#and this is also why i ship them

[anneapocalypse]

I've talked a lot about the role that isolation plays in Urianger's unhealthier tendencies, and I think so much of that also applies to G'raha, just for different reasons. While G'raha Tia is on the surface a much more bubbly and outgoing person than Urianger, he has a similar level of passion about a very specific topic and a similar dedication to doing what must be done for the greater good. I'd even go so far as to say they share some similar ideas about destiny and purpose (something I think is critical to Urianger's character, but that's another post).

They're so similar in their desires to do the right thing, to save everyone they can, to spare their friends the burden of the painful decisions--and their willingness to suffer isolation and loneliness for that.

The biggest difference is that G'raha lives in that isolation for a hundred years. And I say this with the greatest possible love for Urianger because he is my favorite character in this game and I absolutely adore him and relate to him deeply: the three years he suffered keeping the Exarch's secrets, which I have no doubt were really painful for him, were still a drop in the bucket next to G'raha's century of being able to tell no one who he was, where he'd come from, even his real name. Surrounded by people who loved him as the Exarch, and yet as G'raha Tia, utterly alone.

I understand the anger some Warriors of Light will have toward him for the deception--hell, even Ariane's mad at him for a minute. It's a natural reaction. As a player though I can't help profoundly sympathizing with him. After keeping his very identity a secret for so long, after working so hard and sacrificing so much to lay the groundwork for the salvation of two worlds, I don't know how he could have seen any other options. The risks of having the plan derailed would have seemed far too great. Of course he thought he had to do it alone.

And Urianger was helpful in getting the others invested, sure (though perhaps not as helpful as the Exarch might have hoped), but I think it was more than that. I think G'raha saw in Urianger a kindred spirit and a chance, however small, to share his burdens with someone and he couldn't not take it. And yes, it hurt Urianger, but what hurt him wasn't knowing the truth but having to keep it from his friends. A lot of things could've gone differently if G'raha had brought all the Scions in. But I understand both why he didn't, and why Urianger went along with it--because isolation is brutal, and self-reinforcing.

And it makes me happy to see both of them find their way out of it.

[shepscapades]

Collection of (mostly dbhc) Ethubs doodles from over the past two years or so :]

[lotus-pear]

free will is drawing ur two favorite characters together and making them gay

[nightthinker-08]

I couldn't sleep so I drew some Pomnies shes surprisingly fun to draw lol Oh and some doomed yuri too I guess xD buttonblossom is cute n all but calling them doomed yuri or digital yuri is a lot funnier to me

[cyellolemon]

sillies.....

[keii]

late morning

[rubikor]

would you hold my face softly and tell me it will be alright?

[introspectivememories]

been watching mashle and oh my god, the eugenics???? the way lance's parents were so ready to give up their daughter??? no second thought???? just "why did this child have to be born to us?"???? um everyone talking in mash's face about how non-magic people are inherently worthless???? the triple line dude fucking making dolls out of people and somehow no one??? is??? checking him???? and then when questioned immediately jumping into "well humans are little more than mindless beasts and i will become a creator deity and reshape the world in my liking!"????? the, um, corruption in the government??? the way this story is so clearly "h*rry p*tter if it was actually funny"??? the slytherin coded characters are blood purists???? they took out hufflepuff??? one of the magia lupus' mage's powerset was just big shuriken???? another one is rip off kisame???? lance is a siscon and the first thing mash says is "that doesn't make it better"???? lemon is genuinely so fuckin funny??? dot is incel-coded but like in a funny way??? dot says that lance is playing life on "easy mode" cause lance has a good face??? dot likes tea??? dot has good manners??? everybody only has one spell they can use??? finn ames is like if you transported is regular human into this stupid ass world??? i think the old man and the cop have explored each others bodies.

[annasofthe11thdimension]

Waltz

[cable-salamdr]

So anyways the reason I talked abt Ronin is because I binge watched Possession again and I realized. I have never drawn this bastard man. So here’s that (ignore that I didn’t add his hat it was annoying me)

+ me remembering that the Dobson brothers are all VAs that act in Ninjago as completely different characters and how much funnier certain dialogue gets with that context.

[kookoofufu]

One piece fans are great cause no matter who you are, where you come from, what your age, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status is, 1 of these 4 middle aged men will inevitably become your blorbo. Margaritaville uncle, big titty mob boss, morticia addams, or assigned clown from birth. They're all hot, homeless and obsessed with a teenage boy. The world's worst polycule. Choose wisely.

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[juthemagicalclown]

officially had enough of "people who ship *insert any two characters with a nice positive dynamic* never had a close friendship because those two are obviously friends and not in love"

therefore introducing : "people who think that you can't be friends and lovers never had a healthy romantic relationship where they saw their partner also as a friend"

[mrspronouns]

dear malevolent podcast fans, why does no one ever talk about john and kayne and their whole dynamic . not even necessarily ship dynamic. no one talks about them NEARLY as much as we should be.

do you guys ever think about how whenever arthur and kayne have their weird gay shit going on, john is the one Witnessing it? arthur can't even see kayne's gay ass. JOHN can though. and he DOES. do you guys ever think about that. how he's forced to watch that?

do you guys ever wonder about what exactly happened with the whole deal to get john out of the dark world? why did kayne say uhh "the things you did to make this deal happen" . WHAT things? did kayne make john give him a little kissy? like did john have to massacre millions? theres so much to be explored here guys come on why aren't we talking about them more

they have such a weird freaky power dynamic and no ones even talking about it. it doesnt NEED to be like a ship thing. just in general. BUT ALSO do they even have ??? a ship name??? these are two of the main characters of the podcast guys. i know we all care about arthur sooooo much but..... but what about them.......

[francy-sketches]

sorry I got posessed by the wattpad demon I'm normal now (lying)

+alt version that didnt fit the #aesthetic but it better represents my #vision of them ^_^ hashtag couplegoals

[mossy-rot]

death note really is just like watching the worst polyam couple you've ever met