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tanoraqui · 1 year ago

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In Which Space Orcs are Men

[AO3] A "what if humans are space orcs" take on Dagor Dagorath. (Aka the prophecied apocalypse of Middle Earth. Scifi story accessible to non-LotR nerds!)

Elves weren't really supposed to leave Earth. That's what they told us—the Elves, that is, told people thousands of years ago, when Elves could still be found here and there. When I was born, elves were nearly as much a fairy tale as they’d been on Ancient Earth.

Elves weren't supposed to leave Earth, the Elves said in the fairy tales, and in a few old scraps of records scattered around known space. They literally weren't made for it. They could only do it if they brought Earth with them—Arda they called it, leaves or dirt, water or a rare bubble of air, perfectly preserved in a white crystal. There are tons of tales about Elves losing their lifeline jewels—their hearts, their silimirs—and roping people into epic quests to get them back before they—the Elf—faded to nothingness.

Even the jewels weren't enough, though. That's why there are also stories about Elves who fell in love with a person or a place and stayed there until they faded, or Elves who charmed someone into following them back to Fairyland on Earth...because whatever they said, Elves didn't really live on Earth. Humans have maintained their home planet as a monitored nature reserve since like the 40th century, open only to vetted research teams and serious Human religious pilgrimages. The most confirmed accounts of Elves that exist are of their ships appearing out of nowhere, with no trace of any tech that would enable it, at random, always-changing points within 100 miles or so of Earth.

Nobody ever came back from trying to follow Elves home. Mostly Elves tried to dissuade people from trying. But there are always crazy and curious people—and Elves usually attracted those, because any Elf who left the home they were "made" for was usually crazy and curious themselves.

Those were the stories I grew up with. There was a cave near the orphans' creche which was supposed to be haunted by a faded Elf. I didn't really believe it—like I said, the last confirmed Elf was last seen like 5,000 years ago, and not even on my planet. People have met two dozen new sentient races since then. We've discovered that reincarnation is probably real (just functionally untrackable), prompting the Pan-Religious Reform Wars. The last person to see a live Elf was still traveling via natural wormholes—they literally didn't know that you could loop pi.

When the Human natal sun started to turn really red, it wasn’t that big a deal at first. It’s a very important, very sad event for any species, but it happens to everyone eventually. It happened to the Hectort just after we invented interstellar flight. There were some unusual gravatic waves around Earth’s Sol, but nothing worth noting to anyone who didn’t already care for personal reasons.

Then the Elves sent us a message.

The local Parks Service picked it up, of course. I bet the Humans meant to hush it up at first—though the Centaurian government still won’t admit anything—but someone leaked it immediately on the intergalactic net. It should’ve only been famous as a joke of a hoax, but…

It was basically just a metal box with rudimentary fire-thrusters soldered on the sides. It contained two things. The first was a recording/replaying device so antiquated that the only way they got it working is that it was already playing on loop, and didn’t stop until someone disconnected it from its power source.

The message was in Ancient Bouban, which some folklorist soon announced is the latest language an Elf could know, since the last known Elf went back to “Arda.” The voice somehow sounded melodic to every species with a concept of music, from the screeching Vesarians to the deep-sea sub-sonic Thinkers, even when translated through cheap, staticky speakers. And to most species, the speaker was audibly distraught.

They said,

This is the final message from the Firstborn of Eru to the Secondborn, and everyone else. The Battle of Battles has come, and we…are losing. If there are any who remember the ancient love and loyalty which bound our peoples, if there are any heirs remaining of Thargalax the Magnificent, of Nine-Fingered Frodo, of the noble Houses of Haleth, Hador and Beor—

The speaker drew a sharp breath, there.

—by great oaths and greater friendship I bid you now to raise your swords and ride to our aid. Ride as swiftly as you can!

We will hold for another year. We will, they said determinedly. After that, it is unlikely that…

Another, shakier breath. A smile forced into a voice which would rather weep.

Fëanáro and Nienna believe there is a way to destroy the Straight Road. If we must, if it comes to it, we will do so, and trap the First Enemy here in this dying world with us. Though I don’t know about—

Hair-aristocrat! a more distant, slightly less perfectly melodious voice called, in a language so dead that they needed computers to decode it. The walls are falling, we need to go!

If you never hear from us again, and no sudden discord arises among you, you will know we succeeded, the first speaker said quickly. If otherwise…I am sorry. Either way, I bid you all only, remember us! Oh beautiful flames, remember us, as we have ever remembered y—

There was a sudden screech of tearing metal, a defiant, musical battle-cry, and a jarring silence. Then the message restarted.

And that wasn’t even the strangest thing in the box. The strangest thing was the recorder’s power source, which was powering the whole tiny rocket mechanism as well. It was an Elf-jewel right out of a fairy tale, a fist-sized, translucent not-quite-diamond—but instead of rock or water or a much-loved scrap of plant, the only thing it held was light.

...Kind of. It isn’t normal light. It arguably isn’t light at all, as we know it—scientists now think it’s technically some sort of plasmoid aether, except it only acts like a plasmoid aether about half the time.

It has no detectable source within the jewel. It fully illuminates whatever space it’s in, no matter how big. Its visible radiation is a frequency, the scientists say, that matches a hyper-accelerated version of what the universe must’ve sounded like in the split second after the Big Bang.

It makes people remember things, when they see it in person or sometimes even across a holo. Some remember a similar light in a strange traveler’s eyes. Others, dreamily enchanted valleys where spring never faded, or tall castles, bright swords, and stern and glorious lords and ladies. And some of us got hit with a whole lifetime of memories in one go: an identical gem on the brow of a sober forest king, friends who slipped through trees like shadows save for their merry laughter, an impossibly beautiful gold-haired maiden dancing in a glittering cavern...

(And all the pain and loss that came with them.)

And some people just remember the sight of a distant star—in another world, in another lifetime.

Reincarnation was provable but untraceable…until now.

The Thinker ambassador on Astrolax Station 5 was the first to kick up a fuss. Most Thinkers never leave their home planet, they're too huge and aquatic. But like I said, there's always crazy and curious people. The ambassador started bellowing the second che heard the message, without even seeing the light, because, "I know him! My Wisdom! We must send aid!" That made some news, and random other people shared their own, less dramatic revelations, and soon a compilation swept the net with timestamps showing that most of them were organically independent, not just jumping on the bandwagon….

Even that might've gotten written off intergalactically. The Thinkers are big in reincarnationist circles, on account of how they claim that deep in their planetary ocean they can hear echoes of their past lives. But being mostly planet-bound means they're not really influential on a big political level. Or it would've sparked another surge of the Reform Wars, and everybody would've remembered the rock, but not the recording. Or there would’ve been a fight over this potentially infinite energy source (though that is so last giga-annum)….

But first it was shown in person to the current Director of the Admiralty of the Astral Alliance, President of the X-ee Empire and Matron of the House of S,sh, Ch’ees/i’i S,sh. I was actually there—I was Captain of her ceremonial Alliance guards, in a last-ditch attempt to salvage my career after Zanzibus. Very ceremonial, considering the X-eee have laser-proof shells and pincers and I have, what, opposable thumbs? Vestigial tusks?

I wasn’t paying attention at first, too busy being suddenly assaulted by all my own memories. So I missed the President freezing mid-step and gasping (in X-eee), “Mother.” I also missed her rising alarm call of an attempt to speak Ancient Elvish without an Elvish tongue or lips.

I sure didn’t miss her snap back to X-eee for a sharp call to attention, and everything that followed: the call to arms! The rousing of the Alliance! A tour of the galaxy, to find anyone and everyone else in whom the Light could awaken ancient memories! And for the love of X'eeh, why had nobody figured out how to get back to Fairyland with this thing yet, and every warship in the quadrant?!

If I believed in the One Behind, or in any other creator god or gods—I'm not saying I do, but if I did, if there really is something out there all-powerful and all-kind—then it'd be because out of every soul in the entire universe, the probably one in the best position to act on the Elves' message turned out to have, from a past life, two parents and a much-loved twin still in Fairyland. Like, that's insane, right?

I stayed with the Director's ceremonial guards for the whole tour, actually more than ceremonial for once—it was the weirdest mission of my life, and I've been on a lot of weird missions. Or supposedly routine missions that got weird (and usually disastrous). My friends joke that I'm cursed. S,sh requisitioned an Inquiry-class ship, so the science boffins could study the Light and jewel along the way, and we started wormholing at weft speed, hitting a new planet every week. Sometimes every day. In each major spaceport and ground-city, S,sh stood with the jewel on the highest available point and gave a recruitment speech for going to save the Elves and fight the oldest enemy of all reality.

Honestly, it seemed a little redundant? The Astral Alliance was made for this sort of rescue mission (and for escorting trade convoys). But I was...if not happy, then sure as hell more self-certain with my ancient memories restored, and most people who joined up seemed to agree. It was mostly people who remembered, when exposed to the Light, who joined—so before long, we had a whole tag-along trail of mostly civilian ships, trying to get up to Alliance Fleet standard on the road in less than a year.

Three different religious sects tried to kill S,sh for "profaning the mysteries." Five others tried to steal the jewel because we were apparently appropriating a holy object. The boffins announced that, bar the can't-prove-a-negative possibility, the evidently sourceless Light should be counted as an infinite energy source, and at least seven different groups, ruthless financiers and sustainability idealists, immediately tried to steal it for that. And I still don't know what the rival thief-queens of Likkiliani were about, except that I got tied up upside-down from a palmdar tree for two hours trying to stop one, the other paid me 700 cron then threw me off a cliff, and in the end they recognized each other from past lives and just made out on worldwide live-holo before joining our growing fleet.

It turned out they were the Director's past life's great-grandparents, and a Canid pop princess was her niece. The Thinker ambassador was some sort of ancestor, too. Crazy extended family.

Most people who remember just remember the sight of a star in the sky. A buddy of mine from Fleet Academy remembered looking up at it as a Human sailor. The historians—and you’d better bet we picked up some Earther historians on this mission as well!—say this jewel or one like it was probably astrologically conflated with the planet Venus by early Humans.

(The more time I spent around the jewel, the Silmaril, the more I remembered, of my first life and more. Lifetime after lifetime with bad luck dogging my steps, killing loved ones in my arms, destroying cities I was supposed to save… One restless, haunted night, I met a Rigilic in the cafeteria who’d been awake with some of the same nightmares, who’d been my dead older sister once.)

The tour was cut short when word came from the Earth system that there was a black hole growing in the center of their reddening sun.

No, the sun wasn’t compressing into a black hole millennia ahead of schedule—one had just spontaneously manifested within it, like it’d teleported in. No, not literally—that was impossible. We were pretty sure. No, the sun wasn’t falling into it…somehow. Yet. The black hole was only 17 quectometers wide, but it was growing at an erratic but unceasing rate. If their best estimation of the pattern held, it would consume the sun 2 months before the Elves’ deadline, and the Earth 4 to 950 minutes later.

We pulled back to Earth—well, to the dwarf planet Eros, on the edges of Earth’s star system. That’s where the nearest shipyard of any note was, and we were gathering the whole Astral Alliance. This is exactly the sort of thing the Alliance is for.

I was released back to ship duty. Zanzibus was still a black mark on my record, as was Jorab, and really everything on the AAS Endeavor…and that thing in third year of Fleet Academy… But no matter how bad my curse, I was an experienced captain and one of the best pilots in the Alliance. For this, we needed all the best.

The boffins had pretty quickly mastered limited manipulation of the Light, using modified aetheric resonators, and every day they came up with something new for us to test. They focused the Light into a laser cannon like no one has seen before. They laced it through plasma shields until a fully shielded ship glowed like a distant star. They managed to nearly replicate the Silmaril’s crystalline structure, so they could make “copies” that shone like the original for first a few hours; then, with refinement, a full week…

The one thing they couldn’t pin down with any real confidence was how to get to Fairyland. The frequency of the Light resonated with large bodies of Earther saltwater in a particular way, and models suggested that if the Light source moved horizontally along the water within a certain range of distance and velocity, the resonance would create a wormhole-like ripple in space—but wormhole-like, was the key word, and models suggested. The closest anyone had seen to that spatial distortion was in a logbook of dubious veracity from the Delta Quadrant, four hundred years ago. Alteia, my Academy buddy who’d been a Human sailor, took the Silmaril in an M-wing on a series of highly monitored test flights above the Atlantic Ocean, and space did repeatedly start to hollow in front of bom—so bo had to stop every time, rather than risk vanishing with our single, maybe-one-way ticket.

Then Earth’s moon stopped shining in the sky. Its albedo just dropped nearly to zero, from one night to the next. There was nothing wrong that anyone could figure out—nothing with the orbit, nothing with the surface rock, nothing with the artificial atmosphere. Inhabitants reported feeling colder by several degrees, but no measuring equipment recorded anything.

The black hole slightly off-center in the middle of Sol was now 844.9 zeptometers, and growing more steadily.

We didn’t have time to keep testing. We needed to raise our swords and make our ride, even if we only got one shot at it.

I was given command, for seniority, skill, and because I was the one who managed to talk S,sh out of leading the fleet herself. (If my lives had taught me anything, it was the importance of having someone, anyone, ready to be emergency backup.) Ironically, I was back on the Endeavor, with most of my old crew—though we got permission to rename the ship, in honor of the mission. A lot of people did. Alteia was now commanding the AAS Elendil on my right flank, star-friend in Ancient Elvish. That Canid pop princess had taken over a hospital ship and renamed it Rivendell. An Earth Park Ranger, of all things, remembered being my dad—briefly—and he was leading the Rangers plus my Rigilic drinking buddy on the EPSS Elfsheen.

We weren’t sure if any ship but the one with the Silmaril would get through. The fleet numbered in the hundreds in battleships alone, not counting scouts and scuttlers. Twelve races had sent ships on top of their typical Alliance Fleet tithe, and S,sh had brought about half the full force of the X-ee Empire. We all just locked tractor beams and hoped.

I was piloting as well as captaining, with the Silmaril between my forehorns. It was held in place by about a dozen wires and other connectors to the ship, like an old-timey pilot’s headset. We took off in orbit around Earth, as close as possible to the surface—not very close, in warships of Class S and higher, but within range of the oceanic resonance. A Likkilianian thief-queen stood at my shoulder, ready to advise if anything “Musical” started to happen.

Think about what you’re trying to get to, and why, the boffins had advised, so I did—bright-eyed kings and dancing maidens; lost friends, families, cities, planets and all. The jewel got warmer against my skin and shone brighter with every pulse of the engine, brighter than we should’ve been able to see through.

The silver-gold Light twisted and diffused as space did around us. But there was no familiar rippling wormhole boundary—instead, spacetime thinned to a curtain like driving rain, like Vesarian silver-glass.

A ghost appeared next to me. She looked like the oldest, grumpiest writing teacher at the crèche, though I knew that was only in my head.

“There you are,” she said, impatient and relieved like I’d been hiding in the sandbox again, rather than coming to class on time. Her sewing scissors went snip snip snip as she darted them around my body—and a chain on my soul faded into guiding threads.

Before she’d even disappeared again, I punched the engine and blasted through the silver-glass curtain.

Fairy tales said there’d be a peerlessly beautiful land on the other side, green with eternal spring, full of endless light and laughter. They said there’d be sunlit shores and shimmering waves, with welcoming docks for sea-ships, sky-ships and space-ships all…

We flew into the worst battlefield I’d ever seen, in any lifetime. It was more desperately vicious than Jerusalem V at the height of the Reform Wars, more ruined than Glaurung’s wake, more desolate than Zanzibus after the nuclears fell.

Either a massive supercontinent or a small moon had been shattered, leaving nothing but a roiling debris field. The brand-new meteoroids ranged from pebbles to rocks the size of a small space station, and included space-frozen corpses, forests, and what might have once been city blocks.

I gave the helm back to my Pilot Officer—zer had, I can admit, slightly better reflexes for dodging debris—and focused on captaining.

Most of the life signs were clinging to the larger rocks. There shouldn’t have been atmosphere for them, but walls of thunderstorm wrapped around every shard with even a single life sign—wind and water desperately hand in hand to safeguard the last of the Elves. The only thing visible through the impossible storms was the Light of a second Silmaril, on a meteoroid shaped like half a broken eggshell.

A corpse lay at the epicenter of the explosion—what might’ve been a corpse, if it wasn’t also shattered. The broken pieces of a massive stone humanoid, taller than my ship if it’d stood beside her, still bleeding lava so hot that it burned even in frozen space. Another titan knelt at the shards of its head, a figure of towering bark and leaves, wailing with grief even worse than the end of the world.

A slimmer tree-woman stood with one hand on her shoulder, comforting, and the other wielding a skyscraper-sized club spiked with incandescent wildflowers. Guarding her sister’s heartbreak, she fended off a swarm of bat-sized monsters with wings of darkness and whips of flame.

Bat-sized relative to the gods of Elves and ancient Humans. About the size of an M-wing, in flight.

Countless more of the bat-things flung themselves at the storm-bubbles, like carnivores chasing the prey hidden inside. They were fended off by an equal army of creatures with wings of light and swords of lightning, led by a towering figure who seemed to dance from one bloody battle to the next.

The biggest battle by far was the farthest away, over where the sun had been. In this dimension of stories over science, Sol was another woman-shape, smaller than the others but burning just as brightly as her star. Also just as blood-red. The light was centered on a fist she kept clenched at her chest, and instead of containing the black hole, the unseeable thing that it was here surrounded her, striking at her with a thousand hungry jaws and grasping legs, and she had only a one-handed whip of a solar flare to fend it off—

But she didn’t fight alone. A warrior tore at the Darkness’s spidery limbs with his fists, image on the cameras flickering impossibly between every hero I’d ever heard of. A snarling figure bit at it with jagged teeth, gored it with horns, shredded it with claws and talons, and generally made every ancient prey-instinct in me scream. And a queen with a crown of stars, a shield like the night sky and a sword like a streaking comet, stood dauntlessly at the sun-holder’s side.

With all that, and with the speed of even her most exhausted strikes, I thought the sun-holder could probably have gotten away if she’d tried. But I knew how a person fought when they weren’t willing to leave a friend, and a smaller, silver figure lay at her feet, unmoving and drained of light.

But even the battle for the sun wasn’t what grabbed my eye. No—all my attention, all my guiding threads of fate and the quick temper that always used to get me in trouble, before (and sometimes after) I learned to leash it in an Alliance uniform— All of that took me straight to the fight happening orthogonal to the stone giant’s corpse.

It was another one-versus-many. Morgoth, the First Enemy of Elves and Men— Master of Lies, Maker of Chains, Sonofabitch Curser of Bloodlines—towered over even his fellow gods. His shape changed constantly, sickeningly, but it was always black-armored with eyes like dying stars that hated you personally. His maul dripped with lava and every other kind of blood.

He fought against three great gray figures who moved as one. The tallest wielded a star-studded scythe with swift, efficient strokes, and wore the dark gray of corpse-shrouds. The shortest shimmered with more colors than even a Stamotapadon could dream of, and his weapon shifted likewise. The third was the clear, clean gray of skies after rain or tears run dry, and fought with only a shield—and hit harder with it than either of her brothers.

Around their heads darted the only Elves on the battlefield, in small fliers more like sea-ships than aircraft. But they moved fluidly, pestering the Dark Lord like flies, pricking his skin and threatening his burning eyes.

Until Morgoth swung his maul with a roar of fury that traveled even though soundless space. My ship and heart both shuddered. The gray gods all staggered back, and the Elves fell from the no-longer-sky—all but their leader, more fire than flesh, who wore the third Silmaril. Morgoth caught him in one massive black hand and with sharp claws plucked the jewel away, as easily as a ripe berry from a tree—

“All power to fore-cannon and fire,” I ordered—and the jewel on my brow shone bright again as several stored months’ worth of infinite Silmaril-Light slammed into Morgoth’s chest with all the force that the best scientists in the Astral Alliance could engineer.

He stumbled. He dropped both the jewel and the elf-king (who’d been trying to bite him). The Lady of Mercy tossed her shield to catch them, staying low and out of sight—though she needn’t have bothered. The so-called “Lord of All” had already found his next enemy.

“All ships, move forward and join shields,” I ordered, and met his burning stare though the viewscreen. “Then broadcast me on all external frequencies.”

The wires on my forehead shimmered as we shifted Light-flow to the shields—and to my right, so did the Elendil, and to my left, the Cosmian Blade, and all around us the Minas Tirith, the Elfsheen, the Muse, the Rivendell, the Heart of Zanzi, the Longbottom Leaf… They were still soaring out of the silvery distortion behind me, tractor- and Silmaril-towed: sleek Rigilic eels-of-prey and Centaurian cruisers full of Humans eager to fight for their homeworld, Betan mine-ships and Canid X-M-wings and my own Hectoan starlighters, a full third of the X-ee navy with their X-eee–shaped six-engine dreadnoughts, and hundreds more.

“This is Captain Pel Cinia, once Túrin Turambar, of the Astral Alliance ship Gurthang,” I said. My words were broadcast from every ship on every frequency in every language that the people of Arda might know, as the Fleet assembled from forty-plus different worlds flew into position. Our Light-infused shields blazed and locked together, until we formed a seamless wall right in the Enemy’s face, with the Elves and their other allies safely behind us.

I’ve never felt more proud to recite the most cliché line in the Fleet:

“We got your distress call. We’re here to help.”

#the silmarillion #science fiction #humans are space orcs #fanfiction #my fic #dagor dagorath #not tagging characters bc spoilers (they're listed at the end of the ao3 though)

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ducksido · 2 months ago

Note

First off, I have known you for around 10 minutes, but now I’m a dedicated fan, your writing is absolutely amazing! And love that you include EPIC in it, if it doesn’t bother you, could you do a Mexican!Yuu? Like a little Mexican chaos gremlin who insults with every insult known in South America, you can totally ignore this message btw, no problem, have a nice day!

(Combining these three) [Also thank you very much c0ralrubi and childofserpents[❁´◡`❁])

Grim: "You mean to tell me tamales come in different flavors?! And you make them for Christmas?! Gimme one!" Grim is obsessed with Mexican food but underestimates the spice levels. After one bite of a habanero salsa, he refuses to trust Yuu’s food recommendations. He also thinks alebrijes are real and keeps asking if he can have one as a pet.

Crowley: "A culture so rich in history, legends, and celebrations! Why, I must host a NRC Día de los Muertos event in your honor!" Crowley 100% butchers the execution of it and makes it look like a spooky Halloween party. Yuu threatens him in Spanish while wielding a chancla.

Crewel: "Your homeland embraces bold colors and statement pieces—how absolutely divine!" Crewel admires traditional Mexican embroidery and charro suits. He’d love to make custom traje de charro-inspired outfits for Yuu, with a modern twist.

Trein: "Mexican folklore is filled with such intricate tales… Tell me more about La Llorona." Trein is fascinated by Mexican horror legends. Yuu tells him about Nahuales and El Chupacabra, and he starts using them as cautionary tales in class.

Vargas: "You mean to tell me your people run with BULLS for fun?! That’s the kind of strength I admire!" Vargas is shook when Yuu tells him about Mexican rodeos and charreadas. He tries to challenge Yuu to a physical competition, but Yuu just smacks him with a lucha libre mask and runs away screaming "¡Viva México!"

Sam: "Ooooh, you got all kinds of magical folk legends? Tell me more about these aluxes!" Sam sees Mexican myths and traditions as an untapped business opportunity. He starts selling calaveritas and copal for "spiritual balance" at his shop.

Heartslabyul:

Riddle Rosehearts: "You celebrate by smashing a piñata?! How… reckless." Riddle is horrified by the concept of piñatas. He gets hit in the face during a birthday party, and Yuu just yells, "¡Le pegaste al cumpleañero! ¡Córrele!" (You hit the birthday person! Run!)

Ace Trappola: "Wait, you have, like, a WHOLE holiday just for bread?! That’s sick!" Ace tries to get Yuu to share their pan de muerto. He also loves Día de los Inocentes, especially since he can pull pranks and blame it on a cultural holiday.

Deuce Spade: "Hold on—you have a whole fighting sport where people wear colorful masks?! That’s so cool!" Deuce becomes obsessed with lucha libre. He asks Yuu to teach him insults in Spanish so he can sound like a rudo (villain wrestler). He’s bad at them.

Trey Clover: "Wait, you put chocolate and chili together?! That actually sounds amazing." Trey loves Mexican desserts like churros, cajeta, and tres leches cake. He tries making mole and is deeply confused by the mix of chocolate and spices.

Cater Diamond: "Okay, but Magicam aesthetic—can I take a pic with your Día de Muertos ofrenda?" Cater is obsessed with Mexican aesthetics. He starts using phrases like "¡Órale, güey!" incorrectly and gets roasted by Yuu for it.

Savanaclaw:

Leona Kingscholar: "Hmph. Your people have strong warriors and deep traditions. I respect that." Leona admires Mexican fighters, from Aztec warriors to Lucha Libre legends. He’s also highly interested in the jaguar symbolism in Mexican culture.

Ruggie Bucchi: "Wait, wait, wait—you guys eat grasshoppers for snacks?! That’s actually kinda genius." Ruggie loves chapulines (fried grasshoppers) and asks Yuu for recipes. He also steals tamales and learns the hard way not to mess with the Rosca de Reyes baby.

Jack Howl: "Your people are really into loyalty and family, huh?" Jack deeply respects how important family and tradition are to Yuu. He’s super intrigued by Mexican legends about wolves, like El Cadejo.

Octavinelle:

Azul Ashengrotto: "So you’re saying these… alebrijes… are spirit guardians? Fascinating." Azul is intrigued by Mexican folklore, especially alebrijes and their meanings. He wants to see if he can profit off of them.

Jade Leech: "You honor mushrooms in your culture? How delightful!" Jade adores that some Mexican indigenous traditions view mushrooms as sacred. He asks if Yuu has ever tried special ones.

Floyd Leech: "YOU GUYS HAVE FIGHTING MASKS?! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER?!" Floyd immediately challenges Yuu to a lucha libre match and makes up his own wrestling persona.

Scarabia:

Kalim Al-Asim: "Your celebrations sound so lively and exciting! Can I join?!" Kalim is absolutely in love with posadas, piñatas, and mariachis. He tries to dance to jarabe tapatío and nearly trips.

Jamil Viper: "Your food looks delicious, but I sense a dangerous amount of spice." Jamil is deeply suspicious of Mexican chiles. Yuu pranks him by telling him habanero salsa is “just tomato sauce.”

Pomefiore:

Vil Schoenheit: "Your people emphasize beauty in tradition? I respect that." Vil admires the bold colors in Mexican clothing and makeup. He wants to create calavera-inspired makeup looks.

Rook Hunt: "Ah! The poetry of your culture! The passion!" Rook is obsessed with Mexican poetry and romanticism. He dramatically recites Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz poems.

Epel Felmier: "Y’all have weird apples, but I kinda like ‘em." Epel falls in love with tejocotes and ponche navideño. He gets super into Mexican cowboy culture.

Ignihyde:

Idia Shroud: "Mexican mythology inspired, like, half of my RPGs…" Idia geekily rants about Quetzalcóatl and Xibalba. He thinks La Llorona is the best horror story ever.

Ortho Shroud: "So… Día de los Muertos is about remembering loved ones? That’s beautiful." Ortho loves the sentimental side of Mexican traditions.

Diasomnia:

Malleus Draconia: "You respect spirits and traditions? You are wise." Malleus deeply respects Día de los Muertos and wants to experience a Mexican graveyard celebration.

Lilia Vanrouge: "Ah, I remember the battles of your ancestors!" Lilia claims to have met Aztec warriors. He’s probably telling the truth.

Silver: Falls asleep mid Mexican legend.

Sebek: "YOUR PEOPLE RESPECT ANCESTORS?! FINALLY, SOMEONE SANE!"

RSA + Noble Bell:

Chenya: Steals pan dulce. Neige: Thinks Yuu’s culture is magical. Rollo: Disgusted by how loud Mexican parties are.

Extra Mexican!Yuu Chaos:

Randomly yells "¡No mames, güey!"

Calls everyone "cabrón" or "mijo."

Fights Leona with a lucha libre mask.

#twst x reader #twst #twst wonderland #twst yuu #twst incorrect quotes #deuce spade #culture!yuu #twst headcanons #mexican #mexican!yuu

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squidsquidsquidsquidsquidgame · 27 days ago

Note

hellooo!

can i request a fic wherein the reader is a soloist, then jiyong and her got featured in a music video since they collaborated to sing for a k-drama ost? after its release, fans noticed their chemistry on-screen and began shipping them. :)

💜Super solo💜

Character: Gdragon/Jiyong X fem!reader

Summary: Above✨️✨️

Warnings: none!

You weren’t expecting the collaboration to make waves.

Sure, it was a G-Dragon feature—so it was bound to turn heads—but this was just an OST. A dreamy ballad with delicate harmonies, meant to underscore some epic slow-burn romance in a hit K-drama. Not… this.

Not you and him.

The MV dropped on a Friday night. Soft lighting, a slow pan across a rooftop, city lights twinkling behind you as you and Ji-Yong exchanged glances over a shared lyric.

It was acting. It was just acting.

But fans didn’t buy that.

Within hours, your names were trending. Edits popped up on Twitter and TikTok—clips of Ji-Yong brushing a stray hair from your face, you laughing off-camera between takes, that one lingering eye contact in the final shot. Comments flooded in:

“They HAVE to be dating.” “I’ve never seen chemistry like that in an OST MV before???” “Someone check if Dispatch is on this already.”

You should’ve been embarrassed. But mostly, you couldn’t stop smiling.

The next day, your label scheduled an interview. “Talk about the song. Mention the drama. Be professional.” The usual.

But Ji-Yong wasn’t helping.

He showed up late, looking like he stepped out of an art book—loose button-down, tiny earrings, sleepy grin. “Hey,” he greeted, like this was casual. Like you hadn’t been rewatching the MV all night wondering if he meant any of those glances.

“Nice of you to join us,” you teased.

He smirked. “Was just giving fans time to cool down before they saw us together again.”

You flushed instantly. “Please don’t read the comments.”

“Too late.” He leaned in, lowering his voice. “Apparently, we’re married now. And expecting our third cat.”

The interview went smoothly. You both talked about the song, your “surprising but natural” vocal chemistry, and how honored you were to sing for such an emotional drama.

But as the cameras turned off and the crew packed up, Ji-Yong lingered beside you.

“You free after this?” he asked, fiddling with one of his rings. “There’s this café that has a private room. No cameras. No fans. Just… us.”

You blinked. “For… another project?”

He laughed softly. “No. Just… to see if our chemistry’s real off-screen, too.”

Your heart fluttered, completely betraying your calm expression. “Okay,” you said. “But if we are getting a cat someday, I get to name it.”

He grinned like you’d just handed him a Grammy. “Deal.”

#bigbang gdragon #bigbang fanfic #gdragon bigbang #bigbang ot4 #top bigbang #t.o.p bigbang #daesung bigbang #g dragon #jiyong #kwon jiyong #bigbang top #bigbang x reader #dong youngbae #gdragon fanart #gdragon fanfic #ubermensch #gdragon smut #gdragon x reader

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gtinthepot · 1 year ago

Text

MASTER LIST OF GIANT/TINY CONTENT

Disclaimer, I have not looked up everything on this list and most of it was suggested from others. I cannot promise the accuracy of the content. Suggestions for the list are more than welcome, leave a comment on the post for people to browse through after checking to see if its on the list already :)

I’ll be editing and adding to it here and there, so some reblogs of the post might be outdated. I suggest clicking on the source /main post to get the newest version. The old list can be found here.

7 deadly sins

A bug's life

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (some episodes)

Adventure time

Alice in Wonderland

Alvin and the chipmunks

Amour de poshe (the girl in his pocket)

Animorphs: #24

Ant bully

Ant man (1 and 2)

Antz

Archies weird mysteries (one ep)

Army of darkness

Art Attack

Arthur and the Invisibles

Athena complex (webcomic)

Attack of the 50 foot cheerleader.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Attack of the puppet people

Barbie and the nut cracker

barbie movies (look up specifics)

Barbie Thumbelina

Beastars

Beatle juice

Berserk

Big man japan

Bottle Fairy

Bramble the mountain king. (video game)

Brave little tailor (mickey mouse)

Bugs life?

Captain America: Civil War

Card captor sakura (one ep and some scenes)

Christmas Stories: The Tin Soldier is a good one.

Clifford the big red dog

Cuphead: Don’t deal with the Devil (mostly with certain bosses)

Darby o’gill and the little people

David the Gnome

Disenchantment

Dollman

Downsizing

Dr cyclops

Dr who (one ep: into the dalek)

Dragon ball

Dungeon meshi (a few chapters)

Ella Enchanted

Elusive people.(video game)

Epic

Ernest and Celestine (more of a mini-giant/doll-sized tiny size dynamic)

Fairytale: a true story (1997)

Fantastic Planet

Fantastic voyage

Ferngully

Final space episode 5

Frame arms girl.

Futurama (some episodes)

Gelias and the giant

Gen V

George shrinks

Gods of Egypt

Godzilla

Grandpa in my pocket

Gravity falls (one episode)

Grounded (video game)

Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2 more so than the first one)

Gulliver's Children (webtoon)

Gullivers travels (1939, 1977, 2010) as a well as a mini-tv series

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: Aladdin

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: Season 2, Episode 2 thumbelina

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: The shoemaker and the elves

Helmecrons

Help I shrunk my friends

Help I shrunk my parents

Help I shrunk my teacher

Here come the littles

Hilda

Honey I blew up the kid

Honey I shrunk the audience ride at Disneyland

Honey I shrunk the kids

Hornby sets

How to Keep a Mummy ( Miira no Kaikata)

Inch high private eye

Innerspace

Invincible (Some episodes)

It takes two (game)

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story

Jack the giant slayer

Jackie Chan Adventures (one episode)

Jaimes and the giant peach

Jitsu wa watashi wa (mostly the 4th episode)

Journey 2 The Mysterious Island

King kong

Kubo and the two strings

Land of the giants

Legoland

Lilo and Stitch the series (two episodes)

Little (Grrl)

little nightmares 1 and 2 (game)

Littles

Lord of the rings

Macross sequel shows (-anime-)

Mars attacks!

Mickey and the bean stalk

Micro Machines

Micro Ventures

Militsioner (Video game)

Minami-Kun no Koibito (2015)

Minish cap (video game)

Moana

Modest Heroes Kanini and Kanino (Short film)

Monster (video game)

Monsters Vs Aliens

My hero Academia (some episodes)

My Little Lover

My Miniature Manual (webtoon)

My Monster Secret (specifically one character)

natsume yuujinchou

Nau-lmg

Night at the Museum

Nils holgersson

Ok Ko! lets be Heroes season 3 episode 9 Planet Vacation

One Punch Man (some episodes)

Onward (a few scenes)

Osmosis Jones

Ozzy and Drix

Pans labyrinth

Paper mario sticker star (Video game, two levels)

Peter pan

Pikmin 1, 2, and 3 (game)

Pinocchio

Pokemon sun/moon anime second season (one ep)

Ponyo

Rainbow Magic

Ratatouille

Rick n morty (one episode)

Robotech (-comic series; new ones-)

Robotech (season one/The Macross Saga) (-anime-)

Robotech Remix (-comic series-)

Super Danganronpa 2 (video game, final boss)

Shadow of the colossus (video game)

Shrunk the family (Onnelin ja Annelin talvi)

Small blessings (webcomic)

Small Lands Survive The Wilds (Video game)

Small soldiers (1998)

Smallfoot

Smurfs

Smurfs lost village

Snorks

Spirit of wonder: The shrinking of miss China

SpongeBob SquarePants (the wumbo episode)

Steven universe

Stormlight Archive (-book series; has tiny fae people-)

Strange days at blake holesy high (one episode)

Strange magic

Stuart Little

Sugar apple fairy tale.

Super giant robot brothers.

Tales to Astonish (comics)

Ted Hughes

Tentacular. (video game)

The 3 worlds of gulliver

The 7th voyage of sinbad

The amazing colossal man

The bee movie

The BFG

The bfg 1989

The borrowers (1973, 1993 1997, 2011)

The Borrowers (Arrietty)

The Borrowers exhibition at the Hancock Museum

The Boys (some episodes)

The dwarf and the giant 1901

The Fantastic Planet

The hobbit

The hulk

The incredible shrinking man

The incredible shrinking woman

The Indian in the cupboard

The iron giant

The iron man

The Journey.

The Last Guardian (video game)

The Last of the Huggermuggers by Christopher Pearse Cranch

The Little Bits

The littles

The magic school bus

The nut cracker

The owl house (one episode)

The phantom planet

The Rescuers

The return of the Borrowers 1992 and 1993 tv series

The Secret of Nimh

The secret world of Arrietty

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

The simsons (one episode)

The storyteller (one ep)

The Suspicion and #42

The Sword in the Stone

The tale of the princess kaguya

The ultimate avengers (1 & 2)

Thumbelina

Time loader. (video game)

Tinkerbell and The Great Fairy Rescue

Tinkerbell and The Pirate Fairy

Tinkerbell movies

Tinykin. (video game)

Tom and Jerry

Tomb thumb

Townsmen VR. (video game)

Toy story

Transformers

Transformers (old series)

Troll hunter

Troll in central park...??

Trolls

Trolls band together

Ultraman cosmos

Underdogs

Unravel. Porcelain tales. (video game)

Valkyrie Drive Mermaid (one episode.)

Village of the giants

Violet Goes to The Beach (webtoon)

VR Giants. (video game)

We’re Back! A dinosaur story

When the Dolls Woke (book)

Wild Kratts

Wild, wild planet

Wiplala

Wrath of the Titans (one scene)

Wreck it ralph

Yarn (video game)

Zootopia

#g/t #breezys post #masterlist #giant tiny #fandom #g/t masterlist #giant tiny masterlist #long post

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cherrydipp · 3 months ago

Text

heres me rambling all my notes from today / what i remembered

act 1 :

- chettrip is real. at bucks party they were in the room together they were getting FREAKY.

- during that number when the cop interrogates cherry and paul at the top, it seemed like cherry and paul were fighting and paul like told her to stop talking

- melodys mic was UP in far away from tulsa

- during ggah soda was WHIPPING everyone with the towel IT WAS SO FUNNY

- also during fatdi when the girls sing “aint no better than time than” or their little sequence, trip jumped onto the tire and did like “a girly dance” to mock them heheh it was SO FUNNY

- ace still smacked sodas butt

- during fatdi marcia and trip were ALLL over each other. marcia gave him a hug from behind and didnt let go it was so cute

- chet and paul were chatting it up during fatdi

- bob seemed relatively happy during fatdi up until the end

- bob stumbled a lot more very drunk, so did trip they were good at playing drunk.

- when dally got splashed, trip mocked him and dallas PUSHED him to the ground and HELPP it was like paul yelled at trip to go in time out he yanked him up like a cat and pointed to the car HEHEHE

- COLE TRIP IS SOOO FUNNY

- when the “aint that right ace” ace replied like more sultry?? i dont want to say seductive but idk any other word. it was more serious than when tilly does it

- i LOVE aramie dallas he plays him like a teenager

- emma was more angry today than sad which i liked. when she said “i said BEAT IT.” she MEANT IT. she was angry af

- BOB DID THE MOCKING THING YASSSS YASSSS it was so epic to hear live

- yall know my fave dance move…. (when that clock strikes three) I WATCHED CHERRY DO IT SO GOOD OOOOUUU YALL KNOW I LOVE THAT

- paul and bev were very chummy like very close

- after soda got the papers thrown at him he saw johnny jump and assured him it was just paper while smiling ☹️☹️

- CHERRYCOLA IS REAL. THEY WERE SMILING AT EACH OTHER AT THE END OF THE OPENING NUMBER LIKE FULL ON SMILING AND ADMIRING EACH OTHER.

- also when the line “NO SHIT!!” happens he didnt say it how he normally does he was more like “no… shit 😳” i like to think its cuz he was flirting with cherry after opening number okay let me live

- darry said the “look at these hands” part less angry ?? maybe vocal rest ??? or he is sick??

- JORDAN IS SO FUN TO WATCH DANCE I CANT TAKE MY EYES OFF HIM

- this made me lol when dallas is like “twobit u got ur grease?” he went “no 😏” LIKE DEAD PANNED IT WAS SO FUNNY

- when i saw melvin carrying that plank i got so happy……

- chettrip kept giggling with each other guys theyre reallll they are reeeealllll they were bumping into each other like cray cray

- aramie looked so cool in buck merril red lighting door like it was sick he has so much aura its insane. i love u aramie

- emma pittman was on time YES QUEEN YESSSS 💗💗💗💗💗💗 she looks so beautiful on stage u guys

- these girls in front of me just got told off by this british lady HELPPP THIS SCHOOL KEEPS TALKING IT WAS SO FUNNY SHES SO AMAZING THAT BRITISH LADY I LOVE U THEY BETTER STFU NOW OMFG SYBAU SYBAU…….

- the opening number i almost cried its so good. like oh god its so satisfying to watch its the best number i think to watch.

- not much marbit content tbh idgaf i got martrip thats all that matters to me

- HELP ME YHESE GIRLS R MOVING HAHAHAHAHAH IM CRYINGGGG HELP ME YES GET CLOCKED GET CLOKCKED “is it that big of a problem” YES. U WOULDNT SHUT UP DURING ANYTHING OMG.

- marcia had her legs wrapped about trip during fatdi concessiong stand oh i guess thats icttyal not fatdi

- cam brill flipped off the greasers

act 2 :

- jft the interrogation part. paul like elbowed cherry and she back away, she didnt make eye contact ONCE with the cop or paul. paul was mad

- trip had the DIRTIEST GLARE EVER AT CHERRY STOPPP thats ur bff leave her alone omfg.

- cam brill was so AGGRESSIVE trying to snatch bobs jacket from cherry. she full on like stumbled backward. trip jumped in her face and she flinched.

- cherry opt up you guys. it was so fricken heavenly. she also added an extra riff oh my LORD IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL I SHOOK. paul was very angry

- paul didnt step on twobit today, he kneeled on his chest instead.

- the darry and dally fight was different than normal. instead of dally overpowering darry, darry pushed him ontop of the car and didn’t let up until sodapop pulled him down. that’s when he fell to the ground.

- cherry’s legs shook during jft like she was uneasy on her feet, clearly nervous.

- melvin dipp during the fire again dont play

- jordan jumping on darrys back at the end of hoods turned heroes HELP it was so silly hes so tall and lanky on top of him i tried not to giggle.

- oh i forgot to mention they changed the ace and twobit choreo during the drive in obviously because daryl cant lift someone way taller than him like that.

- during jft bev had her head on brills shoulder while he just held her.

- martrip wouldnt let go of each other and when marcia had to to comfort cherry, she gently plucked him off.

- melvin HELP melvin ran a little to keep up with sergei when they walked out in trouble.

- trip went over and massaged melvins shoulders. i wish they kept it how it used to be with sean jones where he points to ace, but i guess it made sense for this show (idk if they always do this) cuz aint no way in HELL trip would point to the boy whos 103748291 feet taller than melvin

- WATCHING MELVIN FIGHT JORDAN ACE WAS SO FUCKING FUNNY DTTM.

- either bob or trip (pretty sure it was bob cuz the socs were saying bob) like was practically in the audience. and their voices were so heartbreaking as they pulled him in it was a direct parallel of pony pulling johnny.

- oh goodness me pony’s voice when johnny went silent broke me. dont even. stroblboy is a amazing im sorry for ever doubting you

- ARAMIE IS THE DALLAS. he is my dallas i preferred him sooo much over josh boones dallas.

- he plays dallas much younger and looks younger like he was shorter than darry and all.

- his mic was messed up for the beginning of little brother but he still sounded phenomenal.

- genuinely his dallas portrayal is heartbreaking and he sounds so beautiful oh my goodness.

- during little brother i love watching the socs and greasers at the bottom and oh goodness cherry moved with like such pain you didn’t need to see her face to know it. i like to imagine the closer they are to the front is the more guilty they felt for johnny’s death so cherry being in the front had me drop a tear bruh.

- hoods turned hero the projection was lowkey cut off cuz COLE. IS TOO SHORT AND SO IS MELVIN BRUH. stupid dipp brothers.

- hopeless war had a few added riffs i believe. emma pittman is so amazing

- okay so during the scene where cherry gives pony johnny’s clothes, when she first entered here’s what i noticed. last time i saw it, sodapop was so much more hesitant to let her in, he was like “no you can’t—“ and walked over but this time he was so much more wrecked. like he and darrel both just replied with a soft “hi.” when she left his eyes followed her the entire time.

- darry’s voice when he said “we love you.” had me in SHAMBLES.

- when ponyboy saw johnny in the rumble oh sweet neptune.

- trip is directly in front during the rumble he looked so angry and so did melvin. when they do the last punches when they face the audience, melvin like threw gravel and shouted “COME ON” or something like that. proving my point about him and fighting.

- HELP ME THE PPL KEPT GETTING YELLED AT TS SO FUNNY

- uh the ending number bob was so nonchalant leaning against the wood plank smh.

thanks emma pittman for introducing me to cherry and paul siblings. also this is all my opinions. i hope u wnjoy the tidbit about the british lady

#the outsiders musical #the outsiders broadway #the outsiders #se hinton #melvin dipp #cherry valance

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crtakespropogandist · 3 months ago

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CR 3 finale dump pt. 3 - Putting my finger on it

I enjoyed the campaign while I was watching it for the most part, because the cast's antics and chemistry always make me smile. But I invariably engaged the most during the tie-ins and cameos bringing back the PCs and NPCs from previous campaigns, and I couldn't summon the same investment for this one. I was ruminating on why that was, and here is what I came up with:

Campaign 3 didn't "work" like the other two because the characters, the plot, and the setting were not integrated. Matt had an epic storyline in mind that could dramatically change Exandria. He also had two lovingly designed settings, Marquet and Ruidus, the fruits of great collaborative labor that he wanted to show off. Finally, he wanted to let his friends have total control in conceptualizing their characters. The result is that the players and Matt seemed really afraid of stepping on each other's (and the other creatives') toes, and the narrative hurt for it.

Character hooks led away from the plot and setting. Setting hooks led away from the plot and characters. Plot hooks led away from the setting and characters. The cast ultimately had to follow the plot, leaving PCs uninvested and locations underutilized along with all their resident NPCs. Freaking Vox Machina had stronger relationships with Marquesian NPCs.

Yet Matt was still discouraged from taking time away from exploring new places and meeting new people for a deeper dive on Delilah Briarwood. Why didn't Ludinus give Tal'Dorei a heads up when the Briarwoods became fugitives? Did he help them in exchange for residuum? Did they steal his obsessive research on the Matron's ritual for Vecna to use? Maybe Jiana Hexum knows something abou...oop BH left Jrusar and forgot all about her. Matt was also discouraged from leaving shiny new Marquet any earlier for Aeor 2: Electric Boogaloo, which left FCG high and dry. The self-imposed balance between the three key story elements was impossible to maintain in a satisfactory way.

VM and M9 are native to their campaigns' respective continents (except my boy Tary ofc), and the plot evolved organically from personal stakes intrinsic to those settings. Moments like "I am no friend to the empire" and "It's Lady Vex'ahlia" are off the table when the party is Oops! All Transients. The worst irony is that Matt undermined the players' autonomy by unilaterally deciding that Caleb and Beau utterly fumbled the task Liam and Marisha set them to in their C2 epilogues. Liam's frustration at the Key scene was palpable. My fellow viewers who only hopped aboard on Campaign 3 can get weirdly defensive against C2's "encroachment" and C2 enjoyers (also fellows of mine) wishing it would "encroach" more. Ludinus was introduced in C2. The ruins of Aeor and Molaesmyr are in Wildemount. Dunamancy is centralized in Wildemount. The Nein spent time in Aeor, in Uthodurn, in the Dynasty. The Nein have gods. What experiments did Ludinus conduct in Vergessen? What are the specifics about what Ludinus did in Molaesmyr, what he's done throughout his life of scheming? It's pretty safe to guess that the Nein would have found out given another chance. Could you imagine how Campaign 2 might have panned out if Beau and Caleb reeeaaally grilled Demid Sunlash and followed up on where he went? (Also Ruidusborn!Essek would have made so much sense I'm vibrating) (Also also d'ya think Eadwulf was always supposed to be a real Matron follower, or could he have been set up as a Paragon's Call/Vanguard type reporting to Ludinus?)

Even as someone introduced to the stream via BH, I can't help but agree with Beau's "Why not us?" comments. Why not give the Wildemount party the Wildemount BBEG? Why not give Bell's Hells the kind of story that encourages them to be little NPC-coded freaks pushing each other's big red buttons just to see what happens? Why not give Marquet a party that calls it home?

The answer is because we got this instead, and I'm kinda sad about it. If BH gets animated, that show is a lost cause if some fundamental changes aren't made.

#critical role spoilers #cr3 spoilers #cr spoilers #critical role #bells hells #the mighty nein #m9 #cr3

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grayson-on-the-chandelier · 4 months ago

Text

I think I'm overdue for an intro.

💙NIGHTWING IS IN THE HOUSE!!! 💙

They call me "peacock but masculine". I preen often.

My name is Richards "Dick" Grayson-Wayne, son of Bruce Thomas Wayne, and brother of...

Jason Todd-Wayne

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne

Damian al-Ghul Wayne

Cassandra Cain-Wayne

And a lot more siblings. (Dad is a hoarder ✋😒)

Resident and Vigilante Hero of Bludhaven, but I do stop by in Keystone and Gotham.

I'm HelPol and I work with Hermes :]

I have three kids now :] @that-spider-in-gotham , her name is Sage, hero name Arachne. 🕷, Astro, @batmans-sidekick-robin 🫶 and Adam, @cookiesnotd3ad 🍪 but Adam is in shared custody with me and his other parent.

I broke up with Wally... 💔

I have someone living in my brain rent free. Say hi to Eo.

Hiiiii!!!!! :D I'm Eo, god of Birds and Dreams!!!! I love ducks and I'm Dickie's best friend!!!

You mean boyfriend?

Yeah!!!!

My account is @e0bard-birds-of-a-feather follow me!!!

Update, it's not Eo anymore. It's Stranger. Say hello, Stranger.

Hello... People of the web.

He's a manifestation of my god-marked shit. I don't wanna know.

Eo is still up, but he's out of my body now. So yeah. Same account.

ANYWHO, I'll be in touch! Nightwing out!

🐦🦇

P. S. I'm a bird until further notice.🐦

P.S.S. I think there's no further notice. I'm a winged person permanently. 🥲

OOC: Pro tip, he's turned into a God/demigod, specifically God of Memories since he's so in touch with the past and always thinking of the future.

Ooc: hi!! Gonna keep things simple, I hate disclosing myself to the public. No Offense!

Pronouns are She/They, but just call me Clay when referring to me! (No, I am not Clay face)

Dick has had Eo in his brain for a couple months, about 9-12. Eo is super smitten, I swear. I can see why. Don't worry, Nightwing is also on my hear me out list. You and I both Eo. Lmao

I make art, too, and I do free commissions!! Feel free to ask for any art and stuff. References for how my art looks like will be below 👇

I'm often busy, but if I am online, come say hi! I accept asks and I want more asks cause I can be bored easily. :/

✨Okay, here is where the crazy is. Dickie is a winged person! It's my AU of him

I'm a pan kid :] ❤💛💙

GMT +8 for anyone who's wondering. DMs and RP requests are available anytime!

My best real life friend is @ilikesnowbunnies !!

My girlfriend is @/e0bard-birds-of-a-feather !!

My social media bestie is @imbatman-imtired !! Hi!!

I am HelPol, but I don't discriminate any other religion! Don't worry! I work with Hermes and Poseidon most often :]

My favourite musical is EPIC: the Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans :)

Anything that is inappropriate, or something that includes any $3×ualized blogs/art are not allowed on my page. I also do not allow any 🔞 art commissions. Sorry :/

But if you block #suggestive cause that's where I keep all the spice, you're welcome to stay. :]

Not gonna disclose my age. :[ but don't worry! Mun's blog is well for viewers over 18. And mun is over 18. Trust.

I have both OCD and ADHD. :/

Mun also is not as free as a bird!!! I have parenting restrictions, studies and every week I have to take some time off to memorize some history for a quiz (translated from Asian-slang) so please bear in mind that I may not be online for several days at a time, most likely because my Tumblr is locked.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!

Below is IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Art references down here!!!

#Spotify

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racheyace · 8 months ago

Note

Do you possibly have a list of the G/t movies and/or shows? I've been looking for stuff to watch and would love to know what good stuff you've come across!

Okay so I've compiled a list from my poster and from more that have popped into my head as I wrote them down, fairly sure there's even more, but these are the ones I know well, if you know of any more please comment, I'd love to add to the list, there's actually so much out there when you really think about it!

Anyway enjoy and I hope I've listed at least some that you haven't seen before

Gt in media list:

Percey Jackson and the Lightning Theif (Literally a 3 minute scene toward the end of the movie but a great scene!)

Gulliver’s Travels (2011 Jack Black)

Gulliver’s Travels (1996 film)

Black Adam (The Atom smasher is a size shifter kinda like ant man)

Ant Man (Ant man and wasp, ant man quantomania, all three of these movies are great!)

Avengers Civil War (Airport scene)

Earths Mightiest Hero’s (Tv show featuring ant man and the wasp with great gt scenes)

Help! I shrunk my teacher (This movie is in another language however I have been able to find an English version pretty sure on YouTube)

Help! I shrunk my parents (Again in another language but should have English version on YouTube)

Help! I shrunk my friends (Now this one I haven’t been able to find with English version or English subtitles so if you find one please share, but visually even better than the other two in regards to gt!)

Tinkerbell and the great fairy rescue

Disney’s Thumbelina

Disney’s original animated Peter Pan as well as Return to Neverland (Tinkerbell gt scenes)

Ella Enchanted

The Borrowers (1973) A little old but super cute!

The Borrowers (1992) Pretty sure this is a mini series or at least 2 or 3 short films and it is great!

The Borrowers (1997) Classic movie, great visual effects, epic cast, amazing gt!

The Borrowers (2011) Another great remake of the movie, a little more modern

Alice in Wonderland – Whether it be the Disney animation or the Johnny Depp remakes, great gt scenes in this also, I personally like the live action remake

Hook – Oh my god is this movie great! Julia Roberts plays Tinkerbell and Robin Williams as an adult Peter, the chemistry and gt interactions in this are amazing!

Wiplala (Also known as Help! I shrunk the family though not from the same series of movies as the other Help! Movies I mentioned above) This is also found in a different language though English versions are available on youtube – Totally underrated movie and has amazing gt all the way through!

Barbie as Thumbelina (For a kids movie this has a super cute story and great gt enemies to friends vibes)

Jack the Giant slayer

Peter Pan (2003 live action) One of my favourites and I rewatch this a lot! Poor tink gets grabbed a lot sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently!

Honey I shrunk the kids

Honey we shrunk ourselves

Honey I blew up the kid

The Secret World of Arrietty (Another one of my all time favourites and rewatches!)

The Iron Giant (Again just amazing and one of my favourites!)

The Indian in the cupboard (So sweet with a lot of really powerful messages)

The Littles (Kids tv show and just all around great gt!)

The incredible shrinking woman (I personally didn’t enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would but still great gt scenes)

The incredible shrinking man (Again didn’t love this but it is also very old, great special effects for its time)

Fern Gully (Another all time favourite!)

Fern Gully 2 the magical rescue (Not as great as the first one but still pretty good as far as gt goes with more interactions with humans)

Epic! (one of the newer gt animations with a fantastic cast, didn’t like that the human’s move so slow but from a scientic viewpoint that does make sense)

Tom Thumb (This is fairly old and a musical, but has some excellent scenes for its time)

George shrinks (A kids tv show I grew up watching, all around amazing)

Jack and the beanstalk: The real story (Fantastic movie, though it may be a mini series, I can’t quiet remember but great gt again!)

Attack on Titan (this is an anime series, it’s also really good in the fact that one of the humans, well a few, but the main character can become a titan and helps to protect his city and his friends, now this show is not for the weak stomach, the titans are quite disturbing and there is a lot of vore and gore so fair warning)

Dinosaur (Disney movie – gt found family the tiny lemurs take in a dinosaur and raise him as their own, inspired my most recent story)

Transformers (There are many of these and can be hit and miss with regards to gt, but its there)

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale (Another anime, actually just started this and its fantastic in regards to gt)

Night at the museum (All three movies as they all include our favourite tiny cowboy and roman)

Robotech (I’ve been told this is great as it contains giant mech people and some gt scenes)

Land of the Giants (TV series, it’s fairly dated but well worth a watch)

Downsizing (Starring Matt Damon, I personally didn’t like this film, it had so much potential and just missed the mark but there is some great gt in it)

Monsters Vs Aliens! (I can’t believe I almost forgot this movie and it’s not in my gt media poster ahhhh! Amazing gt all the way through, one of my favourites!)

Dwarfina (Such a cute tv series, it is in another language but I was able to understand a fair bit, following the series on youtube can be confusing but it is so worth the effort, the story is so sweet with amazing gt and romance)

My little lover (A Japanese series, though I believe there is an english dub, I’ve heard there is a remake now out but I’ve not seen it, the original is fantastic though!)

Okay I’m gonna list a few more below, they all have the same sort of vibe, I didn’t personally enjoy them they were like on the cusp of pornography but for the sake of the gt in media list I’ll put them here:

Attack of the 50 foot cheerleader

Attack of the 50 foot woman (There is two of these, an older one and a remake)

Attack of the 60 foot centrefold

The 30 foot bride of candy rock

The Amazing colossal man

Village of the giants

#gt #g/t #giant/tiny #gianttiny #giant #tiny #sizedifference #gtinmedia #gtcommunity

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justcressida · 1 year ago

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How Do Record Of Ragnarok Characters Deal With Turkish Women?

(The reason why the reader behaves annoyingly towards the Greeks is because of the confusion of food and culture)

(Actually, they can't cope, but that's a secret. Also, the nationalist cat in me is acting, don't blame me)

THOR

You look at his damn face and think he's calm, right? You're absolutely wrong.

You're not much different from a pair of rabid dogs. Thor isn't much of a social God, and no one can figure out how this guy came together with a chaotic leg.

He saw a lot, he didn't think he would be surprised by anything for the rest of his life... Until I met you.

You howled as you gave the middle finger to the Greek Gods??? Like a real wolf??

Really, truly in his immortal life, he had never been so surprised. He wasn't very interested in races, but when he learned that the Turks were descended from wolves, that strange gesture made sense

He observed that he was a very passionate person. You were proud to be proud of your culture and treated your ancestors with great respect.

You also said that you were going to make him eat a weird thing called kebab once and if he didn't like it you would shove the skewer used to cook the dish called kebab up his ass??

LOKİ

A scary couple that you have to run away from no matter what.

Similarly, he found you eating fish and grinning wickedly in front of Poseidon. You were eating while looking Poseidon in the eye, and Hades had to intervene to prevent Poseidon from killing you

FOUND IT VERY FUN

You are such a chaotic couple. Even Loki is sometimes very afraid of you, though. I mean, what madman would have a big 'National Anthem' painting made in the room and then have the entire Scandinavian Pantheon read it at knifepoint?

Whenever he doesn't like any Turkish food, you recite an epic of Turkish profanity to him, so he has learned to go to your senses.

Your favorite activity is to make people hell with life.

You speak so much Turkish that he knows all the Turkish swear words thanks to you.

BUDDHA

The love of his life.

Buddha always does whatever he wants, similarly you are the perfect couple as your favorite activity is breaking the rules.

Because his stomach is a black hole, you and your whole family are constantly cooking a lot for him. Your possessive attitude towards food surprises him a little, but at the end of the day, he doesn't care much because it's profitable.

You drive him crazy by speaking in Turkish. Really... You grin wickedly after saying a lot of Turkish things to kill him out of curiosity.

.... After a while, he ate so much lahmacun that his stomach hurt for a long time.

POSEİDON

The funny thing is that you do everything to drive Poseidon crazy, and what's even funnier is that you're married.

He might actually laugh if he stopped freaking out because of your disrespect, but for Atlantis' sake, why look at the sirens and "If we cut this, we'd make 2 pounds of anchovy pan... I'm craving it." What do you need to say?

(In Atlantis, everyone runs away from you because they're afraid you'll grill them)

He decided to stay away from you because you broke the painting 'Gençliğe Hitabe' to Apollo in his head.

... He is scared and aroused.

APOLLO

You broke a painting in his head and told him, and you said 'Yavşak piç'

He later found out that it meant "Squirrel bastard" and was defeated because of your audacity.

No one knows how you came together, but they're most surprised that you treat Apollo like shit.

"How are you today, little bitch?"

Although Apollo was partially accustomed to your chaotic behavior, what surprised him was that you loved each other by beating each other. When your best friend hit you on the buttocks in front of everyone, you tore her hair out and then hugged each other on the floor???

Also did you love each other by swearing???

Strange, but Apollo liked it

#record of ragnarok x reader #ror x reader #snv x reader #ror poseidon #ror poseidon x reader #snv poseidon #snv poseidon x reader #ror buddha #ror buddha x reader #ror thor #Ror thor x reader #Ror loki #Ror loki x reader

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downbadspanishlad · 1 year ago

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WARNING: Some of the following content may be slightly triggering due to discussion of abuse and trauma. Please don't read further if reading about that stuff could possibly hurt you! You're valid!

Masculinity in Baldur's Gate 3:

As a trans guy who didn't have friendly male rolemodels growing up, the male companion characters in Baldur's Gate 3 mean so much to me.

While Astarion is clearly my favorite, I have a huge amount of love and appreciation for all the companion characters (male and female). But it's the several types of masculinity the male companion characters have that offer something for male and/or masculine folks like me to aspire to (in some way or another).

Disclaimer: I've unfortunately not had the time to interact much with Minsc, therefore I won't be including him in this post, but he seems like a lovely and cool dude overall, so please don't take his absence as a sign of me not liking him.

Astarion:

Astarion's interest in murder/violence and being mean at times are definitely not things to aspire to, but I do understand why he does what he does. His trauma is no excuse for his actions, but they do explain a lot (He also becomes much kinder as you progress through his story, revealing that he's actually a pretty kind hearted dude that puts up a rough exterior as a method of defense).

I really like Astarion for a lot of reasons. The first reason is the fact that he is a masculine character that is ALSO an explicitly queer, slightly effeminate man with trauma.

In terms of being "explicitly queer," I mean this clip from this video:

As someone who doesn't neatly fit into the stereotype of being a "MANLY man", let alone society's expectations of what it means to be a "real man," Astarion's effeminate nature is something I deeply appreciate.

(Note: That's not me trying to insinuate that trans guys me aren't 'real men.' It's solely about commenting on how men who are trans, hell - even cis dudes who are gender non-conforming, are often told they're 'not real men').

Astarion's very theatrical in his demeanor, and it's one of the things I love most about him. He's hilarious, he's fun, and he's able to be the way he is without being shamed and emasculated for it. I grew up and currently live in an area where being as theatrical and fun as Astarion is something that can get you shamed or even physically hurt for not being "man enough" in that way.

I've also often felt very insecure in my masculinity for being queer and possibly being "not masculine enough" for people. Don't get me wrong - being gay is epic (and gay people are epic), but it has absolutely nothing to do with a person's gender or how they express themselves. Toxic masculinity, however, is something that suggests otherwise, and I'd be lying if I said I'd never felt insecure in my masculinity because of my sexuality (I admit that it's something I'm still working on too). But that's exactly why I love the fact that Astarion lives in a world where he can be as flamboyant, expressive, and as queer as he wants while still being seen as masculine.

I also love that bi/pan erasure is (overall) not a thing regarding the ladies of the BG3 fandom. Astarion is especially popular amongst the girls and the gays, and I think that's EPIC! I really love that Astarion lives in a world where he doesn't have to worry about people saying that his sexuality isn't a real or valid thing. It's really awesome, and I love that the women of the BG3 fandom (straight and LGBT) are completely cool about it.

And I definitely don't want to equate my trauma with anything Astarion has been through (especially as someone who isn't a survivor of sexual violence or physical abuse), but I also really love Astarion as a character because I find a lot of comfort in how Astarion's trauma is dealt with in his story.

So long as you (the player) treat him with the respect and dignity he deserves, Astarion is never shamed or made to feel "less than" for his trauma. The story of his trauma is treated with proper respect and care, and I absolutely love that.

He makes me feel less alone and weird for how my own experience with abuse has left me with inner demons that I've yet to overcome. Like him, I experience night terrors due to my trauma. It's a very scary thing to deal with. And as a man, it makes me feel very small, ashamed, and pathetic. But seeing Astarion go through it and not having that be something he's shamed for is something I deeply appreciate. I know he's fictional, but seeing a character as cool as him going through that too makes me feel less alone and weird for it.

Wyll:

Wyll is a close second favorite character of mine. He's just an awesome, epic, badass guy! He's the kind of man I aspire to be. He does everything he can to help others, he cares deeply about doing what's right, he's a huge nerd/dork, and he's got the biggest heart amongst the companion characters (which says a lot in my opinion since he's got Karlach and Halsin as stiff competition for that category). He's very cool and lovely, and I really hate seeing how underappreciated he is as a character.

I absolutely love the meme of people saying that Wyll was the only origin character to dust himself off and head back to doing what he was doing before getting kidnapped and infected by the mindflayers. This man is too selfless and rad to take a break from teaching the tiefling children in Emerald Grove.

I do want to give credit for this meme to this cool dude called Azeem (aka Black Purist).

As well as this post here on Tumblr.

Gale:

I'll admit, I didn’t really care for Gale at first. But the more I got to know him, the more I realized that this dude is (most certainly) on the spectrum. That's not a canon thing, but I absolutely believe that he is. It's not a bad thing either (and I say that as someone who is also autistic). Honestly, realizing that many of his traits are autistic recontextualized certain things about him and helped me like him way more.

I'm not happy to admit this, but I think I didn't like Gale much at first because he reminded me a lot of myself (due to his autistic characteristics). That's some internalized ableism that I need to work on lmao. Anyways, after doing some self-reflection and giving his character a proper chance, I realized that Gale is actually really cool.

I really appreciate how straightforward Gale is as a communicator. The dude puts everything out in the open, for better or worse. He has no ulterior motives and does his best to make his intentions very clear. Love him or hate him, Gale is a dude you're not afraid of (unless you're a bad guy or something).

I also appreciate how passionate the man is about the stuff he's dedicated his life to (magic, which is most certainly his special interest). Gale is also very kind and open-minded, a good example of this being what he has to say about Astarion's vampirism.

Overall, Gale is an excellent man, and I really appreciate the sort of masculinity that his character represents.

Halsin:

So long as you save him and the Emerald Grove, Halsin is totally chill with you from the first moment you meet him. He's very kind, upfront, and non-judgemental, which is pretty cool.

I also really appreciate how much he cares about consent. Halsin is polyamorous, and if he expresses romantic interest in the player character and the player character happens to already be in a relationship, he makes sure to not pursue anything without the expressed consent of both the player character and their partner.

I know caring about consent is a bare minimum thing to do, but unfortunately there are still a lot of people irl who don't care about it, which is why I greatly appreciate how Halsin (and also BG3 as a game) treats consent as an essential, inherent part of romantic and sexual relationships. Very cool, indeed!! 😎💖🌟💫

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #halsin #wyll ravengard #astarion #gale dekarios #masculinity #trauma #gender shit #astarion bg3 #wyll bg3 #halsin bg3 #gale bg3

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twistedtummies2 · 8 months ago

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Top 6 Epic Mickey Characters

Today is the release of the new “Rebrushed” Edition of a game I loved a ton growing up: “Epic Mickey.” I was OBSESSED with this game when it came out way back in 2010, and at the time it came out, it was treated as a big deal! There was a ton of merchandising and advertisement for this title, more so than you would get for most Disney games, and it’s not hard to see why: the game promised to provide a different kind of adventure for Mickey Mouse, with a darker tone and a focus on more obscure Disney characters and old cartoons. Nowadays, in hindsight, I feel the game could have gone even further than it did (and, apparently, the creators WANTED it to go further than it did, but either due to budget constraints, corporate meddling, or a bit of both, they couldn’t), but I still have a huge soft spot for it. It’s probably my favorite thing to feature Mickey Mouse as a heroic character, and it still has a notable cult following. Ironically for a game that focused on the obscure and the forgotten, the game itself sort of faded into obscurity for a while; despite the release of two sequels (namely a console follow-up called “Power of Two,” and a portable spin-off called “Power of Illusion”), the franchise sort of fizzled out pretty quickly, and for a long time it was seen as naught but an unusual footnote in the history of Disney and its presence in gaming. To celebrate the return of this game to store shelves (and, I believe, online distribution), I decided to do a quick rundown of my Top 6 characters from the games. Why Top 6, you may ask? Simple: because after six, it all gets kerbobbled. It’s harder for me to choose and rank characters beyond that point, simply because who I favor among them changes depending on my mood and how recently I’ve revisited portions of the game. My Top 6, however, have consistently been my Top 6 - both in terms of choices and ranking - pretty much from day one, and I don’t think will ever change, so they’re the ones I feel most comfortable discussing. Also, I’m going to attempt to avoid spoilers with this list, so I’m going to keep focused as much as possible on the first game, with less emphasis on the sequels. (Fortunately, all six characters appear in the first game, though some of the Honorable Mentions are from later titles.) I'll also try to avoid giving away too many of the twists in the plot, for those who will be playing Epic Mickey for the first time via this Rebrushed Edition. With that said, let’s dive into the Wasteland! These are My Top 6 Favorite Characters from Epic Mickey!

6. Pete.

What many people may not realize about Mickey’s famed arch-enemy is that Pete is actually the single longest-lasting recurring Disney character in history. Pete doesn’t just predate Mickey himself, he even predates Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: the character first showed up as a recurring villain in the silent animation/live-action hybrid “Alice Comedies,” with his first appearance dating back to 1925. That’s a whole three years before Mickey, and two years before Oswald! It’s therefore not entirely surprising to see Pete in the Wasteland, especially since the character has had so many different guises and roles throughout his long history…a fact that Epic Mickey takes humorous advantage of. You see, there isn’t just ONE Pete in the Epic Mickey universe. Oh, no. There are no less than FOUR. “Pete Prime” (the one picture here) is Big Bad Pete, who appears to be the town sheriff of Mean Street. Next there’s Small Pete, who lives in the Gremlin Village and is comically dressed up like a little Dutch girl doll. Then there’s Petetronic, who is basically what you’d get if Pete cosplayed as Commander Sark and is the head of Tomorrow City. Finally, there’s Pete Pan: a parody of Peter Pan who flies around Ventureland, mostly spending his time annoying the Wasteland’s version of Captain Hook. Interestingly, most of these Petes seem to be relatively nice characters, rather than real menaces to toon society…but be careful: a character with such a long and checkered past may not always be trustworthy.

5. Gremlin Gus.

Of all the characters left stranded and forgotten in the Wasteland, the Gremlins are easily the most obscure of the bunch. The characters were conceived in the mind of Roald Dahl - the author best known for his works of children’s literature, such as “The BFG” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Dahl wrote a story simply called “The Gremlins” that was going to be transformed into a Disney movie…but for various reasons, the film never came to pass. The book itself has fallen into utter obscurity, and the scrapped project is largely unknown by even the most ardent Disney fans: I, myself, only knew of the Gremlins prior to Epic Mickey because of a paper ad for a re-release of the book in the early 2000s. In “Epic Mickey,” however, the Gremlins are a major part of the universe: since the movie was never really a thing, and the book is so little-known nowadays, the creators of the game were able to create their own twist on the Gremlins unique to this world. They are essentially the custodians of the Wasteland, performing a variety of jobs and services to keep the place ship-shape. The most prominent of them all is their leader, Gus. Gremlin Gus is a sort of “Papa Smurf” figure for the Gremlins, and acts as Mickey’s guide through the games, providing bits of advice and various hints along the rodent’s journey. Think of him along the lines of the Cheshire Cat from the American McGee’s Alice games, or one of Link’s many companions (such as Navi, Midna, or Fi) from The Legend of Zelda. In the first game, the vocal effects for Gremlin Gus were provided by veteran voice actor Bob Joles. In “Power of Two,” Gus was given a proper speaking voice, provided by none other than the Dread Pirate Roberts himself, Cary Elwes…and I can’t help but think such casting is why they perhaps gave Gus a few TOO MANY lines in the sequel, buuut that’s another story for another time.

4. Mickey Mouse.

I debated whether or not to give Mickey a place in the ranks of his own, for various reasons, but after some deliberation…yeah. I think he’s earned it in this case. As I said in the preamble, this is probably my favorite thing made to feature Mickey himself, and Mickey is part of that. This is one of those rare occasions where the premise of the story largely results from Mickey’s own actions and inactions, rather than the machinations of some other scoundrel: it is due to Mickey’s own foolery that the Phantom Blot and the Thinner Disaster are created. It is due to Mickey’s popularity that Oswald and several other characters in the Wasteland are forgotten to begin with. Now, Mickey has to essentially remember and salvage the very things that are in ruin because of him. The game plays around with this idea of saving and destroying through its chief mechanic: the magic paintbrush Mickey uses can destroy things by shooting streams of hyper-acidic thinner, or create through use of an enchanted paint. Different obstacles can be overcome by different uses of the two tools, and some can be dealt with in multiple ways: choice is a key factor of Mickey’s story, as well as the player. Originally, the game makers wanted to go even further with this idea, with the player’s decisions making Mickey more good or more evil throughout the story, but while the final result may be toned down from their initial schemes, I think it still works brilliantly. Mickey is still the fun-loving hero we all recognize, but there’s that little bit of mischief and extra depth to the character present because of this idea of choice and the way he’s depicted. The sequels continued these ideas, with choice remaining a major part of the story in “Power of Two” once more, and paint and thinner still being equally useful in “Power of Illusion.” Bottom line: move over, Kingdom Hearts. THIS is how you make Disney’s most recognizable rodent into an action-ready gaming star.

3. The Phantom Blot.

This character is the main antagonist of the original Epic Mickey, and has been referred to by multiple names: Shadow Blot, Storm Blot, King Blot, or simply “The Blot.” Whatever you call this character, I’ll always refer to him as “The Phantom Blot,” since that is who the character basically is meant to be. In Disney comics and cartoons, the Blot has been an enemy of Mickey Mouse for many years - dating back to the 1940s, in fact. Typically, he’s depicted as a campy supervillain; a costumed criminal mastermind garbed in an inky cloak and cowl. However, in “Epic Mickey,” the Blot is reimagined as something far more monstrous: a creature made of ink, accidentally formed by Mickey when he meddled with some magic in Yen Sid’s workshop, the Blot is the cause of all the misery going on in the Wasteland. This Blot eventually turns out to be bigger than a castle, and able to send out swarms of “bloticles” to literally drain the life from the Wasteland. The Blot is intelligent, but not complex: he has no purpose other than to destroy, and longs to take Mickey’s heart, since only toons with hearts can leave the Wasteland. With that power, he can venture forth and continue to devour other worlds of their energy and life. I had heard of the Phantom Blot before Epic Mickey, but I really didn’t know much about the character: this radical reinvention, for a kid, was quite the introduction. And while I’ve since looked into the ACTUAL Phantom Blot and found great joy in his exploits, I still enjoy this reimagining. In my opinion, the Blot is one of the best video game villains of all time; more a force of cruel nature than anything else, he is a terrifying beast few players will ever forget.

2. The Mad Doctor.

So, here’s something interesting to note: out of all the “forgotten” characters featured in Epic Mickey, I actually knew almost all of them when the game came out. Some of them I knew pretty well, others I didn’t but I had at least heard of before the game’s release. The one exception to this rule was this guy: the Mad Doctor. The Doc was the titular antagonist of the Mickey Mouse cartoon “The Mad Doctor” from 1933 - one of the few Disney cartoons that’s actually managed to fall into the public domain. Many consider it to be one of the darkest Mickey cartoons ever made, and in “Epic Mickey,” the infamous mad scientist has not mellowed much with age. It’s explained that the Mad Doctor, when he first came to the Wasteland, was seemingly a friendly figure, and became an ally to Oswald. He was considered one of Oswald’s best friends, in fact. However, it’s ultimately revealed that the Mad Doctor was always just as wicked as he was in the cartoon; biding his time till he could make a grab for power. When the Blot came to the Wasteland, in the wake of the Thinner Disaster, the Mad Doctor turned on the good people of the kingdom, creating an army of cartoon cyborgs called “Beetleworx” (part toon, part machine) to help conquer everything. There’s a lot more I could say about the Mad Doctor that makes him interesting - especially in regards to the sequel games and a few twists in the launch title - but since I’m trying to avoid spoilers, I think it’s best I save a lot of that for another time. Suffice it to say, this was a great introduction to a great villain and a great cartoon, and I’m glad that Epic Mickey was able to give a little bit more attention to the Mad Doctor for modern audiences.

1. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Oswald was the main reason I got so interested in Epic Mickey so long ago, and was, in fact, more or less the reason the game happened to begin with. One of Walt Disney’s earliest creations, Oswald - who was the inspiration for not only Mickey himself, but also Bugs Bunny of WB fame in real-life - was the world’s first major cartoon star. After copyright issues led to Walt Disney breaking away from Universal Studios, and forming his own company, Oswald rapidly declined in popularity, and eventually pretty much vanished off the face of the Earth. In the real world, when Disney bought the rights to Oswald back from Universal many years later, this immediately transitioned into using him in a big (marketable) way, which led to the idea of Epic Mickey. Warren Spector (head of the team behind the game) became interested the instant Oswald was mentioned, being a huge animation buff, and as production went on, Oswald became a richer and richer character. In early concepts of the game’s story, he was actually going to be one of the main villains of the story, but by the time the game came out, he had transformed into the secondary protagonist. In the fictional story of the games, Oswald is the ruler of the Wasteland…but unlike others who are more or less happy with their existence, Oswald’s feelings of dejection have steadily consumed him. He is portrayed as Mickey Mouse’s long-lost brother; he resents the fame and fortune Mickey got, while he was basically left to rot. He is so obsessed that he creates a place called Mickeyjunk Mountain, where he spends countless hours brooding over his failures and his lost family, surrounded by remnants of Mickey’s fame that span decades; everything from bubble gum machines to NES game cartridges. The adventure in the Wasteland gives Mickey a chance to not only connect with his past and save the world, but to reconnect with and save Oswald, too. It’s the relationship between Oswald and Mickey, beyond all else, that makes the games so powerful, and Frank Welker - who provided Oswald’s vocal effects/voice in all the games - gives probably one of my favorite performances in his entire career. And keep in mind, this is the guy who played characters like Megatron, Garfield, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Fred AND Scooby from various takes on Scooby-Doo, and more “creature voices” than you can shake a stick at. To call this among his best is saying a LOT. For both his fictional prominence and historical significance, it’s no surprise that I name Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as My Favorite Epic Mickey Character. Case closed.

HONORABLE MENTIONS INCLUDE…

The Three Little Pigs.

Horace Horsecollar.

Gremlin Prescott.

Clarabelle Cow.

Captain Hook.

#list #countdown #favorites #best #top 6 #disney #epic mickey #mickey mouse #characters #video games #epic mickey rebrushed #oswald the lucky rabbit #the mad doctor #phantom blot #pete #gremlin gus

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