#and breakdown is being a little bit of a menace which is not something you often see but

[whatudottu]

Sketchy sequel to this little thing I drew on an 8 hour plane trip without references because no wifi :(

Shockwave's logic tree of 'only breakdown's brave/stupid enough to call him breastie' and 'breakdown saying "hey breastie" is in reference to him' meets Breakdown's rarely seen mischievous side like a downball piffed against a wall-

[sttoru]

Could you do a scenario where megumis daycare teacher is hitting on y/n and toji and meg get really overprotective about it <3 love you parenting series sm

⟣ tags. dad!toji x female reader. fluff. themes containing jealousy / protectiveness.

you were stunning. that much was known and evident to toji and others around you. your looks were captivating — however, you always seem demanded to deny that fact. even when you have a husband who reminds you of how good you look on a daily basis.

but with good looks comes male attraction; something toji greatly dislikes since you’re his wife. it isn’t like he’ll be mad at you about it — no, not at all. in fact, toji feels a surge of pride every time someone tells him how lucky he is to be your husband.

the thing is: he gets a little. . . too jealous and overprotective every now and then when the harmless compliments turn into blatant flirting.

“oi, megumi,” toji grumbles as he holds his son in his arms, looking out in the distance. specifically at you talking to megumi’s daycare teacher for a bit way too long to his liking, “ya see that? mommy’s being hit on right in front of us.”

the little boy stops chewing on one of toji’s hair strands, seemingly understanding whatever his dad had said. megumi lets out a small ‘oh!’ noise and stretches his arm out in your direction, pointing at you, “mama.”

you were too busy answering the questions megumi’s teacher asked you to even realise that your husband and son were looking at you from far away. toji’s menacing aura, however, only seemed to intensify the more you talked to that man.

“tsk. . . all right, kid—listen up.” toji narrows his eyes at the scene before putting megumi down on his feet, crouching down to be at eye level with the boy. he puts a hand on megumi’s shoulder and whispers a plan in a ‘baby-language’ his son could understand;

the two are being the perfect partners in crime right now (they always have been; since megumi’s birth to be precise).

megumi’s daycare teacher was telling you a fun story about what your son had done to which you politely laughed at. in that same moment you could feel someone tugging at your pants lightly — as if wanting to catch your attention,

“oh — hi, my baby.” your face lights up as you see megumi standing behind you. his big eyes were staring up at you, fingers curled around the fabric of your trousers still — not a clue of what he wanted of you,

you tilt your head to the side in slight confusion and when you wanted to crouch down to be at eye level, the little boy suddenly starts to scream and cry as if he just experienced something traumatic. when in reality, nothing in the current scenery had changed to provoke such a dramatic reaction.

“woah, woah, hey. .” you were startled by the sudden switch in megumi’s mood — his face going from a neutral expression to one of pure despair as he (fake) cried. not only you, but also the daycare teacher seemed to take a step back from the sudden screams echoing in the area.

you immediately pick megumi up and try to calm him down, not pressing him for answers on why he suddenly decided to have an-almost-mental-breakdown-like outburst.

another switch was flipped in the toddler once your attention was diverted from his daycare teacher to him and him only. your eyebrow raised at how easily megumi shut up and went from a state of distraught to one of content in your arms.

that’s when you glance over at your husband who stood near the exit of the daycare, leaning against the wall with his bulky arms crossed, a proud and smug grin on his face — his plan seemed to have succeeded. all credit goes to his son for succeeding in catching you off guard.

“damn, seems like the brat needed his mama’s attention, eh?” toji calls out with an ‘innocent’ shrug, snickering after that, “like father, like son — they say.”

it took you only a few seconds to realise that toji had probably asked megumi to catch your attention by faking to cry near you — knowing you’d drop anything to comfort your child at any time, no matter what you were doing.

“oh, you little . . .” you bite your tongue to refrain from scolding your childish husband out in public. you look down at megumi, seeing him stare back at you with happiness in his blue eyes. you certainly couldn’t be mad at him, “you. you’re lucky you’re cute, ‘gumi.”

you chuckle and kiss your son’s forehead, bidding the teacher farewell quickly (leaving him disappointed by the rushed ending of your conversation), before walking to toji.

megumi squirms in your arms and when you put him down, he instantly runs to his dad, expecting something in return for his performance. toji did seem to have promised him something in exchange for accomplishing his mission—

“papa! papa! candy!”

you raise an eyebrow as toji takes out a piece of candy from his pocket, reserved just for his son. toji was beaming with pride, ruffling megumi’s hair before handing him the delicacy, “here ya go. good job out there, kid.”

you roll your eyes, as that was the only thing you could do after walking right into their trap like that. as per usual.

the cherry on top was that your husband was mocking you like an annoying manchild on the way back home — recalling how worried you reacted when megumi successfully acted like he was crying.

megumi giggled along with his dad, leaving you entirely defenceless. at least you could laugh with them as well.

they got you good.

[comicaurora]

So, you mentioned on the podcast that you were watching some classic-era Gundam.

For the season(s) you've watched, assuming you're not planning on suddenly taking the plunge and making a Universal Century Detail Diatribe, would you mind sharing your opinion so far? Universal Century can be a bit divisive, but I always enjoy seeing people's opinions on it. I have mixed feelings on some of the decisions made, myself, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoy what I've seen so far. (Especially Unicorn, but that's not really classic era.)

Also, I'd like to reccomend watching (or reading!) Gundam The Origin, since it acts as a really good, pretty, (and in the anime's case, short) prequel series to the original.

It's interesting! I've watched the compilation movies for 1 and 2 and most of 3, and I can't tell if they lost the plot after 1 or if the writers were being really, really scathing in a subtle way.

1 was incredibly blatant about how Amuro is a traumatized kid who got strongarmed into being the gundam pilot and using it to kill people, something that he clearly absolutely hates - and it's pretty overt that the Federation Force is more than willing to mulch up as many child soldiers as they want in order to win. The movies, and I assume the show they're compiled from, go out of their way to show that there are sympathetic young people on both sides of the conflict that just want to be free of this war, and there are also right bastards on both sides that are willing to be very callous with the lives of others. You can, of course, always identify who the compassionate people are by how pretty they are, and all the right bastards by how grotesque they are. It's pretty unsubtle about that being the core of the narrative, and they really twist the knife at certain points, like when Amuro's mother is horrified and ashamed at him self-defense-killing a Zeon soldier that was actively menacing her refugee camp, and Amuro concluding that she doesn't love him and he truly has no family to go back to.

By 2, things have gotten a little confusing, and I'm inclined to assume this is because the compilation movies had to make some cuts that would've made the character arcs flow a little more smoothly. Amuro decides to leave the whole war behind, which makes sense, but he takes the gundam, which doesn't. They introduce this thread that Amuro is extremely attached to the gundam and very proud of his ability to pilot it, and he has an actual breakdown when he learns that other members of the crew are now trained in its operation and can use it just fine, if not quite as skillfully as he can. It seems like there was a bit of a lurch from "Amuro has been unwillingly dragged into this nightmare and is forced to fight again and again despite his extremely obvious PTSD" to "Amuro refuses to let go of the giant robot that tethers him TO this nightmare," and while it's very interesting in the implications, it doesn't exactly flow cleanly. In fact, this is where there seems to be a bit of a shift from "war is bad" to "wow! cool robot." Amuro goes from PTSD-catatonia every time he destroys an enemy mobile suit to counting them during fight scenes, which is kind of a chilling indicator of the mechanized horror he's becoming accustomed to - assuming that was on purpose and not just a broad defanging of the story to do more Cool Robot Fights.

But the thing is, there's this subplot sometime around 2 or 3 involving a bunch of actual toddlers that have been hanging around on the ship - because it started as a refugee vessel escaping the destruction of a colony, so there's a lot of women (who are now conscripted pilots, of course, and shockingly badass for the era it came out in) and children onboard, and they've been stuck on the front lines running from Zeon with almost no ground support because the Federation likes throwing the gundam at things too much to care about a handful of six-year-olds potentially getting mulched. But throughout this little arc, the kids are finally on track to getting rehomed on Earth by the military - something that the kids are unhappy about because they've got a whole Found Family thing going, but Amuro approves of them leaving, saying "little kids shouldn't see people killing each other," which aligns very firmly with how he is a kid who hates all the killing he's stuck in.

Except then the happy ending is that the six-year-olds get to stay on the warship because they recently helped out with bomb disposal and "they've seen things you guys can't imagine, they don't want to leave!" And this is either really losing the plot or absolutely brilliant spiteful writing on the part of the creative team, because as I understand it, executive meddling was pushing them to include newer, flashier, more colorful giant robots (weapons of war and untold suffering that our teen hero has been trapped in by a mechanized war machine that has effectively enslaved him for his talents) to push toys to the exact age demographic of those chipper six-year-olds. It's almost like the teenage child soldiers are turning out to directly face the camera and saying "what's the difference between forcing us onto the front lines and letting these precocious youngsters keep flinging themselves into the crossfire? Gotta sell more gunplas, right?"

So if that was on purpose, I really liked it. If not, it's kinda hearbreaking to see the show gradually start pulling its punches in favor of turning the Oops All Babies warship into a heartwarming found family situation.

Also they started really banging the "newtypes are the plot now" drum in 3 and once everyone started getting psychic powers I kinda lost steam tbh

[sophiethewitch1]

Im begging you. Please give us something, even a little bit is fine, please please please--😭

This is so funny. But sure dude I'll like, give you the WIP start of chapter 4. Spoilers cut but I guess it's not technically a problem really?? Whatever, I have a fever and feel like I'm being cooked alive :D

-

“You wanna get out from under there?”

What sort of question is that? Of course you don’t. You’re going to live here now. You’re never leaving this tiny, cramped space till you rot away and die. The stained underside of some ikea desk was your new home.

Since yours was seeming less and less like an option. Which kinda sucks, because you’re feeling surprisingly posessive of your stuff. You don’t want fancy dresses or bubbly champagne, you want your ratty couch and the neighbour’s cat that liked to visit in the middle of the night. Your mother was right, you were the type of person to never be happy no matter what. You could appreciate the food, though.

Shaking, trembling, knees clutched to your chest, you look up. Slowly, because you’ll probably piss yourself if you don’t.

Now that you weren’t holding his hand, the vigilante known as Red Hood was much, much scarier. He was sitting on the carpeted floor with you, but he still somehow looked incredibly menacing. You preferred his old look, honestly. The helmet had less ‘grim reaper’ vibes.

Still, you could appreciate the insane sort-of hilarity of this situation. The notorious crime fighter and crime committer was sitting here with you, crossed legs, twiddling his thumbs away. You press your face into your hands, laugh, then scream. The sound is muffled, but he probably still hears the exciting new phase of your breakdown.

“Don’t…” your voice cuts off, you have to think before you can manage to speak again, “Don’t you have something better to be doing?”

His giant shoulders shrug.

“I’ve got time.”

[malachiwardyt]

Today is a very special day, podcast side of Tumblr.

In about half an hour, the Magnus Protocol will be releasing to the public, which is very exciting. To celebrate, I decided to make a video going over my pre-series theories, throwing everything at the wall in hopes of getting a prediction to stick.

Originally, this was meant to be a full breakdown of TMA, but that project wound up being a lot longer than I expected. It doesn't mean it isn't coming, just that I couldn't get it done for today.

The art for this video features everyone's favourite Magnus ARG character, Mr. Bonzo, the jaundiced Mr. Blobby rip off with a slightly menacing aura. I knew I wanted to do something specifically related to Protocol, but I didn't want to do any of the main characters without hearing their voices and getting to know them, so I instead opted for Bonzoland's unsettling mascot, partly because he's a fan favourite and partly because I love doing monster design.

Bonzo obviously already had a design, which I did my best to stay true to, though I also make some changes. The most notable change is probably the teeth, which are much more broken down than in the original. I figured that a terrible creature like this would probably have teeth made of plate or ceramic, so I chipped away at them in the areas where they would most often be used, being the incisors and molars in a human. Of course, Bonzo has a few extra teeth, but that's alright.

The art did have to be rushed a bit, since I literally finished it around 3:00 this morning, so it's not quite as detailed as I would like, but I think that's alright. When I inevitably do my follow up AFTER listening to the premier, maybe I'll go back and give Bonzo the superior shading he deserves.

One of my favourite details about Mr. Bonzo is the fact that you can see little red eyes poking out from inside of the suit, with what looks like most of a face inside of the head, so I had to include that in my version. If you look closely, you can spot the eyes hiding in Bonzo. I did try to make my Bonzo a bit bulkier overall, with a smaller head relative to his body and defined neck, which I think moves him away from theme park mascots a bit, but into the realm of bulky animatronics or muscly monsters, which are their own form of uncanny valley.

Also, it's semi-unintentional, but I made his spots glow. Because I can.

This piece is also the first time I've publically shown off my new persona design. I've been holding on to the redesign for a few months now, but I figured this was as good a time as any to shadow drop it. Afton himself looks mostly the same, save for a hair update which makes it longer, but the biggest change is in his clothes, moving from a burgundy coat and green tee to a lavender coat and rust turtleneck. I've also bulked up the glasses a bit and finally found a way to get semi-accurate hair colours. Chestnut hair is hard to draw.

With all of that out of the way, I think that just leaves us to prepare for the release of Protocol. I've been dodging spoilers for months at this point, so I'm glad to finally get a glimpse into this new world. Will my predictions be right? Probably not. I can always hope, though. Regardless, thank you for reading, and good night, Tumblr people!

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - Nibelheim Incident 2: Electric Boogaloo

The most iconic moment from the original has been entirely remastered.

Anyone who's played the original Final Fantasy VII knows who Sephiroth is. He’s easily the most iconic Final Fantasy villain and one of the most iconic villains in gaming. Doesn’t matter if you know him as the scary ass dude who stalks a twink, one the most notorious superbosses in Kingdom Hearts, a silver haired anime man, or even the “Alien Mama’s Boy,” we can ALL agree that he’s terrifying, especially in the Original FF7. However we are not focusing on the Original Sephiroth, we are focusing on the Remake Trilogy's Sephiroth.

In the original, we first hear this guys name after he stabs the false main antagonist, President Shinra, with his iconic sword, but we never see him. We are given an idea of what he’s like, but we never see him in the earlier portions of the game. Meanwhile the first installment of the Remake introduces Sephiroth way too early, which both creates a slight bit of intrigue and shoots down the chance for him to be the level of enigmatic that he was in the early game, and sadly reduced some of his menace. However, despite their differences, both incarnations of the character end up going down a similar road, and raise intrigue that gets paid off in the trilogy's second installment, Rebirth.

At the opening of this second part of the trilogy, Cloud looks back at his “memories” of him, and from what we can gather Sephiroth was cold and stoic man with some care for his men and some kind of… hidden sorrow. He’s still currently a mystery, but what we do know is that he is considered a “war hero” to Shinra, he and Cloud are heading to Cloud’s hometown, Nibelheim, and that this flashback is building up to something. Then we are introduced to the possibility of him not being human when both he and Cloud discover a hidden Shinra lab, find monsters, and the name Jenova, coincidentally the name of Sephiroth’s mom. So after having a small mental breakdown at the possibility that he might not be human, Sephiroth goes to the Shinra Manor, and he locks himself in there to find out what he truly was.

Then the madness begun…

When Cloud sees Sephiroth again, he isn’t welcomed with his traditional cold demeanor. Instead he’s welcomed to the sight of him rambling about the Cetra, the possibility of himself and his mother being Cetra, revealing that he was basically Shinra’s lab rat, and making notions that humans were inferior compared to him. He sounds like an insane person at this point, and just when things weren’t tense enough, he just knocks out Cloud, and exits the manor with a mission to see his "mother".

Now here's the biggest alteration to this scene. After waking up and exiting the manor, Cloud is fearing the worst, and his fears soon became reality. Nibelheim was being burnt to the ground, his hometown was being burnt to the ground, complete and utter panic is being spread, and its residents are being slaughtered. Cloud goes into the burning village to go look for his mother, only to witness her be trapped in her own home and burnt to a crisp as he lays on the ground completely helpless. A villager then tries to help Cloud, but is soon skewered by Sephiroth's blade. From there, Cloud begins drawing his way to the ruthless Sephiroth, trying to regain strength as his former idol slaughters anyone in his way. This entire sequence is slow and prodding, but its worth it because after Cloud finally gains the strength to stand on his own two feet and look Sephiroth in the eye, all he ends up seeing is an entirely different man, surrounded by fire. Sephiroth, the Sephiroth, the legend... BROKE DOWN, and Cloud is just realizing that fact by looking at this monster standing in the fire.

I still think that the original version of the Nibelheim Incident was perfect, but the small little changes that were made to how its all set up, somehow delivered the exact same feeling of dread, which is should be an impossibility considering how oversaturated Sephiroth was in the earlier part of the trilogy. Either way, Sephiroth is still A walking, talking, unethical, and tragic science experiment with a god complex, mommy issues, and a very clear terror that is alien compared to every other villain or creature, so far. He may be unable to properly invoke the same terror he could in the OG FFVII, but the Sephiroth we see in this trilogy has just made the promise that it's not going to reduce his monstrous he's going to be, and oh boy does he keep that promise after this scene.

[tacoma-narrows]

Dorney Park! - 5/19/21

Decided to not let this trip report have a two week long gap like my Great America post did, so I'll write it out now!

Made my first trip of the year to Dorney Park this past weekend! I went by myself for about 5 hours or so and got on everything I had wanted to ride. Lines were very minimal, with the longest (not accounting for a short maintenance delay) being maybe 20 mins. Got a bunch of re-rides on the park's major coasters and I'm sure I'll be able to get more later in the summer, since Dorney is my home park lol. But here are some pics I got, and then like for my Great America post, thoughts about my individual rides will be below them!

Here's my breakdown of what I rode!

Iron Menace - Coaster Credit #169! (Rode twice) I am so glad Dorney finally got a brand new coaster after so long! Their last new coaster was Stinger in 2012 (which was a relocation, and closed in 2018), and their last custom built coaster was Hydra way back in 2005 (Possessed, opened in 2008, was also a relocation). I really liked Iron Menace for what it was though! It looks absolutely FANTASTIC for it's plot of land, and it's directly in front of you as you drive into the park. Makes for a fantastic first impression! The ride itself was pretty much what I expected (in a good way), it's definitely the weakest of the three dive coasters I've ridden, since it doesn't have the scale of Valravn and Sheikra, but I thought it had some fun elements and some surprisingly strong positive forces. The main downside is that it's a short ride, at only maybe 40 seconds or so after the drop. But all things considered, I think it's a great fit for Dorney and I LOVE it's theme! The Steelyard area around it looks pretty good as well! Currently, I have Iron Menace at 56th in my rankings between Flight Deck at California's Great America, and Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, but that could be subject to change once I decide if I like this or Hydra more lol.

Steel Force - (Rode twice) I'd heard during the park's Winter Chill Out event back in March that they we're speeding up the chain lift on Steel Force this year since (I believe) they had gotten a new lift motor or something to that effect, so I was excited to see how it rode this year. I didn't really notice a significant difference in the speed or airtime, but that wasn't a huge deal to me since I really enjoy Steel Force. A lot of people give it and the other Morgan hypers flack for not having any airtime, and I just don't see that. I always get tons of air over this hills, especially on the return trip. Then the double helix turnaround acts as a good change of pace with some good positives. So Steel Force still retains it's place as my favorite at the park.

Thunderhawk - (Rode once) Thunderhawk is a ride that's had my opinions on it change a lot over the years. When I first rode it the first time I went to Dorney in 2012, I did not like it. I remember it being really rough and uncomfortable. Over the last few years though, the park has been doing a really good job taking care of it and it's running really well now. My ride this time had surprisingly strong airtime, which I was not expecting. The main problem I had this time, and why I only rode it once, was because I got stapled BAD and the surprisingly strong airtime made for a rather uncomfortable experience lol. But for a ride that's celebrating it's 100th birthday this year, it's still really solid I'd say.

Hydra the Revenge - (Rode twice) Hydra is such a weird little ride but I love it. Lots of funky inversions, especially for a floorless coaster, and you gotta love the hangtime on the jojo roll out of the station. It's running a little shaky this year but not too bad as long as you keep your head forward, as is the case with a lot of B&M loopers. That's nothing new for Hydra as well, since in my experience it's always had a bit of a rattle. I love how dynamic its forces are though between hangtime, airtime, positives and a little bit of whip coming down the first drop in the back row. At the moment, I'm not sure if I'd take it over Iron Menace as my third fav in the park, so that's something I'll have to think about next time I'm back there lol

Talon - (Rode once) I really enjoy Talon as well, which finds itself as my second fav in the park after Steel Force. Very snappy and forceful inversions and it still runs pretty smooth. I especially love the super intense high banked turn right up against the ground towards the end of the ride. The one thing that's a little disappointing is that the park took out the signs underneath you as you go up the lift hill. They were spaced out and said thing like "Going up" "No turning back!" "Getting closer..." as you went up the lift hill, with the last one at the crest saying "Goodbye!" as you go over the drop. They didn't affect the actual ride at all, but I thought they were a funny little thing the park decided to put in. They may have removed them prior to this year, since I didn't go to Dorney a lot between 2020 and now, but this is the first time I noticed it at least. Anways, gotta love Talon, real solid invert all around. I would've rode it more than once, but it got a bit of a longer line towards the end of my visit that I didn't feel like waiting in lol

Possessed - (Rode once) I've never been a huge fan of Intamin's Impulse coasters, and I've always thought Possessed was just kind of okay. It's got a fun launch, and since I was sitting towards the back row, the feeling of height looking straight down on the vertical back spike was pretty cool, but other than that, the ride doesn't do a whole lot for me. I wished the holding break on the vertical spike still worked like it used to, that would make the ride a bit more unique at least, but it's still fine enough without it.

Other than the coasters, I rode two other rides, both of them being drop towers lol. One was Dominator, the park's 200 foot S&S drop tower. I rode the shot side that blasts you up to free fall down and I thought it was way more tame than I remembered, which was unfortunate. Then the other drop tower I rode was Demon Drop, which is one of the very few rides out there that still kinda wigs me out lmao. Something about the moving forward from the lift shaft to the drop track and the fact that the ride looks, sounds, and feels like it's made of sheet metal still kinda gets to me lol. I love it though, and for as rare of a ride that it is, being the last of it's kind in the country, if it's running, you gotta give it a ride.

So overall, I had a fun time at Dorney! It's not the biggest or best park in the world by any means, but it serves its purpose as a regional theme park well and offers things that are fairly unique from other area parks like Hersheypark, Knoebels and Great Adventure. Once the waterpark opens for the season (they were having their season passholder preview day when I was there), then it becomes more of a full day park, since their waterpark is really solid. So I'm sure I'll get back later this summer and you'll get another post full of my ramblings lmao.

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

For your silly Descendants prompts, the core four see Ben's room?

And they find out he can play the drums apparently?

So, yeah, here it is!

Core four visiting Ben’s room! Carlos, Jay and Evie being mildly chaotic Isle menaces, and Mal, unfortunatelly, well on her way to her D2 breakdown. They also start the process of getting more Isle kids off, starting with the de Vil cousins and Jade.

I realise that the characterisation might be all over the place, but I hope you enjoy anyway! ♥

Ben’s bedroom

It’s Carlos’s first time ever visiting Ben’s dorm room, as far as the young king and the campus guards are concerned anyway.

But come on: Carlos is an Isle kid. 

And saying „You can’t go there,“ to an Isle kid? You could as well wave about a giant flag proclaiming „Free real estate,“ and „It’s a dare!“

Now, all of this is not to be discussed, though, as neither he nor Evie didn’t nick anything,and Jay surely isn’t gonna get caught. 

(Look, with the insane amount of stuff that is just laying around here, practically asking to be stolen? Hardly anyone is gonna notice anyway.)

And Mal? Well,Mal apparently has a blanket approval to visit Ben’s bedroom whenever she wants.

Carlos wonders what the school staff has to say about this, and decides that if they are smart, they probably won’t say a word. When they might be overheard anyway.

But enough empty talk about nothing!

Carlos steps over the threshold with a practised polite smile at his face, and doesn’t bother not looking around, as he and Evie agreed that it might be more suspicious.

If anyone in Auradon cared, that is.

Speaking of Evie: She walks in just after him, followed by Jay, and she briefly touches his hand, letting the touch linger just a tiny bit.

Mal is already waiting inside, smiling, and clearly excited to be spending time with both her boyfriend and her friends.

Well, Carlos doesn‘t want to crush her dreams, but what happens, happens, right?

He smiles back at her, and then turns at Ben:

„Nice room you have here, man,“ he says. He can’t help but to be impressed, and honestly, little jealous.How could he not, having grown on the Isle? How could he not, when he knows that his cousins are still at that hellish place?

The Isle is always at his mind, in more ways than once.

„Love the colours!“ adds Evie. He, personally, finds the favoured Auradon combination of dark blue and gold a bit plain, not to mention: Pastels? Really?

He knows what Ivy and Diego would have to say about those, but he just wrinkles his nose and looks his other way. No insulting the king right now, remember?

„Wait, is that a walk-in closet?“

Of course Evie would get distracted by that.

„Um, yeah?“ Ben says, blush creeping up his cheeks.

Evie immediately sets off to explore it, and Ben awkwardly follows behind.

„Cool,“ says Carlos off-handedly, „I used to sleep in one of those.“

Coincidentally, at the same moment, Jay manages to knock something over and distract the prince. Pure accident, you see.

Evie, however, isn’t feeling like being a diplomat today. 

The difference between Auradon and Isle is really grating on her nerves, she complained about it just yesterday.

And the day before that.

And the day before that.

Well.

You get the picture.

„Oh!“ she pipes up, already half-way in the closet, „I hope you won’t try to kill me in this one, Mal! It would be such a pity – I mean, look at this suit, that is a work of art!“

„Thank you, Lumiere made that one for me. I’ll give him your compliments,“ answers Ben before his brain fully catches up to his mouth, „Wait, what?!“

Mal just blushes, and stammers something like: „I wouldn’t do it again,“ to  which Evie doesn’t  even answer. She just giggles, her voice like jingle bells.

„Jay! Say something!“ Mal turns at the last member of their group.

„Yeah?“ he looks up from Ben’s Tourney and Roar trophies, oh so shiny, and, „It was pretty subpar murder plot, I must say, but fun anyway. Say, did LT give you an A for it?“

Mal buries her face in her hands: „You are not helping. Besides, she almost failed me, for balking out before the end – Not that I would want to finish it, E! Really! I already told you–“

Carlos chuckles, as Evie chose exactly this moment to emerge from the wardrobe and calm down the situation, and especially Ben. With soft and sweet smile on her lips, she says that „It’s just how the Isle children make friends, isn’t it?“ and „We didn’t know any better,“ and that she is so glad she is in Auradon.

The implication of the other Isle children is both unsaid and well received.

„Well, ehm, so, anyway,“ says Ben, „What would you like to do? I was thinking we could play some video games?“

Carlos, Jay, and Evie beam at that proposition, while Mal pouts. She is not the queen yet, and she is clearly outvoted.

Besides, as Evie would put it, Ben’s console is a work of art.

So, they play.

They try not to cheer too much at each kill and swallow at least the most disturbing remarks of how they’d react on the Isle.

Though, honestly?

They got so lost in the game and the debate – even Mal – that Ben was staring at them with mouth agape, wondering why on Earth do they know so much about back alley assaults.

(He didn’t ask at which side they were, that sweet fairy tale child. They will not tell him.)

Instead, he suggests if they’d perhaps like to do something else?

Carlos swats Jay in the arm as he attempts to swipe the controller to his pocket, and points at the drum set the prince has at a mini podium.

(A drum set! At a podium!)

„You play?“ he asks casually.

„Yes!“ Ben beams, „Well, not so much anymore, but I used to! It’s really fun – do you play?“

Carlos ignores Jay scoffing and him and Evie muttering „Who the fuck makes a sixteen years old a king?“ in languages they hope said sixteen years old king won’t understand, and Mal glaring at them.

„Worked out, didn’t it?!“ she more gestures and hisses than says, and, yeah, as far as Carlos is concerned?

There is still some work to do.

So he puts his smile back on and says: „I don’t, but my cousin Diego has a band. Maybe one day, you could play together!“

(If he added „That would be awesome, right?“ he’d be laying it on too thick, wouldn’t he?)

„Your cousin has a band?“ Ben repeats, „That’s pretty cool!“ and „Wait, I didn’t know you had a cousin.“

„I have three,“ informs Carlos with a stony expression.

„I also have a cousin,“ adds Jay, „Jade, my aunt’s kid. We grew up together.“

„I… I honestly didn’t know that. You see, the records, well, they are a bit spotty–“

„Oh, don’t worry about it,“ smiles Evie sweetly, and if Carlos didn’t trust her that much, he’d choke her right on the spot. Mal looks like she wants to do that too.

„We will take a look at your records, won’t we, boys? Jay, Carlos?“

They smile at her, Isle smile, too much teeth and no love in the eyes. They can see some interesting times ahead, already.

„You can start the process of pulling Diego, Ivy, Hunter and Jade over; You can also add Dizzy, that girl is like a little sister to me, and Claudine Frollo.“

„Frollo has a daughter?“

„That’s what you take from this, man?“ asks Jay, leaning against the doorframe, ready to leave.

„I mean, yeah, good for you. But, Jade? Hello?“

Evie smiles at Ben, her mirror-smile, and he nods:

„Cousins. Got it. Claudine Frollo.“

He shakes his head.

Carlos can still see Mal pouting, and she will likely throw a tantrum later that day, gods know what got into her lately, but that’s a problem for his future self.

Now?

He has a faulty system to look at.

„Let’s go,“ he says, and they go, because you didn’t think they didn’t know where the records are kept, did you now? They are Isle kids, after all.

Evie only stops for a bit to make Ben give them an official pass, but she catches up soon enough, she smiles and takes both of their hands.

Carlos feels like everything is going to be okay.

[reconstructwriter]

Had Another Breakdown and Watched Attack of the Clones

And wow, what a B-Movie title but I’m already committed to this terrible life decision so I might as well continue. Got through the Phantom Menace so how much worse can this be?

Warning! Another long post! Also tw for Attack of the Clones shit including genocide and slavery.

The Watto scene: Not only does it double down on Watto as a Jewish stereotype – seriously, WHY?!? – but a scene where a former slave meets their enslaver after ten years of growing up and mystic training with a laser sword? I expected a lot more. Watto should’ve voided his bowels because this has to be Worst Case Scenario for a slaver! At best he was a little ‘nervous friendly’. And Anakin is already well-established as ‘man-child who Loses His Shit at the drop of a hat’. Like dude, where’s your angst and teenage fits now cause boy does this situation fit the bill! But nope, NPC fulfills their NPC duty and off they go.

Fanon Anakin vs Canon Anakin: I was introduced to the former and slowly learned what he’s really like and oh wow is he such a terrible mess of a human being no wonder Mace Windu noped his training. His Fascist statement is extra YIKES for Padme since she’s one of those Senators who’d be forced to agree. The first temper tantrum alone sounded way out of line given the relatively professional setting, let alone the creepy boundary-breaking stare. The ‘I’ve been dreaming about you for ten years’, the ‘my feelings are suffering’ speech – also taking place with him in shadow for extra broody effect. And his first genocide (I can’t believe we’re already keeping track here!) And he KNOWS BETTER is the worst thing. He admits, out loud, that he knows better and still does the thing Padme why did you say yes to this mess?

Padme being mind controlled: a fairly common fan theory to answer the above question, but in-movie Padme straight up asks Anakin if he will use a mind-trick on her (in the context of a 20 questions game so not serious). Anakin’s response is ‘mind tricks only work on the weak minded’. On the one hand, implies Padme is too strong-willed for Anakin to influence through the Force – but on the other hand this also suggests to me that he would if he could!?!?

Though Anakin was the one to suggest keeping the relationship a secret, which did surprise me so no guilting Padme about ‘wanting a marriage like a free man’ like I thought. Padme is the one who says she won’t live a lie. Good to know for future reference.

Are droids sentient or not? Dex outright says droids can’t think but I honestly don’t know if this is in-universe how droids work or if Dex is having a Cleigg-on-Tusken-People moment.

Jedi are Arrogant? Lots of people have cited Madame Nu’s confidence in her archive’s integrity as evidence the Jedi are arrogant and horrible justification of Sith crimes follows. But Obi Wan thinks there’s something more going on and Yoda encourages everyone to help find his lost planet in one of the only nods to ‘funny trickster teacher Yoda’ we get in the movie. To me this seems a hint that the Jedi are unprepared for betrayal from within. Which Dooku’s, Anakin’s and the Clones’ mind-controlled betrayals all blindside the Jedi Order.

Jango: I’ve been torn about him since I learned about him. On the one hand, understandable vengeance motive (per legends anyway), on the other hand selling his own kids into slavery and probably knowing something about the chips and genocide order because I can’t otherwise imagine the legends version assisting the Jedi.

Jango does state in-movie ‘they’ll do their job well’ in a way that sounds just a bit ominous but I don’t know if he’s being accidentally vague or deliberately giving a subtle hint he knows about the Jedi betrayal plan. If this version is just in it for Boba and the money and doesn’t have the motive of his Legends counterpart, why would the Sith ever need to tell him? Dunno, but I was surprised to not hear him say anything derogatory about his clones. I mean he’s still selling his children into slavery in a way George Lucas doesn’t grok but he doesn’t actively deride them like I’ve read in fanfic. It’s a low bar but not as low as Anakin’s.

Made for the Jedi? So the Kaminoians confirm the clone army is specifically made for the Republic but commissioned by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. Glad the movies cleared that up.

Scene Contrast: Kamino is Dark and Stormy with creepy sterile whiteness everywhere in complete contrast to Naboo’s sunny and lush green paradise. The clone army is grown and trained in creepy white lab while the robotic army built in a dark but organic underground hive. Obi Wan sneaks onto Geonosis through the light of day to investigate galactic concerns. Anakin on Tattooine stalks the Tusken people in the dark of night for personal stakes.

The (Other) Horribly Racist Cliché: Speaking of which, I get we’re supposed to assume Shmi was abducted but, um, Cleigg isn’t even a witness – like I initially thought – but is guessing abduction based on tracks in the desert sand and his incredibly racist bias. Are we supposed to doubt every word out of his mouth? If Shmi had been in a bed (even tied) I’d have assumed patient before prisoner.

Anakin’s Genocide: He goes off to save Shmi as ominous music plays and the suns go down, at which point he doesn’t just walk the fascist talk and do baby-Vader’s first genocide but also foreshadows his betrayal and genocide of the Jedi! Which really reinforces the Sith/Nazi and Jedi/Jewish parallel here – Hitler and the Nazis got their Holocaust ideas from White America’s treatment of our native and PoC counterparts. So too does Anakin the future Sith start his genocidal tendencies with the Native people of Tattooine.

But nobody in-universe seems to get that?!? Blorbo!Anakin authors recognize that thar was some FUCKED UP SHIT!!! (Usually by pretending it didn’t happen or re-writing the scene into something less Moral Event Horizon.) Padme’s response would fit better Anakin murdering the literally disarmed Dooku – morally wrong, against the Jedi Code but somewhat understandable but genocide? Cleigg is narratively supposed to be kind and sympathetic but he practically sent a demon after people who’s land and water he’s stealing! The person acting most realistically is the perpetrator and all Anakin admits (again) is he’s a Jedi and therefore should be better. But this still feels like he should have come back to Padme yellow-eyed and Dark Sided!

Once again, George Lucas’ racism screws up the story he’s trying to tell. Ugh. Okay, enough movie time for now. Sorry I’m a hopeless binger despite my friends and kitties’ best efforts.

[organchordsandlightning]

shit okay so i've finished the lighthouse series finally and i love your characterisation of faroe in it so deeply. wanted to ask - thoughts on what a teenaged faroe would be like? having to interact with normal people and realising how fucking weird her family is, and whatever she remembers of her childhood. she's such a delight and she's such a menace. i wanna know what she'd be like when she's a little older

ohhh, i’m glad you enjoyed and you have absolutely activated my ‘can’t shut up’ trap card! teenage faroe HCs under cut

so I think my big HC for teenage faroe is that she gets really into painting as her preferred mode of art. I like to think arthur did teach her piano, and she likes it well enough, but it didn’t have the same emotional attachment arthur had for it. 

nobody can say exactly why this comes about, but john almost reverently describing every piece of art she made as a toddler/child to arthur probably had something to do with it. i also like to think that faroe’s brief time in the Dark World, and especially under the influence of Arthur-Wearing-John’s-Old-Yellow-Robe, has affected her, just a bit - just in that her dreams are a little more vivid, a little more memorable, and little more Out There (leading to John having a small breakdown one day when teenage faroe draws a stunningly good representation of Carcosa, right down to the throne room). she prefers landscapes in general, but the family portrait hanging in arthur and john’s house was definitely painted by Faroe for Arthur’s birthday.

as for personality! I think Faroe is definitely a ‘see an injured baby bird, bring it home’ type of person - and she definitely keeps the curiosity that she inherited from her father. while it was less worrying when she rarely went anywhere without holding onto someone hand, it definitely became more worrying when the adults stopped walking her to school every day. I really love the idea of Faroe’s investigative spirit starting with ‘I’m going to crack the case of The Missing Cookie so I can be a detective just like Daddy’ to ‘ope Faroe’s coming home close to midnight because she was helping a classmate look for a lost cat’. with three detectives in her immediate family, it’s never that hard to find her in Arkham, but doesn’t stop Arthur and John especially from being scared to death. they taught Faroe occult symbols at a pretty young age and Faroe always understood that that was the one thing they would not let her fuck around with. 

(I was also so close to including the idea that Arthur gets a seeing eye dog when Faroe is still a child, who Faroe names Goldie. Faroe takes to Goldie so much that they get a second dog just for her [’sweetie, I know you’re having fun playing with Goldie but Goldie has to work now’] - a little white Westie named Bones. this is 100% the adorable animal mascot Faroe investigates with.)

relatedly, I think everyone struggled a lot with Faroe’s growing independence, especially with how close her family is. like, I don’t think Faroe ever had a rebellious phase per se (that is, she was never like ‘fuck you dad I don’t play by your rules’), but she definitely leaned more into ... ‘I Know This Is The Right Thing To Do Why Are You Telling Me I Can’t Do This Because I’m A Child’, which is a lot more frustrating all around.

(still, parker remembers the last time he was called ‘Uncle Bark’ and shifted to only ‘Uncle Parker’ [except when she’s scared or upset].)

i think Faroe might have had a brief period where she became acutely aware (in the way that teenagers are) that her home life is Not The Norm (i used to joke that Faroe, as a child, would say ‘sometimes I stay with Daddy and Mr. John, who kiss, and sometimes I stay with Mama and Uncle Bark, who don’t’). while I don’t think that she ever got badly teased about it [everyone likes Bella, the lady who makes all the costumes for school plays, and everyone likes Mr. Yang, the guy who cheers all the kids on at the baseball game, and everyone is moderately lukewarm on Mr.s Lester and Doe who look kind of pissy but generally mean well], I think the first time Faroe tried to underplay her home situation (maybe she implied Bella and Arthur were married, maybe she pretended like Mr. John wasn’t her dad, per se), John -- unable to hide the emotions on his face  -- looked so fucking sad that even Faroe, at 14 years old, was like awwwwwww shit I can’t do that again. Overall though, I do think Faroe borders on being pretty popular among her class. She’s involved in a lot of stuff, Bella handmakes her clothes, and more than a few students in the school have had their family’s cases solved by the Lester/Doe/Yang partnership.

 as for what Faroe remembers, I would think (other than her dreams)  she doesn’t remember much of her time in the Dark World, or being dead. She doesn’t like swimming much, but that’s more along the lines of Arthur being too anxious to teach her as a child, and thus Faroe learning a little later in life. She remembers a happy home - though the duos lived separately, she remembers them being together so often that it seemed like they all lived together.  If she had an emotional problem, she’s more inclined to go to her mother (who sometimes talks to her as if she’s a fellow classmate, and not her daughter) or Mr. John (who seems to get things in ways that Parker and Arthur can’t). If she needs something done, it’s Parker (who seems to know every person in Arkham) or her father (who would move heaven and earth for her, in a way that makes Faroe a liiiiiiiitttle scared to ever have kids. Arthur, god bless, is a little intense).

however, I do think the truth comes out around the time when Faroe is a teenager. Faroe was aware for a while of things not seeming right: her father’s acutely visible scars and bright amber eyes, for one thing. Still, I think they didn’t want to tell her as a child, and she was easily enough distracted from any questions whenever she asked.

It’s only when she becomes a teenager that it starts to become unavoidable. For one thing, she finds Parker Yang’s obituary in a newspaper at the library. She reads the term ‘John Doe’ in a book and, uh-oh, that seems a little weird. And, um. What are all these ‘Police Searching For Arthur Lester, supposed murderer of Parker Yang’ news clippings in the library? And, hang on, if her mother is fifteen years younger than Arthur, then why do they have so many stories of growing up together?

and I think, at some point, they sit her down and tell her all of it. Not the nitty gritty details, not how Arthur got all his scars, but enough for Faroe to realize that most of her family - including herself - was dead, at one point. Enough for Faroe to realize that, oops, one of her dads used to be a god, and maybe her dreams aren’t just dreams.

and of course it’s a lot to take in, and there’s a couple of weeks where Faroe’s basically sleepwalking through life, but her family helps her through it. I think at the end of the day, the thing that helps her most is the thing that her Uncle Parker told her (and the same thing Parker told Arthur, way back when Arthur lost his memory): that no matter how the story went, she was safe and loved, and she had a lot of people making sure she always would be.

thanks for asking!

[gyugyday]

happy birthday.

hi mingyu, it's been a while (only a few days but my bad for not responding). you probably thought that i've forgotten about your birthday or that you won't be around (i hope you didn't but well you never know...), but i'd never miss an important occasion such as this one.

a year went by so quickly. i think i still remember the first conversation we ever had — i slid into your dms just to be a menace and you went along with it so naturally. i think that sums up our dynamic quite well, don't you think? there is no one else i'd enjoy tormenting this much, so i hope that makes you feel special. and just for today, i'll allow you to let all these compliments get to your head. i think you deserve it.

mingyu, i hope you know i truly value our friendship more than you could ever know. being around you feels like a breath of fresh air and i never grow tired of all the remarks you seem to throw my way (even if i now flinch at the mention of toilets ㅋㅋㅋ) or at how you always seem to have a comeback for every single thing i say. in fact, dare i say, i'm a bit impressed at how your brain operates? and i mean this in the kindest way, i truly think you're one of the funniest and most down to earth people i've ever met. i love getting insight into your brain and i adore all the conversations we've had. whether it's about our past, our opinions on certain topics, or just our typical banter. all of it is meaningful to me and all of it is something i hold dear to my heart.

you're one in a million, a kind-hearted individual, an incredible friend. i admire you and look up to you, even if i struggle at showing it. you're levelheaded and you don't take life as seriously as me, which is something i envy. sometimes i'll find myself mid-breakdown and i'll catch myself going hmmm... what would mingyu do? probably eat ramen and sleep... ㅋㅋㅋ there are also times where i want to come to you for advice or to pester you with a million little questions, but i've held off from doing so. why? because i think a part of me wants you to think i'm cool and aloof (though i'm sure i ruined that image long ago... ㅋ) but after reading your letter to me, i've decided that this simply isn't the way to go anymore.

i recall you mentioning in your letter to me that we haven't been able to have as many serious conversations despite knowing each other for a year and it really made yearn to get closer to you. unfortunately, i struggle with learning how to be serious with people, so i think that could be why you feel like we don't have many deep conversations. i hope you know that my inability to open up has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me, i just move at a turtle's pace. but i promise you that i trust you with my life and i think you're pretty great at giving advice, so lets hope this changes soon.

mingyu, it makes me sad to know that we both struggle with aligning our schedules to make things work. it feels as if whenever i'm free, you're busy, and vice versa. but the moments we do spend together, i'm delighted and happy to be within your presence. you've got such a quick wit and i like to think our senses of humor mesh together pretty well. there's never been a moment where i haven't been laughing or smiling along at your antics and sometimes i even leave a conversation with you baffled by how someone can be so effortlessly funny. i think you've got a wonderful personality, one that i wish i was around more to cherish.

though our hangouts have dwindled down (not that they were incredibly high to begin with), i hope you know that i still look back on certain things you've said and find myself smiling from time to time. i also miss you more than i'd like to admit, but i understand that we've both got actual obligations and schedules (and of course we have to slot in your 15 hour sleep routine), so it makes things a bit difficult. but i have a lot of love and care for you and these moments apart won't ever change that.

i think you've got an amazing ability to make people happy. there are times where i'm feeling sad, but a quick conversation with you is able to easily free me from any melancholy that torments me. you make it so easy to be happy and smile around you, it's such a wonderful gift to have. i know i act up and pretend like i hate all the jokes you make, but part of me truly enjoys our banter and i love that we're able to have conversations about absolutely nothing for hours on end.

that being said, i'm hoping this will be the year that we can turn those conversations into something more meaningful so that we can get closer. because you aren't getting rid of me now, so you might as well strap in and make the best out of it.

i also want to mention that you inspire me to become a better version of myself, just by being yourself. and i think you do the same for a lot of people around you, even if they don't say it. like i said before, you have such a mature graceful way about handling things. as someone who is a bit too emotional, it makes want to become more like you in a way. i think i could learn a lot from you, so lets plan a hangout session soon and crack open a bottle of wine and unlock all our traumas, yeah? what do you say? ㅎㅎ

you're someone that has been through a lot and i know in the past when you've shared those things, we've made little jokes about it. i regret not saying this in the moment out of fear i'd be ruining the vibe, but i hope you know that i think you're really strong for overcoming all those things you've told me about. and you're even stronger for choosing to forgive and move on with your life. i really mean it when i say you inspire me because you're able to do things that not many others could ever hope to achieve. and i don't say that lightly.

this letter feels like it isn't encompassing all the things i wish to say to you and frankly, i wish i was able to put together a better birthday gift. but it's crazy how life sweeps us away, huh? you deserve something a million times better than this, but i hope you can feel all my sincerity in the words i've been writing. i truly appreciate you.

i know we may stray and return to one another throughout the year as our lives keep us busy, but i hope you know that i will always be here for you. all you need to do is let me know and i'll drop anything for you. whether that's a need for distraction, a venting session, whatever it might be. i'll do my absolute best to be that person that's always there, fighting for your happiness.

i hope this letter makes up for all the times i've disappeared and didn't respond to your messages. i also hope this letter serves as a reminder that we need to finish blue lock and game together soon. i haven't forgotten, i promise. because no matter how busy i get, you will always be a priority for me and i'll find a way to make time for you somehow.

mingyu, cherish this because you may not hear this from me again until your birthday next year (ㅋㅋㅋ) but i love you and care about you a lot. i hope today is filled with nothing but happiness and good vibes. lets do something together to celebrate, if you have the time. we can watch a movie, game (haha... can i convince you to download overwatch?), or even finish our anime.

happy birthday once again.

eat seaweed soup and don't forget to call your parents.

reserve some time for me today, pretty please.

i promise to get better at answering my dms soon.

love, sakura.

p.s: i know you said this month is busy for you, but i better see you around today.

[its-wabby-stuff]

I’m feeling particularly insane for doing this, but for anyone interested, here is my breakdown of why I chose which brother for which emoji (I’ll make this as short as I can):

😀 Donnie. The blank smile with little emotion. 😃 Leo. The wide eyed curiosity. 😄 Raph. A little bit more. 😁 Mikey. These smiles just get slowly more intense. The end of the collection of smiles.

😆 Leo. I could see him doing this.

🥹 Mikey. Cause he’s a cutie.

😅Donnie. Smile but ✨stressed✨

😂Mikey. Classic. He’s a happy boy. 🤣 Leo. The sequel. He’s rolling on the floor laughing.

🥲 Leo. It’s all his pain being released through that tear.

☺️ Mikey. 😊 Donnie. He got that praise from a parent aged adult.

😇 Mikey. But he’s pretending…

🙂Raph. 🙃 Mikey. Them. That’s the reason.

😉 Leo. Obviously. It’s a lil cheeky.

😌 Mikey. Satisfied with good food or behavior.

😍 Donnie. For that inner passion.

🥰 Raph. Cause he deserves it.

😘 Mikey. Cause he’s giving it. 😗 Donnie. Emotionless passion again. 😙Leo. Twinning. 😚 Raph. To complete the saga.

😋 Mikey. Yummy.

😛 Raph. Silly guy. 😝Mikey. A little sillier. 😜 Leo. Even sillier. ���Donnie. He’s unhinged.

🤨 Donnie. It’s literally his expression.

🧐 Dr. Delicate Touch, PHD. 🤓Donnie. A nerd. 😎Leo. The cool one. 🥸Raph. (But you can’t tell)

🤩 Mikey. He literally makes this expression

🥳 Raph. Cause he deserves it.

😏 Leo. Smug. 😒 Donnie. Annoyed.

😞 Raph. Worried™️. 😔 Leo. MmHm (he’s sorry).

😟Raph. Visibly concerned. 😕 Donnie. Emotionless upset. 🙁 Leo. More upset. ☹️Mikey. The most upset.

😣 Raph. Worried™️ even more. 😖 Donnie. [redacted]. 😫Mikey. In anguish. 😩Leo. Dramatically and emotionally exhausted.

🥺 Raph. Cause he’s a sweet boy.

😢 Donnie. That movie moment.

😭 Mikey. Cause he’s done this emotion.

😤 Raph. Angry boy bout to throw hands.

😠😡 Dr. Delicate touch bout to throw hands.

🤬 Raph. The only one in his family allowed to curse.

🤯 Donnie. Oh no the eyebrows! Rip forehead.

😳 Raph. Embarrassed.

🥵Leo. 🥶Mikey. Baja blast. Switching colors.

😱Donnie. Dramatically, over the top, end of the world expression (Someone moved something in his lab)

😨Raph. Something went wrong. 😰 Mikey. One the same page. 😓 Leo. Stressed.

🤗Mikey. Jazz hands.

🤔 Raph. Just to shove it in Donnies face.

🫣 Donnie. There’s a beach ball.

🤭 Mikey. He has a secret.

🫢Leo. He almost said something he shouldn’t.

🫡 Raph. It’s hero time. 🤫Raph. It’s quiet time.

🫠Donnie. Blah. 🤥 Donnie. He has a long nose.

😶Raph. He has nothing to say.

🫥 I may be invisible but I still look good, fic. Iykyk

😐Donnie.

🫤 Mikey. It’s quirky.

😑 Donnie. So I could do this: 😐😑😐

😬 Raph. Yikes.

🙄Donnie. Eye roll™️ (He owns it now)

😯Mikey. Ooo.

😦Leo. What (dumbfounded). 😧Raph. What (surprised).

😮Donnie. Emotionless surprise. 😲Mikey. Woah

🥱Leo. Always tired™️ can’t sleep™️. 😴Raph. Healthiest sleep schedule. 🤤Mikey. Good dreams. 😪Donnie. Passed out while working (again).

😮‍💨Raph. Phew (he finally got a minute).

😵Leo. Ummm… maybe don’t.

😵‍💫Raph. He’s got a lot on his plate.

🤐 Like Father Like Son, fic. Iykyk.

🥴Leo. Most like to be intoxicated.

🤢Donnie. Gag. 🤮Leo. The reason. 🤧Raph. Allergies. 😷Mikey. Not going to get sick.

🤒Leo. Sick. 🤕Leo. Injured.

🤑Donnie. Money money money.

😈Leo. A menace. 👿Donnie. Leo made him. Disaster twins. That’s the reason.

That’s it. Whole collections (I hope it captures their characters):

Raph: 😄🙂🥰😚😛🥸🥳😞😟😣🥺😤🤬😳😨🤔🫡🤫😶😬😧😴😮‍💨😵‍💫

Leo: 😃😆🤣🥲😉😙😜😎😏😔🙁😩🥵😓🫢🫥😦🥱😵🤐🥴🤮🤒🤕😈

Donnie: 😀😅😊��😗🤪🤨🤓😒😕😖😢🤯😱🫣🫠🤥😐😑🙄😮😪🤢🤑👿

Mikey: 😁🥹😂☺️😇🙃😌😘😋😝🧐🤩☹️😫😭😡🥶😥🤗🤭🫤😯😲🤤😷

The full collection of Risemojis. I’d love to make them into actual emojis people can use, but I’m still trying to figure it out.

Total: 100. Leo-25, Raph-25, Mikey-25, Donnie-25

Let me know which ones are your favorites in the comments or tags cause I’d love to know!!

The Collection of closeups are under the tag: Risemojis.

[not-bcring]

Looming over his boyfriend in such a way that might be described as "casually menacing", trying his very best to fight a smile off his face, Gundham had one hand poised in his pocket as if ready to give something to his boyfriend, but what exactly remained to be seen. "Kazuichi...may I offer you my fastest dark deva in these trying times?" With a menacing pause after Kaz's name, now no longer able to fight his smile, the breeder pulled his hand from his pocket to reveal said deva, Cham-P looking to Kaz with every ounce of happiness he was capable of holding in his fuzzy little body.

-  ✩   「 @from-across-the-stars 」   ✩  

「 ☆ 」    Today sucks. But the worst part is, it sucks in a way that feels stupid to be upset about. Kazuichi can’t pin it down to any big thing, as far as he knows. Never mind what is often nagging beneath the surface; anxiety and fears fueled by a mixture of trauma and genetics. Merely a bunch of little things that alone wouldn’t be cause for a breakdown. But together, one inconvenience after another on a day when his stomach is already feeling a bit iller than usual? It’s enough to make him feel like crying. Which is a gross over-exaggeration because, as he knows, there’s nothing to REALLY be upset about.

Doesn’t stop him from being upset though.

Unable to hide it even behind false, strained smiles and awkward excuses for why he felt like staying in the dorm instead of going out ( insisting that Gundham join their friends in his absence ) , he shouldn’t be surprised that Gundham could tell something was wrong. Yet he still is, wide eyes and messy hair meeting the breeder as Kaz sticks his head out of the pile of blankets he’d planned on spending the night hidden in.

Confused by Gundham’s demeanor, as well as him having come to the dorm instead of taking Kaz’s advice ( another thing that should have been obvious to the crestfallen mechanic ) , Kazuichi untangles himself from his blanket nest and sits upright on the bed. Quizzical and tad nervous gaze flits from Gundham’s face to his hidden hand, Kaz not realizing he was holding his breath until it’s released with a sputtered laugh at the reveal. Slightly shaky but still sincere, the sound is a welcome change of pace. Lacing his words as Kazuichi reaches out his hands to accept the offered Deva.

❝  Pfffft— Okay, there’s no way that’s true…  ❞  Kazuichi laughs, tears beading in the corner of his eyes as he feels the faint hold he had on himself starting to crumble. Unsure why, Kaz ignores the fogginess creeping into his gaze, hoping it’ll be blamed on his laughter and not the confusing tightness in his chest. A tightness that has started to wane since Gundham’s arrival. Looking at Cham-P, he gingerly pets the hamster and chuckles,  ❝  Are you really telling me this guy is the quickest one you’ve got?  ❞

It’s difficult to imagine the happy hamster moving fast at all, let alone the fastest.   「 ☆ 」

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

sweet creature - a close reading + othello + brokeback mountain

hello here we are again, in the deep deep hole we can keep digging for ourselves in a desperate attempt to figure out all of harry’s lyrics. i’ve been at this for a bit now and it feels like i know nothing. and then there’s a shakespeare reference i should get into?????

well here it is. finally. i’m sorry to keep some of you waiting; know that i’m so honored people actually care about whatever i have to say on this??????????????? really. love you and thank you. 

read this if you want a:

lyric breakdown of sweet creature

short summary of shakespeare’s othello

deep reading into how those two could be connected

brokeback mountain connection

synthesis and interpretation, besides the othello connection

breakdown and plea bc this gay menace just does this to me

LET’S GO SHALL WE?!

hs1, track 5 (intro post)

lyric analysis

Sweet creature Had another talk about where it's going wrong

“sweet creature” is quote from Shakespeare play Othello ⟶ see analysis below

“another talk” - communication issues, common theme in h (and l)’s music

relationship issues 

(here the whole interpretation of the song being about gemma (h’s sister) already falls through for me, bc you don’t experience these things with a sibling. where is it going wrong? w a sibling? you just punch each other in the arm, then give a good hug and move on, done.)

But we’re still young

“we” as the prominent pronoun in this song. “we” is a unit

“young” as a theme: “still” - met very young, fell in love young, are still young

～ tbsl “i was just a little boy”, ～ too young, ～ we made it “when we’re so young”

We don’t know where we’re going But we know where we belong

～ dlibyh “driving down a one way road to something better”

～ don’t forget where you belong - “home”

And, oh, we started Two hearts in one home

where some more of the gemma theory finds ground, apparently - but “two hearts in one home” would leave out their mother, which wouldn’t make sense if it were a song about h’s family, since he was always very close to his mom? it’s not like it was he and his sister against the world

“started” “two hearts in one home” - moved in early on - fits the h&l narrative ofc #theylivetogetherdealwithit

It’s hard when we argue We’re both stubborn, I know But oh

lovingly admitted

h loves him despite the difficulties, despite character clashes - “i know”, familiarity

h admits that he’s just as difficult

“both stubborn” - even found a similarity among the struggle

Sweet creature, sweet creature Wherever I go, you bring me home Sweet creature, sweet creature When I run out of road, you bring me home

home isn’t a place, it’s wherever this person is - he can talk him down, make him feel safe, whenever and wherever

“i go” - harry’s out on his own now, going after his solo dreams - but he’ll always come back home

“road” - maybe it’s my larrie brain corrupting me once again, but i can’t be the only one who always thought it was “rope” until i looked at the lyrics properly? anyway, when h runs out of road, doesn’t know which path to take, if it’s left or right, “you” shows him the way. yk maybe like a compass

Sweet creature Running through the garden

scene in Othello where “sweet creature” is said is set in a garden

+ motif of gardens/plants in Othello used as metaphors, esp. by Iago (see later, this is important)

gardens in literature: peaceful, secret, intimate, private world, place of youth - garden of eden, secret garden

Oh, where nothing bothered us But we’re still young I always think about you and how we don’t speak enough

“bothered” - their reality is now that people bother them all the time - in the early days the had more chances to be carefree

communicate, boys (think they’ve worked past this but it’s a good reminder)

Sweet creature, sweet creature Wherever I go, you bring me home Sweet creature, sweet creature When I run out of road, you bring me home You’ll bring me home

unique future tense right at the end of the song: you currently bring me home and you always will. faith in the future. despite their struggles they’ll always make it

OTHELLO, SHAKESPEARE 

Othello has many twists and turns in intrigue, all including the classic human weaknesses of jealousy, deceit, selfishness, wrath, mistrust and miscommunication. The storyline centres around Othello, a general of the Venetian army, originally from the north of Africa. (An integral part of the play is the subject of his skin tone, as it causes racism with those opposing his marriage, but this has little to do with this post, so if you want to grasp a bit more of the storyline, you can always google it or watch this very enlightening video.) 

(Lemme give a summary real quick, with very blurry details just so the post makes sense)

STORYLINE:

Othello gives Cassio (army person close to Othello) raise 

-> Iago (army person close to Othello) angry 

-> Iago gets Cassio drunk and starts a fight 

-> another dude gets injured, Cassio is blamed for everything 

-> Othello strips him of his rank 

-> Iago convinces Cassio to get close to Desdemona (Othello's wife) to get his rank back 

-> Iago sows doubt with Othello about how close Desdemona and Cassio are getting 

-> Iago convinces Othello of Desdemona’s infidelity 

-> Othello makes Iago his lieutenant, convinced he’s the only one to be trustworthy 

-> Iago plays a trick (w a handkerchief, look it up if you want) and Othello now thinks Desdemona’s cheating has been physically proven 

-> Othello swears to kill D and tells I to kill Cassio 

-> Iago convinces other guy to kill Cassio instead 

-> plot to kill Cassio fails and Iago has to kill the other guy to keep the scheme quiet, leaving him and Cassio injured 

-> Iago blames it all on a courtesan Cassio was involved with 

-> Othello murders Desdemona 

-> Emilia (Iago’s wife) sees all and realises Iago was the manipulator of it all (bc she figures out the trick from earlier) 

-> Iago kills her 

-> Othello kills himself

Long story short, Iago and Cassio both want (to be close to) Othello. Either for personal gain or due to emotional desires, they’re going pretty far to earn this man’s attention and affection. Since Othello is married to Desdemona, she is the centre of Iago and Cassio’s plans to get closer to Othello. Cassio wants to get close to Desdemona to get her to mediate between him and Othello, while Iago will convince Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful and thus drive them apart so Iago can take on the role closest to Othello. A popular interpretation of Othello is to especially see Iago’s character as one driven by jealousy caused by homosexual desires.

The reading of Iago as a homosexual, as well as general gay tension between all three main men, is encouraged, as usual, by Shakespeare’s ambiguous writing. To give some examples (all Act III - Scene III)

(Of course, “love” between these “friends” can be interpreted as platonic, nothing romantic at all. But the layers of ambivalence that Shakespeare deliberately left us aren’t to be ignored just bc the word “love” doesn’t necessarily have a romantic connotation.)

Othello @ Iago (in the middle of Iago deceiving O to make him believe Cassio and Desdemona are involved)

Iago’s words here can be interpreted as “you don’t want to know my thoughts bc i am currently deceiving you” or “you don’t wanna know what’s on my mind bc i want your dick and unconditional love and i also want it to be all mine, babe. no sharing”

“my nature’s plague” def sounds like he’s not a fan of his natural urges.

had to add this one

here iago says he doesn’t blame desdemona for falling in love with othello, since it’s happened to him too. othello’s reply sounds like a wedding vow

Basically, during this entire scene, Iago goes on to sow doubt with Othello, while constantly reminding him of his love. Then Othello asks for cold hard proof that Cassio and Desdemona are involved and Iago tells the story of how he heard Cassio talk in his sleep. 

SO all these were details necessary to understand the so-called “sex dream” in Othello, which coincidentally happens to contain the nice little word group we’re trying to get to the bottom of:

“sweet creature”

ofc that little stage hoe menace would choose the fucking double-entenred sexually charged scene to grab inspiration from for a cute lil love song

I’ll place it here for you to read first:

So basically, Iago tells Othello Cassio's had a loud dream about embracing Desdemona, while actually physically embracing Iago and calling him “sweet creature”. It’s very important to remember at this point that these are all made-up stories by Iago, so he has created this fantasy on his own. The ambiguity of “to lay with” is pleasantly planted there as well, just to make it all a bit more spicy. Iago is blatantly telling Othello that Cassio was kissing and grinding on him in his sleep. Or, you know, that Iago’s imagined that happening. The words “sweet creature” are supposedly uttered by Cassio to Desdemona in his dream, yet it’s Iago who has thought of them, as if Cassio had uttered them to him. All super nice and gay, if you ask me. And why tell this to Othello? Why add those details? Wanna make Othello jealous of you and Cassio, mate? What’s up? Don't be shy, you can tell us. Without causing the deaths of everyone close to you.

The scene ends with these words:

Another interesting detail I can’t fail to mention is Iago’s tendency to use gardens and plants as metaphors in his speech. Like in the dream story, where he describes kisses to be growing from his lips, rooted there, which Cassio is trying to pull out. Some especially memorable quotes by Iago: 

“Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme . . . the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills” (I.iii.317–322). 

“Though other things grow fair against the sun, / Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe” (II.iii.349–350)

Iago, as pointed out above, is very in touch with nature and how humans are always part of that, whether they like it or not. In some ways he seems to say you can manipulate nature by sheer force of will, yet in others he seems to think his nature is something he can only follow, like with what he says about “his nature’s plague” in Act III. 

So yeah, that’s basically what you need to know about Othello to get the Sweet Creature link. I'll get into what this might mean from Harry’s point of view below.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

You might be wondering in what fucking hole have i fallen it's too deep i wanna get out but well bestie you're in this fandom and that's how shit goes around here so you can't be surprised. This one's all the one and only @bluewinnerangel 's work, since she's the one who brought this to my attention, once again, as so many things. Genius at work over there, go give her a follow if you're not already. Anyhow, it's time you've listened to this song in the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack: 'Snow'.

As most of you might know, Brokeback Mountain, is a famous gay cowboy movie. For this reason, and this reason only, the audio parallel to Sweet Creature is an immaculate choice. Sneaky gay asshole Harry Fucking Styles has managed to blatantly copy a melody from this cult movie about a secret gay love. Are you kidding me?

The movie is set in the 60s in the US and homophobia is a huge part of the plot, causing the men to keep their homosexuality a secret in fear of not getting jobs or even getting killed. Their love is very physical and very real, though, so throughout their entire life they struggle trying to live hidden/apart. There's also the famous line "I wish I knew how to quit you" that sounds a whole lot like the love is a drug and i'm addicted to you thing h & l got going on.

(And if you don't really buy this little run, listen to 'The Wings' from the same soundtrack and then to From the Dining Table. It's like a fan piece, just a lil faster.)

SYNTHESIS

ALRIGHT. 

Might seem a lot of Shakespeare for just a simple lyric analysis post, but I needed it to tie it all in even if it was just for me to know and so I assumed you’d love to be involved in this mess as well. 

First of all, 

I interpret the main parallel with Othello as Harry painting himself, once again, as a jealous lover. He’s literally sung about himself as “being of the jealous kind” and it’s no secret at all that if someone gets their hands on his lover there is some lethal switch that turns on. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t think Harry would start murderous plots in order to secure his lover’s affections, but I’m very sure Harry recognises the desire to be the sole recipient of said affections, without the distractions of others who have their eyes on his lover. Whether or not Othello is happy in his marriage to a woman, it’s still a theme in the play, and if we interpret Iago’s motives through the lens of jealousy, we can easily draw the parallel to Harry’s life. H loves someone who is “taken”, or at least “officially”. Iago is full of self-deprecation, which hs1 is riddled with as well. Self-hate, lack of self-acceptance, and even if there is self-acceptance, it’s mixed with that hate. Iago’s repressed sexuality, when interpreted that way, has driven him to such extreme actions that he’d rather see the one he loves and everyone around him destroyed than settling to witness his lover spending his life with another. A pretty intense figure to identify yourself with, but there are more than enough clues in Harry’s other lyrics that show this side of him: unforgiving towards those who mess with his lover, making him drown in that jealousy. 

Iago’s character in the play is a cunning, complicated one, but especially deceitful and cruel (esp to women), so I don’t think Harry would want a connection to be drawn between a murderous theatre character and this kind, warm love song. I’d think, if there even if this deep connection to Othello in the first place (there’s things we’ll never know) (but it’s a beautiful connection to make, with all the parallels), the side of Iago’s personality that honors nature and connects the human body to nature is something that should be especially highlighted. It’s this human nature that can’t be twisted or turned, no matter how you try to fight it. It’s parts of yourself that you can help grow and make better, or even purposefully make worse. It’s the body as a garden, where the line “running through the garden” then becomes nice and interesting in a very Harry way. yk like smiling sweetly at you while making a sex joke. “Where nothing bothered us” then ties in again with the common theme in H (and L)’s music where the bedroom is sacred, where they’re properly connected and finally in private and lose control or whatever.

Whatever the Othello interpretation may be, the words "sweet creature" are famously from this play, and it's not a common phrase in general, so my belief in the title of the song, at least, being a reference to those words spoken in the play, stands very strong. It is a known "gay Shakespeare thing", as it's a scene with two men sharing a bed, when it all comes down to it. And Harry referenced this, and it's important as fuck.

Second of all, 

this song is the beacon of hope on hs1, in between all the desperately sad songs that deal with break-ups, depression, loneliness. I fucking love hs1, but I can’t listen to it like Fine Line, bc it really fills me with a sadness about life, which is the exact opposite with FL for me. And that’s all perfectly fine, since Harry needed to get that off his chest and he’s also an emotional sad lil gay and we need to let him have his dramatic emo moments. BUT Sweet Creature, my saviour, screams hope and the absolute faith that they stand strong and always will. It’s a soft love song, with the kind of sentiments filling every line that only an established love can. They’ve known each other for ages, been through a lot, and despite everything, they’re each other’s home and that will never change. It’s how it started and how it’ll end. In my readings of songs like Meet Me in the Hallway, i also saw that same faith, that firm belief that they’ll always share this life. And we need that yk. They need that, and we live vicariously through them, so it’s a good thing it’s sorted. And if you’re still on the fence on the whole are-they-together bit: look.

Home is at the centre of Harry’s art. It’s a common thread across his two albums now, as well as the songs he wrote in the band. Same goes for Louis. At some point they established this strong feeling of home as the other person. They were always on the road, and if they were on the road, they had each other as an anchor, and if they were home, they also shared that space. And they turned it into a religion, almost. The most obvious song to point to is Home, of course, written by Louis (among others, but most importantly him ofc), but there’s many others.

～ change your ticket “change your ticket home”, ～ if i could fly "i'd be coming right back home to you", ～ tbsl “it’s hard for me to go home and be so lonely”, ～ canyon moon “two weeks and i’ll be home”/ “i’m going home” or yk read this post by @bluewinnerangel​ bc she has summed it up perfectly

There,

that really is all I needed to get off my chest in terms of Sweet Creature. I'm sure there are more and deeper holes to dig, but this is where my brain space pulls to a halt. Who knows, maybe that garden shit is way more than it seems? Maybe the whole Othello thing is a total waste of time and Harry is laughing in his fist rn. But I'd like to think it's not, and that this person who is becoming more and more entrenched in queer culture and the community at large purposefully referenced this work of art that has been famously interpreted through a gay lens long before Harry was even born. That he imitated a melody from a famous gay movie and wove that into the main love song on his debut album.

He knows so much about queer history and culture and references it all the fucking time, and it's up to us to pay attention. This force of nature isn't just wandering through his solo career slapping sounds together with words that could make a hit and climb the charts. He is actively placing his work in the library of queer art and it has to be honored and celebrated.

[krysmcscience]

How did you know that Mal would absolutely fuck the Fleship if it could get away with fucking the Fleship? XD

Speaking of which, Crinkle has decreed that Flayer and Shrike call the Fleship "Lumpy", which is. Upsetting, but also par for the course with this series, so...guess that's the Fleship's actual name now! Yaaaaaay ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I love how unconcerned Flayer is about the fact that her offspring-ship is actively being boinked while she's on it. And Shrike just, having a good time as always, despite the ship getting fucked and Olive having an active mental breakdown in the background... ʘ‿ʘ;

Also here is Mal (short for Amalgamation) in their full uninked and uncolored glory:

Isn't it just...

(gestures vaguely)

...something???

Also have this sketchy scribbly comic of their younger days (before they ate bits off of literal demigods and one Actual God), in a better and kinder timeline where Yellow/Everett was saved from his terrible fate in the vents of the Skeld by my dumb little menace OC, Ghost, much to the relief of Blue/James. And then Ghost invited himself into their relationship. XD

(Full-size here, cuz I already know tumblr's gonna fuck up the quality.)

I will finish this comic eventually, and most likely do a proper series of family photos, as I did with the Video Bois and Shio~ OuO Either way, this is what happens when Red and Green accidentally make a baby and force Brown to foist it off on someone else so that Red doesn't eat it out of pure rage. It's unclear why Brown thought it was a good idea to give an impostor baby to Ghost, James, and Everett, specifically, considering all the nonsense that unfolds around them, but...it might have something to do with the fact that he didn't expect Red and Green's kid to eventually wind up becoming an eldritch horror under the tender care of those three goofballs. :)

@krysmcscience @crinklytinfoil

Well you know what

Problem solved

Also go check my other drawing that I posted in a repost of iebee, I think that my jokes are hilarious okay

[balanceoflightanddark]

Slaves to Perfection

One of the things I have a bit of a habit of doing is comparing similar characters or themes across various pieces of media and see what one says about the other. How seeing things from a different perspective can put the other into focus and all that.

With this in mind, let's talk about Azula for a moment. A common misconception about her is that she is assumed to have a lot more agency in her actions than most. That being the Crown Princess and the "favorite" of Ozai, she naturally has more say in what she does. And as such, she has a lot to answer for.

Now while I can't exactly argue that Azula has done bad things in the past of her own volition (looks at the burning net incident for example), I don't believe she has a great deal of autonomy as some people might assume. And there happens to be a character that demonstrates what I'm talking about perfectly.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is the second in what is commonly referred to as the Orre duology (which includes the earlier released Pokemon Colosseum). While essentially being a Pokemon game in both spirit and in mechanics, it's also noted for being among some of the darker installments in the franchise. The culmination of this is the introduction of "Shadow Pokemon" (later reintroduced via Pokemon GO!).

Shadow Pokemon are...unique. They're Pokemon who've had their hearts artificially shut, turning them into what is described in-universe as "fighting machines." All their personality is suppressed and replaced with violence and aggression to make a better weapon. Think of them as volatile bundles of rage.

And the apex of this is Shadow Lugia, a.k.a XD-001. Shadow Lugia is one of the main driving forces of the game, directly responsible for abducting a cruise ship and capturing a ton of Pokemon for the criminal group Cipher to corrupt. He was designed to be the ultimate Shadow Pokemon. Terrifyingly powerful, he's the biggest threat the Orre region faces outside of Cipher's Grandmaster himself. To make matters worse, he's said to be so corrupted, he's resistant to any attempts of purification. Not to mention unlike other Shadow Pokemon, who you need to read their aura and behavior to identify them as such, Lugia underwent radical body changes when he was conditioned into XD-001:

The interesting tidbit I found was...Azula and Shadow Lugia have a lot of parallels with one another.

Both of them for example are essentially the attack dogs of the main antagonist: Azula for Ozai, Shadow Lugia for Greevil. Both of them do a lot of the heavy lifting for their respective masters: Azula is the one who took down Ba Sing Se and organized the defense during the Day of the Black Sun, while XD-001 was responsible for procuring the Pokemon necessary for Cipher's plans. And both of them are associated a lot with perfection and high expectations: Azula's drive for perfection and the crushing expectations from her father is one of the pillars of her breakdown, while Lugia spent most of the game getting "fine-tuned" by Lovrina for not managing to lug the S.S. Libra all the way across the region. Not to mention both are heavily associated with fear and are fought in the final battle.

But...here's where things get a little messy. See, despite how terrifyingly powerful and menacing Shadow Lugia is...he's just a slave.

Lugia never chose to be turned into what he is. He was conditioned to solely be Greevil's "most loyal servant" with no free will of his own. Hell, that scene where he captures the S.S. Libra? He gets a signal first before acting, almost like a machine turning. Even his codename XD-001 is less of a name and more something that you'd name a weapon. Despite being deemed by Greevil to be the leader of his army of Shadow Pokemon, he essentially has no will of his own and has to go along with it. And he's treated as such by the narrative, where snagging him from Greevil's clutches is a big part of the game.

Azula is very much in the same boat when you apply that logic. Cruel as she is, Azula didn't have a whole lot of room to be her own person, even being named after her grandfather rather than having her own name. Ozai carefully conditioned her into being his weapon, before throwing her to the wolves by abandoning her in a worthless position. There wasn't any room for kindness, otherwise, that small portion of love shown would've been reduced to cinders along with her face. With no real alternative world viewpoint, Azula had about as much free will as you might expect any other weapon.

Azula was a monster and weapon first in Ozai's eyes, not a person. And under his influence, she had no real chance to change herself for the better in the show proper.

Which begs the question: when one is conditioned to be a monster, has no real alternative where all the others result in you either being maimed, punished, or "fine-tuned"...how much free will does one really have?