#Ensouled

[spiritsonic]

hormpst

[girl4music]

The way they introduced that demon that can grant souls to the vampire that comes to take The Challenge is the same way they introduced that Slayer Guardian woman towards the end of Season 7. Never explained any of it beforehand. It just happened because it was a convenience to the writers because they’re lazy and just want a quick way to do something in the narrative.

Inventing random characters and places that have never appeared in the show before and there’s no explanation for why they’re appearing now.

The only time this actually works is with Dawn because the point was for her to appear at random.

I’m not a fan of writing that just drop things into the narrative just for the sake of concluding the narrative.

I’m happy that Spike got his soul back but I’m still scratching my head as to how he was able to do it. That it was ever even possible for him to do it at all. Because if this was an option all along for him, then why the hell didn’t he bloody do it ages ago? Attempt raping Buffy is the only event that pushed him so far as to even consider the thought? Did that whole thing just jog and jaunt his memory of “Oh, I can do this.”

Nah, it doesn’t seem right. It was a convenience for the writers to create this demon that can grant souls. It was a convenience for the writers to create this Slayer Guardian woman that can “pass on” the rights of the Scythe to Buffy or whatever that whole scene was about. I can’t even remember to be honest.

It’s not good writing.

Good writing is not convenient writing.

Good writing is set up and built up properly.

What they should have done was kept to the morally grey route with him and have him be the one vampire where it was possible he could turn good without a soul as that was clearly what was already happening.

What does this mean for all the other vampires?

Who the fuck cares?

What does this mean for Buffy? It means a very compelling avenue to explore for her character since they were going to reveal that her Slayer power comes from a demon anyway. That she was part demon too.

It would have made the entire story of ‘BtVS’ better and Angel could continue to be the only vampire with a soul since he seems to be so bothered about that.

Spike didn’t even need a soul. He got one because they couldn’t justify his grey morality without one. They tried to have it both ways with him and it sucked all the actual interesting parts about his character out because it could be put down to “he has a soul now”. It was dumb because he wasn’t the one who had to change but if this was the only way he would get any respect from Buffy and the protagonists, then so be it.

[iwontusethis255]

FUCK YOU, IMA POST THREE UNDERTALE AUS IN ONE POST, BITCHES

FIRST ONE, MADE IN LIKE 2020

ENSOULED

PREMISE: after a genocide route flowey goes to asgore and tells him about the human. asgore understands that this flower knows more than him, and entrusts him to give the human souls to whoever he deems fit. thus, this au. after defeating asgore, he gives both his human and monster soul to flowey so he can go to the surface and escape, but flowey goes to the surface and takes down 6 more humans becoming his hyperdeath form. however, the human is stronger, they were able to defeat 6 Ensouled Monsters, what's one more gonna do?

NEXT ONE, MADE IN LIKE 2021/22 I THINK

FLIPTALE

PREMISE: 3 years after the Monsters were trapped underground. W. D. Gaster, the Royal Scientist, under the nose of his lab assistant, Alphys, made a breakthrough. The Power of Dog. It far exceeds the power of a human soul. The power of 6 monster dogs, is stronger than that of 7 human souls. With this information, Gaster performed experiments on the monster dogs, eventually removing their souls entirely, replacing them with determination to keep them alive. The queen, Undyne, was not aware of how Gaster had obtained these souls, but what she did know was that the barrier was near breakage. However, the canines, missing their soul and having only determination, had grown into horrid abominations. Alphys had encountered one, and in his quite literal blind rage, he blamed her for their fate. Alphys, stricken with horror and grief, fled to the Ruins. Meanwhile, one dog monster was able to escape the laboratory before they could lose their soul with the help of their lover. They both knew the dog was not going to survive if they stayed in the underground, so the lover gave their life for the dog monster to cross the barrier for a better life on the surface. Papyrus Gaster, the new royal scientist, had attempted to recreate his fathers work after he had retired, in order to find a way to reverse it and fix the dog experiments. He added determination to a soulless object, a mushroom from the barrier, to see its effects on it. One day, the mushroom disappeared. The lover was reincarnated as that mushroom and, stricken with grief for the love of their death, they had made friends with Asgore and Toriel, under the new name Ragel, while they were at Nick’s Nice Cream Parlor. In the meantime, 8 humans had fallen into the underground, and since the fact human souls could open the barrier was lost the times, they were drafted as royal guards by the captain, Sans, (who was only put in power because Papyrus begged the queen to make him) and lead by Asriel. Papyrus, eager to help someone in need, created a body for a ghost named Madra, now Madroid, who soon became a celebrity in thee underground, even having a resort, multiple tv shows, and a restaurant chain. Meanwhile, Ragel was in grief. It had been so long, Ragel had even forgot everything about their long lost love but their face. The dog monster, in disguise on the surface, falls into the underground on an annual walk to their lovers grave

THIRD ONE, MADE LIKE A WEEK AGO?

UNNAMED THING

PREMISE: so i was thinking about how many undertale aus had sans as the literal only character. so i had the idea to make an au where each member of the cast was from a different au. But i decided to make the Frisk be from an au made by me. so introducing Corpse Flower! in a neutral fight (bc pacifist and genocide are too common) frisk (with charas ghost) was fighting flowey (with the 6 souls) and losing. however, in some way (idk yet) they fused. my current ideas are that the 6 souls forced omega flowey to help and then somehow that happened, or flowey having souls caused him to regret?? iunno ill keep it vauge until i figure it out. anyway this aus pretty foggy rn but ill keep yall updated. oh also kris from deltarune is in the main cast for an unexplained reason

[thenerdsofcolor]

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The Riveting Sci-Fi Short Film 'Ensouled'

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The Riveting Sci-Fi Short Film 'Ensouled'

I’ve recently come across a rather intriguing sci-fi short film called Ensouled last year at FilmQuest as an awards judge and it definitely deserves your attention if you get a chance to come across it as it continues its film festival run! Deep within the enigmatic Eternia facility, Clara carries a heavy burden of concealed grief. But within these mysterious walls, her life is about to…

[nicollekidman]

it’s so. good. that buffy has to feel self loathing about what she’s doing with spike specifically because the underpinnings of the show require that vampires be Bad Monster Creatures who Cannot Feel and are just Lifeless Demons otherwise everything comes into question. about everything. except that spike is the crack in the foundation of the show itself and in that, he makes the show better! he’s the only end that makes sense for her because he sets her free!!!

[karta-ri]

twitter doodles um i just think they could do experiments on each other

[forlorn-plushie]

Normal people: you gain a soul before you're born

Anti-Abortion losers: you gain a soul at conception

Undead Unluck: you gain a soul when your parents confess

[jgthirlwell]

10.17.25 The The played at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan as part of the Ensouled World Tour. Matt Johnson was in excellent form and they performed two sets - first the new album in its entirety, and then a set of older works and hits, to a rapturous crowd. Matt Johnson was joined by James Eller: Bass guitar and backing vocals DC Collard: Keyboards and harmonica Barrie Cadogan: Lead guitar and backing vocals and a new drummer called Chris (didn't catch his last name). This video is a bit dodgy as they requested no phones so I shot a bit on the down low.

[wingwisher]

if you told me 5 years ago that Charlie the Unicorn would have a spinoff series about a dead weasel and an ensouled coat neither of which had been introduced to the series yet I'd probably go "wait you're telling me they're going to start making it again?"

[onewomancitadel]

Each progressive defense I read of the use of machine generation for text, drafting, brainstorming etc. is disguising the inherent patheticness of outsourcing your own thinking. Very embarrassing.

[catiecat1320]

Sonadowtober Prompt 7 & 8: Paranormal & Surprise!

Shadow and Rouge make a shocking discovery

This is part of my Ensouled AU! (My askbox is always open for AU asks OvO Please)

Read Below:

“Shadow?”

Rouge eased open the door, allowing light into the blacked-out room. “How are you feeling, hun?”

A grunt was all she got in response, but at least she found the hedgehog that was blending into the darkness. “You can’t stay in here forever, you know,” she sighs. “It’s been weeks. I know this is hard on you, but you can’t keep moping like this.”

No reply.

She dares to flip the lightswitch. Instantly, Rouge is met with a hostile hiss, which would be a lot more intimidating if the hedgehog curled up by the bedside didn’t look like he came out of a dumpster, unkempt quills paired with dark circles under his red-rimmed eyes. The room itself was a wreck as well, so unlike the spick-and-span space she’d come to know. “Good Gaia, Shadow… come on.”

The hedgehog ignored her, burying his head in his arms and curling further in on himself. But this was a house of stubborn people, and Rouge sat down right next to him, settling in the silence until he looked back up.

“I’m not leaving until you get out of this room,” she told him, forcing as much finality into her voice as she had. It apparently didn’t stick, because Shadow put his head back down and refused to move a muscle.

Two can play this game.

It took exactly 5 hours, 47 minutes, and 18 seconds for the hedgehog to cave. By then the sun had long since set, but Rouge hadn’t budged. A small grunt escaped Shadow, bleary eyes squinting in the light, a sign of acceptance.

“Get cleaned up, okay? I’ll make you some food.”

But before she could stand, Shadow grabbed at her arm, earning him a sigh. “Alright, I’ll walk you. Come on.”

He clung to her like a frightened cat all the way to the bathroom, where at Rouge’s insistence he crawled into the tub, filled with warm water and some bath salts. She left him absently swirling the water with a bare paw, more than ready for a warm, late night meal. 

She wasn’t sure of the last time she’d managed to get Shadow to eat, but the good thing about the Ultimate Lifeform was that chaos energy could substitute any need to.

Deciding to just make something simple, Rouge fished instant ramen from the back of her pantry— not her ideal food, but it’d do for now. The water had just started to boil when an unholy scream tore through the apartment, loud enough to wake the dead. She dropped everything, turned off the stove, and—

Ran into Shadow. Literally.

The hedgehog crumpled into her arms, still dripping wet, trembling. For a few shocked moments, Rouge didn’t realize that he was crying. Sobbing and muttering the first words to come out of him since she and Tails found him cradling a dead body.

“I can’t, I can’t do this. I-I… Rouge. Please, please—”

“Sweetheart, I need you to breathe, okay?” She led him over to the couch, grabbed the metronome from the shelf and set it going. Its ticks grabbed Shadow’s attention as she ran her hand through bristled damp quills, imploring him to breathe to its pace. 

When he’d calmed enough to follow her instructions, she went to fetch a towel to dry him off, taking a moment to scan the bathroom for whatever could’ve triggered the hedgehog. Nothing stands out to her.

When she gets back, Shadow’s spacing out. As gently as she could, Rouge towels him off, keeping track of every movement he makes. Eventually, they sit in silence, Rouge finally breaking it with a “What happened?”

There’s no response from the other for a few precious seconds. It was tricky working with the hedgehog, especially in such a vulnerable state. It's the kind of tension that makes you afraid to breathe the wrong way for fear of messing something up. Then…

“I don’t know.” His voice cracks in the middle as if he’s about to start crying again. “I… no, that’s impossible. He… no, no.”

“He?”

Shadow’s breath hitches, coming in faster. “Woah, woah. I’m sorry, hun. You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready to,” Rouge says quickly, mentally running through all the he’s that could possibly cause this kind of reaction. None of them make any sense. Shadow’s primary emotion is anger, especially toward the usual culprits. The only two people to have ever made him cry are dead.

“The mirror…”

Rouge perks up. “The mirror?”

“I saw—” Shadow stops, hands going to his face, claws extended. Rouge catches him before he does anything.

“Hun. Calm down.” She stands, slow, methodical. “Can I see?”

There’s nothing wrong with his face as far as she can tell, so it’s a mistaken glance at best, a hallucination at worst. Shadow takes a minute to consider before nodding, letting Rouge lead him to the bathroom entrance, stopping right outside.

“I-it’s…” He gestures to his head area, giving her a desperate look. Was it on him? But she couldn’t see anything…

Rouge nods, if only to quell his nerves. Is it something with the mirror?

She almost expects something to jump onto her as she steps in. A brief inspection of the mirror doesn’t give anything. When she turns to ask Shadow what he saw, however, something catches her gaze.

Rouge steps back, giving her better view of Shadow’s reflection. Teal eyes grow wide in surprise at the same time her jaw drops.

Ethereal blue, snaking around Shadow’s upper body and enveloping him like fog. And resting atop his head is the sleeping face of the boy whose ashes she’d helped scatter just two weeks prior.

Sonic.

Sonic’s ghost.

“Shadow, hun? Get Tails.”

[spiritsonic]

Doin some Ensouled character ref sheets, settling on a consistent look for a little test comic

[girl4music]

An episode that was really good of ‘AtS’ and that had a really frustrating but compelling ending was ‘Lullabye’.

I really didn’t understand why Darla believed that - if she had the baby even while soulless and could love him while he was inside her because he had a soul - she couldn’t love him when he wasn’t. She had learned to love that baby. Developed a love for him. The explanation for it being because the baby had a soul and so she had a proxy soul for the meanwhile she was pregnant. So it was the baby’s soulful influence on her that allowed her to love him as long as that baby was inside her. This essentially meant that she would be completely soulless again when he wasn’t and so she would no longer be able to love him as his mother.

But the thing is that the baby was human and therefore would always have a soul and would always have a soulful influence. Why would that no longer have any influence on Darla’s love for him? It should because she developed into having that love for him even while she was a soulless being herself. It shouldn’t make a difference that baby being in her or not. That influence would still be there because maternal instincts don’t just disappear like that. Darla made the ultimate declaration of motherly love for her baby in sacrificing herself while pregnant with him. If her love for him was that strong then, why wouldn’t it be when he was born? I don’t understand. Well,… I do but I just think it’s completely flawed logic. It’s as if the soul isn’t just the conscience in the lore but also the determination and this just isn’t how it works. Having an internal moral compass doesn’t determine anything being good or evil. It just makes it easier to choose good over evil because it weighs against you. But surely Darla’s love for her baby should eclipse a change of perspective on morality could do to her. You don’t just suddenly stop feeling love for something or someone because you no longer understand right from wrong or good from evil. It shouldn’t determine what your feelings are or aren’t. It’s just a conscience. A way of understanding right from wrong or good from evil. It doesn’t dictate that you actually do one from the other. I mean what?! 😖

Darla should have been capable of feeling love for that baby regardless whether it was inside her or not because she ultimately had developed that love for him. It should have changed her completely. Turned her away from evil and darkness even when soulless. Having her baby should have developed her character. She shouldn’t have had to kill herself for her son’s life. Sure it was a tragically devastating and compelling end but, to me, it made absolutely no sense at all that she wouldn’t have been able to love him the same way.

If the soul in the Buffyverse represents a conscience - an internal moral compass (and I certainly would hope this is the case otherwise the entire synopsis to ‘Angel the Series’ falls completely flat if it doesn’t) then Darla should have still been able to love Connor even when she’s a vampire that doesn’t have a soul because her being soulless shouldn’t determine her personhood.

It’s extremely flawed logic and an inconsistent narrative and biased ideology to make it out that a soulless vampire or demon cannot grow or develop when they’ve had experiences that have made it possible or cannot have feelings or emotions a human or animal can. Yes, they can’t understand right from wrong because they don’t possess an internal moral compass, but that shouldn’t determine and dictate their actions or choices while as soulless. It should make it harder for them to act or choose in the service of good over evil. But not make them do only evil. It shouldn’t compel or control their nature completely.

Now I know Darla is a particularly more evil and sadistic vampire than most soulless vampires. But again - that’s external influence. It’s all she knows based on her experiences both in her years as a human and as a vampire. She LEARNED to BECOME that way. As did Angelus, as did Druscilla, as did Spike. It wasn’t just because their soul from when human was removed because if that was the case then the soul isn’t just a conscience. It’s your entire being. Your nature and your identity. Your personhood. Your “self”. Who and all that you are or can ever be at all.

This isn’t what a conscience is or does. This is an extremely misconstrued understanding of it. And if this is the case - now I understand why Whedon went with the demonic possession interpretation instead of demonic corruption. To him - the human and the demon are not the same entity despite being fundamentally influenced by both the human and the demon. Proxy ensouled Darla isn’t the same entity as soulless Darla despite being informed by her. She’s just being possessed by the same demon as before she was pregnant with an ensouled vampire’s baby. Which means that her love for the baby just disappears because it’s not the same entity anymore.

I don’t know how to wrap my head around this because to me Darla is Darla no matter what. I don’t think of it as demonic possession at all because it doesn’t look like demonic possession at all. Demonic possession is an entirely different thing that requires so much more than just losing an internal moral compass. Losing/gaining a conscience doesn’t make you an entirely different entity from what you were before. It just changes your perspective on morality. But if you have learned and developed through experience and external influence - then it shouldn’t just automatically change what you do, how you act or the way you feel. That’s not how a conscience works.

It’s just completely flawed logic. I’m sorry. It just is.

This episode is great. But it’s just completely wrong. Having a baby that has a soul should change Darla but not just while the baby is inside her. But - for good or at least for awhile. I’m sure eventually because of the loss of an internal moral compass her actions and choices would become selfish and malevolent again but it wouldn’t just be a switch on/switch off situation. It only works that way with Angel/Angelus because he was cursed by a gypsy spell. He was forced to have a conscience to remind him of all the evil he has done and to feel as much guilt and regret as possible over it. This is not the same situation or circumstance at all but it’s treated that way because “demon possession”. Nope. A conscience on its own is not a lights off/lights on situation. A conscience just helps you understand right from wrong. It does not compel you to do either.

Great episode and ending to watch but - it’s all wrong. As beautiful as it is that Darla made the sacrifice she did for Connor - she should never have had to because it should have never made a difference to her feelings. If anything - Connor being born should have made her fall even more in love with him and made her extremely protective over his well being because - soulless vampire or not - she’s still his fucking mother! She - and Angel - really thought that her love for him would suddenly just disappear just because her proxy soul did? But this negates all the positive influence the experience had on her. It erases all her positive development. It essentially just makes her an empty vessel again with a random demon taking her identity, removing her personhood and autonomy completely.

No. Jiminy Cricket going bye-bye shouldn’t do that. I am adamantly against this demonic possession interpretation because this makes no fucking sense. Humans and ensouled vampires still do evil, wrong, selfish and malevolent things despite having a soul. Them having a soul determines nothing about the way they act or choose. It’s just easier because they understand right from wrong and good from evil better than an entity that doesn’t possess a soul. On the flip side - again, it doesn’t determine that a soulless entity will do only evil. It just makes it easier.

A conscience doesn’t compel you to do anything because it’s the experience of free will it cultivates. The only thing it can possibly determine is that you have more of a chance to do good over evil on your own - without any external influence at all. That’s it. Your actual actions and choices may vary depending on what that experience and external influence is. And I would say having a fucking baby would be HUGE! Falling in love in any capacity would easily eclipse being suddenly racked with the urge to do some evil.

The soul is obviously not just a conscience to Whedon. It’s either that or he just doesn’t know what one is and that checks out when you see the way he views Spike.

I’m sorry but this canon soul lore in the Buffyverse doesn’t work for me. The writers are telling us one thing through the writing one moment but then showing us something completely different in the visuals next. And then they refer to it as a “loss/gain of conscience” which muddies the apparent message we’re supposed to get and learn from it even more. They’re telling us that having a conscience is the same thing as having humanity or being capable of experiencing and feeling like a human. But then they’ll put those characters that don’t have a conscience in situations where they’ll attempt to test the waters of this being true and then immediately undermine the attempt by removing the possibility of it completely.

Well, the thing is that you’re not proving anything by doing that. You’re just expecting people just to accept the belief that it’s not possible because they’re not human or ensouled. You’re not even allowing the opportunity to prove you in the right or wrong about that belief and therefore the audience cannot learn that for themselves either. Then you give us human characters that are just as bad as any soulless supernatural entity (one of which is a main core protagonist) and tell us that because they have the capacity to understand right from wrong and good from evil fundamentally that they should be given chances to redeem themselves because all it is for them is corruption and they’re not fundamentally evil like an actual soulless supernatural entity would be.

What’s the difference? It can’t be just a “loss/gain of conscience” because having/not having a conscience cannot determine actions and choices being on either side of good or evil. All it can determine is that it’s much more likely that good happens with a conscience and evil happens without a conscience. But it can only determine that to be much more likely when factors and conditions of huge life-changing experiences and heavy external influences don’t come into play. Otherwise it’s just rudimentary rhetoric that’s based off of your own misinformed sources. But the human (and I would presume non-human) condition is far more complicated and layered than that. There are situations and circumstances that make or break the basic thematic narrative of good vs evil or right vs wrong or peace vs war. It’s not simple. Things get messy and blurry in morality and I prefer it that way because that’s more realistic and compelling. If you remove this messiness and blurriness, you remove nuance and depth that has a lasting impact on the heart, mind and soul of your HUMAN audience.

I think I’m going to stop watching ‘AtS’ - at least for a little while - because I am getting very frustrated with what it’s trying to tell me through its soul lore. And a great character and actress has just been killed off for no legitimate reason as far as I’m concerned all to appease Whedon’s very flawed logic and ideology. 🙁

The episode was written and directed by Tim Minear but I’m not stupid. That ending had Whedon all over it.

[letterful]

well. that was mid.

[nicollekidman]

mary oliver’s wild geese is over-referenced on tumblr but i do think if spike btvs laid his eyes upon that verse his soul would’ve spontaneously rejoined his body, no trails necessary

[mistystarshine]

Your Love Is A Ghost 👀

It's no longer Wednesday, but let's keep this going!

“I’ll be with him every step of the way,” Lute added. “Not even the Slayer stands a chance against both of us.”

Lilith looked up at the pair. Her concern had faded somewhat, but there was still a wary edge to her. Her attempts to hide that worry beneath a rational tone were smooth enough that Lucifer doubted that anyone but him noticed them. “The four of us could hunt her together. That way, we’d be all but guaranteed success.”

Adam waved his hand dismissively. “Nah, make it too easy and you take all the fun out of it.” He wrapped his arm around Lute and squeezed her thigh. “Dangertits and I will take the cunt down, then we’ll bring the prize back to you and Luci.”

Lilith frowned. “Adam…”

“He can do it,” Lucifer interrupted.

All eyes turned to him. He, in turn, blocked out all but Adam. There was such heat in him in that moment, such passion, that Lucifer was certain. He was a formidable creature by himself. With this sort of drive and Lute and his side, his dreams would become a reality. 

Lucifer reached across the table to cup Adam’s cheek. “I believe in you.” Pulling his hand back, he added, “Both of you. Show us how to bring a Slayer to her knees.”

“We’re going to make you so fucking proud you lose your mind,” Adam vowed.