#and then i remembered. the irene dimension

[chiquitin-o]

i actually can’t even begin to tell you how normal i am about mcd dante. “Today of all days when I decided to hold off on patrol there, you came back… Lord Aphmau, I missed you so much" HE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS LOYAL WITH NO ULTERIOR MOTIVE. HE WAS THE ONE WHO STAYED. NOT FOR (ROMANTIC) LOVE, NOT TO PROVE SOMETHING, BUT BECAUSE HE WAS DEDICATED TO HER

[aphverse-confessions]

i don’t understand why in some people’s rewrites they ignore the irene dimension arc. that’s probably the most important arc of mcd??? what are you replacing it with??? what are you doing about the nether??? i don’t get it

.

[j4idenmcdglazer]

MCD GARMAU RANT

I know a LOT of people ship laurmau (I DO TOO GUYS I LOVE LAURMAU) and aarmau (...) but something about Garmau has always tickled my brain. The way he's been there since the beginning, and yeah he kinda made bad decisions that were kinda stupid like giving Zane the relic needed to visit the irene dimension. But I feel it was kind of needed to move the plot along and I don't hate Garroth for it. ONE THING I'd like to rant about it THE TREE. You may know which one. The tree Aphmau meets Garroth in her dreams whilst he is fighting Zane in Irenes Dimension. Excuse my rant, BUT THAT TREE IS SO SYMBOLIC. Its THEIR place! Its the first place they really got to sit and talk to eachother with a known interest that Garroth is in love with her. Garroth and Aphmau have a second place too, which is really their first one: The Docks. Garroth always met Aphmau at the docks whenever she'd depart. He would even leave her chests with gifts to travel. He gave her a flower crown every time she'd leave simply because she loved them. I believe that Garroth feared if something happened to her, she'd remember him by the crown. Anyways back to the tree. Trees have always been a symbol for Garroths love for Aphmau. Like the episode, "Fallen Angel" (I belive thats what it called) when Aph is building a treehouse for Levin and Malachi and falls and Garroth catches her. You know the one. They mention it while they have conversation at the dream tree. It is well known that Garroth confessed his love for Aphmau, which causes her to wonder about it and hold off on love until Garroth comes back. IT JUST MAKES ME SO HAPPY GUYS LIKE GHE MUSIC AND THE FEELS I LOVE THE TREE I LOVE IT AHSJHHHHH. ITS THE PLACE THEY TRULY GOT TO BE TOGETHER AND THERE FOR EACHOTHER WITHOUT THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD SEPARATING THEM.

[zvahlne]

a long post about today's aphmau video ("REBORN as the THE GODDESS of Minecraft" <- it. has a typo while i'm writing this) and all of the Minecraft Diaries references/weird things i caught in it!!!

if you want to know what diaries-things happened in this video but you don't want to watch a video that is pretty heavy cocomau (fair) this post is for you...

and if you watched the video please feel free to add anything i missed!!!!

my knowledge is from watching minecraft diaries almost a decade ago and i didn't watch When Angels Fall, so i could TOTALLY have missed something. but this should be pretty comprehensive!

okay!! let's get into it!

note in advance: the music that plays for most of the video really adds to the weird vibe. i think subconsciously that adds a lot to why this video felt so off.

the video opens with aphmau, pierce, and KC rushing over to garroth's house because of a storm over his house. when they get inside, kim and garroth are performing some kind of ritual with a book. an animation starts and they all get pulled up into the storm.

aphmau gets hit by lightning, and we cut to

the irene dimension!??

aphmau then wakes up back home in this outfit (!!) and the first thing she mentions is "What was that mirror?"

i find the mirror EXTREMELY fascinating, if anyone has thoughts on it please share with me because i'm having a hard time putting it into words but there's such a vibe happening there

when she leaves her house, there are a bunch of floating islands with irene's symbol under them. i don't know what that means, but i thought it was REALLY interesting. they were inescapable once she went outside; all these fragmented reminders of irene. it made ME feel some type of way for sure !!! it was very "haunting the narrative"... i don't think they were ever once properly acknowledged (even when characters were interacting with them), which somehow made it even weirder.

this guy also shows up and attacks aphmau. nothing came to mind other than the way irene's hood shaded her face, but i'm adding him to the post in case there's something i'm forgetting!

i acknowledge this next one to be a total reach but i could not, for the life of me, get it out of my head, so,

IT'S JUST. THEY WERE STANDING IN THE SAME SPOT RELATIVELY IN FRONT OF A GIANT BURNING CRATER. AND THE TREES... AND WITH EVERYTHING ELSE GOING ON... it was hard not to think of it.

throughout the video, aphmau gets new powers by... eating these little guys?

i mostly mention that for something else we'll get to in a minute

nothing of mcd/weird vibes note happens for a while so we're just going to skip ahead...

an interesting sidenote though is that garroth is just like, evil in this video. first he's doing the ritual thing with kim at the start, and later in the video he continues conspiring with her and even drops a boulder on aphmau's head. i haven't watched all the smp videos, but usually garroth is only evil when he's playing a character in my experience (like in a "one girl at an all yandere school!" video)? this is just smp garroth being straight up evil. the weird feeling this gave me really crystallized in ANOTHER thing we'll have to get to in a minute

cut to aphmau and kim. kim has told aphmau she wants to stop garroth too, so aphmau is following her into this weird cave. and.

do. do you see it

"I saw that symbol once before." "Eh, probably just some kids leaving graffiti."

I ALSO SAW THAT SYMBOL BEFORE. HELLO SHAD???

they go further in and there's this too

kim has aphmau say some magic words standing on this circle, which causes her to lose her wings and also covers her in the symbol??

i don't remember enough to know if this is lore relevant but it will be included in my deepdive anyway because what

shortly after this is when garroth drops the boulder on her head. when she wakes up the symbols are gone and garroth then leads her to an underground bunker. down there, they have this exchange:

"I'm just saying this is... new for you." "Well, maybe things are CHANGING, huh?!"

WHICH combined with what i mentioned earlier about him being randomly evil in this video stood out and really added to the weird vibe. pierce also mentions that weird things are happening on the server, but that could be said in any video, i'm just mentioning it because again, this video had a particular vibe to it.

we can now also circle back to her getting new powers like i mentioned! because the last power she gets in the video is... just... the irene eyes???

there's nothing new in the hotbar, like every other power. and she seems distressed by this one, in a way she wasn't for anything else. pierce is with her, and the first thing she says is, "What happened?" and the second thing (after some classic concerned aphmau noises) she says is "Help..! This is... different..!"

her concern is cut off by more of the angels i showed earlier coming back to attack her and pierce. her powers aren't working at first but then kick in and she then quickly dispatches them (and is surprised by how fast it happened).

in the next room, the mirror is back! aphmau is drawn to it, and says (in a voice more serious than the average cocomau voice), "I've been seeing this this whole time... I think I need to go through it."

she goes through and kim is there with angel wings now and explains that she was using the book to get powers, but aphmau got in the way. she also introduces three angels (one girl and two boys) as her children, and then proceeds to turn them into babies and explode them to steal their power since she (kim) was running out??? aphmau is very distressed by this (reasonably lmao) and takes her out in ONE HIT.

after this, in a more serious/deeper voice, she says "You merely adopted the powers, I was born in them." which is totally a bane reference i think, but what was more interesting to me is that the voice stuck for a line after ("You did it, Aphmau!" "I did.") before she gets startled and her voice returns to normal.

after which, she goes and looks at the mirror again (lmao bye garroth) and has a conversation with pierce

"Uh, hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine... I just..." more serious music starts playing. "I just felt like something called me here..."

"Oh uh, good, hey, can it NOT call you here, and can we go home?!"

"Yeah. We can go home. But... those poor babies..."

pierce then goes into more cocomau humor, and aphmau does NOT match his energy, just agreeing with him in a subdued tone. pierce hops through the mirror. she then decides to leave her powers there, and the video finishes with her saying, "I need to get out of here, gh!" and jumping through the mirror again.

video end.

so.... is it just me or was there a vibe????? i feel like normally with these videos when she does easter eggs, it's more of a fourth wall break? this time it felt more like aphmau was actually remembering/experiencing stuff. and it wasn't like the laurance video, where she has no recollection of anything shadow knights and they're just being used as a cocomau prop; she REMEMBERS shad's symbol from somewhere, and is quickly brushed off. and it was made especially odd by the background music throughout most of the video, and the occasional dissonance between aphmau's serious delivery and the other characters' smp-style delivery.

the whole video wasn't like this, with cocomau definitely throughout that i skipped for this post, but honestly that only made it feel weirder whenever the two vibes clashed. it was pretty unsettling to me tbh

you can watch it if this post intrigues you, but i think i covered anything interesting and it is pretty cocomau heavy despite all this, and if that's not your scene (completely fair, it's not usually mine), you can probably just stick with this post.

regardless of if it all MEANS anything, i think this was a very interesting video!!!! and i'm always down for references to her old stuff!! lmk what y'all think, i'm super super curious

[maxxandchesse]

Do you prefer Mystreet Garrance or MCD Garrance more?

And what are your head cannons of the two.

Honestly depends on the mood.

Right now definitely MCD Garrence because it’s what I’m rewatching, but I really like Mystreet because of werewolf Garroth

HEADCANNONSSS

I don’t even know where to start so here’s a ton of random things. I did separate them by series, some of these could be said for both series so

Mystreet:

- Garrence cuddling here looks like Garroth laying on top of Laurence like a huge weighted blanket

- Zane is so tired of being around them because Garroth ALWAYS talks about Laurence and then when he’s with Laurence he’s constantly being asked where Garroth is

- Garroth likes to pick Laurence up and spin him around (it’s basically how they hug now)

- They are THE PDA couple. They won’t make out in public or anything gross but one of them is always clinging onto the other. Hand holding, arm holding, resting a head on the other’s shoulder, if they aren’t holding each other their legs are pressed against each other.

- They get each other flowers every anniversary or holiday. Laurence’s favorite flowers are roses, he knows it’s basic but he loves how romantic they are. Garroth’s are sunflowers. He didn’t have opinions on flowers until Laurence compared him to a sunflower, so bright and sunny. They’ve been his favorite since.

- When Laurence was in the Shadow Knights Garroth would doodle him on the sides of his notebook. This is when his crush on Laurence started to grow. (Working on a fic about this)

- Laurence realized he was in love with Garroth when they kissed in the play.

- Werewolf Garroth sheds A LOT. Laurence thought werewolfs didn’t normally shed but Garroth was already hairy pre wolf ears and tail. Laurence has his hair ALL OVER HIM.

- “Is this your hair or mine?”

- “…It’s definitely yours.”

- Garroth is beyond happy that Laurence wasn’t there at Starlight, but the fear of being used to hurt Laurence itches at the back of Garroth’s mind. Laurence still wishes he was there for him.

MCD:

- Garrence cuddling here looks like Garroth spooning Laurence or them both laying out like a star fish

- Laurence often has nightmares about the Nether and his transformation causing him to transform in his sleep. Garroth is always there to help him calm down and will hold him no matter what his form is.

- Garroth also has nightmares of Laurence being hurt or tortured, he checks multiple times in the night if Laurence is breathing before remembering Shadow Knights don’t breath.

- This post has a fun HC about that ^

- PDA for them is different, Garroth, trying to be formal, does show a lot of affection in private but rarely in public. Partially it’s his fear of someone hurting Laurence because they are together. Laurence would kiss Garroth in front of millions of people he does not give a shit. (Please don’t take this as Phoenix Drop is homophobic I truly don’t think most people there would be, it’s about Garroth feeling like everything Zane has done is his fault.)

- Laurence first realized he may like Garroth when he wrapped and dressed his wounds after he returned from the Nether. The kindness was overwhelming him. From that moment he wanted to get closer to Garroth and learn more about him.

- Garroth realized he loved Laurence in the Irene dimension, when he watched him leave.

[inky-rosepanda]

Yall explore something with me real quick

What if the Demon Warlock is actually Enki?

Ok, so as far as I know, there is no evidence to back this up(in fact, I think there might be some against it), but I enjoy this headcanon simply for the angst. I mean, all of the divine (or the ones who have close relationships with Irene) eventually becoming the thing they fought against??? The implications, the plot!

The exploration that could be done with this- in season 3 ep 2 Shad mentions Esmund aura in retrospect to the protective barrier around the portal right. What if the "spell" keeping the Demon Warlock on the Island is Esmund magiks?

Throwing away the Enki=DW headcanon rq, the Demon Warlock definitely knows what went down between the Divine Warriors right, to the point he taunts Aph about it. Yet he's still there. Meaning they couldn't/wouldn't get rid of him and if he is Enki it kinda make sense, considering they couldn't kill Shad either and ended up sealing him and a different dimension (im just realizing the parallels as I write this).

But if he isn't it is also interesting to think about cause it means that they failed they're jobs, remember Irene created the Divine Warriors to fight "fate" as she puts it and yet they just left a dangerous demon sitting around for at least 900 year, on a populated Island at that.

If he does know as much as he pretends too it's likely that he came after/during the whole Shad thing, which of course opens a different avenue of exploration- the funactionallity of the group after betraying their team member and perhaps finding out the truth of their relics. (This kinda lends to my theory that Irene and Shad were the power houses of the group)

Do yall see what I see or am I crazy

[romeave]

the real reason why mcd zane sucks, from purely a writing standpoint, is that the writers really want him to be a pure evil villian. a force of evil that can not be reasoned with or stopped. absolutely nuance free and unsympathetic no matter how you slice and dice it.

which, would normally be fine, but is a weird choice for zane specifically because the writers keep naturally bringing up ways to give him depth, only to bend over backwards to shut it down once they remember zane is supposed to be cardboard flat for their kid audience to remember he's the bad guy.

and by all the time i do mean all the time. here is a list of roads blocked off by the no development tree that fell across the road:

Zane grew up isolated even by the standards of noble children, as heirs to the O'khasis throne start their training rather young, and, according to accounts about his childhood, Zane preferred to spend his free time alone as opposed to with family. At some point, his father contracted some illness that turns people into asshole tyrants, and began to groom a very impressionable Zane into a good and obedient pawn for him to control on his quest for world domination -> Zane was actually always evil from birth, which makes him immune to trauma. Garte's dickheadness actually only affected the "good" Ro'Meaves, and actually it's Zane's influence that turned Garte into a bad person. Even shit that Garte did long after Zane died are Zane's fault by proxy.

Zane's strained relationship with his brothers are also largely attributed to Zane being evil. Honestly there's a lot I could put here but the most damning one is probably the fact that Zane isn't allowed to talk about his upbringing at all after vaguely mentioning having a dead brother on the docks.

Zane's initially introduced as an ambitious young priest who came to power due to his commitment to his studies. He secretly uses taboo ancient magic that people can't exactly come across if they don't have an obsessive drive to learn about the divines beyond the church's teachings. -> Actually Zane stole everything from "real scholars" and never actually cared about his research outside of what power it could bring him. Apparently he can't even read for himself without a "real scholar" in the room.

Zane's most terrible deeds (Kiki's pendant, Alexis, Falconclaw) were committed in service of opening the Irene dimension. Its implied that some, if not all of the specific deeds needed to open the portal were decided long before Zane ever got his hands on the amulets. -> Each portal-opening crime is treated as its own separate crime, motivated purely by sadism. Falconclaw specifically is referred to as a "horrific mass slaughter Zane had a lot of fun committing", even though everyone involved just painlessly fell over dead

Zane only raises a sword to people to have actively betrayed him. Jeffory betrayed him, the Wolf Tribe was plotting to eat him the next time he showed up, and Garroth committed treason two seperate times and shoved his own sword in Zane's face before Zane tried to kill him about it -> Evidence that Zane is just a bloodthristy killer who would kill his comrades unprompted. His victims are not traitors, but martyrs to his unreasonable wrath

Zane possessed the protector's relic for a period of time. Surely he must've had some reason to hold it -> Zane was entirely undeserving of the relic. He only had it because blood relations.

Despite already having a relic, Zane wants to get Irene's relic -> Exclusively to hoard power! No personal reasons or family reasons or nerd reasons. Just an insanely dangerous and high stakes task done solely to have them all. Like its a pokemon with life steal.

Zane gets turned into a Shadow Knight. Zane used to have an absurd amount of knowledge on the Shadow Knights, lots of shadow knights hate his gay ass, becoming a Shadow Knight is usually pretty traumati--> Zane doesn't feel trauma, duh!! He's actually stronger than ever.

And I know I'm aphblr's foremost Zane dick rider but this isn't a Zane did nothing wrong post its just bad writing. Zane's actions affect so much of the plot its fucking bonkers to give him the depth of an evil sheet of printer paper. Aph's usually pretty good at fleshing out her villians I don't know why the one guy who everyone and their mother has a connection to is just a knife roomba of a man. At the bare minimum he should've been as fleshed out as his brothers because then it'd be a tragic tale about a family being torn apart by a system they benefit from instead of a karma-farming AITAH post set in medival times.

[madcatlad]

Aaron Needs Friends

Having him be aloof and mysterious was cool for the first few adventures, but for the amount of time that Aaron was traveling with Aph he should have been making SOME sort of relationship with her squad. This man was present since BEFORE Garroth was lost to the Irene Dimension. Yet all anyone had to say about him was "I didn't know much about him" "he was a good man". The group didn't even need to know him all that well, or be super close. He didn't need to expose all his secrets or be particularly socialable. But you're telling me that during the span of time that Aaron was around the same people, all the time, risking their lives...and he didn't interact with them on a more personal level? He ONLY interacts with Aphmau. That just isn't human nature.

I vaguely remember multiple characters getting shamed or dismissed for being concerned about his intentions. But looking back that is completely valid! From Aph's perspective, Aaron is a good guy who had proved himself, and doesn't need to explain himself ever. From everyone else's perspective, he is a complete stranger, with vague intentions and questionable goals, who they have know for at least a year in close proximity but goes out of his way (quite literally every single time) to interact with NO ONE but Aphmau.

Suspicious Behavior. That or he seems rude. But their distrust of that kind of put out is not unbased. Especially when his past comes to light, yet he is still no more than a stranger, and shown to be purposefully secretive. Suspicious Behavior. But the cast is supposed to ignore all that because...? "He's a good guy" how would anyone else know that?

I mean he doesn't have to open up to them in great lengths and cry about his tragic life, but by time he died he should have had a surface level relationship with the main gang. More than never knowing jack about him as a person. Training/mentoring with Laurence, amicable acknowledgement with Garroth, maybe teasing flusterable Katelyn. A joke or two outside of Aphmau. Just any amount of relationship outside of Aphmau. Please.

Otherwise his mysteriousness becomes an archetype instead of characterization. And it became more of a hindrance to the story, especially later on.

Having Aaron never build relationships with anyone BUT Aphmau sets him aside in a way that is very odd. Aaron is essentially NOT a character, but a plot point. He only exists to advance the plot, add suspense, or subvert the plot. But he himself had no character- other than grief.

And it especially took away from the significance of his DEATH! When he died the only person really grieving HIM was Aphmau. Everyone was sad for HER. It made so Aph could be sad but - "oh nobody else understands my grief". While Aph was grieving nobody could really grieve with her. It isolated her in a way so jarring and disconnected from the story it felt more like a plot diversion than a plot point. And everyone just continued with their respective plots, yet the STORY had to come to a screeching HALT after Aaron's death because aph was mouring and she is quite literally OUR EYES.

There in lies the problem. NOBODY could mourn for Aaron, because he was a stranger. But HE DIED! He died without ever getting to grow or build new relationships as his story was clearly building up to do. HE DIED with no mourners! What kind of depressing precedent is that?!? "You don't need to grow past your grief, and build new relationships after great lost! You just need to be HOT and (somehow impregnate) the main character! Plot 😃".

What a Lackluster death for a character!! A main character!!! To be mourned by no one. It should have been Aaron's death that brought the story to a halt, the fact that they had lost HIM. Not that Aphmau had lost him.

Aaron's death should have affected the entire cast, or at least the main one who had traveled with him so long! Yet everyone else is allow to move on as they would because essentially they lost nothing.

Yeah, we were all sad when Aaron died as kids. Because Aphmau was sad (that scream was something else). And, yes, Aaron's death was sad. But imagine how devastating it would be if EVERYBODY knew him- to some capacity- if everyone mourned his passing. Imagine how much more significance it would bring to his SACRIFICE.

Aaron was a man with nothing to lose from DAY ONE. BUT HE STAYED THAT WAY! He never grew! What kind of sacrifice is it for a man with nothing to live for, no mortal ties, to sacrifice his life.

It dumbs down his death to in essence, achieve his ONLY goal in life: revenge, and make his girlfriend-not-girlfriend happy.

He A STRANGER. Not because HE necessarily wanted Garroth back, but because Aphmau wanted Garroth back. It doesn't work well. Aaron should have sacrificed himself for Garroth because HE wanted to, because HE cared for Garroth.

It objectified him in a sense. His decisions- his world revolves around Aphmau, and only her? (And Zane strangely enough). He has free will but his choices like agency, desire, depth. He's a means to and end, hardly a character. He experienced no growth, no change, no discomfort.

He only experienced pain and Aphmau. Tragic.

[mangotelevision]

I love to think that the real reason the members of the jury have to renounce their family and their past isn't because of some oath they take, no it's because when they take the power of the jury they start to lose who they once were. They forget those that they used to hold dear because of the powers their jury form lends them. They don't intend to forget and it's not instant, it's slow and gradual. Overtime it'll just feel like a dream, becoming unsure if there was anyone ever there to begin with.

This theory very heavily ties back in with Katelyn, why after the Irene dimension she wasn't too quick to go searching for her family, because at that point she had forgotten who they were a long time ago. She's no longer a member of the jury, no longer influenced by this memory fog. But it still lingers, throughout her time with aphmau and laurance she starts to remember little things, she knows there were people, those who she cared about. But she can't remember their names, who they were, who they wanted to be. She remembers feelings. It's why when she talks about her family in the later season she's so inconsistent, because she doesn't remember and it bothers her that she might never remember

[tls-1234]

I apologise but the thoughts of absent parent Aphmau once again haunt me.

I am a fairly firm believer that unless it happens on screen, or Aphmau makes a direct mention to it, or it works better for the version that exists in my head, unless Aphmau does it on screen, it doesn't happen.

And Aphmau does NOT spend a lot of time with Malachi and Levin. We have a few moments of her playing with them, or maybe putting them to bed. But the vast majority of time Aph is off on some adventure or travelling across the entire continent to other towns/cities. Like, by the time she enters the Irene dimension, Levin can barely say "mama" and other basic words. Malachi is not that much better off, he can talk, sure, but he's still _young_. I just don't see Levin having _any_ memories of Aphmau, or Malachi having a lot of memories that don't get conflated with childhood awe and wonder.

This is all to say, that by the time Aph comes back from the Irene Dimension, Zoey is their mom. Not Aphmau. The fact that Levin welcomes her back with arms open never not grates on my nerves. I can totally (and do) see Malachi being torn by the fact he remembers her, and mostly remembers the way she saved him, and having regaled Levin with stories of Aphmau alongside Zoey. I think he's really torn up about the fact Levin doesn't see Aphmau as their mom too, only Zoey.

[sweetiepotatofry]

okokokok

OKAY! so my take on what in the literal name of Irene was going on in the anniversary video is:

I think that SMP!Aphmau goes into the mind of post mcd Aphrene (the Irene we see in angels fall), she is not literally in Phoenix drop, she is just in Aphrene's memory of Phoenix drop. My theory, which stems from my personal experiences with flashbacks, is that Aphrene was having a really rough flashback around the same time one of the smpmau's was having an 'in Minecraft!' Video go wrong. Aphrene dragged Smpmau into the Irene dimension the same way she did with Aaron in emerald secret. The reason why I think it's specifically a flashback is that not only are the memories of MCD super jumbled, it's also notably only the traumatic ones she's remembering. Smpmau doesn't stumble across a maid cafe hidden in the hills, she's swooped up by a LITERAL WYVERN and meets K.C. in another dimension. Recalling a memory usually follows a timeline, flashbacks usually don't.

Okay I know what you may be thinking, 'Why would Aphrene drag Smpmau to solve her flashbacks' My answer to that is, if you had the chance to drag a happier and sillier version of yourself into your most haunting memories with the chance of them becoming happier and sillier, would you take the chance? I would, the various memories of my trusted guards trying to kill me would still be there, but now I can smile at the thought of threatening them with a flame thrower. Aphrene had basically nothing to loose and all to gain in this scenario, if Smpmau failed she would just be back at square one, if she succeeded she'd recreate a feat she had already done before.

Not to mention what the 'Angels' said about it not being the void that dragged Smpmau there. Because it wasn't, it was Aphrene.

Tldr: whatever undiagnosed mental thing I have going on, Irene does too, and instead of therapy she dragged Smpmau to try and solve it.

[dilly-dahlia]

Laurance and Aphmau is my number one mcd ship, but in the way i used to ship Luka and Marinette (Miraculous)

like i think they would be fantastic together and that they’d be the best pairing (obviously, they’re the ship i root for), but I can also recognize that Aphmau in the canon mcd is selfish and didn’t really like Laurance like that tbh??

yes, she likes him, maybe even loves him at some point, but we also have to remember that the whole time during season two she had a whole plethora of things to worry about, the main being getting Garroth out of the Irene dimension (I kind of interpret that in a couple different ways; one being she feels an obligation to him as his lord, two being she has these undiscovered or unrealized romantic feelings for him, three that the two of them are extremely close, and a couple more but that’s a different conversation). even Laurance brings this up after they escape the whole werewolf wedding thing. Laurance told Aphmau he was going to stop making advances because he didn’t want to be unfair to Garroth. He said he wouldn’t make advances unless she wanted him to.

that’s kind of the part that reminds me of Luka and Marinette because he feels so strongly about her in every way possible, and she just doesn’t return that (although it could still be due to all the stress Aphmau goes under). but knowing how canon Aphmau in mcd acts, i feel like if she undoubtedly wanted to be with Laurance, then she would have told him and they would have been together

and then we come to Aaron. he ends up being there for Aphmau in ways Laurance can’t because Laurance has never been a lord. Laurance has never lost the entire village he cared for and nurtured the same way Aphmau and Aaron have, so Aphmau can’t talk to Laurance about things pertaining to that. and on top of that, Aphmau gets pregnant by Aaron

that is especially where my point about Luka and Marinette comes in. they would work well together and Luka (Laurance) is obviously the better choice, at least to me, for Marinette (Aphmau), but he deserves so much more than what his love interest is giving him. he deserves someone that won’t push him to the side because someone she likes more is interested, he deserves someone that will be wholly devoted to him like he is to her

if you’ve seen Miraculous, remember how Luka used all those pretty metaphors to describe Marinette? and she liked the metaphors but she didn’t like him because she was in love with Adrien? that’s Aphmau and Laurance in Jessica’s original mcd. Aphmau liked the pretty words Laurance said to her, she liked the time he devoted to her, she liked that Laurance was practically at her beck and call, but her heart always belonged to something else, whether that be a cause, a person, or organizations.

[sillybillyguysyall]

I genuinely love Irene, from the little we know about her it paints such an interesting story.

Irene knows no love, and I love that about her.

Love has so far damned her, she was in love with Shad and in turn Shad was in love with her. Despite that, there was no peace for they always fought, Shad being the antithesis to Irene. She tried everything, but nothing worked to stop destruction. Then you had Kul’zak and Esmund who were also in love with, but presumably she didn’t love them back. That probably destroyed her from the inside out. Irene doesn’t love because love is the reason why everything went wrong. Irene most likely genuinely wants to help everyone, that’s what she set out to do in the beginning. Though the care that she displayed is exact reason of her down fall.

The same exact thing is happening with Aphmau in MCD. Aphmau may or may not be in love with Garroth and/or Laurance in the beginning. That isn’t important, what is that this loved caused most of later events of season one to happen. Laurance likely wouldn’t have become a shadow knight ( probably debatable.) Garroth most likely wouldn’t have given into Zane. There is also an argument to be made that he might’ve not stayed behind, but I think he would’ve since he is “the Protector.�� Then in season two love costed Aaron’s life, leaving Aphmau alone with their child. Love is costing Aphmau people, and it’s a really just a ticking time bomb until she breaks.

Her conversation with Alexis about love is really telling (I don’t remember the episode, but it’s season two near the beginning.) Its about people loving them, but not knowing what to do. Alexis expresses her feelings and how she fell out of liking Malachi and Levin romantically. Though a reason for this is it becoming too much. This parallels Garroth and Laurance, Aphmau expressing a similar sentiment. Aphmau is overwhelmed with love and it shows. She doesn’t know what to do with it, and lets it run it’s course ( feel free to disagree with me on this, I might’ve missed a lot.)

If season three was finished I like to be believe that it would end with Aphmau losing her ability to love just like Irene did. After killing or possibly reincarnating Shad she would lock herself back in the Irene dimension. Explains why she disappeared after awhile as her daughter Aline explained.

All this to say is that I believe that Irene has put herself in a constant loop of falling in and out of love. Then eventually losing all of her emotions in the process. Irene’s origins are already murky to begin with, and I’d like to believe that she had a past before Irene. Perhaps she even had more, which all ended the same way. Everyone around her loving her, but this love causing destruction. It’s a constant cycle as Irene tries to find a time where she can love and it won’t cause destruction. It’s tragic and that’s why I love it, Irene as much as she cannot feel, she desires to.

That’s my silly little interpretation of Irene :) I probably missed a lot of things since it’s been like 3 years since I’ve watched the series, but binge watching will be great. Oh and I also might be wrong on a lot of this. Also second disclaimer I did not watch MyStreet in full.

[cinnamontoastcroonch]

@xerith-42 ask and you shall receive

Angst & The Horrors™️

- laurance (and other SKs) who are quite often heavy smokers (whatev those ru’aunians got) because of its ability to take the edge off of their frayed nerves, but also because the smoke in their lungs feels reminiscent of breathing in the nether atmosphere, and that makes their subconscious miss it a little less.

they either appreciate it or hate it for that reason

- garroth who remembers his moments with his father like the back of his hand, and who remembers smelling that same smoke around him. being pissed when (around s1, prob after dante joins) he smells that familiar smell on laurance, urging and urging him to drop the habit. laurance avoids explaining why he does it for a while; until he can’t take it anymore, and the next time garroth says something to him about it, he breaks and spits his reasoning out like venom.

- laurance who quits. he does this after that last confrontation, when he can’t forgive himself for his attitude towards garroth, so he apologizes by trying.

- laurance who picks it up again in secret when the calling gets worse, while garroth is trapped in the irene dimension. garroth who returns and immediately notices; and he’s pissed. until he can’t bring himself to be angry, because he can see now how terribly laurance has been doing mentally.

- laurance who hates how dead he feels. how he can breathe but it’s never with purpose, how he hears a sickening rattle from his lungs the angrier he gets, as if to remind him that breathing is of no use to him anymore.

- laurance who can’t stand the bone-deep cold of his skin. who apologizes when he brushes hands with someone, because ‘oh god they can feel how cold i am, i’m not human anymore and they can feel it’

- laurance who thought he’d never hear that haunting ancient language of the nether again when he escaped; he’d never see it written again and it would be locked away in his memory; only to one day discover it in an old tome in emmalyns collection. he suddenly can’t think, or even pretend to breathe, and all at once his body feels like a husk as his soul slips in with that haunting tongue, and he has to get away from that book. he can hear the words swimming in his mind like a cruel song, and he’s terrified. “where did you find this”, but he is gone in a flurry before he even hears her answer.

[zvahlne]

so for your sake and mine I cannot keep spamming your notes w/ questions it’s UNETHICAL so. Emma goes to the Irene dimension? lore drop when?

OH THANK IRENE.... WE COULDN'T KEEP DOING THAT... /LH

i will also take this moment to tell everyone that my inbox is open to questions about emma at any and all times <3

UNFORTUNATELY i don't have a good answer for this specific question though?? so she DOES go to the irene dimension with the gang, but i'm going to rewrite it entirely once i get there in my rewatch, because the old explanation is... eh..???

it's literally just, from what i remember: she snuck with them? for unexplained reasons. i never had a reason, i just wanted her to be part of the group that lost 15 years in the irene dimension. and i DO still definitely want that, but i want to change how that happened. because again, it... there wasn't a reason. she literally snuck in. and was just there. like she just. wanted to watch i guess?? did you bring popcorn girl???

emma in the corner watching laurance and garroth like damnnnn that's crazy 🍿🍿

like i literally have a mental image of her minecraft crouching in the corner of the room and that's what it's been for years. i can see her minecraft crouching her way into the room. she's in the background. she doesn't do anything. Why ?

so... lore drop when i rewatch episode 100!!!!!

[goat-guy-tm]

Welcome to me trying to build a proper timeline of the events in the Aphverse in my rewrite, aka me sharing something I remembered about my rewrite;

A way my rewrite differs greatly is that Laurence isn't knocked out by Garroth at the end of season 1, because their dynamic in my rewrite would make that, really out of character for him (they are unofficially married by like mid way through season 1). Laurence ends up being part of the group that gets blasted to the Irene dimension, but, something strange happens.

Laurence instead ends up waking up in a strange forest, and the first person he finds is this strange kid covered in completely black burns.

When being forced through dimensions, Laurence instead tumbles out into Void Paradox, giving him an wven bigger reason to be hell bent on returning to the OverWorld, because for all he knows Garroth, Aphmau and the others could be dead, or even lost in their own random realms.

It's also kind of Enki's (Travis' mom) fault. Being the not really designated but designated realms protector she also basically oversees all transportation between realms, and of course seeing such a large group of people going from the OverWorld to Irene's dimension makes her freak out a little and accidentally plucked Laurence out of there and threw him to Modzilla.

I realize saying "Yeah Travis' mom is an ethereal realms overseer between worlds in the vacuum of non existance physically fighting off the void" without context of this post <SO TURNS OUT I NEVER POSTED SAID POST I WAS TRYING TO REFRENCE, SO LOOK OUT FOR THA :[]