#But they're important to canon and play a key role so I have to keep things somewhat the same so it makes sense for them to do the things

[otiksimr]

Viola's backstory is such a mess that I want to get into but for the time being I wont. Because 1) it's some heavy stuff and 2) I don't think my portrayal of aforementioned heavy stuff is all that accurate or realistic.

Plus he's constantly being worked on and changed around as I figure out exactly what the hell I want this guy to be.

He's so much fun to write and plan for but that's an issue because then I write too much for him and give him too many concepts of which don't fit into the canon story, so then I create branching 'au's' for him and then I get distracted from canon and aaeuaeauea.

He's FUN and that's a PROBLEM.

At the very least the core and beginning of his backstory are pretty set in stone.

[qoldenskies]

prev ask abt donnie being all sparkly eyed abt twin sense and leo shutting his mouth and letting his (little) brother have this eeeeeeee /pos

also would love to hear you talk more abt raph+leo and donnie+mikey dynamics

i could talk for hoooours about raph and leo's dynamic specifically because they are SO interesting and im sure it shines through in the way that i write them at least a little, because i do like getting the chance to pair them together and make them riff off each other. what can i say, they're fun when they're bickering about nothing (or, they're actually bickering about something but leo gets offended and derails it and raph takes the bait) and they're fun when they get along and comfortably colead, or when they just have one whole braincell when they put their heads together

i also really enjoy the potential of a post-movie dynamic where when leo is more comfortably situated into a leadership role being a really important voice of reassurance for raph, more than he already is at least. leo could come in and help calm raph down and tell him it's not so bad/it's going to be okay, but i think raph KNOWING there's someone else who knows how to care of everything is going to seriously help his blood pressure lmfao. especially because leo responds to stress more competently and is a lot better at making structured plans on the fly.

honestly i would love to see more hurt/comfort or whump with these two where raph is the one going Through It especially because leo is actually pretty protective of him in canon, he always gets the MOST upset/offended when people fuck with raph in particular. leo knows very very well that raph is easily upset and he gets angry when people push him around and take advantage of that. unless he gets to do it but if he did raph totally had it coming (/lie)

and when i talk about how second oldest leo feels key to their dynamic i mostly mean when it comes to their conflict like ... raph holds leo to a higher standard than he does anyone else, at first at least. he's always telling him to take responsibility, trying to catch him out in a lie, and arguing with him about the way forward,, and like, leo having a more contrarian personality and being easily suspicious of people (especially because he's so perceptive) is a big reason for this, but i think raph and leo kind of being in their own camp as the oldest two would explain this trait and explain why raph puts so much focus on leo shaping up specifically. i also notice that raph is a lot more comfortable making fun of leo which plays into it LOL

^^^ and post-movie a lot of these problems are resolved-- raph learned pretty early on (in bug busters, probably) that taking things seriously and not listening to leo just for the sake of it was only going to lead them into danger, and in the movie leo learned that being uncooperative and petulant as a defense mechanism was only going to hurt his family and himself by extension-- but i also think there's a lot of angst potential in this dynamic on both sides tbh. it's pretty apparent they fought/fight so much because they fundamentally just misunderstand each other. leo is trying to 4D chess his way out of this unwanted responsibility but it doesnt work at all on raph who is so direct-- raph just keeps trying to lecture leo and make him understand because he's not picking up any of leo's cues at all. really all of their problems would be solved by direct communication but leo would rather die than do that (<- kind of literally? he comes close) and raph doesn't really strike me as someone who's very good at articulating himself and laying all his cards out on the table, he has a lot of emotions that are difficult to put into words. means they can scuffle lots and that's fun

[gntlets]

meta question: vi’s stance/thoughts on the fact that powder inadvertently murdered their entire found family in one night as time went on.

there's a few important points to consider around this. and a quick note: all links will be relevant and worth clicking.

first, family is sincerely everything to vi. the sum of her identity is wrapped up in being a big sister, in being an unfortunately parentified daughter, and no one canonically ever challenges her on this until it's far too late. you can see the genuine pain in her expression every single time she remembers home, or her family, and by family i mean any of them: her birth parents, vander, mylo, claggor, powder. all she grew up with and all she lost.

second, vi already lived through this once. she was old enough for the sight of her parents' bodies to leave lasting effects on her psychologically, and i do believe the experience not only played a huge role in driving her toward being the caretaker, the protector, but is also a key factor in why she developed so many issues with rage.

those same issues with rage that bring her to react the initial way she does: with violence. of course with violence. it's all she's known in zaun, all her childhood has ever been. dead parents, gang wars, fighting the local kids to show you won't be bullied, watching all the local adults fight each other in the streets, getting roughed up by passing enforcers who see zaunite children and think maybe they're up to something. vi blames and hits powder before she can think any better of it. because powder didn't listen, because powder set off a chain of events that just ruined both of their lives forever. for one minute, powder ruined everything, because vi had the hormones of a teenager, the out of control emotions that fresh (and old) trauma brings you, and nowhere else to put any of it.

she has to sit with it for a long time, because that's all she could really do in stillwater. and here's the thing: vi knows what she's always known, affords all the kids of zaun the small mercies she's never granted herself. powder was just a kid. when the heat burns out, and she's on the cold hard floor of a prison and doesn't have a single ally to her name, she knows that. powder didn't mean to do it. there's a thousand other people to blame. silco. vi herself.

but ... the heat isn't always turned down; sometimes it comes back, burning hot and furious all over again when she realizes she spent vander's next birthday in a cell underground and he spent it six feet deeper. sometimes powder's memory is the only thing keeping her going, driving her fists through silco's allies like a knife through butter, and other times vi is seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old and she's still staring at the same walls and the same guards' faces and wondering if she'll ever get out of here, if she'll ever see the sky again, if only her sister had just fucking stayed home.

it's something that comes and goes, that kind of grief, that kind of rage. vi in her right mind doesn't blame powder, never really did outside that first trauma-driven impulse. but in her weaker, baser moments, it's tough to direct that anger she never properly learned how to channel in the first place, all the grief she never started much less finished processing. it's why we see her turn on her sister again, in season two, after jinx terrified her during the tea party scene and made her mentally buck free of powder's memory being tarnished by a sister who's still a murderer even today.

so, in short: technically, vi never truly blamed her, but technically, vi is also a candle who never really burns out about it; she's an inconsistent flame, flickering and sputtering in the wind, ready to roar to life the second something triggering fans that fire. and she'll always still be burning to some degree until she can finally work through any of the loads and loads of mishandled damage and unprocessed grief inside of her. but none of us will hold our breath on that.

[beginningobserver]

I think i know what exact day from March 2003 was the worst and most traumatic day in Rui's life.

It's associated with Diablomon's Revenge of course. But did you know that Diablomon's Revenge has a timestamp for its events?

[Spoilers ahead]

Ok, so before we continue I'd like to say this is mostly a speculation because there's no timestamp in the scene from 02TB version -- the one in which Rui and Ukkomon are watching the news about said events.

Diablomon's Revenge (or Revenge of Diaboromon, or Diablomon Strikes Back -- whatever you use) is the second 02 movie in the series and it's a spiritual sequel to Our War Game (which is the 2nd Adv'99 movie and also the 2nd movie in the entire anime franchise as well) which takes place a year after 02 series. The 12 most known Chosen Children from both first two series gather in order to stop a planned revenge against them -- mostly aimed at Taichi, Yamato and Omegamon. The 02 group are ordered to catch the Kuramon swarm released in the human world via a suspicious email with a very personal photo of Taichi or Yamato.

This movie has been discussed among fans as to whether or not it should be considered canon. But, i'll just quote Shiha's post about canon and Advverse --  There’s no such thing as a hard boundary between “canon” and “not canon” official material.

Recently, and in 02TB story, this movie became the turning point in Rui's life -- again -- and it played an important role in it. The pre-release stream on youtube with the 02 kids cast + mons had a peculiar timeline which also listed this movie in it. At first you could deduce they were just listing series and movies that weren't in conflict with the timeline (I'm sadly to inform but Hurricane Touchdown and ▽ have a few key elements or events that goes against the anime timeline -- but they're not omitting them out of shame or rejecting them...!) and Diablomon's Revenge has so little inconsistency with the TV series: The only reason people would consider it not part of the timeline is the fact Imperialdramon is present in the movie. And in the end of 02 series we learned that Tailmon's Holy Ring was used to unlock jogress forms for the 02 group, and since Tailmon got her ring back... But this was never confirmed or debunked, they never said they couldn't use jogress ever again after 02 events! So, this movie might not be inconsistent with the timeline at all!

ANYWAY!!

One of the parallels with Our War Game is a gag scene of a woman at the market looking up the prices of the fish. And, since Diablomon messed it up the computers, the label printer made some changes in its pricing -- in OWG, this joke has a timestamp for March 4 2000, which is the movie's release date in Japan.

But in DSB version of this gag, the price label does not use the movie's release date (March 3 2001), it uses what was speculated by a friend to be 02's final episode airing date (March 25 2001) -- and also has the price labels have Taichi's and Yamato's names in it.

So, technically… OWG events are from March 4 2000, but DSB are from March 25 2003. Keep that in mind for now.

The span of events in DSB is from afternoon of March 25th and dawn of March 26th. The film ends with the sunrise on March 26:

So pretty similar to 02TB, which takes place from the afternoon of February 28th to the dawn of February 29th and ends with the sunrise on February 29th, right?

Well, knowing this... let's skip to 02TB footage related to DSB events!

Although there are no timestamps or calendars in this scene, we know that it could be sunset on March 26th.

Which means... the day everything went awfully bad to Rui (again) was on the evening of March 26 2003.

[journey-to-the-attic]

most of my exposure to om is via jtta because i am very slow at playing both the base game and nightbringer, but with the whole "Sin Stuff" for lack of a better word, how would ik deal with the other brothers besides mammon and asmo (considering you've already done them) (i swear i tried to type a question mark here but my computer hates me and won't let me so just imagine i did)

ok so!! i am now caught up past satan's portion of the Sin Stuff, and i know that beel comes next, but i don't actually know how his conflict gets resolved - i actually really liked the way they did satan, but i can always do a bit more riffing off of that; as for the beel, i'll just be making stuff up!

i've just done those two since they're the ones that have canon material to work off, to keep more to the 'my take on nightbringer' theme rather than just Making Stuff Up

that being said - if you don't mind me just pulling thoughts out of a hat, do ask about the remaining three!

satan:

okay i already said this but i really do like the direction they took his version of the Sin Stuff in - after resolving the feeling that he doesn't belong with his brothers, it's a natural next step for satan to be conflicted about being able to stay - about keeping up and standing with them an equal ground

so, similarly to how to goes in canon, i think satan would need all his brothers there to pull him out

with the main difference being: it's not a situation where lucifer specifically acts as the final catalyst (again), but rather one where each of the brothers equally gives him reason to come back

i do think it's true that he thinks he just needs to surpass lucifer, but it's also incredibly important that his brothers are there too, so i think it's a bit of a mistake to focus purely on his relationship with lucifer

while yes, lucifer specifically is an intrinsic part of how satan starts out defining himself, and yes, satan himself remains convinced they are inextricably linked in this way - part of satan's nightbringer arc is him coming into his own, separating himself from the circumstances of his creation, and just living

he walks with his family, but he carves his own path forwards, just as the others do for themselves

anyway character studying aside (talked about that for longer than i meant to whoops):

i think ik's role in all this would be to remind satan that he stands on his own terms and abilities, rather than continue to force himself to link it all back to lucifer

in fact it's probably important that someone outside of the brotherly hierarchy puts in their own two pennies, and ik is the outside opinion satan values most anyway

so the stuff in satan's inner world mostly goes the same in the beginning - it's like a weird d&d situation, the brothers find gifts that they've given to satan around the world, and then finally they get to the centre and to satan himself

i might be remembering incorrectly, but lucifer doesn't have a gift within the plane, because he snaps satan out of it by giving him the gift at the end (the key to the forbidden books in the library)

now here's where the changes start: in our version, satan already HAS the key - but it's been 'forgotten' in his inner world, because satan, in his sense of inferiority, is pushing out the fact that lucifer has ALREADY demonstrated that he trusts in his abilities; lucifer only reminds him of this

now are you ready for something Super sappy?

satan's kept a gift from each of his brothers that is important to him. however, there is nothing from ik.

satan has remained trapped in his mind because he feels 'incomplete' - weak, powerless, inferior, unable to keep up

now this changes when the group confronts him. because ik IS the last gift

(i told you it was gonna be sappy)

here's the thing: each of the other brothers' gifts appearing in satan's inner world is both representative of their own care for satan as well as the value he places in their opinions of him - (lucifer's in particular also represents the respect he holds for the demon he's become)

it's about, like.. directions. satan's brothers take care of him because he is new and young, and they are watching him discover who he is; ultimately, the way they perceive him has been very dynamic, even if his place in the family has always been cemented. satan takes care of ik, who's always just seen him as... him. and loves him for it anyway.

so, rather than lucifer making a big speech and saving the day -all six of the other brothers would appeal to him together. who cares if you're still learning? who cares if you're not the best immediately? you're still pretty damn incredible!

i think ik would forgo the words entirely and just run to him as soon as they get to him - she'd be able to entirely bypass the dice system satan's inner world uses, because as a 'gift' rather than a 'player' like the other brothers, she doesn't follow the same rules

which is how satan himself makes that realisation, after the others bring up the fact that all their other gifts are here

beel:

right so i'm not properly caught up with beel's arc, so all i know is that one day, his sin sort of deactivates, and that barbatos's hypothesis is that his angelic tendencies are masking it

now i'm pretty sure this is just a theory, even within the story itself, but even so: i think that's BULLSHIT

beel is just an inherently kind being. assigning these traits to angelhood, giving some outside heavenly influence the credit, is quite frankly an insult to a good character that is CONSTANTLY getting sidelined in terms of the development he deserves

that being said i think it makes sense that barbatos would come to that conclusion. i just don't think he's right

personally, i'd put this down not to angelhood counteracting his demonhood, but to beel rejecting himself

(idk where beel's little d would fit into this but i guess he'd just reject that too)

beel definitely has trouble parsing his own feelings, and even more trouble verbalising them - and, because he's such a simple-hearted demon, his brothers tend to forget that he could need more than just comfort

it's similar to how belphie being babied probably contributed to how badly he coped with losing lilith in the original timeline: beel is similarly coddled, and once again it's Bad for him

we tend to forget that beel was a warrior in the celestial realm, and in the war in particular, he probably killed more than any of them - but his brothers never acknowledge this because... that's their baby brother

but beel himself can't forget that - but he never gets to talk about it because his brothers just don't understand how he feels about it

(this actually relates to the reason beel forgets in jtta - he remembers how he'd killed out of grief during the war, both for his brothers' pain and his sister's death, and he's terrified he could lose control and turn against belphie if he remembers the grief of ik's death)

beel's rampage in nb s1 would contribute to his own shame in regards to this - and he never gets closure on it, because in that time, the other brothers are all focused on assuring him that lilith's death isn't his fault on his hands, and don't think at all about all the blood that he very definitely does have on his hands

so, beel's Sin Thing is that he just shuts it down. no more avatar of gluttony.

it's a weird dichotomy between his gentle personality and that warrior's bloodlust, and he refuses to let the latter take over, so he tries to shut down all idea of 'evil' entirely

thus beel's solution would involve teaching him that 1. his gluttony is not is bloodlust, 2. he is not permanently stained because of what he's done, and 3. that his family will always trust him to protect them (and will protect him) regardless

(thus i think beel would need all the brothers there too)

i guess beel's inner world could be like... a food warehouse? but one where it's all dark and everything is locked up, you can't get to any of the food (i.e. you can't get to his gluttony)

oh! here's a good symbolic little thing: the other brothers' initial solution is just "oh, we need to get these things open and make beel some of his favourite food! remind him that he loves eating!"

which misses the point entirely, just as they have (unintentionally) done constantly before this

here's we get a bit dark: when they do break open the boxes and stuff, it's just filled with things like bloodstained weapons, broken armour, etc.

and it'd be at this point that they FINALLY realise what's actually wrong

i think ik would've had a suspicion about it before now, but this would confirm it

ok now this is kind of a corny solution but i think what would happen next could involve like... washing the blood from all those artifacts in the warehouse, generally cleaning up the place

the objects are all still there. those things still happened. but it isn't down to beel to repent for them forever - he has to move on

in this case it does make sense for lucifer and/or belphie in particular to be the ones who make the Grand Gesture that snaps him out of it

as for ik's specific role...

after they've cleaned, the warehouse would start getting lighter again - less cold and dark and sinister and all that

and ik finds some crates with actual good ingredients and such in them

and she would make beel a nice bowl of soup

the message being "i can't erase what you've done before, but you don't deserve to have all that cluttering up your mind forever. so i'm going to help you dust everything off and stow it away, and then i'm going take care of you because you DESERVE it."

[cousticks]

Do you have any thoughts about the flags for your zombie au?

-🦑

Oh buddy you know i do. They're still going to die and Chuuya is still going to feel like its all his fault, don't worry about that. And their deaths will suck. Haven't worked out the details yet but I know Verlaine will be involved too.

But Chuuya will have more time with them than he did in canon. I don't bring Rimbaud and Verlaine into the mix until Chuuya's already an adult, so the Flags have been around for a bit. I know at least a few of them are great for morale, too. Nobody is better at finding a still-working car or fixing the broken ones than Albatross, that's for sure. Lippmann is the master of playing charades. Iceman has an uncanny ability to know when zombies are around before anyone else, and has one of the highest kill ratios for sure. Pianoman, ever an engineer in my heart, can mcguyver anything, I'm sure. Doc, of course, is kept pretty busy keeping everyone alive. They've have some pretty key roles around, and the Flags as a group are kind of the... you have a problem? Go to them, sorts of guys. They'll be dearly important to Chuuya as well, of course. But they're there! Up until they aren't. And everyone will be worse off for it.

[kokoika-koi]

ok you know what i mean though right? (and btw im a different person from the other anon!)

Apologies, thank you for the distinction. I'm glad to share some of my thoughts about them, and please do correct me if I get some of the facts wrong, I am writing quite a bit.

Why do I ship Oceleva?

I'll include some personal context on their ship; as much as I love Ocelot, I was more interested in exploring things with EVA's character, and just generally drawing her more.

Changing public perception of Ocelot is a no for me, I will never try to pass off Oceleva, that is not platonic or on serious terms, as canon. It's important people research his character, and archive accounts and discussions over the development of his character are very important, and why they made him relate to Big Boss in that way.

I'll pick out points you made in the original ask, and try to explain what's interesting about Ocelot and EVA's relationship, regardless of what I'm shipping.

1 —

The first point was based on their on-screen interactions being negative.

The two times they appear are in MGS3 (1964) and MGS4 (2014), before the Patriots were established, and the one where all the founding Patriots had to die.

This is after the stories of MG1, MG2, MGS1 and MGS2 were established, so EVA would have been created, then killed with very little knowledge and emotional weight to her character.

In MGS3, Ocelot knew very early on EVA and Tatyana were the same people, and that she was a Philosophers' spy. He's extremely smug about the whole situation, dropping very obvious hints that she was lying about her role, but he couldn't kill her because he knew she was the key to get Snake out of the mission.

In MGS4, Ocelot is supposedly under the Liquid persona, so he would likely been out of character anyway. In a different scene, EVA recounts the history of the Philosophers from her perspective, and mentions her connection to Ocelot and Big Boss, with an apparent emotional connection with Ocelot.

In the novelization of MGS4, it's also implies she knew about their later joint plans to erase the existence of the Patriots.

EVA being part of the Patriots, then splitting to help Big Boss with the aid of Ocelot is an extremely important role, though most of it is only mentioned through exposition and small details.

2 —

The second point is the perception of them is different from them in the games.

In MGS3, they're not supposed to be how their perceived, they're both fronts. They're both liars for different reasons, but they're spies like how they were trained to be.

For EVA, she's just doing her job in reconnaissance, and obtaining a sum of money for her higher ups.

For Ocelot, he's working to eliminate branches of a hyper capitalist organization that steals children to put into petty proxy wars and missions for their own personal gain.

When Ocelot has any encounter with EVA, it's either to keep an eye on Snake, or to keep an eye on EVA so she wouldn't do anything out of line. Again, reiterating a previous point, he was very smug about knowing her gimmick.

3 —

I need to play the games again.

Yes, I do actually, and I will do it again. I've played most of the mainline games several times, it's my main fixation.

4 —

Last point is that EVA/Zero has more weight than EVA/Ocelot.

EVA said she disliked most of Zero's ideas of the revival of the Philosophers in her MGS4 monologue, and had more faith with Big Boss even if she knew he was wrong as well.

Maybe it's her being rescued, maybe it's their discussion after the Ground Zeroes events, maybe it's the Les Enfants Terribles project idk.

Even if I weren't shipping them, Ocelot and EVA would still have more connections and similarities as allies.

They're both heavily influenced and inspired by the Boss, as children raised by the Philosophers, and Big Boss as her successor.

They both witnessed the events at Tselinoyarsk.

They both worked to stop Zero's plans and ideas from proliferating; one example, by both planning the assassination of Paramedic.

They worked together for over four decades, under a cover people did not know about, against a scheme people did not know about.

—

As characters that are insanely unrealistic and live in a different world compared to us, it's fine to explore the weirder and less functional aspects of them. Their perception of relationships deviates from the norm, their morals are way different, the way they would comprehend of sex or love or just relating through experience is different. Which is what also makes things like Big Boss' and Ocelot's relationship interesting to explore as well.

My ideas of them are fluid, everything about either of the two characters I want to know more about, through talking with other people who also have cool headcanons.

I have one where Ocelot's orientation is closer to ace or demi, I have one where he's trans, I have one where EVA is ace, I have one where they both go on missions. I have one where Ocelot and Big Boss met as ghosts at the end of MGS4, like at the end of MGS3 with the Boss and the Sorrow.

I don't think I'll delve into less grounded headcanons but there are a lot of other reasons why I took up the whole Oceleva shipping thing.

[teawinx]

We've already learned a lot about the heroes of your reboot, which is amazing! You have however hardly shown anything about our favorite butterfly man and his more competent assistant.

So my question of the day is:

What role does hawkmoth and mayura play in your rewrite? Since tge first two seasons will focus more on lila and the band as antagonist, will the akumas play a lesser role? Will Natalie even step into action or will we immediately get shadowmoth? An do we get to see monarch later in the plot?

I know that these characters will probably get actually more important when the plot is already advanced more, so i understand if you are not really sure about the role they're going to play. I'm still hyped to see what you have in store for our main baddies!

I've been struggling with butterfly daddy's design. I want him to look intimidating but not outright scary, so that's why he hasn't been mentioned much I'm not well versed in designing villains, so I'm doing a lot of research lol

For their roles, there's very little change when it comes to Hawkmoth. He's going to be the "faceless evil" present for four seasons. So he'll still supply the canon-typical akuma of the day. But he's just not going to be the only baddie for the whole show, that can get really stale really fast.

Nathalie, pretty much like in canon, steps in as the Season 3 antagonist. She's still Gabe's assistant, knows he's Hawkmoth etc but there's some key differences. She's a lot younger than her canon version, and she's not in love with Gabe. She despises him, but works for him because he's got a looooot of blackmail he's using to keep her quiet and loyal. The Peacock Miraculous isn't damaged or broken, it's completely fine and Nat isn't dying from using it. But she uses Sentimonsters differently from canon.

Instead of random assistants for akumas, she makes personalized Sentimonsters for each hero based on their fears and insecurities. The amocs are hidden inside the weapons, so the monsters are only active when the hero is transformed. Like their shadows, chasing them until they are defeated by the power of character development!!! (And Natalie's heart clearly isn't in it. She'll make the sentimonsters, sure, but she won't reveal anyone's identities to him)

Basically S3 is about really delving into the protagonists' home lives, their flaws, their fears and insecurities etc Queen Bee: Sentimonster born from her mother's abandonment and father's neglect Carapace: Sentimonster born from his hatred of adults and authority figures Rena Rouge: Sentimonster born from her trauma from past bullies Chat Noir: Sentibug (pretty much like in canon, but this one is actually evil) Ladybug: Chat Blanc Sentimonster

As for Monarch? No, we won't be seeing him. Gabriel does use more than just the Butterfly (namely the Peacock, the Pig and the Turtle), but I'm basically ignoring canon post S3's finale.

Voilaaaa

[marblemoovt]

Ok I'm attempting to make an AU for Berserk based on the idea of Guts and Casca switching roles in the Eclipse (no need to say what we all know there) and instead of the quest being for revenge as Guts does cannonly at first, Casca makes the quest to look for a cure for Guts' mental state, which is that of a child.

Any suggestions really for any key events and such?

Oooh that sounds like a cool premise. I'm not super familiar with what happens after the eclipse as I only watched the anime and have not read the manga. I did look up some stuff on the wiki so I know small bits and pieces of what happens after, but not enough to confidently write anything remotely canon about it.

But here are some of my thoughts about such an AU.

This is all under the assumption that Guts is assaulted instead of Casca. I'm not sure if that's what you meant but that's what I understood from it. Does this have any effect on the child she's carrying? Guts being assaulted implies that the child remains untainted.

Casca still definitely retains some sort of trauma from that. She was betrayed by the man she used to idolize and love, so there's no way she came out of that completely unscathed. She also essentially was starting to move on from him, and her decision to be with Guts is partially the reason Griffith does what he does at the eclipse. So I feel like she might harbour a guilty conscience as a result. Definitely lots of survivor's guilt because many sacrificed themselves to keep her alive and she wasn't able to protect the one person that mattered the most. I think it would be interesting to show how Casca struggles with the after-effects and what she does to deal with them. Ideally, she'll come to terms with it at the end and find peace.

It's really interesting to think about Guts being the one to regress to a child-like mental state. He's a big guy, so how does Casca get him to move around? When they're in a dangerous situation, she can't exactly pick him up and run away. And while I think she's very capable with a sword, I don't believe she would be able to cut down monsters like Guts could. With both of them branded, she has to keep him safe. In canon, I'm not sure how Guts meets his companions after the eclipse, but maybe that can be the answer to how Casca is able to keep him safe in this AU.

Which reminds me. I think Guts leaves Casca alone with someone he trusts for like a year or two while he goes on his revenge campaign??? I don't remember but something like that happens I think. So one important decision would be this: Does Casca leave Guts with someone or does she take him with her? Because as per the previous paragraph, I don't think it's possible for her to protect them by herself, especially since she's carrying a child. The choice that makes the most sense to me is that she takes him with her, but is accompanied by a few other people. Logically as the months pass, Casca will become more and more pregnant. This is assuming she doesn't give birth prematurely. And I've never been pregnant, but I don't think any pregnant ladies could swing a sword or run around enough to avoid enemies.

Another important fact to consider is what triggers Guts? For Casca, it resurfaces when Guts assaults her and begins to touch her sexually. But what about in this AU? Seeing Casca? Their child? However, given the nature of Guts' childhood, it's possible that this only enhances the trauma from the eclipse, i.e. being touched sexually without consent. You could play with the idea that not only was the eclipse traumatizing, but the fact that he's regressed to a child-like mental state also leaves him vulnerable to the terrible things that happened to him when he was a kid.

I'm not sure if you plan to do anything with Griffith, like if he gets reborn and whatnot. Because a lot of that will change depending on whether the child is tainted or not. Yes, Griffith would most likely be reborn anyway, but without the influence of the child, his behaviour would deviate from the manga.

Honestly, there are just so many events to think about if you intend to go over everything. But if you were planning to only focus on Casca finding a cure and having them live happily ever after, then here are some key event suggestions.

There needs to be some sort of conflict. Something has to get in the way between Casca and the cure. There can be multiple, but there has to be a main one and it should be the most difficult.

How does she overcome this conflict? And how does this change herself and everything around her? There should be some sort of character development that occurs as a result of overcoming this giant hurdle in her life.

At any point do either of their traumas resurface? Why and what for? What purpose does it serve to have them relive these experiences?

How do Guts and Casca meet their travelling companions? I think this one is pretty important because I don't believe Casca will be able to achieve her quest alone. She definitely needs help, maybe she also needs to learn how to ask for/accept it?

I think a really sweet moment would be for Guts to validate everything Casca has done up to that point when his mental state heals. How she did a good job. How she did her best. How she's a good mom, etc.

But that also brings up the question of recovery time. How long does it take Guts to recover once his memories are back? Will he be able to look at Casca without losing himself to flashbacks of the eclipse? Or will this take time?

What about Casca? Will she be afraid of getting too close to him in fear or bringing up bad memories? Will she worry about what he'll think of their child? How they can be parents. Basically the issue of what now? Do you want to tie things off or do you want to bring up a new problem they didn't realize until now?

Ideally, Griffith gets his ass kicked at some point, but you could just ignore him.

[irkenheretic]

ok fella, go off on your au and talk about red’s video game and why it’s important to his character arc but also try to stay out of spoiler land. Also as a bonus + describe red’s role in that au with a vine

ok so a schimillion years ago a videogame called anarchisma was released and completely redefined an entire genre and nothing was ever the same again

ok let me explain a little more

a genre of irken videogame is the "rebel sim." basically a game that has a very anti-empire slant to it, ranging from surface-level critiques to extremely controversial ideas in it. it doesnt have to be a simulation game (the genre of "rebel sim" predates the lifesim, an extremely immersive VR game with time-dilation properties so it feels like youre experiencing years of gameplay in real-time, but in reality its been an hour) but thats just what theyre called

to this day, many popular rebelsims (especially those released by established companies and not indie devs) play their stories extremely safe, diluting the genre from a true expression of anarchism to a sort-of vent about the little frustrations of irken life, without an actual rallying cry or call to action or really anything daring about them. back when anarchisma came out, this was mainly seen via the stories being very surface-level and safe, picking a couple scattered issues and not really exploring them other than going "hey.... did you know.... that x thing.... is bad?" (i.e. a short scientist being brushed aside despite their skillset and the fact that they meet the height requirements for their job, as opposed to stating that height requirements for prestigious jobs shouldnt exist at all.)

enter anarchisma. at first you play as a lil' dude named myx, a short engineer. he has a friend named thirteen-13 that follows him around, and myx as a protagonist goes thru the game in a very "safe" way, following the conventions of your period-typical rebelsim that acts smarter than it really is... except for one thing. he keeps referring to thirteen-13 as the "dhar bitae," an irken term meaning "all-seeing..." and the period-typical slang for the control brains

once myx's route is over and done with, you're able to play as thirteen-13. and thats where the real game starts.

thirteen-13, in the game world, is the equivalent to the control brains- he's a computer that ruled over the fictional world but was kept under strict lock and key by his technicians. every time he escaped or was deemed "too defective," a new "instance" of him was reloaded, hence the number at the end of his name. thirteen is his name, and 13 is the instance number. and oh yeah! due to a loophole where he's a computer and not an irken per se, he's actually the first canonically defective character in all irken media!

needless to say the game was pretty controversial when it came out but it also redefined the entire genre. thirteen-13's plot gave rise to the "rebel ruler" trope, a trope that is very common in rebelsims to this day but watered down beyond belief- in anarchisma it works because theres a REASON thirteeen-13 couldnt just fix everything with his vast power: the societal ills the game addresses were around long before any iteration of thirteen, and they're going to be around long after he's gone. it's a bleak game with themes of powerlessness, futility, and imprisonment in an abstract way- when your enemy is a system of ideals and not one lone person, how do you fight?

anarchisma was the first game red played as a smeet. deemed defective and cast away from everything he'd ever known, a rejected smeet only kept alive because his outpost couldn't afford to kill him, this game was red's lifeline. like i said, thirteen-13 was a revolutionary character in that he was defective and proud of it- and that was what kept red alive during all the horrible things that happened to him in his smeethood.

due to the nature of irken videogames, especially irken indie videogames, there are a lot of conspiracies surrounding it. irken videogames tend to be heavily influenced by their developer's real-life experiences, and while this is not always the case, there were some... speculations on the plot of the game and its enigmatic developer. nobody knows anything about this guy so its impossible to confirm or deny if this was pulled from real-life or if he just made all of it up, so a lot of people got obsessive with the game's messaging, and wether or not the developer was trying to tell the populace something with it.

red was one of those people.

the idea that the control brains themselves wouldn't, couldn't, didn't hate him for existing... he was young, and didn't know anything about the world. of course it appealed to him!

as he grows up, his relationship to the game itself and the theories surrounding it becomes distant. he tucks his old comms unit he got from his outpost away- the only thing old enough to play this game; it's too old to run on modern systems. he stops reading theories. he has a nightly audience with the control brains, and he never even so much as looks for evidence about the theory. is he just trying to protect himself? he insists he's not defective; does he know, deep down? does he know that the "treatments" never worked, and he's always going to be defective? is it too risky for him to attempt to find the answer? is he scared of the answer?

and if he is, which is he scared of more?

being wrong...

or being right?

[viostormcaller]

So this wasn't originally gonna be that theory post I was gonna make, but fuck it, there's a LOT of evidence here and I need to unload it all. I'm scrapping my old theory in favor of this one. Everything I have to say, I'm saying right here and now. [WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD]

There is something EXTREMELY FUCKING IMPORTANT that I've noticed that's been happening since the first episode of Stories Untold...

Almost (key word being almost because there are some exceptions) every glitch has some sort of VHS filter/old school TV/radio audio or visual effect. They're not the same glitches from before/during KJSE. No, these ones are WILDLY different. But why? In a time period where technology is very modernized, why are the glitches mimicking those of older tech?

Remember in Stories Untold, after the first episode, where the door opens behind him and then after the thunder and lightning we see Jack trapped behind the computer? What if -- and hear me out bc this is a fucking insane theory -- but what if Anti found a way to teleport Jack's consciousness -- not his body, just his mind -- to an era where low-fi tech was used, like the 80s (the opening door symbolic for Anti breaking into Jack's compromised, comatose mind and attacking him in his own "home" so to speak)? So that way the other Egos, living in a modernized era and mostly confined to the limits of reality and physics (uh, aside from Marvin and JJ), can't reach him. He's stuck Jack in an old computer, his consciousness trapped. And that's why a lot of the glitches we see match those of the games with VHS filters on them, because the glitches we see are not coming from a new computer, but an old one.

And so, maybe... Schneep is trying his best to figure out time travel, how to go back to the past, and pick whatever date Jack has been specifically warped to and retrieve him and bring him back?

But... he can't just do it once he figures out the equation. He has to test it first. As a doctor, he should most definitely know you can't just perform a procedure without testing it first. Which is probably why he had a random, seemingly meaningless date --March 25th, 2017, on his screen. Because he must think that maybe, if he goes back just far enough, on a day where nothing happened and Anti was dormant, he can carefully give himself a proper buffer to slowly alter things between then and KJSE. And, if not, he can do the equation again (because technology hasn't changed much since 2017 so this would still be possible to do using the same exact tech), and port back even further, to the date that Jack is stuck in.

And I think someone has already TRIED to get Jack back. You know who it is?

Jameson Jackson. My proof? This line:

Jameson would not say this if he was actually from the 20s like we all think he is. One thing most of us seem to agree on is that JJ has the ability to time travel. I think he tried to go back, miscalculated, and sent himself back way too early in time. This is where Schneep would come in: Trying to test something involving physics without an equation or a proper hold on what it is you're actually trying to do is in general an all-around bad idea. Schneep was in the process of trying to figure out the equation. He doesn't know how to do it just yet, though, coming up with errors, and to make matters worse, he was teleported in the middle of working to who-knows-where. If Jameson and Schneep were to work together, with JJ's magic and Schneep's calculations to guide him, one or both of them can go back to the proper time and retrieve Jack.

But problem! Anti is going to make this hard for them. You think he would take this lying down? Fuck no! He sees what Jameson was trying to accomplish and sees where he failed. Anti got ahold of JJ, puppeting him and trapping him in the 20s. He's stuck there now, as if to rub salt in the wound.

Now, you may be asking: "But Vio, we saw JJ in Try To Fall Asleep, helping Marvin wake Jack up!" To that I say you're right, we DID see JJ, but we didn't see a CURRENT version of JJ. You know what we saw? A screenshot of the only proof we have that JJ exists. You know who we DID see? Marvin. Current, 2018 Marvin. Marvin was trying to let Jack know, through the static, that he needs to find a way out of the era he's stuck in, that he needs to flee, because what happened to JJ, as he shows, has happened to him. And so every glitch with that VHS filter on it is Anti teasing us, letting us know exactly what happened to Jack, and that there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. And that morse code, saying "WHERE AM I"? Jack obviously doesn't know where he is -- he's in an unfamiliar era. His body is still stuck in the present, which is why he CAN hear Chase (even though Chase doesn't know it) and why he can still recieve Marvin's message, but his consciousness is no longer in our time. And this is why time is broken. His body is in one era, his mind in another. That gap, that rift, is more than enough to be catastrophic if something isn't done about it. Not only this, but the only way to effectively keep Jack's consciousness stuck is if he's reliving the same day over and over, his brain stuck on a specific date so he can't move forwards, and all the while dealing with constant, confusing, endless nightmares that keep him disoriented long enough so he can't find a successful way out. And this is why we hear him yelling "Let me out!" In First Winter. He's stuck and is, once again, just like in Say Goodbye and Always Watching, calling out to us for help.

Now, you may be wondering how this all connects to the present and what Marvin has to do with all this, since the teleportation seems to be his doing. What happened to Marvin in between then and now? Why is he suddenly teleporting everyone? What's his goal? Well, he needs them all in one place. They need to stage a series of rescue missions. Find a way to grab JJ back from the 20s, then with the help of JJ's time travel, Schneep's calculations, Marvin's magic and Jackie's abilities -- whatever those may be -- as a defensive measure, they can successfully retrieve Jack from the period in time he's stuck in. And in the process, hopefully figure out exactly what Anti is, how he was created (because even though his creation is our responsibility, there has to be more to it than just that) and how to beat him.

But isn't Chase the protagonist? Where does HE fit into all this? Well, it's simple: Chase is going to be the one who brings Jack back to the present. He has no abilities, meaning all magic placed onto him is an outside force. Nothing within him can interfere with it. A normal, ability-less person like Chase is the PERFECT candidate for time travel. But FIRST, they need to find out what's connecting Anti to Chase and how to sever that connection so that Anti can't interrupt the procedure and interfere, which is why Marvin's birth date was on the eviction notice. He's responsible for the eviction, going by this logic (as he must know what happened to him after Dark Silence, hence the case number): Keep Chase away from the house Anti possessed and get him out of there by any means possible; get him away from his car, where Anti has also connected himself since Chase has been living there (and since cars are pretty high-tech now); and port Chase to a safe location without his phone so that Anti can't connect himself to that, either, and without his whiskey so Chase can keep himself safe and not further impair his ability to make rational decisions.

The Egos, they're not alone in this, either. No, they also have OUR help. We are going to help them. We have influence on how this story goes. We can alter things to turn out for the better. We affect canon, more than canon. After all, without us, Marvin wouldn't exist, and he's playing a crucial role right now -- without Marvin, we may not have a chance at this.

We have one mission, and our mission is this:

Bring him. Bring Jack back home.