#Ma'lash

[duntoss]

Artanis help him! Ma'lash won't stop giving him swirlies and stealing his lunch money

[shinigami--apples]

the cement has set

so, I always had a lot of trouble placing Ji'nara anywhere in headcanons because she's a bit of a mystery to me, I wish more was done with her and I don't do that much in the grand scheme of my own story other than have her be foreshadowing for a decision later. BUT

I think based on general interaction, I can say that Alarak and Ji'nara are friends.

Like, good friends, before they even know what friendship is, and in a bizarre way, Alarak protects her, and I think she might do the same even though she acts like she'd sell him to satan for a corn chip (who wouldn't).

So, in Ascension, what sticks out to me is that he makes sure at every point that she Will Not participate in the Rak'Shir between Ma'lash and Nuroka. This is partially, obviously, because it's too many variables for him to handle in a situation where he is already overwhelmed and unsure about making decisions on the fly, but the "do not follow me" line as he runs out into the pit is a double-edged thing here. He doesn't want her to follow, obviously, but the fact that he thinks that she absolutely would and has to emphasise such says that there's a bit of a dynamic here.

She's clearly younger than him, she's more plucky, and for all the jabbing about her one day succeeding him in-game, she's quite comfortable where she is, at least from my perspective. While I always didn't particularly like the flip-flop between "look at how strong I am, Alarak" and "one day I'll kill you, Alarak", thinking on it, I honestly believe it fits. She might want some praise from someone who she might view as, at least in part, keeping her safe through her own ascension. It's never clear how long they're the link above and below on the chain, but I think he either dragged her up when he orchestrated the massive Rak'Shir OR she fell under him afterwards and a long time had past.

(maybe she reminded him of someone or vice-versa, but that is ENTIRELY speculation lol, it could also just be that he thinks she's a valuable asset and treats her as such)

I always thought that Alarak payed more respect to Ji'nara than, say, Ma'lash or Nuroka would to him. There's a sort of grudging respect that is just between the lines of their interactions that reminds me of a big brother trying to keep an annoying little sister from getting into too much trouble.

(just to note that I don't think they're related personally after having a bit of a toy with it and a think about it, but the dynamic is there)

yeah

[protosshiropon]

Where's their nerve code?

[incorrect-starcraft-quotes]

Alarak: Ma'lash, your god is... problematic.

Ma'lash: How so?

Amon: *Flickers lights on and off repeatedly.* WELCOME TO THE VOID! WELCOME TO THE VOID!

submitted by lord-of-garbage

[zerguette]

Everything was okay, another attempt on the mission until Karax said the word: S O L A R I T E.

I can’t, Now I realize why I lost the mission many times, because my brain goes to hear Critical Role and my heart wants the Solarite-

[thestarcraftobserver]

Alarak, despite his hatred and villainous demeanor...what's not to love about him? He was quite the character in Legacy of The Void and motives were always questionable especially when Artanis was in the position of having to help him out to defeat Ma'lash to push him into the Pit of Sacrifice.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @mikech.art is the mastermind behind this art of Alarak. We love that simplistic feeling to it along with the overall logo feel that can be felt. The armor detailing is absolutely wonderful and the different shades of red and black.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 👤Art by @mikech.art⁠⠀

[palavenmoons]

Commission done for K. Drawing Ma'lash was incredibly fun, so was designing the throne and painting the armor. I remember the Protoss back from Starcraft I... so much has changed.

Working on this was a lot of fun and hard work. However I am quite pleased with the result. Thank you for commissioning me to work on this, K! :3

[duntoss]

I gave drawing him a try

[duntoss]

Alarak's features get a tiny bit softer every time I draw him

[shinigami--apples]

I accidentally opened floodgates

girl help

(again just my interpretation and just an additive that you ship who you like, I don't care this is just my personal views on the matter here we go)

Anyway here goes:

I don't think Alarak romantically likes Vorazun. Not One Bit.

And this is a weird opening because the end of this rant partially has nothing to do with it.

So in the grand scheme of things, for starters, I know for a fact that, yeah, he was definitely flirting with her in that mission they were on together. Like, painfully so. It was painful. My Guy She Does Not Like You Calm Down.

(note that Vorazun Fucking Hates him, she moved to another section of the ship as soon as he was more permanently on board and GOD the way she speaks to him on that mission ranges from slight annoyance to incredulity like cmon, it's why I personally would never ship them, she shows No Interest, and it's not even in that "I hate you <3" type way, it's just No)

BUT the reason why I think that it wasn't particularly born from actually seeing her as a potential romantic partner is because, in the grand scheme of things, Alarak doesn't actually know how to connect with others on a deeper level.

Honestly, who could blame him, he's a Tal'darim, and Tal'darim spend their whole lives on a knife's edge. They CAN'T have deeper connections because a deeper connection could mean death. Feelings are a weakness, and from the way he interacts with Ma'lash, Nuroka and Ji'nara, the way that Tal'darim speak to each other, at least on the high end of the chain is like a chess match, and every word counts.

(so on top of this, I have this headcanon that Amon was partially influencing the emotions of the Tal'darim, keeping them from being able to form proper bonds so that they would be more compliant about the backstabbing and slaughtering and also so that the terrazine could be used to manipulate them better with the positive emotions it would give them. Propaganda and fearmongering would do the heavy lifting for the Tal'darim that the emotional blocking didn't quite work on and there we go. Alarak has been away from the rest of the Tal'darim for a while while he's on the Spear and I like the idea, personally, that the emotional manipulation wasn't working so well thanks to distance and active defiance, which is why he would get confused about those particular emotions he ends up experiencing, but even without this headcanon, the difference in dynamic in terms of how he interacts with people may throw him for a loop too)

When he's on the Spear around Artanis and the rest of them, he talks too much. This is ESPECIALLY with Artanis. The way that they interact in particular was very much "Artanis would like to be out of this conversation, shush, stop talking" and then he WOULDN'T. It only happened a couple of times, but I felt it hard. I kind of feel as a whole that he's very much the outcast of that whole group which, yeah, that's most likely intended, his views differ MASSIVELY from the others.

(just like me fr)

The other part of this is that I think that he really respects Vorazun. The way he speaks to her vs Artanis is like night an day. In their first encounter, his voice is far more gentle than any other time in-game, and I have only ever heard him refer to her as "Matriarch" (apart from in a voiceline in co-op where he expressly addresses her by name, but I haven't heard it outside of looking through the files so I don't know if it's used). And obviously this is partially to get her to listen to him, but even later when he's trying to get Artanis to do the same, he's never so respectful.

But this is all just a precursor to say that because of this apparent social ineptitude, a mixture of possibly newer emotions, and the respect he seems to have for Vorazun, I think that he may have confused respect for infatuation and tried to act on it as such.

Like at the very end of that mission, she's actually marginally impressed and then he ruins it by bragging which... God, What A Dork (affectionate). But the way that he brags to Artanis and Vorazun in general also seems oddly like attention seeking, at least in my eyes. There's this dynamic of wanting to prove he's strong vs wanting to make sure that he made the right decision in going for help from them (or you know, striking a bargain. It's not asking for help if you have something to give in return I prommy) by constantly poking Artanis in particular. It's something that I don't see in Ascension with Tal'darim-only interactions, or even in interactions in Heroes of the Storm. When he speaks with Nuroka, when he speaks with Ji'nara, there is no bragging, it's all mostly regular conversation. With Nuroka he's even, at least partially, admitting that there are things he can't do. It's only when he's matched up against Ma'lash with Artanis' army at his back that he starts bragging again.

Basically mans has a lot of trouble interacting with protoss who don't immediately want to kill him and that leads to him thinking that flirting with Vorazun is a Good Idea even though she hates him. There's no real romantic feeling involved in my interpretation.