#But from what I hear I might not have to retcon things in my own brain cannon like I did with HH in NV lol

[skyfallscotland]

Things that got me a little frustrated with Onyx Storm in no particular order 💔

Please be nice, this is an addendum to my main Onyx Storm review post, and there is also a post about things I loved 🙏 I'm just a sensitive heart with superior pattern recognition (I'm mentally ill lol) and I struggle when I don't understand things—and I understood nothing.

I find it really hard to just go with the flow, I hate it when I don't understand things, and being confused just didn't make for a good reading experience for me. So here goes:

The magic system being entirely retconned.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper. I’m marked by their magic as a rider now, as their rider.

It's consistently referred to as "their" magic or "Andarna's magic" or "Tairn's magic" in the first two books, but in this one, the continent has magic and outside it, they're powerless?

Oh, except Vi for...reasons?

The marked ones all having second signets? This felt like fan service or a retcon. Why haven't any of them gone crazy? Because statistically some of them should have (and it would have at least been interesting). And if Liam could wield ice and use farsight, and that wasn't initially an error, why not wield it when Deigh was literally being chewed to death?

Continuous mentions of Xaden hearing actual fucking thoughts for god's sake that just get dropped and never picked up again? Par for the course. Don't even talk to me about it, I'm done.

Sgaeyl not talking to Xaden all book? Does she realise she would have died too, they all would have died if he hadn't done what he did? Mum pls the silent treatment sucks (this might be a personal trauma so we can probably scratch it, actually)

Andarna leaving then coming back almost immediately? I get it, she wanted to meet her shitty family, but this would have had more impact if she'd stayed when they were on the island. It felt like I got teary at her exit for nothing, like it was a ploy. I think I have whiplash.

Violet saying quite literally her most pressing need is information and then deciding no actually it's to know what her baby dragon is dreaming about in her dreamless sleep? Is this a joke? 😭

Violet is suddenly Adrian Ivashkov 💀 And what’s that got to do with who they are at their core? I’m lost! 😭

Also, those not-dreams never being explained? Like we know it's Berwyn calling him, but seriously Xaden, click on pls!

Xaden's mother showing up for...no reason? Really? Nice emotional arc, I enjoyed it, it was one of my favourite sequences, but she wasn't important to the story at all and we just?? Left?????

(I also want to punch her in the face, how dare she)

Finding out Halden's been doing...something??? At the Isles this whole time?? For Reasons, I guess??? I don't know, someone else might need to explain that to me.

(How I felt ^) Oh! And him being a twin? Basic information we could have known before—and I still don't know what happened to Alic, really. Like I want the whole story? 🥺

Violet's hair, the temple, all of that someone's going to have to explain to me like I'm five too because it's not clicking, I'm sorry. Also the temples/priestesses have magic? Their own different type of magic? And they aren't venin either? What makes a venin, a venin? My head is still spinning.

Aetos being back defying all logic (the aide to exile to in charge of everything pipeline really is something) and then he disappears entirely and is irrelevant? 😭 Why bring him back at all? What was the reason?

This is like the continuity that says Degrensi kicked Varrish out for being too torture-y and then they put him in charge of torturing kids, and then Degrensi followed Varrish's orders (even though he's below him in the chain of command and he hates him) last year to keep Xaden away from Violet all the time, but wait, now Degrensi gives no fucks about following orders???? I'm?? I just spent so much time being like wait, what?

Xaden who can literally command shadows for some reason not being able to sneak into Violet's room? And that same Xaden having zero control so they can't have sex, but then suddenly when it was time for another evenly spaced out sex scene, him being totally fine????? Is it ✨a mindset✨ ??

Violet having her memories wiped? For? Reasons???? Seriously for what purpose could the literal wedding ceremony part not have been remembered, please, that’s just mean Rebecca.

Aaric just Not telling anyone about his signet even though it would have meant more people living??? Aaric's name being CAMLAEN?????

I get that that’s a literary device, but on top of everything else I still felt like I was chasing my tail 😩

Professor Riorson teaching everyone for months, incl that signets have perfect counters, like his shadows and Violet's lightning, then sending Violet off to face the lightning/storm wielding gal while he went to face a guy he's literally incapable of killing? HELLO, should you not realise and switch?! Don’t be a dumb dumb (also a literary choice but it annoyed me so it’s here, please never battle the elite four Xaden, you’d fail).

Also oh look there's no rune on Brennan's neck like the one on his hand—sorry WHAT? are we implying that's from Naolin mending him or what? Do you know about it? Fucking say so, you sure as fuck haven't told us Vi???? It really bothers me that Violet apparently knows things and we don't. I feel like that's what third-person-POV is for, if you want to do things like that.

I still don’t know why venin can channel within the wards at all? And the wardstone was so easily altered after all that drama in IF?

Why aren't we reading Lilith's journals? Vi, sweetheart, please, give me some joy here.

Where are the other foster kids??? I still can't see how they're safe and not leverage, especially now it's looking like it will be a full-on secession bid once more.

Tyrrendor mines talladium?!

SURPRISE GRANDMA??? PLEASE!!

As you can see, I have a lot of questions—more than I had at the end of the last book, because none of those were answered, so I just have...this bigger pile of questions.

If you can read along and not think about any of these things and just not be bothered by the not knowing of it all, then I'm jealous of you. I really, really wish I could, but that's just not how my brain works and as someone with a mental illness I get tired of having to defend that to other people, it makes me feel like shit, honestly. I don’t want to think about these things, I just do. Like yeah, I hate my brain too but I have to live with it.

There were plenty of things I liked about this book, but my overall experience was that it felt messy, chaotic, and overwhelming.

Even the end—I still don't understand what happened fully, and I know that's on purpose, but after not understanding anything the whole book and having my questions from the last book go unanswered, I don't exactly appreciate it as a literary technique, I just find it frustrating 😟

In any case, these are just my out-of-pocket, personal opinions typed up late at night with zero filter, please don't come for me (lol), you don't need to agree—in fact, I know people don't, I ran a poll—this is just...how I'm feeling right now. It's a sucky feeling, but it is what it is.

I hope I can do a re-read at some point and enjoy it more, and get a better grasp on things, but for now...🖤

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

While I don’t think the senti-kid story necessarily works if the writers wanted to keep the show focused on kids, I think it would’ve gone over a bit better if it was just Felix who was the senti, rather than also Adrien and Kagami (especially Kagami, she was a complete retcon in that regard).

Picture this:

Gabriel, Emilie, and Natalie find the Miraculous (Butterfly and Peacock) because they have an expensive hobby (archeology/collecting rare items, as wealthy people like to do), not because they need the magic at all. They just heard a rumor of an old Tibetan monastery and wanted to check it out, got lucky in finding the two jewels. The Peacock doesn’t even have to be broken.

We can keep the basics of the backstory shown in Representation- minus the detail of Adrien being made with the Peacock. Gabriel and Emilie conceive Adrien normally, but Colt and Amelie aren’t able to like in canon, so Colt has that same jealous outburst at Gabriel. Because Emilie feels bad for her sister, and Gabriel sees an opportunity to make a deal, they lend, or maybe trade, the Peacock to them to create a child. As in canon, Colt uses it, and his jealousy makes Felix a physical copy of Adrien.

Emilie gets sick for non-magical reasons. (I wouldn’t mind having her use it for funsies and not realizing it was broken, but it’s very obviously cracked, and I can’t imagine at least one of their two kwamis not giving them a warning.) As for what happens to Colt, I’m on the fence about him being alive in present times because that kind of abuse is really heavy, so maybe he just dies for unsaid reasons (though I vote Amelie poisoned him or something).

This version would allow for a really cool contrast between Adrien and Felix’s stories and characters. You have Adrien, a normal human, capable of disobedience, but who bends easily under others and is a people-pleaser. Versus Felix, a senti being magically compelled to obey orders of whoever has his amok, but fights to be free every chance he gets. That contrast would also further Felix’s frustration and jealousy of Adrien, in addition to his own father’s hatred of him and being identical to his cousin, because Felix would kill for Adrien’s free will, but he squanders it. But then there’s also the issue that he’s essentially victim blaming Adrien, not realizing that magic isn’t the only way to force obedience- not to mention ignoring the times that Adrien did stand up for himself (like running away to school). I think that would be a really great discussion of free will, how jealousy can blind you, family conflict (and resolution), and how different kinds of abuse/trauma aren’t automatically better than each other just because they’re opposites (ex: someone with heatstroke shouldn’t be jealous of someone with frostbite. Both suck.) The intensity might be worse for each circumstance (since Felix has magical abuse and physical+verbal abuse), but he would be in the wrong for saying Adrien has it easy.

(I think at this point my ADHD is over-explaining, so I’ll leave it at that lol)

Do you think a route like that would’ve improved the show at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The sentiplot has many issues and one of the big ones is that it's not a great fit for a show where Marinette is the one and only main character. They've given Kagami, Felix, and Adrien this massive weight that begs for them to take center stage for at least a few episodes, but probably a whole season or two. The show isn't going to do that, so it's near impossible to really fix the sentiplot without truly massive changes to canon.

That being said, I think that this idea would have vastly improved the sentiplot in its current form! Right now, the senti thing truly doesn't matter to Adrien's character. His mom could have gotten sick for any random reason and the only meaningful change would be that Gabriel couldn't use the rings to keep Adrienette from kissing that one time. Outside of that, Adrien's status has no meaningful effect on the story. It doesn't even keep him out of the final! He does that on his own! The senti thing is just there for cheap drama.

There's also the issue that the current storyline makes the Agreste's look awful which is clearly not the story's goal. Emilie is supposed to be an angel and Gabriel is supposed to be a grief-stricken man who loves his family. That doesn't fit with the kind of monsters who would make a magical designer slave to be their child and then wear his control rings around as daily accessories. Remember, they picked their freaking wedding rings for his slave collars! Most people wear those every day. The implications are nasty!

It makes way more sense for the Agreste's to have the peacock for more mundane reasons and for Colt to get it somehow. Maybe even have him steal it after he finds out about it to really remove the Ageste's from the perfect slave child issue. This allows for the contrast between Gabriel and Colt that canon so clearly wanted, but failed to write. It also makes Felix's actions towards Adrien make way more sense. It feels like canon Felix hates Adrien and we still don't know why that is.

As nebulous as Felix's character is, he still feels like the kind of character who needs to be tied to something like the sentiplot. It's part of the reason I don't think I can use him in my own stuff. The sentiplot is - or at least should be - such a major, defining thing for him that the only possible way to use him is to keep that plot or to give him a plot about freeing the Kwamis since they're also slaves and his abusive childhood could make him feel a bond with them.

Focusing the sentistruggle on Felix instead of spreading it out to include Adrien and Kagami would also keep the sentistuff from dominating the story. Making the male romantic lead an artificial being without true free will whose creation killed his mother is a massive thing that needs to be the focus of his character for the rest of the story. People are on the edge of their seats waiting for Adrien to learn the truth and want this to be a big plot. I do not think they're going to get that, but they should.

Having a side character be the artificial human allows this to be something that is dealt with and then Felix either leaves or fades into the background once his story is over because his story allowed to have an ending whenever they want it to. That's not true for Adrien. Adrien's ending is happily every after with Marinette and the sentiplot needlessly complicates that plan because it means that Adrien's character is always going to be center stage, making people want the sentiplot to mean something since it's apparently impossible for him to ever be a real boy who has true free will. That's such a massive thing that it begs for Adrien to be the main character, which is an asinine writing choice. I have no idea why they keep giving Adrien all this massive narrative weight. You don't do that if you want the female romantic lead to be the main focus! You do it if you want them to be true costars or if you want the male lead to get the majority of the focus. This is writing 101!

As you said at the top, I'm not sure how well this works for a show aimed at five-year-olds because it's still a pretty heavy stuff, but as a general idea, I'd be down to watch it! I didn't have a ton to add to this one because your pitch was already excellent!

[forgotteneilionora]

OOC | Swords of Stafford

ok so our beloved kate just postedd the following

and it made me picture eilia, [ princess leia style, being like 'idk what ur talking abt' ] right to roderick's face when he demands the location of the stafford swords -- even tho they blatantly just had (two of) them during the war ladksjflkjsdfjkdsf -- while she still thinks that both her sisters and one of the swords have slipped away from between roderick's fingers alskjdflkjsdfjk

no, but it ~also reminded me that we never quite finished up talking abt the swords in question (my fault entirely!) but the rest of that's [ here ] and before that [ here ] and we've def talked abt it elsehwere in drips and drabs, such as establishing that they were meteor sowrds etc

anyway, since we also got talking general family stuff there <3 i thought id make a new stafford sword post so we can get down to business w the swords themselves <3

ok so here's what you/kate said last re: the sword of kings:

SWORDS I love the idea that the missing sword isn't really a stafford sword but a founder sword... any house could lay claim to it! (ooo what if each house has their own name for the sword so no one really knows what it was originally called!?) could we retcon the story slightly and perhaps add something in about the sword being claimed by someone who is there to save Astaira in its time of need? or reunite the kingdom? i dunno something along those lines i feel like would help play into the idea of rian/his dad that THEY should find this sword to rule astaira! and if/when roderick hears about it hes like... well i obviously need that to prove to all these HEATHENS that I am the one who is here to save their backwards country! And then there can still be the two stafford swords w/ siobhan running around w/ one which would still be a THING since its a symbol that could unify people and obvi that's bad for our favorite power hungry emperor! ;)

ok so obsessed w this line of thought!!!!

side note: this really ~does actually lend some credence to roderick's hope to gain legitimacy in astairan eyes by claiming the sword, doesn't it? bc...that's what the sword is for basically lakjsdfkljsdf still feel like the sword would betray him in some way or become a corrupt mirror to its usual self or smth in the hands of the wrong person but yeah!! this is just kinda happenstance for him ofc bc he always has this philosophy more bc he sees these ars trophies/symbols of power (plus he's a lil supersticious lbr) etc but this time he lowkey lucked out bc it really ~does lowkey confer some power alsdkjflkjdsf ofc it might kill him or drive him mad or smth who knows but anyway here we are a;ksdfjlksjdf (meanwhile the astairans still laughing at him bc he's going around w morningstar strapped to his side, still thinking its evenstar alksjdflkjsdf heehee)

i do still think the og wielder was def a stafford and it was forged from a falling star via ayla etc like we said but!! we've talked before abt how perhaps malconaire, lorcan, and stafford (and perhaps one or two others) were originally ancient kings in their own right and ultimately united to take down the gods as one etc so i can def see where the first king of a united astairan realm could easily have been a stafford and yeah!!

but yes!!!!!1 anyone being able to claim it feels soooooooo on point re: astairan values etc!!! and i def like to think that's still a thing!!! and yesssss! i love the idea that its for whoever is like willing to put astaira ahead of themselves or whatever, and not just abt bloodline!! and, like, what if its og wielder died thrusting the sword into the lock against the gods basically yknow that ultimate act of putting others before self etc kinda thing?

ok ok so this is WILD!!!!!!! what im abt to suggest laksjdflkjsdfj so no worries if you're like nahh lets not alksdjflkjsdf but like...ok so if a prev king stafford ~did die w the sword like...what if the sword isn't ~just a symbolic sword, what if its legit magical in some way (id guess a conjecting to air/night/sky or some kind and/or maybe souls? which're sometimes compared to aether anyway sdlakjfklsdjf) like...its got powers but its lowkey fueled by the spirit of its wielder/past wielders so like...its light and bright in the hands of a good soul, but turns dark and cold in those of one of ill intent, or whatever, and kinda drinks part of the soul, so you can randomly get some vibes from its prev wielders or whatever???? idk!! lakjsdfkjlsdf ANYWAY!! also @thelongforgottenrealm is this kinda concept even a thing in this world? hahaha

(not that anyone of ill intent truly could dislodge it from its current spot, but if someone of good intent did dislodge it, and it ~later fell into bad hands or whatever idk)

ok so we also left in our og thing some questions re: the name! our two biggest contenders were constellation and celestial. what do we think?

def feel like i came into this w some other thoughts on this topic but uhhhh idr them now so we'll just go w this! a nyway id love to hear all ur thoughts and ideas!!!!!!! <33333

[thecreechurcollective]

your eridan sollux john comic instilled new feelings in me i never thought possible. i never thought about john and eridan in a ship related way but god damn its REALLY INTRIGUING???? do you have more thoughts on them headcanons or interactions or like how they even meet and start talking?

In my opinion, John would give Eridan the freedom to move beyond that by questioning him. John does eventually get tired of hearing bullshit and will confront Eridan on his words and actions, but because John is loyal, it offers Eridan a form of stability. John isn’t just gonna dump his ass because he’s annoying/over dramatic/etc, he’ll just talk to him about it. So, when Eridan gets too much in his head, John can pull him from his thoughts and potentially make Eridan reassess what he is actually feeling. On the flip side, Eridan forces John to think about things he probably wouldn’t on his own. Gender, sexuality, how he’s treated, his opinions, his feelings on things. John sorta breezes (haha) through things that maybe he should think more about. He’s a bit of an airhead (hahaha). While John does not explicitly share a lot of things in common with Eridan, I could see John opening up more to what Eridan is interested in, but also see Eridan opening up to what John likes too. Part of the reason is because Eridan is so desperate to have connections that he might just do so because he’s afraid of losing his moirail (though i can imagine him not holding back his opinions or judgment), but with time (and stable moirail), i think Eridan would mellow out in that area. I think John is more than capable of moving past issues that do show up as well. He may get angry, but not to the point of abandoning him. In Summation: In MY interpretation, John offers loyalty and stability without becoming too put-off by Eridan’s less than kind behaviors and actions without enabling him to continue doing terrible shit. Eridan also offers loyalty, but offers a reality check and pushes John to think more critically about himself/the world. This moiraillegiance would not be without its ups and downs, but I think it could work. How I imagined them meeting is purely because of John's retcon abilities. Preventing everyone’s deaths involves stopping Eridan from killing Feferi. Then later, showing up to knock some sense into others (like Equius, by initially yelling at him and then throwing Nepeta at him). This is very AU territory, of course. It would fracture the canon. But that’s the nice thing about fanon, you can make up shit because you just want to. After John prevents Eridan from murdering, Eridan runs off because…well, he almost murdered his friends. John probably continues to fracture the timeline by keeping everyone alive, but eventually comes back. Eridan basically outcasting himself probably rants about everything being hopeless, but John being John just kinda shrugs it off and offers a hand instead. The rant probably got annoying, but he didn’t destroy canon just so only 11 of the 12 would be around. Plus John knows a thing or two about being the odd one out. John’s powers often alienate him. From there on, I think it’s a gradual change to “we’re moirails”, probably because John likely has to keep dragging Eridan back to the group because the others are not happy with his almost slaying of several of them and just most of the trolls are tired of him (and have their own histories around him). Eridan also has his own issues to work through, but at least not alone. At some point, probably after several lengthy discussions (cause quadrants still confuse John), John agrees to it. They definitely have moments of contention, but, once they’ve established a foundation (they both have issues around relationships, in my opinion), I think they help one another grow. In some regards, I could see the two of them more on a red spectrum, but that kinda leans more into my own opinions/headcanons of how the group is sorta fluid-y in terms of their quadrants with one another, because John is also human and their relationship with him would have to account for that. Overall, to me, Eridan and John pass the vibe check, but I also just like weird ships. There are a lot of ways you could argue against this relationship ever happening, sure, but I just like it. Also, I think about things that don’t matter far too much. Djvbdfhb

[tainbocuailnge]

lately I'm thinking about how there's a discrepancy between what shalem's files describe as happening and what we actually see happen in game.

the files say that after phantom came to rhodes and registered as an operator, shalem went into hiding, effectively disappearing from public view for a long time until phantom left for the castle and shalem got pinged for the rescue mission. but in rewinding breeze shalem is walking around the hallways and striking up conversation of his own accord, even telling mint in detail about his backstory. the vignette makes it clear phantom hasn't been with rhodes That long yet at this point, since the problems with /his/ file only just now came to light, but it's also clearly set very shortly before phantom's disappearance into the castle, because the vignette ends on phantom spotting the blood diamond costume and spiralling.

so assuming this isn't some continuity mistake or retcon, either the files are lying about what shalem was up to, or shalem had some reason to come out of hiding that day, and perhaps both.

the files lying is a pretty safe assumption to make, they're clearly written by the troupe instead of rhodes HR, and unlike rhodes HR the troupe has no interest in creating an image of shalem that is actually representative of the truth. but if they're lying about this thing they could be lying about all of it, it's difficult to draw conclusions from the information given about shalem since there's not much of it and most of it is unreliable. of course, being unable to reliably conclude anything about what he's like is his whole fucking problem to begin with, and why i keep rotating this guy in my head constantly. if we assume "the files are lying" is the only factor at play, then that means the troupe apparently wants to present shalem as more afraid of them than he is. they're insisting that he was cowering in his room for ages when in reality he was going about his days as normal.

but the other option, that shalem had something to do that day that was important enough to come out of hiding, is also compelling. no explanation is given for how the blood diamond costume made it to phantom's room, only a suggestion for why he hadn't noticed it until doctor pointed it out (if phantom can use arts to prevent others from perceiving him, naturally so can the troupe that taught him everything he knows). shalem has that assistant line where he insists you didn't hear him talking with anyone, which combined with phantom saying he came to rhodes because he heard a voice saying the person with the answers he's looking for would be there, had originally lead me to speculate that shalem might be receiving sleeper agent instructions in that voiceline, and he's the one who put the costume in phantom's room. shalem's oprec recontextualised that line as him having intense hallucinatory spirals basically every day, so i'd put aside the possibility for a while. but if we assume he was there to speak with mint because he had something important to do, he becomes an option for how that costume made it to phantom's room again.

the second option is a little shakier admittedly but i love the idea of shalem having had an ambiguously willing hand in setting up the events of is2 because his feelings regarding phantom have got to be so fucking inscrutable and contradictory. the uncertainty of how much influence the troupe may or may not still have on him is of course the foundation of his fucking problem, so it's by design impossible to say for sure whether any of this is what happened. the more attention you pay to shalem the less certain you get about anything regarding him.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

This is the same anon as before. I think I should thank you for bringing up how society for some reason believes that sapphic women cannot express our attraction to other women openly or as they put it 'like cishetallo men' in the context of Elysia's vocal attraction to Mei's horns. As a lesbian, as much as I really hate Elysia for retconning the story and in my eyes trying to ruin kiamei, I find her to be hot as fuck and I love her boobs but people online cannot believe that a woman can feel that way towards a woman and women are pure of heart being or some shit which is what terfs and fundamentalists say. Thank you for saying women being attracted to women beyond just holding hands is normal and I hope you had as much fun receiving my asks as I do reading your answers. I enjoy hearing viewpoints opposing my own.

Hell yeah, glad that was helpful!

Honestly I feel like Elysia enhances Kiamei if anything. Like Kiana got to have other relationships develop and bounce off of, but Mei was benched most of the story, so she only really had Raven as her own friend until ER. Kinda hard for her to be developed as a character.

Everyone's lives are enriched by the relationships they form and the ways they grow along with them. For better or for worse (the writing quality's sin wave) Mei did experience a lot of growth through her conflict and subsequent warming up to Ely and friends.

Mei had always been embarrassed by Kiana's frank flirting, so confronting a way flirtier girl probably opened up her perspective, no? Plus she's a lot more confident, less soft-spoken now. The whole terrorist thing made Mei very direct, but Elysia softened her rough edges again by ER Chapter 3.

Besides. Depending on how you interpret her relationship with Elysia, she might also have gained experience in... other ways...

If they're gonna be separated, letting your ship interact with other characters, especially foils and contrasting ones, is the next best thing u-u

ALSO. Can we stop being mad at Elysia for the retcons. Elysia is a victim of the retcons. The writers retconned her character and changed the direction from ER's story foreshadowing

[ryssabrin]

it's actually SO sad to me that some solas fans want to completely disregard his final regret mural as an ignorable retcon or somehow use it to make mythal out to be even worse? than she is? like she's taunting him or something? i know they'll point to the datamined dev notes that give dai flemythal different motivations than it appears she has in the dav mural but honestly tbh you can't actually take that as canon because it's not actually in the game. you can't point at someone's first draft and then say the final product is a "retcon" because it doesn't adhere to it. writers are allowed to change their plans it's okay lol.

and honestly rewatching the dai post credits scene with what we know from dav makes it so much sadder! regardless of what flemythal thought of solas's plans it is the only time we will ever hear mythal apologize to solas. it's actually crazy to think about everything wrapped up into that one apology. she's sorry for what she turned him into, she's sorry things turned out the way they did, she's sorry he has to kill her, she's sorry she's letting him and he'll have to live with it now, she's sorry she can't alleviate the burden he feels. it's meaningful that it's flemythal, the one with thousands of years of growth and reflection who says this and it's heartbreaking that it isn't enough.

and that is still present in the regret mural version of the scene, tied up in solas's own version of events. because she IS letting him kill her and they both know it. from how morrigan talks about solas, it's clear that her and flemeth's mythal fragment has a lot of sympathy towards solas. if morrigan is unwilling to stand against solas, it's likely flemeth didn't want to kill him either, even if she could have and didn't agree with his plans. it was either out of lingering affection or merely being able to recognize that it wouldn't be fair of her. he is the way he is because of HER and it can not be her place to stand against him in that way. meanwhile solas knows in order to continue his plans, he needs her power. he's conflicted about it though because he's not actually sure he's doing it for the right reasons.

that's where the regret mural comes in. we're explicitly told these are not exact memories. flemythal might not have actually said those exact words to him, but it's what was going through his mind when he made the decision to go through with it. "i definitely need her power to keep the evanuris locked away but is that the only reason i'm doing this? do i really think killing my oldest friend is a worthwhile sacrifice for that?" so he thinks about wanting to help the elves and he tells himself he's doing it for them too. but he doesn't really believe it. you can hear it in his voice, how petulant and emotional he sounds in contrast to the thoughtful and measured way he tends to express himself when he presents his arguments and opinions. he's trying to convince himself that he had to do this and it's not really working. when flemythal counters with the line about salving his conscience, we might read that as solas arguing with himself. "you're not really doing this to save the elves because this will actually harm them more, you just feel guilty." so he falls back on "i must fix what i have broken." his pride. his fault, his responsibility.

there's a banter solas has in dai with cole where cole is clearly trying to help solas overcome his sadness about the veil. he says solas could "let them go" and that he "didn't do it to be right," he "did it to save them." i think that's so interesting in terms of what cole, compassion, thinks will help solas heal. it's what cole thinks solas needs and wants to hear. if the inquisitor doesn't intervene to ask what they're talking about, solas will answer "i will never know that for certain." even at this point he's questioning his own motivations. did he really just seal the evanuris away for the good of the elves, or was part of him wanting to win? to prove himself right? he struggles with this throughout his entire arc and the flemythal regret mural is just another example. it was another instance of him doing something terrible because his pride needed it to be worth it.

(also i think another reason flemythal lets solas kill her is that she DOES want the evanuris punished/killed and empowering solas will help that goal and i don't think they retconned that part of her character either.)

it's just interesting to me that dav is consistently criticized as lacking in moral nuance and complexity and the one way they actually kinda nailed it is largely ignored just because it doesn't fit the popular headcanons lol. and it's funny to me how much the flemythal regret mirrors solas killing felassan but nope that apparently never happened and the game is just wrong to interrogate solas's pure and noble intentions for tearing the world apart. the very first instance of solas's character we were ever exposed to is exactly as he is in this regret so no. it's not a retcon.

[thesharktanksdriver]

Hey! So I wanted to ask something about determination! reader, have the characters of the movies meet Reader? Like for example Uta or Tesoro of film gold?

Anyways I lover You work and I hope to see the part of Roger! ✨

Hello!!! Sorry for getting to your ask so late, I’ve been really tired these past few days lol.

But as for your questions kinda?

I have to retcon y/n meeting Uta as a baby cause it doesn’t match up timeline wise. I assumed Shanks found her just before Roger died but I’m pretty sure I’m wrong about that lol.

But I do want to write a lil something for Uta, she’s a personal favourite of mine and she in my opinion doesn’t get enough attention.

I’d like to make something about y/n meeting her and somehow convincing her of how the wake-shroom is dangerous, maybe by eating it and dying lol. I might even make something later on with the straw hats meeting up with her in Elegia for a reunion for her and Luffy….plus a duet between her, Brook and y/n would be killer. I just want good things for her 😭

As for Tesoro if think something interesting could be that they both met while slaves, but I’m unsure if that timeline wise since y/n was a slave when boa and her sisters were for an undetermined amount of time until Boa was forced to kill them.

Really sad idea for that though is that in that time Tesoro tried his best to help and protect them before they were killed. Maybe they had even met because he could hear them quietly singing to try and comfort Boa and her sisters and it reminded him of Stella :[

That idea is really funny tho when it comes to one piece gold cause he has a panic attack realizing their

A) alive after he assumed they died cause he saw the girls they were with uncontrollably sobbing, now he thinks they had somehow escaped

B) with the straw hats he’s actively trying to kill

C) damn, he needs their skincare routine cause they look like they haven’t aged at all!

Even if this route isn’t the case, i cousl kinda see him doing his whole thing In gold of trying to capture and kill the straw hats but then sees they have this random kid with them that reminds a little too much of Stella and assumes the straw hats kidnapped them and is holding them as some sort of hostage.

Which in turns makes him even more pissed and determined (lol) to kill these damn pirates and save this kid.

If this was the case of scenario of their meeting, y/n opening up about their own time as well as a slave would be really interesting. Especially since in many regards he became like the world novels he hated, taking pleasure in others suffering as well as having insane amounts of wealth to live in luxury while also being hypocritical and hating other wealthy people who act exactly like him.

Tesoro wouldn’t get why y/n looks at him with a sad and also horrified look in their eyes.

Why they seem afraid of him when he had “saved” them.

Another potential movie character I can see as an interesting person for y/n to meet is Z.

Because for a much as Z hates pirates I don’t think he’d be willing to hurt a kid, not when his was killed. So he’s left in a weird impasse of wanting to kill the straw hats but also trying to keep y/n not involved even if he knows they’re also a pirate and their actively joining in on the fights.

Doesn’t help that the marines there to stop him reaallly want y/n too, so he kinda has to deal with Borsalino and making sure that the admiral nor y/n’s crew doesn’t get them.

I’d definitely imagine y/n would get in heated arguments with the dude, especially since they’re not letting someone mess with Roger’s legacy and cause they get his pain (somewhat at least).

They’ve been on the receiving end of cruelty from pirates.

But at the same time marines have done arguably much worse yet uphold the status of justice.

What is justice when they murder all infants on an island due to fear of Roger having a blood child.

What is justice when they wipe out an entire race of people and take their land to make Mary geoise.

What is justice when they make living weapons.

What is justice when marines can kill civilians with only so much as a small punishment by HQ.

What justice is there in tracking down escaped slaves and being lapdogs for celestial dragons.

At least pirates though some are equally terrible don’t proclaim themselves under the hypocrisy of “justice”. Don’t claim to be holy saints when they try and kill someone for the sin of their father being a pirate.

[dangoulains-devotion]

my humble onions on That One Bit Of Dialogue™ (you know the part) from that spooky Nibel sidequest

Prefacing this by saying I'm very chill with whatever they decide to end up doing with Vincent as long as it's interesting and not just "surprise twist for the sake of surprise twist" if u get what I mean. And seeing other theories is fun! So I thought I might share my own

But my personal first impression when he said he'd had plenty of chances to pull the trigger but couldn't doesn't necessarily mean he's talking about literally shooting sephiroth. I parsed it more as a "I knew very well that something was likely to go awry with Sephiroth even if the Jenova detail wasn't known to me, I knew that Lucrecia had chosen to experiment on her unborn child, I knew that with Hojo involved it was going to be a disaster, I knew I knew I knew. But I still couldn't bring myself to stop any of it from happening because I couldn't bear to hurt her."

From what I remember from that sit-down at the table flashback scene in Dirge, he was aware that Something was going to happen to this child but he couldn't have known what. If we're going to follow the line of pulling the trigger literally, I felt like it was more aimed at Hojo in that he regrets he didn't shoot first... My man's could've negated like All of FF7 if he'd beaten Hojo to the punch lmfaoghskhg

Vincent very much does not and has never come across as someone to kill a child or consider doing so, sure he was a turk but I feel like the whole thing with Reno after the plate drop was supposed to drive home that as much as they know certain abhorrent things are part of their job, it doesn't mean that they necessarily want to or feel good about it.

I am certainly interested still in what's gone on in the remakes with his situation of what we previously knew as him sleeping for his sins - the room itself didn't seem like it'd been untouched for 30 years and he had that speaker that let him hear yuffie and barret bantering in the elevator... If he had it as a way of alerting him to intruders, and that it would wake him up, then perhaps there was a literal "I failed to shoot" moment when the Nibelheim Incident was about to happen. He'd have known there was people down there when Sephiroth holed himself up if that was the case, maybe he considered it at that point but hesitated for several reasons

But then again! They kept Crisis Core 1:1, and when Zack finds the coffin, unless Vincent was feigning it to be anti-social, he seemed pretty out cold. So maybe he only started to actively move around/have that speaker *after* the Nibelheim Incident because it tore at him to know that something so tragic happened so close and yet he did nothing because he was asleep... So it was a choice made to be more vigilant? Who knows!

This is kinda rambly and somewhat out of order which I apologise for. It's not even my full thoughts about this damn character, we'd be here all day if I unravelled it all in detail! But I do think that, provided Dirge doesn't get retconned completely, it's likely he considers his gravest sin regarding Sephiroth was that he didn't intervene to divert the poor child's fate before it was even born. And when I say intervene I mean stop the experiment from proceeding rather than tucking his tail and letting the woman he cared for make One Real Fucked Up Choice (that's a part of Lucrecia I appreciated and kind of really hope they don't lighten or retcon about her - the way her ambition and drive was her greatest strength but also her worst traits in that it meant her sense of ethics and the like was tossed to the wayside in favour of Progress™ and Science™.)

Who knows honestly! I'm just glad we got to see him and that he's not optional anymore <3 and that he's a dork besides! I'm also very interested in his left eye... There's some parts where his left eye is much more open than his right when he's wincing or when he back flipped out of the coffin... We've seen he can close them both properly but that small detail felt intentional so I guess we'll seeeeee

I wrote this more as a tossing my 2 cents into the pool, and to organise some of my thoughts I suppose... Cid and Vincent were the two parts I was most excited for with Rebirth and after having completed it as well as side quests and the QB storyline I have much 2 think about...

If you read all the way to here then I appreciate u sticking with my rambling... I am mentally unwell about that tragic old man 🫡

[bainofjustice]

Kitty's Notes On Episode 1 Of The Payday 2 Web Series

According to Bain Crime.net is a organization which is a notable definition of the group & program, it isn't just a program but something with structure to it.

Bain says he seeks out the top theives, thugs, drug dealers & hustlers for the organization.

To me this implies a heavy focus on contracting work out to contractors (thugs) and some independent work, possibly with members having to pay to be a member but get some benefit like being directed to targets or having costumers pointed to them, along with protection from the law (theives, drug dealers & hustlers) (starting scene)

He does outright say he hookups them up with contacts & “sets the stage”, so my immediate thoughts are right on that.

Also he says “they think they are working for themselves but they just can't see the bigger picture”, given this there might not be a membership fee but more splitting what they make with Bain since he “did them a favor”

Bain in this starting scene says that he is training the Payday Gang for the greatest heist of all, which my interpretation is he is either speaking of the White House pardons which I remember is mentioned to have been one of the first heists he planned or perhaps a heist involving the Katrau, maybe not a literal heist and more stealing it's secrets.

When starting the real part of the episode it says “DC, Present Day” which means First World Bank happened around when the episode came out, but given that would have been around 2012 & 2013 but FBI files indicate that the first batch of heists take place 2014 it is likely this was retconned

They do use the in-game escape van within the show

Houston starts off strong with talking about his ideology which includes the following 

Banks are stealing from the people 

Houston says that some call the gang modern day Robinhoods & seems to agree with that, this leads me to assume that he either is under the belief that Bain redistributes the wealth the gang steals or that Houston himself is doing that & assumes the other gang members are too

He also says others don't understand that they/we have a choice, which he doesn't follow up on instead saying that Newton said for every action there is a equal & opposite reaction and that The Payday Gang is their reaction, this ties in more to how Houston views the banking system & likely government systems as corrupt & hurting the general population 

“Am I a criminal? I don't think so, everyone needs a job, right? We all need a payday.” -Houston, to me this really suggests he sees working with the gang as a means to survival aka what money tends to be used for most, that it isn't the thrills but that message from above and also his own need for money to do things like pay off debts & pay for things.

Wolf seems concerned with hiding his identity taking steps such as a likely real human wig to 1. Give him “cool recognizable hair” & 2. Fasle DNA to be left at the scene, this is probably why in canon no one seems to know his previous identity at the time of Payday 2's end (perhaps this will come up more in 3's story?)

Houston is shown as the planer for the team on First World Bank, directing Wolf & Chains on what to do & explaining what Dallas is doing, at the start of 2 it seems likely he was second in command to Dallas, Chains doesn't seem the happiest about this as he rolls his eyes after the fact

Wolf does a literal wolf howl before the heist in the escape van, I just find this sort of cute/a interesting part of character 

Chains seems to be the voice of the gang when Dallas isn't around as he's the one to tell civis to get on the ground at the start of the heist

Later though Houston also does some speaking for the gang, which is a little less threatening and seems like more a set up for Dallas's speech, so pretty internally for planning had a different purpose for the heist.

We hear/see early in the heist one of the guards within the bank be directed by a female voice who has some camera access, this is probably a GenSec guard & operator like how the pagers work

I have to assume given that Dallas/”Natehen Steele” isn't arrested during his questioning later at FBI HQ that the director wasn't able to see him attack this guard.

The security cameras go down before Dallas attacks so that explains the above

We see that Bain is able to detect when silent alarms have been triggered, this is probably a normal part of his set up during Payday gang heists 

Houston is the one to give a speech once the civis are on the ground, given how calmly it's delivered and how it's a good lead in to the First World Bank speech it is probably written by Bain or Dallas & Houston memorized it alongside the plan

We see that the gang checks money packs for tracers & dyepacks before bagging them, using some sort of scanner, saying clear before each one is bagged, we have to assume that there is also a word like “skip” or “traced” to indicate to skip a money pack for bagging.

Houston is shown using what looks like a normal smartphone as a timer during the bagging section, I don't even know how to begin to explain how bad an idea that is irl, so we can probably assume that the phones the gang uses have been altered in some major ways likely by Bain & Wolf (Bain on software & Wolf on hardware)

Wolf in the credits section which shows who plays who is “Wolf as Himself” funnily

[princessofmerchants]

Hey ! first of all: I recently discovered you blog & totally fell in love with it🥺, especially after my "Nessian Hangover".

I know this might be a bit off-topic from your usual content, but there's something about Cassian's relationship with Mor that really irks me...and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

His actions, like pulling away from Nesta's hand in ACOWAR, left me feeling frustrated and sympathetic towards Nesta. And then there's that whole thing in Wings and Embers where he's all secretive about Nesta with Mor and doesn't wanna tell her about Nesta, which gave off major mixed signals?? I mean, describing Mor as something between a lover and a friend, while also being like family? That was so confusing, how can she be all three to him? it just felt so ... inappropriate and I felt so bad for Nesta bc obviously she deserves someone who has only eyes for her.

But then in SF he says all romantic feelings turned into familial bonds after the incident so what was that about then in WaE and pulling his hand away in ACOWAR?

Also in WaE it sounded like he primarily slept with Mor out of jealouy but in SF it does seem like he did had romantic feelings towards her ? :/ ...

And when he thought in SF about how hauntingly beautiful Mor is and how it takes his breath away and that she is lovely and perfect .... it just drove me mad tbh because this sounded very romantic coded to me which made me feel so bad for Nesta.

it has been all so confusing and inconsistent to me and also just frustrating how he talked so poetic about a woman he slept with (or did he also call Nesta also hauntingly beautiful or lovely or perfect and I'm not remembering it?), or how he didn't wanted to show Mor that he has feelings for Nesta?? :/ - so I just wondered what you thought about all of that, in hopes to calm me down or clarify bc it really almost ruined him for me (maybe I was misinterpreting stuff?).

hope that's not a weird question bc of how spesific it is haha

BTW I love your love for Nesta bc same🖤.

I love this ask, Anon, and how detailed and specific it is. It is a question after my own heart! My response is long so it's after the break.

Thank you for saying you love my love for Nesta - that means the world to me. What I especially like about your ask is, it is about canon Nesta, who is the Nesta I most treasure, and by extension about canon Nessian. I sometimes feel like a lone voice in the drafty moors of Tumblr with my deep and abiding love for canon Nessian, so the fact that this ask lets me talk about them in canon makes me happy!

I have given this a lot of thought since receiving your question, and I'm not sure how satisfying parts of my answer will be, so my apologies in advance for the fact that I am not actually going to offer an explanation for how and why all the details you listed can co-exist in a single, utterly comprehensive whole for the Cassian-Mor relationship when Cass is unquestioningly Nesta's by the end of ACOSF.

Instead, here's why the lack of things utterly lining up for these three doesn't bother me in the long run, and only slightly bothered me during the pre-ACOSF / post-ACOFAS era.

It is clear to me as a reader that SJM pivoted in a significant way between ACOMAF and ACOWAR when it comes to Mor.

I came across a post recently that explains exactly my thoughts on this. The post focuses on the current ship war but the evidence in it describes how during ACOMAF it was clear Moriel (Mor and Azriel) was likely to be endgame, but then SJM shifted Mor's arc to where she was more attracted to women, which meant needing to retcon a lot (and unfortunately a lot of Mor's charm and nuance was collateral damage that I am still hoping SJM repairs).

I think Cassian in ACOMAF needs to be read in the context of a planned future love triangle of sorts between Azriel-Mor-Cassian, into which I do think SJM planned to throw Nesta as a big bomb that beautifully blows up Cass's corner of the triangle. But the parts in "Wings and Embers" where Cass says to the reader he is worried about what Mor will think about his fixation on this human woman, I think were meant to preserve some kind of angsty triangle for the next book, which SJM (thankfully) jettisoned. I hate love triangles so I honestly would not have been a fan if that had been where SJM landed.

Now, in ACOWAR and ACOFAS, I think the Mor stuff with Cassian gets a bit more confusing, so I agree with you there. Cassian doesn't know for sure Nesta is his mate until she screams for him during the Battle of Hybern at the end of ACOWAR, so the stuff before that - e.g., him removing his hand from hers - I read in a few ways. I think being buffer to Mor with Azriel all those years messed with his head a lot, and in a way, Mor finally coming to terms with her sexuality is a really solid catalyst for her beginning to distance herself from the triangle dynamic she was a part of for 500 years, which I think was more healthy for everyone involved.

But remember, Nesta is still proud and surly in ACOWAR, not in any inherently bad way but in a way that probably didn't signal to Cassian she was particularly interested in him, even as he was drawn to her like a magnet and couldn't keep away because part of him loves her claws so much. Cass rightly protects his own heart when he has the foresight to do so in ACOWAR and ACOFAS. I always knew they would work their shit out eventually, but during the messy process of doing so I don't begrudge him a little distance when Nesta, in her trauma response to what was happening to her and around her, sometimes lashed out at the strongest individual in her vicinity who she knew could take it like a boulder weathers the storm - that person was always Cassian for her.

When I first read ACOSF, I absolutely assumed going in that Mor was going to be catty about Nessian finally starting to get together. When she wasn't, it was jarring to me. But once I finished my first reading of ACOSF, I came to a striking conclusion about Mor, ACOSF, and SJM:

The story SJM needed to tell in ACOSF would not have been aided or forwarded by Mor intervening in the Nessian dynamic in a catty way, or being a foil to anything about Nesta in that story's arc.

In other words, SJM could have written a version of Nesta and Cassian's book that included Mor challenging Nesta's right to be with Cassian, but that was unequivocally NOT the book SJM wanted or needed to write (hopefully my double negative landed correctly here, lol).

So, SJM pivoted, and sent Mor to Vallahan, so SJM could write the story she needed to write. As a writerly choice, I adore everything about it - Nesta didn't need to be fighting with another woman over rights to her mate, she needed women friendships that were pure and gloriously blank slates upon which and with whom to write and tell her and their collective story - so SJM introduced Emerie and Gwyn. SJM even brought in Mor later to teach Nesta the waltzes, and their brief exchange in which Nesta called her Morrigan and Mor invited her to call her Mor, and Nesta accepted the invitation to do so, is another breathtakingly vulnerable moment for Nesta that fills my heart right up. To this end, the promise that Mor will begin to train with the Valkyries in the next book has me so excited.

Now, there are two lines in ACOSF I still want to comment on (then I'll reign in this very long post, lol). First, I agree that Cassian's observation in his pov of how breathtakingly beautiful Mor is at the cafe toward the start of the book can come off romantic coded, though for him at this point I don't think it is. But whether it is or not, we need to remember he and Nesta still have a whole book's worth of stuff to work through with their romantic relationship.

I suspect SJM included that moment in part to set up some stakes for the Nessian arc - that, although Cassian hasn't had sex since he met Nesta, he is still a man who is drawn to admiring a beautiful woman inside and out. If Nesta had already won his exclusive attention in this regard before any of their arc began in that book, what would be the point of the book? (By the end, I do think Cassian only has eyes for Nesta, and it is absolutely because they claim each other - I don't think in the long run he would have been able to settle for less, and nor should he have.)

And, since Nessian aren't in a relationship at that point in the cafe at the beginning of the book, I'm not mad at him for admiring Mor's beauty per say. I think if Nesta invited it then, he would admire hers a lot more, and with a much more deep seated attraction. ACOSF is about them both letting their inner barriers down to allow the other to love them, so that kind of attraction still needs to be earned between them at that point in their story. His observation about Mor's beauty is in a different category entirely from where Cassian eventually lands with Nesta, so there is nothing threatening about it for me.

The other line that feels weird to me most times I read it, is when Mor baldly tells Nesta early in ACOSF that she would have sent Nesta to live in the Court of Nightmares. The only explanation I have for this moment and exchange is that for SJM it was more in service of Nesta's arc, and less about making sense coming from Mor. What I mean here is, at that moment Nesta feels wretched and all things terrible about herself, and it's a feature of that kind of disordered thinking that others around you either seem to echo what you're thinking about yourself, or sometimes do echo it in reality, if through a trauma response you've hurt those around you (*she says from personal experience*), or if through their own trauma response those around you respond in kind (as I think may have been happening with Mor in this scene).

Do I love that Mor says something so cruel to Nesta in that moment early in Nesta's healing journey? No, I do not. Do I see why it helps to heavily charge these early scenes for Nesta as she truly hits rock bottom regarding her feelings about herself? Yes, I do.

Which leads me to how I'll conclude this. I hope SJM intentionally develops Mor's story so she isn't just a device in the story arcs of others. For better or worse, some kind of reckoning between her and Az needs to happen, likely in the next book, for either to truly move on. But I hope Mor gets the attention a character like her deserves in future books.

I am A-OK with her mostly-absence from ACOSF because I don't think she would have been a productive part of Nesta's healing arc, and at the end of the day that is the heart and soul of ACOSF for me - Nesta healing.

The reason ACOSF-Nessian has my whole heart is because, it's so clear to me the ways Cassian supports Nesta's healing and is the catalyst for a lot of her growth into a person who loves herself and sees herself as worthy and deserving of love and happiness.

If he was a bit of a hot mess in the period between first meeting Nesta and getting to finally be with her as accepted mates, I don't begrudge him that.

[punnifullife]

I wanna hear your headcannons

Hmm i wasn't sure where to start, so apologies if this feels really jumbled. Also keep in mind i am cherry picking things from what dc has considered canon or not canon anymore sooooo:

starfire/koriand'r:

- Her personality is a mix of the bubbly one she has in TT03 and her NTT comic version. Warrior that will beat you to death if you wrong her, but can be very compassionate and considerate to those she loves. -struggles with social queues and human lingo (this isn't just for english, but any language. if you ever see the trouble in tokyo movie, she speaks Japanese for a scene but you can clearly hear/tell she's fluent but there's still a distinct way on how she talks/enunciates things). Since there really wasn't a "dialect/accent" for Tamaraneans, I like to think how she speaks IS the dialect/accent. And it's why her sister, Blackfire, seems to be much more "fluent". Some people can drop their accent/dialect when speaking another language, while others, no matter how much they speak in their 2nd language, will still have that accent/dialect there. (also bc i think it's a bit silly that to become MORE fluent?? you have to keep kissing? idk) - I love how she was a model for donna troy's photography gig, so i thought that would be cute to continue that (and her relationship with Donna!! bc wow did i fall in love reading about them in NTT)

Dick/Nightwing - He and batman had a fallout (he did not get "fired", but he left of his own volition. albeit on bad terms at first from differing views/ideals. I like to think that's partially why he was so moody in tt03 and why slade was such a great villain for him since slade(tt03 version) was very similar to batman at the time.

- He DOES grow out of that moody edgy phase, but he still has that bad habit of hiding his emotions/thoughts with others. While he's grown to trust them more and rely on them for missions, there's still that emotionally-constipated person that struggles to take off that "mask" and doesn't usually wear his emotions on his sleeves. And this continued to cause strain with all of his relationships. And if say a member of his team is hurt due to complications on a mission? you bet he struggles to not fall back on old habits to do things alone bc he can deal with it all by himself.

- When he's with TT, he's more relaxed and serious, but when he's back in the batfam, he ups the fake smiles and quips otherwise he might go crazy with how brooding everything is (especially being away with his found family and going "OH things don't have to be this damn depressing all the time. cool")

- remained the leader of TT in Jump City but as the team grew older and TT grew in members, things changed:

TT team:

- the older members (the ex-teens of the group) would all move on to managing their own cities or helping the younger generations (so dick in bludhaven, keystone city for wally, as well as other older members working at the east or west tower to help with younger generations not just be good heroes, but help them become capable of withstanding on their OWN. bc i like the idea the first members who [most of them] came from being in a shadow of someone else, so making sure future teen heroes don't fall into that ig?) so i guess like the JL where there's still a main core (with dick as the "leader" but the other main core can all step up to the plate too when necessary)

Batfam:

I know the new52 and crisis and yada yada has retconned and changed so much for all of their characters/stories (thanks DC). but again, these are just my AU/headcanons and anyone can disagree with what i gotta say:

- Jason todd becomes Robin ("unofficially") while Dick is a member of the tt03 team. TT03 is like... a 2 year story in my eyes? so by the end of the tt03 series, Dick becomes Nightwing and passes the mantle onto Todd. Todd is robin for like 1-2 years before his death. Tim takes up the mantle of Robin and then would either become red robin or put up the cape as he attended college AWAAY from gotham with duke and stephanie bc that would be fun (red robin, signal, and spoiler as a trio? sheeesh). Damian either joins before Tim leaves or something idk.

-babs is a bit was batgirl during dick's robin run. Would eventually become oracle and i think either staying in gotham or going to bludhaven could work.

- i know we all love the shenanigans with the batfam but i think a lot of these characters and relationships do better when they get to be independent. (which is kinda funny bc thats what bruce would want, even if he can be hypocritical and try to hold onto them due to his own trauma and unhealthy attachment.) but i would like to think eventually they could come together to help out in gotham every now and then. but who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ bat stuff isnt my biig focus hehe.

So robstar/dickory stuff:

- on the fence if they stay together after the tt03 movie or at some point they do break up but it's more bc i always felt like star/kory was giving a LOT to dick and dick still had those emotional pull-back tendencies. and what i love about these two is that we have one character who is so in tune with her emotions vs a guy that struggles not to deflect a positive remark. and while she sees through a lot of what he puts out as a front and can always recognize when he's hiding something, she can't be doing all that heavy lifting (even if she's a warrior alien princess with super strength lool). So, if they get together during their tt03 era, can they work through that? Idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (i also lowkey would love for some angst and rekindling as adults who've matured and have better ideas on what they want vs when they were just kids crushing on each other but it could go either way bc the tt03 did a lot of development between the two of them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

- Dick grounds Kory. He's her sense of humanity. He's the first person she meets coming to Earth. He was always patient with her and loved showing her the world. Kory reads dick like an open book and he finds comfort in someone who can see through that facade TT03: There's a reason he hesitates to shoot her during the slade arc. why he picks her to search for slade. He can be vulnerable with her, even if it's in his weird way.

- a big fight involves moving forward in their relationship like marriage and children. To date is one thing, but to commit to something like that? To put his loved ones in danger? especially a child? He would have the fear of losing them OR his child losing HIM and kory. ofc kory would be understanding but i do think she would also get mad like "I was born to a race of warriors. Trained by the Warlords of Okaara. Am i so weak to need constant protection? I have respected the human morals to not kill, but I do not hold such beliefs and will do what is necessary to protect who I love most."

- Bruce wasn't necessarily confident in their relationship. It's a jumble of emotions that can be confusing. happy for his son to find happiness/love, sad/hurt/fear of his son moving on/away, a possessive/jealousy to keep dick around. But I do think when bruce and kory meet, he may soften a bit. I think it's why i like the idea of Tt03 star/kory meeting bruce bc she can be gentle and theres a charm about her.

Eventually they have mari! (and jake years later).

-Dick's job is to take her to school. but he's always sleeping in due to late hero shifts so it's usually a piggyback and acrobatic journey across the city to get to school on time.

-If she's hanging out in Gotham, then the public eye spread rumors bc they see her as another "black haired kid adopted by Mr. Bruce Wayne" and after 4 of them, people have just accepted the normalcy of it. ive also thought itd be interesting if she (and kory) were given some kinda tech like a watch that could disguise their appearance since big green glowing non-pupil eyes are kinda a give-away.

-jake doesn't get his powers until he's a teen. so while both kids were combat trained, he would take on the mantle of flamebird to go alone with nightwing!

[ms-cartoon]

a

Seen the few sneak peaks of some upcoming episodes of HB. We might meet Moxxie’s family (mainly his father). Sorry if I’m being nitpicky, but I was kinda expecting his father to be a little bit different from his son, as well as have a different voice. It’s like he’s a literal clone of Moxxie but slightly taller with a deeper and cunning tone in his voice. And from what I’ve heard, he’s supposed to be a mobster or just apart of some kind of dangerous gang (correct me if I’m wrong). So yeah, I think his appearance should be a little bit different, more tough if anything.

Blitzo stays an a**hole to his co-workers I see. Even after that DeEp and HeArTwArMiNg conversation, he had with Moxxie back in season 1 ep 6 (Which didn’t hit deep at all). You think that after he humiliated himself in episode 7, he’d dial it back with his behavior. But I guess Viv can’t have a comedy without someone unnecessarily being a jerk.

We finally get to hear Andre’s voice. He actually sounded exactly how I imagined; almost deep and haughty. I guess it’s made clear that he and Stella have a good relationship. I’ve seen some comics that show that Andre was possibly very mean to Stella during her childhood which probably would explain her behavior and why she acts so cynically. 

He and Stella are having a discussion with Stolas, and Andre brings up that Stella deserves something since Stolas cheated on her?? Which makes no sense to me?? Cuz, yes, Stolas did cheat, but why would Stella even care?!! The show already made it clear that she never even liked Stolas from the start. She didn’t even like being married to him and was only throwing fits and getting him killed simply because she was petty and liked tormenting him. What exactly does Andre and Stella hope to gain from this anyway? Neither of these two even out-rank Stolas. And what exactly has the divorce done that caused any harm to the Goetia’s. When Stella confronted Stolas, she made it seem like the divorce was gonna be a huge issue, but as far as I know... it did nothing. And they already had Octavia who’s in her late-teens, so what’s the threat here??

If they’re gonna keep bringing up the cheating, then maybe they shouldn’t have retconned Stella as a character and kept it to where she is only pissed about the affair. Maybe not have her be an evil b*tch since birth and hate Stolas for whatever reason?

Idk man!! Make it make sense!!!

We also finally get to see Barbie, Blitzo’s sister. I thought those two had a decent sibling relationship as most of us did, but it turns out... those two had a falling out as well. Barbie says, and I quote “Come on, Blitzo! Haven’t you f*cked up my life enough already??”

Jeezus!! Another one?? 

First, it was Fizz, then Verosika, and now his own sister!!? I mean, it’s expected, cuz Blitzo is an a** and he definitely deserves it, but is he seriously that much of a bad influence he screwed up his own sister’s life? Like, is she just over-exaggerating it?? What did he do that was so screwed up, she started to despise him? Hopefully, she won’t be like Verosika or even Stella; just straight-up petty and b*tchy for no reason. I know I’m wrong though.

Also, I see that she and Moxxie are fighting... wonder what that’s about. Probably something dumb.

And I also see that Blitzo and Fizz are having a talk. Not sure what it’s about. It was only a few seconds of Fizz talking. But from what I can assume, they might be discussing their relationship as friends (or ex-friends), maybe having a slight argument? Don’t know if those two are ever gonna reconcile in the end. All I know is that this kind of arc should’ve been explored way before we got into Stolas’s backstory with Blitzo (which we clearly don’t give the slightest sh*t about.) What happened with Fizz and Blitzo that caused the two to split up seems way more interesting than how Stolas and Blitzo met.

Here’s another thing that caught my eye (and y’all this one’s my favorite to laugh at). Stolas is shown being kidnapped by Striker, tied up n all, and even stabbed with a dagger!?

.......

I’m sorry, but are we just gonna forget that Stolas is a POWERFUL FREAKIN’ DEMON??? The same guy that can do this -

And this -

And even turn into THIS -

..... Like, are we sure he’s more powerful than Alastor??? What’s the point of him being a powerful demon prince if all he’s useful for is being a damsel in distress??? Less than 3 times Stolas is shown to be powerful when the plot says so, which is almost NEVER!!! It’s irritating!

Ugh! I just know I’m gonna go through hell watching this (no pun intended). And I’ve already seen the last few recent leaks to these episodes. This just adds on to the ridiculous bull.

[mable-stitchpunk]

Hi there! I've been a fan of your videos and am curious to either read or hear your thoughts about Ruin in the future. ^_^

While I liked the DLC for the majority, my biggest gripe is with the Mimic and how casual fans or gamers are basically required to do homework to get a lick of understanding as to what's going on, and as a writer myself that really doesn't sit right with me. Maybe from a marketing point of view it might make sense, but from a writing point of view it just doesn't work. The plot of a game shouldn’t rely on supplementary material, rather it should be able to stand on its own. Books can expand on ideas but not be required reading.

I honestly think Baby/Scrapbaby should have been the Mimic. Not only were the Funtime animatronic specifically designed to lure and kill children, one of them also had voice-mimicking as a feature. And Baby said herself she was good at pretending, and actively manipulated the player/Michael Afton. Plus after she had been ejected from Ennard she managed to reassemble herself. It wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to imagine she implemented all of the Funtime animatronic's features into her new/recycled body. And even though it might have been retconned, since it was before the release of Sister Location, there's also that secret cutscene of a character that warned the player Baby was a dangerous creation before being killed shortly after.

And last but not least, in Ruin Baby plushies appear in a janitor closet, all laughing in unison before disappearing as you turn around.

My point is, you already have this pre-established canon character with so much potential. A character that's honestly underutilized, but has so much going for them, and in my opinion is a way better fit qua plot-relevance to be the antagonist than a random character that only appears in the most recent book series. You have the ties to previous games, foreshadowing right before the reveal, a ruthless, manipulative character that will stop at nothing to escape confinement.

Sorry for rambling.

I definitely agree. Having to read a bunch of extra material- and PAY for it- to get the context of a character is a big no-no. Especially since the Fnaf books have such a questionable history of material. Even in those books, the Mimic itself has been framed as two completely different characters. Sometimes it functions in one established way, other times it works in a completely different way. Likely because there's numerous ghost writers.

Plus, like you said, there's already animatronics who did Mimic's role better. Fnaf's trying to write out its history, but all it's doing is shooting itself in the foot. It can tell us, "No, no. Ennard? Didn't exist. Michael? Didn't exist. It was all created by Fazbear Entertainment, so all of the former material is discredited."

Not only is that a really stupid precedent to set- and also extremely overconfident to basically shaft the series to bring in Steel Wool's 'definitive' idea of Fnaf- but it leads to the creation of things like the Mimic. A lazy Ennard. A worse Ennard.

And one you have to pay to read the backstory of. Of course, you can read the Fourth Closet and get the same backstory too. -_-

[purpleender29]

First post i’ve made on this platform and im kinda nervous, but i’ve had this dr who theory that I just have had the itch to post, apologies if it sucks, im horrible at phrasing things.

Spoilers for the episodes up to boom

So this mainly pertains to what I think is the overarching plot of this season and It mainly involves ruby. So I believe that either the one who waits or a “child” of the toymaker is the parent of ruby and that they are related to visual media such as movies, tv shows, etc since the other reality warping entities shown so far are facets of entertainment personified. The show has become a lot more “meta” and really shoving into the idea that its a tv show, show through the whole narrative “there must be a villain” in space babies, the sonic being a remote and literally having a mute button, the comment from the doctor on hearing non diegetic music, the random musical numbers, as well as implementation of tropes such as the time travellers butterfly.

I think this may be because of the “Showrunner’s” influence on the narrative to suit their own sort of entertainment, which can also shown through ruby since she may be what harbinger is to maestro. She is commented to be very intertwined with everything as stated by the doctor and is sort of the “perfect companion” showing similarities to others as well as the opening scene in space babies being a parallel to rose in “The end of the world” This may also explain some moments such as the snow and the doctors memory changes in the first episode. The snow is most likely not snow, but static, as it usually show up when ruby is in danger(trapped by maestro or near death in boom) when the connection of ruby from the mortal plane is “disconnecting”, but also at times when discussing her past such as on the baby ship at the “retconning” of the doctors memories to warn him not to pry, or in the tardis after scanning ruby for alien/off properties, as if the “showrunner” themselves is trying to stop them from doing more by redirecting the direction of the show as in both examples, the plot either continues or the episode ends.

Thats about it for now, I might do a follow up(most likely will) after 73 yards releases. Thanks for reading my somewhat rubbish theory, hope u enjoyed!!

[inflame]

hi! first off i love your blog. as a certified lp expert, i was hoping you could help me understand a few things. i'm reading the secret diary of laura palmer (beautifully written but so so heartbreaking) and i guess i'm having trouble understanding the division between bob and leland. was leland always bob from the start of the abuse? how much was leland vs bob? how did laura know bob's name, as written in her diary? when does the veil between them lift? i haven't watched the show in a while so i don't remember how clear it makes these things. thank you so much! i'm really enjoying (or... something like that) this read and i might be back to hear your thoughts when i'm done!

firstly, thank you for saying nice things about my blog! secondly, i am happy to answer your questions, but with a major disclaimer: that i can only tell you how i read things, and that i basically… do not pay attention to anything that ma/rk fr/ost was in charge of [i.e. most of s2]. i do not think he understood the show’s ethos and i think there’s an excellent reason that the return literally introduced time travel to retcon it entirely. to put that as kindly as i can.

(also, like, this is an rp blog, and i’ve been writing laura for years, so inevitably there are going to be ideas that i’ve gotten in my head that i fully think are ‘canon’ that i’ve just forgotten i made up. obviously, i’ll try to keep that to a minimum, but it could happen. i’ve read the book several times, i’ve seen the movie… well, i seem to see it at least a few times a month, but i’m not much of a “here’s the receipts” kind of guy. alas.)

so, anyway: bob. like all the lodge spirits / entities / whatever you want to call them, he does exist. and — like all the lodge spirits, again, if i were guessing — he’s been a presence in laura’s life since she was a little kid (pre-diary). she writes about that a bit at some point. he’s this guy she knows, probably from around the great northern, who befriends her and plays games with her and grooms her, basically. she refers to him as a friend of her father’s. so that’s how she knows his name and his face. if that description reminds you of another guy, well! i think it should! but we’ll get to that eventually.

now, the other aspect of the spirits is that yes, they can inhabit people — and yes, we know that leland has been bob’s host for most of his life. i DON’T know the specifics of how that works, physically: obviously, we’ve seen bob where we know leland isn’t, but it’s usually in the black lodge / the Other Place in general. but we also know that laura has access to those places well before she is confined to them, so. you can run yourself ragged in circles on that one. but the way i see it, it kind of just doesn’t matter. one of the main threads of the show is that humans create their own problems (like, the reason the gang ended up on earth to begin with was because they were part of the nuclear fallout from the trinity test / the manhattan project: in this specific sense, albert is spot-on when he says “maybe that’s all bob is: the evil that men do”). the spirits clearly do have influence of a sort, but when it comes to actually manipulating human behavior, their track record is shit (consider that the giant, presumably the de facto leader,  spends almost literally ALL his screen time desperately trying to get coop to make better decisions — at some points honest-to-god waving his hands in the air and yelling “no!” — to absolutely no avail). 

another thing about the lodge crew is that they all seem more or less morally neutral: they are not ‘good’ or ‘evil’. they have their own agendas and personalities — they maintain, as a group, a sort of cosmic balance —  but mostly, they’re just trying to vibe. and bob is kind of like a chaos spirit. he wants everybody to give into their worst impulses just so he can see what happens (and, yes, literally feed on those emotional repercussions). he sucks. but if his host had been a completely different person, his influence would have also looked much different (this is something else that tp:tr expands on: still a violent piece of shit, but a far cry from devoting his life to tormenting little girls). so to answer, i suppose, the ultimate™ question here: it’s always leland. it is never not leland. if leland were the kind of man who would actually be repulsed by these actions, he wouldn’t be doing them. bob might be enabling him, but he is not controlling him. the film confirms this quite eloquently, i think. lynch is careful to only ever show bob when it’s decidedly Laura’s Point of View / Laura’s Perception, because what he is, essentially, is her boogeyman. he was this weird and unpleasant presence in her life at a formative time, and he then became — when she could not process what was truly happening to her and dissociated from it — THE weird and unpleasant presence in her life. and if you ask me, there are several points throughout the diary where she does seem to realize the truth about her father, only to re-repress it (this also happens in the film itself: the first time we see her confronted with his identity, she freaks out, but then she pushes it down, not having a safe way to do anything else). the ‘veil’ between bob and leland is really just laura’s ability to comprehend that there IS no true veil between bob and leland. 

i also suspect that laura’s dissociation / psychosis likely does not only ‘absolve’ her dad, but also ben, whose intentions she seems completely in the dark about until very late in the book, which… does not make much sense, if you’re reading her mental state any other way, since even audrey — hindsight being what it is — tells cooper that he’d probably been abusing laura for a long time. so for me (i.e. what i’m doing on this, my rp blog, at least), ben and leland fall together under a sort of Bob Umbrella. they’re always enabling each other and competing with each other and they’re both just fucking horrible people. they’re supposed to be her family. they’re supposed to look out for her. and she just cannot make it make sense that they wouldn’t — her whole world has been constructed around it! so generally, when laura is looking at them and seeing this kind of fairytale villain from her childhood, it isn’t that they aren’t present: it’s that she isn’t.

the same goes for when she’s writing ‘as’ bob in her diary: like, yes, it’s very real to HER, but he is not literally, factually, an omnipotent being who can read and control her mind. i think that people tend to fall into a trap here where they feel like believing laura means taking for granted that she’s a reliable narrator, and she just isn’t. there’s no scenario in which she would be. she’s telling you the truth as she understands it, but the truth is that there’s so much she doesn’t understand. that she can't. she’s just a kid. she thinks she has so much agency that she doesn’t actually have, and — since once, she actually WAS a very ‘normal’, well-adjusted child — she trusts people. she trusts the adults in her life to look out for her, even when they’re literally trafficking her (one of the most haunting bits in the book, imo, is when she’s basically like, “yeah, leo has his issues, but he likes me! i’m pretty sure he’d have my back if anything bad ever happened!”… and then he’s, you know, the one person who could have potentially saved her life that night, but instead he just tied her up and left her there).

so... yeah. i hope this helps! there's perpetually more to dig into with peaks, depending on what your interests and opinions are, but i tried to keep to what you were asking and, obviously, my focus here is laura and what makes the most sense for her narrative, specifically.