#I have a lot of Callisto lore on my mind

[mossmanismoss]

Redesigned Callisto for the 8th time

[wszczebrzyszynie]

Do you perhaps have some space mining au etho lore? I love your design for him catboy etho is so real

The thing about Etho is that his lore is very... meta? Its edgy because space mining is made to resemble a 90s anime. Hes just one of those characters. I have a proper digital artwork of him but its not coloured and i dont have my laptop with me. So instead have an old chibi i made. With Zed. Everything is under the read more

He was born in a lab... all alone. He was genetically modified to have animal features; not exactly a legal procedure, and definitely not a common one. Child experiment made in the name of science. Etho can easily say hes one of a kind... he doesnt even have any strong health complications from that. He was probably the only one out of the children there. It was generally speaking a very traumatic experience. He managed to escape off planet in his teens and was homeless for a while. A stray kitten if you will. While living on the site, he never really had any experience with the outside world; he knew... some things, but not enough to survive on his own

Living on the streets was hard on him. He didnt even know how things like shops or money work; it was never something he needed to know, as his existence was kept a secret. He didnt even know that an apperance like his is something... special. He knew hes one of the only "animal hybrids", but he didnt exactly... connect the dots, what that would mean. After some time of barely surviving he managed to find his place; not really his people, but a community that would help him when he really struggled, even if it took them a while to get used to him. Which is something he really, really needed, as in the beginning Etho couldnt really steal or even lie very well. He was very much a stray, wet cat. And he grew up like this, learning more things from the streets, becoming clever, more... cat-like. He managed to... ułożyć sobie życie (whatever the translation of that is; he was satisfied with his life). And then his colony got destroyed by the organisation Pearl was in, kickstarting his bounty hunting buisness; something that will take well over 10 years.

Cool Etho facts that i couldnt fit well in the backstory part:

Despite his pathetic beginnings he becomes what i would call a one man army... he knows how to get information. He can fight well. Can fix his own tech. Despite his generally chill attitude hes a foe to be feared. He kills people

His bounty hunter persona is kept anonymous for safety reasons. He could be called anarchist, doesnt mind breaking the law, and hes a child experiment runaway. No one knows how he looks like; he actively hides his cat-like features (with a helmet and custom crafted coat to hide the tail). The reason i dont draw him with one is because i like kitty

Hes a huge decked out fan. One of many in the story, apparently. He holds no negative feelings towards Tango (and in fact respects him a lot), but the callisto explosion was rumored to be connected with earthian terrorists, so he just... ended up trying to catch him. Recreationally. He was very obvious about his love for decked out the whole time and tried sharing his strategies.

[littlechaoticwitch]

Winx Club Rewrite: General Info

I understand this is me being very late to the party, but that's pretty on-brand for me at this point lol

A few years ago, I started to work on a possible rewrite for Fate: The Winx Saga but it soon became this monstrous project of rewriting the entire franchise. Because while this series is one of my beloved childhood series, it is also very messy with its world-building and plotlines, as well being done dirty over and over again by its countless reboots. As much as I would have loved to create a full-on alternative universe like the ones I've seen on tumblr for years, it just took up so much of my time that could have been spent on other projects and it was starting to feel more like a chore than anything else. Eventually, I did create some fashion boards for how to translate their outfits from the show into real life, and wrote up some concept ideas for their live-action costumes, which led to me just writing up the notes I had for the rewrite to share them with y'all.

Some of these ideas were inspired by other people's rewrite of the series, some of these ideas came to me while writing this up, and a lot of these are my attempt to make sense of Winx Club's fucked-up lore. While these were originally written with a live-action reboot in mind, these could also work for an animated reboot targeted for teens/young adults.

This is probably the extent I'll do for any sort of Winx Club rewrite, but it was still fun!

-There are five main planets which circles the giant sun of the Magical Dimension. Omega is the furthest planet (being more similar to a planetoid) and contains mostly wastelands, which act as different levels of imprisonment for criminals or ancient beings of darkness. Orez, Fallat, and Rot are also planetoids which circle the sun, being even further out than Omega but they were once seen as part of an ancient prophecy. Callisto was the first planet to be born (despite being the smallest of them all), and it acts as the setting for the series, as it is home for the city of Magix, three main schools, the Fortress of Light, Pixie Village, and the remains of Aster Dell. Lumenia is the planet which has Solaria (the biggest kingdom), Eraklyon, the wasteland which was Domino (located near the top of the planet), Dyamond, the island of Quartzia (a renamed Isis/Iris), and Romulea. Titania is the home of Zenith (its largest country), Melody, Oppositus, Hoggar, Whisperia, and Dolona. Valeria is the planet which has Andros (along with its dual kingdom of Atlantis & the small country of Tides), Linphea, Serenia, Prometia, Espero, and Ohm.

-Fairies are a group of magi would use their emotions and memories to fuel their magic, with their wings being created from their leftover magical reserves and the transformations are used to help fairies control their increasing magical prowess as they get older, especially if said transformation is used to help out in a certain situation. Witches are a group of magi who use religion, the elements, and other aspects of the natural world to fuel their magic; depending on what teachings they decide to follow, witches can follow different paths in life to help out in their societies. Wizards are a group of magi who similar to witches (hence why they attend the same schools), but they are known for combining both ancient forms of magic and science to perform spells, as well as using external magical conductors such as staffs or tattoos.

-Knights is the term to describe humans who possess some level of magic in order to wield magical weapons and possess some level of superhuman abilities (namely speed, strength, and agility), but do not possess the abilities to transform or perform spells; whether the knight is a male or female, they are all taught in hand-to-hand combat and weaponry. Specialists are co-ed knights who have been trained in specific fields based on their strengths and use technology-based weaponry suited for their abilities (with magical stones used to 'transform' into their armor and heighten their natural abilities), as well as study in the field of their choosing for potential job opportunities. After graduation, Specialists can continue their training through two different paths: Paladins (male knights who use more brute force and elemental-based weaponry, often being enlisted by the Fortress of Light or become guardians of the Omega Portals) or Valkyries (female knights who have been trained by professional spies and use two weapons, often being enlisted for political or wartime missions)

-Alfea is a school for fairies, Cloud Tower is a school for witches & wizards, and Red Fountain is a school for the Knights (including Specialists, Paladins, and Valkyries). All the schools are proper colleges, so the characters are aged up to be around 18-20 years old when they are introduced.

-There are people who have magic but do not fit neatly in the traditional groups. This includes Fanus (people with the ability to transform into animals native to their kingdoms), Magical Beings (such as elves, mermaids, leprechauns, pixies, ogres, orcs, etc.), Monsters (which include dragons, harpies, vampires, dryads, etc.), and Casters (those possessing strong supernatural abilities, usually having super-specific abilities or roles)

-Morphix is an unnatural magical source, created by the Pixies to protect their village. Helia is the one to control this substance, being the grandchild of Saladin and having higher magical capabilities than most Specialists

-The Nymphs of Magix do not exist, but instead, the Company of Light takes their place as the ancient society who oversaw the Magical Dimension after the Great Dragon's disappearance. Both Marion and Oritel were a part of this group (along with Faragonda, Saladin, Griffin, etc.), and Daphne would have joined their ranks if Domino had not been destroyed.

-The concept of Nymphs does exist, but it is seen as the final transformation for a fairy, with the only equivalent being death. When a fairy is so devoted to their magic, their spirit will separate from their physical form and become one with the magic which flows through their veins, thus becoming an ethereal guardian of their kingdom. As price for their devotion, their existence is erased from the memories of all who knew them.

-The Dragon Flame chooses its wielder, instead of it being passed down through one bloodline. When a new wielder is born, the current keeper of the Dragon Flame shall seek them out and help them get their powers under control, with them being gifted the Dragon Flame upon their 16th birthday. Bloom is the exception to these two rules, as she is the first wielder to have been born the existing one (Marion was mentored by Maya after receiving the Dragon Flame) and she was given its power upon her mother's death, with Daphne using a spell to hide her magic when she sent Bloom to Earth.

[sandcastle-clan]

This is Rad! He's a local magician who primarily works as an entertainer and does magic shows :)

He is unique in his ability to use magic of any element, although he really isn't very powerful, mostly capable of doing party tricks and colorful displays.

He was discovered by one of the lairs leaders a long time ago, wandering the wasteland alone. His excess magic was threatening to overtake his physical body, and his health had been rapidly declining. With the help of the clan's elemental representatives, he was able to recover and learn to control his strange abilities.

In my AU setting, by the time the clan found him he was already almost completely consumed by magic. He could only be saved by being integrated into the lair's power system in order to spread out the excess energy.

While his body has been lost, his mind is still very active. He's basically a part of the lair now, able to see into it's inner workings and communicate with dragons who are interfacing with the lair. (He's like the AI of a sci-fi spaceship except he used to be a real person)

Nola and Funfetti run a mobile lightning farm that delivers power cells to distant clans. They are very good friends and practically go everywhere together.

Funfetti uses a device powered by her Wind magic in order to fly, and she cannot fly without it. She's very optimistic and cheerful, despite what her monotone voice may lead you to believe.

Nola is a bit of a hopeless romantic who falls in love with half the guys he meets, but he insists that he never wants to settle down with anyone.

And finally the clan's 3 seers, Amaryllis, Callisto, and Sioni! They each see into a different facet of time (the past, present, and future, respectively). They don't really have a lot of lore yet, I just wanted to share them.

I’m falling out of flight rising due to my busy life so send me your fave dragons and some of their lore!

Ive had a rather nasty day and need some reading/dragon admiring

Do not worry about word vomit or long posts I genuinely want to read what you have!

[trashyeggroll]

A Friend (Fan) In Need...Of A Better Ending

(anon submission)

Hey anon I hope you see this; I kept the entirety of your text (w/o your info!) below the cut.

The point about FIN ending outside of Greece and how that doesn’t feel right is a good one; I never really thought of it that way since the seasons (5 & 6) I watched first had a LOT of travel episodes, but I’d agree that a final episode set in Greece would have been truer to the series and make more sense.

The 40,000 number also did feel ridiculous, and I don’t know why they kept doing that in Asian countries; in Chin, didn’t they say Xena killed 100,000??? Those weren’t villagers but still. Those numbers are ridiculous lmao

“Speaking of samurai, another issue with this episode I know many had was the beheading…it works on a culture level as that’s what samurai would do but as many have said in the past it felt like a step too far as you didn’t need to behead Xena in order for people to know she was dead.

The extreme element for me personally comes in with the added fact she’s naked in the scene, it just feels like stripping everything the female has away from her to show how beaten down you made her and I do wonder if the same would have been done if it was Hercules in her place in that moment. I do not for a second believe the crew had ill intentions with this imagery I just believe they may not have thought it through fully and how just too much it was both then and looking back.“

You’re right, and you should say it. Culturally yes it makes sense, but this isn’t a Japanese show where something like this happened often, and seeing Xena’s head sitting on that table? Absolutely brutal in an unnecessary way and that’s a good point that nobody would think to do that to Hercules.

Thank you for taking the time to submit this! Much to think about.

I’d like to take a moment if you don’t mind, in light of your recent Tumblr posts discussions, to express my feelings on the series final for “Xena: Warrior Princess” and why I feel it falls short.

First and foremost I feel the largest problem, for me personally, was the series final took place so far from the source material and this created a sense of disconnect from the start.

XENA for a majority of the series was rooted in the Ancient Greek concepts, from her beginnings on “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” to her first three seasons at least (which accounts for 50% of the series), so to have the series end in a land other than the Greek area felt unfulfilling; the fact it ended in an Asian country on top of that was especially disappointing as I myself was not a fan of the episodes that featured the area. I know some, Rob Taper for one, enjoyed those episodes but for me they always felt like something just outside of the series, like a “special event episode”, instead of feeling like a more organic part of the character’s timeline path. The timeline in later seasons especially became quite laughable but even ignoring that element I still couldn’t get exited about the Asian episodes as often nothing good came from them for the title character in my opinion - she was either punished for someone else’s actions or having to clean up a mess she didn’t even make so to have the series end there felt like a double whammy of no thank you; the magic in the episodes also felt different to me which is understandable as Asian lore is different from Greek life but again that often created for me a sense of Xena being in almost a different show even though they tried to use elements of these episodes to explain her past.

I’m not saying the series had to end with her taking down the gods like we saw in season five but it still would have been nice after the more travel seasons if you will of the later seasons 4-6 to come back home for the end to give everything a bookended feel.

The second biggest issue for me personally was the laughable number count they used to explain Xena’s need to stay dead so others could live. I’m sorry but there’s no way 40,000 people died in that village fire scene! I get “use your imagination” but I’m also a visuals matter person and so when you give me a scene of snow covered, spaced out buildings in which maybe 20 people are in the scene I’m going to have questions about your later dialogue statements; I know in the grand scheme deaths are deaths so I do understand what they were going for but again I’m taken out of the moment when they go so large yet show me so little.

I also take issue with the fact the villagers attack Xena first yet she’s blamed solely for the fallout. I get not wanting someone you consider evil in a sacred place but still shouldn’t the villagers take responsibility for their actions in the fire also and thus those deaths at least not be on Xena? I was left at times feeling like things were more so happening to Xena in order to make the end result the only result possibly than Xena was involved in events if that makes sense.

An example of this is Akimi, yes Xena showed her the pinch but that’s all she really did, Akimi chose to use it on her father (Xena did not tell her to do that) and Akimi is the one who betrayed Xena so how is any of what really happens in this episode Xena’s fault?

It’s like saying Xena is responsible for Livia’s actions because she took her into battles as baby. It makes no sense and creates less of an enjoyable viewing experience. The betrayal of trust by Akimi of Xena was neat to see as it’s a rare occurrence that someone pulls one over on the character but faulting Xena for outcomes of her choices felt again manufactured just to give a reason to keep Xena in this episode.

I seem wrong in saying this part especially, but “A Friend In Need” reads to me like a discount Callisto story; the writers want us to be emotionally invested in Xena wanting to make amends for this grand event but the impact isn’t the same, at least for some of us. Xena did not personally have a hand in creating Akimi like she did Callisto. Akimi’s actions did not effect Xena until this very episode unlike Callisto’s actions which haunted Xena for years. Akimi was always going to kill her father and she didn’t need Xena to arguably do it but without Xena there is no Callisto so again the impact is just not the same!

I know HERCULES attempts to rewrite the Callisto lore for some reason during one of its episodes but if you only watched Xena’s series then again there’s no Callisto without Xena and thus their dynamic will always seem more personal than any Xena has arguably when it comes to villains.

I know someone is probably siting Ares’s name at this point but I submit that even he just feed off of Xena’s darkness - he didn’t create it, that would be more Cortez who unlocked that side of her than Ares, but Xena did create Callisto so again she is arguably the most connected emotionally.

I wouldn’t want the series to end at the start of season 5 because some good episodes did come after episode one but I do feel “Fallen Angel” is a better telling of the concept “A Friend In Need” tried to do because Xena is more responsible for Callisto’s being than she was Akimi’s choices so Xena taking on Callisto’s sins felt more earned and personal to the character than her sort of cleaning up after Akimi if you will. It’s true Callisto has to take responsibility for actions also as Xena didn’t make her kill those people but even if she had killed no one Xena still mentally destroyed Callisto and thus owes her peace where as Akimi could have learned a kill technique from anyone else, it didn’t feel like it had to be Xena with the pinch teaching her as the only way to stop the evil emperor. Again it feels like Xena is visually in the episode because Lucy and Renee are there but I don’t buy this is necessarily a “Xena: Warrior Princess” episode; it comes off almost as Rob wanting to do a samurai movie and using this cast to do it.

Speaking of samurai, another issue with this episode I know many had was the beheading…it works on a culture level as that’s what samurai would do but as many have said in the past it felt like a step too far as you didn’t need to behead Xena in order for people to know she was dead.

The extreme element for me personally comes in with the added fact she’s naked in the scene, it just feels like stripping everything the female has away from her to show how beaten down you made her and I do wonder if the same would have been done if it was Hercules in her place in that moment. I do not for a second believe the crew had ill intentions with this imagery I just believe they may not have thought it through fully and how just too much it was both then and looking back. It may be part of a culture element, but I think they would have been better off picking just one - naked or beheaded; I can personally take the beheading more as again it works culture wise for where they are and had the head been hidden or Gabrielle spent time killing more soldiers getting them to talk about where the head was it would help build tension for the ending of Gabrielle missing part of Xena so time runs out and Xena has to stay dead and accepts that, with the clear message to Gabrielle she didn’t fail her because if you end on Gabrielle feeling like she failed her then that’s a new issue.

One story issue did seem to get fixed with deleted scenes on the DVDs where they explain the spirit rules more in the director’s cut but if you never see that cut then you’re still stuck with part of the story missing and that’s not good.

Finally there’s the debate of does Xena have to die; even in a perfect series final I feel this would be a discussion. This more than anything comes down to how you personally view redemption for her at that point, is death in the service of good the only way Xena could claim redemption or is a long life in the service of good actually her already received redemption? Can Xena even be redeemed for all she’s done is also a fair question if you have that in mind! I’m not sure this was ever going to a fandom majority approved factor thinking about it though because on the one hand you’ll always have some who think she deserved a happy ending at that point and wanted the “walk off into the sunset together” moment while others may feel a death does fit and others still who could agree death fits but maybe not in that season. I understand not wanting to be strung along waiting for a season renewal that may not come so why not end the series the way you want while you can but maybe season 6 and what we had seen until that point was too soon of a death for Xena and the plot would have worked again in a later season like season 7 or the movie they kept debating doing years later; it’s just a tough factor but it is an issue one could take and I do with this final.

To it’s credit there are some good elements to this episode, especially if you’re a Gabrielle fan, and it’s not even the worst XWP episode or series final on TV but as a series final for XWP I’m personally just left wondering what a rewrite would have been like had they not been stressing this as their last season…what if they got the renewal with the understanding season 7 would be the end, would this have still been the end or would we have gotten something less divisive?

I thank you for taking the time to read all of this!