#It's not altruistic unless I actually do something about it

[tgd-sideblog]

I don't get BuckTommy shippers making such a fuss about how ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟromantic *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ it is that Tommy claims he was driving by Buck's apartment and thinking of calling him; yet ignoring that he dumped Buck, didn't make any post-breakup contact in the weeks/months since it happened, he's only talking to Buck then because Ravi dragged him over, and he doesn't admit to apparently wanting to reach out to Buck until finds out the competition is out of the way. Why give him credit for gestures of interest he didn't actually make?

[jazjelspen]

my angel baby [part 2]

(alastor w/ angel daughter reader)

[caution: NOT PROOFREAD oh and angst hehe]

(notes: alastor joins charlie and vaggie in heaven to convince them about the hazbin hotel. angel reader physically resembles a fawn. )

[tags: @luujjvi @c-lunette @mokisano @ghostdoodlen @wildfire153 @anonymousewrites @bewitchedbymadness @thisbitchreallyneedssleep @22carolina08 @original-person]

[remember if you want to keep in touch with a particular series I write, let me know in comments or messages you want to be tagged! you will only be tagged once unless specified that you want to be tagged till the end of a particular series!]

(also once again, apologies if alastor’s last name isn’t actually altruist qwq it’ll stick till the end of this fic but I’ll try not to mention it as much)

For the first time in years, you feared being in heaven.

Not that you felt unsafe, just that you felt incredibly uncomfortable seeing your serial killer dad who's now a demon be invited to be in the place where light and goodness is it's main foundation.. even reassuring yourself that it was temporary didn't calm you down when you were flying away from him. For your own sake you even avoided where the welcoming was happening.

Ahh but.. it also didn't help that he was following you around after the show without you knowing.

After the angels had performed their song to welcome in the princess of hell, her apparent partner, and-- him.. everyone sort of went their separate ways and the visitors from below started to relax in their new yet temporary places of stay. You felt a bit of relief when you assumed Alastor would also be setting himself in to relax as well.

During heaven's performance you decided to take a breather at a local coffee shop, one where you thankfully always had a spot there where you could hide away from the huge windows of the cafe.

Although right after that, unbeknownst to you at the time, Alastor was looking for you, but obviously pretended as if he was looking for a good bite to eat.. unfortunately for him he had to behave and he couldn't eat a living walking thing until after they came back home.

Oh how bummed out he was.

You were in a far corner inside the shop, as mentioned before anyone that was able to look in through the windows wouldn't be able to see you since you were out of view. Drinking your favorite beverage that the shop offered and eating a filling snack to relax your body and mind. Safe to say you were now more in touch with your feelings and weren't overly panicked as you once were.

'Why is he here.. is he an advisor to the princess? a companion?.. some kind of servant?.. she's really young though, perhaps she's ward to him or something.. but she has her.. dad.. and I'm sure he must be alive still.. ' You thought, different theories and ideas passing by in and out your head trying to make sense of the situation.

'perhaps.. he's here to see me?..' you hoped, then scolded yourself right after,

'nono.. I can't be wanting that.. sure he raised you but he's a monster. he killed you, _____. get a grip..' you sighed deeply while massaging your temples in frustration 'even if he seemed to not.. have meant to do that. he tried to kill someone else anyway, that poor man could've died instead of you.' you tried to reason with yourself, coming to a single conclusion in the end.

Eyes glued to your drink. staring at it with intensity.

"I regret nothing." you claimed to yourself in a low mumble, not enough for anyone close to hear.

Ahh.. but you did miss him very much.. the version of him that you grew up with at least.

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You were in your warm and humble home with your father. It was a fairly cold night with rain dropping onto the roof of your home yet the warmth of the house seemed to make the cold seem almost cozy to you.

Your small footsteps could be heard running around the house, as your little seven year old self ran around you seemed to be giggling uncontrollably with a peculiar circular item in your hand.

"No running in the house _____, remember what I told you." Alastor exclaimed in slight irritation as he could hear you from afar while he was cleaning up the table from the dinner you two just had, he started slightly missing the times when you didn't know how to walk and when you simply just blabbered baby nonsense.. he definitely doesn't miss the sleepless nights of baby crying though.

You huffed and puffed as you then plopped the item on the sofa, it was a disk, a record. You then climbed yourself up and once your little body landed on the cushions you then picked yourself up once more to then grab the disk and turn to the small table right beside the sofa where a large phonograph rested on.

"Papa!" you exclaimed, "Papa! Music music!.." you pleaded, your little voice begging to once again turn on the music playing machine.

Alastor faintly chuckled at your little demands, amusing how such a small thing dares to command but nonetheless he found it silly at how you tried. "Yes yes my dear, I'll be right there." He then set the last few dirty dishes away to be cleaned soon since he couldn't say no to listening to some tunes before bed.

You smiled brightly as your little feet playfully tapped on the cushions, almost jumping. Noticing your developing excitement Alastor hurried over to you.

"Ah-ah-ahh, no jumping on the sofa my dear. I'm excited as well but I can't have you break your little head open, that'd be no fun at all!" Well.. that and he didn't wanna ruin his cushions, but nonetheless he cared for your wellbeing the most even if he wasn't fond of admitting it.

His hands gently took the disk from your hands, carefully setting the disk on the phonograph to have it play your favorite tunes. Once you two heard the amazing first few notes of jazz was when Alastor settled down beside you on the sofa and you started clapping in delight.

Alastor looked at you almost fondly, letting out a small huff of delight at your reactions. Your innocence seemed to be something that contained him from wanting to continue his murder spree, although his bloodlust always wins in the end, he seems to always willingly pause his life for you.

Plus, he loves jazz just as much as you do.. why would he miss out on this?

Your fit of giggles dwindled down but didn't stop, in a sudden burst of energy you jumped off the sofa and then started dancing similarly yet obviously a bit more goofy to how you've seen couples and single dancers dance in the nights of Mardi Gras or just parties your father took you when he would be invited. Your little dance moves seemed to be fiddled with confidence yet they were so off from what you were trying to attempt, nonetheless you were happy, and that's what Alastor secretly liked to see.

"Dance with me papa dance with me!" you pleaded again, your smaller hands grabbing his larger one and tugging at it, trying to get him to stand up.

"_____ darling no tugging, besides I just sat down my dear and I'm exhausted." He sighed, his constant smile always present yet he was visibly a bit tired from the day he had.

But oh how you persisted, and how darn adorable you were as a kid. "But papaaa!.. pretty please! I wanna dance how you and that singing lady did the last time we went on those big loud places!"

"Parties, dear." he corrected you, but let out a long sigh and got up. Because no matter how tired he was or how annoyed he seemed to be he didn't mind keeping you happy.

So that's what he did, he danced with you. Swinging you, twirling you around to the melody and the beat, your cheers of glee and uncontrollable laughter motived him to keep up with your excitement. Not only that but your smile, genuine and pure, it was what he needed to get himself to match your energy. Jazz music was what always connected you two and it always brought you together no matter what.

At the end of the song Alastor ended it by gently throwing you up in the air and catching you, letting you get your last giggles out. You both laughed together, your bond ever growing stronger. You truly did tame this bloodthirsty killer without even trying or knowing, of course you were too young to know.

Once the giggle frenzy ended you both finished your dancing with a long sigh, the phonograph ending it's segment. You then suddenly yawned and rested your head in the crook of his neck over his shoulder, snuggling for warmth and for a sudden need to sleep.

"Seems like my little fawn needs sleep now, almost past your bedtime young lady." Normally he'd scold you a bit more strictly as he usually did, but seeing as how you were basically ready to fall into a pile of dreams he just felt no need to do that.

"Sorries papa.. I forgot.." your little words muffled by your face hidden in his neck.

Alastor was never one for being touched, let alone hugged or snuggled. Oh but he had no right to complain, he's had you this close since you were a baby.. to him this just felt normal now.

Of course no one but you could be this close to him, you're his little girl after all.

"No need to worry, my dear." He stopped in front of your bedroom, carefully opening the door with a creak following after. With careful footsteps he walked towards your bed, pulling the blanket away to then gently place you on your cozy sheets with care.

Alastor gently moved any misplaced hairs away from your face as he then pulled your soft and warm blanket up to your neck. Your sleeping face reassuring him.

"Sweet dreams sweetheart." His usual smile softening a bit more before backing away and slowly heading towards the door of your room, lingering for a few extra seconds to take one last look at you before slowly closing the door and heading off to bed himself.

After the click of the door closing can be heard, you mumbled "Goodnight papa.." with a smile, even if in the end Alastor didn't get to hear it.

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You missed him, dearly.

A weight fell on your chest, your eyes begging to form tears. You missed when you had that childhood innocence, when you didn't know what he was capable of, when he was nothing but a saint to you.

It still hurt after all these years, you thought he was a good man.. a bit strict, blunt, a bit too true to himself and definitely peculiar but.. the Alastor that raised you would never do that. Until you were obviously proven otherwise.

Oh but I guess you were too into your reminiscing that you didn't notice the background gasps and small shrieks of surprise and fear, and you didn't yet feel the eventual stares and eerie presence right in front of you.

"What don't you regret, my dear?"

You choked on your drink in surprise almost spitting it out,

that fucking radio voice again.

For heaven's sake how did he find you?? He couldn't have seen you through the windows. Did he follow you??.. did you just not notice.. Oh geez maybe getting used to having your guard down during all your years in heaven definitely didn't help with this situation.

You continued coughing on your drink, even punching your chest a bit to get that last good cough out. The radio demon pulled the chair in front of you to sit across from you, not waiting to ask permission.

To him he didn't need to, he's your father after all.

Once you calmed down you immediately avoided eye contact, only giving him a once second glance to confirm it was him in hopes your ears were playing a trick on you-- they weren't.

"How.. how'd you find me.." you mumbled in slight fear.

"Oh how would I not! Sweetheart I'm your father of course, as your father I must have those parental instincts.. I always know where you are!" he exclaimed, seemingly proud of this.

"I'm guessing those 'parental instincts' didn't kick in when you stabbed me, huh." you spat with attitude, unafraid to be rude to him with so much sin he's committed.

A sharp static sound came from him, as if in slight shock at the disrespect and comeback you gave. "Watch the attitude young lady, you're still an Altruist you know."

You scoffed, hating at how indifferent you felt about your last name.

"Not by blood though.."

"I raised you, don't forget that." he spat back, starting to get irritated.

"And because of that I owe you?"

"Yes, yes indeed! Smart girl you are."

You scoffed at his response, finally getting the guts to look at him in the face. His appearance frightened you, disgusted you even.

Is this truly the man that raised you?

"As a matter of fact, I actually don't." you crossed your arms in annoyance and a huff. Your eyes couldn't help but to slowly drift to off to the people behind him and you see fellow angels you know continue to stare in awe or fear, of course at Alastor. With all eyes on you and mostly him it made you feel a little embarrassed. You cowered down a bit and your wings went over your head and shoulders a bit as if to hide you behind a 'curtain' of sorts.

Alastor obviously noticed this, but could care less about the stares.

You sighed, "Look, Alasto--"

"I think you mean to call me 'father'." he interrupted as he obviously seemed a bit sassy about it. "Even 'dad' is just simply fine and dandy with me!"

"No, I can't," you frowned, wishing you could "I won't. Not after what you did to me, to that man that night, and to every other poor soul you hurt."

Your face slowly scrunched up in disgust "You don't deserve my forgiveness, my mercy."

In embarrassment and feeling tears want to shed you grabbed your drink and got up to walk out, before you could get past Alastor though he grabbed your wrist harshly.

"Uh-- hey.. let go--"

"I didn't mean to do what I did, my dove." His voice turned into a weird version of gentle, almost uncharacteristically gentle. "I never intended to take your life away."

He sounded genuine.

Could he?.. Would he?..

Maybe, just maybe--

"No." you spat, "Maybe you didn't mean to hurt me, but you definitely meant to hurt others. That's something I can't forgive and I'm sure your victims wouldn't neither." you glared at him, setting your foot down. "I refuse to call you my father, not until I know that you repent for your sins but knowing you I highly doubt that." You snatched your wrist away and for a slight second you stopped caring about what others thought when they'd see this "Besides, you killed me two weeks after I turned eighteen.. don't even include the years that passed since the 30s and present time so clearly you can't control me anymore old man."

But Alastor wouldn't go down that fast nor easily.

His sharp smile widened, you felt immense dread.

"Oh little one, no matter how far you are or how much you try to disown me you are forever connected to me. I made you who you are and you can try to run and fly off however long you want but in the end you're tied to me whether you like it or not. Even in death."

He seemed deathly serious with his statements so much so that you could've sworn you could see his shadow giggling and smirking in a way that seemed even worse and more than evil.

Your breath quietly hitched in fear in noticing this to the point where it even forced you to take a step back. He let out a sinister chuckle before you couldn't help but speed out of the shop and flew out.

You couldn't handle him, he was shameless when showing this side of him.. how could he be this shameless and normal?? How could he act like this and be proud about it? He killed people and doesn't regret it, you being the only exception just didn't feel right and it wasn't fair!

Not to you.

He may have been able to silently control you and vaguely manipulate you to believe he was anything but a bad person back when you were alive and young but now your eyes are wide open and so is your heart.

You have such a bad feeling about this whole thing, he was up to no good he just couldn't be-- he had to be using the princess as an excuse to do something shitty.

Good thing you had plenty of connections, if you just played your cards right...

Hey.. wasn't there something about a court meeting happening soon?

On the other hand Alastor stayed sitting there still chucking devilishly, his intentions and true feelings smeared and unclear.

With a snap of his fingers a cup of black coffee appeared and he began drinking it with a sense of casual glee and eyes closed in delight. Until he felt eyes on him, two nearby to be exact. He opened one eye to look at the angels staring at him and they both seemed like more biblically accurate angels, both having one eye and all. The radio demon shot them an evil grin.

"Oh adolescents these days, rebellious aren't they." He cackled before going back to drinking his coffee, the angels creeped out by his interaction soon scurried away from him.

The fear. He enjoyed it, just not really from you.

(thank you all who asked for part 2!! of course I had to deliver since you all really wanted it and honestly I love adding flashbacks to memories Alastor and the reader had when they were alive, makes their ending on earth just that more painful (as if it wasn't clear I love angst). Honestly I don't mind making more parts for this! If the demand is consistent and you guys still want to keep up with it I have a few ideas to keep this going! Once again thank you so much for reading!! Now I must finish writing for other stories lolllll!)

(p.s: i highly recommend listening to any mitski song while reading this I think it fits well especially with the flashback scene hehe)

[kwillow]

I have to ask of Ambroys. Is there a standard he has of people, no matter how low, that has to be respected that when broken would result in him stepping in?

Ambroys' sense of morality and good taste are both exceedingly simplistic and malleable. He knows what sorts of things to parrot and he might even be able to convince himself he actually believes things like "stealing is wrong, be kind to your neighbor," but he doesn't really think about or care what other people do unless it impacts him in some way or is so egregious that it's a no-brainer to hate it.

He likes the status quo. He likes when the world is clean, simple and predictable. He also believes in the privileges afforded to those with status and power -- and conveniently, he thinks of himself as being near the top of that pyramid, and those that he's fond of get to be, oh, a few rungs below him. So, he might step in to stop someone who is mocking his brother for being a bastard... but he's fully within his rights to do the same thing to the poor guy. Charly is Ambroys' brother which makes him more important than the average person (to Ambroys), so normal people have no right to bully him, but also Charly is below Ambroys in status, so Ambroys is fully in his rights to bully Charly. But if that person was mocking bastards in general, rather than the specific bastard he's related to, it wouldn't bother him, because bastards are low status, and they're all strangers anyway, so what does he care? Status quo, doesn't affect him. (Unless, of course, he was trying to befriend someone who did care about the rights of bastards, in which case he would speak up so he looks good to that person.)

But even his thoughts on the rights afforded by status are malleable. If he was drinking with a group of commoners and they were complaining about the nobility, he'd laugh along with them. It would make him uncomfortable if they were getting a little too revolution-y about it, but they're just peasants, what could they even really do? It doesn't affect him right now. You know what does? If he says something too controversial and they don't want to party with him anymore. That's what's important here.

I think the only way he'd bother to act "altruistically" and in accordance with any interpretation of real moral standards would be in punishing those whom society has deemed unambiguously okay to punish. If he came across someone who he knew was a dangerous murderer with a price on his head, he'd have no qualms firing an arrow through the man's head. Ostensibly this would be about justice, but emotionally he would feel the same way about it as someone might feel squishing a cockroach in their basement. "That's disgusting and I don't want it in my house. Die."

(Older Ambroys cares a bit more about laws and has more stringent standards for politeness and morality and is very willing to step in and enforce them, but since they're the laws and standards HE MADE and he loses absolutely nothing by squashing people like bugs if they don't dance to his tune, I don't think that counts as "moral fiber.")

[patrickbaeddman]

re-opening a lot of old wounds lately---or, finding they were still open

i think one of the most traumatizing phenomenon for me is that of 'sex advice,' as in, 'how to please a woman,' 'how to make her come,' et cetera. i couldn't help but be exposed to this shit as a kid, it's rampant in feminist & 'queer' online circles. the assumption is that if you have a dick, and your lover has a cunt, sex will be enjoyable for you no matter what, and especially, what naturally feels most enjoyable for you feels BAD for your lover, and you need to do something unintuitive/something that PROBABLY will feel bad to YOU to please them, because your bodies are so diametrically opposed. people love this shit! it seems to really appeal to cis women, the idea that they are maligned on a biological level and special care needs to be taken in reparation. and 'feminist' men also seem to revel in how they are so altruistic that they ignore their bodily urges and leverage their body as a tool for the other's pleasure. this can't be called sex! the obsession with obligations, mechanical techniques, achieving specific ends in specific ways... sex should be the opposite of that...

even though i know (now) that it's just completely wrong, and i fucking hate it, these ideas have really got under my skin and affected my sexuality, i think. my favorite is sticking it in girl's cunts, and penetrative sex in general. and i've always felt that way. so it was easy to read this sort of thing as applying to myself, and i felt so sad and guilty for even liking piv at all, since the impression i got was that everyone with a cunt hates it (and heaven knows why they ever participate) unless you go out of your way to 'last longer,' stimulate this or that special place, use this or that special technique, mostly with your hands; your dick doesn't bring anyone pleasure. there is NO WAY for someone to come from just piv, well, besides the top, of course. i'm really into cis women, i think they're really hot. but i always have this guilt when fucking them, this must be much more enjoyable for me than it is for them. i feel like i have to sideline my own desires, i have to make them come before i do, as many times as possible, otherwise i'll be just like all those terrible men that just USE women's bodies for their OWN pleasure. ironically this has resulted in my body being used for pleasure in ways that were not fun for me many times! woman moment.

one of the things i love most about sex is how desires align, how what you want to do is often exactly what your lover wants to do, how you can be totally selfish, focus completely on your own desire, and your lover can do the same, and magically you end up pleasuring each other also. the magic is that if you want to fuck, there's lots of people that WANT to get fucked. they selfishly want for themselves the thing that for you is your own selfish desire. there's no need for altruism or special care at all. i like that one can be totally careless during sex, let go, lose control. that is to say, after having sex with lots of people, it's impossible not to notice that anyone can come from piv, and it's clearly most often really enjoyable for both parties, at least in my experience. actually in my experience it's usually more enjoyable for the bottom but that's my fault because of my aforementioned fear! but yeah, like, just BEING penetrated feels good, usually. which is what i always hoped/how i always imagined it.

this shit is so insidiously transmisogynistic in its core essence---it's deeply violent towards cock, positioning it as inherently powerful, oppressive, destructive, and also towards women, like, it's obviously horrible for women that have dicks, but, i feel like the ideas peddled here are horrible for cis women too. oh your body is inherently harder to please, it's harder for you to come, other people have to take special considerations for you otherwise you'll always be dissatisfied with sex. i feel like reading this stuff as a cis woman would make me really sad also. i'd think, i want to be with a partner whose own selfish desire is also for me my own selfish desire, not someone whose desire doesn't move me naturally but who has to modify it, to go out of their way to 'please' me. that doesn't please me. i hope this advice is wrong because i want to have sex with someone where we just naturally make each other feel good and it's fun and not a chore for anyone... but no i don't know how cis people stand this. it's so literally violent to separate people's bodies into mechanically different categories like this. virulent transmisogyny, virulent essentialism. but it's deeply affected me.

like, i most often end up playing the role of a service top during sex, even though i don't like that and have never wanted that, i just slip into that role. i wanna be a selflish exploitative top that just uses women's bodies for my own pleasure, that seems really awesome. i mean, i feel like that's a really admirable quality of cis men, that they pursue their own desires so readily and without shame(i mean, many of them seem to. i don't have much hands-on experience). if i was a straight cis woman i would surely think that was cool! but yes, i always think, oh, if i come now she would be annoyed, if i don't touch her enough with my hands before i stick it in i won't have 'earned it,' and so on. that's so dumb! why is it so hard for me to escape this pattern of thinking? regardless of the fact that there are plenty of people that think like this, i want to have sex the way i want to, and let others get mad at me retardedly if that's what they're gonna do. but i'm too afraid, most of the time. clearly this is a deep wound, i usually can overcome things like this with sheer willpower.

i've been thinking a lot about my sexuality, what i really desire, what i really care about, what i'm afraid of, how to have the kind of sex that i want to, where to go, who to know

i can't think of what to do exactly. i sort of fail to imagine the possiblity of something better, it seems. which is lame... i should at least be able to imagine it. i've been confronting a lot of failure of imagination, or in other words, fear, lately. it's hard. and embarrassing. i've conquered a lot of fears, and i've just never been afraid of most of the things most people are. i think of myself as really strong. but i have not survived unscathed. who could?

[taruth3mighty]

I've been proposing the idea that CEO Charles is grieving Rebecca's death.

Due to many factors that doesn't seem like a coincidence.

Giving evidence for certain things that's happened in the timeline and explain why I believe this.

Let me go break down all the things that made me consider the possibility,

1. The Key Hunt is inevitable, and wouldn't you know it, Rebecca's death is also inevitable as if these two events are connected to one another.

[As if her death had to happen for the Key Hunt to happen, and of course why else would Charles take such risk and waste of the company's resources unless it was something that important to him.]

2. CEO Charles already has everything, loads of money, power and influence. And their goal isn't to take over the island, they want to help and expand that to other cultures.

[Why would he want the Keys to take over the island when all DoodleCo has done is try and help the island.] [DoodleCo is described to be altruistic by Suzie, and Suzie definitely knows more about DoodleCo than the average person.]

3. DoodleCo is actually losing more than they're gaining. Like he wants people to participate in the Key Hunt. That the Executives are encouraged to get keys.

[He's so far as willing to rank them up if they get their hands on one key. Why would he spend so much of their resources on the key hunt unless it's something important worth more than the company.]

-------------------------------------------------------

[Keep in mind I'm just going off based on what's been told to us in the game in dialog. I could be wrong on certain events.]

{Remember this is just some Food for Mind.}

[And also keep in mind that everyone experiences grief differently.]

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Denial.

I propose he couldn't accept what happened to her. And so he sought to fill that void with Portia instead. After all, Portia is Rebecca's daughter.

So, he personally put her there even when Portia was far from qualified for the role.

That's my explanation for why Charles put her there in the first place. Because he was denying that Rebecca was really gone. And it explains why Portia is there even though she's been constantly told that she sucks at her job by basically everyone.

Anger.

This is where things get a bit more complicated. This is where it starts to really set in for Charles that Rebecca's dead. And what from I can assume either from Teneson's rumors or him coming to his own conclusions.

Charles kicked out Lucas from the company. Which he has the power to do unlike Teneson.

[Teneson was never said to have been the one to kick Lucas out, all we know is that Teneson spread rumors that Lucas was responsible for Rebecca's death.]

And when that happened, Icyridge caught wind of it and as we all know. They adore Lucas Rimbaud like he's the second coming of Christ.

So that didn't stick well with them and even when Charles tried to go there as normal to convince them. They didn't allow that to happen. At least Desmond wouldn't.

And that frustrated and irritated Charles from what we know in Quincy's dialog. And likely out of said out of said irritation that the people of Icyridge were all savages and Quincy took that to heart.

Maybe after this, Charles had enough and gave Teneson an order to capture Riffraff.

[That would explain why Teneson is so hell-bent on catching Riffraff, not because it's what he wants. He's moved on from Rebecca's death.]

[But because he was ordered to do so by Charles. And as we know, he takes those orders very seriously. If we know anything about Portia's circumstance.]

[Though, I feel like if Charles did send Teneson to hunt Riffraff. It's very peculiar that Teneson is said to capture him and not kill him.]

So, it's clear at least to me, that Charles isn't doing it out of revenge or to avenge Rebecca. Deep down he probably misses Lucas.

As much as Charles is probably angry at Riffraff, Lucas was also one of his friends and one of the very few people who know who actually went down with Rebecca's death.

Which leads me to the next stage,

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Bargaining.

This is where a lot of really important stuff happens that actually directly lead to the main story.

Since it's where I believe that Joseph showed up and started to manipulate Charles about the Key Hunt. By telling Charles vague ideas and what will happen if they get all the keys. Imagine Charles thinking 'If only I could've stopped them' or 'What if this never happened' which results in Joseph convincing him, 'If you can get this, you could change her fate'

[Considering that Riffraff has said that DoodleCo has no idea what they're getting themselves into. And considering how much DoodleCo is associated with Charles, since he's the CEO, the face and the guy at the top.]

Here are the various things about the Bargaining stage,

> Involves making deals with yourself or a higher power to help cope with loss. > Often occurs alongside other difficult emotions like denial and anger. > Can be characterized by "If only" or "What if" statements. > Represents an attempt to regain control or alter the situation.

Charles made a deal with Joseph to start the key hunt, even if he didn't know what he was getting himself into. He still has Teneson capture Riffraff and keeps Portia in Rebecca's position and now puts Joseph in Lucas' old position. And he's the CEO of DoodleCo, with so many things going wrong, Rebecca's death, Icyridge and Riffraff's whole thing, it makes sense he'd want a sense of control.

[Like a certain fisherman Joseph also manipulated.]

Again, he just wants things to go back to the way it was. When things weren't so complicated and messy.

That's when the main story happens as he starts the Key Hunt, and where we see Charles. Everything is fine with him for a while.

But we don't see him even in Route 8 meeting, which happens every two weeks. And it's said to be an important meeting too, since all the executives meet up, yet he doesn't show up.

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Depression.

Signs of depression in that stage is sadness, regret, loneliness, difficulty functioning, and most importantly social withdrawal. Now that last one is definitely Charles.

We haven't seen him ever since the first arc, in fact, Cortes implies that Charles hasn't been attending the meetings for a while.

"I'm saying that everyone here is pathetic. It's no wonder why the CEO doesn't care to show up to these meetings anymore." -Cortes

He's too far deep into the Key Hunt to back down, but this is the only real explanation I have for him not showing up for the Route 8 meetings for a while now.

Is that he's currently in the depression stage of his grief.

[Once again, keep in mind that everyone deals with grief differently, some people can skip a certain stage or go back to a stage or not progress for a while. Grief is a very complicated emotion.]

{And my analysis is just a way to interpret it, keep in mind this is just some Food for Mind.}

--------------------------------------------------------

Acceptance.

Now, this stage is one that hasn't happened yet, for obvious reasons. Because well, the story is still on going.

In fact, I'm going to say that we need to get Charles to accept the truth about Rebecca's death. Or if he doesn't know what happened to Rebecca, then we need to force the truth out of Riffraff.

Because that's the only way we'll get a happy ending, because Doodle World's story is trying to tell you how to accept something you've lost and move on with your life instead of clinging onto the past.

There's Suzie and her tastebuds, and that she needs to learn that whoever promised her tastebuds if she helped Player get the keys isn't real.

[Imma be fr with y'all, I genuinely think that mf that promised her that is Joseph, because ain't no way someone making a promise like that besides him.]

There's Zavier and his people, he needs to accept that no matter how hard he tries to go back in time, it has always resulted in failure.

But there's also a different theme that Doodle World is trying to tell.

That while you need to accept what you've lost. You don't have to do it alone. You have your friends beside you, and they can help you make that pain and hurt just a little lighter.

That's why throughout Icywood and Icyridge there's this theme of your group not falling apart. Because while Player can beat anyone in their path, they can only take on so much burden and they can't do everything on their own.

"We can't have your group collapse! My father, Desmond, said we needed you and your group to be healthy to stop whatever bad future Mr. Riffraff saw." -Anna

And when you're all alone, you're much more susceptible to being manipulated or hurt, just look at Charles. His one only friend left in the trio is considered a criminal and he probably did that, Riffraff doesn't seem to hold any grudge towards Charles and both of them clearly have their issues.

That's why it's so important to keep the friend group together, because not only the whole 'power of friendship' but genuinely having friends around can just help you.

I mean look at Suzie, when she got locked up, Quincy was focused on freeing her. If he didn't then she'd still be stuck in the dungeon. And look at Player, they wouldn't have been able to get the Miracle Key on their own because they couldn't have thought of the idea to sneak inside the underground lab.

The group help each other when they need one another, and that I feel like is what Doodle World is trying to tell with Charles and the group.

[iztarshi]

Viktor observations (S1, Act 2)

Heimerdinger says that it’s short notice when he asks Jayce to give the speech and Jayce invites him to the lab that afternoon for a demonstration. But Progress Day appears to already be in, well, progress before Heimerdinger visits the lab which makes the notice very short indeed. He seems to have informed Jayce that morning of a speech to be given in the evening.

Not entirely related to anything in a scene, but I wonder how much Mel was behind the hexgates being the focus of Jayce and Viktor’s efforts? She gets a line in season 2 where she refers to having “built this city for my family” and the hexgates are very much in line with her goals of making Piltover into a place her mother would consider worth something. No Mel hate, but the goals she started with were not altruistic.

*

Jayce and Viktor are nervous about the demonstration for Heimerdinger, but they’re also really enjoying themselves giving it. They’re so theatrical. Viktor enjoying showing off the claw makes me sad that he hates being in front of an audience so much. He’s comfortable enough with Heimerdinger that he’s having fun and he and Jayce do an equal amount of the talking.

Poor Viktor, he’s distraught at the suggestion they might not be able to get these things into production for another decade, presumably because he knows he’s dying even if he doesn’t yet know how fast. But unless he already knows it’s going to be very fast, the choices aren’t actually between rushing this into production with less than a day’s notice or not getting it done during his lifetime. Presumably they had a plan for releasing this before Progress Day was even suggested?

Jayce gesturing Viktor back to stop him arguing with Heimerdinger is also interesting, mostly because it’s a precursor to the much more peremptory gesture later in front of the council. I think it’s mostly a “you’re not going to do our cause any good by arguing right now” gesture but it does give Jayce a sort of leadership role that he gets to decide that. Which is not so much what their roles were before the timeskip.

Jayce handles the question of whether to reveal their new tech during the speech extremely badly. He goes to Mel clearly hoping she’ll tell him not to do the reveal because then it will be her fault Viktor is disappointed and not his. Which, due to how ridiculously tight this schedule is, means he runs out of time to have the talk with Viktor he should have had, where he tells Viktor he’s not comfortable announcing this without Heimerdinger’s approval. I… actually mostly think this shouldn’t be announced and I’m surprised Mel was in favour, sending giant gauntlets and laser claws to Zaun would not help anything nor would announcing they’re about to. And the stabilised gems are easy to steal, which would itself be a reason not to announce them (somehow Jinx manages to steal one even without it being announced). But Jayce should not be making this decision without Viktor’s involvement.

*

The backstage scene is a great example of efficient storytelling as it gives us an insight into Viktor’s relationship with publicity. We’ve already seen that he’s being sidelined. It’s Jayce on the posters, Jayce who’s been asked to give the speech, Jayce who is being introduced to people by Cassandra as the mind behind hextech. This gives us the other side of the story.

We see how miserably nervous Viktor is when he’s thinks he is going to have to do the address, and they linger long enough to make sure we know. Jayce suggests they could both go up and Viktor ruefully says no because he doesn’t want to be in front of the crowd. But then we end with Jayce’s “Man of Progress” coffee cup coming down and covering Viktor up, so he does feel left out. I don’t think Viktor resents Jayce for it - the only thing he’s upset with Jayce for here is for nearly not being there to take the spotlight - but he might resent his own fear.

Dammit, Viktor is excited to handle the backstage special effects and Jayce pulls the rug from under him. That he resents.

*

Jayce gesturing Viktor to stay put when he tries to stand in front of the council is interesting mostly because Viktor obeys. From Jayce it’s intended protectively, they’re in trouble and he’d like attention to remain focused on him as long as that’s the case. For Viktor it’s interesting he remains quiet while Jayce suggests suspending all hextech operations even though he looks devastated at the idea.

*

Jayce and Viktor fighting about Jayce’s new position as a councillor is so…

On the one hand they’re arguing about Jayce’s duty to protect Piltover vs Viktor’s desire to help people, and while Viktor’s easier to sympathise with Jayce isn’t entirely wrong to think they have a responsibility to clean up a mess caused by hextech.

On the other hand they’re arguing about Jayce spending his time stamping out smuggling which isn’t even related to the theft of the hexgem vs Viktor being upset they didn’t announce giant boxing gloves and laser claws, which just makes both of them look dumb.

On the third hand Viktor’s arguing about Jayce stopping their work on hextech now when he’s dying and needs all the time he has and Jayce doesn’t know this so has no idea what they’re arguing about.

Jayce ignoring Viktor to talk to Marcus is one of those moments where I don’t think Viktor is actually ignored for more than a few minutes, but considering how sick he is and that he coughs blood without Jayce noticing it certainly felt a lot worse for him.

We get the first hint of the mysticism around Viktor’s storyline as spilling blood in the hexgate causes him to have a vision. I’m presuming this is because of the wildrune. I’m not sure whether it targeted Viktor or whether he was the first person to bleed into the hexgate.

*

I forgot that not only did Viktor immediately build something he’d seen in a vision he straight up told Jayce that’s what he was doing. Jayce is somewhat baffled, and worried about it shooting explosive beams, but mostly supportive.

*

I do not know what to make of the sextech scene. It’s. In the context of the whole show the golden starry sky we’re seeing in the background appears to be the Arcane itself, or at least the version of it Viktor was interacting with as the Herald. And Mel is a mage, so she might be having magic sex? Or it might be thematically about seduction, in which case that’s not very fair to Mel, but Jayce and Viktor are headed down paths that aren’t good for them and Mel is leading Jayce down his while the hexcore/wildrune/Arcane itself seems to be leading Viktor.

*

We never learn how long the doctors said Viktor had left to live. Viktor acts like the answer is days but I’m not sure how plausible that would be especially since he doesn’t stay in the hospital. Maybe it was a case of knowing he wouldn’t survive another collapse like that but not knowing when it would happen?

*

It’s touching that Heimerdinger both knows where to find Viktor when Viktor is unhappy and cares enough to try and comfort him, but he’s also the worst person to try to comfort a dying and frightened human. I don’t think yordles are as immortal in Arcane as they are in LoL (Heimerdinger refers to not being sure Ekko would turn up even in his “extraordinarily long life” in season 2) but they’re close enough Heimerdinger doesn’t really understand this.

Viktor, though, is surprisingly open with Heimerdinger about his own fears and regrets. Maybe because Heimerdinger’s grief isn’t overwhelming, he’s used to seeing humans die before him, or because Heimerdinger has been in something of a paternal role to Viktor. But even though Heimerdinger is at least nominally in charge of both topside and undercity, Viktor never seems to resent him for anything at all. Seems to admire him, really. “What haven’t you got to show for your remarkable life?” isn’t something you’d say to someone you thought had done badly. Heimerdinger remains one of only two people (the other being Jayce) that Viktor really seems comfortable with and he’s not even this open with Jayce.

*

Viktor testing the hexcore on plants even though the first organic matter it responded to was blood is sweet. Also probably safer, considering the plants grow enormous and strange and then die, but really I think Viktor just didn’t want to hurt anything. Especially after Rio.

“It could be the key to augmenting physiology, extending life…” “Curing you.”

Aah. I note the things Viktor is talking about are things that would apply to him, things he does want to do to himself, but he also doesn’t say that until Jayce does.

Knowing that Viktor’s dying does bring Jayce back to the lab now that he knows this is urgent (it’s been less than a week since he was made councillor, I don’t think he realised Viktor needed him not to take any time away). Unfortunately other things start happening pretty soon after this.

*

Oh, I have questions about what Heimerdinger has seen. My guess is the Rune Wars and the hexcore is somehow close to being an artificial World Rune. But I’ve seen people more familiar with LoL than me theorise something to do with the Void. He’s right is the thing, but we do not get the details. Also, how is Viktor different from before? He hasn’t altered himself yet, so was the hexcore assimilating his blood or him touching it enough to change something?

Poor Viktor, I guess this is the first time in a sequence someone he loves decides he needs to be sacrificed for the sake of Piltover and/or the world. He’s so stunned by Heimerdinger wanting to destroy the hexcore.

Jayce ís immediately protective and it’s him more than Viktor that Heimerdinger is angry with.

“You do what you have to, I need to get ready.” “For what?”

I can’t get over how baffled Viktor is by Jayce saying he needs to get ready. He really doesn’t know what for. Jayce knows, Jayce knows immediately he’s going to have to overthrow the government to save Viktor’s life. Does Viktor not really believe Heimerdinger would destroy the hexcore and sentence him to death? Or is he just too distant from politics to see what this is going to require?

[max1461]

Ok, the crux of my views on voting are this:

In a large national election, millions of people are going to vote. I do not know this by way of game theoretic calculations, I know it empirically. Each election, millions of people turn out to vote, and so barring evidence to the contrary I expect it to happen that way again. In light of this, should I consider voting to be an effective way for me to influence politics? I think the answer is unambiguously "no". There are millions of votes! Election margins are in the millions! The chance that my vote will change the outcome (and thereby, causally affect politics at all) is imperceptibly small. If my vote does not change an outcome, it has not causally affected politics. It hasn't even changed the margins in a perceptible way, so it can't be said to indirectly influence policy by indicating the popularity of my side, or whatever.

If my goal is to causally influence any aspect of the political process, voting in a national election is not an effective strategy to achieve this goal. I think this is basically undeniable.

I should note (as I usually do when I talk about this) that I do vote, but I do it for purely personal reasons. I find it fun to participate in the electoral process, in a civics nerd sort of way. So I vote in every national election, even though I don't think it does anything.

Anyway, here are some common objections to the point I've raised above, and why I don't think they hold water.

1. "If everyone thought like you, no one would vote, and that would be a problem for all sorts of reasons"

Very true, but also a non sequitur. Clearly, empirically, not everyone does think like me. Lots of people vote. "If everyone though like you, blah blah blah" is a conditional whose antecedent is false, so its truth value has no bearing on actual reality. Millions of people vote; in light of this, mine is functionally irrelevant. I think that's just objectively the case.

2. "If the winning candidate got N votes, then each voter contributed a 1/Nth of their success, so your vote did do something" (and similar arguments)

I don't know what this means. I don't know what a "1/Nth of a success" is. Let's say that I have three choices in front of me: A, B, and C. These might correspond to "voting Democrat, voting Republican, or not voting" or so on. Suppose that no matter which choice I pick, the outcome will not differ in any way. In the case of a national election, this is true: other people are going to vote how they vote, and the candidate who overall gets the most votes will win, and my vote will not do anything. The choices A, B, and C in front of me lead to identical outcomes. Does my choice do anything? Does it do "1/Nth of a thing"? I think making a choice in which all outcomes are identical cannot be said to be "do something"; even if you want to quibble over the semantics here it cannot be said to be a rational strategy for achieving any particular outcome.

3. "You're falsely assuming everyone's vote is uncorrelated!"

No, I'm assume everyone's votes are causally unrelated; no one's vote causes another person's vote. Because we have secret ballots, this is true. You're falsely conflating "voting" with "rhetoric around voting". I totally believe you can change other people's votes by using rhetoric on them, if you're good, but this is a totally distinct issue from how you vote yourself. In any case, unless you have a large platform I don't think your rhetoric will have a big enough effect to matter either.

4. "But an argument like this implies that all collective action is irrational!"

Yes. That's the whole reason collective action problems exist, because collective action would be "good if it happened" but actually participating is irrational for each individual (even, depending on the problem, if those individuals are altruistically motivated). But if you have a large enough platform, convincing other people to engage in collective action might be rational, and a part of this might involve participating yourself so that you don't look hypocritical. But most people don't have such a platform, so for them it doesn't matter.

[inbarfink]

Sometimes when fandom discussions come up about how to make the ending of ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ less… y'know, treating Penny as an object that Dr. Horrible is punished by losing and not as an actual person with her own emotional arc, a common solution that comes up is that the story should end with Penny becoming LA’s newest superhero and Dr. Horrible’s new nemesis.

And… I do see the internal logic in this. That sort of ending does retain the tragedy of Billy ‘losing’ Penny (and I do think that DHSAB, unless you wanna change it much much more radically than mostly just making it less shit to Penny, should be a tragedy) but without ‘punishing’ Penny purely as a proxy for punishing Billy. And in a way that gives Penny way more agency, and gives more space to condemn Billy for the way he treated her throughout the narrative. 

Plus, both DHSAB itself and other canon material constantly reinforce that Penny is the kindest and most altruistic person in the entire cast. And her hinted backstory of being inspired to do activist work as a way of coping with her parents’ death

calls to mind the backstories of many famous superheroes.

The main narrative of her prequel comic is basically about how hard it is to be altruistic as she is, and how it kinda stops her from having a normal life - including a normal dating life. Both in the ‘oh, I’m just too busy for that kind of stuff’ sense

And in the ‘my sense of duty interferes with my ability to have a Normal DateTM’. Which are also very familiar Superhero Struggles. Only that instead of something like ‘oh no, I accidentally stood up Mary Jane because Dr. Octopus is attacking the city and I must stop him!’, it’s ‘oh no, I’m a buzzkill on dates because I only wanna talk about Big Depressing Social Justice Issues.’

So all of this put together, I can understand why some people see Penny turning into a Superhero by the end of the story to be a logical end of her narrative arc. She’s always been the best and most moral person in the cast, and now she can prove that she’s the real hero!

Except… within the logic of DHSAB, Penny is kinda… too good to be a Superhero. Because superheroes in the Horribleverse are good for fighting superpowered bad guys and upholding the status quo and maybe giving an inspirational speech or too - but they can’t actually solve the big societal problems that Penny is working so hard to change, as she herself directly states.

The whole point of the parallels between Penny’s life and more typical superhero narratives is that Penny is already a ‘real hero’. Penny’s activism is the real kind of heroism, with all the self-sacrifice and dedication and kindness that it requires - and the one that can really save the lives of people, even when they’re not almost stepped on by giant robots. Superheroes can talk big game about justice and goodness, but they’re not really changing the system as it is and if anything they only reinforce it. Villains (or at least well-intentioned villains like Dr. Horrible) can talk big game about changing the world, but at the end of the day, they are still fueled by resentment and self-profit more than anything. 

And those are the big flashy guys who capture the public attention for good or for ill, while the people making real positive changes in the world just get overlooked and dismissed and ignored and shoved to the side. 

That’s the kind of superhero world DHSAB exists in, and that’s kinda dour and cynical but… I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing - narratively speaking. And I don’t think that Penny gaining superpowers and dedicating her life to punching Dr. Horrible in the face is really a culmination of her life of activism. If anything, it kinda goes against it? Like, even if you do, like, “oh and also Penny finds a way to do a Superhero and Punch Dr. Horrible in the Face while also being an actual activist who’s doing positive change in the world!”I feel like this still kinda weakens the message about the importance of the kind of boring, unglamorous and very realistic work Penny was doing as a ‘civilian’. 

But… I also don’t think that necessarily makes ‘Superhero Penny’ a bad choice for an ending. Because ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ is still a Tragedy, after all. I think Penny becoming a Superhero can really work for the ending, if you emphasize the idea that becoming a ‘True Hero’ is as much of a tragedy for Penny as becoming a ‘True Villain’ was a tragedy for Billy.

Like, you know, Billy got to defeat Captain Hammer and he gained the respect he always felt he deserved and money and fame… but he lost the emotional connection he had with Penny, which is the thing that could've actually made him happy. Penny finally gets respect and attention and gets people to actually listen to her… but by giving up on her ordinary activism work - whatever it’s because of societal pressures to do Superhero Stuff now that she has superpowers, or because she feels a duty to stop Dr. Horrible specifically, or because she’s just really really pissed at Billy, or because she has lost her faith in the ability of the common man to effect change after the “Everyone’s a Hero” debacle or… any combination of the above - she has actually given up her original strong ideals and the hope of actually doing good in the world.

Maybe for extra symbolism, a fight between Super Penny (Working Title) and Dr. Horrible ends up destroying the Caring Hands shelter Regular Penny worked so hard to secure - just to really drive the point home. 

Super Penny (Working Title) can absolutely work as an alternative DHSAB Ending that gives her more agency and more consideration for her character, but… as part of this consideration for Penny’s character, you need to also understand that Penny becoming a superhero is her getting Everything She Ever…

[robinchan-hananomi]

A few things I loved about the Novel Zoro so far.

First, I love the emphasis of Zoro learning how to fight in the real world. It starts with Zoro fighting Umen, who throws gravel in Zoro’s face which throws him off a bit. Zoro still wins of course, but Umen calls Zoro out for being a very ‘formal’ fighter and explaining that there are no rules in real battles. And in the month Zoro is in the village he goes out of his way to spar with all the former pirates that make up the militia so he can fight those who ‘fight dirty’ to get accustomed to it. I spent some time in martial arts and my sensei was always careful to distinguish the difference between dojo fights and street fights to avoid exactly this kind of a problem if any of us actually had to defend ourselves so I love Zoro trying to understand how real battles work.

Next, I loved the expansions of Shimotsuki Village logistics. We know the village was created by samurai teaming up with locals who were trying to face bandits. We also know there was issues with pirates (Zoro’s dad was killed by pirates) and there was a reservation about the Marines due to them being from Wano.

In the prologue and chapter 1 we learn a little bit more about the village. The village is heavily filled with swordsman due to the samurai origins and the dojo. Zoro remarks that people look at him in awe and alarm when he walks around with swords and compares it to his home village where it is more common to see a swordsman than not. He even mentions that kids would not only NOT avoid him but would just hang off him when he walked around town. They had no fear. We also learn that money wasn’t overly a concern. The villagers work together for survival, which kinda makes sense. So now that Zoro is on his own, he’s doing a lot of things for the first time. And money management is one of those things.

Another thing I love is Zoro being the personal bodyguard to the village headman. Initially Zoro was going to be Buggy’s bodyguard before Oda scrapped that idea. It’s kind of a nice nod to that original idea, as Zoro expresses that being a bodyguard is not something that suits him.

Initially also like that Zoro is not really altruistic in the novel. Yes he’s helping Umen and the boy he met, but it’s not just him being kind. Zoro has made it clear he is expecting to leave with Mihawk’s vivre card (although he doesn’t know what that is yet. He just knows they have a way to find Mihawk). But he’s not cruel or heartless. And he does do nice things for Umen, like speaking up for him despite everyone calling Umen an idiot and going on patrol for Umen so the man can get some rest. Like all the Strawhats, he is a kind person but he doesn’t interfere in anything that doesn’t concern him unless specifically invited.

I’m looking forward to where this novel goes. Zoro is 17 (why does everyone keep leaving home at 17? Is there a Pokémon rule I don’t know about? When you reach a certain age you set out to the world?) so he won’t meet Luffy for another two years. He also made it pretty clear in this chapter that we are very unlikely to learn about his parents (at least Arashi as he said he’s never seen Arashi’s face) but maybe we will get something with Johnny and Yosaku? It does seem like it’s more focused on Zoro’s initial journey into going from Shimotsuki village to his bounty hunting career.

[tarnishedxknight]

Basch: 🌹: When would they tell a lie?

Ashe: ⚔: Would your muse kill if they had to in order to protect a loved one?

Noah: 👑: Is your muse honorable?

Drace: ⚖: Has your muse broken the law before? Broken a vow or promise?

Caelen: 💋: How easily are they tempted?

Munoh: ⛨: What would they sacrifice their life for?

Soryn: ⚠: Would they seek revenge against someone who's harmed them or the people they care about?

Wynna: 🍷: Would they manipulate someone to get what they want?

Mithran: ☯: What do they think of 'good' and 'evil'?

{out of dalmasca} Oooh, these are so good. Below the cut for length as always, heh.

Basch: 🌹: When would they tell a lie?

To save lives or for some other equally important "greater good" reason. Basch is not a habitual liar, nor does he condone it as a way of getting what someone wants or manipulating people, but if he could safe someone's life or protect someone by lying? He'd do it. Or if, by lying about something, he could prevent some kind of conflict from happening, he'd do that too. He's not above kindof... tarnishing his own integrity for the sake of protecting other people.

Letting Vaan say he was "Basch fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca" like an idiot and not correcting him was a kind of lie, as is not really announcing who he was upon arriving in different places. In public, I mean. But hey, it's more of a... withholding of the truth, heh. Yeah, lies. XD But my point is that Basch will lie or let lies happen around him and not correct them if the greater good is involved.

Also, impersonation is a kind of lying, and he impersonates Noah to protect Larsa after the end of the game, to help keep stability and peace in Archadia and all of Ivalice. He does that not only to further the greater good but also as a promise kept to Noah, who asked him as part of a dying wish. So those are both instances in which Basch would definitely lie... and has.

Ashe: ⚔: Would your muse kill if they had to in order to protect a loved one?

Oh, of course, heh. That's not even a question, haha. Ashe would totally take someone out if they were threatening someone she loved, especially family. Like, if she'd been around when Gabranth pulled all his shit with Raminas, she would've gone feral on him and everyone in the room. I'm not saying that would be smart of her to do, lol, or that she'd actually succeed in killing literally anybody in the room, but she'd try it unless someone with more sense stops her, hahaha.

Noah: 👑: Is your muse honorable?

*sighs and makes steeple fingers* In the right context, yes, heh. Which, I guess some people would argue that if you have to qualify honor in any way, then you don't have it. Perhaps. There are also many different definitions of honor, too, or different things for which people say someone might have it.

Noah can be extremely honorable, selfless, and empathetic, to those he cares about and for causes he deems important. For example... He would die or suffer any torture or indignity for people he loves, like Drace and Larsa. I mean, he loves Basch too but that shit is so complicated, haha, so Imma leave that one out. But yeah, if he had to sacrifice himself to protect them, he would, which some might call honorable. And we saw this in canon when he was willing to go up against Vayne while badly wounded to protect Larsa. So in terms of altruistic honor sacrifices, heh, he would do that but for a very select group of people.

HOWEVER... he was NOT willing to disobey Vayne's order to execute Drace, which I guess means he wasn't willing to protect her to save face for himself. HOWEVER HOWEVER, hahaha, the reason he needed to save face was to keep the other Judge Magisters in line and under Vayne in order to prevent serious civil war in Archadia, which then would've put Larsa in danger, heh. So... I guess... you could say he was willing to throw Drace under the bus in order to protect Larsa, but it wasn't even about them, really, it was about the future of Archadia, which he wanted to lead to an end to the war. Which is... an honorable cause? Does all that dishonor get rectified if the end result is an honorable one? I... don't even know, I think I just confused myself with this one, pfffff...

In terms of... honesty and integrity honor... he's very spotty on that, heh. Noah lies. So often, heh. Even to those he loves. In canon, he frames Basch by impersonating him, and impersonation is a kind of deception. For my version of him, he lies to Larsa about being his father. Now, one could argue that that last one actually was honorable because that lie protected Larsa, so that might be up for debate. So he's a lot grayer in this area and I think this is maybe an aspect of honor where he falls a lot shorter than others.

I guess... I'd say that Noah can have honor when he wants to, haha, and about some things and with some people he does have a lot of honor. I think as a person at his core, if left to his own devices in a much more toned-down and less consequential setting, he'd be more of an honorable person. We see this in his MCU verse where, stripped of all dire need for a certain political and military presence and personality, he's much less calculating and conniving. Because he doesn't need to be.

But I'll also say that his behavior in canon Archadia was more often than not for some overarching endgame that led to a future without Vayne at the helm, and hopefully one in which Archadia could find a way to end the war. What happened to him along the way almost didn't matter to him as long as he furthered that cause. So I think... most people view honor as a good thing and all of Noah's dishonorable things as bad, but he's the kind of person that isn't out for personal wealth, fame, or power unless he needs it to further the future of Archadia and hopefully all of Ivalice. He didn't shoot for the throne, he didn't try to win or even care about public opinion of him, he didn't care how he was viewed. All he cared about was the endgame goals. So with that kind of person, if the end goal is honorable, does that make the overall person honorable? Or do so many dishonorable deeds, regardless of the end goal, disqualify them from being an overall honorable person.

I think honor, like concepts of good and evil, are very elusive and convoluted sometimes. I think they're very much subject to context, and I think sometimes arguments can be made for or against based on when you choose to start and stop evaluating, heh. For example, someone who only played the first half of the game would think Noah was a terrible person, but someone who only saw the end would've thought he was like a paladin, heh. So it's very subjective, it's affected by the evaluator's culture and life perspectives as much as by emotional things like giving characters the benefit of the doubt because you happen to like them, haha.

He can be honorable when he wants to be. Is the best answer I can give. But he is willing to be dishonorable if it furthers the greater good or some overarching goal he has. Much like Basch, actually. Both brothers have a self-sacrificial aspect to them, maybe not quite so altruistic with Noah as it is with Basch, but they both have that aspect of... well if it means enough to me and/or is important enough to the world, I'll suffer anything to make it happen. Some... might call that honor, heh. I personally would. *shrugs* Just putting myself out there. I think Basch is a lot more traditionally White Knight trope level of honor while Noah is a bit more complicated, but I would say they are both honorable people at their cores.

Drace: ⚖: Has your muse broken the law before? Broken a vow or promise?

I... I don't think so? I can't think of a time in canon when she did, but then again, she didn't have much airtime. Unless you count... two events that maybe it could be said she broke some sort of law, or at least didn't act in a lawful way... one in canon and one in my own interpretation of her.

The canon event was when she drew her sword against Vayne. One could argue that she never should've done that to her own prince anyway, but in the context of the moment she did it in, he was the Emperor already. Now... I really don't like saying she broke the law during that scene because Vayne had taken the throne unlawfully. So when Bergan says to Drace, "When you bared your sword at His Excellency, you bared your sword at the law," he would've been 100% correct IF Vayne had been a legitimate Emperor. But he wasn't.

I mean... he assassinated his dad, heh, but even if we ignore that extremely illegal aspect, he simply stepped into a void of power and was like welp... I live here now, haha. He proclaimed himself Emperor, which in Archadia, you can't do. They don't have lines of succession like kingdoms do, it's supposed to be an election process. Now... heh, okay, House Solidor probably rigs those elections because they've held into power for several generations. Either that or no one is willing to challenge them. But technically, within the letter of the law, Vayne cannot declare himself Emperor until that election happens.

So by calling Vayne out on his shit and threatening him, Drace was threatening an illegitimate Emperor. The problem with this is that no one was willing to come out and say to Vayne's face that he was illegitimate. Except for Drace, that is. So she called him out and everyone but Bergan was silent, and Bergan was like NOPE, SIT THE HELL DOWN. If there had been a consensus among the Judge Magisters that Vayne had unlawfully taken the throne, then that was one thing, but nobody had the guts. Noah would have had the guts, but if he had supported Drace, it wasn't enough of a majority for them to win the argument, fighting between the Judges' factions of those opposed to or in support of Vayne could've broken out, and Larsa might've been left without a protector if Noah was arrested, dismissed, or executed. So... yeeeah. Drace was hung out to dry, heh. But I personally think she was in the right to do that, morally and legally, but she was a lawful paladin in a room full of corrupt politicians and military generals, and she was never going to win that argument.

The other incident is in my interpretation of her and Noah, when she went along with his ruse of a Rozarrian spy killing Amoretta in order to protect Larsa. And himself, too, really, but first and foremost Larsa. One could argue that she was breaking maybe a law but definitely a promise/vow in the form of fealty to Emperor Gramis by not telling him the truth of that situation. I feel like this one is a better candidate for her breaking a vow, because I'm certain as a judge she had to take some kind of oath to tell the truth, uphold law, and probably also serve/support the Emperor in some way. So... she definitely ran afoul of truth and loyalty with this one. BUT... one could argue that she did it to support Noah, whom she also had made promises to, on a more personal and emotional level.

Caelen: 💋: How easily are they tempted?

Not easily at all, heh. Caelen doesn't love or get seduced easily or spontaneously. He's not one for one-night stands, fleeting crushes, or puppy love. Love and his choices of whether or not to get frisky with someone are decisions he arrives at slowly over time after things have been building for a while. If you try to blatantly tempt him in the love or sexual realm, all you're going to get is a seriously flustered potato who will probably try to politely excuse himself, hahaha.

UNLESS........ he's already in a ship with you. In that case, I'd say it wouldn't take very much to tempt him at all, haha. He already loves you, so all you have to do is look at him a certain way and he's gone. XD

Munoh: ⛨: What would they sacrifice their life for?

Someone they love. They'd sacrifice their life as they know it, their state of being. I know that because they were willing to become Mithran and merge with a human being in order to save the life of their friend Caelen. Or at least, to preserve what they could of his life in a new being. So they're obviously willing to give up their own life as they know it and their sense of self in order to salvage as much of a friend's life as they can. Ironically, it's going to be for something fairly insignificant to the world, but extremely important to them. Not that they wouldn't be willing to give up their life for larger things, but in many cases, they can't. This gets into some of the headcanons I have about the Occuria, and how I square their seemingly endless power with the functional and magical limitations they appear to have in the game.

So you might think Munoh would agree to give up their life to say... end the war. Bring peace. Hell, bring a golden age that lasts forever, all they have to do is sacrifice themselves. And you'd be wrong. They won't do it. Never. So they're an asshole, you say, haha. No, they just have limitations that humans don't have with regard to emotions and morals. Another example: Why doesn't Gerun (the leader of the main body of Occuria, excluding any heretics like Venat or Munoh) simply obliterate Archadia themself if that's what they want? They certainly have the power to, both as the being they are and with their control over the largest crystals of nethicite in Ivalice. So why bother to go through the trouble of recruiting Ashelia to do it for them? It's for the same reason Munoh couldn't sacrifice themselves (or do literally anything else) to bring eternal peace to Ivalice, or why Venat couldn't just hand Vayne all the power and conquests he wanted...

It's because they're caretaker beings. Very different from mortals. Caretaker beings, as I've written them in my own original novels, are beings with rules that transcend the mortal world that absolutely must never be broken no matter how good or bad the outcomes of doing so might be, and no matter where their own emotions (if their species has them) might fall. They are there to manage, not to participate. And caretaker beings have a different sense of morality and integrity than mortals as well, in that they may function alone or in a group, with the mainstream of their kind or as an anomaly (or heretic), and in defense of what mortals might call either good or evil morals... but they will always, 100% adhere to their own set of rules. Because those rules could unravel time and space itself if they don't, heh, like... that's why it's so incredibly important for there to be caretaker beings in the first place in some worlds. They need to be solid in their dedication to these overarching and often morally gray or neutral laws, or everything could fall apart, be undone, or even unmade.

What rules am I talking about, exactly? Well that depends on the world and the caretaker beings themselves. In FFXII and for the Occuria, I headcanon that they have some very strict rules as to how much and in what ways they can interfere with hume life (or any mortal life, for that matter, humes aren't the only sentient species in Ivalice). So-called game-breaking moves, like obliterating Archadia with just a thought or the casting of a powerful spell, undoing major tragedies or victories, bringing back the dead in their former capacity (as opposed to undead), things that really go against the laws of nature or that totally upset the balance with some deus ex machina move that any one of them can just undo five seconds later and start a high-powered, magical war with themselves, hahaha... that's not allowed. In short, no god-modding, haha. Which is kinda funny considering many Ivalicians consider the Occuria to be gods. XD

So... Gerun cannot just obliterate Archadia to keep the balance as they and the other mainstream Occuria believe it should be kept. Well they can, but they are bound not to by the laws of their kind. But they can push and even trick or manipulate Ashelia into doing it for them. Venat can't hand Vayne all of Ivalice and grant him the power of an Occurian for himself, but they can advise him on how to conquer and acquire everything he wants and lend their power to him personally for a time, as long as they take it back eventually. And Munoh can't just bring back the dead, but they can sustain Caelen's life with their own and keep him from crossing over. However, the resulting being, having some of the powers of an Occurian with the partial mind of a mortal man, is somewhat in violation of these "laws" they follow. Because power like that should only be in the hands of those willing to restrain themselves from using it, if that makes any sense. Mortals... don't have that restraint, and thus they could decide to make serious, universe-altering decisions with their power. That, incidentally, is why the main body of Occuria would go after Mithran and look to destroy him, because he holds an insane amount of power within a mind now that has issues with impulse control (simply because he's mortal) and doesn't have the right level of restraint to keep those sacred laws intact.

So there are a lot of things Munoh would sacrifice their life for, but not a lot of things for which they actually would go through with it. Saving the life of a friend by offering up their own, however, is one of them.

Soryn: ⚠: Would they seek revenge against someone who's harmed them or the people they care about?

No, I don't think so. While not quite as thoroughly "White Knight" as Basch, Soryn is very much a poster child for an honorable knight. Part of that honor of being in a knightly order, especially for Dalmasca which supposedly stressed the pristine conduct of their knights as a requirement for knighthood (and then let Vossler in, like wtf, heh), is that you conduct yourself in a certain way that makes you an example for others. You should be kind, charitable, selfless, honorable, strong, brave, empathetic, etc. (Again Vossler, just... wtf, dude, you missed the mark by like a hundred miles there.)

Going after someone in anger, even after a traumatic loss or event, isn't conduct befitting a knight. Going after them to bring them to justice... that's a different story. But going after someone to kill them or make them suffer as payback for some perceived wrong against someone you love... that just makes you like them in reverse. As a knight, part of the "strength" part of what's expected of you doesn't just include physical strength, but strength of character as well. Have the strength to forgive and/or walk away. Have the strength to apprehend someone and bring them to justice instead of just murdering them and taking justice into your own hands. If you can 't do that, then you're not knight materials, heh. At least, that's the way it was supposed to be for the Knights of Dalmasca. Vossler didn't follow any of that, but Basch and Soryn did.

And I think those same ideals would follow Soryn to Archadia. He would have to change a lot about himself, but always at his core would be generally trying to maintain as much of that strength of character as possible. The greater good always takes precedence, but for the most part, he'd still adhere to his knightly vows. So no, I don't see Soryn ever going after someone sheerly out of revenge.

Wynna: 🍷: Would they manipulate someone to get what they want?

HAHAHA... Wynna couldn't manipulate cheese onto a pizza, like... the poor girl has absolutely no guile or tactical charisma whatsoever. The second she tries to lie, not only do her cheeks turn beet red, but she stumbles over her words because she gets nervous. If she ever tried to manipulate someone, she would fail spectacularly at it.

Having said that, would they ever want to manipulate someone? Probably not. She's just not the manipulating kind. She's just a very sweet and genuine person, so I don't think that'd be on her list of first things to try to get her way. She's more likely to just outright ask or confront someone about something when she wants something than to try to play games to get it.

Mithran: ☯: What do they think of 'good' and 'evil'?

They're both subjective and should be taken on a case by case basis. Or in some instances, moment by moment, even. They are blanket terms that mean many different things to many different races, people, cultures, religions, etc. in an infinite number of situations. I think Mithrin, infuenced by the emotions of a mortal but the knowledge and power of an Occurian, would think of good and evil not as two halves of a coin but as gradient, like gemstones in jewelry, for example. In that pic I linked to, if evil is the darkest blue and good is white, then all the colors of beads in between are all different levels and grades in between.

To a white bead, a light blue bead would look morally much worse, but to a dark blue or almost black bead, a medium blue looks much better morally. So it's all relative and on a huge gradient. That's how Mithran views good and evil. And that's not just between two individuals, but within an individual themself from day to day. Most real, flawed, complex, complicated people are not going to always make the same decision in every similar situation they're presented with. We change and grow as people, things influence our decisions over the years or even spontaneously in the moment, and there may be a reason why on one day we're a white bead and the next... a very dark blue bead, heh.

So I think Mithran would hate labels, honestly, and would simply take each person in the moment on a case-by-case basis. I don't he would want to be labeled himself either, but rather would want people to relate to him as he is in that moment or on that day. If this is making any sense, I don't know, it sounded a lot better in my brain, haha.

Thanks for sending these in, they were really thought-provoking! =D

[jinxed-sinner]

Maybe I'm being delusional and giving Alastor too much benefit of the doubt but I don't understand why so many people seems convinced that Alastor is the most evil character in the HH universe. Sure if we take into consideration only the hotel he is, but outside of that he doesn't seem that bad. Even at his lowest moments (his past as serial killer, his killing of the overlords, his manipulation of Charlie, that scene with Husk in the hallway in ep 5) there still is some sort of nuance to his action. I do feel like, as of right now, he has been the most self-centered character in the show but that doesn't make him the most evil. I would argue that the Vees, Adam and Lute are worse, because at least Alastor was said to have somewhat of a moral code when. Not saying that this makes Alastor a good person or that he is incapable of being cruel or that in the future he won't have his evil moments, but for now calling him the most evil character in the show feels excessive.

This has been my view of Alastor since I first watched the show honestly, and every time I analyze him (because I do that more than can possibly be healthy) it just strengthens that. Sure, he's an asshole, but he doesn't physically attack people unless he's given a reason to. He seems to prefer getting into verbal spats over getting physical, and even the scene where Husk confronts(?) him is mostly Alastor just verbally taking his frustration and anger out on Husk (which still isn't okay but it's not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be). Like every time he's shown to get physically aggressive in the show, there's a reason behind it, and that reason is fascinating considering he claims to not care about the hotel's success; every time he gets physical with anyone, he's protecting the hotel.

When he attacks Sir Pentious and takes down his blimp in the pilot? He's protecting the hotel. When he uses a similar strategy to fight Pentious in Radio Killed the Video Star that he used in the pilot? He's protecting the hotel, because Pentious blew a hole in the wall of it. When he fights the loan sharks in Dad Beat Dad? He's protecting Mimzy and the hotel, and then he tells Mimzy she's no longer welcome at the hotel because she "deliberately brought danger on this place". When he fights Adam in The Show Must Go On? He's protecting the hotel.

He doesn't attack unless he's provoked, even verbally. He might make some mean comments here and there (such as pointing out Charlie and Vaggie's failures) but in general, he's just an asshole, he's not actively evil.

Going back to the fact that he kicked Mimzy out of the hotel, up to that point he's been parading around this attitude of "I don't care about the hotel's success, all I care about is the entertainment value it can bring me!" even specifying that he doesn't care if the hotel succeeds or not. The idea that the hotel would inevitably fail is why he showed up to the hotel in the first place. Alastor's willingness to kick out Mimzy tells us two things:

He's willing to listen to advice from other people (as it is Husk who advised him that Mimzy was trouble; this also actually implies that he values Husk's input, as much as he acts like he doesn't), and

He cares about the hotel a heck of a lot more than he lets on

He's just currently in a position where, whether it's pride or something else, he can't admit to anyone, let alone himself, that he's started caring, and that is part of what spurs on his mental breakdown in Finale:

This place reeks of death, there's a chill in the air And I barely escaped being killed by a hair "Great Alastor, altruist, died for his friends" Sorry to disappoint, that is not how this ends

Not to mention, he looks terrified when he sings "Great Alastor, altruist, died for his friends" and angry the rest of his part of Finale. I don't think he's angry about the fact that he almost died defending both the hotel and the hotel's staff and residents; I think he's terrified about both how perception of him would change if it got out, and what it says about him. Those first four lines of his part of Finale imply, to me at least, that he is how he is as a defense strategy, potentially from trauma (and I do personally think it was born from some kind of trauma, very likely from when he was alive and very likely from his childhood). When that defense mechanism cracks, he panics.

His self-centered behavior is likely a defense mechanism he learned in life, because if fanon is canon and his dad was abusive? He likely learned in that environment that if he wasn't self-centered, he won't survive or he'll be easy to take advantage of, and this benefits him in Hell because he doesn't just make deals based on his own self interest for no reason; in Hell that's a requirement for survival. One misworded deal or contract and his life could be turned upside down. It makes complete sense to me that he does deals on a basis of "How can this benefit me?" because when you're making a binding contract involving your soul, you need to be careful with your wording. Even if it's not a defense mechanism he carried over from life, it's very possible that it's a defense mechanism from whatever deal he found himself in. If that deal was misworded, and that's why he's in the position he's in, I wouldn't blame him for getting self-centered with anything.

There is so much more to Alastor than just him being a sadistic asshole and I hate that people don't acknowledge it. Alastor being a sadistic asshole is one part of a larger puzzle. I'm not saying my interpretation is right, but I am saying that there are so many hints that Alastor isn't as horrible as people act like he is and I think it needs more acknowledgement. He's capable of connection, as seen with Rosie and Niffty. He doesn't just physically attack people because he thinks it's funny (that's what the sadistic jokes and mocking are for). He's far from one-dimensional and too many people ignore it.

Alastor is morally gray, not morally bankrupt.

[tubersops]

Finally watched the infamous “skull trumpet video”. I haven’t engaged at all with the discourse around it since I hadn’t seen it, so forgive me if this has all been said, but oh my god. I have to say my piece because I am fuming

Do not track down someone’s address just because they made a funny gif over 20 years ago! Do not hound every living family member you can find on Facebook! Do not send messages to their place of business to hound them about a funny gif their relative made over 20 years ago! And Jesus fucking Christ DO NOT SEND YOUR FRIEND WHO LIVES IN THE AREA TO THEIR HOUSE?? Holy shit. I assumed all this was common knowledge among adults but I guess not.

I know I’m more anxious than the average person, but I would be fucking terrified if someone tracked down my home address and started calling and messaging me and all my relatives and my relatives’ jobs nonstop for weeks on end. It would literally send me spiraling into full blown panic attacks. It would make me feel unsafe in my home, worry for my friends and family, make me feel like I couldn’t go outside or answer the phone. And I am aware not everyone would have that extreme a reaction to something like this, but still I can’t imagine it would make anyone feel good to have that happen to them.

“Come on, he just wanted to let her know her art was famous! It was for a noble cause!”

I don’t think the reason matters actually. Stalking and harassing someone isn’t actually more moral just because you’re stalking and harassing them to tell them something good (and please, we all know he wanted to get an interview to make his video more substantive and popular, this was not purely altruistic no matter what excuses he makes).

I do think it is important to credit artists and to understand where the art we share often thoughtlessly as memes comes from. But you can do that without being a massive asshole and without whining to everyone they’ve ever met about your “important” YouTube video! I think the real lives and emotional security of real people are more important than a YouTube video about a gif.

He easily could have ended the video after he found her name and website. He could have wrapped it up with a nice little bow about giving credit where it’s do and not believing everything you see online unless you can verify the source. But because he wants to do the influencer song and dance, he starts harassing this person he’s claiming to help. Once he finds out she’s dead, he takes a step back and reflects on how she was a real person, but it baffles me that he couldn’t afford her the same courtesy when he thought she was still alive. Because he wanted clout. He wanted to do a little interview where she was sooooo grateful to him for tracking down her address and phone number and harassing her family so he could tell her about how famous her gif was (he literally said that was what he imagined happening, her just falling over herself in gratitude towards him). It was never about her at all. It was about making himself feel like the specialist boy, about elevating his own Brand, about making his own work feel more like Art.

Don’t do this!! If someone doesn’t answer your message about being in your silly YouTube video, just leave them alone!! You are not doing them a favor, you’re just being a dickhead!!

[grimalkinmessor]

Thinking about your Hanahaki AU again, with Light this time. He'd definitely rip the flowers out. If he could.

Because, does removing Hanahaki flowers require surgery in this AU? How much does it cost? Can Light even admit himself and get surgery in the middle of the Kira case? Without anyone noticing? How would he even explain to Soichiro or Sachiko that this is why he needs the flowers out?

Plus, as you've said, would L notice? It's very, very likely L would. And he won't let Kira remove those flowers. Afterall, Kira being in love with L would be a very interesting development. How far would Kira go for someone he loves when he can't rid himself of his feelings nor live with those feelings unrequited?

This seems to be a very, very, very bad ending for Light. Unless somehow L ends up falling for Light while trying to stop him from getting Hanahaki flowers removed...

What do you think? How does Light having Hanahaki go in your AU?

I'VE ACTUALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THIS SO UNHINGEDLY THAT I'VE GONE A BIT INSANE BARE WITH ME

So, to address your first question; yes, Light absolutely rips them out :3 You're right that he can't get surgery during the middle of the Kira case because it would bring too much attention to him, AND the fact that yes, the surgery is incredibly expensive and he wouldn't be able to pay for it on his own even if he could find a clinic discreet enough that L couldn't find it. Buuut that doesn't mean that he can't remove them himself! :D

Light is a boy that jerry-rigged a bomb into his desk with shit that he bought at the corner store in an abandoned building with little to no tools—he would absolutely consider it within his abilities to give himself surgery. And he's correct! It would be incredibly dangerous, but for Light everything he does seems to be a Morton's Fork, even if he doesn't see it that way.

I imagine him visiting his school nurse to yoink some medical supplies, finding a way to recirculate his blood as soon as he loses it (possibly by jerry-rigging some other machine to suck the blood up out of any openings he made back into a tube that cycles it right back into his arm veins—idk how that would WORK but Light would find a way I promise you), and then sitting in front of his bedroom mirror to split his chest open while Ryuk watches his lifespan to make sure he's not gonna die.

But the kicker here is this; Light would have to do this multiple times. Because he has to leave the roots of the flowers in or he loses his memory of L, and just like L, he can't afford to lose valuable insight on his opponent in the middle of the game. So once every month (or twice depending how often he sees L) Light cuts himself open and clears out the foliage in his lungs! :D Yes it would be incredibly painful and incredibly tedious and incredibly dangerous, but Light would still do it, because by this point he thinks he can't afford to do anything else. Kira comes before L, yes, but Light's continued existence (with his mental image intact) comes before Kira. Which, ironically, now necessitates continuing to be Kira, even against his own heart's desires.

Despite his ego, Light doesn't actually do many things for personal gain—if he can't convince himself that something would ultimately have an altruistic purpose (and yes furthering Kira's goals does count as an altruistic purpose because Light sees Kira, himself, as altruistic by nature) and it comes at any sort of cost, then he convinces himself he doesn't want it. Being in love with L would be one of those things he denies viciously ✨ He'll say it's obsession, equality, understanding rather than love or affection, because Light has never felt deep respect or affection for anyone other than his family and obviously the Hanahaki has just mistaken his respect for love. Obviously.

Confessing isn't an option. Light would sooner leap in front of a speeding train than confess (in either circumstance of confession in this case). He doesn't even believe he's in actual love with L so he sees it as a moot point. Making L fall in love with him also isn't an option for similar reasons.

If we go the route where L doesn't discover that Light has Hanahaki or at least he discovers it too late, then it wouldn't differ very much from canon. The only difference would be that Light, until the day he dies, would carry around physical proof of his love for L. And the knowledge that it wasn't enough for Light to spare him :') Which would then feed further in to Light's idea that it wasn't REAL love, merely a facsimile of it 💔 Nothing else changes.

BUT—as for L finding out... Well, here's the thing. He would either need to find out before Light's confinement, or after they catch Higuchi. Because during that period where Light loses his memory of being Kira? His Hanahaki goes away :) Yotsuba Arc Light loses his feelings for L because most of the reasons Light loved him before have abruptly become the very same reasons Light hates him as soon as he forgets he's Kira :)

So if L finds out, it's either early enough that he can swap plans entirely (if he wished to), or late enough that he'd have to haul ass to convince Light not to kill him, either by attempting to fall in love with Light or proving him as Kira or somehow, by some miracle of manipulation and seduction and conversation, convince Light to change his mind. BUT—but but but—the sticking point here is that L is not in love with Light. (I don't see Light as the type to feel "unloved" so we're going the Hanahaki Is Omniscient To People's Feelings route instead of it being psychological). And any plans he would make in response to Light's Hanahaki would be dependant on several factors, including but not limited to the strength of his desire to live, the strength of his desire to win, the fact that Light is intellectual equal, the fact that despite Light being his intellectual equal they have very different moral codes and societal views, the pros of keeping Light alive, the cons of keeping Light alive, lust even (if there is any), etc. etc. But not love. You'd have to account for the fact that Light surviving the Hanahaki is not L's top priority. It might not even be high priority. Though I think you're right in that L would make sure Light couldn't get rid of it—he'd find it too interesting see it as too much of a boon to lose. Plus I very much see him as a vindictive little shit, just like Light 💕

So really it's up to how you think L would react! What you think is important to him, what you think his thought processes are, and honestly when you decide that he finds out. Those are all factors in L's decision making process that have to be considered—which is why I don't write from L's pov very often :,D

[loquaciousquark]

Mulling over the news about the upcoming Patch 2 and trying to decide what I want to do here. I'm very, very close to the end of the game--just the dragon quest, Orpheus, and assaulting the Elder Brain left--and the news about the epilogues has me wondering if I should wait to finish until after Patch 2 drops, since IGN suggests it's coming out this week. (I mean, I played ME3 both with and without the Extended Edition DLC, and knowing what came first helped me much more deeply appreciate what came after, but...hm.)

I'm also trying to figure out what exactly is being suggested with this new Karlach content. The Steam post says it's a "more fleshed-out" ending that many have been asking for and that it's a "new optional ending" that's "fiery, poignant, and gives her the ending she deserves." The IGN article quotes one of the devs as saying "it will make a lot of people happy," which...what's going to make them happy other than an implication that her heart can be fixed permanently--but also, what's poignant about that? Hmm.

I don't really care about the Minthara stuff (sorry Larian), but I'm very interested in the expanded epilogues being suggested for the rest of the party. What Larian says on the Steam post, that they were sure fans wouldn't want a long epilogue in a game where you can complete so many quests in so many ways, is silly to me, but regardless, they seem to be addressing it, and I won't argue with more content letting you know how you've affected the world. It's also not clear to me if this patch is going to include new/expanded epilogues for everyone or if Karlach is just first. I've also read about the bugs with the LI post-epilogue scene not triggering unless you let Karlach die in the final battle, and I'm curious to see if this fixes that. Not that I'm exactly over-eager to get Astarion's at this point, ha--though whatever happens there will shape my post-game oneshot, for sure!

It doesn't really matter to me if they add the Upper City back in; I've been reading some of the original material (ads, trailers, and such), and frankly I think people made a lot more of a few throwaway lines than they should have, and I'm not sure that's Larian's fault. I don't even really want another area to explore in Act 3; what we have is plenty! I do think Cazador's palace's entrance is dumb, but meh. Not exactly a dealbreaker. So that they say here that they never meant the Upper City to be more than something to fight through in a climactic battle--fine, sure, good with me.

I am super glad to see performance in Act 3 especially is being addressed. I've had to restart the game for fps drops there more than any other place--it felt like almost every two hours sometimes. I found myself actively avoiding saving because it seemed like every time I saved, I dropped five fps. It'll be good to see that section run more smoothly.

In other news regarding my actual game progress, I finished the House of Hope the other day, and that special fight song at the end has been stuck in my head on loop ever since. I really, really loved that song & how they used it, and I'm going to go listen to it again now.

(I also got the Devil's Fee woman the Gloves of Hill Giant Strength to complete that quest, then stole them right back out of her back pocket and gave them to Karlach. For as generally altruistic as Tavish has become over the course of the game, some habits die too hard, and some items are just too shiny.)

[menciemeer]

It's interesting to me that (unless I really missed something) after the point where Hannibal sends Dolarhyde after Will's family, Will stops framing his work on the Red Dragon case as something altruistic.

Prior to that, Will talks about saving people. He even, immediately before the attack on his family, tries to convince Hannibal to help him via an appeal to his better nature (!!!)

WILL GRAHAM Do you know who they [the family that Dolarhyde is going to target] are? HANNIBAL Yes. WILL GRAHAM You're willing to let them die. HANNIBAL They're not my family, Will. And I'm not letting them die. You are.

(Which, just, listen. Hannibal is maybe the single least likely person, ever, to be swayed by the argument "maybe it would be better if fewer people died." Honestly.)

I just think it's interesting that after the attack on Will's family, that whole motivation (or pretense-at-motivation) is quietly dropped. It's not about saving the next family and it's not even really about the fear that Dolarhyde will try to finish the job. ("I can't go home until the Red Dragon is out of the way" reads more psychological to me than a statement of actual physical danger, although the viewer does also have more direct insight into Dolarhyde than Will does, and we know that he doesn't really seem interested in trying again...)

Will starts drifting further into Dolarhyde's mindset right at the end of the season, and by the time the final fight at the cliff house happens, it doesn't really feel about anything other than self-actualization. Will enacts his own becoming upon Dolarhyde. It's not about who Dolarhyde is or what he might do in the future so much as it is about Will, and what Will wants.

Anyway. The whole point of this is that it's a fun alternative (and, yes, compatible) motivation for Hannibal to direct Dolarhyde at Will's family in the first place. Will came back to the FBI and he came back to Hannibal, but he wrapped himself in a shroud of morality that doesn't align with Hannibal's view of Will's underlying self. Beyond the jealousy angle, Hannibal is making Dolarhyde bad in a way that is immensely personal to Will, so that Will can't deny that how good it would feel to hurt him.

[djgamek1ng]

MTG x Final Fantasy Card Discussion (Pt. 3 - The Mono Colored Cards of the Main Set)

In this part, we're looking through all the officially current revealed cards of the Final Fantasy set in Magic The Gathering. We will be going in WUBRG (or White > Blue > Black > Red > Green) order and in order of rarity... which admittedly doesn't matter too much, but oh well. I had to cut this in two parts (mono colored and multi colored), because Tumblr only allows 30 images and I am showing a lot of images for the alternative versions of cards. Anyway, let's start with White and our first mechanic: sidequests!

Sidequest: Catch a Fish. A White enchantment for 3 mana that can be potential ramp from turn 4 onward. So, how this works is that you cast Sidequest: Catch a Fish and then at your next upkeep, you look at the top card of your library. If that card is a artifact or creature card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. Since this happens before your draw step, this is effectively like drawing a second card, though notably it doesn't count as to drawing a card for effects that care for that. Then, if you put a card into your hand this way, you create a Food token and you flip this enhancement to its land form, Cooking Campsite.

So, this is ramp and kind of cantrip like effect. It is also low to the ground in terms of power, so it will be rare for someone to shoot the enchantment to stop you from the small bit of ramp and replacing the card you cast. The land you flip to can be potentially scary for artifact heavier decks, though only a single +1/+1 counter per turn isn't too scary on its own. When you run with Doubling Season or a similar effect with Green, this could get very scary really quick if you have the artifacts to sacrifice. Either way, an interesting double faced card!

Let's talk about the sidequest mechanic. We know we are getting 5 of these, so 1 of each primary color. So all of these will be enchantments that eventually flip into lands. How they will flip is up in the air, but will be an interesting cycle.

Now for the art. Credit to Gal Or. Link to their website. So these are just very nice! Lovely backgrounds, seeing the small versions of Noctis and Ignis is nice. They are just very nice portraits of the environment. I really love these. I kind of wish it was a bit more heavy in contrast, but that's also not inaccurate to how that game looks, so consider it a criticism of the game more so than the art, haha!

Next... oh god no. Don't make me do this. NOT ANOTHER MOOGLE!

GODDAMMIT STILTZKIN, WHY ARE YOU THE FIRST OFFICIALLY REVEALED THING FROM FF9?! Okay, okay. Let's talk about him. First, I will have to point out that Moogle is an official creature type in this set. This also means that I will most likely have to run a moogle deck during my prerelease, because the gods hate me. For flavor, it makes... sense that moogles will invest my favorite color in Magic. They are genuinely altruistic and community driven. That doesn't make me like them, but White is perfectly sensible for them, including Stiltzkin here.

Anyway, now actually on to the card and its mechanics: a 1 mana 1/2 is very solid, even slightly ahead of curve. On top of that he has lifelink, so very aggressively stated to be good. Then, for 2 mana and tapping this thing, you can give someone a "gift" and draw a card if they gain control over it. That last part mainly is there in the off chance you are somehow able to interrupt getting the "gift."

Now, let's talk about the gifts you can get. This can be a genuine gift, like giving someone an artifact you control, like a Food token that can give life in exchange for mana. It can be something like a Battle that has been placed on you, giving it to the player that gave it to you, so it can't ever be flipped unless some dumbass attacks it for the person that placed it on you. It can also be a gift like Demonic Pact, where you can choose the 3 helpful modes, give it to someone and because it never leaves the battlefield, it doesn't reset, so the only choice they have is that they lose the game. That sure is a thing that exists. Yes, the only redeeming point of that is that you can't do that in Commander while having this thing as your commander, since Demonic Pact is Black. However, you could do this with Transcendence, give that to someone, then fully swing out on them, hopefully bringing them above 20 life and then they just instantly lose the game in that way instead.

Don't be fooled by his "cute" design. This thing is evil and he will spread evil. Honestly, this will do shenanigans, but it isn't too hard to remove and it will quickly get way worse for the mana you have to spend if you run this as your commander. This will be something akin to a group hug commander and in 60 card formats, this will cheese out a win with one of the aforementioned cards, but it won't be super strong.

Anyway, on to the art. Credit to Hendry Iwanaga. Link to their ArtStation. Okay, so unlike the Delivery Moogle in the first part of this series, this doesn't have the uncanny valley effect on me quite as heavily compared to the artwork of the Delivery Moogle, though it is still a bit there. It is bright and colorful, it is pretty detailed and my man Vivi is in the background. The only thing I have against this artwork is that Stiltzkin looks weirdly smooth. Like, moogles are fluffy, not... smooth like this. That feels really off.

As for the alternative artwork, WHICH OF COURSE THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE GETS BUT NOT-

Credit to Yumeko. Link to their Instagram. THIS...! THIS IS ACTUALLY CUTE, F**K! ...I'm actually angry with how much I like it. It is very charming and it feels almost traditional. And he's fluffy again. Goddammit, I have nothing to complain about this one. This is actually really really good and charming, from top to bottom. I wouldn't be too angry if I get this one. Still a bit angry, but significantly less than getting any other moogle.

Now that my unending rage is over, let's move to the one blue card they revealed and another interesting mechanic for this set: Saga Creatures.

So this is Shiva (from FFX specifically). She is an Saga Creature. This is an interesting combo of things. So, let's explain a saga first. After your draw step/at the beginning of your main phase, you add a lore counter on a saga (and when it enters you immediately add one). That then activates the first ability of the saga, which in this case taps a creature and puts a stun counter on them. Then, at your third lore counter, do the effect at number 3 and sacrifice the saga.

So... how does this change when you put creature stats on it? Quite a bit, since we now have to ask whether the stats on the creature are good enough when you are able to swing with it once and block with it twice and whether the effects of the saga are good enough. So, let's talk about this spell. For 5 mana you get a 4/5 for 2 turns. You also get to tap two creatures of an opponent's and get to put stun counters on them. Then, at the last turn, you get to draw cards equal to the amount of tapped creatures your opponents control. So, this should minimum be 2 cards, meaning that this is card positive... assuming it didn't die or your opponent(s) were able to untap their creatures somehow.

This card is honestly hard to rate. As a control piece, it is solid enough, but you would need some sort of recursion in your deck before it becomes really really good, since you'd want the effect repeated as much as you can. Just as a creature... it's painful mediocre, since it will only stick around for 2 turns. The stats are fine, 4/5 is nothing to scoff at, but only being able to attack with it once is rough. I think this will have the most home during a limited environment like prerelease or draft and aside from that, mostly in a deck like the FFX, Counter Blitz, deck where you can potentially move the counters around or add them so you prolong her being around or so you can trigger her ultimate before anyone expects it.

Now to the art. Credit to Fajareka Setiawan. Link to their ArtStation. So, firstly, just straight away, the art is way too small. This is the unfortunate consequence of being a saga, which has the art always more cramped like this. That said, Shiva looks nice. The background is very simple, but it is effective to evoke the ice theme of her. Aside from that, not too much to say. Posing is a bit boring, but ultimately fine. Aside from that, looks like FF10's Shiva and there is not much else to it.

As for the alternative art:

Credit to Taku Haruno. Link to their pixiv. I like this more, but not substantially more. Mostly the reason I like it more is that this is a full artwork, which is very nice. Aside from that, I can almost copy paste my entire opinion of the previous one onto this one. Just replace ice with mist, which is probably an icy mist but still looks more like mist than ice. I will say that it is nice looking and probably a bit more on point for FFX's Shiva, but that's really all I got to say.

Now, let's talk about some Black cards. Specifically, let's get... stabby.

Tonberry! :D Okay, so this is a very interesting creature. A 1 mana 2/1 is pretty solid... but it enters tapped and with a stun counter, so you can't attack or block with it for 2 turns after you summoned it (turn 1: summoned, tapped with summoning sickness > turn 2: stun counter removed but still tapped > turn 3: it can now do thing). So that holds it back, though it is very on theme for a Tonberry. Now, the upside for this slow creature: during your turn, the creature has first strike and deathtouch. So it hits first and it instantly kills anything that isn't indestructible, meaning that this trades up very well and even if just psuedo removal, needing to be traded into with either 3 creatures minimum to have it be taken down or needing to trade into it with a first strike creature of your own. Of course, you can just blast it with removal, but it is also only a 2/1, so that might feel wasteful.

I will just say it: it is a fantastic flavor win. A very slow creature that is harmless for a good while, but then when it comes online, it is horrifying and needs to be dealt with very carefully, lest you lose a lot of creatures in return, because it will kill anything in a single hit. I love this, this is a great and flavorful design for a Tonberry, who are quite literally like I just described: they very slowly march towards you, then when they get close enough, they stab you and instantly kill you. Doesn't matter what level you are or what health you are it, instant death.

Now to the art. Credits to Leonardo Santanna. Link to his ArtStation. This is fantastic. Dark and foreboding, but properly lit by the tonberry's latern. It will creep up to you and stab you. This is so good and honestly, the slightly more "realistic" artstyle works wonders for a tonberry, since it makes it look more imposing rather than just a goofy goober. There is an argument to be made that the goofy goober is more accurate, but it is just a different way to depict it. Hell, I'd say that this version looks more accurate to how you will see a tonberry after the first one you have encountered one.

Now, let's talk about a protagonist. Let's talk about Cecil.

Just quickly: this is technically a multicolored card, just not in terms of mana costs. You could run this in a mono black deck and be able to cast it, it just wouldn't benefit from things that specifically buff black spells or creatures. In terms of commander color identity though, it does count as both White and Black, so you can only run it in decks that have both in them.

Cecil is our next double faced card. Let's talk about his front face first: Cecil, Dark Knight. For 1 mana, you get... wait what the hell? A 1 mana 2/3?! Those are insane stats for a 1 mana drop. There has to be a downside, right? Well, he also has deathtouch, so you are trading incredibly well into a lot of things. As long as the opposing creature doesn't do more than 2 damage, this will always out trade anything. Then we have the next line. Every time Cecil deals damage to anything, you lose as much life as the amount of damage Cecil dealt. Then if you are at half your starting life total or less, you transform Cecil to Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. So, before we get to Cecil, Redeemed Paladin, this ability isn't necessarily bad. If you have an effect like Archfiend of Despair where at every end step, you basically make your life loss into life loss for all your opponents, you can make this a benefit. As a bit of flavor, Black is not inaccurate for classic dark knights, since they sacrifice health for damage, which is very inline with Black's philosophy of being willing to trade in anything for their desired outcome, including their own vitality.

Now, let's talk about the flipside, Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. This is a 4/4 with Lifelink, which is good and can potentially swing a losing game into a winning game, though depending on how low you are, Cecil, Dark Knight might kill you. But there is another line, which is that when Cecil, Redeemed Paladin attacks, other attacking creatures gain indestructible until end of turn. This is good, especially if you have a bigger creature attacking alongside Cecil that could otherwise be removed by destroy and/or damage effects. Does mean that Cecil is often gonna be the target to get him destroyed or exiled, so be sure to protect Cecil with something as well. And... do I really have to mention how White fits Paladins? The selfless, vaguely divine, healing and bashing knights? Yeah, didn't think so.

So how do I rate this card? It's... tough. A 1 mana 2/3 is great, but losing life for every time Cecil does damage is not great and needing to be at half your starting health (10 for 60 card formats, 20 for Commander) or below to transform him is rough. My biggest deck building tip is to have ways you can gain health at instant speed, just as a bit of protection from potentially being in lethal ranges for certain spells while still being able to flip over Cecil. This shouldn't be too bad, since Cecil's color identity if you want to run him as your commander is White/Black (or Orzhov), where White is particularly good at gaining life, though Black is no slouch either. So this card definitely needs to be built around to some degree, but it isn't a bad card. A fun and flavorful design though, can't take that away from it!

Now to the art. Credit to Josu Hernaiz. Link to their website. Both of these are pretty simple. Let's start with Cecil, Dark Knight. The background being purple-ish magic and smoke is a bit boring, but works enough. The blue glowy wave from the sword is a nice contrast to the dark armor and background. Then you Cecil's dark knight armor and it looks fantastic. I actually love this artwork, just wished the background was more indicative of a place in FF4 instead of the generic smoke, but it's still really good. Now for Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. Again, very simple background. Mostly just clouds and the rock that Cecil is standing on. There is a bit more color going on, due to the glow from the sword Cecil is holding up glowing with yellow/golden light, so it does at least already win there. Where I think this gets worse is Cecil himself. The armor is still good, but the face makes this hit that uncanny valley for me where this is meant to be realistic, which doesn't really fit with Final Fantasy characters to me. It is sufficiently zoomed out to the point that it doesn't bother me too much, but if I focus on it... yeah, I don't like this artwork nearly as much as the dark knight side.

As for the alternative art:

Credit to Misei Ito. Link to their Tumblr. They also did the alternative art for Terra, Herald of Hope! Anyway, this one will be very short. These are both excellent! Posing is a bit boring, but the art feels very on model for Cecil. Just a shame that the background is the way that it is, but that's unfortunately par for the course.

WITH THAT WE'RE FINALLY DONE WITH CECIL, holy this was the longest section. Luckily I don't have to talk about any other double faced ca- okay, let's just not even pretend that's the case. Anyway, on to Red, which only has 1 revealed card: Zell Dincht.

Luckily, this one is a lot easier to talk about. For 3 mana you get a 0/3. This is bad, BUT in reality, he will actually have a power stat. We'll get to this when we talk about his rules, which are:

You may play an additional land on each of your turns. So you can have double the amount of mana (roughly) coming in every turn. This is great!

Zell gets +1/+0 for every land you control. Combined with the above ability means that Zell gets +2/+0 every turn, right? That sounds incredibly good and only impacted by land destruction effects, which aren't super common! Well...

At the beginning of your end step, return a land you control to its owner's hand. This is a double edged sword. For lands that have an effect when they enter the battlefield, this can be potentially really good, since you are now looking at keeping to repeat that effect. However, those lands often enter tapped. On the other hand though, if you have Landfall effects, which are effects triggered by lands coming in, this is also incredibly helpful for that, since you will always have a land in hand (unless you are forced to discard it by another player... meanie.) Now for the bad: this sucks if you don't have 2 lands to put down every turn, since you will always be picking up one land a turn. This is less bad if you are running more basic lands, since those always enter untapped, but still. You will still be down 1 mana during other people's turns and you won't be progressing your mana base aside from artifacts and mana dorks.

So, what to make of this card? I have no clue, I'm gonna be so honest. Zell is hard to rate, since your deck building is gonna be so different if you run him as your commander and if you run him in either your 99 or in a 60 card format (or your draft/sealed events), you might honestly be sometimes forced to kill him yourself. In big Land Matters decks that really go hard on Landfall effects, Zell will shine, but this is a rough card to have on your field if you don't have 2 lands to put down every single turn he's on the field. Ideally, if he's in the 99 of your commander deck or if you are running a Land Matters deck in a 60 card format, you are also running Green alongside Red, for Gruul or even Temur (Green/Blue/Red), Sultai (Black/Green/Blue) or Naya (Red/Green/White), so you can get more Landfall effects and more access to ramp effects via either finding lands or straight up putting them on the battlefield from your deck. As a stray card to put into a deck, I cannot recommend that. At worst, he's mana neutral, but it is still not great to lose that mana on opponent's turns.

Oh, also, as for the flavor: Red makes perfect sense for Zell is a hotheaded man and will act before thinking. The Lands Matter angle I think is mainly due to Zell actually being incredibly learned about all the places you visit in FF8? I'm not sure if that's the angle that was intended, but if so, fair enough.

Now for the art. Credit to Kevin Sidharta. Link to their ArtStation. Zell in the D-District Prison (I think?) after he just punched the hell out of a GIM47N. This art is fantastic frankly. Yes, it does hit that uncanny valley a bit of it being quite realistic compared to regular Final Fantasy art, especially when you look at his face for a bit... but it depicts Zell's cockiness perfectly and it looks wonderful. Bright enough where you can tell everything that is going on, but still a dull background like the prison this battle took place in. I also love the enemy he beat up being there, it's such a good touch. Genuinely no notes, this is wonderful.

Now onto Green and we're gonna be talking about the two mascot creatures of this franchise. No, I'm not acknowledging moogles as the actual mascot :) First, Sazh's Chocobo!

I have once again regrets about not talking about the art first. Also, they have confirmed that chocobos will have a Landfall theme, so just putting that out there. Anyway, this is very simple. A 1 mana 0/1. That's not great, but an early "threat." And its ability puts a +1/+1 counter on it when a land comes into your control. So this will actually grow pretty quick, especially with Green's many ways to get lands on the battlefield way quicker than the other colors. Even just a simple turn 1 Forest > Sazh's Chocobo, turn 2 Forest makes this is a 1/2, which is solid honestly. Even better if you have an effect that increases the amount of +1/+1 counters gained from its ability, like adding an additional one or doubling it (which is the same for this thing, but still.)

Green for chocobos makes perfect sense. They are generally wild creatures that the players get to tame and use as their companions, but they are just animals. Most "regular" animals tend to fall into Green, since Green is all about the natural world and the natural order of things. Surely we'll get a few Red/Green chocobos, maybe some Green/White chocobos too.

Now for the art. Credit to Domenico Cava. Link to his website. I WANT TO BE CUDDLING 1000 OF THESE! It's so cute and charming! Very water colored, but still pretty detailed. This is just great, no real notes!

Next up, a very large lad: Jumbo Cactuar!

So... this card caused some strive and controversy when it first got shown. Let's talk about it. First, Green again makes sense for cactuars. They are literal plant creatures. Nothing much to say. As for this card: a 7 mana 1/7 is hilariously bad... until you read its ability. When this thing attacks, it gains +9999/+0 until end of turn. So this is a very interesting card. I'll say that it is flavorful to allow it to do 10.000 damage without outside support. However, does it ever matter? Not really. Against high life gain decks, this could be like 200 - 300 and it would generally be enough. Against anything else, this could've been 50 and be enough for every single main format that exists aside. Also, it noticeably doesn't have any innate evasion. For good reason, mind you. Green is already quite easy to get Trample on this thing, at which point the game is done.

How good is this card? Well, it is a game ender if someone can't deal with it, that's for sure. Use it together with Fling to just do direct damage to someone's face (don't forget to use it after you declare attacks!). Hell, if you just want to ruin someone's night: attack with Jumbo Cactuar > Swords to Plowshares it > gain 10.000 life if they can't destroy it before you exile it. Aside from that though, you definitely need to give it evasion or it will just be chump blocked to death. So good, but not game ruining. By the time you can summon that, even as Green, answers are already online for the other player and getting it removed even once (assuming you can either bring it back in Commander or summon it again in 60 card formats) is devastating for how much mana it costs. Obviously, there are ways to cheat this in, but still.

Now for the art. Credit to Jason Kiantoro. Link to their ArtStation. So this is simply wonderful. Irving and Rinoa fighting a Jumbo Cactuar in a desert while it is doing the Ten Thousand Needles attack. This looks great. It is simple in terms of background and there aren't many details, but that's what you want/need from a card like this: the focus is on the creature you can randomly encounter in FF8 and it is goofy, but also threatening. This is fantastic, no notes. Also, I really hope Jason has more cards in the set. They do some wonderful FFXIV commissions, which are posted on their ArtStation. I'm not usually plugging that stuff, but they really have some wonderful stuff in their gallery.

As for... wait, this thing got an alternative art? Really? But... okay. As for the alternative art:

Credit to Yumeko. Link to their Instagram. Another alternative art by Yumeko! This one I don't have as high praises for as I did for the demon called Stiltzkin's alternative art. Kind of similar to the art beforehand, it's simple and that works. It focuses on showing how big the creature is. I do think it misses that threatening factor a bit with no one reacting to it, but it's still quite nice.

And that's the mono colored cards! Overall, I'm quite happy with all of these and that they were the initial ones to be revealed. Of course, I do wish we got info about characters I'm excited for, but these all make sense to show how flavorful this set is. Next post, which should only be a few days after this one to give some time to breathe between posts, will cover all 4 of the currently revealed multicolored cards. If my hunch is correct about Ardyn's card potentially being shown on Wednesday, I will either make a separate post about him if he's mono colored or add him to the multicolored post if he is multicolored. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a nice day!