#I think I just prefer to actually draw original characters and make original stories and such

[originalwinnerfanfish]

Well, it was a big piece of work, hah

I took a break from RW and decided to draw something nostalgic

Actually I've been stuck with this idea for two years now and I'm glad I finally found the strength to do something about it. Thanks for inspiration from one good man)

Long story short

In this AU autobots and deceptions are two unions of different tribes: mudwings, seawings and sandwings for the firsts and icewings, nightwings, rainwings and Pantala tribes for seconds. Skywings doesn’t exist anymore (because we need someone who takes place of predacons).

People are just people or scavenger if you prefer. And instead of whole cosmos it’s just two mainlands.

- Optimus Prime - I kinda like tfp Optimus. So formidable, powerful and mysterious but really gentle at the same time. And mud/sea combo works here in the best way. As the representation of two main tribes union and strong father/brother figure for team members.

I also think he might be an animus (but don’t use his magic often, especially for killing someone)

- Ultra Magnus - Pure Icewing already will be great for him, but I gave him part of seawing so he could be more like an Optimus. But instead of being softer and warmer, Magnus is more cold and pragmatic version of him. A character who sees other dragons not as close allies and friends but as ordinary soldiers.

- Ratchet - Yeah, the seawing would fit him better, but i just don’t know how to make the colors work here sooo… he’s a weak-fire mudwing. Like a skywing, but mudwing. Why not. Make sense with his lack of guns in origin. I think he’s design can be better, and maybe I’ll remake it.

I love his arc of recognizing people as equals and especially his interactions with Raphael. I think Ratchet often read him scrolls about history and magical artifacts.

- Bulkhead - No surprises here - mudwing fit him perfectly. I think that the Wreckers could been a big and strong mudwing troops, and Bulkhead was a bigwings in such a one. He is lost a lot of his siblings during the war, and therefore tries with all his might to protect the new members of his family. I absolutely adore his relationship with Miko and Jackie, so for me he’s one of the cutest character, and I tried to make his forms round and soft.

- Bumblebee - I know that majority draw him as a hivewing, but in that case the most logical for him will be a night/sandwing. Literally, autobots get their own Sunny)

I think in this version with his lack of a voice he could communicate using sign language or some variation of aquatic.

- Arcee - Also nothing special - she is a seawing. I originally wanted to give her a helmet but it was too hard to draw. Just like Sunny she was born pretty small and now even younger dragons can be bigger than her. I’m pretty sure she is old enough to have seen Bumblebee when he was a dragonet, so she's literally like an older sister to him.

Actually she really gives me a Queen Glory vibes with her sarcasm and dangerous beauty, so rainwing might fit her as well.

- Smokescreen - I used to think he was just a cringe, but now I realize he's a pretty interesting and realistic character. Like Ultra Magnus, I wanted to make him look like Optimus, only this time Smoke is more of a younger and much more irresponsible version of him. I think in this version (being part rainwing) he's trying to mimic Optimus's coloring using same red, blue and pale-gray shades.

- Wheeljack - The scruffy boy! I think in this version he could be Bulkhead's "adopted sibling", so they are really close to each other. And, because he spent most of his life with Bulkhead, it's harder for him to get close to other tribes and dragons.

Painting scales to keep canonical colors is kinda cheating, but for this dude it totally works. He should have a pretty bright appearance with all those scars and bright spots.

Cliffjumper - Ohoh… this poor guy. I didn't even think of putting him here, but I like his smug face too much. Even making his scales darker than the original, it's still too brightly colored for mudwing. He probably jokes about it a lot, saying that his ancestors were skywings.

I really like his dynamic with Arcee, and it's a shame we haven't seen much of their relationship. I think I need to do something cute about that.

[itsabouttimex2]

I hope this isn't an odd question

But, do you think Wukong or Macaque would act or treat different their "cub" if they genders were swapped or being a female version? This is also for a Yan behavior

I don't know too much about how is the raising of a monkey from the father and mother so I was curious with this since they're both mystical demons

I was thinking about this when I saw some fanarts from the artist @/car_nimbus on Twitter, they made a neat versions of the characters with another gender

Monkey Mama

(Hmm okay let me build a hypothetical OG “Female Monkey King” to work off of here and then I’ll try to translate that into LMK’s SWK. Also, I’ll probably make a second variation of this afterwards with other characters, haha. This got a little long to do both SWK and Mac!)

Sun Wukong as a character is already heavily defined by rebellion and personal choice, so I think that making him a girl only really compounds that layer of his character.

In many older narratives, female characters are often expected to be more obedient or modest than men, and very frequently only exist as prizes or, more rarely, villains. A female Sun Wukong; assuming she plays the same role as her original incarnation, defies the expectations of how “traditional” women should behave, shirking the demure and passive “ideal” and adding another layer of rebellion to her character.

(JTTW is actually pretty great in terms of female representation, with characters ranging from the perpetually good Quanyin, the eventually repentant Princess Iron Fan, and the straight up evil White Bone Spirit. I’m a big fan of how the women aren’t slid into any one “role” throughout the story.)

I think: in story, she’d likely be viewed as a sort of “anomaly”—a woman too strong, too outspoken, and too unwilling to conform to typical feminine ideals. Her defiance and arrogance might be viewed as even more scandalous by the Celestial Realm.

Instead of being made a “stable-keeper”, I think probably she’s sent to whatever Heavenly Scullery exists in that divine realm, and put to work very quickly. She would treat this “job” with indifference or even amusement at first-after all, physical labor or menial tasks don't diminish her self-worth or confidence! She’s had a life of hard work, leading an army of Yaoguai, cultivating Flower Fruit Mountain,

So she’s fine with this… at first. Then it turns out that the food she makes with her fellow low-class workers isn’t distributed amongst the people making it, but plated up nice and pretty for a bunch of “stuffy old gods” who didn’t lift a finger! Bullshit!

So obviously, the prideful Monkey Queen goes on a destructive rampage in regards to the unfair disparity of treatment, then storms back down to Earth to throw a “feel-better” party with her fellow Yaogaui.

(Which isn’t just a party, but a symbolic reclaiming of joy and community, with her monkey tribe representing the freedom she craves and the earthly bonds she prefers over heavenly authority. It's not just an escape, but a statement of independence.)

After an extensive set of repairs, the Court sends down someone to drag her back, because, you know, the local super-powered monkey is back on the loose, and that’s not exactly great for them. This time, they offer her a “better” role- she gets to become an official Peach Maiden, lucky her!

Of course, it’s just another form of entrapment, but within a prettier cage. Even though she's given a cushier position, it's a veneer- she's still being silenced, controlled, and stripped of her freedom. The role played by a Peach Maiden is an inversion of Wukong's essence, as these women are happily serving the role of passive caretakers, nurturing with gentle smiles—a direct contrast to the free-willed, brash nature of the Monkey Queen.

(And while there’s nothing wrong with being demure, passive, and feminine, having people try to force her into that role is where Sun Wukong draws her line.)

Here, she is expected to watch in silence as others revel in the freedom and power denied to her. It's a different kind of prison, one that quietly erodes her spirit. When the Celestial Court tries to reintegrate her as a Peach Maiden, they are once again attempting to place her into a docile, decorative role, one that strips away her power and independence. Those immortal peach orchards, a symbol of immortality and divine favor, becomes a prison for her.

Surrounded by "ideal" women who embody the quiet, submissive role she despises, the Monkey Queen finds herself chafing under the pressure of conformity. Her energy, once boundless and chaotic, is now caged, and the simmering resentment builds.

The buildup to her inevitable rebellion after being made a Peach Maiden, then, becomes a very sympathetic moment because it's not just a rejection of the role forced on her, but a rejection of the very system that tries to diminish who she is at her core. Her rebellion isn’t about anger and shame- it’s about reclaiming her true self after having been suffocated by the expectations of the Celestial Court. Her rampage becomes an assertion of her identity as something that can't be confined by heavenly rules or social mores.

The Court, in its attempt to “contain" her, only fuels her defiance further, leading her once again to rebel.

It was never going to end well. But it ends all the same, and punishment is to be levied to the Queen, just the same as any other rebellious rule-breaker... actually, probably harsher.

There’s “you broke our rules and tried to lead a coup”, then there’s “you did all that, and we also find your very person to be wrong on a fundamental level”, and then she gets the book thrown at her twice over.

But! Then she meets Tang Sanzang, who sees something in her that neither the Celestial Realm nor her own band of Sworn Brothers saw. Not a heretic simian savaging a holy realm. Not a Queen to rally behind for their own gain.

But a lost soul in need of guidance.

And from there the Great Monk works on building Sun Wukong up as a person instead of leading her astray or trying to cut massive chunks of her personality out? And talks to her about the things she cares about? And teaches her about all the things she missed after spending five hundred years under a rock?

And then she meets Zhu Baije, who starts out a little too happy and carefree about having a beautiful woman around, but eventually comes to smash open heads when Wukong is disrespected, because that’s not just a hot woman, that’s his sister?

Or Sha Wujing, who helps her with even the smallest things, from trimming her claws to cutting her wild hair to preparing meals for the monk? And lets her perch on his shoulders and head so the queen can get some skinship in?

Then Ao Lie, who is every bit the “disappointment to the world at large” that she was considered? And they take turns braiding each other’s hair and wiping the mess from the other’s face, and sleeping in the same tent and same bedroom because it’s less effort?

She gets a dad and three little brothers?

She gets a family.

And then loses it and is alone again for several hundred years more.

So if we go with this theoretical “My natural existence has been rejected for being seen as ‘improper’ by a court of stuffy traditional assholes” and then “I dearly love/miss my dead found family” angle, I think she’d be portrayed as a very different sort of character in LMK.

She’s quicker to lash out and defend herself, and much less willing to sit around and let the world pass her by- because that’s what was demanded of her by the Celestial Realm.

Be good. Be quiet. Be demure. Be obedient. Be anything except you.

I don’t think she’d be as willing to “rest on her laurels” as her canon counterpart, given that a “quiet boring life” was what she had fought so very hard to escape in the first place, so instead of isolating herself from the world in the first place, she probably sets up a little “souvenir shop” at the foot of Flower Fruit Mountain, taking a human form to sell little knick-knacks that herald to the journey she undertook with her old friends.

In part, this is how Wukong works to honor them. To spread their legacy. To ensure that they aren’t forgotten, left as a footnote in the annals of history. To remember them.

In part, it’s how she justifies all the mistakes she’s made and the suffering she’s been through. Settling in to a pointlessly relaxed life is exactly what she fought against, after all. She’s heavily fallen into the “sunk-cost fallacy”, where giving up and settling in, to her, means “losing”. It means “everything I went through was all for nothing”. So she keeps at this little store instead of just retiring and isolating herself from the world, even though she’d be happier to ditch it and lounge about.

So when MK and his eccentric bunch of friends comes around with their boundless energy and mischief, she immediately goes, “Oh, okay! This is what I wanted!”

(It’s not. All she’s ever wanted is her friends back. How could there be anything else?)

The Monkie Kids are vibrant, eccentric, and full of qualities that immediately resonate with Wukong. They remind her of the energy, camaraderie, and sense of adventure that she once shared with her old companions. She sees MK's arrival not just as a chance to teach someone a few of her old tricks, but as an echo of her own life—a life she hasn't been able to truly let go of.

So she starts projecting- on the surface, MK is very much like her. He's spirited, good-natured, and curious- and reckless. Just like she was. Wukong latches onto this quickly, sort of using the kid as a proxy for herself. After all, if she can't go back to her old life, why not embrace a new one that feels close enough? In some ways, this marks her refusal to accept the passage of time, a desperate clinging to the hope that, through MK, she can rekindle the connections she once cherished.

However, underneath that initial enthusiasm is the repressed understanding that MK, despite his similarities to her younger self, cannot truly replace what she lost. The friends she fought beside, the battles they waged together, and the lessons they learned are unique, irreplaceable moments in her life. No matter how much MK’s gang reminds her of the past, he and his friends a stand-in for the companions she still longs for. But her deep desire to reconnect with her old friends clouds her ability to see MK for who he truly is: his own person, on his own journey.

It takes her a while to get to that point, though. So she’s more doting and affectionate, in a way that somewhat stifles her student’s training because she wants to be both her old carefree self and also a good mentor, and the two just get jumbled.

Sidenote: I think with the difference in actions and behavior, MK would be more open to viewing Fem!Wukong as a parental figure than the OG, especially since he doesn’t really have someone to fulfill that “mom” role.

For their dynamic, I think something like this would be the outcome:

———————————————————————-

The afternoon sun hangs low in the sky, painting the landscape in hues of varied orange and blue. With a tired hand, MK wipes the sweat from his brow.

He’s perched on one of the rocky spires dotting Flower Fruit Mountain, gazing at the view with a small smile of accomplishment. Training had been intense lately… if only because he had been doubling down on the time he spent practicing, without giving as much care to rest or aftercare.

After all, even though his powers were blooming steadily… his enemies also were growing in power and quantity, leading to the ever-creeping edge of fear that anything less than a constant one-hundred percent just wouldn’t be “enough”.

And right as he reaches back to grab the golden staff he has inherited from the Monkey Queen-

“MK! I told you to take a break, not run off to do more training!”

Her voice, uncharacteristically sharp, cuts through the formerly tranquil air, causing MK to jump. He turns just in time to see Sun Wukong strolling toward him, her hands on her hips and a look of mock annoyance on her face.

MK grinned sheepishly, shifting his grass-stained boots against the dirt. “I was just, you know… checking out the view.”

She raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching in amusement as her eyes narrowed in annoyance. This kid... “Uh-huh. Checking out the view or sneaking in some practice when I wasn’t looking?”

Caught fast in his lie, MK rubbed the back of his neck, face scrunching up in embarrassment. “Maybe a little of both?”

In spite of herself, Sun Wukong quietly laughs, the sound echoing like a chiming bell through the mountain. Her long, golden hair flowed behind her in the wind, each strand catching the light like molten fire. Despite her legendary status- the rebellious warrior who’d fought the heavens and nearly won!- there was a warmth to her that MK had come to cherish.

“All work and no play, MK,” she said, sitting beside him on the rock and ruffling his hair with a fondness that always made him feel like a little kid again. “You’ll burn out before you get anywhere.”

He looked at her, eyes shining with admiration. “But you never stop training. You’ve been at this for centuries! I just…”

A pause, as his chest turns over, unsettled by the notion of opening up. But… it’s the Monkey Queen. So it.. should be okay, right?

“I want to make you proud.”

Sun Wukong’s expression softens, and she wraps an arm around his shoulders, pulling the boy close in a tight embrace. “You already make me proud, kid. You don’t have to prove anything.”

MK leaned into the touch, feeling a wave of comfort wash over him. Even from the start she’d been like this with him- protective, nurturing… and maybe a bit overbearing at times. But he didn’t mind. It made him feel safe, like no matter what challenges lay ahead, he wasn’t alone.

MK chuckled, turning his face up to meet his idol’s eyes.” I’ll keep up,” he triumphantly declares, pumping a fist.” I promise.”

“Good.” Wukong shifted, her clawed hand lightly missing his spiked locks. “Now, how about we head back to the shop and grab something to eat? You’ve earned it.”

MK’s stomach growled at the mention of food, and he nodded so eagerly that she wondered if his head wouldn’t ache from the motion. “You know, I won’t say no to a good meal.”

The Monkey Queen stood up, dusting off her mentee’s clothes before offering him a hand. “Of course you won’t. C’mon, my treat.”

———————————————————————-

Now, to answer your question about how she acts in regards to her own cub… in general I think she’s much more doting than the OG, willing to express herself through constant displays of physical affection, in ways that are far more varied.

Constant forehead smooching, cuddles, grooming sessions, all of it! Mama Wukong never wants to let go of her baby! Sit down and let her paint your nails! Let her comb and braid your hair! Let her make you a nice lunch (loaded with mystical drugs to keep you nice and sleepy for extra cuddles), or at least a filling snack! Let her pepper your face with kisses as she spins you in her powerful arms!

Lots and lots of indulgent fluffy days of binging unhealthy foods and watching cozy reruns of old shows, your head in her lap as she hums and does up your hair with her lazy hands.

Lots of reminiscing about old suitors as she considers the quietest and quickest ways to kill anyone who makes the futile attempt to pursue you in the same way.

Despite her obsessive behavior, Wukong struggles with conflicting feelings about wanting her child to be strong and independent, just like her! She pushes you to train hard and become powerful, but when you inevitably seek their own freedom or autonomy, she’d experience a mix of pride and heartbreak, pushing her deeper into possessive tendencies.

If you ever tried to leave or even just start to break away, Wukong’s worst traits would bubble up like hellfire. Just as she fought against an entire realm’s authority, she would absolutely wage a war to keep her child close, all while justifying her actions as love.

The Monkey Queen is also more willing to take routes outside of brute force if it means securing extra protection for Y/N. If Macaque or maybe Azure (or someone else like Erlang Shen) wants to try and play “suitor”, well, she’s not too interested… until the thought arises that having him around makes you extra safe! And then she’s willing to think on it.

(That’s assuming that you aren’t one of their biological kids to begin with, in which case there might be a sort of “yandere triangle”. Azure/Macaque/Erlang Shen doing his damndest to reclaim his wife, before he learns that she’s had a child while he was gone... or maybe Pigsy and Tang decided that MK needs his mentor in a more ‘accessible’ position, and plot to drag her to Megapolis…)

Lots of potential monkey mama shenanigans, basically!

[pixelchills]

Chill's ramblings about the DCA fandom and personal feelings and issues towards TSAMS (both positive an negative):

(I'm writing this like an essay but treating it like a diary, so if I jump from subject to another, it is because I am just typing as the thoughts hit my head. Sorry for being so wordy.)

I simply feel like I need to write my thoughts down, so why not share them with you. Maybe you can validate my feelings or something, I don't know.

Intro:

So, oof, I got a fic rec from @thedenofravenpuff and I'm loving it so much I really wanna draw fan art for it...

But the problem is that it's a TSAMS fanfic and I've sworn to my name I'll never draw anything related to the show because that will make me engage with a part of the fandom I'm not comfortable with.

My biggest issue with TSAMS:

I have such complicated feelings towards the show and its fanbase and I do not wish to make my life and work more difficult because of it as it already is.

My own work and characters are already constantly being compared to TSAMS. When I first introduced Solar to my fic, he was constantly being referred to Eclipse from TSAMS. Now that the show had a character with THE SAME NAME, it has been even worse.

Dolldrop Moon has been compared to Lunar. Even though the dolldrops existed before the youtube channel was even created (and Lunar made his debut much later).

The biggest issue I've had has always been the fanbase, that takes the show as the canon for Sun and Moon from FNAF and uses it as an excuse to harass shippers like me because they think Sun and Moon are brothers.

I've first handedly seen the damage the fanbase has done to some of my friends who draw, or have previously drawn art for the show besides their own AUs and personal headcanons of Sun and Moon as lovers. I'm sorry to tag you, but @kriimhild and @fablekitty : I've seen how the immature side of the show's fans have treated you, I am so terribly sorry you've had to defend yourselves over and over again for things that were not meant to be mixed up.

I have posted some ideas of a possible Animutant Moon and Sun forming a polyamorous relationship with Solar in the future of "My Dear Daffodil" on my personal/adult Twitter account. Someone kept commenting on my posts that I was glorifying incest, because Sun and Moon were brothers and Solar was their cousin.

The post had "Animutant" in it. Not "TSAMS". These comments came from a person saying they were 19 in their profile. So it's not just kids who can't tell not every fanwork is about TSAMS. It's starting to be some adults too.

Vice versa I've had another person comment on my very clearly SFW Twitter how they're following me because I am an adult artist who draws TSAMS incest. I have never drawn TSAMS art. I ship Sun and Moon, but they're never related with family bond, because I love presenting them as lovers.

Why I ship Sun and Moon:

Because I am a hopeless romantic. I love romantic love. Every single story I write is always about love.

The only exception to this is the Poppy Playtime comic I am doing. But even then, I was originally planning for a romantic love between Dogday and the Player. Yet, I decided to leave it, and keep the relationship open for any type of representation the reader themselves will prefer.

I used to watch The Sun and Moon Show when it first started airing. I loved their playthroughs. I had a big distaste for them calling each other brothers, as well as some of the first "lore" videos they had. My biggest issue at the time was how Moon treated Sun, though. As someone who grew up with an abusive sibling, it sometimes just hit a bit too hard at home.

But it got better after Eclipse and Lunar appeared. Moon was more caring, and I started to really like his character development. There was one episode where Sun explained to Lunar that he and Moon had simply just "decided" to be brothers, despite not having a canonical relationship.

This actually made me really happy. Because the Old Moon was aroace, the love he felt was simply never meant to be romantic, but platonic. And by making Sun his brother by choice clearly indicated that Sun was always the one he loved the most - in a way that was suitable for aromantic person like him.

And it really made me enjoy the show for a while. Sun is my favourite character, and despite not always liking the way the show presents him, I always feel so much love for him, no matter the AU he is in. So I loved that Moon loved him more than anything, even if it was just platonic. Because I've always been under the impression that the canon Moon loves Sun, and is only under a virus to protect him. For me, the best part of any Sun and Moon AU is to know that Sun is the most important thing to Moon.

Why I stopped watching TSAMS:

And then that Moon I had really started to like, who loved Sun more than anyone else but just platonically, died.

It hurt so much I simply stopped watching the show. I've watched a few episodes here and there after that, but I am having a hard time liking the show the same as I did before.

Partially it's because of the fanbase. Partially it's because I don't find the lore very interesting and some of the stuff a bit repetitive. Partially it's because I am scared to see Sun eventually crumble up into madness, because he has been through so much.

I like the New Moon. He is funny and nice, what I've seen. His relationship with Solar has been interesting, and I genuinely hoped they would've been able to take the romantic route after Moon said he wasn't sure if he was aroace anymore. But as I said, I've only watched a few episodes after the old Moon died, so I don't know either of their characters that much to form any strong opinions about them. I just listen to the Monty and Puppet podcast once in a while and get a little inside to some of the lore that has been happening.

But hey, at least there's fanfics. Which is why I am rambling here today.

Fanfics:

It is a rare treat to find Sun x Moon fanfics that aren't simply just porn, or do not include reader inserts. So since my romance-filled brain needed something to fill the void, I've started reading some TSAMS fics with romance (that wasn't between Sun & Moon) and plot in them.

I know Solar was settled to be a "cousin" to the weird family tree of TSAMS. But I simply crave for Solar and New Moon to be at least queerplatonic. Solar is not from their dimension, no matter how much they decide they're 'cousins' it doesn't make him their real cousin or relative because they're not from the same world.

Sun and Moon are brothers but they technically gave birth to Eclipse, who then created Lunar so Eclipse is technically Lunar's parent and then brother and Lunar is Sun and Moon's brother and... do you see what I'm trying to say?

The family tree is so complicated that I don't think I'm a horrible person for shipping Moon and Solar and reading fics about them. Tell me if I am wrong though.

The FIC that is making me question everything:

So Puffy recommended this fic by @theinfamousdoctorf , "Eclipse Meets His Match".

I'm currently on chapter 40, and I am genuinely surprised how much I am liking this fic so far. It got everything; redemption and character growth, the representation of Sun as the good, glowing angel he is in my mind (for canon, and every AU. He is always perfect in my eyes I love him can you tell lol), slow-burn romance, drama, excitment, plot, jokes and funny moments... even if there are a lot of mentions of sex and sexual pleasure, it doesn't feel out of the place as there is so much more to it too.

Eclipse's redemption to become better and realising he is in love with Sun has been so interesting to follow. Sun deserves the love. I love when Sun is getting loved. I literally ship him with every other animatronic in the games and love it when people ship him with their self-inserts and OCs. Because I love him so much I want him to be loved in every possible universe he is in.

Even bigger bonus to this fic is the second pairing, Solar and Moon, which I already opened up about above. I don't know how much the fic is truthful to the canon lore of the show, but I wish to pretend this fic is the canon now /hj.

I love the characters and how they're written. I love the descriptions of their flaws and hopes and dreams. How vulnerable they can get. How closely they stick together. And as an appreciation for making me tearful and excited about fanfiction in such a long time, I would hope to be able to gift the author some fan art for their fic.

But I've sworn to not draw anything for the show. For my own good. I've got too many awful comments already from the fans of the show despite never doing any art for it. I am just scared it will turn things worse.

End words:

I don't know if creating a new alias would be the right choice. So my main name/account would be spared from the confusion that the show's fans seem to stirr into, where one tsams artwork turns all of the artist' work into tsams.

I don't care if the art style would be recognisible. The artist would be me, but not PixelChills. Just so I could gift something to the author of this fic that is currently saving me from the boredom of being unable to write my own.

Thank you.

(This text has been typed on my phone, so pardon for any typos).

-Chill

[feuerscram]

I know no one will see this, but I think we need to speak a bit more about Stanley and Stanford.

You see, I saw this post from @skipppppy, I choose Stan, and I was really surprised to learn that so many people do like him more than Stanford.

I mean, from what I can see on Tumblr, their is way more fanart of Ford than of Stan. Or at least more of Ford without Stan than of Stan without Ford (hope you're still following me there). Or at least that's the impression I get.

So I was wondering: why? Usually, when a character is seen as the best, he is the one that people like better, isn't he? So they draw him and write about him more, right? So why doesn't this seem to be the case here?

Luckily! I think I have an idea why!

That's because of shipping. Of course!

I mean, look at Ford! He has not one, but two love interests in the persons of Bill and Fiddleford! One is even somehow canon! If you count all the AU with Bill, you get even more!

He has toxic yaoi! So much possibility of drama! Cries! Blood! Broken trust! Every angsty sceneries you'd like to see or read!

[insert picture where Fiddleford and Stanford are in university -yes, the one where Ford is covered with post-its- because I couldn't find it :(]

And we have doomed yaoi! Two besties who got separated by the worst unfortunate events ever! Almost as much drama, but also a lot of potential fluff since Fiddleford is undoubtedly a way healthier relationship for Ford than his one with Bill!

So what about Stan?

Well, Stan has also two love interests. (From what I saw). Fiddleford and a square. (I'm so sorry, I don't know his name 😭). Probably also Eda from the Owl House if I try to be fair. (And I never saw anything shipping him seriously with Lazy Susan.)

Let's "analyse" them!

Fiddlestan: I think this ship is mostly born from people who are shipping Billford, but still want McGucket to be happy. Also they don't want Stan to be alone forever. That's how I see it at least! There are really cute pieces of art for this ship, but I think it may be less interesting for some people, since they don't interact a lot in the show.

Stan X square guy: I don't really follow this idea (as you may have understood already x), so I think this is mostly to give an equivalent to Billford, but with Stan. Also the joke that makes them the "shape-fucking brothers" is pure genius.

Stan X Eda: this one is probably the nearest from a canon ship since they may well have been married ! I hadn't seen much of this one, so maybe that's why it looks not really popular to me.

Conclusion: for Ford, we have two ships that are approved by canon, with canon characters.

For Stan, we have one ship with an actual character from the show -but who is himself not mostly shipped with Stan-, one ship with an original character, and one ship with someone from an other show. None of these ships seems to be preferred or really common: there's no consensus about Stan's love story.

If my theory is correct, and people are more drawned to write or draw about romance, then it may be why there's more content with Ford alone than with Stan alone. If Stan is cast with someone, it's usually so he doesn't stay alone, not because he seems to have a great vibe with someone. But maybe he is better alone? Alone but not lonely. Maybe his family is enough for him. Idk!

So that's it! Thanks for reading my useless rambling that comes from nowhere but my brain. If you don't agree with me, please feel free to tell me what you think. I know very well that what I said may be wrong, so just stay polite please.

[unclewarwick]

i am making this an art blog now, so i thought i should actually start posting my art here. i finished this drawing today and the rest of the art in this post is from newest to oldest. this post is most of my batman-related art since the last time i posted a big amount of batman art (which was december 2022).

i have a heavy preference for drawing batjokes but am trying to draw more and more of the rogues gallery. i have my own vague storyline ideas that include both batman and the joker being trans men, but in my story he is called bruceman/bat wayne.

2024-07-10 -- i do an annual redraw of this meme. this was the fifth version. the first time i drew it (in 2021) was the first time i had tried to properly draw either of them, despite having a deep batman interest for a long long time, and drawing for even longer.

2024-06-28 -- i spent 41 and a half hours on this one. my first big attempt at pixel art. it was from a bad chronic illness week so it was meant as a purposely ugly and simple drawing but it spiralled out of control.

2024-07-05 and 2024-05-11 -- my concept art for the scarecrow.

2024-04-22 and 2024-03-21 and 2024-02-11 -- the joker taunting bat wayne, an argument with alfred, a community meme redraw that i didn't like the end result of but was unwell while drawing so i give myself a break.

2024-02-08 and 2024-02-06 -- the riddler being desperate for attention on social media, my two-face concept art

2024-01-27 -- my take on the oft-parodied the amazing spider-man #601 cover art.

2024-01-18 -- joker thinks he's being sneaky but doesn't know he's with the same person twice.

2024-01-11 and 2024-01-10 -- catwoman being fun and sillie (from before i redesigned her weird mask and goggles that i originally tried to give her)

art from 1 and 8 december of 2023 that i posted on here

both from 2023-09-10 -- a couple of quick low effort drawings from when i was feeling funky

2023-08-06 and 2023-08-13 and 2023-08-18 -- mini comic where you can see the comic formatting skill developing in each part.. just a small story idea i had revolving around a double joke about bat wayne's Identity. and still figuring out how to draw the riddler.

2023-08-02 -- my first depiction of riddler & first drawing of har-lee (my name for harley quinn) out of costume.

2023-06-18 and 2023-06-15 -- my first drawings ever of har-lee; i did not stick with this costume design for her because i fixed it and made it actually look good and make sense at all a whole year later (character design is my weakness), and also just a simple meme.

2023-06-15 -- i don't have an animation program, so making this was a real struggle.

2023-04-28 and 2023-04-23 -- bruceman picking up tampons in the middle of a fight, bruceman and joker "fighting".

2023-04-04 and 2023-03-21 -- Earring Magic J, joker being the autistic, gay, trans dad of autistic, gay, trans pee-wee herman (including muffin the cat from batman: legends of the dark knight #50)

all from 2022-11-14 -- a comic Not about being trans, no, not at all...

2022-11-27 -- a fully rendered version of the last panel.

there's more that's not included here because of the 30 image limitation, but those are mostly further concept drawings of har-lee that i didn't like, and lower quality joke drawings. one bigger thing i've left out are stills from an animatic/animation project i started quite a while back (it's not even my only WIP of that kind) and haven't continued progress on for a while. i would prefer to share that all at once whenever it's finished.

[quibbs126]

could you do a blackberry x adventurer fankid if you havent already pretty please :3

I can’t really say that I made this because of the aforementioned “I haven’t drawn anything in a while” post, it’s just because I was scrolling through my requests and remembered that I was in the middle of drawing her before and thought “might as well finish”

Anyways sorry, this is Blackberry Scone Cookie

So if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t entirely know what her deal is. I know that, unlike her father, she is very willing to acknowledge that she’s rich and uphold that side of her family. She’s also at least outwardly, very similar to her mother in being generally reserved in her emotions. I think one idea I had for her is that she does cool things, she just does with a disinterested face, which kind of just heightens the coolness

Okay so I’m gonna be completely honest, I am now going to just make something up as I write. That top part was in part for me to figure something out

Outwardly, she seems disinterested, but she has plenty of emotions, you just either need to pay attention to her actual words instead of tone, or you just need to get close enough to her for the mask to fall. She also has quite an interest in stories of magic and in mystical artifacts, though she prefers simply reading about them over going out to find them. Also, despite her interest in the subject, she just doesn’t have that much of an ability for magic/the occult, and has difficulty seeing ghosts (best she has is that she can sometimes see Onion), which is one of the reasons she sticks to simply reading about them rather than going out herself

While she has respect for her father in how he goes out on his own to seek out treasure and artifacts, she just doesn’t understand why he hates his rich life. Her only real guess is that he sees it as clashing with his adventurer persona, which she thinks is kind of stupid. She’s also pretty much the one running the estate while he’s gone (she’s an adult by this point) and being the one to actually deal with things such as house guests. Not to say Adventurer was an absent parent, and he’d actually take her along when she was younger on some of his expeditions, but he can disappear sometimes now

She doesn’t hate her parents, and it’s not like they were horrible parents to her, but she feels distant from her mother due to her lack of ghost abilities, and some amount of resentment for her father for being so attached to this persona of his and his disdain for his actual heritage, especially since she’s fully accepting of it and it unintentionally makes her self conscious about it

She’s not super sure of her place in the world, but for now she’s just trying to do her job as a member of a rich family

Hm, so I ended up writing more on her than I thought I would. Ah well, not a bad thing. Well, design time

So her name’s Blackberry Scone due to me headcanoning Adventurer to be some sort of shortbread or biscuit (I know they’re the same thing in other countries, but I’m unsure as to what kind of biscuit he is now). Scones are kind of like biscuits, add some blackberry and there you go, blackberry scones

A potential name was Blackberry Cobbler, but I think I prefer scone, especially since I made her more rich-seeming

Blackberry scone:

So almost everything I made of her, outside of the small sketches and some of the colors, I made a couple weeks ago while waiting at the dentist’s office, and I mostly blocked her out of my mind after that as a result. So I don’t really remember a lot of the design process

I feel like I gave her that hairstyle to make her look “cool”, but then I kind of threw that aspect of her character away. But I still like it, so she keeps it

Also, her suit was originally a bit more reddish, but I changed it today to make it more purple so it’d fit with the color of the scones. They don’t really look that red, so I changed it. But I think now the colors may not all look the best together

I feel like I may have made her colors all a bit too similar to each other, and/or not given her enough, but I don’t really know what else to change

Also when I came back today, the thickness of the lines was bothering me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been dabbling with the Syrup brush now, but I think I need to play with line width more now, since some of the smaller things like the brooch feel like they have too thick of lines

I don’t think her design is necessarily bad though, it’s mostly color wise I have issues with

And yeah, that’s Blackberry Scone, I hope you enjoy her

[factual-fantasy]

30 asks! Thank you!! :}} 🦷

Leave comments on my artwork! :D Either in the comment section, in my ask box, reblogs or tags! Reading all the responses to my artwork is my favorite part of posting on Tumblr and is what keeps me posting! :}}

<XD I wanted him to be. But the spawn rate for female Eevees is 12%!! Heck if I'm gonna run around for hours on end looking for a female!

Besides, drawing Sylveon in a more masculine and chaotic way is fun! And having his backstory be that he evolved out of love for his friends, despite being a man, is a fun origin story! :))

Oh nono, art fight isn't for me 😅 I like to keep my characters to myself and don't tend to draw other peoples characters-

@milk-powrit

I had this idea in my head that big Koopas like Bowser cannot retreat into their shell. But regular little Koopas troops can. But I'm kind'a rethinking that.. I'm considering making all Koopas unable to retreat into their shells :00

Hmm... good question.. perhaps his citizens know, but other kingdoms do not.?

..Are you alright-

@jeysecretive

I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, so I have no right to say you cant do it too. Go right ahead!

Of all the food related Pokémon I can remember.. Alcremie is pretty cute :)))

@kermit-ydafrog (Sent after this post)

.....For some reason I don't believe you Kermit-

XDD THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :)))))

@untitled-7613

:0 A logo? Where would I put it?

@foxdemon-loser

Aww! What a cute widdle fox.. 🥺💞💞

(In response to an ask from this post)

No problem! Thank you for the asks! :))

@im-nice-but-i-dont-like-you

Today wasn't as bad as it could have been! Thank you! :)) I wish the same for you!

I think you're right about this. And yeah, involving money with my favorite hobby probably just isn't a great idea.. 😔

I haven't caught up with Octonauts recently, so I don't know who you're talking about.. <://

<XD For me its the opposite. I get so caught up in the routine of my usual candle run path that I forget to go out of my way to snatch up the winged lights-

:DDD THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :]]]]

I'd prefer a cold shower personally! <XD

@anikakitty11

The baby..... 🥺🥺🥺🥺

@dooflizard

Oooo! Nifty! :00 Thanks for telling me about this! :))

@wolfie-777

Ah nooo, I have no plans to do so! <:/

@olives-in-shadows

Something about this baby looks oddly mischievous...

@savetheearthbros

AAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :DDDD I should totally draw them again sometime!! :000

@teemhauntsSorry for the late reply! Tumblr ate this ask-- I use FireAlpaca! :)) Its free and easy to learn for beginners, but has a lot of tools for the pros! But be warned, it can be a bit buggy at times-

Grizzly Bears! :DDD

@mason-gaylord

Awe, thank you!! :)))

@charactersnatcher

:DD THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :}}}}

Man I haven't had pizza in a while- thank you! :))

I would prefer to be frozen actually! <XDD I don't take the heat well 💀

[cirusthecitrus]

People of the Galactic Horde (the OGs)

Since I'm working on a Horde Prime origin story, it was inevitable that one day I would have to come up with designs for his species aka the original spacebats. And well, it was a fun challenge!

(click/tap to have a better look!) My first attempt at drawing other bats was with the High Priests of the Four Temples - the most influential and powerful people on the planet, also known as Anillis'/Prime's teachers :)

See that last guy? That's the emperor of the original Galactic Horde! Though after his unexpected early death his wife had to become the new Prime. Gladly, Horde World was not left without a future heir to the throne^^

Fun thing is, I never planned on making designs for Anillis' parents, since they never appear in the actual story + even the twins don't remember what they looked like. But idc making fanparents is fun! (In my vision Horde Prime inherited the death stare from his mother and the sly misleading smile from his father >:} )

(I talk more about the characters and worldbuliding in my fic "Violent Youth". U can find the link in my pinned post)

I also had to design tons, and I mean tons of episodic characters of all ages, genders and backgrounds. Now after all this training I'm ready to fill the backgrounds with bats :3

Some general notes on the people of the Horde under the cut

Every spacebat is born with a white face. Any deviations were rare and considered a type of skin condition

Facial markings slowly appear once baby bats hit puberty. When spacebats' white faces were seen as blank canvases, the facial markings were their life journey drawn on said canvases. The markings were seen as the real window to the soul. Having no marks as an adult was simply outlandish, people of Krytis even had a belief that such bats "had nothing behind their soul" and thus could not be trustworthy

Facial markings (as well as ears) came in many forms. In ancient times one could tell in which of the four original provinces a person was born by simply looking at their faces. Nowadays it became nearly impossible to guess someone's homeland this way (mostly everyone are people of mixed descent), but to those curious this is how bats used to distinguish one another by their markings:

North - straight lines across/all over the face (e.g. the emperor)

South - wavy lines across/all over the face e.g. (the High Priestess of the Southern temple)

West - straight minimalistic lines (e.g. horde clones)

East - wavy minimalistic lines (e.g. the empress)

Hair never held much cultural significance on Krytis, so the styling was only a question of one's personal preference and fashion trends. Some bats (mainly from the south) saw no point in having hair whatsoever - those would choose to go bald or shave parts of the head to better show off their markings

Everyone had one set of eyes. Only local deities were sometimes depicted having 3 and more eyes. And yes, their eyes and teeth do glow in the dark

I wanted to make colorful bats to futher emphasise their whimsical and peaceful nature :) Well, if u think about it many poisonous creatures are colorful too...

I wouldn't be myself if I didn't say anything about local fashion. I don't have my own concepts at hand sadly, just references, but my main inspiration for the fashion of Krytis are late 90s-early 00s futurism and cyber aesthetic. Here and there u will also see smth similar to mall goth or streetwear style, but it's mostly something what young blood were into

Some bats like the royal family and council members would wear more classy and regal clothes but still more or less modern looking. Such choice of attire was espeically important to the empress, who, unlike her late husband, stayed far away from religion and magic and made it the main goal of her campaign to weaken the influence of the religious community and push for scientific and socio-cultural progress

If you have any questions about the people of the Horde/Krytis, feel free to ask! I'm always happy to talk more about this AU!

[ccycloneblogging]

I'm seeing age differences in those relationship charts-

But are those Real age differences, or are they part of their "Character" and not when they were actually made.

I'm assuming the latter because of them "remembering" the cartoon as you've put it- but the idea that they actually had real childhoods (one not just written up on some script) and were kids is both adorable and also very depressing.

Thinking about it, realizing you're an artificial being that was made directly into an teen/adult with only fake memories and stories from a tv show is some prime existential dread. I mean that seem like it could be one of the few things that could truly break the critters- especially for Catnap who seem adamant that there is a world to go back to, only to be faced with "that world- those memories were never real".

That kind of angst seems ripe for picking!

Alright - Combining these together.

Let's start off with a height chart and ages for the Critters! (Plus Angel), and this would be in feet - and yes these are the heights I am trying to keep consistent.

Find the original here.

Okay, more under the cut!

So

Let's start with our Anon. You are so right. I really want to make these guys have varied bodies, just like I did whenever I draw the FNAF animatronics. So it makes it tricky for me to keep the cartoon proportions, as I just want to lean into anthro proportions. But I strongly agree with you!

Okay. Moving on.

The ages for the Critters are based off of two things. My preference for having some older style toons - and I imagine these are based on their creation and not their ages on the show. I imagine the show kept them ageless, but around the same year. DogDay is our oldest, because I believe whoever created them in universe first thought of him before the other critters. I think the creator of the show originally meant to just have a small show with just DogDay, Bubba, and Picky - for whatever reasons. (She just gives off older vibes to me). Over time, the others were added in for various reasons. Hoppy is our youngest, as I like to think she was a last minute addition to the team to balance them out.

These ages are just what I have listed, but I think none of the critters really view themselves having the same age. I think if you were to ask any of them, their first answer would be at least twenty five. Five years working in PlayCare, ten after the Hour of Joy, and they would simply shrug off the rest.

Then there's Angel, who started working for the company at the age of twenty three. Stayed for three years, then left.

As for childhoods? They have a false one written into each of their characters. Excuse me while I ramble on about what the backgrounds they were "programmed" with.

DogDay was an only child and rather lonely. He decided to take that loneliness and work that much harder to befriend others and create meaningful relationships. He approached each critter one-on-one, and after that? He'd try to hold on to anyone he clicked with. He has so many false memories of his family and his time with his friends before the show's "start". Though... If he actually thinks about it, he starts to question why he never had any pictures of these memories. However, once brought into the "real" world, he adjusted to this realization.

Bubba was the first to be approached, though he knew DogDay when they were children. They grew up together, and DogDay really helped him get past his awkward phase. He spent so much time trying to focus on learning, fascinated by everything he could read about. DogDay helped him come out of his shell and befriend others. He was the first to realize his memories were fake and adjusted incredibly well. As far as he saw it - yes. They weren't "real" creatures in the show, but existing in PlayCare? They were alive. Did the past really matter when the present was far more important?

Picky grew up with a massive family. She is the eldest of her siblings and had always taken on a caretaker kind of role. She happened to meet DogDay towards the end of their childhood, an was confused when this excited dog insisted on dragging her over to meet a rather shy elephant. She found them both to be weird, but she warmed up to them quickly. She struggled with the realization that her memories were fake. After all, this meant that the family she had, the siblings she loved so deeply and cared for... None of that existed. To cope, she ended up taking care of the kids that much more. She was going to heal her sorrows by making new memories.

CatNap happened to wander in to town on their own, deciding to make a life for themselves - despite their young age. They was probably three days into their solitude when DogDay discovered them in a tree. CatNap was confused and insisted that DogDay leave them be, but the pup wasn't backing down. Eventually, he convinced them to come down and join him and Bubba for a picnic. Though CatNap and Bubba didn't get along at first, CatNap and DogDay were inseparable after that day. They discovered their memories were false due to their recall. They poked their head around the councilor's office and discovered too much, and CatNap just couldn't handle it. They still don't believe all of those memories were fake, and they just want to cling to those nonexistent days.

Bobby moved into town with her family, a middle child with three older siblings and one younger adopted sibling. She happened to run into DogDay during a Valentine's Day celebration. She had taken charge of the decorating, and was impressed that DogDay not only wanted to help, but enlisted his friends to help too! This is how she met Bubba, Picky, Kickin and CatNap in their teen years. She couldn't thank them enough and was the first to suggest a weekly meetup for them. She still has not realized these memories are fake, but she is suspicious of some details and has her doubts.

Kickin is the youngest child in his family, adopting a cool persona to help his self esteem issues. He didn't meet the others until later on, in the end on their childhood and the start of their teen years. He met CatNap first on accident, catching the cat being cornered by some larger critters. Despite being so tiny, Kickin' jumped in to defend the cat, and though the two didn't fair well, they immediately bonded. CatNap soon introduced him to DogDay. Though they liked each other, Kickin' always felt the need to one-up him. A rival. He has not realized the memories are fake, but he has no idea.

Crafty was an only child, but incredibly gifted. She happened to find herself in town to study, though she had a small desire to follow her art. She often spent time alone, finding a quiet spot to occasionally doodle between her studies. It was during one of these days when she met DogDay - who had no concept of personal space and leaned on her, asking her what she was drawing. Of course, this scared the hell out of her. Afterwards, DogDay apologized and insisted that he make it up to her by inviting her to the group's weekly hang-out. When Crafty met the others, she was amazed by how welcoming the other Critters were. She then began to start coming up with ideas on friendship charms and was the one to propose the idea. Everyone voted on what type of charm best suited the others. She is deep in denial that her memories are false, but deep down? She thinks she's always known.

Hoppy was the last to join the group. She met DogDay during a sporting event - as he was there to root for Kickin' (and CatNap, though CatNap spent the game sleeping on the benches). He was impressed by her sportsmanship, and she found his sunshine behavior pretty funny. They clicked almost immediately, so he grabbed her hand and quite literally dragged her to the others. While Hoppy didn't get along with the others that quickly, she stuck around. Because Hoppy was a last minute addition to the show, her memories are the most fragmented. It stresses her out if she dwells on it, so she ignores it.

CatNap's insistence on returning to their cartoon is probably the one thing that deeply angers DogDay as well. In the cartoon, they didn't have freewill. They could not feel things outside of their script - at least, not to the same extent. In the "real" world, DogDay felt they could finally be themselves. That they could truly be alive, even though they were technically prisoners to Playtime Co. DogDay couldn't express his love for the others in the cartoon. His friends couldn't be as happy - like Bobby and Hoppy. They could never be together in that world.

So, hearing CatNap demand that they just give up their freedom? Yeah. This is probably one of the only things that they fought about.

[thatturtleleon]

TFP Human Hcs Pt. 2

Note: I love this scene, just look at them LMAO, also here's pt.1

Raf

so this is a bit of a newer headcanon i have of him, but i feel like he's transmasc or genderfluid

raf never really cared about gender roles and things like that, but he overheard miko talking about how she didn't mind being called a girl or a boy or whatever people wanted to call her

he asked her about it and she replied saying she knew herself better than anyone else so it didn't matter what other people thought or wanted to label her, she knew who she was and that's the important part

miko then went back to talking about monster trucks or something and raf's just *cue the mind blown emoji*

lol i love them

he definitely went as the Dr Emmett guy from back to the future or as some mad scientist character for halloween

is actually pretty ok at drawing, just doesn't enjoy it as a hobby that much

LOVES learning about cybertron and its history and everything about it

at first ratchet thought all of raf's questions were annoying but grew to appreciate his curiosity

raf prefers asking ratchet any questions he has about cybertron because optimus goes on telling a long memory/story and trails off from the original question (raf's a sweet kid tho, he listens through the whole thing), while ratchet gives more straightforward answers

dog person

Jack

him and miko have "try not to laugh" challenges (raf's the judge) and usually wins

one time however, miko did something unintentionally funny while doing the challenge and jack let out the loudest screeching laugh they've ever heard, like the type of laugh that bubbles up and explodes when you're trying to hold it in

dated sierra for a little while, then sierra came out as lesbian, they still remained good friends though

(leon try not to HC every girl as a lesbian challenge, failed.)

considered going into the medical field like his mom did but decided it wasn't for him later on

in the future he eventually got a job with the government thanks to agent fowler

goes to drive-in theaters with raf and bumblebee but always ends up falling asleep

bought a mini blue motorcycle figurine and carries it in his bag

cat and dog person

favorite song is "roll on (eighteen wheeler)" by Alabama

discovered that he and optimus had similar taste in music (country music ofc) and plays some songs in the base if it's just him

Miko

makes fun of jack for liking country music

cat person (canonly has cats i believe) but she loves dogs too, except for the crusty tiny white dogs that old people have

drew bulkhead and herself together fighting some decepticons and framed the picture for him as a gift

he cried lol

speaking of gifts, she told the bots about birthdays and all of them immediately wanted to know when all the kid's birthdays were

bulkhead and some of the others took her to a monster truck event and she had the time of her life it was amazing

actually got jack into some of the music she likes, and they like going to smaller concerts around town

she bonds with raf by getting into comics and graphic novels, they both enjoy sci-fi ones

definitely doodles all over her desk at school, especially when she's in detention

although she's VERRYY extroverted, whenever she gets a crush on someone or thinks they're pretty, she gets a little quieter/shyer; not a lot but you can tell

jams out to metal music with bulkhead (canon)

i don't remember if this is canon or not, but she has a bag with pins and stuff she's collected over the years

her bookbag has doodle marks all over it, like little stars and swirls and stuff, very much a miko bookbag

[sofoulandfairaday]

Please share all of your Sirius and Bellatrix thoughts ♥️

I have way too many, darling.

The TLDR is it is our choices that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities. The long version is under the cut.

When reading about them I usually prefer stories where their original 8-9 year gap is preserved (it annoys me to no end when people write the Order and the Death Eaters as entirely made up of people in the same couple of years in Hogwarts —really? Was the conflict exclusively waged by child soldiers? Were Dumbledore and Voldemort just chilling before 1977, when they decided to start recruiting?). With that being said, I can also enjoy fics where - for shipping purposes - their ages are more compatible, to make them share time in Hogwarts or during the First Wizarding War.

I think they are very, very alike personality-wise. The narrative draws some delicious writing parallels between them, both physically and in their expressions, vices and virtues, and choices. Directly between them, might I add. The author underlines the difference between Bella and Narcissa more than once, we're meant to see it, and similarly we're meant to see the similarities between Bella & Sirius.

They are haughty, passionate, powerful, competent, arrogant, bright, much more intelligent than the fandom thinks they are. In general, they suffer from the stigmatization that many characters - but some people in real life do too - that someone who is intense and impulsive cannot possibly be as intelligent as people who are meek, soft-spoken, generally more controlled. Think what the fandom does to Sirius vs Remus and Bella vs her sisters, when every arrow points to the fact that they are actually the cleverest in these pairings.

They are both some shade of mentally ill, and not because of the curse of the Blacks - half the Blacks went mad didn't they? What's the saying? Every time a Black is born the gods flip a coin. god the Targaryen-Black parallels are gold - Sirius is very likely horribly depressed in OOTP, something no one around him seems to understand, infuriatingly. The only one that seems to get it is Harry, who has the literal Dark Lord living in his brain (= bigger problems to deal with). Bella is... I don't know what she is, ask me after my psychiatry module next year, but my money is on PTSD after Azkaban - after all, she didn't have the escape of an Animagus form behind bars. She would also very likely be victim-blamed for these different feelings, which would lend itself to a delicious nobody else in the world understands us but us type of post-Azkaban dark!fic which I would love to read.

They are both skilled at magic, and while they might despise each other for their respective political views, they respect each other because of this. Bella is probably above him in terms of magical power and skill, because she's 9 years older and because of Voldemort's training, but Sirius seemed to be keeping up quite well with her during their fight in the DoM.

Speaking of which, I am sure that Bellatrix's scream of triumph was due to her winning their duel, not because she thought she had killed him and that is probably the single thing I love the most about HBC's interpretation of her in the movies. That look. 10/10.

I am of the opinion that Bella is all bark and no bite when it comes to certain members of her family, especially her sisters. Sure, she might say that she wants to prune her family tree but 30 years later in the beginning of DH, she still calls Andromeda sister. I'm sure she would want nothing more than to put him under lock and key for the rest of his life and never let him escape, not kill him. And, to me, the way Sirius speaks of his family is very interesting. I'm sure he firmly believes that he hates them, but his actual feelings are more complex than that. You can hate someone and still desire their love, their respect. You can hate that they are the only people in the world who understand you - and hate yourself more in turn, for it.

Sirius seems to me like someone haunted by his own darkness. He, much like Harry, would be constantly worried that he's becoming like them. I'm sure it's a weak spot for him and I wish we had heard more bickering, or at least a full interaction between Bella and Sirius (I feel like she would claim him as hers, underline how much he cannot escape his own blood, even just to mock him/unsettle him in battle). But what Dumbledore says to Harry is true: it doesn't matter how alike they are, it's their choices that matter much more. And I feel like this is why the two of them would never reconcile in canon. They stand for different things.

I also think there might be some - and I know Freud is controversial nowadays, but bear with me - penis envy, on her part. Because Sirius was born the heir - something she would have given her left hand to be: to be born and die a Black instead of being expected to marry into another family - and he squandered it all away by consorting with werewolves and mudbloods. But no. He got everything and pissed on it, and it's just not fair. And by choosing not to come back, even in the two years after Regulus' death, he made sure that the Black Family name will die with him- and I think that is just something she can never ever forgive him.

Now. Everybody knows I don't like TCC and my preferred view of Bella is someone with fertility issues, even to the point of being sterile.

[I read an amazing fanfic once and a line from it stuck in my brain - "If I can't be life, then I'll be death"]

But. If we do see it as canon. This is also the reason why - despite being overjoyed at Delphi's birth - I am convinced that she wished for a boy when she was pregnant. If she had a boy with the Dark Lord, who couldn't possibly give them his name, the House of Black would have an heir. This is also the reason why I don't thing she was necessarily opposed to having children with Rodolphus - the "spare" would have been her heir.

Bellatrix would say that Regulus was her favourite cousin, but truth be told, it was really Sirius whom she respected more - at her core, in my opinion, Bellatrix is really only someone who respects power. Sirius is like her that way.

But Bellatrix is clearly a cruel person, which Sirius is not (or at least, he tries not to be: Kreacher and Snape are two very particular cases of people who are mean to him back). Also, Sirius' view of the world is much more egalitarian - If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. Bellatrix is clearly someone who sees the world in terms of hierarchies, and lives within them (see: how she acts around Voldemort and what is implied of her treatment of house-elves who obey their masters: there is a scale and some serve others, and as long as they do so well they have certain rights; disobey, you get punished).

(Bellatrix is somewhat a feminist character but let's be real- she's not a revolutionary. She went to the Dark Lord and showed him just how powerful she was - aka my wand is bigger than all these male DEs' - and he said "okay, fair, I'll give you the Mark", thereby freeing herself. She is not a "equal representation for women inside terrorist organizations!!" type of girlie)

I also love how her death parallels Sirius'. It's thematically beautiful and it excuses her death coming at the hands of one Molly Weasley (who could never ever in a million years have beaten her on skill alone). She dies because she is arrogant. It's one of her traits. Overconfidence. She was always meant to die like that.

[coincidentally one of the reasons why she would not be a hufflepuff like some suggest: this woman is not humble]

I could go on, but I think I've rambled enough.

P.S. Let's not sleep on the fact that the two of them together would be hot.

[existentialcrisis-24-7]

Hi! What are your opinions on the leaks of the new season of Winx? Did you like the animation or the costumes?

My feelings on the new leaks are mixed.

On one hand, I'm a bit iffy on some of the designs (*cough* Stella *cough*), but on the other hand, I see where they were going with it and I think most of them will grow on me. The transformations I'm not hugely fond of, especially since Rainbow is leaning towards full reboot, so these being the starter transformations just doesn't sit right with me. They feel a bit busy while also being a bit lacking in personality (except Musa, who always get the best transformations and now is no exception). And the wings, while unique compared to the past few we've got, they all feel like the same shape. They are far more personalised, though, which I do like.

I am hard side-eyeing the fact that Musa seems to be lacking monolids in the final design. They could include that in the concept art, but not the actual show??

As for the animation, I think they're doing a pretty good job for the medium! I prefer 2D over 3D, especially for winx, but I understand why they made the decision, and I think they're making the best of it. I have a small feeling that the transformations will be a little lacklustre, but that tends to be a given in 3D if it's not a million dollar Disney movie. Honestly, as long as the story is good, the animation doesn't have to be amazing. Flora's transformation looks well-done for what we've seen.

Things I'm very excited about, though, are 1. the voice-acting, and 2. the new Alfea design.

The voices they used in the teaser are, imo, amazing choices! They sound, to me, like a good mix between the cinelume dub and the 4kids dub, which not only adds to the familiarity but also, the og voices were well cast and reflected the personalities in a way these new voices seem to do. Special mention to Flora's VA sounding Hispanic to reflect her being coded as Latina. Also, Tecna's made me laugh because she sounds like every emo character ever, and the contrast between her original personality and the emo voice is hilarious. Not bad, but certainly strange.

As for the new Alfea, I love it. It looks fantastic! It certainly sets a precedent for the environments we'll see throughout the show, and I really hope they live up to it. The classrooms look fabulous and the individual rooms we've seen (Wizgiz, Palladium, Faragonda, the dorm common area, the library) are all detailed in the best way. They have so much personality and the architecture is stunning. Even if the show ends up bad, if the scenery is even half as good as the concept art, I'll be happy.

Overall, I have my gripes, but I knew from the first announcement that I would. Rainbow can't please everyone, and even if they're doing a lot to please the older fans, it has to still be able to draw in a new audience. This reboot is a huge gamble for them, so I'll remain cautiously optimistic and try to not bash on it before it comes out.

[onetoomanyyy]

my splatoon ocs :>

These four are my oldest characters that I still use and think about, even though they’re only like - 2.5 years old loll.. they’re not the most deep and nuanced characters around but they’re fun :)

Robyn, Nikki, Kori and Marin make up Team Robyn (named after its leader), your average run of the mill turf war team. 

Robyn (he/him) is the team’s carefree leader/founder who tries hard to be cool but rarely succeeds. He’s a little dumb, but we love him for it. He’s the only member who doesn’t tend to worry too much about things, but that also means he tends to brush off things that actually do need attention. He takes a lot of selfies. He mains Sploosh-O-Matic.

Nikki (she/her) is Robyn’s adopted younger sister who he escaped the underground with after the events of Octo Expansion. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they’re octarians since these guys were created during Splatoon 2). Shes sweet and empathetic, but quite anxious and often worries about her place in the team. She prefers to keep her issues to herself so as to not bother other people. She often has her head in the clouds, daydreaming. She mains flingza roller.

Kori (she/her) is my favorite and it shows, as she has by far the most story to her. Shes snarky and sassy and often gets pretty aggresive during battles, but that passion is what makes her such a good asset to the team. She was actually on a different team, Team Cherry, before she met Robyn and Nikki, and needless to say that didn’t end so greatly and made her skeptical of Robyn at first. Originally she just offered to tutor him a bit, but of course she ended up joining in the end. Technically her headgear is the gas mask but I never draw her in it bc it’s hard to draw lol. She thinks S+ and X rankers are too pretentious, but she’s actually just salty that she can’t get out of S-. She mains .52 gal.

Marin (he/him) was the final member to be created and also the final member to join. He used to be on the same team that Kori was, being the second in command before Kori replaced him. This, combined with the fact that the inciting incident for the team breaking up was Kori leaving them, made their first few weeks of him being on the team a little rocky. They still have a bit of a friendly rivalry. Marin is often the most reasonable voice among them and is usually kinda grumpy. He’s always the main strategizer of the team, as the rest of them don’t really care about that kind of thing. He mains hydra splatling.

I have a lot of art of them but it’s all rlly old so this is all you get for now. I’ll probably make another post later explaining Team Cherry and what happened with that :] thx for reading !!

[demeterdefence]

Thinking about your "Rachel bashing og greek myths" post, methinks she believed herself to be making greek culture a favor similarly to the author of The Phantom of Manhattan, the unofficial sequel to The Phantom of the Opera

In the preface, the author begins by saying that Phantom, unlike Frankenstein or Dracula, barely made a dent in world culture until Andrew Lloyd Webber came along to make the musical, which he considers the "true" version even tho like...it wouldn't exist without the novel! He bashes Gaston Leroux and basically states that his attempt at writing failed miserably and it's like DUDE, again, the musical and your problematic sequel wouldn't even exist without it, and just because it was bigger in France than in the usa it doesn't mean it had zero impact in culture

But of COURSE unless it's usa-approved then it doesn't count and isn't worth anything *sarcasm*

PHENOMENAL point, FANTASTIC point, absolutely true and correct

i can't be a total dick and say this is an issue solely created and implemented by rachel, because we've seen non-western cultures and religions absolutely whitewashed to hell and back - like, people have been drawing jesus of the bible as white for centuries when he was a middle eastern palestinian jewish man, and good god look what the west has done to the religions of india, china, and japan. but it's the way these kinds of stories drip with a sort of smugness in removing the original culture, in depicting it as backwards and broken.

rachel wants to claim she's making a feminist retelling, but the original myth was already feminist. ancient greece didn't pretend their society was not fiercely male dominated and patriarchal, and hades stealing persephone was absolutely in line with the traditional myths - the twist is that demeter wins. demeter punishes the male gods who stole her daughter, and the ferocity of her rage and grief forces hades and zeus to give in. if persephone hadn't eaten the pomegrante seeds, she wouldn't be in the underworld at all! this is a story that is so clearly a triumph for the mothers and daughters of ancient greece, of many worlds over, because it depicted explicitly that a mother's love was more powerful than even the gods. and rachel pisses all over that.

literally even going beyond that, looking at the society that is olympus and the underworld - all the technology they use, all the innovations they have. who exactly is making these??? where exactly is the material coming from??? you can handwave away most of the inventions by saying it's magic, but we've seen demeter talk about algebra, which was invented in the ninth century by a muslim scholar from persia. in speedrunning to this so called perfect modernized world, rachel actually erases the cultural offerings and developments of dozens of other ancient worlds, and kind of just gives the credit to the underworld, which is run by a slave driver.

persephone constantly bemoans the dullness of the mortal realm, and prefers to literally lounge around doing nothing, when the mortal realm is inventing the olympic games, the democratic forum, FOOTBALL. you have thousands of things to show the gods involved in - largely because the gods were the patrons!!! why do we never see zeus looking over the olympic games??? they happen in his sanctuary!!!

like the disdain rachel has for ancient greece is insane. she can't even bother to research the food typical of the time period, seeing as she writes persephone being looked down on for being vegetarian when vegetables were a key and staple diet of ancient greece. one could argue that a vast majority of ancient greece were vegetarian by general habit. she's baking cheesecake and french desserts and having fast food and carrot cake and maybe - maybe - she'll mention baklava. the ancient greeks are FAMOUS for their art, but we sure wouldn't know that from lore olympus. the only character who even references ancient greek music is apollo, with his lyre, and that's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

and this is not to say that an adaption has to follow the ancient text to a t - that's just not feasible and no one is expected to do so. but there's really something to how rachel does dismiss or ignore the canonical importance of so many of these stories to replace them with a western interpretation. even the therapy speak is grating. in episode 227, when persephone is talking about the concept of virginity, she's absolutely correct in pointing out how that's largely a social construct - but in light of the world she lives in and the world she helps control, the same idea could have been reached through means other than americanized psych talk.

so often, people will look back at the ancient world and think we are morally superior because we do not have the same views, or we have seemingly "developed." that is a view i abhor, because it removes the very act of learning and developing and understanding. rachel really talked big about how removing the incest of ancient greece made the story better, but incidentally, she managed to also take out the feminism, and literally the entire lgbt culture of ancient greece. apollo was even considered the patron of homosexuality! he was called to bless same-sex unions! zeus had DOZENS of male lovers; ares, hephestus, and hermes had known male relationships, and several of the ancient heroes and gods of greek mythology were described in terms we would refer to as transgender in modern times.

if rachel had gone "i'm writing a love story that's originally inspired by the myth of persephone and hades but it's very much modern and removed from the myths" that would be one thing, and i would not be bristling at that; myths have inspired countless stories over the centuries and will continue to do so for centuries to come. the problem is rachel wants to claim a rooting in these myths with zero understanding of how they work or why they work, and absolutely lets her contempt for the ancients shine through in every single aspect of her comic. it's gross and it's petty and she deserves none of the self-appointed "mythology expert" she's given herself.

[semi-imaginary-place]

I personally prefer Nier's story to Automata's but I can't deny that Automata is a more polished experience. Automata is more dramatic and exciting and flat out tells you what the game is about. By contrast Nier (both Replicant and Gestalt) use much more subtle storytelling  showing not telling, the makes the game denser narratively but also more work since the audience actually has to think. The two games alao have different roles. Nier is a deconstruction of the archetypal JRPG, settling up many tropes of the genre only to twist, subvert, or deconstruct them by the end. Both are very existential. I find the Tragedy of Nier to be very compelling. Nier draws in the audience with it's humor, and warmth, and the genuineness of it's main cast and theough the second half all the story elements fall to into place with such timing that it's emotionally devastating. Nier is a somber, melancholy, and contemplative game with one of the best videogame stories I have ever seen in the last 30 years.

both games eventually argue that the enemies (robots, shadows) are people and because this is an action videogame to continue to play is to continue to massacre at times pretty innocent people. That's how the game is set up to continue the story you have to go kill people who are just minding their own business and the only way to stop the violence is to put the game down. OG Nier has a stronger argument with the shadows being the original humans and replicant being the copied puppets that weren't suppose to gain sentience. Like you kill a small shadow and it drops an old coloring book or the first shadow you kill in the main story does not attack you it just stands there until you progress the story and kill it. Automata instead spends it's second arc detailing the exquisite breakdown of 9s's mental state like wow that was well done.

Yeah the build up in OG Nier is excellent first you get all these hints those most of us don't put together until after the reveal. The end of the first playthrough slams you bit then the 2nd playthrough adds all this perspective as you go through the game again from the shadows/gestalts perspective and nothing changes because while the player knows more, Nier doesn't and the same events are just going to happen again. There's some commentary on fatalism and existentialism here too in that the player has no way to change the story and even though we have changed the characters and story will not. There is no choice killing the shadows will just happen again. And yes! Wolfy and Beepy are my favorites 😭

[oonalovesastarionssimpleplan]

The Good and the Bad Ending.

This is a purely analytical look at Astarion's story, considering both endings.

I am drawing on my knowledge, which I gained through studying creative writing and years of passion for stories and characters. I will not be making any judgments about whether ending is "right" or "wrong." Each individual can decide for themselves which one they prefer. (Forgive errors in the text, English is not my native language)

At first, I will explain to you some tools to plan or analyze a story. A schema that can be used to orient yourself to roughly plan a story. To prevent having just a narrative of events, but to use exciting plot points to turn a narrative into a story.

The most famous is the three-act structure. Sound familiar? The three acts in Baldur's Gate.

Very roughly: Beginning - Middle - End.

The impetus - the emotional climax - the test of strength.

Then there is the five-act structure and some triangles. Everyone can use their favorite there. I orient myself on the so-called hero's journey, it uses between 12 and 17 points. The individual sections can be interpreted creatively and weighted individually.

With "hero" here, no knight or superhero is meant. He doesn't even have to perform heroic deeds. A hero is here referred to as the protagonist, i.e. the figure that it's about. The journey is, well, the journey. Of course not from London to Thailand, but the events that shape the figure on her way.

Astarion's Story Based on the Hero's Journey

1. Everyday life

We learn about the ordinary life of the hero. It doesn't have to be shown exactly how he lives, like in Harry Potter. It can also be mentioned in the course of the first events, as long as it happens in the first act. And in the ordinary world, there is a problem, from which the goal of the protagonist emerges. Every story needs a goal. Without a goal, no journey.

We learn that Astarion's daily life consists of luring victims for Cazador, mostly on a sexual basis. Torture, hunger, fear, and the complete abandonment of his personality form the problem. The goal is therefore freedom from his master Cazador.

2. Call to Adventure

The hero is usually thrown into an event that represents a significant change in everyday life and challenges him to address his problem.

Astarion is kidnapped by the Nautiloid and given a tedpole what makes possible for him to live a life of freedom now. (walking in The sun... You know) He does not have to fear his master anymore.

The hero usually resists the adventure first, but there comes a point where he finally decides. (Like in the Matrix: the red or the blue pill? )

From Astarion's origin, we know that he dreams of Cazador, who reminds him of his rules. Astarion decides to break one of these rules and bites Tav. After the bite he feels stronger because he has drunk the blood of a thinking creature for the first time, something his master forbade to keep them weak. he now feels ready to take on the adventure.

The next 3 points relate to:

3.4.5. Building Up the Conflict

We usually meet a mentor here who enables the hero to embark on his journey, who supports him and gives him advice. For Tav, it is The Guardian, but we are looking at Astarion's journey, and there is definitely Tav, the companion who supports him and guides him in dialogues (which one to support decides the player)

We learn about a so-called gatekeeper. Something or someone that makes his journey difficult, which is either identical to the mentor or to the antagonist.

This could be the scars on Astarion's back, which symbolize the influence of Cazador. Something seems to be still in his way, but what do they mean?

6. Crossing the Threshold

Symbolically, as well as actually, the hero enters unknown territory. The shadow curse.

Symbolically, Astarion begins to question things and explore unknown territory. He touches the scars because he now wants to know what is written there, as he feels that it has relevance.

he even seeks the help of a devil to find out more about the scars. Astarion is so afraid of being Cazador's slave again that he would rather give his soul to the devil, he says.

He is concerned with maintaining his freedom and how he could defeat Cazador. A thought that seemed impossible before.

He wonders how he can become even more powerful with the help of the tedpole, so as never to get into this situation again?

In Astarion's worldview, the powerful are the ones who oppress others. This means for him that in order to never be oppressed again, he must be mean to others. So he is manipulativ and selfish. This worldview is reflected in his approvals.

Now, when he is essentially already free, he also begins to question himself. An example of this is the mirror scene. What was his eye color like before? How does the world see him? How does Tav see him? Who is he behind the vampirism?

7. Road of Trials

The hero learns what rules and laws he still needs to learn in order to face his ordeal (Cazador). Here, the so-called ('fall height') the drop high, is usually represented. So how much could the hero lose if he fails?

This is where the meaning of the scars becomes important. In this case, his death and not only that. After this ritual, his soul goes to Mephistopheles.

8. Death and Rebirth

The hero dies a symbolic death and after this event he is changed. In Shadowheart, it is clearly the moment when she faces Nightsong. For La'zel, it is questioning her queen. After that, they have a different view of things. They are changed, Shadowheart even physically. This change is called initiation (more on that later)

It doesn't always have to be a fight, it can also be the death of a friend, or the hero learns about his true origins.

characteristic is that the hero is changed.

In order to get an answer to the meaning of his scars, he is supposed to kill the Orthon for Raphael.

9. Initiation

The moment of the symbolic death of the old and the birth of a new, more mature identity is called initiation.

For me, this is clearly the confession scene. In my opinion, it is the most important scene. The turning point of his character. It definitely takes place after the fight with the Orthon and as soon as you reach the Moonrise Towers.

Here we see the real Astarion, who has taken off his mask. He is honest and sincere and accepts the consequences consciously, since he really regrets his behavior towards Tav. Not manipulativ or selfish anymore.

This scene is also triggered after the dialogue with Araj Oblodra. After he clearly states that he will not bite her. But what exactly happens there?

He was able to decide for himself for the first time in 200 years, to resist, without having to fear anything. He realized that he was already free in his choice of actions, but still stuck in old patterns. He questions himself. Who is he if he is no longer Cazador's slave?

He is now honest and confesses to Tav about his manipulation and his sexual trauma. (Which is a moment of weakness and Astarion generally does not like to show weakness.) He begins to take responsibility for his actions, the character begins to change.

10. The Gift

For the previously aroused courage, the hero receives a reward. A gift. This can be a skill, a weapon, knowledge or an insight.

For killing the Orthon, he now gains the insight into the meaning of the scars and learns a way to become the Magnificat bastard of Fearun himself.

With his honesty and confession, he has won Tav over to his cause. He has shown Tav his true self and Tav will (at best) fight for him without having to give up his body as usual. So the friendship/romance with Tav is a gift too.

11. The Escape

The hero has to return to everyday life because the forces of evil are still active. Here the hero meets old ghosts and meets them with his changed self.

In the catacombs of the palace of Szarr, Astarion learns that all his victims of the past 200 years were hidden there to be sacrificed for the ritual. Especially the encounter with Sebastian seems to trigger something in him and mirrors the relationship to Tav, where he was able to allow feelings. Here Astarion seems torn, he jumps from absolute disinterest to sincere remorse. Which is a sign of mental instability. Astarion shows many symptoms of ptsd, but that is material for another analysis.

12. Final Ordeal 1

The most difficult part of the journey now lies in the final ordeal. Here the hero applies his new insights and gifts. He knows about the ritual and how he could stop it or use it for himself. He has found enough self-confidence to attack Cazador, but of course it is not that easy. Alone, his soul would be in hell within a few seconds. The fight begins and now his previous achievements pay off and Tav helps him.

13. Final Ordeal 2

The hero believes he has accomplished the task, but he realizes that he still has a task ahead of him.

(Ascension or Not?) Because the forces of evil are still active and he has to fight for the gift again.

Now he sees the power and is faced with a decision.

We remember, everything he does, he does out of fear. He would even give his soul to the devil, but is that still necessary when Cazador is dead?

And here Tav comes into play. the mentor who helps him make the right decision based on previous dialogues and actions.

-You decide, based on your Playthrough-

Important: The best stories always make the hero pay a price to achieve his goal. Otherwise, it seems too easy and the reader is not emotionally drawn in.

So what price does Astarion pay?

The Bad Ending

It is called bad, as it continues the cycle of evil. Astarion sacrifices 7,000 souls to satisfy his need. He continues what his master started. The villain has only changed his face.

If Tav doesn't make him feel like he's enough (the level of approval) that he don't need that infernal contract his Master started. Then he doesn't feel safe enough to stop the ritual.

After the ritual, he is free from the flaws he had as a vampire

The Price

His soul? Maybe. Cazador says that all who wear this rune are bound to the ritual and will be consumend.

This ritual has its rules, something has been changed, the one who performs it, but does it change the rules?

Even if not, this ritual is infernal, and it is often mentioned in the game that a pact with the devil always comes with a price. Wyll says that the devil doesn't just take something, he takes everything.

The ritual overrides the process of self-discovery and the mask of madness that grew out of the trauma has manifested itself.

'Your hunger veers towards madness' is what it says in the Origin. And this madness is immediately noticeable. He goes back to his old patterns. His striving for power, as we know, a sign of fear, and seems consolidated. He doesn't talk about anything other than ruling over everyone. He is performing again, especially in the romance that becomes visible when he asks you how you would like it. He is obsessed with you, which is a sign of fear of loss. He remains a slave to his trauma.

The Good Ending

It is 'good' because the hero defeats evil, interrupts the ritual, and frees 7,000 spawns.

Astarion understands that he can break the cycle of evil, who he was being a victim himself and giving up the power so he will not sacrifice others to satisfy his needs.

We remember the confession scene. The character has changed and is sticking to it. He is sincere and accepts the consequences consciously, since he truly regrets his past (for example what he do to Sebastian)

Astarion has no longer to perform in front of anyone and can therefore deal openly with his trauma. In the Romance scene he processes what happened to him and is now ready to face his own future.

The Price

He gives up his wish to regain the comforts of a living being to not sacrifice 7,000 innocent people he lured. He cannot have the comforts of a living being again. He is once again a slave to his hunger and the shadows. He gives up the ability to walk in the sun, as soon as the tadpole disappears.

Conclusion:

Let's look again at the goal and whether it was achieved.

In both endings, he is free from Cazador.

So the hero has achieved his goal, both endings are meaningful for Astarion.

One is morally right, the other morally wrong. It is up to the player to decide which one is better.

Can power help to deal with a trauma if you continues the cycle of evil u lived in?

Do you have to live with the disadvantages that someone else has given you?

Astarion himself approves to be persuaded not to ascend. +3