplay between player and developers that creates the game experience. Creates a powerful atmosphere + utilises branching narrative

I also wrote down a bunch of other stuff I’ve been thinking about in a big jumbled list for help during ideation process. This is just junk floating around, mood board of my head.

Yakuza, Moby Dick, Dark Souls/Absolver, Atom Zombie Smasher+Brendon Chung, Papers Please+Return of Obra Dinn, FTL+Into The Breach, Hylics, High Hell, devolver, Hyper Light Drifter, Flinthook, Jalopy, Jet-Set Radio, Mark of the Ninja, MGS V, Luftrausers, Shadow of Mordor, The Norwood Suite, Small radios, big televisions, The Endless Express, Alan Wake+remedy games, Assassins Creed 1, Banner Saga, F.E.A.R. ,  Helldivers, invisible inc. , Monaco, Westerado,  spectacle fighters dmc, thomas was alone, reigns, evil dead, sorcerer, valhalla rising, a field in england, hard to be a god, stalker, man with a movie camera, bomb city, taking of pelham 123, assault on precinct 13,  escape from new york, fruitvale station, playtime, drive, thief, collateral, taxi driver, lost in translation, tekkonkinkreet, ki-ki delivery service+ghibli, REDLINE, cagliostro, 2049, che, motorcycle diaries, man with movie camera, koyaanisqatsi,VVitch,Sacco e Vanzeti, nocturnal animal, die hard, ghost in the shell, atlanta, twin peaks, fear and loathing,only god forgives,donnie darko, mad max, satoshi kon films, eyes wide shut, dog day afternoon, seventh seal, whiplash, brazil, t2 trainspotting, hellboy comic, fargo, rocky horror, gozu, juno, clerks, slacker, daria, almost famous, lady bird, frances ha, fury, wes anderson colour+ framing, NOIR + lighting, there will be blood, no country for old men, unforgiven, dollars trilogy, run lola run, phone booth, die hard, dr strangelove, apocalypse now/heart of darkness, the wire, adult swim+space ghost stuff, home movies+squigglevision, hannibal, bojack, flcl, true detective, desert punk, QOTSA, them crooked vultures, grunge, idles, talking heads, wu, green kingdom, lizard gizzard, acoustic wizard, tobacco, diiv, mbv, spooky+ over the garden wall, bowie, clash

Initial Ideas

A game where you play as a witch exploring a modern magical realist city at night. Should have an interesting traversal mechanic. All about traversal, dancing and screaming in a city at night, strong sense of place + atmosphere: inspired by films such as playtime, thief, drive, collateral, fruitvale station, lost in translation as well as games like NITW. Thought about more in this doc: one pager section on 2nd page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O3NC8HqwmERq57Dcqqc2d2Ih34ZVO4-vEQPnVTKRyOk/edit?usp=sharing

Some kind of game themed around the desert/stoner rock music genre which includes acts like Red Fang, Kyuss and Sleep. Make use of AAVP to have a dynamic soundtrack responding to gameplay that impacts the visuals. The game’s mechanics should be directly inspired by the theming, and common features of the genre, could be action oriented, with rhythm game influences. One game that would probably be worth looking at in relation to this is the recently released Tetris Effect, while I would not be as interested in a game as abstracted as tetris, how they achieve a flow state, and have music and visuals informed by gameplay would be worth looking in to. I feel this game is more likely to involve rapid prototyping.

Create a languid game about chilling out on a ship with crew and passengers. Setting could be sci-fi or more historic - chatting on computer to far flung galactic friends and doing menial space jobs/ tasks aboard ship. The setting and experience of the place can draw from ideas about coziness in games + make use of Branching Narrative/Dialogue. Potentially also think about how procedural narrative could be a factor. Inspired by Moby Dick, NITW and Purgatory

Hotline Miami/Goap/Diehard - ‘Create a systemic top-down stealth action game where the player is asked to foil a developing plot/heist by a group of AI agents whose plan and activities respond to the players attempts to derail it. The focus should be on the player feeling like they are responding to the AI’s adaptations to the player interrupting their plot. Each level would be one plot/ situation the player is thrust into. The project is inspired by the evolving plots of covert action, the setting/circumstances of Die-Hard and the gameplay/perspective of hotline miami. This project will involve development of a complex AI system that could be implemented via a GOAP method.

Walkie talky/radio gameplay mechanic to solicit/disseminate information

Research into the effectiveness of procedural vs authored content in games, as large games increasingly find themselves trying to use procedural generation to meet the demands of growing content demand they are finding it difficult to reconcile this with a desire to create quality, curated content, narrative or otherwise. I propose research into the various ways procedural vs authored content has been divvied up in games, the amount of people working in each area, how much curated work is required for procedural work to be effective and the reception/perception of these two methods to create content for games. The means by which this could be investigated is perhaps by creating some data sets of very simple different possible mechanical games in Unity or more narrative ones in twine, that are sorted into different groups of procedural / authored games. We would then measure the level of player engagement over the course of their time with the games and within the context of how long it took to make the given games. Context + techniques: procedural generation + branching narratives