#also this isn't a transmuter hate post

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 41 Thoughts: Heart of Gold

We're back from what felt like a very long break, but time isn't real any way. As tends to be the case with these X1 episodes, not a whole lot really happens as it's more or less setting up the direction of the act. So this will likely be quite a short one (this is a lie). And, yes, I am aware that 40 is missing. I plan to add that before next weeks episode is out and I'll probably alter the posting date to be in line with the release if possible, no idea how that'll affect how it shows up though.

Spoilers for TMA , and TMAGP episode 41 below the cut.

Not a lot to comment on with Celia and Gwen. Mostly just a reminder that Alice is in Berlin. Also that she hates Gwen, but who could forget that?

I can't say I'm a massive fan of this incident. I think it might be suffering from having to set up some details that'll be more relevant later, as well as reminder the audience of recurring themes. We've got doppelgangers and transmutation and all sorts of alchemically relevant materials. I think my real feelings on this will have to wait until the season, or maybe even the show, is finished. It feels like setup and as such is easier to judge in retrospect.

There are a few things to mention here all the same. Marconi Alchemics is likely another Magnus Institute satellite or partner like Welling Mutare Materia and the rest of them. The body being covered in salt, the head in sulphur, and the lung being full of mercury is some of the most direct reference to the tria prima we've had so far. I've covered this in other posts so I won't dwell on this too much, suffice it to say Paracelsus had a big theory about the base alchemical traits of things and these materials represent those in their truest form. They also correspond to the body, soul, and spirit respectively. The body being covered in salt is a fairly obvious link to make but I think the associations they were going for with the head and lungs is a little murkier. In these contexts spirit is more akin to your imagination and higher reasoning, where soul is more about your emotions. Which has strong parallels to the Greek concepts of psyche and pnuema which are often translated as soul and spirit. Pnuema meaning breath, which does have an obvious connection to the lungs, but pnuema is more akin to sulphur's soul than mercury's spirit and the same is true for psyche.

The perhaps more interesting thing here are the transmuted organs, including the aforementioned lungs. While the organs themselves do have some minor alchemic association it's not particularly compelling stuff IMO. What's more interesting is how many there are and what they are. Aside from the lungs the brain turned to silver, heart to gold, liver to tin, kidneys to copper, spleen to lead, and gall bladder to iron. That's seven metals and not just any seven, its the seven planetary metals. Each of the Classical planets has an associated metal: Silver corresponds to the Moon, gold with the Sun, mercury with Mercury, copper with Venus, iron with Mars, tin with Jupiter, and lead with Saturn. While the alchemic associations with these organs isn't too interesting, what's more important is the Hermetic Qabalah and Paracelsus' own adoption of it. Unlike with most alchemical concepts the organs aren't really symbolic of these planets but are analogous to them. The heart and the Sun aren't connected in any metaphysical sense but the heart is like the sun in that it acts upon the system of organs and provides them with life. And so on for each organ and planet pairing.

If you'd like more of Paracelsus' views on these sorts of things the Volumen Medicinae Paramirum would be the place to go looking for his own words, or something like The Devil's Doctor by Philip Ball if you'd like a more biographic view of the man. Great book, very well researched and cited, albeit quite the read.

It's very lovely to hear from Lena again and I'm really glad she's going to be more a part of this act from the sounds of things. There isn't a whole lot to say on it at the moment but I hope it involves showing Gwen the scope of what the OIAR deals with.

Heinrich has stolen all the scenes he's been in and I love him dearly. He's got some really great chemistry with Alice, the two play off of each other really well. I also love that he's so unapologetically a monster and enjoys being a monster. None of the German is particularly exciting to translate but "Angstjäger" would be something like "fear hunter" depend on how you wanted to translate it. Which is likely the German equivalent of External, or, perhaps, Avatar. I do love that we're going to get more Heinrich too from the sounds of things. I could have a whole spin-off of just him to be honest.

The Friedrich is version 6 thing is interesting but also not interesting. It's been a bit of a weird red herring for a start. Klaus seemed like the obvious suspect for who made it, and then it was Friedrich, but Friedrich and now it's "KS" who is very likely Klaus after all. But what I think is actually interesting is that, presumably, Klaus made a Friedrich version, then nicknamed that version Freddy, and then obfuscated that as Fr3-d1, which was then read as Freddy again because it's just leet. Just sorta circular in an odd way.

Fun fact: in the German spelling alphabet H is for Heinrich.

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Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

Klaus Watch: Klaus probably mentioned babyyyyy

DPHW Theory: 5535 is pretty normal looking all in all. Notably the same as episode 27's incident too.

CAT# Theory: 1 works for P/P/O, although without looking into it I feel like that clashes with how corpses have usually been categorised?

R# Theory: B isn't far off my theory but the last couple of incidents have had fucked up Ranks so IDK anymore.

Header talk: Transmutation (Organs) -/- Experimentation (Metal) is not a particularly interesting heading as these things go.

[stormy-nights-are-best]

The Deep Dive on Shadow Magic that you 🫵 asked for

I'm gonna try not to make this post too long so check out the ALT Image Descriptions for more insight.

I based my research on the principle that magic is integral to science and nature. So first of all, we should break down what a shadow is literally:

A shadow is a tear in the projection of a light caused by an Object (or individual).

1 shadow is always bound to 1 object. One object can produce several shadows at the same time (from several lights), but one shadow can't belong to two separate objects.

Shadows are 2D, but they exist in several planes.

Now let's break down each of these.

A shadow represents a soul. Belonging to a person, or something that's just real. That's why, sometimes, all a picture needs to look unsettling or dreamy is a shadow that either doesn't match the light's intensity or direction, or just isn't there.

That goes to say a shadow can't exist without its Object, but the human brain finds a shadowless body weirder than a bodyless shadow. Check it out:

This happens because a shadow is and always has been a sign that Someone Is There. A bodyless shadow still feels like somebody's, but a shadowless person doesn't even feel real. Old tales described faefolk and vampires as shadowless creatures for that reason.

If your shadow represents your soul, does that mean you're your shadow, and not your body?

Uh, no. Your shadow is an indicative that you have a soul, but you are not your shadow. Your shadow isn't a separate individual either. Let's look at the “Jungian Shadow”.

Literally speaking, from the perspective of the light, your shadow will always be hidden behind you, invisible, like in the first pictures of this post. The “Jungian Shadow”, named after psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961), is the concept that your shadow is everything you hate and fear the most about yourself - it's the part of you that's so dark you don't let anyone see. Even the Bible nods to that on John 3:19-20 and Ephesians 5:11-13. Your shadow is all of your immoral urges, vulnerability and intrusive, dark thoughts combined.

Which makes these two interactions very interesting:

It makes you wonder what's up with Lena. It'd make perfect sense if Magica was Lena's shadow - which she is, for a while - because Magica is everything Lena hates and fears to become. But Lena is Magica's shadow.

If shadows aren't their own individuals, how did Magica create a person with their own thoughts and desires from her shadow? How come Lena isn't a walking amalgamation of the worst aspects of Magica?

We see Magica was able to jump into her shadow while her body got sucked into the dime, then she used her powers to form a temporary body she could cling to.

But what we see isn't necessarily true. It doesn't even make sense:

You can't just CREATE life with magic alone, and even if you could, it'd with much darker arts than just Shadow Manipulation and Transmutation.

↑ It would take a lot longer and a lot more power and materials than shown in the “flashback” anyways

Why is Lena a teenager? You trynna tell me Magica created a past version of herself, without her memories, just body and maybe personality?

This scene isn't even a flashback. It's the guys' imagination illustrating the poem Lena wrote. So not only is this scene not what Lena remembers, it also isn't necessarily true as something that Lena thinks she knows. Only Magica really witnessed what happened there.

Here's what probably happened: Magica was stuck in her quickly dissipating shadow and cast a desperate spell to latch onto somebody else's shadow just like Lena did to Webby.

Lena used the power of Webby's friendship bracelet to pull herself out of the Shadow Realm by latching onto Magica's shadow and even becoming physical WITHOUT A BODY. Even if Magica's magic isn't as strong as the magic of friendship, she could've just as easily latched onto somebody's shadow, especially Scrooge's, if she just needed a body to grab his dime.

I'm saying creating a teenager is overkill. It's even impractical, given her circumstances.

And I think the way Magica insists she's Lena's family - aunt, to be more precise - until she wants Lena gone for good... points us towards a very obvious solution:

Lena was Magica's actual biological niece like in the original Ducktales, as Poe De Spell's daughter.

The exact time passed between Scrooge's raid on Mount Vesuvius and Magica's first attempt to trap him inside the dime isn't clear, but if it was thirteen years, it would explain why Lena is a teenager. Though that would imply taking over someone's shadow would erase their memory and freeze their age...

If you scroll back to the first GIF on this post you'll notice Lena is the only shadow who didn't have red eyes. Even Magica had red eyes. That means she wasn't a regular shadow, not even a person-shadow.

And notice that even though it looks like Lena was turned back into Magica's shadow, the next time Lena shows up (GIF 7), she does not emerge from Magica's shadow. That implies Lena was dragged into the Shadow Realm through Magica's shadow, not turned back into a it.

Another nod that Lena was never a shadow to begin with is the way she's alone in the Shadow Realm. Nobody else's shadows are following their Objects around, and when other shadow spirits do appear, they are:

Shadowy shapes, unlike Lena, who was still bodily while in the Shadow Realm

Made from Lena's feelings of fear and jealousy. Which means they were her “Jungian Shadows”, and a shadow can't have its own shadows, can it?

By the way, did you notice the sunlight from that window is purple in the Shadow Realm? I think everybody knows the color of Shadow Magic is purple because it's black light - or ultraviolet light - the only light that won't light up a room, but will highlight namely “dirty” bodily fluids in fluorescent blue the way “dirty” feelings are hightlighted here.

It's interesting that Lena chose a blue light for her room, too. Just saying. I'm not going too deep into this particular detail.

Back on track, the Shadow Realm is something like nisses' Nowhere Space from Hilda.

It's a pocket dimension you can enter and leave through every shadow (unclear if it's only every person's shadow or any Object's shadow). The way it most differs from the Nowhere Space, is that the Nowhere Space is a space separate from a house, while the Shadow Realm seems to envelop the physical world.

The reason I believe it's a pocket dimension is because Lena was afraid about what would happen to Webby if her tulpas took her outside, as if the Shadow Realm is only inside buildings. That could be because the inside of a building is a shadow in on itself. See how Lena only steps out of Webby's shadow once she's inside of the library? She also opens her eyes like she's just waking up.

This explains why Magica waited until the eclipse to make her move. Duckburg was under the moon's shadow, extending the Shadow Realm into the streets.

I wasn't sure Shadow Magic could be considered Dark Magic at first, but if it allows you to bring people's evil dark sides to life and ban someone into the Shadow Realm, I guess it can be pretty harmful. Tbf it's a magic completely based on lies, omission and your Evil Dark Side. It can also just be shadow-transportation or the power to turn yourself into a shadow though.

Anyways, one thing I haven't figured out is what could be the downside to Shadow Magic. Every Dark Magic comes with a price, be it something that directly affects the user (e.g. illness, curses, losses, etc) or a setback with the spell itself, (e.g. the “came back wrong” trope). Based on the inconvenience of shadows irl, the drawbacks could be:

Feeling cold all the time

Phosphenes

Sensitivity to light and/or poor eyesight

Becoming green (???)

Thanks for reading, this was.. Something. I'm getting too autistic about this show.

[stiltsthegm]

What if you just had fun?

When I'm really bored at work and need something to distract me, but can't get TOO distracted (due to the aforementioned work), I like to watch challenge runs. This inevitably leads to me getting other videos that are tangentially-related to the game that was the subject of the video I just saw, and that's how I stumbled upon this one:

And it was fascinating to me in a way that made me feel a need to say something about it. Not in, like, a mean way (I'm aiming for a gentle ribbing, at most). There's been thoughts stirring in me for a while now about how disconnected I can sometimes feel between the ways I experience games and how "content creators" play games that are simply fascinating to me.

Although I do recommend watching at least some of the video to get the gist of what's happening, I'll do my best to accurately summarize the main thing that prompted this whole post. The author has played Skyrim a lot, almost always with a bunch of mods, and nearly always played it the same way: stealth archer. However, he recently tried a challenge playthrough that essentially forced him to engage in a bunch of systems he never paid much attention to before: alchemy, blacksmithing, mining, herb gathering, and shouts to name just a few. He even found himself using fast travel less, because it meant he could do gathering and transmutation magic while going to his next destination instead of going out of his way to grind out everything right before he needed it. This ended up giving him a greater appreciation for how an un-modded Skyrim actually works and is deeper than he originally gave it credit for.

My first reaction to this was perhaps a little uncharitable: "Were you even playing Skyrim at all until now?"

In a previous video he made (which I also watched), he talks about why stealth archery is so popular. He posits that it's the only combat method that plays well with Skyrim's other systems, since its damage scales well, it's precise (very little worry about hitting friendly NPCs), it's the easiest way to engage in stealth mechanics, and it's just generally pretty powerful. I'm mostly sympathetic to that opinion, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find stealth archer to be my favorite way to play.

However, I was completely blindsided by someone saying they didn't engage in so many of these other systems. Like, yes, you can simply buy armor and weapons and potions, so alchemy and blacksmithing isn't mandatory. You can ignore it if you want to. But to not EVER try to engage with it?

I've encountered this sort of disconnect before in a way I found much more frustrating. You see, I really like the Civilization games, but I'm kind of bad at intuiting the systems at play on my own. I often look up videos from much smarter people to help me build a foundation of understanding so I can then at least make terrible choices on purpose rather than on accident. I was watching one particular Youtuber's reactions to some Civ 7 gameplay previews and found myself constantly baffled by the statements they were making. There were several little things that irritated me, but the one that finally made me turn off the video was a criticism of Civ 7 trying to implement story events like Paradox games do. They mentioned they hated that kind of mechanic and completely ignored the writing, just picking whichever choice offered the best mechanical advantage at the time. It was then that I realized this analysis video was going to be completely useless to me. We had very different priorities, and they had no interest in considering the changes from any angle other than the very narrow one they've always used. Like, sure, maybe it will end up being bad, but this is one preview video of one playthrough. Being angry at just the concept of story events seemed absurd.

There are folks out there who like "solving" video games. They find the most efficient, most powerful thing they can do, and they do that. Over and over and over again. I think what hit me most about the Skyrim video was that I wasn't expecting to find that kind of playstyle applied to that game. Skyrim exists so you can play in it. I sometimes make characters that run up to guys and hit them with a big sword not because it's the best way to play the game, but because it's just funny to hit guys with a big sword. I explore the map because Skyrim's world is beautiful, and I like simply being in it. I gather herbs because it gives me something to do while hiking and I like how the plant's graphic changes after I collect it. I do things in Skyrim not because I'm forced to, but because I want to explore what the game has to offer. And lately, I sometimes choose to not do things because I want to play a role.

The more I thought about Thane's Skyrim video, the more I grew fond of it. It starts out as just another challenge run where he's thinking about mechanical efficiency, and ends with him appreciating just how many different things he can do in the base game (Building a house! Marriage! Praying at shrines!) and how these systems interact with each other. That's neat! I genuinely love that someone who plays these games from a completely different mindset than I do can keep an open mind and learn to share my love of these mechanics. I wish I saw it happen more often.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Watching the Show Fanfic FMAB

@anastasian-dreamer suggested writing a big rambling post about the FMAB watches the future Au to get it off my chest and for me to offer people to send asks. You want a scene/me to explain how i’d handle something? Send it it!

 So how would this go?

First the background: 

First: Edward is a trans man. He's known from childhood. We dont have transphobia in Amestris or in this world. Envy is genderfluid and Father is literal shadows in a human form. Gender makes zero sense to them and they don't allow bigotry they'd be affected by.

 We’re going to give them testosterone but Ed isn't on it because 1) he doesn't want to take it while Al is in the armour (and that is a frequent discussion) and 2) he's not sure if he wants to. He's a fairly androgynous person and he is small chested. He’s one of the lucky assholes who have very light periods (Winry hates him for it) and its alright. He doesn't want to take it also because a part of him wants kids and he’s nervous it will lower his chances. He also knows adoption is still there so he is a bit torn. I honestly just want to explore this concept.

Second: this is also a soulmate AU. I'm thinking there are multiple types of soulmates: paternal/child, platonic, romantic and enemies. 

 Now, you're born with the paternal ones (and the parent gets their when the child is born) but the others happen later. You are five when you get your platonic and romantic; then you’re ten when you get the enemy one.

 Ed and Al are both born with a red salamander on their shoulders and the flamel Izumi has on her chest. I've read a few ‘your own mark is on your chest’ so we’re going with that. These marks tend to be something that can define you. Edward has the alchemy sign for human on his chest and Al has the helmet of his armour. 

 Hohenheim tries not to let it play on his mind. 

When they turn five, Edward gets a sword and the ouroboros on his arm, while Al gets a kunai. 

 The boys both get a silver gear which is Winry for platonic to. (how can they tell? Vibes. Literal vibes)

 When they're ten, Ed is so confused why they get more ouroboros marks. But he's busy with the transmutation. So big deal. We all know how that ends.

 But Ed also is surprised when he gets a mark when he’s eleven.

( “It kind of looks like the head of a long-haired dog?” 

 “It does. Weird.”)

Ling gets the sign for human and the ouroboros. As well he gains a silver blade for a friend (Lan Fan), the child mark of a long haired dog, and the enemy tattoos of ouroboros along with some family. (he also gains the panda friend mark of the heiress to the Chang family) 

 Greed has a sword and the sign for human, along with markings for all his Chimera buddies and the long haired dog for a child. 

Three: Roy starts off being very nervous about the kids. He sees Al and knows its his soul son. He would keep it quiet if he didn't know that his soulmate Maes would spill the beans. He tells the boys. Edward is so angry that of course it's his fuck up that defines his brother. 

 Roy and Ed keep the antagonism but it’s just their thing. They're like that. Al gets to have a cat that stays with Roy. 

 Also: three way bonds like Roy, Hughes and Gracia aren't uncommon. However due to the need for alchemists in the East Roy is based there. He has a house and makes trips bi weekly to see his soulmates. They also make trips bi weekly so they basically see each other each week.

Four: Various countries have different views on Soulmateds. Amestris believes that while there is a bond its a choice in the end. You don’t need to marry/befriend/whatever your bond is. While about 90% of the time it does happen, there's then 10% everyone knows. 

 Xing fully believes in them and soulmarks are a great honour. There's been a few times clans will join together as an heir will find their partner in another, making an iron clad bond. Soul children are precious and enemies are the utmost awfulness. 

Five: I’m tossing in a few OCs. One is named Amelia Cross. My original story for her is she is the brother’s elder sister from Hohenheim having a one night stand years ago. Theres a whole plot. But for here she's simply the Alchemist that helped make the soldiers into human chimeras before she quit the military. (and was let go because she did human transmutation)

 The other is Amelia’s soul daughter Elaine who is a chimera herself and Ishvalan. Its a whole thing. 

Lets go to the start.

 Now: I think this story would start right after Tucker makes Nina into a Chimera but before the boys see her. 

 And I kinda want to keep to my theme of ‘ah yes everyone sees it’ cause I can. How does this happen? Alchemy. A bunch of stones (some dropped by Hohenheim, some in the ground from Father) bonded together. An alchemist in the region was doing human transmutation to bring back their wife, the stones hijacked it (the alchemist lost their heart) and Truth went: you know why not. (does it make sense? No but I'm keeping it)

 So everyone in the world is watching now. And we don't start with the brothers.

 We start with Slave 23, speaking to the dwarf in the flask. We follow him as he walks to Xing, as he walks the world. We follow him to Trisha and the boys. We see him put pieces together and realize what happened to Xerxes will happen again. Of course we don't actually know YET. As far as anyone can tell he found signs of the Dwarf and went hunting.

 There's also the drama of Ling seeing the marks on Ed and Mei also seeing hers on Al. And like every other reaction to. (the Homunculi are fucking baffled that this kid somehow got a mark for one of them. Hohenheim is freaking out)

 We watch as he leaves. Then we cut to the boys fighting the Freezing Alchemist. 

Now 2003 FMA is really good at the build up so i'll probably borrow from them but I like the freezer beginning. So that's going on. And of course we learn Roy is the parental soulmate, and its all cute…

 And then we learn of the Taboo.

 I 100% think Bradley makes a bullshit claim he knew and decided since a CHILD was willing to join the military and all their trauma he let it slide. Its on the radio.

 Its all ‘aww poor little meow meows’ kind of stuff. Ed and Al hate it, go to Tucker and FUCK NINA?

 Course since Ed’s child mark is shown he claims its destiny. Ed kicks his ass, and then Nina gets to go to grandpa Roy’s place while Amelia gets contacted by one of the soldiers who is a chimera. 

 Which side note: when that happens on screen Ling is busy discussing how to murder Tucker with Lan Fan and Fu (and his clan cause that is their heir’s daughter) while Greed and the others are heading to kick some ass. 

But after the freezing alchemist we get more flashbacks to the boys in the first few years of military, and then so on.

Themes of the story: 

 -A theme there is the discussion of family. I really want the idea of family to play a huge part in this because Al and Ed’s story revolves around their relationship. So a lot of focus is on this. But also I would explore rejecting family. 

 Greed rejects his ‘siblings’. The boys reject Hohenheim because he isn't a bad person but he sure is a bad father (and yes he is. I saw one post defending it but lets be real, abandoning your family is abandoning them no matter what.) Ling rejects some of his siblings. 

 Family is important but it’s family of choice that matters. You can choose your family and many choose their blood family but they also reject it.

 -Romance is the next theme, and exploring what its like to have romantic soulmates. Like I really want some drama since Edward has been raised knowing he doesn't need to be with his romantics mixed with Greed ‘its all mine’ and Ling ‘destiny bound us’. Like they choose to be together of course but its a thing. 

 We have the themes of FMA though included.

Other notes:

 -I do know Ed keeps alchemy and both his automail parts. Not sure how but he does.

 -Mei throws herself into finding out how to free her soulmate. 

 -Mei and Xao Mei both arrive with Ling due to the alliance and that they are platonics.

 -I want to keep Ling being possessed but also I think Father actually is weirdly interested in the soul bond? I think his attempts at being perfect isn't just about like being a god but also being better then humans. And here is a being he's made having a soulmate. Two in fact. And a soul child! He's very invested. So he somehow has it that they can share the bond like they do in canon? I dunno. I'd need to work on it. 

 -Amelia is killed by Scar and it sparks a large subplot because her romantic is actually Kimblee. She visits him every year on his birthday and he's allowed out to her funeral where Elaine is. Amelia and Elaine had a falling out after some stuff but Elaine is pretty messed up. Elaine is also Kimblee’s soul child. Also Elaine is Winry’s romantic soulmate. Its a mess. 

 -I kinda think Ling having Ed as his soulmate puts him right at the top for heirs because ‘ah son of the Sage’ kind of thing mixed in with ‘the other soulmate is immortal’

 -Mrs. Bradley is actually in the know because Pride has her mark as a friend and Wrath couldn't lie to her. They never told Father until after the reveal of Greed’s soulmates but yeah she got told early on. She is subtly talking them away from the plans but it's slow going. (I kinda would want to set up Wrath in Greed’s place as a sacrifice)

[frogadir]

I'm sure I've made this exact post before but brotherhood following the manga so closely is actually its greatest weakness because the thing about an adaptation is you have to translate the source material in such a way that it functions in a new medium... things that work in a comic won't necessarily work in a show like the most obvious example of this is how the fma manga has a ton of cutaway gags that work because it's a comic! everyone reads at their own pace so having a random extra silly side panel isn't going to disrupt the entire flow. but when brotherhood tries to directly replicate the jokes in a format they weren't meant for they fall flat and it is so disruptive to the show. And like they choose to put those in but then cut out a ton of other scenes along the way for the sake of accelerating the plot, but the stuff they cut out is all character study and worldbuilding which hurts the final product even more. and you see this on a macro and micro level like not only the overall progression of the story across the entire series and the way they speed through the portion that 03 covered, but also the handling of certain scenes, particularly ones that are in both shows as the difference becomes very obvious. The most obvious example I can point to is ed and al's human transmutation attempt. idk 03 is so well directed and then in brotherhood they were just like we hate vibes. and some of that does just come down to my personal preference but I'm also not wrong... to be honest...

[ladyravenjadethe2nd]

Spoilers for Part 9 of If Wishes were Kisses

This might be my favorite part. I really think I'm gonna surprise a lot of people and I really think it will ruin the awesome if you read this early. So you have been warned if you check this out before I get around to posting chapter 9 you will not as fun of a time.

Okay so what I've done is added many cannon characters from fandoms not HxH or MHA and hidden them! Very cleverly by the way.

Frist chapter though does go to an HxH reincarnation that you never see in my story. You only feel her effects on it.

Bisky! That's right she's been here the whole time. I made everyone the correct ages so her 57 year old self was reincarnated before MHA cannon even happened.

She's also not the same Bisky we all know and love. She hated being buff in cannon so reborn into a world with better laws (Child endangerment wasn't a thing in HxH and several other things make that world more dangerous) and a fairly normal family why would she push herself into having a body she hates again?

Nah this Bisky doesn't work out like she used too maybe she would if she could transmuter herself, but that's not how her power works here.

Her quirk gives her the effects Cookie her ability, could do. In about 30 mins she can make a body regain the same stamina they would from a good nights rest.

If you combine this with say Recovery Girl's quirk which uses someone's stamina to heal you have someone able to not only heal a bit faster, but survive more surgeries and more uses of Recovery Girl's quirk.

Now she didn't want to be a hero since she didn't want to fight, but she did become a very pretty girly Doctor who has worked with heroes before.

She makes tons of money, has tons of side flings with hot men and lives her best life never knowing that Gon or Killua are here.

She also saves Sir Nighteye. Bet you thought that I was lazy and didn't have a good reason for everyone living didn't ya?

With her quirk he is able to withstand a life saving surgery and in cannon he died right when he learned to believe that the future could be changed. Therefore he saves Midnight.

Anyway first chapter goes to her. The following chapters will be a new character each time and I have many, with fairly long stories of their own.

We have Rin Shouto's aunt who is also Rin from Naruto. This sweet peaceful girl with died young in a world with child soldiers got really pissed off when she was born into peace.

She realized what happened to her was unfair and feels like she didn't stand up for herself enough so she's a lot more outgoing and less polite in her day to day life.

I'll go though her feelings about her death and her relationship with her parents.

Luckily brown hair is common and Shouto is very distracted when he briefly mentions her face tats. I figured they were a clan thing and she got them redone as an adult.

There are a lot more side characters that you may not see, but only hear about that won't effect the story much at all, but I thought doing this was super fun.

Sato married a woman from France although he lives in America and owns a bakery with her. At some point it will be mentioned that he has a daughter named Mari, although that is actually the nickname of Marinette from Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Her chapter will be about her traveling to France to intern with a great French designer friend of her father's Aoyama who has a son Adrian.

My very favorite of these characters though is Ratio the son of Iida and Camie. Ratio is how you say Light's name in Japanese.

Light is reincarnating because those that use the Deathnote cannot go to heaven or hell.

He has already been in Naruto and Harry Potter, but he didn't have a nice ending in either time. This will be relevant in a min. (I might do something that isn't Harry Potter. My trans friends are fine with it, but people on tumblr act like your the devil if you talk about that fandom at all so I might replace it with Attack of Titian and have him killed by Annie.)

So he starts out planning to take over the world and he has a great plan.

Light has both his parents quirks, but he is smart enough to pretend to not have glamour. Instead everyone is distracted by the engines that come out of his shoulder and then bend in a way that looks like angle wings. He can use them to fly.

Light is gonna take over his father's hero agency by day and set himself up to lead the hero commission by day and use glamour to look like a Shinigami by night and terrify the villains into following him.

He will be the god of this new world!

Except he goes for a playdate over at the Todoroki/Yaoyorozu place when he's around 8 and sees Milluki watching Deathnote.

This changes everything. Of course he has to watch it. Of course he has to wonder if any other world could also be found in media and he finds them.

In the Naruto he was competing with Minato to be the next Hokage. Things were going well, but he was betrayed by Danzou and killed. Who could have know?

In Harry Potter he was competing with Tom Riddle as the most perfect student and dies when he tries to blackmail Tom when he realizes he opened the chamber of secrets.

That's twice now that if only he had been able to learn about these worlds before he would have had a great time ruling the place.

Clearly this new world he is in is special. It might be the only world where this information is available to Light. His next life could be in any hundreds of thousands of worlds and to not try to arm himself with knowledge would be senseless.

New plan. Light is now a full fledge Otaku. His new goal is to consume all the content he can. He becomes Milluki's best friend and they watch anime together.

Your never gonna guess that Raito is Light even with all the signs because him throwing away power to enjoy fandoms is crazy.

Now Light needs a plan to keep his easy lifestyle where he can binge One Piece in peace so he needs a job of some sort.

You know if manga is about real places if he becomes a manga writer he will pretty much be God creating a world. He's very into that idea by the way.

His dad is pretty sad that his only kid isn't suited to taking over the agency though so Light should find a badass hero wife that can run the agency for his dad and make Light a kept man that has free time to read and write.

He marries another reincarnation Kari from Digimon or Hikari as is her Japanese name.

Did you know that Hikari means light? Did you know that her last name was mistranslated and it's supposed to be Yagami?

Her cannon name is Light Yagami of course they have to get married!

So she only halfway remembers her past life. Mostly she has odd dreams about monsters.

Kari is the kid of the Invisible girl whose powers work by refracting light and Tailman. Her digimon Gatomon is called Tailmon in Japanesse by the way.

She looks like a cross of herself and Gatomon. She has the Gatomon tail with the stripes turning invisible. Her power is that she can send a ring of light flying off of her tail. It looks like Gatomon's tail ring.

Light acts like the perfect boyfriend and while sometimes he does feel a little....off she never has a good reason to breck up with him.

They are pretty happy actually.

I have a few more ideas, but those were the best ones that I'm certain I will use. Feel free to comment on this if you have an idea for a character from a different fandom being reborn into this story!

Seems like I can't post more then 10 links in a post so I'm adding the spoilers for part ten here.

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tag @mk-writes-stuff!

Character Interaction Tag

Rules: post the OCs of the people who tagged you and one of your OCs and say how yours would interact with theirs

MK's OC: Belladonna is a noblewoman in her early 20s of a space station floating in the void. She has recently been betrothed to a man she hates and informed that she is going to be replaced as the heir by a new younger sibling she will have soon. Belladonna is a highly anxious, neurotic young woman who holds herself and others whose appearances reflect on her own to an impossibly high standard and punishes herself (primarily via not eating, as she has severe anorexia) whenever these standards aren’t met. She has a kind heart and a clever, incisive mind behind all of her struggles, but years of abuse from her parents have driven her to disbelieve her own value and skills.

My OC: Ivander Montane is a 30 year old corrupt detective from the trade city of Unity. He has blue blood and double-pointed ears, wears fancy suits, and walks with a cane. His estranged family runs the banks of Unity, however he left them years ago, and in doing so, broke a divine contract, which left him cursed to slowly and painfully be transmuted into mist over the course of many years. Personality-wise, he's kind of a privileged shithead. He's got the catty attitude and love of gossip of a middle school girl, and can insult your outfit just as acutely. He doesn't have a sincere bone in his body and is afraid of any form of intimacy. However, deep down, he really just wants a friend and to not be in pain anymore. Show him the slightest hint of compassion and he will crumble. His hobbies include being a hater, fashion, and marksmanship (he's a crack shot with a rune rifle). All in all, he's got the snark of a drag queen, the heart of a lonely noir detective, and a body that's been through a cheese grater.

How they'd interact: Honestly, I think Belladonna and Ivander have a lot to bond over. They're both from abusive, aristocratic familys. They both tend to be effete and neurotic. They both have a complications relationship with power. However, they've also got about a snowball's chance in hell of actually talking these things out. I think Belladonna would be immediately untrusting of Ivander, which isn't a bad move. For his part, Ivander would probably underestimate Belladonna's cunning, seeing only her anxiety. If they ended up as rivals, I think they'd play some absolute mindgames with each other. Death Note level shenanigans. If they ended up as allies, I think Ivander would see a lot of himself in Belladonna. He'd encourage her to reach her potential, to not care what her family thinks, and to curb her self-destructive tendencies, as he knows what roads that can lead down. He'd also 100% try to set her and Cassie up, likely recruiting Nellie to help. Probably though, Ivander would just end up as some weird information broker Belladonna knows and trades witty banter with. Cassie would probably end up throwing him into a wall like undercooked pasta for being a shit.

Thanks again, hope you like this one! I'll tag @kaylinalexanderbooks @somethingclevermahogony @tinywater @pluppsauthor and anyone else who wants to play :)

[akatsuki-shin]

(this post is written before I pulled for Dan Heng IL, thus I haven't read his character story through Ascension)

I just rewatched Dan Heng IL's animated short and I kinda need to let this out.

At a glance, we're watching Dan Feng verbally and physically forcing Dan Heng to continue shouldering the burdens from his past life, which was caused by Dan Feng.

But I think the Dan Feng we're seeing here isn't the real Dan Feng. As in, these two don't physically met and fight (like in Jing Yuan vs Jing Liu animated short). Rather, it's the Dan Feng in Dan Heng's mind a.k.a. a symbolism.

We know that all Vidyadhara have their memories wiped after reincarnating, so after he hatched from his egg, Dan Heng only knows that his previous self did A B C, hence he got punished and this punishment was carried out to Dan Heng as Dan Feng's reincarnation.

AFAIK, the Vidyadhara High Elder position was given to Bailu after Dan Feng committed his crime, so I don't know whether Dan Heng still gets to receive the "Orb of Abysm" and "Transmutation Arcanum" to re-experience his past life through his dreams.

But even if he did, he'd still just be watching those memories as an audience. He didn't become Dan Feng let alone sharing Dan Feng's feelings and sentiments (which he already expressed to Blade and Jingyuan that he isn't Dan Feng); he only knows that from the moment he opened his eyes, everyone already condemns him because he just so happens to be the reincarnation of Dan Feng.

I believe this creates a certain image of Dan Feng in Dan Heng's mind. He may not hate Dan Feng or blame him for what he did (after all, we still don't know what exactly Dan Feng did and, most importantly, WHY) but it wouldn't be strange for him to feel pressured and choked up by all the hate and persecution he received because of what Dan Feng did in the past, hence why the Dan Feng in this animation short appears to be forcefully making him shoulder the responsibility and punishment.

It's also possible that at first, Dan Heng had been continuously torn between thinking "Yes, I need to carry on and take this responsibility" and "Why do I have to clean up my ancestor's mess?"

But then at the end, we see Dan Feng "acknowledging" Dan Heng's resolve by telling him to go and never look back. I think this is a symbolism of how Dan Heng was finally able to make peace with himself.

Yes, he is Dan Feng's reincarnation. Yes, he is carrying Dan Feng's legacy, all the good and bad, and he will never be rid of it. But Dan Feng is Dan Feng; his story already ends a lifetime ago. He is Dan Heng and he will be living a different story from his predecessor.

So yeah, this is just a meta probably, but I don't believe we should take Dan Feng's portrayal here as the real Dan Feng. After all, the accusations against Dan Feng that we've heard characters in the story said so far are pretty shallow, in which they only saw it objectively "Oh he broke the taboo, so he's a criminal." Nobody went in depth to explain about what he did; there are still many things we don't know about Dan Feng's so-called crime.

In an RPG like this, I won't be surprised if the real story turns out to be something like "Dan Feng has no other choice but to commit the deed" or "Dan Feng saw a danger that he couldn't share with his friends, so he opted to make himself the villain as long as it gives a way for the future generation to solve it." Basically he did it for a greater good or something, and I won't be surprised either if Jing Yuan is the only knows or finds out early about the true reason.

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing the continuation of this story. ✨

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

uh. spoilers for the ff14 drk questline under the cut. but every time i start actually thinking abt this as a casting i obviously wind up thinking about fray/esteem.

ok so for those of yall who have Not played ff14/watched the questline: the first (english? iirc the translations change a lot of things but i still think the english version fucks hard so whatever) drk questline plays out like this.

for most of the game up until this point the warrior of light (wol, the pc) has just been your worldly vessel for Doing Quests. someone tells you to pick up some boxes they dropped in exchange for pocket change, the wol does it. someone tells you to kill a bunch of sheep for food you won't ever get to eat yourself, the wol does it. someone tells you to go fight and kill gods, the wol does it. that's the role your pc has been benevolently gifted: you Follow Orders. you stand around in cutscenes, listening to other people discuss and make decisions, occasionally nodding, and then someone points you at an unwinnable battle like the deus ex machina that you are, and you go fight without objection.

the dark knights, as a class, are the Edgy Tank Class. they're fueled by rage and fear and pain and all that good stuff. they deliver justice to the untouchable, without regard for the law, and accept social ostracization as a consequence.

trying to make the wol a dark knight presents a fundamental mismatch: the wol isn't allowed to get angry. the wol isn't allowed to question others. on a character level, the wol is so fundamentally dissociated from their emotions that becoming a dark knight creates a fucking splinter consciousness as an expression of all of those emotions who you hallucinate as a second person who can tell you what to do and get angry on your behalf when other people make unreasonable demands. that's "fray," aka esteem (they steal a dead guy's identity at first to give their drk-mentor role credence and then eventually drop it when you find out who they actually are.)

obviously this goes hard as hell and i keep having to cut this part of the post down bc i can't stop rambling on about esteem. um. but. my actual point is. this obviously isn't a problem arthur lester has. he's not making Any attempt to bury his emotions Or opinions. "hates you and is making it your problem" and "consumed by grief that he is transmuting into rage to use as fuel" are like one of his default settings. so esteem isn't gonna be a thing for him. which is fine, that's normal, i think most dark knights don't get a thing like esteem, the wol just has Protagonist Disorder™ that everyone was ignoring the hell out of so they got weird about it.

BUT. yknow what fundamental self-denial arthur DOES have going on?

he deeply, fundamentally believes that he deserves to be punished for the rest of his life, that he deserves to die... but also can't take direct action on that feeling because of how it would affect the people around him. so he compromises by just not giving a shit about his fragile human body and going apeshit on anyone else he perceives as deserving punishment.

so i think if arthur WERE to have anything like esteem going on, it would be like, The Guilty, or some shit, and it would be an invented external observer who was both willing and able to deliver judgement onto him. and it would want him dead.

anyway arthur's such a good fucking drk. are you guys tired of hearing me say that yet. should i say it some more

[telehxhtrash]

So sometimes I worry about the world tree scene because of some things that happened before. Like how Kon left Gon and never came face-to-face with him again because of reasons. And then Hisoka said transmuters are fickle and are prone to quickly viewing something they once saw as a treasure as trash. I hope that isn't the case with Killua but his decision to leave and the number two comment just seemed messed up and unnecessary to me. I just wish Gon wasn't always being abandoned.

Hi anon ! I totally understand this feeling, I hate knowing that Gon probably feels abandoned again, and I know that Gon and a lot of readers/viewers took the "you're second place now" comment the wrong way.

I wrote a post analyzing this specific scene if you want to read it, because I think this line is the key to understanding Killua's motivation to leave Gon for now. To me, Killua wasn't just being an asshole for fun, he was trying to push Gon away purposefully so he wouldn't follow him, because he knows Illumi is after him and Nanika and he can't let Gon ever end up in the same state he was in during chimera ant arc ever again. So his best choice is to leave Gon, even if it breaks his heart, even if it breaks Gon's heart, it's the best solution for now, until Illumi is dealt with. In my opinion, Killua would never leave Gon behind for any other reason, he just cares about him too much.

Now for the part where you mention Hisoka's nen personnality analysis, I feel like it's a good point you bring up, and let me elaborate on why I think this will never, ever concern Killua, and why I think Killua still cares about Gon deeply.

Killua's character has always been one who breaks the pattern of expected behavior. 

Throughout the story, Killua has been assigned stereotypes and negative roles that he constantly breaks. The Zoldycks keep on insisting that Killua is a boy of darkness fit to take over the family business. Like you said, Hisoka mentioned that transmuters are liars and fickle. Illumi kept on insisting that Killua could never have friends, because he would eventually want to kill him, because that's in his nature. There's this red herring in the Hunter Exam arc where Kurapika even thinks "Yes, while he's still with us..." when Leorio says "It's reassuring to have Killua with us", implying that Killua would inevitably turn on them. Biscuit tells Killua that he'll eventually leave Gon behind to die. 

and Every. Single. Time. Killua does the exact opposite. 

When the Zoldycks tell Killua that he's perfect to be the heir, Killua instead yearns for a good life for himself. When Illumi tells him that he can never have friends, Killua does his best to be the best friend Gon could ever have. When Hisoka implies that Killua is fickle and will eventually get bored of Gon, Killua proves the opposite by always sticking by Gon's side no matter what. When Biscuit tells him that one day he's gonna leave Gon to die, Killua puts his life on the line and physically and mentally breaks free from his family's control just for the sole purpose of protecting Gon. And when Illumi (wrongly) foreshadows that one day Killua will leave Gon to die, Killua does the exact opposite, and actually saves his life. 

Killua always broke the expectations people had on his behavior. While people always implied that he's fickle, a liar, not fit to have friends and would eventually betray Gon, Killua always proved that he's in fact the exact opposite. Killua is none of these things people said about him. Killua is caring, loyal, devoted, loving, and a generally good person. He always, always tried his best to be the best friend Gon could ever have. He always proved that he's better than what people associate him with.

When Killua and Gon parted, Togashi did a wonderful job at creating a sense of tension : the fact that we don't witness Gon's apology, we don't see them together until they separate, the "you're second place now" comment, Killua "replacing" Gon with Alluka, the sad face when parting, all of these culminate to create a feeling of unresolved tension between these two. 

And in my opinion, it's intentional. Togashi WANTS us to think that Killua is mad at Gon, that Killua leaves because he doesn't want to be with Gon anymore after everything that's happened. Because that's what you'd expect, you'd expect him to be mad at Gon. And this time, it's not a character that puts a negative stereotype on Killua, but we as an audience. And just like Killua always proved everyone wrong, I'm willing to bet that this time won't be different, and that his reason for leaving is much more different than what we'd expect.

In conclusion, I don't think Killua left because he's mad at Gon or because he doesn't care about him anymore. Killua constantly proved everyone that their expectations of him were wrong. 

We saw Killua grow from a confused ex-assassin to a loyal best friend, and making him "throw away Gon" like garbage just as Hisoka “predicted” is not only out of character, but it's also contradictory to the narrative Togashi has been trying to convey through Killua from the beginning : that the only one who can define you is yourself. 

Togashi wouldn't throw away Killua's entire character development for the sake of tragedy. So don't worry, I'm 100% sure that Killua still loves Gon a lot, maybe even more than before since he's not always comparing himself to him anymore, and I'm also pretty sure that his true reason for leaving is to protect Gon. 

While we saw Kon and Ging abandon Gon behind for the sake of responsibilities, and we saw Killua do the same (to take care of his sisters), I'm certain that Killua will be the one that breaks the pattern by coming back to him with the reason for why he left being out of love for Gon. Togashi just loves slow-burn, angst and red herrings.

Sorry for the long reply, I just had a lot of thoughts about it !! Thank you for this ask ! I hope I could bring a bit of optimism!

[immoral-wizard]

My time has come. I must preach the good word of hating on this series.

Ahem

Harry Potter isn't just a flawed series cause the creator sucks, but it literally just is a bad series anyway. When your most powerful spell is an instant kill spell, but it takes longer to say the incantation than firing a bullet, I know which I'd pick. 3 bullets are better than firing one spell in the same amount of time. Also, it's confirmed that transmutation spells both can turn people into animals (we've seen a guy turn himself into a part shark), and it doesn't take a projectile to do, so why do no wizards just turn their enemies into like cats??? The series has a terrible magic system, and I refuse to recognize it as such. It's plot bs, not magic.

Anyway, good post. Love to see the HP hate.

HP fans Dni

one of my posts got tagged with harry potter shit so im just gonna say this: if you bring harry potter into my wizard blog im blocking you on sight.

I am a trans woman and the author of those shitty books literally wants me and people like me dead and actively spends her vast wealth from the franchise to hurt us.

if you're too attached to a terrible book series you read in middle school to care about the harm joanne does to my community, fucking leave.

[ohpollenpowder]

1] I am...one of the oldbies. I didn't get to play early, didn't join at launch. I joined in October 2012 just in time for the first Halloween event. So story wise, it was just Personal Story at that point.

2] The first race+profession was my old main, whom I still have and sometimes still play. It's Laviii, my Human Elementalist currently decked in Catalyst. I still need to finish dragging her through story, ngl. I left her in Drizzlewood, just starting that part of story.

3] I currently have 69 characters made, but I have 71 unlocked character slots. Everytime there was a pre-launch for an Expac that included a character slot, I purchased it. And so... /gestures

4] My favorite playable race is actually Asura. Despite my list being mostly plants. I love the story that Asura get, but I also love the customizability for Sylvari. I get to explore color theory there.

5] So this is going to be slightly off, because I've been playing all afternoon and finally closed the game when I'm answering these. Not going to reopen the game for this. So last count was when I was taking Siriol's birthday picture: 6,558 hours and 36 minutes. And then probably add on another...oh, ten hours between that picture and this evening.

6] No real life ones, really? Though I have met guild mates at Otakon one year (oh, so long ago) and am currently encouraging a coworker to join in on the fun!

7] Any legendary, tbh. You could say map complete but honestly I look at it as a way to just disconnect from things and mindlessly do. So I'm kinda enjoying the Adventure stuff they've given us. (Found that secret room above/below in Snowden.) But not digging that it's per character given...yeah, I've got 69 to go through.

8] I have all my books in Laviii's bags now, thanks to an Instagram post someone made with the idea. I've also got several characters running around with Jars of Bees or Harpy Pheromones. A dwarven thumb here or there... Colwyn has gifts from his old partner still in his bags. Some of them have flowers and I think there's a coffee pot and a sign in my bank that belong to Laviii.

9] lmao Given my brain? Hell no, not a specific time. Has it though? Absolutely. Probably every story they've given us has an instance of this.

10] I don't....know???? I try to be hella open in game. There really isn't a reason to be otherwise.

11] The current wardrobe system. Dyes were once character specific. I don't really think transmutation was around at the start? Maybe it was. But you needed three of those stones in order to change one piece of clothing. I think those were also character specific but I could be wrong.

12] OLD LION'S ARCH. *ahem* I really did like when we had the option to mix certain outfit pieces together and they had their own dye palettes. Mostly because there's shirts that they've paired with the shorts that I wouldn't and then there's the old flying pants and...yeah.

13] I can't say that I do, honestly.There are certainly ones that I like more than others but can I call them to mind? Nope. Again, my brain is a colander.

14] How are we defining Companion in this? Because if it's loosely, Laranthir. But if it's more "several chapters spent together" sort of Companion...we're gonna go with pre-EoD Canach and then it shifts to Rama.

15] They've all been really good at being hated... But I'd have to say a mixture between Kralkatorrik and Mordremoth.

16] The little animals that end up being ambient creatures. They're just...gone so easily. "Shit. Sorry little frog, meant to hit the Awakened beside you." "No! Not the frog! How dare you!"

17] There's a little house in LA that's got a nice little sitting area. Obviously anywhere you can see the PoF sky-boxes. And Cantha is its own wonder. Would it be cheesy of me to say the instances that have bits of old LA in it? Mostly because I miss the fountains.

18] Aside from being decent at WvW/PvP/Raids? Never mind the fact I've yet to really try the latter. I still can't seem to get the hang of the dive/climb that the griffon has??? And ingraining a rotation for attacks in my head. I just. Use things. As they recharge. Most of the time.

19] I don't think ten years ago I would've imagined that I'd have a Tumblr platform or an Instagram platform. Or that I'd occasionally stream things. I've enjoyed the creativity this game has given me in other outlets.

20] Give Ranger a rifle/pistol. Give us more turtle skins, Canthan skimmer and beetle skins. Give the Commander a break. Keep giving us content.

Guild Wars 2 anniversary questions

This week marks ten years of Guild Wars 2, so take some asks or just answer the list as we look back on the game.

What was the current story release when you started playing?

What race and profession was the first character you made? Do you still play them?

How many characters do you have now?

Do you have a favourite playable race?

How many hours have you played overall? (/age in game)

Do you have real life relationships that have come from or been shaped by your play of Guild Wars 2?

What is the biggest or most arduous project you have completed in the game?

Do you have any items you keep in your characters’ inventory for purely sentimental reasons?

Do you remember any specific times when the game made you go “oh shit” in a good way?

Do you have a (not so) secret Guild Wars shame?

What’s your favourite feature that’s been added to the game since you started?

Is there anything that has been removed from the game that you miss or are particularly nostalgic about?

Do you have a favourite story episode (including expansion chapters)?

Favourite NPC who has been a companion of the Commander?

Favourite antagonist?

Favourite creature?

Favourite location?

Is there anything you have not yet mastered in the game?

Has this game inspired you for other things? If so, how?

What would you like to see for the future of Guild Wars 2?