#She needs her time to shine

[helpmeplzimbeggin]

Just a little rambling about Scylla and Odysseus

I know that at least a handful of people have probably drawn a few similarities between them already, but that’s just NOT ENOUGH people so I’m just gonna dump some of the thoughts that have marinating in my noggin for a while now.

Does anyone remember when, at the very end of the song “Scylla” both Odysseus and Scylla sing the lyric “We are the same, you and I” in sync (and there a few other lyrics earlier into the song where Scylla sings similar lines on her own)? Becuase I do, and I thought it was WAY too intriguing to disregard. I understand that the scene was meant to mean that both of them would do terrible things to survive, but the being that is expressly said to be in the one place Poseidon wouldn’t roam (from the song “Suffering”), which could mean that he was afraid of Scylla, to actually see some random mortal as the SAME as her has to mean something, right? I know we all got majorly distracted by the the mutiny stuff and then whatever the heck Zeus’s song was (and maybe that was even by design so we wouldn’t look too deeply into the lyric), but it feels like such an important scene!

So I researched into who Scylla actually is, and it turns out Poseidon isn’t exactly afraid of her. She actually used to be a beautiful sea nymph that Poseidon fell in love with, but he asked Amphitrite to turn her into what she is now after after Scylla rejected him. So the reason why Scylla related with Odysseus so strongly was because they are the same. Someone forced to become a monster because of Poseidon’s cruelty, and someone who Poseidon himself would eventually come to avoid (bcus we all now edgy water boy isn’t going anywhere NEAR Odysseus after the beatdown he got in “600 strike”).

((Also, kinda random, but I also just wanna bring up that Odysseus (in the song “King Odysseus”) will be “aiming for the torches” just like Scylla was to the men in Odysseus’s ship! Probably just a coincidence, but it’s an interesting parallel nonetheless.))

okay bye thanks for listening to my Ted talk!!!

[songforten]

can anyone explain to me at what point rose tyler was "unbelievably stupid". was it when she was inventing transdimensional travel

[mollysunder]

The Medarda arc of s2 struggled to be good, because the plot viciously smothered it. You can argue that Arcane was never about politics but you cannot say the Medardas were never explicitly a family defined by politics. So when the show shifted it's priorities from a drama steeped in political conflict where even though the setting was fantastical the stakes were grounded to a shift where magic is the end all be all threat to humanity, the Medardas are rendered largely irrelevant.

In s2 Mel's agency over her own story is both largely stripped from her and poorly communicated. Arcane has Mel abducted from the plot to be the Black Rose's captive. Even when Mel manages to free herself it's not through the traits the audience understands are her strengths, her cunning and social intelligence, it's through an innate instinct that natural to her and indecipherable to the audience.

Ambessa as a character is more or less a villain of convenience, which would be fine if she wasn't immediately following Silco's act. Once Mel is removed from the story Ambessa is largely disconnected from any emotional tension fuels conflict between the characters and previously drove the plot in s1. She's there to play the worse bad guy for Caitlyn and then give Viktor the man power for the Glorious Evolution.

It's frustrating to see the Medardas used the way they are in s2 because when they're together I can see how it could be good. When they're together Mel forces emotion out of Ambessa. In Act 1, Ambessa proved she could do circles around Piltover's court, which could actually put Mel in a tight spot.

Their final scene on paper sounds like a good idea where the true resolution to Mel and Ambessa's story was that Ambessa saw Mel's own ruthless behavior as she not only betrayed Ambessa to the Black Rose, but used her as BAIT to double cross LeBlanc. Ambessa died proud that her daughter killed her the way she did, and that's so cool and tragic, but the execution was a flop.

One, their final fight is completely unimportant to the actual Glorious Evolution, Mel's grief can't even be a highlight because it's interrupted by Viktor's mind trap. Two, their fight didn't rely on any of Mel's actual strengths, just magic and the poorly explained MacGuffin LeBlanc gave her. How did Mel even know it would do that?

It's like the writers had the bones for a great story for the Medardas, but then they're like the world's worst archeologists and fit those bones together in the worst way possible because they were convinced the bones made a stegasaurus instead of a T-rex or something.

[maroisedot]

It is a CRIME how little I´ve drawn her considering she´s one of my absolute favourites. SO Vania appreciation post it is!!!!

Also the pic with harumi is based on this headcanon that vania & harumi were childhood friends. because... princesses.

aaaand the third picture is based on this post that had me giggling like a madman at one in the morning

[sheerakk]

Garth, thank you for existing

@assigned-k9 thank you for creating her!!

[bonefall]

maybe with the ending.. make it be like the link between Breezepelt's leaving to join Kin and his POV in AVOS? of course from Nightcloud's perspective but

like. she would be injured and recovering away from the clan. but they would be unaware that she is alive and like in canon assume she died and hold her a vigil. Breezepelt, who is already at low point, taking it very badly - yes he was pushing her away bc he was hurt and angry and started taking it out on her, but.. it's still his mom. his Mi. and she is dead? or is this stupid clan just going to believe this to make it easier? are they really giving up on looking for her, or her body??

i can see Nightcloud being the one of very few, if not THE Only one, things that kept Breezepelt in WindClan at this point. and without her, what's the point? it's not like anyone else likes him. the link is gone and they buried it in a bodyless vigil. so it's what pushes him to actuall take the step and leave.

not sure how well it would align with the timeline and events. and how soon Darktail was assembling cats from other clans like Breeze. but i think it would be interesting and heartbreaking if at the end of her SE, Nightcloud just arrived back to WindClan and asks where Breezepelt is and someone tells her.. he either was missing since this morning or just left the clan earlier the same day. like, just have them miss each other by a hair.

I'm thinking that the second-to-last chapter is her with Pickle, having a bit of a sabbatical to unpack everything that happens through the story. Mostly because I want to throw her into some kind of pretty garden as a nice setting for this lmaoo

A LOT of BB stuff is being added to Nightcloud's Pannage that wasn't in the main series; Hillrunner's abuse, her mentor Addersong, several expanded little background characters now complete with their own side conflicts. I think what I can bind all these things with is Nightcloud considering what a Clan means.

Because of her new reputation, I'm noticing I'm writing scenes where she's intentionally doing and saying things to try and sway them. While also grappling with her resentment towards them, and things she can't change.

There's a bit of a melancholy air so far, so I'm starting to feel like the best ending is just having a bit of space to herself to think. Ultimately, she decides that it's more than Breezepelt or Crowfeather that binds her to WindClan. It's the life and connections she COULD have.

WindClan cats are also quite religious next to other Clans, so I really do mean "sabbatical." I'm going to have Addersong die of old age shortly after they reconnect, so she's in Pickle's Garden talking to her new friend, choosing cats she's lost to pray to as patron spirits to give her the traits she feels she needs, and just recovering both physically from injury and spiritually from turmoil.

So all that to say; it works well that by the time she gets back, Breezepelt has joined The Kin. He was one of the first to join when he started calling for members anyway, so having Night be gone for about two or three weeks sounds appropriate.

[shinakazami1]

I'm thinking of @krotiation post about how Rhys is strong sm and I'm just wondering of Anu and him

Anu presents herself as genius - after all, she made the device to mimic power of sirens which is just very awesome but... We don't see her genius at all in the game. All we see is that she's dependant on her goggles to analyse for her.

The way the comments are built in the game suggest that Rhys had some doing to them. They are snarky, they get some Atlas marketing in there too and while Echo devices had always existed with some remarks, they have their own character well before Ocvatio puts additional programming in.

Best way to show how dependant she's on them is Episode 4. When she reaches her designed spot where she's made to believe to be seen as genius, she problems solves through... The goggles. She doesn't solve the issues by herself at ALL - everything has to be said to her.

Through Tales, we watch Rhys use the Echo device a lot. But there are many moments, in combat or through hacking in Ep 3 that show its only an enhancer of his abilities, not main source of them. It is of course unfair a bit to say - as he also has the arm that he uses a few times, since it's stronger than his body but, I feel his loss of the devices is very significant. Because at the end of the day - he wanted a manager position from the start. He was sometimes an asshole, a coward, but in the end, he did exactly what he wanted. Through his own hard work, he got to the top.

They both used their echo devices to analyse. Anu however, used it to think for her. Rhys used it to help him think.

[minnows-art-blog]

Some concept art for Sweetie Belle’s cutie mark! The top are more in line with canon and the bottom is more experimental!

[deus-ex-mona]

when the slowburn makes the ship extra cute~~~

[ironunderstands]

Genuine question, where are yall getting the “robins eye dots + the stuff behind her are Xipe colors” from?

Because like I don’t see it, like at all. Xipe has like every color under the sun behind them and the shades aren’t similar to Robin’s at all, they aren’t in the same order and there’s like three million other colors mixed in there. I do think the “that rainbow behind her represents moon lesbians” is a little silly because even if it looks like the flag I doubt hoyo’s devs know what those are (I learned about them today 😭).

However, the other colors on the traffic lights and her cheeks straight up look like they are meant to look like a lesbian flag or at least a pastel version of one, and for the life of me I can’t see where people are coming from when they say it’s related to Xipe. I guess her eyes cover the other colors, but purple and yellow are still missing if she truly wanted to represent them on her face alone

Idk man, let me know your thoughts

[mappingthesky]

…can i say something

[whenthegoldrays]

🍉

[iniziare]

Now does that make Guizhong an illuminated beast? Probably not. I think it's more likely that she is actually a Seelie, bearing the imagery of a phoenix due to Celestial association with birds.

I'm listening to Ashikai's video on Guizhong again from 2023's Lantern Rite, which is the first time since I've personally also gone rabid on the intense depth of Guizhong's moon references, the details of the Glaze Lilies and how similar they are to the Nilotpala Lotuses, and most importantly what that means. And listening to this again (and for those who happen to be curious, here's a link to her video which will have the above quote make sense, and I've timestamped it in case people want to skip past the run-through of Guizhong's lore and get to the extra-interesting stuff), so much just... clicks and works. I genuinely do think that Guizhong, at the very least, was a Seelie. But the implications of this, and the implications that I think might go beyond this. /shakes fist immensely, vigorously.

It's so warm-- I can't be coherent. I'm not even the Pepe Sylvia meme, this is the Hoyoverse: Guizhong edition, of Brian David Gilbert trying to explain Kingdom Hearts.

[delightfuldevin]

Been seein some rather cold takes about Daisy lately…

I’ve seen some people say that she has no personality outside of fanon, but that’s just not true. There is a very very common misconception among the fandom (at least that I’ve noticed) that if a character doesn’t appear in a “mainline” game, then they have no personality. But I’d argue that the spinoffs actually offer waaaaay more in terms of looking into character personalities. And no, I’m not talking about the RPGs ala M&L and Paper Mario as those are obviously full of personality (and Daisy isn’t in those). I’m talking about the Party, Kart, Tennis, and other sports games.

Yes, Daisy hasn’t appeared in any mainline game since her debut, but she’s been in nearly every sports game and her traits, stats, abilities, victory/loss animations, and various other tiny details add up to her personality. The fact that she’s nearly always yelling or just speaking really loud in general (noticeably more than any other character), the fact that she constantly feels a need to say her name and make herself known, how she loves flowers and considers even a small patch of flowers worth protecting, how she’s easily bored by tasks that don’t excite her and isn’t so reliable for them. She tends to jump around a lot, and spin and dance around when she’s excited! She’s apparently a rather fast runner and that is considered her specialty! These are all traits that are displayed in the spinoffs, and there’s probably soooo many more that I just can’t remember right now.

Now, I do think her tomboyish nature is probably fanon, as I don’t really remember seeing anything to show that she acts that way in the games. I think people probably think she’s tomboyish due to how loud and energetic she is. But hey, there’s plenty of fanon for just about any character from any fandom out there. And what’s so wrong with that? Isn’t the whole point of making fanworks to expand on the framework already provided by canon? If we want to stick to what’s actually “canon” then nearly everything the fandom has created would have to be tossed, because there really isn’t much to work with. Fanworks and fandoms thrive on what fans can create based on the canon work, not just sticking to it perfectly.

It’s fine if you think the “fanon” Daisy outshines the “canon” Daisy and you dislike that. But to say that she has no personality aside from fanon interpretations just tells me that you have a very narrow idea of what counts as “canon” in an already rather simplistic world. The Mario games are very simple and straightforward without much consistent lore that actually makes sense cohesively, but the characters are what keep everything tied together despite that. The characters are nearly always consistent, and that includes Daisy. Even when the setting is completely different and some random new villain shows up with some random new power source to steal or species to torment, our same well-known lovable characters will be the center of the story and that’s what makes it fun!

[sarahlancashire]

from chocolate chip cookie to kinder bueno

[the-lark-ascending69]

Lumity is very cute but it seems like the kind of ship that would have a fandom so toxic it'd make you dislike the ship in time and I think that's sad.