#BUT he's also interested in magic in general so i'm guessing it still Would be interesting to him to a degree

[astrolavas]

i think it’s kind of interesting with the hexside tracks convo. i actually think construction magic is the only coven-specific type of magic we’ve ever seen hunter do? with that big earth fist he whacked amity with in eclipse lake. i don’t know if that would be an argument for or against him taking it as a class, but i feel like everything else we’ve ever seen him do is like,, not tied to a coven besides that one spell

(this is related to this old post but i put the answer in my drafts and the option of posting it vanished from my memory lmao)

tbh that IS true, i forgor it can be technically considered construction magic kxjsjks

i feel like there are so many spells and different "sub magic types" and magic courses that are kinda unclear which track they'd be taught at or where they fall under, especially since there are some tracks/magic types that we've only seen used in a very general way; like construction or oracle. we've seen manyyyy possibilities for some tracks, like abomination (like what darius vs alador vs amity can do, how differently it can be used) or bard (how at first glance it just feels like a "yeah we use instruments to fight and do spells" but then we also find out how much you can truly do with it and how much actually falls under bard magic through raine) or illusions (everything that gus, and graye, have been shown to do) etc. but some tracks/covens we have really just been kinda... shown from a very surface level lol

hell, i still wonder why anyone would ever choose a potion coven in a world during belos' reign, where you have to choose to only have one magic type, because... from all we've seen it seems like in order to make potions you don't really need any magic (having magic can help but it's not necessarily needed) so what magic DO you get??? you have to get something (maybe magic that can assist you in making potions?) but we have no clear idea what. also considering how oftentimes potion-making is also tied in with other magic types (like plants or healing or beast-keeping) it almost feels like it should be a sub-type of each magic or an addition rather than its own thing. BUT KXJSHSK YEAH like, we don't know! i wish it was more clearly fleshed out in the show.

there's also the fact that now that belos is gone, the society is able to take back their culture and history and practices that were lost to time and as we can see in the epilogue they're actively working on making the boiling isles less... belos-influenced. they're working on that process of decolonization and it's going to be a long LOOONG while until traces of belos' impact completely disappear, but there are already clear changes. the sky is clear again (just like it was in the "savage ages" - a contrast to the pollution we see in the emperor's coven era), palismen are being carved again and palistroms are coming back from being endangered, selkidomus is doing good, the once a police precinct in latissa is now a hospital and the hostile architecture around it (the spikes) is gone, there's now a way to remove sigils and everyone is free to pursue whatever they want. the society is healing. etc.

and covens, magic being split into these clear subtypes- was not ever really something natural. like yeah, there ARE magic types that seem very clearly "thematic" like you can very clearly separate bard magic from plant magic, and a witch can be naturally skilled in a particular thing (like willow or gus) but there are also some spells that overlap and some that seemingly don't fit into any covens at all. belos made up covens in order to limit witches' bodily autonomy and control their abilities, in order to seem more powerful and to create this structure of power. so i imagine that if you are in a coven, in any coven, there are spells that don't quite fit any of them, or some that fit all.

i. ngl i completely derailed the ask and forgot where i was going with this LMAO but yeah

[shinynewwriting]

The nature of being a comics fan is that sometimes you find out there's an issue that caters to all of your interests at once, but you've never heard of it because it was only sold with certain boxes of Cheerios in 2014. Such is the case with General Mills Presents: Justice League #9, featuring the Joker and Superman swapping bodies. (Bless @distort-opia for knowing exactly which cereal-sponsored comic this was)

We open with the news that Superman has gone mad and is defacing Mt. Rushmore! (Honestly, good for him) There's not much time to process this, though, because the Daily Planet has an unwanted visitor who needs to speak with Lois:

They flee to the roof, where the dastardly Harlequin of Hate promptly...empties out his poison guns and visibly has a small breakdown?

No one else can do puppy-dog eyes like Kal-El of Krypton. Clark manages to convince Lois that he's in the Joker's body by recounting their recent, ridiculously cute dates. They are dramatically interrupted, however, by none other than Lex Luthor.

HAHAHAHA I love his silly little rocket boots so much. Look at them! Anyway, Lex's security detains "the Joker", and things are not looking great for Clark.

I'm low-key fascinated by the fact that Clark's about to spill the beans to Lex. Is it because he thinks that whatever Lex will do to him is probably still not as lethal as what Lex would do to the Joker for threatening Lois? Is it because he thinks Lex will probably let him use the Body-Swap 9000 stashed in a lab somewhere if he just begs nicely enough? I love their weird situationship so much. It's all moot, though, because someone else also woke up feeling not quite themselves this morning:

(Vital to note that Bruce has been letting Clark squirm for several minutes thinking he's been captured, because he's a dick <3) So how did this all happen?

Ah, the Weird Kryptonian Artifact trope. Smallville was also a big fan. Notice how Lex and Clark are fighting with laser eyes and energy shields, while the Joker is just full-body tackling Batman because he's shameless. Anyway, the artifact activated and Silliness ensued.

Oh shit, wait, where's our favorite mad scientist during all of this?

HAHAHAHAHA, I would pay real money to see that sequence of events. "Alfred, it happened again. Go upstairs and tase me."

"With pleasure, Master Bruce."

Meanwhile, Lex wakes up reeking of another dude's cologne, blindfolded, and tied to a chair. It's a normal enough morning after for him, is what I'm saying.

Clark realizes he finally gets to be on the other side of all of Lex's shiny anti-Superman toys for once.

Does the fourth wall even exist for you, Joker?

The Joker, waking up in Clark Kent's apartment: "Damn, bitch, you live like this?"

While they are busy subduing SuperJoker, Bruce has a flawless plan for getting the Magic Artifact:

Lois Lane, criminal mastermind.

Lois is asking the real questions, but the Flash has learned not to even bother.

Finally, we come to the most important part of any Superman/Batman team up: the verbal equivalent of a sloppy makeout where they talk about how much they love each other.

All's well that end's well after their exploration of another man's body.

What the hell, this was so delightful???? Just a silly, fun romp through the body swap trope with several of my favorite characters. Thank you, I guess, Cheerios?

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

My thoughts on season 2 Act one-

Overall: Not as good as season one for sure, but still pretty good. Needs more silco. Too fast paced, but good music, loved the Hellfire scene and Vi/Jinx fight, plus Viktor went biblical and lost his manhood. Magic stuff too confusing with not enough buildup in season 1 and parallels way too obvious.

Now more specifically.

Screw Heimerdinger. Screw Smeech. Screw Renni. And guess what? I'm going to say it.

Yes

Screw Vi.

We were in such denial with her being an Enforcer, we convinced ourselves she was lying to Cait about giving up on Jinx just to protect her. I was really surprised that she genuinely turned on Jinx. I think Vi would have killed Jinx if it weren't for Isha. I'm not going to pretend like Vi was totally wrong, totally evil- Jinx did kill everyone, so I can see why Vi would give up on her. But personally I cannot forgive Vi this, so it was pretty disappointing seeing her take a complete 180 and hate Jinx like that. Also not fond of Cait, and it actually seems like she's to be a major villian now.

Heimerdinger better die, I'm so done with him. He seemed to get better in s1 act 3 but no. He is still annoying and has too much screentime in season 2.

Smeech is somehow even worse, my new least favorite character. He has a cool design visually but I'm glad he died so soon. Same with Renni, seriously launching an attack on Piltover, escalating tensions like that, because the one guy killed your son?

I'll miss the flashbacks we had at the beginning of the episodes in s1. The new intro was alright, it felt less interesting than the season one intro to me.

Jayce has too much screentime, the way he doesn't realize viktor was naked until after he hugs him was a little questionable, but it's OK because we find out later that the hexcore stole Viktor's privates. The JayVik breakup was very rushed, disappointing, and unclimactic, jayce acts like it didn't even happen. The Viktor in Zaun scenes felt like I was watching an animated version of the Bible, I'm not sure how Viktor knew that touching huck, who I thought (and wished) died in episode 6 would do that, but manhood or not, I think viktor has become hotter.

The leblanc thing was cool, but incredibly random and confusing, and I even knew a little about leblanc beforehand. There was literally zero buildup for this not just in season 1, but even in season 2 before all this happened. The Arcane in general was practically absent in season one besides the mage and hexcore, and then is suddenly thrown in our face in season two, which I thing contributed to the feeling of things being too fast-paced.

I'm mad we have not yet seen a silco hallucination. We better get one. The scene with Jinx letting him go was heartbreaking, but the way they kept flashing back to his death and baptism scene was incredibly annoying. We get it, this is a parallel to that, no one is thinking otherwise. In season one the parallels were nice and subtle, you don't even realize until looking deeper and it's a nice treat, but that is no longer the case. And then as he sinks we hear him say "have you had enough?" Again, we get it. We know what that is a parallel of.

I'm confused as to how singed just got up, went to the snowy place, found and killed a murk wolf, dragged it all the way back to his lair, and hoisted it up singlehandedly. Also confused about how literally everyone knows silco is dead already. Did jinx tell everyone? Did she admit that she killed him to sevika? Why doesn't sevika see jinx as a traitor?

[geekthefreakout]

The Joy Leaving the Work

This post will be discussing the works of Neil Gaiman and my personal relationship with them. If you don't like that or cannot handle that, kindly don't read. Also, there will be allusions to SA in the discussions.

So, a couple of weeks ago I decided to pick up Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman-- a book I've owned for a couple of years that's been in my "to read pile" waiting its turn. In the light of the allegations against Gaiman, I put off reading it a couple of months more as I tried to process how I felt. Now I've read it.

Background: Neil Gaiman has been my favorite author bar none ever since I read Coraline in 5th Grade. He and Sir Terry Pratchett share a bookshelf of honor in my room- the one right behind my bed, so I can easily reach for a comfort read. I've always loved his twists on various stories-- The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere being two of my favorites. The dark-but-not-too-dark tone, the dry humor, the magical realism, all of it. Anansi Boys looked like it would have all of that.

And it did! In a vacuum, this would have been a very enjoyable read. But with the allegations, I noticed things that I wouldn't have before. For example (spoilers, I guess):

Mr. Nancy (the titular Anansi) is a funny old man, and often a bit lecherous. In his final moments, he's doing karaoke with some young, buxom blondes when he has a heart attack and falls off the stage, hand outstretched. As he goes down, he sticks his hand out, grabbing one girl's tube top and exposing her as he dies.

This anecdote in the book is presented as something that embarrasses his son (our protag) but is generally interpreted by the other characters as something that was just so funny and charming.

It made me uncomfortable. In fact, just about every time Mr. Nancy alluded to his Master Roshi-like interest in buxom young women, I felt uncomfortable. But wait, there's more:

Spider (secret twin brother of protag Fat Charlie) is interested in Fat Charlie's fiancee. He tricks her into thinking that he IS Fat Charlie, and this girl who had been saving her virginity til marriage is so taken by him that they have sex. Meaning not only did he entice the girl to sex under false circumstances (this is rape), but it's also unclear as to how much of her going along with him is really HER and how much is his... mojo, I suppose. To the story's credit, once she realizes what has happened she gets angry and breaks up with both of them, no longer wanting anything to do with them... until, of course, happenstance brings them together again and she admits that she had real feelings for Spider, who finds himself wanting to behave better for her.

That doesn't sit right with me in the best of circumstances. These are not the best of circumstances.

I finished the book and it took me this long- two weeks and change- to decide how I feel about it. And how I feel about it is this-- I cannot separate it from the author. I cannot enjoy this book because the slime from Gaiman's actions oozes all over it. And that sucks.

I'm almost afraid to reread my favorites from him, for fear that my happy memories of those books will be ruined too. That SUCKS.

And it makes me feel dumb for never having seen the misogyny in the books before. It's like when Rowling showed herself to be what she was and I couldn't enjoy Harry Potter anymore, but worse because Gaiman is an author that I was still actively reading, who had been vocally supportive of queer and trans people, who I'd still looked up to. When it all went down with Rowling, I realized that I'd been excusing a lot of problematic shit in her writing as ignorance, rather than malice. But it WAS malice. And now I'm wondering if I didn't make the same mistake with Gaiman. That sucks too.

Anyway. That's my rant. Thanks for listening. Please share if you're having issues like this too, it's good to not feel alone.

[melverie]

⸺ LESSON 10 ⸺

Solomon

Lucifer

Solomon & "Nightbringer"

MC's magic

strange feelings & soup

the 'MC is human' situation

records of a banshee

misc

- lesson 9 || lesson 11 || all posts so far -

I'm going to reveal my crack theory on Nightbringer's identity soon since the brainrot is getting out of hand, but then again, it shouldn't be hard to guess based on the points I bring up for this lesson :) I'm still preparing a sideblog for that tho, so it might take a bit Also if someone wants to get tagged for these recaps, do let me know! General spoiler warning for all of Obey Me Nightbringer, as well as for the original Obey Me

⸺ SOLOMON ⸺

Solomon suddenly shows up at HoL uninvited and claims he and Simeon have plans for drinking tea together. Simeon doesn't remember ever making such plans [10-4] -> while we're not told what they are talking about, I'm guessing it has to do with 10-A -> love how he just was at Nightbringer's tea party, and now his immediate response when asked why he's here is just "......Simeon and I are having a tea party" lol

by the time Solomon arrived at HoL, Satan was already outside, yet he didn't realize Solomon came over [10-18] -> while you can argue that Satan was just so caught up in watching the cat, he does notice MC coming over, the brothers leaving to the Demon Lord's Castle, AND this is the same demon that could later tell on that MC was standing in front of his bedroom door based on the intervall of their footsteps

⸺ LUCIFER ⸺

Belphegor talks about Lucifer trying (+ failing) to hold in his laughter [10-1]. Demon!Lucifer would never :(

Lucifer seems overly reluctant to take MC with him and Belphegor at first [10-4]. When asked why, he deflects -> he was kind of quick to entertain the idea of taking Solomon with him as the 'uninvolved third party' though

Lucifer seems surprised that Belphegor was denied entry to a shop back when they first arrived in the Devildom [10-6; pic below] -> since this treatment from the denizens was part of the reason Mammon wanted to gain the title of 'Rulers of the Underworld', you'd think that Lucifer would be aware of this kind of treatment happening in the first place...

it's raining, which reminds the brothers of the day before the Great Celestial War + according to Lucifer, it was unusally quiet [10-9]. The brothers talk about what everyone was doing that day:

Belphegor was napping in a tree and was all alone that day [10-11] Beelzebub was off in the human world to run an errand on Michael's behave [10-11] Asmodeus was taking a bath, and thinking of ways to get out of Raphael scolding him later on [lesson 10 hard mode] we don't get any comment on Satan, but he was obviously still part of Lucifer, so uh... Would have been interesting to know if he has any fragments of Lucifer's memories of that time tho Leviathan and Michael were taking a walk and talking [lesson 10 hard mode] Mammon was tasked with covering Beelzebub's gatekeeping duty, but he ended up skipping out of it [lesson 10 hard mode] and then there's Lucifer who was......somewhere. The game doesn't tell us what he was up to, but instead points out that no one knows where he was [lesson 10 hard mode; pic below]

Lucifer hogging the family braincell as usual and immediately realizes that, yep, MC has the Ring of Light [10-16] -> btw kind of unrelated but I do find it funny that out of all the characters to (originally) head to the Demon Lord's Castle to free Beel, it was MC and Luci & Belphie. You know. The only two brothers that wanted to attack MC once they found out that they are a human. Imagine what would have happened if Mammon, Levi and Asmo hadn't shown up lol

⸺ SOLOMON & "NIGHTBRINGER" ⸺

[hi, this is probably the only time I'm bringing the Japanese version into this recap simply because I already translated this specific scene here]

illusion!Diavolo and illusion!Simeon pressure Solomon into choosing either demons or angels. Solomon chooses the secret third option :) [10-A] -> since this illusion was most likely created by Nightbringer, we can assume that he wants Solomon to either choose his side (whichever that may be), OR to simply abandon humanity altogether -> a little later on Solomon implies that Nightbringer should know by now that Solomon won't ever waver on his convictions -> Nightbringer knows Solomon well enough to know that threatening MC's safety might get him to change his mind. Solomon does stop smiling at this threat, so he does seem to take the threat seriously

during the illusion tea party, Solomon says that he just wants to be free, and that that's part of his agreement with "him" [10-A] -> while we don't know for certain, I'm guessing his agreement is with Nightbringer since it would make sense narrative-wise

Solomon also tells Nightbrignger that he sounds like a demon [10-A] -> sounds like something you'd either say to someone who isn't a demon, or someone who only recently became a demon

Nightbringer says that Solomon is acting more like a demon than he is because of his arrogance [10-A] -> Solomon then says that it is inevitable that he behaves like a demon since Nightbringer made him to the person he is today

Two fun facts about the Japanese version! 1. Nightbringer uses 「傲慢」 for 'arrogant', which also happens to be the word used in the game for the deadly sin 'pride' 2. instead of saying "you're the one who made me who I am today", Solomon says that Nightbringer is the one who reduced him to what he is now

when Solomon calls Nightbringer......'Nightbringer' (lol), he actually puts his name in quotation marks in the Japanese version [10-A; pic below]. Makes you wonder if he actually is the historic Nightbringer we learn a little of later on, or if it's just someone using that name...

「」 are the Japanese quotation marks

⸺ MC'S MAGIC ⸺

MC one again absorbs the brother's magic in order to calm down Beelzebub [10-16]

⸺ STRANGE FEELINGS & SOUP ⸺

beast mode Beelzebub is heading to the colosseum, and Lucifer points out that it was build on the exact spot the brothers first landed in the Devildom [10-13]. That was a year ago. Why is it built already??

Leviathan points out that the Great Celestial War feels like a really long time ago [lesson 10 hard mode]

⸺ THE 'MC IS HUMAN' SITUATION ⸺

[hey, we finally reached the reason I wanted to make this its own category, whuu!]

so here's the thing:

1. back in lesson 8, Diavolo said that while he is now fairly confident that MC is indeed a human, he still can't be 100% sure because there is "something else" within MC [8-1; first pic below] 2. back in OG season 3, fairy illusion!Lucifer asks MC what they are. If MC answers that they are an angel, illusion!Lucifer says this that he knows when he is in the presence of an angel, but also admits that there is something else within them and that he can't say so for certain [OG 52-5; second pic below]

THE REASON I'M BRINGING ALL THIS UP is because now in lesson 10, Lucifer once again mentions being able to tell when he's in the presence of an angel. This time, however, he indirectly claims that he can tell that MC isn't one [10-16; third pic below]

⸺ RECORDS OF A BANSHEE ⸺

Beelzebub managed to escape from his prison cell and we learn about the state he is in [10-9; pic below]. Once again, it seems like too big a reaction for just hearing the word 'banshee'

we also learn that Beelzebub's rampage started right after the brothers left earlier [10-9; pic below]

Barbatos actually blames the brothers for Beelzebub's escape [10-9] and I am inclinded to believe him because:

1. Solomon was (supposedly) with him earlier, meaning Barbatos would have known had Solomon tried to pull something. And yet he is blaming the brothers 2. while Solomon could have just been sneaky & teleported away right after putting some kind of spell/curse on Beelzebub, the other characters mentioned last lesson that Beelzebub was already acting beside himself during the dinner party, meaning it must have been someone who was also at the dinner party. From what we know, Solomon was with MC at the time 3. while it could have been both Solomon AND Barbatos, I seriously doubt that Barbatos was involved in this situation in any way. Diavolo is already in a lot of distress because of suddenly having to govern the Devildom, MC's situation, Lucifer's comment last lesson and so. much. more. The Beel situation right now just causes Diavolo even more stress, and doing something like that just feels COMPLETELY out of character for Barbatos 4. speaking of seeming out of character, it's not like Barbatos to just baselessly accuse others like that, meaning he probably had a solid reason to blame the brothers 5. I am reaching with this one, but I like the idea lol--Diavolo still has the ability to tell lie from truth, and while Belphegor vehemently denies having played any part in Beelzebub's escape, Lucifer never outright says so

they suddenly start arguing that Beelzebub is acting like this because he's hungry [10-13] -> thing is, we later learn that he's lacking his "demonic disposition" and that the hunger he feels is all No. 6's doing. So unless No. 6 suddenly decided to go all in that can't be true

⸺ MISC ⸺

Belphegor tells MC a little more about Lilith + we get Michael lore (he looks like a jellyfish :] ) [10-1]

Belphegor also tells us that the Celestial Realm forbids angels from intervering with a human's life [10-1]

Belphegor's line from the website [10-1; pic below]

the sibling bickering <3 [10-6; pic below]

Simeon reassures Satan that they will one day be known as "the seven brothers" [10-18]

[monscrow]

intro post, i guess!!!

last updated 15/nov/2024

⚠️flash warning for blinkies at the bottom⚠️

free gaza, free palestine, stop genocide. you don't agree? block me.

i go by both mons and crow.

my pronouns are they/them, he/him and any neos/xenos that you think would fit either comedically or off of vibes.

lvl 16, so, a minor !! beware

aromantic, graysexual, something like that; qprs are sick asf and all hail relationship anarchy.

art sideblog is @monscrowarts

super amazing pretty boyfriend !!!<3 🍎

audhdcd (asd + adhd + ocd 😻😋) and hEDS. i use tonetags, feel free to ask for clarification!!!

bday is oct 7. 🎉🎉🎉

i'm mexican 🇲🇽!! i speak both spanish and english.

timezone is cst/utc-6.

i say slurs i can reclaim (mainly the f and t queer ones) and swear a lot, though if that makes you uncomfortable please either block me or lmk so i can try to tone it down when around you.

i love interacting!! feel free to tag me in stuff, send some asks (be it on anon or not), or message me! moots can ask for my discord even if we've never actually talked before. though i suck at keeping consistent, nothing personal i promise</3 /gen

i tend to spam-reblog so do with that information what you will.

some tags you might see me use here and there:

#mons rambles ← just my thoughts, ideas, opinions, and whatever i feel like throwing into the tumblr void.

#ask a crow / #anon asks ← askbox replies.

#save / #art save / #fav / #hellsite faves ← these are more for myself, but yeah they're pretty self-descriptive. just in case you get curious or anything.

#🍎 ← beloved.

hyperfixations/interests/things i'm passionate about !!! i guess, kinda

→ mcr (+ most of the members' solo projects)

→ killjoys (california + national anthem, but mainly calif and fanon)

→ demolition lovers lore (i have literally written like at least three different essays about it for school help me i'm so serious)

→ emo/alt/diy culture

→ will wood

→ bandom in general

→ graphic design, arts and crafts, illustration (that's right y'all graphic design IS my passion 😔)

→ fnaf

→ cosplay/costume-making

→ d&d

→ crows (no way, crow, really???)

→ australian shepherds

→ the umbrella academy (s4 isn't canon in my heart + currently reading the comics !!! )

→ gravity falls

→ neurodivergencies/psychology/disabilities (this one's pretty meta ngl)

→ lgbtqia+ identities (emphasis on the aroace-spec ones + relationship anarchy)

→ politics/activism

→ linguistics + conlangs

→ fantasy in general (high fantasy, magic, vampires, tieflings, you name it)

→ boardgames

→ the count of monte cristo (2024) (also i just bought the book so i'll be reading that too !!)

→ parkour civilization

→ uhhhh there's more but i don't remember rn, i'll keep adding as i see fit (probably... maybe..... perhaps....... quizás........ puede ser..........)

dni

trump supporters, terfs, transphobes, anti lgbtqia+/queerphobics, exclusionists, ableists, racists, prolifers/antichoicers, proshippers/anti-antis, irl gore, pro-israel/zionists, pro-ai generated "content", pro-nft, non-critical media consumers, classists, ed blogs, sh blogs.

also, i'm aware that dnis tend to not be effective and i probably will still get shitty ppl in my inbox so i can and will block. though i'm p chill as long as you're chill. this blog is run by a very neurodivergent, mentally ill, mexican, transmasc, aroace faggot, and any kind of bigoted hatred will not be tolerated.

blinkies made with blinkies cafe !!!

pssst btw, before you go, if you read my intro post i'd heavily encourage you to like it, so i can know!!! :] (/nf though!)

[spell-cleaver]

One thing I've always wondered is how Vader didn't sense either Luke (or Leia's for that matter) force presence on the first death star. I guess he was super caught up in with the whole "I sense the old coot who cut off my limbs amd left me to burn" thing, but I like to think obi-wan was masking the pair by just being obnoxiously loud with the force (the force equivalent of him walking into a room with multiple air horns and a boom box blasting away)

Wow, I had THOUGHTS about this one.

Honestly? I'm not a fan of the assumption in a lot of fic and by fans that it's super easy to passively sense someone in the Force. I have used it myself, of course, but I say from experience it restricts writing a lot while... not actually having a ton of backing in the films? (I'm referring to the films here, not to any other media, just because when I want to analyse lore, I only take them as canon; when I'm just looking for cool worldbuilding for a fic, though, anything goes.)

It's not just Leia that Vader doesn't sense on the Death Star. He doesn't sense Luke either, even though Luke is right there screaming when Vader kills Obi-Wan. It's more of an issue with Leia ofc because he literally used the mind probe on her but only finds that "her resistance... is considerable". An easy answer is that I headcanon Leia is a naturally good shielder, which is why she was never found on the Death Star and also why all of the Jedi in ROTS were surprised there were two babies - Leia had been naturally shielding herself, so they just sensed Luke.

But if we go more in-depth into the films' representations of the Force, Vader only senses Luke when he's actively chasing him as a pilot; he comments that "The Force is strong with this one" only when Luke is using the Force to aim and fire his shot. For me, this implies that you can only sense other Force users powerfully or distinctly when they're actively using the Force. I know why fic prefers not to go that way - I for one have used the "Vader senses Luke immediately" plot to get Luke captured many a time - but it's a fun thing to consider. Also, the Force is a soft magic system. It does functionally whatever the story needs it to.* Which is why Vader can sense Luke approaching Endor in ROTJ when Palpatine couldn't, but he had to be told by an officer when Luke's ship was approaching Cloud City in ESB.** There are many examples where a Force user just didn't sense someone else. Luke not sensing Yoda in ESB, Obi-Wan not sensing Dooku's presence on Geonosis, the Jedi non sensing Maul in TPM, the Jedi not sensing Palpatine for the whole prequel trilogy.

You could argue that those examples are of trained Force wielders shielding themselves, but I would argue that Qui-Gon can't sense Anakin in TPM. He doesn't show interest in Anakin until after they've left Watto's shop and Anakin starts talking to him. Anakin is the literal son of the Force and the most powerful Force wielder ever, but Qui-Gon was talking to Watto for a while without batting an eyelash at the small supernova in his shop. He didn't start to suspect until he heard about his racing, his instincts, spoke to him to notice his insights. Then still he spoke to Shmi about him to confirm his suspicions that "he can see things before they happen", watched him while he flew, and took a midichlorian count. I think the Force might well have been nudging Qui-Gon to look at Anakin, to suspect something, but I don't think he sensed Anakin himself as Force sensitive - at least, not immediately. Which is how I think you can explain all the instances of people going "I felt his presence." They were either using the Force, or familiar as Force sensitives to the person sensing them, or the Force wielder in general had an instinct that there was something special about this person, I should pay attention...

This has been a long ramble, but the short answer is: I headcanon Leia as naturally good at shielding. I think it fills multiple Star Wars plot holes.***

But I think it's also worth interrogating the fact that fandom seems to approach and conceptualise of the Force as a hard magic system, with clearly defined rules, rather than the soft magic system it is.**** Anything goes in Star Wars! It can be annoying if the writing doesn't sell it well enough, but I really love that aspect of the worldbuilding. And considering that the Force is a big fat plot device as well as giving people magical instincts for things that are Plot Relevant and things that aren't, I think it's a lot more interesting to consider that the Force isn't a superpower that lets you sense everything. Vader didn't detect Leia simply because he didn't. Sometimes they fail to do that. And it allows you to show growth in character and situation when that fact changes. Vader doesn't sense Luke in ANH until he's Plot Relevant to Vader's personal story. He doesn't sense Luke until he's fighting him in ESB. But in ROTJ, once they're both invested in their relationship and fated to meet, they're drawn together like stars caught in a mutual orbit.

That's the explanation I prefer. Because although it's less consistent, it's not unbelievable. It leaves uncertainty, mysticism, the chance for exploration in the galaxy. And most importantly, it tells a damn good story. Which, while this may not be true of people who love collecting lore and figuring the galaxy out, is ultimately what I'm here for.

*This is why so many random new powers can get added and explored in later movies and such, and also why I don't really get het up about it when they do add them. It just depends how you incorporate that new power. Usually, if a villain suddenly has a new power no one knew about (like Palpatine's lightning in ROTJ) it just ups the stakes, while if a hero suddenly has a new power it can feel like it cheapens their victory, like they haven't earned it; a deus ex machina. So messing about with Force powers is fine, it just depends how you incorporate them in the story.

**Admittedly this can be explained by the bond being formed when Luke learned the truth, but you know what I mean.

***I was only talking about the movies here, but there's also that moment in the Kenobi series where she's captured by Inquisitors and still no one notices she's Force sensitive??? There's just a lot of moments like this littered all over Star Wars, so this headcanon covers a lot of them.

****I kept using the terms hard/soft magic system without really explaining it here, but here's some good videos to dig into it: Soft Magic Systems | Hard Magic Systems

[sepublic]

OWL HOUSE ANIMATED TEST LEAKED?!!?!

ALL RIGHT SO THE ORIGINAL ANIMATED TEST GOT LEAKED?! This is an animated test btw, a proof-of-concept of what TOH could look like, according to the person who posted this; The actual pilot still eludes us!

What we get and hear are more or less what we've already glimpsed and could guess at, just expanded a bit more; Luz wants to learn magic, Eda is skeptical, that sort of thing. What's interesting is that Luz claims King told HER he once knew magic, but based on how the final story went, this was probably one of his made-up delusions. He also has a lot more repressed, built-up anger from being coddled and patronized, which would've been interesting to see...

I wonder if that trait ended up transferring over to Proto Willow; Or rather, Paulina! I heard someone suggest the spelling is Polina since it's Slavic and TOH is based on Slavic myth, but for now, let's keep it simple. Paulina would def start off the same way as our Willow; Not doing well in magic, and messing up (this time on Luz herself, hilariously), but I presume the idea for her to shift to plant magic as her true calling was still there. Not only do we see this in earlier concept art, but a later bit with one of Paulina's plants harassing Luz. And she still has the issue of glowing green magic that she can't quite control...

We get Prince William, who shows up when Luz mentions the most 'powerful wizards', more on him later. It's generally speculated and agreed that William is a prototypical version of Hunter, so I find it neat that Paulina's name changed to Willow, as William became Hunter...

There's a glimpse of the Owl House's original design, as seen in the first proof-of-concept poster released back when the show was announced in 2018, with Eda's shop built into the front of the building! The tower doesn't have a roof, and the giant eye window blinks, which was carried over to the first episode's ending. We have some Spencer Wan concept animations he released a while back, but fully colored and animated... A Luz Doppelgänger seems to have always been an idea, so I guess the creepy puppet is Proto Vee?

THIS! We have what I suspect to be a prototype version of Emperor Belos, possibly when he was advisor to Emperor Pupa? I'm not sure, but the context, the blue eyes in darkness, the mask... Their location in what seems to be a cathedral, plus the resemblance to this concept art for Belos?

This is Proto-Belos. Him taking Eda away in what resembles a cathedral seems to indicate that his Christian extremist-leanings were a thing as early as this animated pitch, and what's more...

In the stained-glass window behind Luz, we see a portrait of Sir William, complete with that wavy-styled sword that resembles the knife Philip killed Caleb with! This raises so many questions... Is the Sir William we see here the real deal? Was he deposed and put into a slumber by Belos, the way Pupa would've been? And William is the true ruler of the isles?

Would William have been Belos' brother, his Caleb, hence the round human ears? Why does he look so young, was he de-aged, or is he a clone, a Grimwalker that was abandoned for not being sufficient, and/or discovered in an 'incubation' stage when Luz slapped him awake? I presume this concept of Hunter, who is actually referred to by this name, came later down the line;

Overall, very fascinating stuff! A better glimpse into the development of Willow, Belos, and Hunter(?) as well as an older idea for King's personality, and of course a better look at the original Owl House design shown in 2018! Brief yet wonderful and to the point, we've seen most of the stuff from this pitch as silent clips or images, but I'm glad to have it as part of a cohesive narrative this time! May we one day find the actual pilot itself...!

[crownedinmarigolds]

This isnt apart of the game,(which is so fun and im loving learning about ppls vamps) but im feeling bold and not socially afraid- what IS/Was the deal with noa and her brother? What are her thoughts/feelings after all this time?

Ohhh thank you for being interested! I'm sorry if this comes out super rambling and incoherent! I guess it'd just be best to tell their story! It's really not as black and white as it appears, and feelings are extremely nuanced and messy when it comes to family and abuse. It seems easy as an outsider looking it to make commentary and theorize about what you would've done, but you just never know!

Joaquin Hidalgo is the eldest son to Vincento Hidalgo-Giovanni and his wife Ingrid Giovanni. The Hidalgo bloodline had only been a part of the Giovanni clan for a few generations, and young Vincento was a necromancer prodigy who married a main clan daughter who would bear his children and continue the family line. They were blessed with three sons - Joaquin, Eduardo, Ferdinand - and a little daughter, Noa. By all means they were very normal for a incredibly rich family with dealings in the local cartels of Mexico and the secret vampire clans that trace back to Italy. The parents seemed to get along, the children were growing up fine and developing their own ways and personalities. Joaquin certainly felt pressured as the eldest, but it was still "normal."

One evening the family was going out in a chauffeured vehicle, probably to dinner or maybe even a movie, when they were suddenly gunned down by unknown assailants. Joaquin at the time was thirteen and tackled little Noa, freshly seven, to the car floor where they dodged the hail, but the rest of the family were not so lucky. Mother and their other two brothers were killed instantly, while their father had seconds after to try and say something but ultimately couldn't, and the fresh orphans watched him die beside the rest of their already gone family. Joaquin promised Noa next to their bodies that he would never let her be hurt like this, and she believed him, and they vowed to be together for eternity. Not long thankfully after they were pulled from the car by people who called themselves their "family," where they were taken home and a bunch of strangers busied themselves with getting funerals set up and other various grown up things. A few days later, their father comes walking through the front door. Paler, walking with a cane from his injuries, strangely colder in personality, but THERE. Joaquin immediately felt like something was wrong, but Noa interpreted this as a miracle.

Over the years, Father ruled the house as a father would, but he ran it a bit crueler, a bit more seriously. Joaquin, having been old enough to really get that things were off, bit back and fought, and was often put back in his place through physical violence. Noa watched him go through this and learned to keep quiet if she wanted to not be struck. When she got old enough, Father finally revealed the vampiric nature of their bloodline to the both of them. Noa was then ghouled as soon as she could, her body still young, practically stunting her - but it gave her access to incredible magics. Joaquin was ghouled and practically made a mad dog bully for the human side of the clan, which pissed him off further. There was a weird mixture of feelings between the two of them - the jealousy of seeing his baby sister succeed where he always failed, the relief the pressure wasn't on him to be a necromancer, the fury of seeing her adoration and love of family being used to manipulate her. He loved Noa, she loved him, and things grew more and more confusing. He was allowed to go out but nothing satisfied him, especially when he took more and more vitae. She was locked inside the house for her protection, and also to study. In our personal headcanon (though this may be canon for Gio Ghouls??) the vitae makes one fiercely loyal to the Giovanni, and it twists one up to chase after family. Things did get a little "far" between them during this time, but they never fully culminated anything. Things got worse for Joaquin when a Tremere ghoul contact joined his little posse - Nythanel Loken - who became his sister's best friend and biggest advocate. Everything was coming up Noa and it bothered him, and there was a million confusing reasons why.

He finally decided to put his foot down when she revealed that Father told her that she would be Embraced. She was so excited, and then he was told straight from Father later he was going to be shipped off to Italy to both learn things and marry into a bloodline to essentially be a baby pumping factory until he was found worthy of an Embrace or died. No Noa, no real future other than providing some genetics. He knew through his contacts where to find the Sabbat, and he led them right to the family compound to rid the world of one more vampiric smear. However the Sabbat being the Sabbat went harder than he wanted - capturing him and killing and enslaving the spirits of many who were there and not giving him his sister. He had no idea where she was, but she wasn't with him. Eventually he escaped their clutches and ran to America, completely alone. He then dedicated his existence to becoming a hunter, using his knowledge during his time as a ghoul against vampiric scum and even other supernaturals. He met his buddy Ray who joined him for a few good years of hunting, and then it all came crashing down when he found Nyth and Noa again in Reno Nevada in 1993. It's been over a decade since he knew of Noa's whereabouts, and now he was so close. Years and years of weird feelings were crashing back, because it was all real again. He was past forty now, getting desperate to cling to something beyond hate again.

Eventually - Ray was killed by Joaquin for nearly killing Noa, and they were finally together for good this time. No Ray, seemingly no Nyth, and the family out of their hair. He clumsily culminated their long awaited reunion in a motel they ran off to hide in while she still mourned, Nyth's body close by, Ray's left behind, and poor Julian the ghoul in the next room over. Noa afterwards insisted she make a plan with the family to get Nyth back to her, which pissed Joaquin off but he was in love and back with her again so what could he do.

She told him they could be together for good when he was Embraced by her or someone within the family, but he staunchly refused to be turned. He never wants the vitae again, he never wants to become a supernatural creature. He wants to be with her for Eternity, but he cannot become an immortal. This is the defining moment that leads to his demise at her hands. As she worked with the Family and eventually the Setites to bring Nyth back to full health, Joaquin grew more and more irritating and controlling. He hated her deeper descent into Necromancy and dealing with two-faced Kindred, he hated her pulling away from him when they were finally together. She was clearly furious with him, and it felt like it was falling apart.

One night she was sweet to him again, saying that it was all almost over. Nythanel's notes and her own studies mixing with Setite sorcery were going to bring her friend back. They just needed a body to house Nyth. Joaquin killed Julian the ghoul for Noa, and together they prepared the ritual to "resurrect" Nythanel. Joaquin also had the gut feeling this night wouldn't just end in Julian's death, but his own. Noa approached the ritual room dressed in something clingy, and when Nyth and Julian's body was prepped, she explained the rest of the ritual required more blood, more life. They were together for the last time, Noa drinking the vitae direct him him, and in his own terrible way he was happy. She was happy. He was finally satisfying to her. Joaquin died happy.

OKAY SO. It just feels so rambly! Feel free to ask for more specifics I TRIED to do bare minimum but uh….

Noa after this time loves Joaquin, and she still can't let him go even now in modern nights. She knows his spirit is out there, and he will make his way back to her somehow.

It's just very confusing because yes, he took advantage of her and abused her, but she loved him so much. They in a way were all the other had, they just coped very differently… ahhh. Sorry. I don't know if I'm really relaying everything properly! Thank you for asking!!!

[mikuni14]

Century of Love - Ep 5

I once took part in a tag game, the topic of which was which actor from BL series would a teenage you have a crush on? I chose Daou and seeing him in a hoodie in this ep only confirmed my choice 😤🔥

On the day Japan decided to go back to the dark times of not showing BL kisses that took place, DaouOffroad presented how you can show intense emotions, tension, feelings of interest and sexual attraction almost kissing.

(their humor and laughter in this scene - I wonder how much of it was SanVee and how much of it was DaouOffroad 🥰)

Unfortunately, Vee continues his mission to get the stone, which almost killed him, and unfortunately doesn't tell the truth to San. Somehow I understand him, for this young man hungry for recognition and tenderness, San's care must be something wonderful, so his resistance to telling the truth is understandable. But this is bad, also because of this San cannot tell him the technical limitations of the magic stone and this will be the source of a big fight, drama and - temporarily, of course - the breakdown of the relationship that is being built.

San's angry face is so attractive, I'm not surprised at all that Vee is smitten and always laughs when San starts spitting like an angry cat. In general, I like that San and his furrowed eyebrows is good at fighting, he actually is dangerous and ruthless (he almost killed a guy before and he seemed fine with the fact that these people could have died in that river), but at the same time when his family and now Vee are laughing at him, he never gives back, and even when he argues, he's not mean.

It's interesting how San's past, his traumas and feelings of inferiority keep coming up. Now he feels his love life is threatened by someone with the face of his old rival, and he's panicked that he can't compete with him (again). On top of that, he was accused by the same person of forcing Vee into marriage, a person who has the face of someone who once wanted to force his beloved into marriage! 🤯

San has photos from the wedding on his phone, photos he didn't want 😏😏😏

Vee putting San in his place, confronting him, defending himself and his freedom, making San explain his actions, demanding explanations and WORDS (he's not going to waste his time on guessing your feelings and intentions thank you very much!) is such a good thing and I love watching it. The relationship with Vee must be very mature and fulfilling (if it weren't for these secrets 😩).

Daou playing a senior citizen with his whole being, his body, his face, his movements, his voice, still amazes me. And Offroad is just like a walking dream.

Juu:

Lmaooooo 😆😆

[wish-incorrect-quotes]

Not putting this in the tags because I'm afraid of inviting too much drama, but anyway, I’ve made a list of stuff that happened before Magnifico ever used the book:

There’s the obvious one, setting up a system in which all the people who live in the kingdom need to hand over an important part of themselves to him, and he��ll only allow a very small percentage of people to have their life’s dream come true. This went on for at least decades, possibly more. It was not a single moment of decision making due to stress.

It’s strongly implied, if not outright canon, that when deciding which wishes to grant, he favors the people who choose to directly serve him and the people who have a wish that will personally benefit him.

Aside from the very recently 18 Simon, his castle staff seems to be made up entirely of underage teenagers. I highly suspect this is because he’s realized child labor means he will benefit from workers with more energy and enthusiasm, because they aren’t living without their wish yet.

Kitchens are full of sharp things and things that can scald you. Many people who work in them, even those who are highly trained, end up covered in burn marks and scars. Yes, Dahlia is intelligent and competent, but it's still wildly irresponsible to make a 16 year old run a professional kitchen without an adult on hand in the room.

Just before Asha meets the king, the previous candidate for the apprenticeship runs away sobbing. Amaya doesn’t seem surprised by this, which would indicate this is far from the first time Magnifico has made someone burst into tears.

He replies with “Do we call that a talent?” to the teenager excited to show him a few drawings she made. Not exactly “evil” I guess, but definitely a good way to crumble the self-esteem of someone who admires him.

He justifies his system by saying that “No one should have to see their dreams destroyed before their eyes.” But locked away in a tower, where most people will die before they ever see it again, that’s fine apparently.

Anyone who looks at an image of an old man playing the lute for a small handful of people and decides it’s a threat should not have complete control over which wishes could be considered “dangerous”.

“You’re young, you don’t know anything.” Great way to handle a concerned citizen there. That will definitely show the younger generation you have their best interests at heart.

Asha, who I will remind you is a teenager, is upset but still makes her case without even raising her voice. Magnifico, who is supposed to have the temperament to rule an entire kingdom, responds with yelling and a threatening blast of magic. I’m rather concerned about what else might have happened if Amaya hadn’t interrupted them a moment later.

He deliberately raises Sabino’s hopes and then dashes them just to spite Asha for disagreeing with him. Also makes Asha publicly sit onstage in front of the entire kingdom to watch him do it.

He makes it clear that now he’ll never consider granting Sakina’s wish either, even though she hasn’t done anything but be related to someone he’s mad at.

If Asha plans to have a family someday, she has pretty good reason to worry that any children of hers will also likely be condemned to life with their wish automatically locked away forever.

Who knows how many other people were taken out of consideration just because the king didn’t like someone they knew?

Later on, he tells his people that they were put at risk by an unknown traitor with magic, then almost immediately starts getting annoyed because people are nervous and asking for some further clarification and reassurance.

The crowd gets at most a bit worked up, but still, no one ever says anything threatening or insulting towards Magnifico. They’re just asking questions because they want to understand more about what’s happening in the kingdom. This is enough for Magnifico to decide he doesn't have enough control, so he should turn to dangerous forbidden magic to increase his power.

Maybe you could argue that trying to use the situation to get a wish ceremony was a bit greedy, but I'd still say that if Magnifico didn't like people asking for wishes, he shouldn't have been literally removing people's ability to work on it themselves.

Of course people are going to be eager to get him to grant wishes, he's told them it's too hard for them and made it so they can't do it without him.

Last note, I've seen people suggest that the book's power was removed when he was imprisoned in the staff, and it's terrible that he was put in the dungeon anyway. I'm not sure the move ever said that, but if it is the case, he still shows zero remorse and thinks he was in the right. There's no "I shouldn't have used the book, I feel terrible about what it led to." Just "Can you believe they pushed back while I was purposely unleashing forbidden magic, crushing wishes, and chaining everyone to the ground? How could they do this to me?"

[adrianasunderworld]

The Chronicles of Isabelle attempting to do Witchcraft and Demon magic on memory and guess work alone

*frantic running up the stairs and slamming it shut*

Crowley: What has gotten into you?

Isabelle: Nothing. Nothing at all.

Crowley: Why did you run out of the basement then?

*unholy screeches of something down there*

Isabelle: Um...I got a new pet?

Vil: You know, in all the weeks we've been here for training camp, I haven't seen you do much for skincare, and not a single zit. What's your routine?

Isabelle: Nothing special. Just some generic makeup wipes, moisturizer, black magic.

Vil: Haha, very funny.

Isabelle: I wasn't joking. I know a potion for breakouts.

Vil: ....so what's the recipe?

Ace: Hey, you're back from town.

Isabelle: Yep. Had to pick up some stuff.

Deuce: *picks up a jar* What's this?

Isabelle: Pigs blood.

Ace and Deuce: 😱😱

Isabelle: What? I needed it for a potion.

Ace: Where do you even get that!?

Isabelle: Butcher in town. I tutor his daughter in English, I get discounts. It's worked out great for me so far. I also got bacon, hungry?

Isabelle: Hypothetically speaking. Say someone was conjuring in the woods on a full moon and a shadow creature followed them home. How would one exercise it?

Sam: Are you sure this is hypothetical?

Isabelle with a gangly shadow moving on its own behind her: Yes.

Epel: So what did Sam say?

Isabelle: Hes looking into it. But until then, I figured out the shadow creature likes French fries and watching Strawberry Shortcake.

Jack: How did you even figure that out?

Isabelle: It stole my fries in the cafeteria and was watching TV and it seemed interested in cartoons and I kind figured it out from there.

*unholy screeches*

Jack: That thing is still in the basement?!

Isabelle: Her name is Lemon, and she's hungry ok?

Epel: I'm afraid to ask what Lemon eats.

Isabelle: Cat food mostly. But she does also like candy.

Crowley over the loud speaker: - and this Friday will be Casual Dress Day. So uniforms are not required. And lastly, whoever keeps leaving strange ritual circles and infernal symbols out in the woods, stop it.

Everyone in class: *looks at one person*

Isabelle: *slowly sinking into her chair*

@mangacupcake @marrondrawsalot @writing-heiress @the-weirdos-mind

[remus-poopin]

Hi! Sorry to bother you but I’m looking for specific pieces of HP meta and I’m kinda lost.

Do you have any reading recommendations about homosexuality in the Harry Potter world? I’m trying to decide a couple of things about the world-building for a fic and I’d love to read about other takes on the topic.

Hi! It's not a bother at all, I love this stuff! I have a couple metas on this and I also have my own thoughts about this as well! This is a question I often think about and I was planning on writing something on this eventually anyways, so I'm glad I got this ask because now I have an excuse to! (And I can talk about some gripes I have with the author as well so yay)

CW: Homophobia and misogyny

Here is a meta by @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta on homophobia in the wizarding world.

Here is @hchollym's take on gay marriage in the WW

My thoughts:

The books give no mention of homosexuality explicitly, but the author has slightly expanded on the topic at later times in interviews and tweets. In 2007 she confirmed that Dumbledore was gay and later she gave us more details about his sexlife. She then said this in 2007 about homosexuality and homophobia in the wizarding world:

"MA: 'We wanna talk about Dumbledore so bad. We know that you've created worldwide intrigue when you said that he is gay. But I wanted to ask you about homosexuality in the Wizarding World in general. Is it a taboo?' JKR: 'Now, that's something I never thought of. I would think that that would be-- it would be exactly what it is in the Muggle World. But the greatest taboo in the Wizarding World is, well, for some wizards... I mean if we're talking about prejudiced people within the Wizarding World, what they care most about is your blood status. So I think you could be, um, gay, pure-blood, and totally without any kind of criticism from the Lucius Malfoys of the world. I don't think that would be something that would interest him in the slightest. But, you know, I can't answer for all witches and wizards because I think in matters of the heart, it would be directly parallel to our world.'"

She also says this in a tweet when asked about homophobia in 2014:

“Only by ludicrous Muggles. The wizards don't give a damn - it's all about the magic for them.”

Now whether or not you take this to be canon is up to you. What I find interesting here is that I feel from the second statement we are being made to believe that homosexuality is a non issue in the wizarding world and not a point of prejudice. From her first statement she says that it's “something she never thought of” and that “it would be exactly the same as the muggle world”, I'm guessing her second statement is contradictory because she wanted to please LGBT+ fans and reassure them that Hogwarts is a safe space (for some, lets not ask her about the other letters in the acronym). 

This is a pattern I've noticed JKR exhibiting in a lot of her post work words, where she tries to communicate how egalitarian the world she created is through new information, even though the text itself does not reflect this worldview. I think a good example of this is how when she listed the ministers of magic she included several women, going back as far as the 1700s to try to show there are not as many barriers to entry for women in the WW. Yet we see many instances of sexism throughout the series from the characters and the culture which they live in. I think what she was trying to do is have her world primarily focus on blood purity and creature rights and have the issues we face either go on the backburner or not be present at all. Now I understand this choice, (though I really don’t think it's necessary, more interesting, or remotely realistic) but I also think her execution is pretty awful because you can (and I'm about to) make an argument that these issues are still very much present in the wizarding world. I think the biggest issue here is that she doesn't understand the structures and systems of oppression that she hand-waved to the side to truly write a world where they would not be a real problem. To me, given what we've seen of the wizarding world, homophobia would still very much be an issue. 

So I think if we're going to talk about what homosexuality looks like in the wizarding world we would also need to talk about what homophobia would look like in the wizarding world. Homophobia has many factors contributing and working with it to make it function as a prejudice and system. If I had to break it down to its biggest parts I would say our big three is: religious fears, rigid gender norms, and disgust. Those often play off of each other to create an effective tool; and this tool is used to uphold a gender and class-based power structure. Let's examine this in the context of Harry Potter:

Religious fears: 

Religious fears resulting in homophobia is very common in the real world but for this factor to apply to the WW I think we would need to determine whether or not the wizarding world is even religious. We have examples of christianity showing up across the books in casual ways: Harry has a Godfather, he was christened as a baby, and Lily and James have a quote from the bible on their tombstone. From this we can at least make the assumption that the Potter family is religious to some capacity. We also see that one of the Hogwarts ghosts is called “The Fat Friar’. But to my knowledge this is where the references end. If the wizarding world is religious, or at least wizarding Britain, they seem to be casually so. So I don't see this being a huge driving factor in any homophobia we would see in that universe. 

Rigid gender norms:

I think if you take away any religious influences you're still going to see homophobia even in its most violent forms and this has a lot to do with rigid gender norms. If gender norms are established to sustain a power structure that a society relies on to maintain a certain order, any breaking of those norms will be met with punishment (socially or physically). In a heteronormative culture, homosexuality can be seen as a breaking of these norms.   

First off, Pureblood culture seems to be obsessed with lineage and creating heirs, one of the metas I linked talks about how homosexuality would be a threat to that. At least in pureblood society, your job as a man is to make pureblooded babies and your job as a woman would be to give birth to them, anything else would be looked down upon.

If we step outside of pureblood society, we can see that the general wizarding population also seems to believe in strict ways in which men and women should act.

So what are the gender roles the wizarding world has? Well there's the clothing; all wizards wear robes, but dresses are traditionally for women and any robe that looks a little too dress-like for a man could be seen as embarrassing: 

“'What is that supposed to be?'  He was holding up something that looked to Harry like a long maroon velvet dress. It had moldy-looking lace frills at the collar and matching lace cuffs. - ‘Mum, you've given me Ginny's new dress,’ said Ron, holding it out to her. ‘Of course I haven't,’  said Mrs Weasley. ‘Thats for you, dress robes’.- “You've got to be kidding’ said Ron in disbelief ‘Im not wearing that, no way!' - In some trepidation Harry opened the last parcel on his camp bed. It wasn't as bad as he expected, however. His dress robes didn't have any lace on them at all - in fact they were more or less the same as his school ones, except they were bottle green except black” (GOF, pg 155 and 156)

“Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville changed into their dress robes up in their dormitory, all looking very self conscious, but none as much as Ron who surveyed himself in the long mirror in the corner with an appalled look on his face. There was no getting around the fact that his robes looked more like a dress than anything. In a desperate attempt to make them more manly he used a severing charm on the ruffs and cuffs." (GOF, pg 411)

Ron’s dress robes are old, moldy, and out of fashion, but the emphasis on his embarrassment is put on the feminine style of them. To be seen in a dress-like robe as a boy is to transgress an established gender norm; this transgression is to be recognized as humiliating. This isn't the only instance we have of a man in a dress being perceived as funny/embarrassing:

“‘When the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape,’ said Lupin. ‘And you will raise your wand — thus — and cry ‘Riddikulus’ — and concentrate hard on your grandmother’s clothes. If all goes well, Professor Boggart Snape will be forced into that vulture-topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag.’ There was a great shout of laughter. The wardrobe wobbled more violently.” (POA, pg 135)

The weapon to a boggart, your greatest fear, is laughter. After Lupin hears Neville's boggart is Snape he decides the way to make him appear less intimidating is to put him in a dress with a handbag. The rest of the class finds this highly amusing as well. There is a direct connection being drawn here between masculinity with strength and power and femininity with weakness and frivolity. Snape as a big, mean, scary teacher is rendered impotent in his intimidation when he has this dress on.

There are gendered cultural roles in the wizarding world as well:

“‘Come on, Ginny's not bad,’ said George fairly sitting down next to Fred. ‘Actually , I dunno how she got so good, seeing how we never let her play with us…’  ‘she's been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren't looking’  (OOTP, pg 574) 

There is no real reason for Ginny to not be able to play Quidditch with her older brothers. Even if she was too young at one point, very soon after she should have been able to, considering Ron was only a year older. The only notable difference between all of them is their gender. From this we can assume that wizards, or at least the Weasleys, have a view of femininity as more fragile, or weaker than masculinity. 

This idea of weakness is reinforced through the founders of Hogwarts making separate dorm rooms for girls and boys where boys cannot enter the girls dorm but girls can enter the boys

“‘It says in Hogwarts, A History that the founders thought boys were less trustworthy than girls.” (OOTP)

This rule positions men as the aggressors and women as the victims in a sexual context. It also indicates the heteronormality of their society.

There are established sexual roles for men and women in the WW:

The sexual roles of the wizarding world celebrates male sexual action but also shames females for the same. Any time there is slutshaming in the series a woman is at the end of it.

Hermione is seen as a “scarlet women” for appearing to toy with Harry's heart:

“I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of - scarlet women!’ Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. ‘Scarlet women?’ - ‘It's what my mum calls them’ Ron muttered." (GOF, pg 513)

The term “scarlet woman" is a reference to the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, a story about a woman who commits adultery and is shamed by her puritan community for it. The term itself invokes the image of a promiscuous, scandalous woman of ill repute who is deserving of her shame. Molly uses this term frequently enough for her children to recognize it and reference it. This signifies that there is a belief of proper standards in which women are supposed to behave sexually.

Ginny is at the mercy of these same beliefs from her family members: 

"'But we're not selling them to our sister,' he added, becoming suddenly stern, 'not when she's already got about five boys on the go from what we've — ' 'Whatever you've heard from Ron is a big fat lie,' said Ginny calmly'" (HBP)

“'Let's get this straight once and for all. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them, Ron -' ‘Yeah it is!’ Said Ron just as angrily. ‘D’you think I want people saying my sister’s a-’" (HBP, pg 287)

"'my tiara sets the whole thing nicely, said Aunt Muriel in a rather carrying whisper, 'but I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut.'" (DH, pg 145)

Merope Riddle also experiences criticism from her family after running off with Tom Riddle Sr.:

"'dishonored us, she did, that little slut!'" (HBP, pg 365)

All of these instances of women asserting their sexuality is perceived as negative by the men in their community because they are breaking a societal norm. The norm being women as chaste, demure figures of virtue.

However men’s sexual activity is looked at as an accomplishment (usually by the other men)

After Harry kisses Cho, Ron has this reaction:

“Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter that made several timid-looking second years over beside the window jump. A reluctant grin spread over Harry's face as he watched Ron rolling around on the hearthrug. Hermione gave Ron a look of deep disgust and returned to her letter.” (OOTP)

Ron’s joy for his friend can be seen as not only just a happiness for Harry's journey to maturity or him finally getting with his crush, but also as the affirming of Harry's masculinity. This is backed up by Hermione's less enthusiastic reaction to this news and her disgust at Ron's display of triumph.

So we've established the gender roles, and we've seen there are consequences when you fall out of line. So, what if the gender role calls for you to be masculine as a man and then defines that masculinity in part with obtaining women and sexual prowess? Homosexuality would be in direct conflict with that. And with that lets tie it into disgust.

Disgust:

The disgust that a homophobe feels can be stemming from a couple different places. Maybe it's religious fears like we talked about or maybe it's because of gender norms. But that disgust is only taking place because they perceive that something they hold to be pure is being tainted and violated; the word of god, the sanctity of masculinity, or hegemonic gender roles. In a society where these beliefs are upheld and treated as sacred, any conflict with that will be met with judgment at best and violence at worse. 

I don't see the wizarding world as a progressive space where homosexuality or anything LGBT+ would be considered a non issue because the text does not reflect that. The text shows the same misogyny, the same disdain for femininity, and the same reverence for masculinity that we see in everyday life and because of that I feel it only makes sense to see the wizarding world just as bigoted as ours.

Ok so what does homosexuality look like in the wizarding world then?

Well if we've established the wizarding world as a society that would be hostile (in any way) to gay people I think its easier to move forward on how to imagine how they fit into that society since we have ours for reference. However, It's important to remember that our oppression doesn't define us and it's not the only thing to consider while writing. Think about what the fashion would look like, what the music would sound like, what the spaces would be like and just generally what the culture would be. Have fun with it!

Hope this helped a little!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hi. :D

Regarding the ending, it seems like the fandom divided about Marinette's decision to hide the truth from Adrien. I've seen group of people believing the lie is the result of her being manipulated by Gabriel, there's other who said that it's in character for Marinette to control information and compare it to what she did in Bubbler episode and there's also people who believe that the lie is a result of the wish that make Marinette's memory become blurry hence why she believed that Gabriel and Monarque are two different people.

What about you? What do you think about Marinette decision? What could be reasoning?

Thank you and I'm sorry for grammar error. ;;

My personal opinion is that it's all the result of bad writing, making it impossible to guess Marinette's motivation. If/when her motivation is revealed, I'm guessing it's going to make about as much sense as Alya knowing who Ladybug is and still believing Lila. To show you what I mean, I'll just go through the arguments you bring up one-by-one and explain why they don't hold much water.

Gabriel Manipulating Marinette

For this point to make sense, Gabriel needed to actually manipulate Marinette, but that's not what we see. He makes a dying request of her, but nothing in the fight or the season backs up her caring about that request. The lead up to the wish is largely Bugnoir and Monarch in a verbal sparing match that looks something like this:

Bug Noire: You'd know this if you ever took an interest in him. But in reality, Adrien means NOTHING to you anymore! You've locked him in your house — LOCKED him in your Alliance rings! Locked him into a life that allows you to hide behind him in order to justify YOUR madness! Lucky Charm!! (summons a tube of glue) Monarch: All I want is for him to be happy

Oh yeah, she's being so manipulated here! Gabriel is totally changing her mind about everything! That's why the fight literally ends with Gabriel changing his mind and making a different wish than originally intended! That's how manipulation works, right?

If the message of this fight was supposed to be that Gabriel manipulated Marinette and not the other way around, then it would need to look something like this comic where he guilts her into keeping his secrets. It would need look like this because Gabriel and Marinette have nothing close to a positive relationship. They hate each other. They also know next to nothing about each other, which is why the fight's dialogue is nothing but exposition and squabbling over who knows Adrien better as Adrien is literally their only connection.

This is why the only manipulation that would work on Marinette is guilt tripping her about the reveal hurting Adrien because Marinette doesn't give two shits about Gabriel. But Gabriel doesn't do that. He just politely asks her to not tell Adrien:

Gabriel: (turns around to Marinette) Marinette, make sure that Adrien never knows about the villain that I was, (puts down the twin rings on the ground) but instead, that he remembers the times I tried to be a good father. (turns back to Gimmi)

This is not manipulation. He's not messing with her emotions. He doesn't say anything like, "telling Adrien will hurt him immensely Marinette. If you love him, you'll let him remember me as a loving father." He just makes a request of a young woman who hates him and hopes for the best.

If Marinette loved Gabriel and was heartbroken that he was her enemy, then his dying wish could be argued to be a form of manipulation because he knows how much she cares for him and how much his actions hurt her and how much she doesn't want to remember him as a villain, but that's not what the writers wrote. Instead, they gave us things like the pancake scenes and Gabriel trying to break Adrienette up with magic.

Marinette likes Controlling Information

I've talked about the scarf thing and Marinette's general tendency toward secret keeping before. My general thoughts are that there is no point in the show where Marinette is shown to like keeping secrets or controlling information. She only ever keeps secrets that arguably should be kept. The show has also never put her in a situation where she has an ongoing lie that actively hurts someone.

You may be thinking about the scarf thing as a counter argument, but for that to be an indication of how she handles ongoing lies, it would need to be an ongoing lie in the actual narrative and not just the fandom. As is, the scarf appeared in one episode and was then forgotten by the show. The scarf lie was also a split-second decision made without any knowledge of why the lie even happened.

If Adrien wore the scarf all the time and talked about how much it meant to him that his father had gotten him such a wonderful gift, then I'd agree with you that the scarf sets Marinette up as the type of person who might keep the senti thing a secret. But that's not what the show actually does. She's never confronted with this lie again. At this point, it would honestly be weird for her to bring it up.

I'm sure someone is reading this and thinking about the Chat Blanc thing, but the narrative treats that episode in such a confusing way that I don't even know how to approach it. A lot of people thought that it was the thing driving the season four conflict, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case because revealing it wasn't part of resolving the season four conflict. Marinette also doesn't seem to have any trauma around Chat Blanc. Instead - somehow - Adrien does even though he doesn't know it happened and I just... what?

At the very least, I think that we can all acknowledge that telling your partner that he ended the world in an alternate timeline that will now never exist and whose cause you do not know has, at best, questionable benefits. The only reason I wanted Marinette to tell him was because I thought that it was affecting her and because, in certain circumstances, telling him could have lead to Gabriel's defeat and I like poetic justice.

But if Chat Blanc isn't affecting Marinette, then telling Chat Noir is kinda pointless since there's nothing that he can do about it as far as she knows. It could even be arguably seen as cruel. I don't think that Marinette needs to tell her partner every awful thing that he does when the akuma of the day controls him because none of it is his fault and he can't change the past. Telling him just feels like guilt tripping. Given canon's wacky writing, a Chat Blanc reveal is just that on a larger scale.

I honestly can't think of anything else we could call an ongoing lie outside of the secret identities and general miraculous stuff. The senti thing is Marinette's first real harmful ongoing lie and it's one that she actively planned, too, since she would have had time to gather her thoughts before she sees Adrien. I truly don't think that it fits her character, especially since Adrien isn't shown to be in mourning.

I'm not saying that this would be an easy thing to tell him, I'm just saying that it really doesn't fit her character to choose to lie. Even if you disagree with my above arguments and say that the scarf and Chat Blanc were setups for this, canon itself has given Marinette an arc about being less controlling.

In season five we have the stuff with Lila where the whole "high road" thing was proven to be a bad call. And, Chat Blanc or not, season four ended with her saying this:

Ladybug: Why don't you just give up on me? I've lost ALL the Miraculous! I'm the worst Guardian EVER! I wanted to control everything, I didn't listen to you, I lied to you, I kept you at a distance! Every time you offered me a helping hand, I never took it! I really made a mess of EVERYTHING! (continues sobbing)

So what was the point of that if she still "tries to control everything"? (Even though I'd argue that she didn't. A lot of this rant isn't actually backed up by what we see happening in season four, but it's still the lesson that the writers chose to have her openly state she learned.)

In summary, Marinette has never been big on lying unless she has to and she's supposedly had an arc about not being controlling, so either this isn't it or she's learned nothing and season four was an even bigger waste of time than I already thought it was.

The Wish Did It

This is arguably the most plausible scenario, but if we go this route, then it's still bad writing because the wish rewrites the universe so there's no way to discover "the truth" because it isn't the truth anymore. Whatever Gabriel changed is now reality and the only way to make that not so is to retcon how the wish works. And if they're reconning that, well, how can you trust anything the show tells you about the lore?

The reason why consistent world building and characterization are so important is because it's the foundation on which stories are built. The puzzle pieces that fit together to create the cohesive whole. If your puzzle pieces don't fit together, then you are telling a story that the audience cannot logically follow and that is generally considered to be objectively bad storytelling unless you're writing literary nonsense like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Yes that's an actual genre.)

In Summary

Like I said at the top, this all just feels like bad writing to me. It's not the natural next chapter in the story. It actively goes against past characterization and supposed character arcs, but that's hardly shocking. Throughout the show, we've seen the writers do whatever the hell they want to make a plot work, ignoring their own lore in the process. I don't expect that to change and neither should you.

The Alya and Lila thing is my go-to example because it's the most glaring indication of what you should expect to see in this show. If a reporter who actively reported that Lila is Ladybug's best friend will not be swayed by learning that Ladybug is someone who actively hates Lila, then it is pointless to try to make sense of the writing. Trying to logically guess where it's going next or what a character is going to do is an exercise in madness because that's not how Miraculous works.

It's why I haven't weighed in on what the wish will mean for season six. The wish will mean whatever the hell the writers decide it means no matter what the previous five seasons contained. It's also why this blog largely focuses on discussing canon's existing flaws and ways that you could potentially fix them. That's the stuff I really enjoy and find value in. Theory crafting only works for media that is logically solid and consistent. Asks like yours are still welcome! Just know that they're going to bring out my most cynical, judgemental side.

[myechoecho]

Moon in the Day, ep 2

Two episodes in and I have so many questions and speculations. There's quite a bit to unpack here.

Firstly, we know that they loved each other in their past lives. Despite him killing her whole family. Despite her trying to kill him multiple times. He kept her close and she stayed close. It was a choice. I am very curious to know just WHAT made her finally go through with killing him only for her to hurl herself off a cliff after. Who was chasing them?

I like that their past is not told in chronological order. Rather we are getting it in bits and pieces, sometimes triggered by something that is said in the present and what he remembers.

We learn that he has been with her through multiple reincarnations. Always watching over her. It looks like her current life is the first time she's had her original face. And there just happens to be his doppelganger's body who has conveniently died. I'm convinced that their original life's faces, Joon Oh dying, Young Hwa passing out, the blood dripping down her arm plus the touching of the hands has allowed the General to inhabit Joon Oh's body.

I'm not sure why the cancer is still there when the other wounds healed. And I guess Joon Oh's heart is still beating which is also weird to me. Ultimately it means this body is a loaner and there will only be more grief later. It is just me or does he look a little sickly in that body?

It's interesting that the General can remember bits and pieces of Joon Oh's life. I wonder how far he can go back in his memories as right now they are fairly recent ones.

Which brings me to another point - was the General actually able to READ the script? The show made is seem like he did, which would not make sense since the written Korean language was not created until hundreds of years after he lived. So was he able to read it and if so, was it because Joon Oh could read it? Or is it because he's been with Young Hwa through 1500 years of reincarnations that he's naturally learned it?

I do like how he doesn't have any of the shock in being in the modern world, even though he doesn't really understand it fully and he still talks as he used to when he was alive.

Couple of final thoughts - I'm not convinced the talisman is the thing creating the magic bubble shield around Young Hwa though I could be wrong. I find it interesting how the General always refers to Young Hwa by her current name. It's never her original name (which I don't think they've said in the show yet, nor his for that matter).

Really want to see more from Young Hwa's perspective as she has likely suffered like him throughout her multiple reincarnations (the nightmares etc).

[littleeyesofpallas]

I have always loved this final(ish) boss design in Wild Arms 2nd Ignition so I'm just gonna babble for a bit here, apropos of nothing. So, spoilers I guess(?) for a quarter of a century year old game --I think it's still available on the PlaystationStore, but obviously emus are always an option. Large flightless Australian birds are crafty like that.

Even though, design-wise, a good chunk of it falls in line with pretty standard JRPG angelic monster/grotesque angel/now-your-teen-hero-fights-god motifs, it was just so out there in terms of lore.

The game starts with you gathering a band of heroes --A fresh faced army recruit, a grizzled war hero, a magical girl, a sacrificial martyr, a brooding anti-hero, and an optional vampire-- to fight an evil organization out to take over the world.

The evil organization, Odessa, declares that the world is changing, monsters are popping everywhere, and the kingdoms of the world do nothing about it, and so they threaten that if kings and queens and politicians cannot or will not do anything about it, then Odessa will conquer their kingdoms, seize their resources and manpower, and they will fix the problem thru unilateral authority.

But while there is a certain righteous anger behind their manifesto, they of course end up attacking innocent civilians, staffing themselves with war criminals and homicidal lunatics, sacrificing people to summon demons, using the monsters they claim to want gone as weapons, and ultimately trying to threaten the world's governments into submission with a nuke that is also a dragon...

So you smack their four generals around, corner their boss in his giant flying fortress, and then when he knows he's done for he tries to launch himself and the heroes into space to kill them all. It mostly fails, in so much as your party escapes the fortress, but the protagonist stays behind like the big damn hero that he is and consequently dies in space... He gets better tho, don't worry.

But then comes the sort of inverted 3rd act twist --instead of all hope being lost and then a reveal saves the day, everything seems like we should be done with the world ending threats and the world should be safe, until it's revealed that it is very much not-- an alternate universe is colliding with this one, and has been the whole time...

What that really means and how that works and how to envision that is left meaningfully abstract. Metaphorically the other world threatens to "devour" theirs, but it's not clear what that consumption even means... The slowly merging realities are actually why those monsters Odessa swore to eradicate had been appearing at all, and as the two alternate realities collide, the shape of the extra dimensional invasion isn't just a flood of monsters, but that the very nature of reality in this other world will come to replace this one.

Also in a cool throw back to the original Wild Arms, in which the extraterrestrial demon invasion the kicks off the game's plot is heralded by the sky cracking and chipping away, when the protag recovers from his whole died-in-space situation, he awakens to a literally unfamiliar, alien sky... a shifting, sloshing, iridescent acid trip looming over a doomed planet.

In fact the terrorist threat that had consumed so much of the heroes efforts until now was part of an elaborate long con by a certain wealthy would-be-hero out to save the world from the existential threat of total annihilation... The same man who recruited your heroes to fight terrorist in the first place.

Convinced that the world governments would be too fickle and petty to set aside their differences and personal interests to combat something as incomprehensible as (another)reality itself, he actually funded the terrorist organization in order to scare the world into cooperation against something much more concrete and straight forward --or, if international cooperation really did prove impossible, then as an owner of the new dictatorial world government, he'd simply make Odessa to save the world for him.

(A Note: The whole thing has strong american cape comic energy running thru it, specifically Watchmen and DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths.)

But then even his Xanatos gambit falls just short of saving the world in the final stages, and he's pushed into a corner. It turns out that even after tricking the nations of the world into allowing him access to harnessing the raw life force of the planet itself, the life force of a planet with a dying ecosystem just isn't enough to contain this hungry eldritch reality. So, in a last ditch effort he turns to the raw energy of creation, the miracle of life itself, to contain the menace and shackle it to a tangible reality in which it can be fought and killed... and so in a prison of otherworldly flesh contained in the belly of the earth itself, you confront the alternate universe in the form of an unborn child, and with his mind speaking thru it he tells you to kill him.

Anyway, yeah, that's you end up in a big red meat room fighting a vaguely angelic baby in an orb.

Immediately the thing that jumps out is, "Hey, that's the Starchild from 2001: A Space Odyssey!" Which is of course, very cool because everyone loves an unnerving weird fetus. But when it comes to JRPGS and weird fetuses, and incomprehensible reality destroying menaces, of course, the first thing to come to mind is Gigyas in Earthbound.

But more over, I really love that --where as, by point of comparison, there have been questionable theories about the layout of the Devil's Machine dungeon map looking like a womb, piggybacking off Giygas's ultrasound looking fetus shadow pattern-- the rest of the boss form surrounding the little Starchild core actually do appear to be modeled off a reproductive system, complete with ovaries and fallopian tubes, even going so far as to include the fimbriae as stylized angelic wings.

And I like the odd little detail that, because most babies develop upside down, the design with the fetus upright seems to have taken that into account by also rotating the reproductive anatomy accordingly? The baby is upright, so the organs are upside down.

Plus, even though it's not how fallopian tubes look in a real body, most anatomical diagram will show them as having this kind of flared arc over and around the ovaries beneath them, but the wings of the Kupier core arc under the two green orbs approximating ovaries. All that just to say that the big metal golden halo structure hanging under the core is technically oriented toward the "top" of the implied anatomy.

Also the game has a whole big subplot about a Christlike martyr --as an extension of the broader themes of heroism, and what it really means to be a hero-- and there is even a moment just before this final dungeon where Irving refers to his sister, the mother carrying this alternate reality made flesh, as "The Madonna of Destruction"... That all being context to support that, although it can be hard to notice or discern meaningful details on, that weird little fetus is definitely wearing what I can only assume is a crown of thorns.(I mean, that or it could be a pair of little devil horns? but I find that a less interesting alternative) Because he was, after all, conceived(although not so immaculately...) so that he could die to save the world.

Also not at all related to any fun themes or anything but I like how there's this big mouth it's seated in, that I only just realized has a "bottom" jaw to it. The top teeth are most noticeable and go around the front and sides, and I always kinda assumed they were a nod to the whole vagina dentata myth, but on a scale and at an angle that would've been imperceptible thru the blur of a CRT, there's definitely 4 little teeth normally hidden by the glare of the little uterus bubble

Oh and I didn't even get into the name itself being named after the Kuiper Belt, the asteroid belt around our real world solarsystem, as a play into some other astronomical terminology the story borrows from; namely the event horizon of a blackhole being referred to as the thing sealing away the mythic evil demon that started the whole world decay thing that makes the setting a desert wasteland in the first place, and became the wrench in the aforementioned plan to harness the planet's life force as a weapon against the parallel universe.(that ancient evil demon is the actual/surprise final boss of the game after this fight, btw...) There's so much more going on just in general, but that doesn't really play into the way this boss mosnters looks or why.