#and most of them are evil or inclined toward evil or evil acts and i love how julian is just. there. sweating probably

[daedrabela]

broke: still caring about an ex's opinion

woke: not living by anyone's opinions

mental illness: tailoring your life for THEIR opinions

[kenyummy]

so funny trying to see johnny try 2 be nonchalant after saying "special spider" like it was nothing... you are not fooling anyone boy... also wing girl mj?? bless her i love u mary jane.

+ which member of the batfam do you think reader is most likely to 'forgive'? like they dont seem to much like any of them, but who would u say is the least least favorite? -🍎

for your ask; assuming you're talking about spidey as the reader—they're not very inclined to "forgive" any of them, if that makes sense.

they don't really know any of the batfam, they just took the place of an already existing person and is now having to live their (pretty sad) life. while the fam are feeling mountains and loads of guilt for not being there for you, for not protecting you like they should've—

in reality, it was really your fault you were shot in the first place. you sensed the bullet and could've dodged it easily, but then it would've hit the man in front of you, and you couldn't have let that happen. you're just not that type of person

but they don't know that—they think you had just become victim to the evils and horrors of gotham and you need to be coddled so this never happens again!!!

in general, spidey doesn't really feel anything toward the fam. they think they're all pretty big assholes from how they act toward both them and dc!reader (as far as they can tell from the diaries and hundreds upon hundreds of messages left on delivered), but it's not spideys place to forgive them, so they kind of just never will.

and that's what drives them REALLY nuts because they're really trying their hardest and yet its like you want nothing to do with them!!! (you really just donr want to talk to them bc you have bigger problems to worry about; but they don't know that).

they have a soft spot for kids (which will play a part in the future story) and every spider is good with kids, so by default damian would probably be the easiest for spidey to like. (chapter 4 watch out for him hegfhehehe)

HOWEVER if we're talking about dc!reader, it's probably either dick or jason (talking about sibling/parent family, so no babs, steph, kate kane, luke fox etc.) as they did have a very strong bond with them until jason died.

it's less because they did the least to dc!reader and more because they simply just want the love of their two oldest brothers back—still craving the care they used to get that was robbed of them so unfairly.

anddd OMGGG chapter 2 johnny thinks he's slick... he is not!!! everyone and their mother knows... the serial playboy flirt hasn't been serial playboy flirting for the past couple months... and he's been giving this weird spider googly eyes... I wonder... 🤔🤔🤔🤔

he's so whipped for spidey and deep down he knows he is obvious as HELL and he punches himself mentally every time he says something that shows his genuine feelings (he thinks its corny as hell). don't worry, spidey will get it one day!

mj the only wingwoman ever!!! being an unofficial third wheel is just as bad, if not worse, than being an actual one—she's tired of seeing you two pine; just make out already!!! geez, with all those fancy parties you both go to, you'd think a pair would find a storage closet at some point.

THANK YOU SM 🍎🍎🍎🍎 THIS WAS SO FUN TO ANSWER ☆☆☆

[raayllum]

What Is Up With Terry :: the Thread of Necessity

Intro

Terry is an interesting character in a lot of ways. He's unflappably kind and optimistic, accepting even to a fault, and he's an elf with no issue with dark magic yet doesn't seek out its use for himself. He's a non-traditional antagonist for starters, he's trans without being overly sanitized, and he most notably provides a sounding board for more overtly 'evil' characters like Viren in season four and Claudia in seasons five and six. Most of this is in service of Claudia's goals, with Terry not having many of his own goals outside of his support of Claudia and Viren; this is, mind you, not too dissimilar from Soren with Ezran in arc 2 as well, or even Amaya with Janai.

I also think he's a very important in a character in a lot of ways, for the ease with which he explores and exemplifies

You can love / support Viren and Claudia and that doesn't make you a 'bad person' in the show

You can be okay with dark magic without changing your mind and that doesn't make you a bad person either

You can kill someone in TDP and that doesn't automatically make you a bad person either

We know all of this is true (and will likely continue to be true) as we know in S7 there is an episode about Terry related to him still having a "true and pure heart," which is about as classical "good guy protagonist" speak as you can get. In those lenses, I think Terry was a fantastic choice in introducing a new character to not only contrast against Claudia and Viren, but also in terms of getting us to be more sympathetic towards them (particularly Viren) than we might've been inclined towards in arc 1.

That said, I think the most important thread that Terry carries is that he is a character who truly and wholly does whatever is necessary for his cause, nothing more, nothing less.

But what does that mean, tangibly, within TDP's narrative? Well, let's talk about it:

Necessity

The concept of necessity—I needed to do this, or I have to do this (even though I don't want to)—is one that has been central to TDP for a while. We see this characters who cite a lack of agency ("He was going to take Claudia's life, I had no choice" / "Every step I took, I took because I had to" / "I'm sorry. I have to do this") throughout the show, both dark mages and not, particularly Rayla, Soren, and Callum.

And in return for perceived necessity, as Harrow states, "I have done terrible things. I thought they were necessary. Now I don't know." We increasingly see people justify, or struggle to justify, worse and worse actions. Claudia's mindset has become very transactional, for example ("He saved you, and now we have to save Aaravos" / "It's a mistake! I saved you! You owe me your life!"). Generally speaking, the show treats these things labelled as necessary as unnecessary (hence the regret they experience, and even Terry disagreeing more adamantly than he ever has before).

This is, of course, because 4x09 and 6x09 together very clearly spells out what is important for Terry to believe something is necessary: it must be done entirely out of love, no more and no less.

I've seen you do a lot of awful things, dark magic things, but I always believed in you because you had a reason [saving your dad]. But what you just did, the way you tricked that Moonshadow elf? It was just cruel.

Maybe it started out as a story of love, but along the way it got twisted. [...] He isn't doing anything for love. He's doing it out of revenge.

To Terry, you do what you have to do but go no further; you don't give into anger, you don't give into revenge. You act entirely out of love, and keep acting out of love and let it temper you. This is why Terry resonates, I think, and seeks guidance from Viren after the mage's initial assessment of what's been happening, emotionally:

This is similar in practice to why Viren (and Claudia to a lesser extent) are characters with such fraught paths. Not only because of their dark magic use, but because of their denial. Viren violates Lissa's safety and trust to save Soren, but then blames Soren for it; Claudia heals Soren and brings back Viren, and doesn't understand why fixing things physically wasn't enough. "I had no choice" for them means "I have no accountability," and that's why they kept spiralling deeper till Viren broke out of it. He atones then not by swearing off dark magic (although it helps) but by taking full agency in the choice to do dark magic and in what manner (not sacrificing his family again) and without a desire for ego, which was his biggest character flaw in a lot of ways.

The reason I bring this up is to provide a contrast for Terry in a few ways, such as

Terry always being very emotionally open, rather than repressing or offloading blame onto other people

Mandates that he had no choice (4x03, 4x04) but to kill Ibis verbally, but is also aware that it very much was

Is able to accept that this was a choice and move on

Terry does what he believes is necessary. He feels things about it. He doesn't go further into outright self destruction, and he doesn't escalate to what harm is deemed unnecessary. That doesn't mean Terry's levelheadedness can't be a flaw (he absolutely should have told Claudia to give up magic in 6x04) or that what he believes is necessary always is / that his choices are perfect (they're not), but that in his contrast to Claudia and Viren, he continually provides that contrast. He can be held at sword point by Rayla, a total aggressive stranger, and still recognize that withholding her family from her is what he deems as unnecessary cruelty (but more on that later).

For now I want to talk about patterns, specifically two that he engages in with Claudia.

Patterns

The first pattern is unsurprising, perhaps, given that Claudia-Rayla have continually had parallels, given that:

1) Claudia keeps leaving him

This is, of course, most obvious in 6x01 when Claudia states her intention to do so, or even in 6x09 wherein Aaravos literally lifts her away from Terry:

But we also see it earlier on with even the choices Claudia makes in her mission. Terry is a passive person, much like how Claudia at her core is ("Tell me what to do" + 90% of interactions with Viren that aren't about saving him), and therefore Claudia leads the way, and Terry is happy to let her.

He never really considers that he might be a core part of her truth, and that she wants more active advice (see the way Rayla counsels Callum about his dark magic use, comparatively, in 6x03, or nudges him forwards elsewhere throughout the seasons). While Terry isn't wrong to encourage Claudia to think staunchly for herself, and in fact she very much should, it does leave her more vulnerable to the next first person willing to tell her what to do: Aaravos.

We also see Terry's passivity go even further back to one of his first episodes, as well as in the S5 finale.

Each entry in the pattern is a little different.

4x03: Claudia leaves / goes in alone and fails at her mission. Terry follows and saves her by killing Ibis at great cost to his personal emotional state.

5x09: Claudia leaves / goes in alone and fails at her mission. She goes further into Aaravos' clutches (the ocean here metaphorically) and returns of her own accord.

6x01: Claudia succeeds at bringing back her father but cannot make him stay. She leaves on her own in an attempt to break her family's cycle of abandonment without realizing how she's continually perpetuating it, but returns in a devastated and dejected state.

6x09: Claudia succeeds at her mission of freeing Aaravos, and the Startouch elf takes her literally into his clutches and away from Terry.

Each time it is her choice to leave, with only 4x03 firmly having Terry following without her returning by her own merit. Whereas Claudia plays out her family's cycle of abandonment with all its members—her mother, her brother, and finally her father—Terry plays it out with just Claudia, over and over again. This doesn't mean their relationship is bad or that some of these times are unreasonable—Terry is willing and supportive to let her go in 4x03 and 5x09 much the way Callum is supportive of Rayla in 4x09, 6x05, and 6x09—but it is a pattern that has then taken on a negative slant in S6 and will likely to continue to worsen in S7 before it gets better either in the season or beyond.

Then, we have the pattern of how

2) Claudia gradually stops listening to him.

This is probably more interwoven with the thread of necessity than the previous pattern, since as stated before, sometimes when Terry is letting Claudia go off on her own while it's imperfect in the narrative, it makes sense within their dynamic / resources. Like as previously mentioned, too, Terry is more often correct than he is wrong about the next moves people should make. He's right that Claudia will need help in 4x03, he's right that they should go look for her in 4x07, he's right that she needs rest in 5x02, and right to be wary and against Aaravos in 6x09.

In the beginning, Claudia listens to him.

But as the seasons go on, this gradually changes with twice back to back in 5x06.

T: It won't chase us anymore, you won. It's trapped. Please. C: You're right. It won't follow us. But not because it's trapped.

Season six is arguably the season where Claudia listens to him the least despite Terry reaffirming her agency most directly (6x04) as she ignores or doesn't listen to every reservation he has.

T: It's him. It's your Dad. C: Then I have to... T: No! Please! Please don't... I don't think you should see him like this. C: I have to! I came all this way to see him one last time. I need him to show me the right path. T: This won't give you answers. Only anger. Only pain. I'm so sorry. He's gone. He is gone.

And Terry, who does things only that are necessary, only out of love, would know the difference: unlike Rayla, or Claudia, or numerous other characters arguably in the show, he always has, particularly when given broader context the way he is in 6x09 (which hasn't always been true in his relationship with Claudia, either).

None of this is to say that Claudia is a Bad Partner or that your partner should always listen to you, either, because neither of those things are true in life or in TDP. Healthy couples in TDP disagree all the time in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Rayla left Callum when he explicitly made her promise not to, and Callum did dark magic to save her twice despite 100% knowing it's not what she wold've wanted.

But the first thing I want to address is the difference between Claudia leaving out of grief and trying to feel in control after losing everyone but her boyfriend, and Rayla leaving out of grief and trying to feel in control after losing everyone but her boyfriend because they are wildly different for one main reason.

Rayla left in the middle of the night while Callum was sleeping because "you’ll wake up and try to stop me… from doing what I know I have to do. Leaving. But I can’t let you stop me, Callum. No matter how much I want to. [...] And if you said even one word to me, I wouldn’t be—couldn’t be. If I stay even until your eyes open and you yawn your silly morning yawn, I’ll break" (TDP reflections, Dear Callum).

Terry, meanwhile, is actively begging and pleading with Claudia, and he is still abandoned. Granted, Claudia seemingly comes back within a day or two, not two years, so that does mitigate things, but the fact remains that Rayla thought she wouldn't be able to leave to protect Callum if she even heard him speak a word or yawn, and Claudia was able to leave to protect herself while having a full on conversation. Ouch.

Nor does this completely absolve Terry of the one time Claudia straight up asks him to tell her what to do, or what he thinks she should do, Terry doesn't (6x04). He's not wrong that she needs to choose the way and figure out what she needs, but him emphasizing that he can't tell her what to do and then immediately accepting her premises that Viren can and should tell her what to do is something that's already bitten both of them in the ass.

Terry also only asks Claudia to listen to him, really listen, and to tell her what she should do when he thinks it's absolutely necessary.

This is also one of the reasons why she and Terry are suited to each other. Both value and respond to necessity, scaffolding everything else on top of what needs to be done or doesn't need to be done. What's risky about this mutual understanding is the potential for it to stop being so mutual if they start to have different views on what's necessary. And as we see in 6x09, that's happening more and more. What is going to continue happen when Claudia keeps viewing Aaravos' actions as necessary, and Terry doesn't?

Questioning

So Terry is, presumably, going to increasingly be wary and against Aaravos. What is that going to look like?

We have a decent idea, honestly. As stated / noted before, Terry actually pushes back against Claudia fairly often. He's just rather gentle about it, and usually is trying to prioritize her wellbeing (or someone else's) when she isn't. Examples include:

4x09 over the coins / being cruel

5x01 ("You'd think if dark magic does this to a person they might not do it")

5x02 over resting

5x06 over attacking the dragon

5x06 over killing the dragon

6x01 over her leaving

6x04 with telling her what to do

6x08 over seeing Viren's corpse

6x09 in helping / freeing Aaravos

However, we're also yet to see him be angry in his questioning or when pushing back, which is what I think would be most interesting to see change (think the moment where Iroh finally yells at Zuko beneath Lake Laogai). His pushback with Claudia has gotten more and more consistent as well as more dire throughout the seasons, and just like how Viren and Claudia eventually disagreed and split up, I think Terry and Claudia will too. How permanent that split will be, I think, is up to her (I could see parallels happening between Soren and Terry teaming up to try and bring her home, with Ezran and Rayla doing the same for a brother-partner tag team Callum duo), but I do think that Terry's testament of "I love you, I will never leave you" is apt foreshadowing to see what it would take for him to break his promise, and do just that.

To what he knows needs to be done, even if that means walking away.

Misc. Season Thoughts

Terry also has some interesting things that don't fall under the necessity umbrella that I wanted to talk about as well. One of those things is

TERRY AND IDENTITY

This isn't to say I think Terry actively has an identity arc in seasons 4 through 6 the way other characters (Callum, Rayla, Viren) are, but that Terry like most of the main cast is linked to arc 2's continual increased emphasis on identity and choosing your own identity. This is true particularly in 4x01, which opens after the intro with Callum running through / clarifying his titles (or identity roles) and concludes with Viren and Terry being introduced to one another. Terry gives details on his name ("[Terrestrius] is a bit traditional, but my friends call me Terry") and then asks for clarification on what he can call Viren.

Later on in S5 and S6, we see Soren and Rayla respectively see through the 'monstrous' / threat of others by reaffirming their similarities ("I know what this is like. I know how you feel" / "This storm isn't your rage, it's your grief. I know how you feel") and bestowing agency through naming conventions. Rayla identifies the monster isn't a monster but a pet, and more than that, gives Esmeray back her name. Elmer does the same when he overthrows Finnegrin and Soren likewise affirms it: "We literally didn't [defeat him]. Elmer did."

Why is this relevant? Well, in an arc that's all about emphasizing over and over again to see other people's personhood by using their name(s), recognizing that you have a choice, and choosing who you want to be...

So often queer characters in media are regulated to their queerness being happenstance (i.e. they fulfil a certain story role regardless and just happen to also be queer) or it's all their character gets to be (a "figuring out queerness and/or a coming out" arc). One of the reasons I myself (as a queer and trans person) has always deeply appreciated Terry as a queer character, specifically as a trans character, is precisely the way that his transness is interwoven with TDP's broader themes of chosen identity, self-actualization, and knowing / name motifs. In having these themes and ideas for multiple cis characters, Terry's interplay gets to be enhanced by his trans identity and simultaneously let him enhance the thematic explorations the series has going on, and I think that's pretty cool. Identity is one of the main themes of s4, and for Terry as well, so it's nice to see the ways that's reflected.

I expect season 7 to challenge his identity further ("I'm going to be strong enough to do whatever I need to do and still have feelings") if forcing him to confront who he wants to be, who Claudia is becoming, and who he thinks they can still be together. In a lot of ways I'm expecting S7 to be a sister season to S4 thematically even as S7 builds on S5/S6 in terms of plot and character arcs, since S7 seems geared to be about identity directly even more than S4 was (and much more than S5 or S6 were).

TERRY AND COMMUNICATION

If season four is about identity, season five has a strong emphasis on communication. This is, again, likewise true for Terry, as he encourages Claudia to communicate in various ways across the course of the season.

The situation is urgent, and you're worried I'm not treating it that way.

Terry consistently having clear communication is also something that puts him in direct contrast to Aaravos, who is a master manipulator and very careful liar-not-liar in his own way. Terry is always open and while thoughtful does not really bottle things up; he communicates clearly with other people and is comfortable doing so, and is very good at validating others as well. Whenever he does push against Claudia, he always clearly explains why he's doing so or why he disagrees but leaves the choice of what to do next in making amends or carrying on up to her. Aaravos, meanwhile, continually withholds or omits information, and presents things in certain ways in order to get, well, his way.

I don't have as much to say for season six, given that Terry is only in about half the season (6x01, 6x03, 6x04, 6x08, 6x09) and one of those is entirely silent. I'd say his main idea in s6, like s4 with identity and s5 with communication, would be the theme of Questioning (scaffolded under 'supportive'). He's supportive of Viren and Claudia's searches for meaning alongside his own increase questioning of what they and Aaravos are doing and why. I'll be curious to see what his main character beat may be in s7 going forward.

Conclusion

There's more I could talk about with Terry (Viren dreaming in 5x03 of chasing after Claudia only for her not to listen, only for Terry to live out that worst fear in 6x01 directly, for example) but I think for now these are the main things I wanted to discuss without going further into speculation than I already have. I hope this maybe brought a new perspective or appreciation for Terry as a character and for his arc in the show so far! As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

[samsayswhatever]

Episode thoughts ramble, you can ignore

I personally think that they definitely both wanted it. Like, it freaks them out, but I don't think on Lochlan's part it's solely about wanting to do what Saxon would want to make him happy.

The trailer is making it seem like Lochlan's going to try to be less of a people pleaser? Or he might try to distance from Saxon? But I don't think that this was a situation that he was fully taken advantage of or that he was a "evil mastermind". They're both fucked up and should just fuck about it.

Thank you! I love a good ramble, so please excuse my full-on legit-essay of a ramble in response 😅 I just live for character analysis

First, "They're both fucked up and should just fuck about it," is an excellent line. 😂 If they just had a sober sexual interaction they could confirm if they like each other romantically, and start the process of figuring out what to about it.

Second, I agree that this threesome isn't just because Loch is a people pleaser. Loch didn't jerk him off to make Saxon happy. He did it to make himself happy because what makes Loch happy is attention and closeness. Lochlan seems happiest when he's touching Saxon, or just finished touching him (like after the second kiss in ep 5, and when he was jerking him off with that big smile on his face.)

I think that for the start of the next ep he's going to give Saxon a little distance because he's going to need a second to process and mentally spiral about how Saxon must hate him now. However, I think he won't be able to stay in that Monastery thinking about this all night. The silence and the not knowing are going to drive him crazy. He seems to want answers - like how he asked piper about her virginity. However, since she left when he asked that, he might be inclined to hold back his questions.

No one here is an evil mastermind. They were both confused when they remembered, and Saxon even threw up. If Saxon was intentionally grooming him, he would have been happy, not looking like death. If Loch spit the pill and planned this all out, then he wouldn't have looked so uncomfortable and afraid when he realized what happened.

I think that their parents didn't raise them in an open, loving, understanding environment where they felt comfortable asking questions about sex and sexuality. And I think that contributed to Saxon's fixation on sex, and Loch's ignorance about it. And because of their age gap keeping them from living together for the last decade or so, I don't think they have talked much about sex before. Loch seemed pretty shocked when Saxon brought up porn, but he'll never say no to attention, so he didn't shut it down like piper would have.

Saxon is trying to change how he acts towards Lochlan now that Loch is 18. Saxon doesn't want to treat him like a kid anymore, but he doesn't know how to treat him like an adult. He wants to help Loch figure out his future, and he wants Loch to look up to him. And They both really want to be closer to each other, but they don't have much in common, so they are trying to reach each other by bonding over sex, since Saxon is obsessed with sex (and likely has been since he was a teen,) and thinks all teen boys must be obsessed with sex too.

And now they've taken "bonding over sex" to an extreme, and it's starting to become apparent that this is NOT how siblings get closer; this is different, and strange, and overall not normal. But over the next episode or two, they are going to have to face WHY they took it so far. Like Chelsea said, "I don't think there is a drug in the world that would make me get with my brother." And I think that's how most people feel. So they will have to face why they wanted to have this sexual exchange, and why their feelings are deeper than just wanting each others love and respect like 99.99999999% percent of siblings.

[iamnmbr3]

Severus calling Lily a slur in a fit of rage and humiliation while being bullied - obviously very bad. James publicly sexually assaulting Severus - obviously much worse?!!! That was some serious sadism on display. Yet for some bizarro reason the narrative wants me to judge the words said in this scene more harshly than the deeds done, because at this point Lily - an author self-insert and the Holy Mother of this saga - cuts one off for their crime and falls in love with the other. I do not like that Lily’s romantic choice is treated as some sort of absolution, but it’s what JKR implied. Despite paralleling James’ actions with the Death Eaters ‘sick’ ’torture’ of the Muggles at the Quidditch World Cup! Idk, I was never satisfied with the lack of follow through on the implications of that scene, nor with the textual idea that Snape’s fixation on the Marauders is petty childishness, rather than a quite understandable trauma response.

Yeah. I have a huge issue with the way James is framed by the narrative. It's also weird because in-universe everything works fine. The problem comes when we look at the jarring disconnect between what was written and the way the audience is cued to react. James's characterization - and the characterization of the Marauders - is well done and consistent. They all act and react realistically given who they are. The problem comes when we look at how we the audience are supposed to react. Because we are supposed to see their actions as bad, but not THAT big of a deal. And uh...yikes.

The Snape's Worst Memory sequence is one of the most horrifying and sadistic moments in the series. I find it particularly visceral and upsetting because it feels real in a way that some of the more fantastical scenes just don't. It's so horrifying and personal in a way that Voldemort punishing his minions or a snake coming out of a lady just isn't. The way James and the others so obviously delight in tormenting and humiliating Snape is just horrific. And the fact that they do this out in the open and face little pushback and no consequences makes it even more awful.

Even worse, everything we see in the narrative suggests that what they did wasn't even that unusual for them. The behavior and dialogue we see from Snape and from the Marauders makes it very clear that doing this sort of thing to Snape is a regular pastime. The reason this is Snape's worst memory is because of the effect this particular incident ended up having on his relationship with Lily, not because of the horrible treatment he endured which was horrifyingly routine.

JK Rowling seems to like Snape. But at the same time I think she tends to have a view (common among TERFs btw) that discounts men as victims of assault. Because that's what this was. And I know if a woman had been stripped and exposed by a group of boys JKR would not have treated it as lightly. Yes she thinks what happened was bad, but not THAT bad. And listen I don't have a problem with the story depicting this and I think the way it is viewed subsequently by the Marauders, wizarding society and Snape all work in the story. My problem is with the framing and the way JKR has talked about James in interviews where it makes clear that she doesn't view this with the gravity it deserves.

James shows more of a natural inclination towards sadism and obvious enjoyment of cruelty and violence than young Tom Riddle does. And this is never dealt with. A lot of the real evil people of the world are more like James - people who aren't the way they are because of some dramatic backstory or because of trauma or whatever. They just aren't kind. James wasn't raised without love or forced to suffer privation in an orphanage or anything like that. He comes from a loving home with parents who spoil him rotten. He has a lot of privilege due to both his wealth and his blood status. And he is cruel and delights in tormenting someone weaker than him for sport. Not because Snape did something to him. Not because they quarreled and James went too far in retaliation. But rather because, as James himself puts it, he exists. Which is so typical of the bullies of the world.

I actually like the fact that Harry's father turns out to be this kind of person. It think it adds depth and complexity to the narrative. But I don't think JKR fully understood or intended what she wrote. She meant to show James as flawed, but not to the extent that she ended up doing I think. And I agree that has always bothered me too.

[endiermun]

Hi! I saw your headcanons for EAH and they all look so cool! I especially love Apple’s look because it’s the same headdress as the lady in A Knight’s Tale!

Can I hear more of your headcanons?

Hello!

Thank you sm!<3 that's really sweet! I think Apple's graduation look speak for itself, a stern look for a stern queen

I think i can post here some headcanons bout main four designs

Before starting this, I would like to say that for me EAH is something like a rethinking of this whole theme with “fate” that underlies the plot as I grew up, as well as thinking about how these rules influenced the characters. Something more lyrical and somewhat tragic

Raven

Here she is, as in the canon, in her first and last years of study at the Ever After High, at the end of which she was already pretty worn out by constant pressure and problems. and her motherKHM she has an unenviable future and according to the canon she was quite wayward, but a good-natured and open girl who was ready to do a lot for the sake of her friends and valued herself.

Perhaps her development branch is a protest. Her eternal confrontation is against society and traditions, and she wages this struggle all her life. Therefore, her “punk” youth in the look does not go away much, becoming darker

She has elements of a hunter in her final outfit, something symbolic and related to her fairy tale where the hunter went against evil stepmother's orders.

Madeline

It would be nice to keep her dad's teeth in her appearance (in the case of her story it actually sounds terrible), and add more of that same carelessness and madness

Her branch is freedom. I won’t throw around joker quotes, everything is clear

Maddie has adopted some... jokes from her relatives and is generally quite free in her statements and actions, and therefore has endless freedom that even following in her father’s footsteps she is on the side of the rebels. My personal opinion - she is the strongest character in terms of energy and capabilities, but she does not fully control or realize this. By the end of school, her inner madness finally manifests itself in the look

Briar

Her fate is the most tragic, in fact, she must literally sleep through all her friends and life, “coming to life” in a new time (in the original, the sleeping beauty falls into sleep for a hundred years) and in fact, following the path of the heir, she accepts it such a decision.

Ever After Lore has an open ending, so in my head I'm inclined to think that she followed in her mother's footsteps, even though she threw the book down the well (oops, spoiler) she rushes about in choosing her fate, deeply disagreeing with the original plan, but in the end, at the last moment, she makes... such a decision. She also doesn’t want to lose her friendship with bestie Apple, even if such a decision would separate them for essentially a hundred years. Not all fairy tales have a happy ending, so her branch is humility.

Apple

It’s not easy to get the title of “most-most”, it’s even harder to keep it

Apple did it.

Her branch is stubbornness. Having a lot of responsibility, she adheres to the rule of “sacrifice one for the sake of all” and is generally very categorical towards the decisions of those who go against fate. Over time, perhaps this misunderstanding will only grow, causing her to eventually become more distant and adamant.

Towards the end her clothes will become more closed and restrained, from a cheerful, positive girl she will become calm and calculating, retaining the idea of acting for the good

Sorry for my English, hope for your understanding:)

[meghanthedreamcrusher]

Dina Contractions Tracker: The Contracker

It's a list, of Dina, using contractions.

Cause idk, I was bored, it was something to do.

I actually made a list of her contractions back in 2015. And I said I wouldn't make another one cause she had 60 appearances back in 2015 instead of 600.

I lied.

Updated to: March 9th 2025

Book 1:

1: It's fine. 2: Th--There's a fight or something going on outside. 3: Pardon, but these notes aren't m--

Book 2:

4: Amber, oh my god, you didn't come home last night. 5: I'm not? 6: I'm going to go get some lunch. 7-10: I don't know much about people. ::: I've never been able to understand people. ::: They're fixed in time, letting me learn about them without them changing constantly before my eyes. ::: Good, so I'm not missing anything. 11-13: I hadn't ever really considered how others perceive me before. ::: But that's what's moving. 14: I didn't want to be rude. 15-17: If there's cereal, and cereal is best, why wouldn't I always choose it? ::: So I'm performing a small, harmless act that comforts me, and this makes me the strange one. 18: If it's about your large posterior, I have read that some men are predisposed towards such.

Book 3:

19: There's enough evidence for dinosaurs being related somehow to birds that it is considered scientific fact. 20: What's going on? 21: Yay, we're bonding! 22: I do, but I just thought you didn't believe in evolution. 23-25: They're subject to the same natural processes though. ::: I don't think you know how evolution works. ::: I don't think your textbooks knew how evolution works either.

Book 4:

26: I didn't appreciate the severity of his...assholeitude. 27: Amber's upset because her father was here yesterday and she punched him. 28: Oh, good, they've stopped yelling. 29: Is that why nobody points out that you're you when you wear that cape and run around campus? 30: I'm sorry. 31: We're having a sausage festival.

Book 5:

32: I think I'm finally tired of eating just cereal for every meal. 33: It's hypothesized that some dinosaurs found the extravagant spikes and plumage of the opposite sex particularly arousing. 34: I've yet to experience these inclinations myself, though they do fascinate me in a clinical sense. 35: That was... that's for emphasis. 36: Should I have said, "She wasn't kind to me"? 37-38: They're touching each other on the arm. ::: Maybe it's second. 39: Now that the weekend's over, does that mean she goes back home tonight? 40: You're blocking the only sausage pizza. 41: I think the only way to get "Butthole Dad" to go away is for Joyce to convince him that you aren't here. 42-47: I didn't overhear much. ::: When I said you were my favorite, I'm sorry, but that wasn't true. ::: In short, I won't attempt to court you, and I hope you're okay with being only my second favorite. ::: You mean "You're weird." 48-49: If anyone sees those, the dorm will realize what's up. ::: Sarah, you're the most evil of us.

Book 6:

50: Patreon exclusive! 51: That's a boring answer. 52: You said the smiles weren't coming back.

Book 7:

53: Colloquially this could be considered a "bug" but properly it's an arachnid. 54: Because I find eye contact painfully awkward, it's easy to notice when your eyes do not meet mine in return. 55: Becky, you should have just asked me plainly if that's what you wanted.

Book 8:

56: She's not given up on you. 57: Patreon exclusive!

Book 9:

58: Oh, it's you.

Book 10:

59: I'd slash at you here, or here.

Book 11:

60: This is Cap'n Crunch and Reese's Puffs. (Yes I'm counting "Cap'n" as a contraction, sue me!) 61-63: Becky believes in a more benevolent version of her god who's not specifically bigoted in that way. ::: Yes, it's the most I've ever had in common with a fictional character. 64: Patreon exclusive!

Book 12:

65: For example, I'd try to discover what triggered this rise in body temperature. 66: You said sometimes you say you don't want to talk about things when you actually do want to talk about things. 67-68: We don't have to do this. ::: If we're going to test me for sexual attraction properly... we need to establish a baseline for what sexual attraction is. 69: Didn't you want me to want to see you naked? 70: ...I'll put this down as a maybe. 71: But if you didn't...

Book 13:

72: You're troubled.

Book 14:

73-76: My nose 's stuffy. An' there's too many people in my room. M'hiding.

Book 15:

77: ...How'd we end up in this bank vault? 78: ...Don't make subtext text. 79: I am proving, with a wardrobe alteration, that we shouldn't fear a hypothetical shift in sexual preference.

[dreamingofthewild]

I feel like people often misunderstand why Gale chooses to stay behind after you side with the goblins. And to an extent, why he also stands by a romanced character in their evil ending.

Gale choosing to stay doesn’t imply that he is easily corruptible, secretly evil, or weak-willed. Given the limited time he has to find a secluded spot to avoid collateral damage from the orb when ceremorphosis hits, he doesn't really have much of a choice but to think about survival.

Gale has been living with a death sentence due to the orb, one he has been trying to mitigate, so he has had a long time to think about his mortality and he doesn't want to die—especially not while he still hasn't been forgiven by Mystra. His decision to stay with the party, even under morally dubious circumstances, underscores his pragmatic approach to survival rather than an inherent inclination towards evil.

Gale is undeniably drawn to powerful individuals. However, beneath this attraction lies his tendency to see the good in people and rationalise things.

Gale’s capacity for love is profound and intense. His love isn't just affection; it's worship. His romantic devotion is incredibly passionate yet self-destructive. It places Gale in a position where he might find himself in an unequal power dynamic again without him realising it.

His tendency for romantic idealism can prevent him from recognizing toxic patterns. Ultimately, Gale’s decision to stay with such powerful and potentially evil figures is not about compromising his morals but rather about being blinded by love, not wanting to give it up easily and a deep understanding of the complexities of human nature.

In the events of the game he still doesn't fully recognise that his relationship with Mystra is problematic. It stands that he might not realise that he is getting himself into a relationship with another unequal power dynamic.

It might also be that he doesn't want to abandon his loved one, just like Mystra abandoned him. This doesn’t mean that he is going to compromise his own morals, however. He chooses to support and stand by the person he loves, as long as they stand by him. He will challenge them, but he will act with the empathy and consideration that Mystra never afforded him. Once again, his own experience and desire for agency are most likely guiding his choices.

His devotion and hope are beautiful yet tragic, making him a deeply romantic character prone to repeating past mistakes in his quest for love and acceptance.

He does have a darker side which is attracted to knowledge and power. But it's easy to forgot that his intentions are never immoral or malicious.

When it comes to love, knowledge, and power, Gale has a significant blind spot (moral blindness maybe?). Ultimately, he just wants to love, live, and be accepted for who he is, rather than what he can do for others. His desire for happiness and to see his loved ones happy often drives his decisions. As well as a confidence in his own abilities and ability to handle situations.

So, yes, Gale might stay with his romanced partner even in an evil ending. But this doesn't mean he is evil himself. It simply reflects his humanity and the depths of his devotion. Strong emotional bonds can lead someone to remain involved with a deeply flawed and morally ambiguous partner.

It will be a toxic romance, but Gale's willingness to stay with a morally ambiguous love interest reflects not in his morality but in his approach to love. If he'd had a normal relationship and didn't have the orb then his reactions might have been different.

[sabrgirl]

things that aren't inherently islamic but have improved my deen ♡

practising mindfulness

mindfulness meditation (focusing on my breathing for 10-15 minutes a day and bringing my attention back to my breath every time my mind wanders) helps with concentration in salah. through practising this every day, you're able to bring your attention back to the moment much better as you train your brain to do so with your breath.

helps to ground myself in the moment rather than stress about the future and past - allows me to surrender to Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ much better and have tawakkul and sabr by learning to enjoy each day as it comes

journalling

shadow work

islam is fundamentally based on disciplining and self-regulating the nafs/ego. if you do not discipline your nafs, you will end up inclining towards evil: '‘And I do not hold my own self (nafs) to be free from weakness; for, the soul is surely prone to enjoin evil, except that whereon my Lord has mercy. Surely, my Lord is Most Forgiving, Merciful.’ (12:54). it was a saying by many elder islamic scholars and early muslims that 'he who knows himself knows His Lord'.

shadow work is when you address the hidden parts of yourself that we naturally and/or subconsciously suppress inside because we don't like them. the ego/nafs does this. you can find journal prompts on google, for eg 'shadow work prompts for anxious attachment' or 'shadow work prompts for male validation' etc - whatever it is you know is a problem about you. or, if you don't know where to start, just type in 'shadow work prompts' on google and you'll find something for you

through understanding in more detail what my ego does through addressing my fears in life and hardship/trauma i've experienced, i'm able to let go of those parts of myself, make an action plan to do things differently and become a better person. as a result, i'm able to make better decisions based off of righteousness and what pleases Allah, rather than acting based off of what scares my ego.

for eg - something happened when i was young that made me have an internal fear of being replaced which i had *no* idea i had. yet, i was acting on this fear subconciously, as i've always wanted to be original and i've had such distinct/original things that other people don't usually have so that i can stand out and it can become impossible to replace me. i was doing this so subconsiously but my nafs/ego was scared inside. when people asked me 'where is that from?' i wouldn't want them to know and would become very upset if they tried to 'copy me'. it wasn't until my best friend wanted to know where my perfume was from and i didn't want to tell her and ended up arguing with her that i realised i have a problem. i did shadow work and journalled about it to figure out why i'm acting this way. after doing this shadow work, it led me back to that big change in my life when i was a child and i realised that it hurt my ego a lot and resulted in me having a big fear of being replaced, with the outcome being i want to stand out and have things that are my own that it becomes so hard for someone to be me. after addressing and realising this, i've now let go of that fear and that part of me. i'm much more kinder to the creation now when they ask me where something i have/am wearing is from and, as i feel much more peaceful inside, i tell them where it's from with genuineness and sincerity. doing this can help with so many internal behaviours like jealousy, anxiety, being unhappy when other people get something you want, anger, attachments to people, love etc.

shadow work helps me get rid of attachments to worldly things and people (as the ego gets attached easily) after understanding why i am / why i act in a certain way too

gratitude

gratitude journalling helps me be thankful to Allah for what he has done for me. in hardship, i'm able to recognise the good that i still have. i've written more about how this has helped my deen here.

writing my feelings when i'm angry and/or upset

helps me process my emotions better and not act on my feelings by being rude to others in the moment

prevents me from backbiting and gossiping bc i just journal about how people have made me feel. backbiting is when you slander someone behind their back to someone else. through journalling, if i'm upset, i can write down my feelings, i can call people losers and get it all out of my system because it's just to myself, no one will read it. after this, why do i need to go to someone else and gossip? i don't need to. i've already released it all.

yoga and pilates

the physical body, mind and soul are all linked. as shown in the book, 'the philosophy of the teachings of islam':

this means that exercising our body affects our mind and soul too. science has shown that trauma and stress is stored in the shoulders and other parts of our body. having movement and especially exercises like yoga that focuses on stretching, flexibility, breathing and regulating blood flow in the body releases this emotional baggage.

islam is a religion of discipline that requires effort. when you feel good inside, you're more likely to be more disciplined and put in the effort, as opposed to when you feel bad inside which can often lead to laziness and fatigue. doing yoga and releasing my stress through exercising and stretching helps me feel positive and good inside, enabling me to fulfil my religious duties better with a positive mind and body. in islam, maintaining physical health is highly encouraged and our Beloved Prophet ﷺ emphasised having a strong and healthy body.

[satirn]

sorry im rewatching tgtbatt special again cus we have jack to do today in like all of my classes ouuouo i love thinking about this show. its so based.,..

like literally the more you watch and learn about this show the more its apparent like EVERYTHING is a duality in this show, yet somehow more. what I mean like, everything is depicted as a binary, that you can only be one or the other (good and evil most obviously, choosing his family or joining w django and ruling the world in this episode, even being "macho" or not). yet by mannys indecision /refusal to lean towards one or the other he embodies both of them while rejecting the limits emposed on those roles by themselves, or in layman's terms a "secret 3rd thing".

this is also why (,i mean ik this episode was one of those specials where u vote on the ending, just in a perfect world for me) i feel like this should've ended with manny choosing himself and his autonomy over what others expect him to do. the inherently neutral option. thats what I think is the main moral here. like rodolfo and grandpapi are in rhe WRONG here, they even explicitly state it that they both kind of ignore what mannys going through and just both expecting him to follow through with both of their contradicting ideals and lifestyles at once, that is a special kind of torture. i feel like in this episode allowing manny to choose one side or the other for the ending just allows that side off the hook while condemning the other side. when BOTH sides deserve critisism and sympathy. and choosing a neutral option allows for that message to be expressed. (though i feel like nick woulsnt have liked that i do recognise, again this is in my ideal world).

because the true message of the show isnt that manny needs to choose between these 2 socially acceptable worlds to be a part of. its that manny needs to find out who he is for himself, and sometimes that means allowing yourself to pick neither and take the neutral route. its okay to not be so inclined to choose between two evils (one side may be called "good" but dont give me that, you see how the heros act, even towards each other. and especially with hidden dragon crouching tigre and the golden eagle twins, even the heros perform their own acts of evil, like how the villains perform their own acts of good [like cactus kid & old money episodes]). theres an incredible amount of nuance in this show that i feel like is lost on so many people.

its genuinely devestateing to me that manny doesnt even realize neutrality is actually an option. its just that hes grown up with the idea drilled into him that there are ONLY those options and anything else isnt right or socially acceptable. this show is an allegory for so so so many things its actually insane im going crazy sauce

[aihoshiino]

chapter 160 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 17

Aqua Hoshigan Status: Incomprehensible

144 held out strong for nearly 20 whole chapters but 160 comes in like a beast to take its crown as Oshi no Ko Chapter That Has Baffled And Confounded Me The Most. The way it talks about the characters and arcs it's trying to convey to the reader is just mind boggling - some of this stuff just feels completely disconnected from the character arcs it's supposedly commentating on. It almost feels like an Oshi no Ko chapter from an alternate universe version of the manga.

I kind of suspect this is actually the case, in spirit at least. Akasaka has previously stated that he's had at least an ending for OnK planned at least since midway through Tokyo Blade based on when this interview was given. You would think the amount of time between then and now would have given Aka the time to organically work towards this but I think the opposite is true here - because the story has organically drifted and grown in the telling, as is natural for a serialized work of this length, the story that Akasaka ended up telling does not naturally lead into the ending he wanted to give it. And rather than compromise he's just… going ahead with it without making any adjustments, which leads to this bizarre sense of whiplash that's come from the last handful of chapters.

It's definitely possible that some of the stuff in here will read better when we're not getting this stuff bit by bit across however many break weeks but… man. I ain't getting my hopes too high.

To my relief, we start off on a note of confirming that Nino and Ryosuke were, in fact, both freaks about Ai way before Kamiki ever got involved with them. Even so, the story's framing of how he influenced them is just… weird. Based on the little flashback panels we see of their supposed friendship I'm inclined to think Kamiki is being truthful here just because whenever we see on-panel flashbacks in this way, they tend to be more-or-less factual accounts of events. Aqua tries to say he's lying, that he definitely intended to do harm but this is really hard for me to swallow, given that this 'intent to do harm' ball would've had to have started rolling back when Kamiki was fourteen at the oldest and long before he and Ai broke up.

Not only that but I have to stress, again; Nino and Ryosuke were already freaks about Ai at this point!!! They tracked down one of her loved ones under false pretenses and entered his life presumably for the purposes of crowbarring info about Ai from him!!! Wil from the OnK Brainrot server pointed out that this comes off much more strongly like Ryosuke and Nino taking advantage of Kamiki's naivety to prey on Ai, which I agree with and think lines up way more straightforwardly with the Kamiki we saw leading up to 154 and its conclusion.

It almost feels like there's two Kamikis; the victim of circumstance Kamiki who embraces monstrousness as an act of reclamation, who knows he can never again be good so he will surrender to being bad and the flatly evil Light Yagami ass Kamiki who's bad because uhhh he just is ok? It probably goes without saying which of the two I find more compelling and overall more consistent with what the story has been building up so far, but the way the story keeps abruptly switching between the two makes it almost impossible to get a coherent read on him.

At the end of the day, I simply find it very hard to swallow the manga's attempt to almost sweep Nino and Ryosuke's culpability under the rug or to transfer the weight of their actions to Kamiki and hold him accountable for them because of this supposed manipulation. A healthy, well-adjusted person with no tendencies towards violent or antisocial behaviour does not suddenly get mindbroken into a misogynistic murderer overnight because they saw that the subject of their parasocial obsession keeps a toothbrush at her boyfriend's house. I can believe that Kamiki certainly didn't help but the idea that he is solely responsible for turning Nino and Ryosuke into violent murderers is a stretch.

I feel like I'm kind of talking in circles on this point a lot because I'm struggling to articulate why it bothers me so much so I'll end this section by paraphrasing a section of Higurashi YouTuber Bess's deep dive post-mortem on the GouSotsu anime duology. that I think sums up where I'm at.

In it, Bess quotes the original author in describing the actions of the overarching antagonist as "giving a gun to someone who is being bullied and getting emotional" and says that she agrees but points out that if the victim chooses to fire that gun, they are the ones who hold responsibility for their actions and that being the victim of manipulation does not suddenly rob them of accountability for their violence, whereas the framing of GouSotsu is that the overarching villain is the sole person who bears responsibility.

I feel like this is the dynamic at play here with Kamiki and Ryosuke/Nino too - except Kamiki, in this metaphor, didn't even fucking give anyone a gun because both Ryosuke and Nino were already armed to begin with. BUT I'LL MOVE ON NOW I SWEAR…

Aside from ^ ALL THAT ^ I also feel like this chapter's attempt to define the white/black hoshigan dichotomy is also just kind of a flop. It's so overly specific that it doesn't actually match with how the black OR white hoshigans have been portrayed symbolically before (was Aqua using his super special dark and evil star powers to dominate and manipulate others when he was eating potato chips and pumping up a pool floatie? come on, man) but it's also just so on the nose and overly dramatic that it comes off as kind of goofy and hard to take seriously.

It's also really funny and kind of frustration to see this dichotomy established seemingly for the purposes of just propping Ruby up some more. Aqua insisting that Ruby is ~just different~ from him and Hikaru REALLY flops because like… IS SHE REALLY THO???

Understand that I don't say this to shit on Ruby but like. Ruby literally had a whole arc about going black hoshigan and using her talent to manipulate and use people for her own benefit! She effectively utilized girl power to put the jobs of an entire TV show's worth of people at risk so she could clout chase a little more efficiently!!! Literally everything Kamiki tries to assert about him and Aqua are also perfect descriptions of how Ruby behaved during that leg of the manga until it flipped off like a switch and she faced literally zero consequences and learned nothing from it.

This is another indication to me that this conversation is an artifact of Akasaka's originally planned ending because this whole bit gassing up how Ruby is just ~so different~ from Kamiki and Aqua simply does not cohere with a story where Ruby had an entire arc of her just being Aqua 2.0 that was never really resolved and she never really learned anything from. If the framing here was just a LITTLE different, I think it could work - maybe instead of Aqua acting like Ruby is just intrinsically, arbitrarily Pure of Heart or whatever, a point could be made that Ruby is actively choosing to be a good and loving person even after all the shit she's been through and especially after an accidental taste of the dark side. But as it stands the accidental implication of the story ends up being that Ruby's BH era was Good, Actually and the actions she took during it were also good lol.

I continue to have all the same issues with the B-Komachi concert as I did in my previous chapter review so I won't repeat myself on that. I will, however, point out that the song Ruby namedrops in this chapter is a reference to Spica (where we translated it as 'When You Wish Upon Your Star'), in which this is a song written and performed by Ai as a message of support for her fans. That is to say, we are once again seeing Ruby, from a narrative perspective, not being allowed to stand on her own as her own idol but relying on the imagery and legacy of Ai's idolhood.

Not only that but… again, I must ask: why is Ruby the center and narrative focus of Kana's graduation concert? Like, obviously, given that Aqua and Kamiki are talking about her the framing is going to focus on Ruby but why is this conversation happening during a moment that had been massively built up to be about Kana? Why is Aqua talking about Ruby as an idol like the rest of B-Komachi just doesn't exist? Why is the narrative unironically indulging in all the same favoritism and coddling of Ruby that, in-universe, tore apart the first generation of B-Komachi?

I guess at the end of the day my problem is that I'm just kind of fed up with Ruby as a character and the way the story has been bending over backwards to coddle her so it's hard to me to get invested when the story goes YEAAAAHHH WOOOOOO RUBY!!!! Especially when, like it has been for a while now, this coddling comes not just at the expense of other characters but also at the expense of Ruby herself and the coherency and consistency of her character arc. It sucks for Ruby as a character and it sucks for me, as a reader, who used to rank Ruby as one of their top three faves but now just feels kind of exhausted with her.

LOOK OUT KAMIKI HE'S GOT A KNIFE

God this whole bit with Aqua getting double white hoshigans while he pulls a knife on Kamiki is just kind of too goofy to take seriously lol. I have some thoughts about how this potentially recontextualizes some of Aqua's actions through the Movie Arc and during the previous confrontation with Kamiki but. I just keep coming back to Aqua being like "white hoshigans means love r something which i'm going to prove by killing you in cold blood" and just shaking my head. It really feels like a moment written just to be a cliffhanger so, like I have with the last three damn chapters, I'll hold back any commentary on it until we get a continuation of this thread next week.

honestly the part of this chapter I enjoyed most was that creepypasta ass full page panel of Kamiki's fucked up smile. that genuinely really alarmed me when i first saw it and even now I don't like looking at it for too long or i get the willies lol. Genuinely fire horror imagery from Mengo as usual. Can she PLEEEEEEEEASE do a horror manga next i'm BEGGING to get spooked by mengo-sensei

no wait i lied. the best part was that cute panel of ai and her babies. <3

justice for memcho and kana, tho, for real

And I'm sure as none of you will be shocked to hear……….. break next week.

[fantasyinvader]

Thinking about it some more, Houses actually says something interesting regarding humanity in a Buddhist context.

In Buddhism, what makes humans human is our capacity for rational thought, allowing us the ability to control our instincts and as a result act in a humane manner. The strong don’t have to prey upon the weak, and the weak don’t have to fear the strong. But if we look at the Agarthans being named after philosophers, as well as Edelgard the lord being inclined towards “reason”-based magic and weak “faith” (Claude is neutral while weak with faith, Dimitri is weak but neutral in faith), it’s saying that rational thought isn’t enough to make someone “human.” It is us acting in a humane manner that does, and that comes from knowledge about morality and us choosing to be moral. We need to choose to be human. Rational thought just gives us the ability to choose, much like the Black Eagles route, but with the villains of Houses they instead use it in an attempt to justify their actions. It’s not making them human, it’s them justifying their instincts and impulses which is why Dimitri calls out Edelgard’s path as the animal path. Her path won’t stop the strong from preying upon the weak, and when he calls her out on this she rationalizes it by blaming the weak for being too used to relying on others.

And of course, the animal path symbolism would mean that the game is saying that Edelgard’s path is ultimately evil, while referring to her path as hadou says that she’s not virtuous or benevolent as a leader. So, really, how is this supposed to be a righteous path when the game is invoking Buddhism to say it’s evil while also invoking Confucian thought to say that Edelgard is immoral? I mean, sure, the Agarthans are named after Western philosophers and Confucius was a philosopher, but he was a philosopher who emphasized morality.

Really, the magic inclinations of the lords explain each one of them so well. Edelgard and Claude have weak morality, but Edelgard is more apt to rationalize her actions than Claude is. Dimitri is the most moral of the three lords, even if he is just neutral, but he’s also the least likely to rationalize what he does leading to his self-loathing. Byleth’s initially neutral in terms of morality, but can gain a boon in faith indicating that part of their character growth is them becoming more moral (and more ultimately moral than the three lords). In addition, like Claude they’re neutral in terms of reason, they can do what needs to be done but that doesn’t mean they hide behind rationalizing every action they take like Edelgard but don’t end up hating themselves like Dimitri. Considering that Rhea teaches all the things Byleth ends up excelling in, it indicates her being a positive influence on them.

[dork-a-doodle]

Cringe is dead and I’m redesigning my old UT/DR OC/Self-Insert: Echo (she/they)

Info dump about them below the cut!

So I originally made them in the wake of Deltarune’s release, when the whole “we, the players, are possessing Kris 😱” thing was very fresh and the whole Undertale Multiverse was still going strong. So naturally they started out as basically a self insert, the version of me that played Undertale and later Deltarune.

So a quick rundown of their lore (btw I make no apologies for the Mary Sue aspects of this):

They originally controlled Frisk, doing several different Runs, endlessly curious about the world

At the end of their most recent True Pacifist they find their way back in the True Lab and into a part of it they hadn’t seen before

While exploring they accidentally activated a machine from before Alphys’s time and get Gastered

…kind of

Instead of being fully “shattered across space and time” they’re just… slightly fractured across space and time

Tbh I like to think of it like they got hurled full force at the 4th wall and got stuck in it like jello

Not really breaking the 4th wall so much as jiggling it aggressively and gaining an new kind of perspective

This had some interesting consequences, including (but not limited to):

separating from Frisk (who runs out of the Lab in fear) and gaining a physical form of their own

the ability to slip into different universes at a whim

the inability to talk normally, now effectively “speaking” in text box noises (lmao get Animal Crossing-ed idiot) and thus can’t be understood by most people (with a few exceptions)

the ability to posses objects and other people (which they do feel the need to sometimes as their true form is off putting to most, though they try not to possess people if they can help it)

others probably? haven’t quite figured that out yet

Which these newfound abilities, they decide to explore the multiverse and see all the interesting things it has to offer

But first, they decide they want a traveling companion, so they don’t get lonely

And they know the perfect candidate, someone who understands what it’s like to have unfathomable power and the want to explore all possibilities with that power for your own entertainment and curiosity’s sake

Someone who really doesn’t have anything left to seek in this world

And damn it if Flowey isn’t very interested in that offer

This arrangement is a strangely balanced symbiosis

For Flowey:

traveling the multiverse gives him a kind of clean slate he could never achieve on his own, especially with the loss of his reset powers

the multiverse is also very interesting and fun to explore

they know what he’s been through and what kind of a person that’s made him better than anyone else. they understand it, and they know to judge him for it would be hypocritical

For Echo:

so long as Flowey is attached to them in some capacity he can understand their strange “speech” and frequently acts as a translator (they are also learning sign language to ease that burden)

he’s far more experienced in battle and frequently acts as protection in more aggressive universes

re: the point about mutual understanding

Flowey is also unable to absorb their soul, which means his power over them is limited and if he crosses a line they’re fully able to ditch is ass in any universe they want

It’s notable that while Echo’s curiosity can occasionally override their morality, they’re still more inclined to chose the kinder option

I consider them to be chaotic neutral, leaning towards chaotic good

(I also personally see Flowey as somewhere between true neutral and chaotic neutral, occasionally slipping into chaotic evil. What can I say, he’s a nuanced guy)

Anyway, they travel the multiverse together, experiencing new things, seeing interesting sights, causing chaos

Eventually they find themselves in the Deltarune side of the multiverse

The universe they end up in is one where the entity possessing Kris is an incredibly malevolent one

Or I should say, the entity that was supposed to be possessing Kris

As Echo senses the Bad Vibes approaching this random human child, they say “absolutely the fuck not” and possess Kris themself to block the entity

This does mean they have to drop Flowey to do this, so he’s just kinda in the background for the time being

From there it’s basically just Chapter 1 until the point when Kris rips out the soul and goes to eat some pie

While they’re distracted, Flowey climbs in and breaks open the cage so Echo can unpossess the soul and leave now that the malicious entity is gone

They do decide to stick around and check out these Dark Worlds

Luckily for them, while they were busy dealing with the classroom Dark World, Flowey took the time to explore the town and found this perfectly good empty vessel that someone seems to have discarded

Deciding not to question it, they possess the vessel and wait for a new Dark World to open so they can explore it together

And that’s the basics of their story (or as much of it as I have ironed out lol). Hopefully this hyperfixation stays with me cuz I’d love to explore their character a lot more 😁

[paxopalotls]

RAHH i just read both your tue danny / phantom / dan centric works, and how does it feel to be so correct and compelling and correct? more seriously - what about TUE / TUE Danny do you find most interesting to explore? do you have any characterization / headcanon that isn't necessarily canon compatible? and free space (please ramble about them as much as you want)

Sorry it's taken me so long to go through my inbox! I hope you don't mind the long text; TUE is one of my favorite episodes and Dan is a character that I find very fascinating.

Thank you for the kind words aahh! I don't often write so it means a lot that you liked my works. For context if anyone else is reading this, I wrote a couple IB fics about Dan/Phantom, and my thoughts about him, which I'll elaborate on here.

I have a lot of feelings about Dan, especially since he as a character is so tragic. It's strange to me that no one ever mentions the fact that when Vlad performed the removal of Danny's human half, it was Phantom that betrayed Vlad, not the other way around. I always thought that meant there was something wrong with Dan after the accident also. I delve into it a little in my fic, but I do have more thoughts about his attitude. It's interesting to me that the comic portrays his actions as being motivated by Vlad's self preservation and selfishness, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I do think it's more complicated than that. I personally believe his actions have a very complex motivation, more than just "Vlad is evil so fusing with him made Danny also evil".

It's difficult to deal with grief, and from the few scenes shown, it seems Dan dealt with it by shutting down. I also think he had a lot of conflicting feelings of grief and rage; Danny was the one who regularly defeated the ghosts, but he was also the one protecting them from the human ghost hunters, releasing the ghosts back into the GZ rather than allowing them to be taken for experimentation. I think it would anger him that his lenience towards the ghosts was taken advantage of, leading to the deaths of his friends and family. Vlad never showed an inclination towards abusing the ghosts, so this is what I believe caused him to do such uncharacteristically violent things like paralyze Johnny 13 from the waist down, permanently damage one of Box Ghost's eyes and one of his hands, and destroy Ember's vocal cords.

Something I touched on in my fic too is that I believe Danny has a weird relationship with death, due to the fact that he managed to come back from it, and also due to the general existence of ghosts in his life. AGIT states that all ghosts are people who've died, as well as that some lose their humanity over time. Due to this, I have a belief/theory that Dan expected his friends, if not family, to come back, and when they didn't, he dealt with his loneliness through anger. In TUE, he acts like he doesn't care about any of them, but I think he actually cares too much. He is caustic and taunting towards them, his parents especially, because his anger at them for hurting him is compounded by his grief at their loss.

In addition, the interference of Clockwork probably also contributed to his anger; there are two timelines that exist, the one where Danny lost and the one where he didn't, and the only reason that he won was because of the interference of Time himself. I think this is a lot of what motivates Dan's actions in TUE; he's trying to prove to Danny that the timeline is "inevitable" because he's trying to prove it to himself. His loved ones have already died, and he's angry that this alternate Danny gets a second chance. The only moment of true vulnerability we see in him during TUE is when he realizes that Jazz, his Jazz from his timeline, had always known who he was. It's obvious that despite his efforts to seem unemotional about everything, all of his actions are due to his turbulent emotions, and this is even more evident in canon due of AGIT confirming that ghosts are beings of emotion.

I do think Vlad's emotional state also compounds with this, since Vlad as a character is more prone to hiding his hurts than Danny, which is a large part of what makes up Dan's personality. In addition, Vlad's character is largely driven by a desire for family and affection, but he responds to this insecurity with a need for control and self-aggrandizement. Vlad's goals throughout the show are to amass power, largely to prove himself to those he cares about - Danny and Maddie - as well as to spite those he hates - Jack. His feelings for Jack seem more complicated than that, however; he is upset at what he sees as a betrayal by someone he obviously cared about; the two of them were best friends and roommates before Maddie was in the picture.

I think both Danny and Vlad center a lot of themselves on the people they love, though it's more evident on Vlad's side, and Dan as a combination of them does as well. His tendency is often similar to "splitting" in BPD, where he responds to a perceived betrayal or personal weakness with volatility, which is something Vlad does as well, with Jack, Maddie in some ways and especially with Danny. Dan as well responds with hostility towards people he is attached to who he perceives as hurting him, something that is complicated by the fact that part of what he blames them for is the fact that they died. He is especially ruthless with people he sees as betraying him or his lenience, like Valerie and the ghost rogues gallery; this is also a combination of Vlad and Danny's personalities. Vlad's hatred tends to be more long-standing than Danny's but he also tends to be more methodical with his actions. Danny on the other hand responds to his own anger with immediate aggression, but lets go of slights relatively quickly. Dan, as the combination of the two, holds grudges for a long time, but tends to rely on brute force rather than long term plans like Vlad would have.

He also has a lot of self-loathing, which he projects onto Danny and Vlad from this timeline, Danny especially. As I mentioned earlier, a large factor in this is Clockwork's direct involvement in the current timeline, which superseded his. In addition, I think that Danny and Vlad's interpersonal dynamic might have fed into this; both of them can't bring themselves to permanently harm the other but they do both hold some level of resentment for the other, Danny more-so since Vlad has an attachment to him. Danny's hatred for Vlad especially seems to derive in part from his own fears about himself and his selfishness, and I think that influences the way Dan interacts with both of them.

TLDR: Dan's specific concoction of mental illness derives from both Vlad and Danny, which affects a lot about how he acts and feels. There's a lot to explore about his trauma and how that relates to his new place in the current timeline, and I have a lot of feelings about him. (He makes me sad!!)

[cosmicjoke]

At what point do we have to accept that Isayama could’ve done a better job at portraying what Eren did was wrong when more than half the fandom think Eren was right and that he did everything for his country and friends? Isayama said he wanted people to sympathize with Eren. But by doing so, he created this whole issue where people dismiss what he did and say he is a hero for committing genocide all because he did it to free his country. It’s not a small group of people either. In fandom spaces the minority has come to be the people who think what he had done was wrong. The majority of the community on tiktok, twitter, instagram all think he was a selfless freedom fighting hero. Every AoT fan I meet think Eren was correct and justified and if you argue against that you get dogpiled.

It's not Isayama's fault that there are so many morons in the world. It's not Isayama's fault that the education system in this country is so horrible that people's media literacy is all but non-existent. Isayama did all he could to impress upon the audience that what Eren did was wrong, down to Eren himself admitting it was unjustified and horrible, admitting himself that he didn't do it for his friends or the island, but for his own, selfish desire. If people still don't get it after that, then that's on them, not on Isayama. At all. There's always going to be idiots who twist art to fit their own agenda, too, that use it to represent something which it was never intended to represent.

Eren is a sympathetic character for numerous reasons, most of all because there's a deep tragedy inherent in his own nature and his inability to escape it. Turning him into a heartless monster with no redeeming qualities, who cared for nobody and nothing, would defeat the entire premise of the story, which is that people are capable of monstrous acts, and understanding the danger in labeling people as monsters, of dehumanizing people, when human nature itself is inclined toward horror and violence. Eren is a character who was born with a monstrous nature, but he's still a person, and it was the monstrosity of others that allowed Eren to grow into a monster bigger than them.

If you're looking for a cartoon villain who does evil for evil's sake, and there's no more complex, motivating factor, then maybe you should go watch a Disney movie or something. AoT is a complex story with complex characters, all of whom have complex motivations. If people aren't willing to engage it with a more than surface-level effort, if they aren't willing to actually use their brains and think, then they don't deserve anyone's consideration, least of all Isayama's. If they can't understand what the story was about without someone holding their little hand and explaining every, single thing to them like one would a two year old child, then, again, they aren't worth anyone's time. They're just idiots and that's all there is to it.

And no matter how many people you see online, you have to understand, the vast majority of any fandom isn't represented by online communities. Most people don't spend their day scrolling around on message boards or social media apps. What you see in online spaces is rarely, if ever, reflective of the general consensus, on anything. Not understanding that is why you see so many people, for example, surprised by the outcome of the latest election in this country. But that's another issue altogether. I promise you, most people understand that what Eren did was wrong and that AoT was advocating against genocide and persecution, not for it. You'd have to be mentally deranged or mentally disabled to think otherwise.

[blackjackkent]

Raphael waits until Voss has left the room before turning fully towards Rakha with a wide, almost ingratiating smile. "I'm glad you came," he says mildly. "Not to my door, not yet, but to the final reckoning." He tips his head, studying her thoughtfully for a moment, then raises one hand.

"One more thing before we begin, though."

Rakha starts to argue, to tell him that she is not here for him, that she doesn't want anything he can possibly offer her - that her aim was to bring Lae'zel here to talk to Voss, and that Raphael's presence here is nothing more than an annoying flicker out of the corner of her eye...

...and then he snaps his fingers.

...and Rakha's mind goes blank.

Narrator: For the first time since the nautiloid, your mind is clear. It's... unsettling.

(A/N: Hahahahaha. So. Okay. I straight up forgot that this was a thing that happened, but damn if it doesn't come out of nowhere and completely bulls-eye the target.

It's become pretty clear to me over Rakha's journey since Act 1 that mental peace is the only goal she has that is stronger than the murder urge. It's stronger than her desire to defeat the Absolute, stronger than her love for Wyll, stronger than anything. And she's had a couple places where she's been able to get fleeting moments of it to varying degrees and in varying ways - the myconid spores, sex with Lae'zel, dancing with Wyll, channeling the Weave with Gale, sleeping cuddled up with Scratch and Buddy, and - most recently - the moment of "ecstasy" granted to her by the nymph in the room next door.

But most significant by far has been the Guardian/Emperor and her time in the Astral Prism, either in dreams or reality, as those have been the most complete and extended moments where both the tadpole and the beast have shut up in her head. And those experiences have driven most of her biggest recent decisions - particularly the decision to treat the Emperor as an ally despite its illithid nature, and to consume the Astral Tadpole.

One of Raphael's primary goals in this conversation is to convince Rakha that what he has on offer - the Orphic Hammer, and therefore a means to stand against the Emperor - is worth giving him the Crown of Karsus. And he opens the conversation by casually, literally with a snap of his fingers, proving that he can provide Rakha with the most important thing that she values about her existing partnership with Empy.

And, in fact, given that the narrator specifies for the first time since the Nautiloid, I'm inclined to say that Raphael in fact does it BETTER. I might have assumed that the game only means that the Emperor is no longer present in your mind, but there is a Dark Urge specific dialogue option here indicating quite directly that the murder urge is ALSO quiet in this moment.

This is such an in-character bit of smooth manipulation on Raphael's part that it is hysterical to me that the story has developed such that it happened by complete accident.)

Rakha goes completely still, as if she has been struck to stone. Her breath feels frozen in her lungs.

Silence. Everything inside her is quiet. The sound of the brothel fades to a distant hum and then out of hearing completely. The worm is unmoving in her temple. The beast sleeps. Everything is calm, and the only thing inside her skull is... her.

She opens her eyes - not having realized she closed them in the first place - and stares at Raphael in undisguised wonder. "The tadpole is slumbering..." she whispers. "And my blood... isn't boiling..."

Raphael smiles slowly. "I gave you back your privacy by shutting that illithid in your pocket out of your mind. It can't hear us."

Rakha shifts her weight uncertainly. This is Raphael, she reminds herself. A devil, like Mizora who tore Wyll's life apart. An evil not to be trusted. A creature she hates.

But the quiet is so deep, so impenetrable. Even the Guardian - the Emperor with whom she has thrown in her lot - has never silenced the voices in her head so thoroughly.

Does he know the statement he has just made to her? Or is it merely the luckiest of lucky guesses?

"Then speak freely," she growls. "Tell me why you brought me here."

Raphael relaxes, looking pleased, and lounges back on his heels. "I brought you here because I'm true to my word," he says smoothly. "And I can make all of this tadpole business go away - which means you and your lovely friends can remain blessedly free of tentacles." He smirks. "Unless some have already sprouted in places I can't see."

Settling his weight forward again, he hooks his hands behind his back with a businesslike attitude. "Let us speak plain," he says, his tone now crisp. "I'll admit - you've impressed me. I wasn't sure you'd make it this far. But no matter how far you come, you're still on the road to ruin - a road that leads directly to a confrontation with the elder brain."

His head tips forward, his eyes fixing on Rakha's. "At best, it will kill you and everyone in this city. At worst, it will assimilate you, and you won't have enough free will left to even wish you were dead." His gaze flicks to the pack on her hip. "You have the key to destroying it in the palm of your hand, though."

"The Astral Prism?" Rakha says slowly. What he describes doesn't exactly spark fear in her; none of it is anything she doesn't already know. What she doesn't understand is his angle, and the unexpected silence in her brain makes her thoughts feel strange and uncoordinated, as if she is running a few seconds behind the conversation.

Raphael shrugs. "In a manner of speaking. But it's the one inside the Prism that you need. Not the illithid - the gith." He spreads his arms dramatically. "I can give you the means to break him free."

Rakha frowns. This clarifies nothing - in fact, it increases her confusion. Why does Raphael want Orpheus freed?

"Speak, devil," Lae'zel says abruptly. Her eyes are narrowed with intense attention, her fists clenched at her sides. "We're listening."

Rakha hesitates. Yes - of course Lae'zel will want to hear more, if this is indeed what Raphael is offering, regardless of his reasons. And in truth, Rakha has been fairly conflicted on this point ever since they learned the Emperor's true nature.

The Emperor has been her ally up to this point, has granted her mental peace on occasion, guided her, advised her. Confided in her, even. But so has Lae'zel - and Lae'zel wants Orpheus freed. Which of them does Rakha owe more loyalty to?

Until this moment, it had seemed a moot point, since only the Emperor could protect them from the Absolute's influence; it stated quite clearly that Orpheus, if freed, would not provide the same service. Raphael, though, seems to see things differently.

"Orpheus's guards tried to kill me," she points out slowly, thinking out the statement word by word. "He's dangerous."

"To illithids - yes," Raphael says dryly. "But despite your reckless embrace of the parasite and recent mutations, you're no mind flayer... not yet. Orpheus would gladly execute the Emperor, but to you he will be a friend. After all, you're at war with an elder brain."

Rakha cocks her head to one side. "The Emperor is the only reason I'm still alive," she points out.

"No," Raphael says patiently. "*Orpheus* is the reason you're still alive. The Emperor is abusing the gith for its own ends. And it's doing the same to you." His lip curls. "You're nothing more than the beast of burden that will transport it to the elder brain. An ox requires food, and the occasional beating to keep it moving. You are simpler - the Emperor's words serve as both carrot and stick."

Narrator: Perhaps it is true that Orpheus would ally with you against the elder brain, but if he proves uncooperative once free, you may have to kill him.

Frustrated rage scratches at the back of Rakha's head - and absently she feels a flicker of wonder at realizing that just for this moment it is her rage, not the beast's anger but her own, grounded entirely in her own thoughts.

Raphael is, she has to admit, making a certain amount of sense. But there are only two interpretations here - either the Emperor is manipulating her or Raphael is. To agree to Raphael's manipulations would be to help Lae'zel - but it would mean siding with a devil, a tacit betrayal of Wyll. To stand with the Emperor would honor something of what she has learned in the past months about loyalty, friendship, honor - but it would mean abandoning Orpheus to his fate, a tacit betrayal of Lae'zel.

(A/N: I legitimately don't know wtf to do here. XD Raphael and the Emperor have both played Rakha like a fiddle so deftly, and Wyll and Lae'zel have both wormed their way so thoroughly into her life and thought processes, that she is now effectively deadlocked between them. This would actually be an easy decision if it weren't for MIZORA of all people, who isn't even in the room.

This is one of the few times when it would actually be awesome if Lae'zel just made an executive decision to do something dumb without my input but unfortunately there's no "defer to companion" option in this conversation.

I can't even very easily pick based on what I haven't done before, because I haven't either agreed with Raphael OR allied with the Emperor; Hector rejected Raphael's deal and then broke into the House of Hope on his own.

Jeez.

Ultimately I think we're going to stick with the Emperor because Rakha is, in her own way, oddly loyal to those she's decided have earned it, because I'm curious how the game plays out if you're on good terms with it, and because no matter how complete the mind-silence Raphael can provide and how much Lae'zel wants Orpheus to be free, I can't see Rakha agreeing to make a deal with a devil, particularly this devil, with Wyll right there in the same room.

Sorry, Lae'zel. :(

I'm going to slightly tweak one line of this conversation, however, in order to be able to get more info on the hammer before Rakha makes her decision, because she always wants more information.)

"Perhaps it's worth taking the risk,"(*) she says slowly. "How do I free Orpheus?"

"The Orphic Hammer," Raphael says matter-of-factly. "An artifact capable of shattering the chains that hold Prince Orpheus is held securely in my House of Hope even now."

Rakha lifts an eyebrow. "Perfect. Give it to me."

Raphael laughs brightly. "Such an eager little pup!" he says, a touch mockingly. "Surely you realize there is an exchange to be made. You scratch my back, I scratch your parasite."

Rakha's jaw works. "Just tell me what you want."

Raphael's expression hardens. "I want the Crown that dominates the elder brain," he says flatly. While Rakha absorbs this revelation, he looks past her, towards Lae'zel - perhaps seeing that she is the more willing listener. "And you, Lae'zel of K'liir... want to free the forgotten prince, do you not?"

"I want nothing more!" Lae'zel agrees earnestly.

Again that cool smile drifts onto Raphael's face. "Then it is settled, is it not? A Crown for a Hammer. A bargain of a lifetime, Lae'zel of K'liir..."

Rakha ignores his attempts to draw Lae'zel into the conversation, too focused on the information at hand, struggling to force her brain to process it. "What exactly is the Crown?"

"Power," Raphael purrs. "Ancient and full of wonder. I have craved it ever since the archwizard Karsus created it, long centuries ago, and brought doom to the empire of Netheril. That was the great age of humanity, and Netheril's flying sky-cities were the apex of civilization."

He smiles coldly. "I was there the day it all fell apart. Entire cities plummeted from the sky, like angels with broken wings." His eyes flick half-closed with a beatific expression. "The screams, oh the screams - hundreds of thousands of people watching in horror as the ground came up to meet them. It was not a happy meeting."

Then his eyes open again, and he is once again cool, matter-of-fact. "And Karsus was responsible. Not driven by malice, but by ambition. He forged a Crown imbued with all the powers of magic, a Crown that would make any who wore it a god." He snorts dismissively. "Men cannot contain so much power. The Crown destroyed its creator, and his empire fell with him. Karsus' Folly, the bards and scholars call it. I call it hope. The hope of creating a better world, and the perils of unchecked hubris."

He clenches one fist, a fiery light flaring in his eyes. "I knew then that the folly of mortals could be the triumph of devils, and that I could use that Crown to unite the Nine under one Archdevil Supreme. Me."

So that's what he wants. Power on a grander scale than ever conceived, in the Hells or anywhere else. "What makes you think," she asks, "you'd succeed in using the Crown where Karsus couldn't?"

To her surprise, that light in his eyes suddenly flares from satisfaction to rage.

"I AM NO MORTAL!" he roars. "And I do not fail."

Rakha squints. "If you don't fail, how come you didn't get hold of the crown then?"

It's a factual question, not a gibe, and surprisingly enough, he takes it as one and simply shrugs. "The Archdevil Mephistopheles snatched up the Crown and squirreled it away in one of his vaults," he says bitterly. "So much power and potential kept inert. He made a miracle into a museum piece." His eyes narrow. "I raged, but only for a decade or so. Then I waited, ever watching, for more than a thousand years, for a mistake, a mishap, a misadventure."

Again that slow smile. "And these Chosen who have caused you so much trouble accidentally did me a favor. They brought the Crown back into play."

"How did they come to have the Crown?" Rakha asks.

He scowls. "Through the aid of a diabolist, someone capable of opening a portal to the Hells -- *deep* in the Hells. They must have raided Mephistopheles' vault. Impressive, I must admit." A dismissive shrug. "But they'll be dead soon. If you don't kill them, the elder brain will. It doesn't have feelings in the way you'd understand them, but it seems rather angry."

His expression settles, his eyes fixing on Rakha's again. "It is inevitable. When you destroy the brain - and you will, because you must - the Crown will be yours for the taking. ANd when that moment comes, you give the crown to me. In exchange, I give you the Hammer now."

"Tsk'va!" Lae'zel snaps. "We should do as the devil asks. The Prince of the Comet must rise again!"

Narrator: A simple transaction, it seems. But it's more than that. He's offering you an alternative to the mind flayer in your head. Take Raphael's deal and you could free Orpheus. With Orpheus free, you would have no need to rely on the Emperor. But there's no guarantee Orpheus would be on your side. And if you take the deal, you'll have to fulfill it. You'll have to deliver the Crown of Karsus to the Devil himself. He claims his ambition is to unite the Hells. But can he be trusted to stop there? Do you trust him more than you trust the Emperor?

For a very long time-- Rakha says nothing at all.

This, then, is what they mean by temptation, what she is being offered right now. Wyll has said it is the domain of devils, and there is no question that Raphael knows her, and what she wants, with a depth she would not have anticipated. He has dangled an unsubstantiated promise of peace and victory in front of her in exchange for his own power, and the part of her that is made up of animal instinct wants to grab at it with both hands.

But she is more than that, isn't she? When the beast is silenced, there is more to her than that.

She can feel Wyll's eyes on her as this devil offers her an alliance against the thing that saved her over and over again. And she knows - thinks she knows, hopes she knows - what he would do, in her place.

"No deal, Raphael," she says abruptly. "I'm leaving."

All the warmth drains out of Raphael's expression instantly and his smile turns brittle. "I won't stop you," he says coolly. "But time is running out, so don't stay away for long. If you see reason, I'll be here waiting, right up to the moment the world ends."

-----

(*) The line in game is a flat "It's worth taking the risk" (and the other two lines are "i'm convinced" and "goodbye", so there's no actual uncertain option here).