#and at least sorta gets along with

[soulsxng]

"Jaey, you can't have someone pretend to marry you just to get the delegation off your back. That would cause way more trouble than it's worth...and besides, who would you even ask? How would you decide the best candidate?"

"I'll hire someone! I'm tired of all these arrangement parties and stuff; the candidates the delegation keeps picking out are all the worst. But they're not scared of me like they are you, so I was thinking about how I can get them to leave it alone, and...ta-da! It's a good idea, right? It definitely is!"

"Hiring someone. Someone that would then be allowed a place on the delegation, and could enact who knows what kinds of laws and such at a whim. Someone that you're already motivating to help you out by paying them somehow. If you didn't get rid of them right away, I would, and then you'd be right back to square one."

"...Uuuuuugh. Then...I don't know! I'll find someone else that's supposed to get an arranged marriage, but doesn't want to do it! We can marry each other to get it out of the way, and then have nothing to do with each other after that! And if it's a ruler or something like that, then they wouldn't mess with delegation business, because I could just do the same thing to them! And...and so yeah! I'll just do that!"

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF Vanny 🤝 TADC Pomni: being bullied by a rabbit

[bacchuschucklefuck]

[rose-void-789]

In another episode of these two make me insane. Don't you think this is something he would say to her. (panel redraw)

original panel

[mip-map-mop]

That “Why won’t you just let me do this for you, Rose?!” scene from Steven Universe but it’s Crosshair saying “Why won’t you just let me do this for you, Mayday?!” to Hunter

[batemanofficial]

the joy of getting a call back about a morning job vs the despair at the prospect of having two jobs

[woodsborostabathon]

pondering the kirsch siblings orb yet again and you really cannot convince me that quinn would not have been moving like depression era bella in new moon from the moment she even FOUND OUT richie was moving to modesto...

[unproduciblesmackdown]

bloodsong of love poster while i was at it

[areakeeper]

so has anyone else experienced Thoughts about this blurb in dùrians desc or do i just need to be neutered

[krikidilly]

Thinking about Aiko....

[designernishiki]

it’s just sorta hitting me that we know like almost nothing about what the fuck majima was doing in 5 when he was supposed to be dead??? like???? he was in on katsuya/mirei’s plan and caught onto what was going on really early and whatnot but. what the hell was he DOING for all that time. he just shows up at kurosawa’s at some point with zero explanation how or under what pretext or anything. how did he fake his death in the first place? how did he get it announced on the radio and put in the news despite there being no body or anything to prove that he died?? I have so many questions about his side of the story it’s insane how much was brushed off bdhffdjdjdjsjdnd

[her-canine-teeth]

sometimes it's important to get a reality check. for example, i get violently interested in basically anything and ill ask my friend 'lots, is yellowjackets popular' and shell be like 'what the fuck is yellowjackets' and ill be like 'thanks great talking to you' and then. many a time later i discover it actually is popular and more ppl than my 3 beloved mutuals know abt it. but such is the life

[orcelito]

Ykno the common critique I've seen around is that trimax fights r hard to follow & such. And I've always had the kind of thought of like "I mean sometimes it can be confusing, but if u stop to study it it's really not that bad"

Having a fight analysis post kinda blow up tho I'm seeing ppl comment over and over in the tags about how hard it is to keep up with the fights... and I'm just like. Is it really that confusing? Like genuinely. I thought it was one of those overblown fan critiques but it seems like a Lot of people agree with it.

[kingdomoftyto]

...Okay well damn, season 2 is way better than 1 was. I'm actually getting kind of invested now

[halfbakedspuds]

Excerpt from today's writing. First sign of the kind of legend Adrian has built to serve his purposes: the source of the whole "The man who can topple an empire with but a whisper," thing. Also the first little snippet of why Adrian and Lyanni stick together despite constantly wanting to kill eachother is in here if you can spot it.

"I still struggle to understand why you're all so afraid of him," Lyanni said. She was immediately greeted with gasps from the stationed soldiers, and looks of what bordered on unspoken accusations of heresy.

Been here before, haven't I?

"Oh come on now, take it from the lady who lives with him," She said, "Yman'ye or not, he's just a man. I fear my own knives more than I fear him,"

Two of the soldiers shared a glance, nodding, then the captain removed her helmet to speak.

"Have you heard of how the Tezir province was incorporated into the kingdom?" The guard asked. Taking Lyanni's look of confusion as a negative, the guard grimaced, then continued, "I was assigned as part of Adrian's escort, along with five other soldiers. We were meant to try talk down tensions in a rival kingdom, sate the tirades of a mad tyrant who was seeing red. Adrian tried civility, gods know he did. He endured threats against Alahn and the state, even the occasional beating when the Tezir king felt especially bored, and not once did he raise his hand in self-defense," The guard looked at her, "I take it you've seen him in battle. If he wanted to, he could've wiped out their entire capital without our help. Yet he endured in silence,"

Lyanni was listening intently now. The Adrian she knew was apt to do strange things, but she'd also known him long enough to understand that he had a reason for everything. She motioned for the guard to continue.

"Then, one day on a whim, their king chose to liven up the day's ceaseless negotiations by ordering one of us beaten for a change, by the Captain-General of his military of all people. The condemned was a rookie, one Ejir Llau, his first ever deployment for the crown. He'd seen what had been done to the angel, and although I could practically smell his fear, he stood bravely," The guard captain leant back against the wall, armor creeking under it's own weight and the weight of memory, "Adrian took one look at their king, and in his eyes I saw a fury unlike anything I had ever seen before. I still remember his words: Do to me as you will, but if even a scale on any of them is damaged by your decree, I will erase everything you and your ancestors have built with but a whisper,"

Adrian's characteristic flair for the dramatic informed Lyanni that the story was likely true. She motioned for the guard to continue

"The king laughed at him. Gods, that sound still haunts my nightmares. Called his words an 'amusing bluff', and simply ordered the beating to continue. Ejir stood steadfast and brave as the club whistled down towards him, and I had to fight every instinct telling me to protect my own lest I risk a diplomatic incident," Her grip tightened on the spear, "I barely even blinked before the Yman'ye had traversed the throne room and caught the club. Eyes still burning with a rage I don't think any mortal has ever had nor survived the misfortune of knowing, he leant down, and whispered something into the captain-general's ear,"

"What did he say?" Lyanni asked tentatively.

The guard shrugged, jostling the immense bulk of her armor as she did, "Noone knows. Ejir stood right beside him and even he doesn't know. All I remember is the captain general paling, then yelling something in his people's language, and before I knew it: the mad king sat dying, pinned to his throne: one sword through his chest for ever Tezira Soldier present while the captain general practically begged our dear Angel to incorporate Tezir as a territory of Axidem," The guard captain leant forward in an exaggerated fashion, the only way she could get herself back upright with all the metal weighing her down, "We do not fear Vitaam's angel nearly as much as we respect him, but noone dares tempt our fate for no-one understands how such a being thinks,"

You sure as all gods got that right, Lyanni thought with a suppressed frown, I have a hard time even telling his mood, let alone his thoughts.

"All except you, it would seem,"

Lyanni almost stammered, then stopped to collect herself before answerring in a tone that suggested passing curiosity, "How so?"

"The angel has taken a liking of a sorts to you. He permits questionings and actions from you that noone else would have dared to attempt, and if you don't mind me saying this, he brought you up from a mere slave to one of the most influential and revered people in the kingdom,"

Lyanni took a moment to consider this. It was true: Adrian was softer on her than anyone else save Zeltin. He entertained her odd questions and ramblings, and openly debated with her instead of shutting down lines of thinking he didn't agree with despite clearly being well within his power to do so. Despite the fact that she still had days that she wanted nothing more than to plant a knife is his back, she reluctantly admitted thanks for the rare opportunity he'd afforded an enslaved, disgraced noble who otherwise would've simply died in the mines.

But to say he'd taken a liking to her? Even as no more than a passing curiosity, like a trinket? That seemed to be pushing things a bit far.

"I didn't do shit," Both Lyanni and all the guards instinctively straightened their postures and faced about at the hollow ring of Adrian's voice. As he glided in (Seriously, how does he move so smoothly), he continued, "Lady Sverik has achieved all her successes with me simply playing the bystander," He passed Lyanni, and she took that as a sign that all business had been seen to and even he wasn't welcome in the palace for much longer.

At the door, he paused. Lyanni took three more steps before waiting out of sight: listening in, "Oh, and Djehiru?"

Metallic rattling and a dull clang marked the bulky warrior kneeling.

"Maybe the reason I've taken a liking to her was because she dared,"

[inbarfink]

When talking about the distinction between Simon Petrikov and the Ice King,  it’s important to remember that originally, the Crown wasn’t trying to turn Simon into Ice King -

It was trying to turn him into this guy.

At the time, the Ice Crown - or rather the Wishing Crown - was programmed with Gunther’s wish to become Evergreen. So everything related to making the current wearer like Evergreen is a very direct result of the Crown’s Magic. The physical changes -

And the obsession with the name ‘Gunther’ -

And maybe some of the irritability and anger issues -

That is something the Crown is very directly forcing unto its current wielder. 

But everything else?

Ice King, personality-wise, was not much like Evergreen at all, or even like Gunther's view of him. And Ice Finn of the Farmworld Universe was also pretty different from the both of them.

At the time, I remember people assumed Ice Finn’s behavior is more indicative of what the Crown is actually trying to do with its wielders. That Ice King is so different because of Simon’s subconscious resistance against the Crown - while Finn’s much younger and dumber brain is a lot susceptible to the Curse’s influence to become some sort of mad world-conquering emperor of ice and snow. 

But, with the context of the Crown’s actual backstory. That doesn’t seem very likely anymore. I think what’s actually happening there is that the Crown is just trying to make its wielder an Ice Wizard on par with Evergreen (who was the Actual Goddam Ice Elemental) and that means pumping the wielder’s brain so full of Magic, Madness and Sadness to a level that is bound to overwhelm anyone.

And Simon’s and Farmworld Finn’s very different behaviors after putting on the crown is indicative, more than anything, of how their psyche reacts to Madness and Sadness in general. You know, Finn has a very proactive and kinda aggressive personality - and you add Crown-induced-Madness-and-Sadness and a compulsion to use Ice Magic as much as possible and you get all of…. this 

Meanwhile, for Simon, the compulsions of the Crown originally filtered exclusively via the language of protection 

As his madness always manifested as romantic obsession 

And using goofy humor to try and deny the pain he’s going through 

Because that’s how Simon’s mind specifically reacts to being flooded with so much Madness and Sadness.

That’s why there’s so many parallels between Ice King and the sort of mistakes and screwed-up stuff Simon does right now! He’s even kidnapping people again!

Because the Madness and Sadness of Ice King might’ve been induced by the Crown, but now Simon has plenty of personal home-grown Madness and Sadness inside him - and it’s no surprise that Curse-Induced or not, his mind reacts to it in a sorta-similar way. (Although obviously not as intensely, again, there was a LOT of MMS in the Ice Crown).

Now as for Ice Thing, and the fact that he seems to be actually rather well-adjusted under effects of his version of the Wishing Crown. I mean... not by the time of the 1000+ Era, but that’s literally eons in the future and also maybe more Gibbon’s fault. Even if the Crown will eventually take some sort of toll on him, for now he seems to be doing pretty well considering his wish. I mean, there's still some sort of Loss of Identity stuff going on

But everything we've seen of Ice Thing (in the present day, at least) shows him as a friendly and cheerful individual that gets along well with others. A far cry from how maladjusted every single wielder of the Ice Crown acted.

At the very least, if there's any notable amount of Sadness in him, we really haven't seen it yet.

There might be several factors here:

First things first, I should acknowledge the possibility that it’s just that Orgalorg’s eldritch brain is better at intaking all that MMS juice. That could play a part, but I think it’s probably more important, at least thematically, to look at the distinction between ‘I wish to be Evergreen’ and ‘I wish to be Ice King’. 

First in the sense that while Ice King was occasionally mean to Gunter at times - he was generally much kinder than Evergreen ever was for ‘his’ Gunther. So, like, pretty much the one Personality Flaw of Ice King that you can directly link to the Ice Crown’s attempt to mimic Evergreen is the occasional anger issues.

And how they relate to Gunther’s view of Evergreen, so grumpy and controlling and constantly saying ‘NO!’

(Both Finn and Simon’s demonstrable not-crown-induced trauma responses can make them pretty short-tempered as well. So I’m not going to say this is purely the effects of the Crown. It still probably plays some sort of factor at why the wielder of the Ice Crown is Like That).

And that is not a factor in how Gunter views Ice King. For him, Ice King was a doting and loving father figure - so if the Crown was ever trying to implement any sort of specific negative personality traits, this is absolutely no longer a factor. Because the original Ice Crown was a reflection of Evergreen’s abuse, and now Ice Thing is a reflection of Ice King’s fatherly love.

Which is, itself, probably an echo or remnant of Simon’s own strong parental instincts. 

Secondly, while the Crown was trying to make the Ice King just as powerful as Evergreen…. Ice King was obviously not as powerful as Evergreen. Because he was already a second-rate copy of the Ice Elemental’s power, and because Ice King was often just too doofy to use his powers correctly and probably because some remnant of Simon’s original sensible self is subconsciously holding his powers back.

Either way, being ‘like Ice King’ as Gunter sees him requires less Magic than being ‘like Evergreen’ as Gunther saw him - and therefore less Madness and Sadness. Leading to the wearer or, um, the eater being a lot more well-adjusted from the get-go.

And I think that the implication that Ice Thing has fused with the Crown, so there's never going to be another poor sap who puts on the Crown and gets Ice King'd. But if there is one somehow... at least the process is going to be less mentally detrimental that time around?

Maybe one day Simon could look back and appreciate how much he (or Ice King, or both of them, or however you want to look at the situation) is responsible for basically neutralizing the Crown that ruined his life in the first place.