#anyway LOVED seeing sonic like legitimately angry

[ghostpebble]

sonic movie 3

When violent characters are gentle and tender & when gentle characters are violent and unhinged

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 12: the hen ichaer

i realize i've been mentioning the hen ichaer without really explaining it, and for that i apologize. but without further ado, let's go

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

general

the hen ichaer is basically a magical gene that originated with the elven sorceress, scholar, and princess, lara dorren aep shiadhal

it can lie dormant or inactive for generations, but when someone is an activated carrier of the gene, they are called a source

sources have an insane capability for magic, it's so intense that without instruction they are a huge danger to themselves and/or others. remember pavetta's betrothal feast? hurricanes should not happen indoors

same thing with ciri's sonic scream.

obviously, the hen ichaer is highly weaponize-able, but it's difficult to put this into theory since the magic is so strong that it can easily kill the person who carries it

most important is that the hen ichaer can open ard gaeth, the gates between worlds. you may remember that the witcher is a multiverse, and the continent is just one of countless worlds

aen elle

the aen elle, elves who live in another world called tir ná lia, controlled at least one gate that they used to get slaves from other worlds

however, this was before the hen ichaer was seriously studied. unicorns are also capable of opening ard gaeth, and were present in tir ná lia, so the aen elle would kidnap them to be used as their world-hopping-genocide key. yeah, the aen elle are seriously fucked

the king of the aen elle was named auberon muircetach, and he was very well known for his wars with the unicorns, who weren't too keen on being enslaved for the purpose of conquering other worlds

the hen ichaer came into play when auberon noticed that his daughter, lara dorren, had pretty intense magical abilities. like, ard gaeth opening abilities.

auberon, lara, and a few other elves began studying the gene and trying to figure out how it works and how to use it.

through this study is how we got the title aen saevherne, which is used to distinguish an elven mage with extensive knowledge of history, science, magic, and, most importantly, the elder blood.

both lara and auberon were aen saevherne, as was lara's husband-to-be, avallac'h, and avallac'h's foster son, caranthir ar-feiniel

ithlinne's prophecy

ithlinne aegli aep aevenien was an elven prophet known for her incredibly dark prophecies that she delivered at totally random times. how dark were they? ithlinne's prophecies were almost exclusively about the death of all humanity and/or the end of the world. she was fun at parties.

anyway, when we talk about ithlinne we really only mean one specific prophecy, aen ithlinnespeath. to be confusing it's usually referred to as ithlinne's prophecy

here's the prophecy itself:

Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame. Ess'tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves...

what does that mean? well, the white chill (aka the white frost) is a massive ice age that has been approaching the continent for years. don't believe me? the white frost has destroyed countless worlds in the past, and it literally cannot be stopped. the only way to save the world is by the power of the hen ichaer.

here's a perfectly frightening visual of the white frost

ithlinne didn't elaborate on the how, but we now know that the only to survive the white frost is by finding a new world and massively evacuating the continent through ard gaeth, which can only be opened by the power of the hen ichaer.

genetics

clearly, the hen ichaer is important enough to literally save, or end, the world, but the aen elle did a famously terrible job of studying it. like, you'd think they'd be good at that, but no. to their credit, it is a bit complicated

first, there are multiple types of elder blood genes, the main gene, the latent gene, and the activator gene. to actually show the powers of the hen ichaer, someone would need to either have one latent and one activator, or the main gene.

let's go back to secondary school biology for a second, remember punnet squares? these fuckers

the letters in a punnet square represent a genotype, or the two alleles that are inherited from the parents. phenotypes, on the other hand, are what you see on the outside. for example, a genotype would be Aa but a phenotype would be brown eyes.

while the main gene is a simple dominant allele (shown by a capital letter on a punnet square), both the latent and activator genes are semi-dominant, meaning that when they meet they create a new phenotype: the innate magical ability that makes you a source.

it gets a little less scientific here so bear with me; this new phenotype is so powerful that it sometimes creates a whole new genotype. so instead of having one activator gene and one latent gene, the two would merge and you'd be left with only one (very powerful) main gene. this is the only single gene that actually has magic and it's a dominant gene, so you only need to have one to have the power.

but, the latent and activator genes don't always combine. you still have the full powers when they stay separate, but it is then less likely to pass the hen ichaer your children.

complicated? very much so. but in practice it's a lot easier.

for simplicity's sake i'll call the activator gene g/a, latent gene g/L, main gene g/m and a regular nonmutated gene g/r. to be a source, the genes you inherit would be g/a g/L, but they may combine to be just g/m. your average person would be g/r g/r and a carrier would be either g/a g/r or g/L g/r.

clearly, this makes tracking it pretty messy, since generations of people can be carriers without having a single source

tracking the hen ichaer

for now, let's do what those elven sages couldn't and track then hen ichaer, starting with lara dorren

eventually, lara met an exceptionally talented human mage, cregennan of lod, and they were lab partners (oh my god they were lab partners) in the study of the hen ichaer.

eventually, lara met an exceptionally talented human mage, cregennan of lod, and they were lab partners (oh my god they were lab partners) in the study of the hen ichaer.

for all the studying, lara and cregennan's own genes have always been something of a mystery. elven mages don't tend to have any issues with using themselves as lab rats, so it's entirely possible that lara and cregennan, knowingly or not, mutated their own genes in their research.

ultimately, it doesn't matter what lara and cregennan's genes originally were. by some happy little accident, the two eventually ended up with at least one activator gene and at least one latent gene between them.

later, when lara and cregennan made their own happy little accident, riannon, she inherited one of each gene (g/a g/L), making her a source. however, riannon's genes did not combine as the elves expected, which made her a little harder to study.

riannon eventually met king goidemar of temeria (g/r g/r), and they had two children named fiona and amavet. i'll start with fiona, who the aen elle managed to figure out had the latent gene, making her g/L r

fiona ended up having a baby with king coram II of cintra (g/r g/r), they named him corbett, and he inherited fiona's g/L and one of coram's g/r.

the aen elle lost track of the hen ichaer when they studied riannon's other kid amavet. see, amavet was kind of a whore. he had twins, muriel and crispin, with the married countess anna kameny. obviously, these children weren't legitimate, and when the angry count kameny murdered amavet a few months later, he was officially childless

the elves did, however, manage to figure out that amavet had riannon's g/a gene and goidemar's g/r gene. anna kameny was just g/r g/r, and crispin ended up being g/r g/r as well. destiny does favour the hen ichaer, but sometimes it's just not meant to be. muriel, on the other hand, did inherit her father's activator gene and was g/a g/r.

let's hop back to corbett, fiona and coram's g/L g/r son. he and princess elen of kaedwen (g/r g/r) had a son, dagorad, who got corbett's latent gene and one of elen's regular ones, meaning he was g/L g/r

muriel married robert of garramore (g/r g/r), and their daughter adalia, the dramatically posed lady right there, had the same genetic combination as her mother, g/a g/r

this is where it gets even weirder

the lovely adalia married dagorad. her second cousin. they shared riannon as their great grandmother. feel better in the fact that it was not intentional, adalia's mother, muriel, was not officially riannon's granddaughter. no one would have even known, but adalia's g/a met up with dagorad's g/L in their daughter, calanthe

for the first time since riannon, the hen ichaer was back, and calanthe's parents genes combined to give her g/m g/r

while it took generations of destiny and accidental incest to make the hen ichaer happen again, now that calanthe had the main gene there was a 50% chance she would pass it to her child, which, of course, she did

calanthe and her husband roegner (g/r g/r) had pavetta, who inherited the g/m from her mother. no one knew about this until pavetta literally created a source hurricane, and was already pregnant

pavetta and duny's (g/r g/r) daughter, ciri, inherited the main gene from her mother and was a source.

sources

it's important to note that a source is not necessarily an incredibly powerful sorcerer, merely a person who has the genetic predisposition required to channel very intense magic

sources, like anyone else, can be bad students, allergic to potions, or just generally averse to magic on all levels except heredity. there is also no way to guarantee that even the most willing source will be good at using magic, in fact it's far more common that they will be really really bad at it. sources are extra susceptible to the chaotic state of magic in the world, and many end up pretty seriously harmed by it.

magical talent tends to make itself known in very emotional situations, like the death of a parent or a war. the same applies for sources, but they have an extra rule: their full powers are off limits until they lose their virginities

now, netflix has not mentioned that rule to be true or false, but i'm going to think of it as strictly book/game/etc canon, because ciri is 10 years old when netflix shows her using her source powers for the first time

the virginity rule makes things even more complicated, as customs about premarital sex are pretty strict in the witcher world (well, among nobility), and the dudes didn't seem to have fast reflexes. what i'm saying is that getting pregnant the first time you had sex was not uncommon. sources couldn't even use, and likely weren't aware of, their powers until they were already passing them on to another generation.

and even still, there is no guarantee that someone who is a source will ever actually show their powers. calanthe had the genetics, but she wasn't a mage. what happened? we don't really know. after calanthe married, cintra was pretty peaceful; there were no invasions or massive upheavals that could put enough stress on her to show her powers. plus, her parents didn't know she had any magical powers, so they didn't give her the training that would develop them, and she was a very level headed person who would likely be unaffected by many of the things that would make another source lose their shit.

[runolllo-fanboygirl]

is mizuki still a queen when murata sexualises her to the bone?

Short answer: Yes, Mizuki is still a Queen in those cases. I will continue to tag her as #Queen, consider her an icon, and continue to like her even if I hate the couple of so called “sexualized Mizuki to the bone” drawings Murata made of her (which I never posted here in the first place). A couple of sexy pics don’t erase what a legitimately great character she is. It’s kind of rude to come rain on my parade with whatever point you wanted to make when I was so excited to see her again in today’s chapter and being completely innocent about it.

Long answer: (someone help me write a tl;dr please OTL) 

I’m too tired, the whole “bla bla sexualization” thing is very complex, I don’t have the time or energy to answer properly... and I don’t like trap questions like this because there is no right answer and I feel put on the spot. Maybe that wasn’t your intention, so I’ll answer in good faith. 

In the context of official OPM things, it’s my opinion that a few instances of her being sexualized don’t change the fact that she’s still very amazing, fun, hilarious, corageous and powerful. You’re allowed to dislike her, but it’s not fair to invalidate the rest of her character and her fans because you didn’t like the author making certain decisions here and there. We fans have a right to like characters even if later the author does things with them that we don’t agree with. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but characters are just that, characters, and it’s up to the author’s intentions AND the point of view of the fans to give meaning to them.

We’re still allowed to love Mizuki and see her as an iconic character, in special fellow women, I feel. We’re starved for variety and representation and Mizuki is a super good hearted, strong gal. It’s not every day you get a 2m tall sportwoman character like her, in special in contrast to Gearsper who is instead a tiny guy with noodle arms. I’m very excited about all the different kinds of ladies that OPM has now, YES EVEN IF most of them have been put in a bikini at this point, which is kind of sad and ridiculous.

Now, of course, we’re not stupid. It’s not like you can’t tell when Murata is using literal p0rn as reference to draw, lmao. It’s not like we don’t know he’s h0rny as f*ck. Still, OPM is a seinen series and we should expect adult content. It’s also true that for being the kind of seinen it is (parodying shonen series and all) it’s quite the surprise that we get a fair amount of male eye candy as well, even though lately I don’t think it’s balanced with the ladies fanservice anymore (but it used to be).

Also, I’m a woman who likes other women, so what do you want me to tell you? I loved that cover of Mizuki taking her shirt of /// THIS ONE /// I’m a big fan of soft fanservice like that! Although, I personally prefer just a bit of eye candy occasionally... I DON’T want fanservice to be all over the place for no reason, in special of the ladies, because it just looks unprofessional and stupid when the point of this series is not to be some h0rny har3m anime. Sexy drawings can be very interesting and appealing from time to time but I don’t want Murata to use so much time on them instead of on other more interesting stuff, and it also creates bad vibes when a whole a s s chapter is about two guys bonding but the cover is another Fubuki with her Fub00bs out. Don’t think I don’t get disappointed (even angry) at this kind of bullshit. I do, friend. I would lie if I said I don’t love the Fub00bs... but we don’t need them all over the place all the time in special in chapters where she’s not even present otherwise.

On the same note, I actually hate the uncomfortably-close-to-p0rn kind of fanservice like that disgusting sequence where Mizuki squishes that watermelon head monster with her inner thighs (which, on the other hand, was HILARIOUS and empowering in its own way, except that I know Murata was not drawing those scenes with empowerment in mind, of course... but still, all the more power to fellow ladies who find that empowering, reclaim it from the h0rny boys!). But anyway, I can only consider Mizuki to have been “sexualized to the bone”, like you put it, that one time with the watermelon. Everything else has been very tame fanservice.

It really depends on what you think is “too much” for an adult series like this that doesn’t focus on romance or s3x. The only other instance in which I felt like it went too far, is when Psykos seemed to be starring some weird tentacle p0rn as Orochi tried to absorb her ;P and I personally dislike Monster Princess a lot because everything about her is just Murata being h0rny and there is literally nothing else about her character, her “personality” is being a representation of Murata’s kinks, but even then, many fans find her legitimately empowering too.

Lastly, I just want to quickly say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with sexy things in general, the problem is the context in which they are usually created and presented, and that’s when sexy goes into “sexualization turned objetification” territory, which is what can get really wrong. Otherwise, you can find someone sexy and still appreciate everything else about them, it’s just one more thing you like about them. 

Anyway, it’s all a lot more complex than this, but that’s my answer for today. Now, if I may ask: are Flash, Sonic and Garou, who are sexualized through the whole series A LOT, not amazing anymore just because we get a lot of blatant fanservice of them? Have you ever thought about them in the same terms you are asking me about Mizuki? 

[sunriseseance]

giRL WHAT DO U MEAN KLAUS IS GONNA SNAP EYE

ANON LEMME TELL YA 

Okay but also I am an English Major so that means telling you is going to involve an essay w concrete evidence. I will try to use the fuck word as to be more fun and approachable. Also, I’m gonna split it into two parts. First, things that happen in canon in s1 that I feel point to Klaus taking a turn for the, uh, worse; second, promo and interviews and other paratext that makes me think something strange is afoot. As much as I, as a postmodernist, love paratext, I still have to say that I think anything paratextual is less important than anything textual. ANYWAY let's get into it. 

Klaus, in season one, goes through a lot. Like a ridiculous amount. Everyone suffers, and has suffered, throughout the duration of the show but I think it is important to note how much of what Klaus goes through that we SEE. Luther was alone on the moon for 4 years, and we see maybe 20 seconds of it. Allison lost her daughter. Five went through decades of survival-isolation. Vanya was left out of everything. All of these things happen, by and large, off-screen. We see them dealing with these things, and acting in certain ways because of them, but the stuff that Klaus goes through is viscerally present tense compared to this. We watch him get tortured. We watch a PTSD flashback, and we watch his brother dismiss it. We watch, on screen, him lose the love of his life. We watch him go through withdrawal. We watch him fucking (see? I promised) literally die. I think that this is because Klaus, unlike the others, is being set up to get Worse. We see something sort of similar with Vanya, but it’s rehashing old traumas, not introducing new ones. (Vanya slashing Allison’s throat and Diego losing Eudora both are present tense and I do not want to minimize these AT ALL but Allison’s is something I think she will deal with in s2 given what we’ve seen, and Diego seems to deal with his in s1 at least in part).  Klaus seems to me to be experiencing shit that can push him over an edge. 

At the same time that he’s experiencing this shit, he is becoming much more powerful. We hear Reg say he has untapped potential. We watch him, 48 hours sober, accidentally making ben corporeal. We see him die and come back to life. And, just cause this is my disjointed post and I can do what I want, we see him use telekenesis. Straight up. I’m not talking about the dubious things like the briefcase exploding or the coin or the umbrella falling; in the club he uses his mind to locate the pill he threw across a room. The pill has the same aura effect as his hands do later when he summons Ben. That is, IMO, unquestionably him using telekenesis, and it happens right before Reg tells him about his untapped potential. 

So, to sum up, Klaus goes through brand new things in present tense, and he is getting wildly more powerful.

He’s also angry, and mean. 

Klaus has a lot of anger that I think fandom just straight up does not address. He shouts at Five in e2, he steals from a grocery store to get back at Five and Luther in e3, he is INCREDIBLY bitter about his siblings not caring about him in e4, he breaks the briefcase and starts a fight and kicks the tire of Diego's busted car and flips off Hazel and Cha Cha in e5, he gets angry at Diego for doing what HE asked him to do in e6, he mocks Ben for being incorporeal in e7, he makes fun of and causes sonic pain to Luther in e8, he has a (for want of a better word) freakout about them locking Vanya up for new and uncontrolled powers in e9, and he is angry about being sidelined to lookout in e10 to the extent that it’s what’s on his mind when he saves their lives via his new powers. None of this is invalid, I don’t think. He’s been through a lot. He is imperfect and angry and has spent a lifetime trying to be numb INSTEAD of angry. But, as he gets sober, that becomes less possible. He gets angrier and meaner the more sober he gets, thus far. Which I think signals that things are gonna get worse before he gets better. I do think he’ll get better, though, to be clear. 

Now, onto some s2 speculation. In season 1 Klaus expresses certainty that the Hargreeves will not come rescue him, and he was correct. He can see the dead and he is (maybe) sober. I think s2 will start with him thinking they left him behind to save the world, and I think this will motivate him to delve into his powers more. Experiment on himself, or let himself be experimented on, while stewing in anger and hurt that from HIS POV is legitimate. I  see the images and I see someone who is clearly performing, and also someone who is drinking again. He also is, crucially, 5 years away from being able to interact with the person he loved, and he thinks everyone he loves abandoned him.  I think he’s going to be meaner the next time we see him. 

Which brings us to some meta stuff: Klaus looks angry in every photo we see of him in s2. Even as he is actively doing a spin, he looks angry and sad. In the cover photo he is looking at the camera, while everyone else is looking away, and he looks GODDAMN mean. In an interview, Sheehan said that Klaus had a new addiction in s2, and I certainly think that could be using his powers in some sort of Snapped way (he also said that the comic thing he wanted most was floating. Not TK, but floating. Could be nothing, but could be something). This all means a lot less to me than the direction he’s being pointed in s1, but it IS interesting. 

SOOOOOO in conclusion: Klaus is being written as Still Dealing more often than the others, he is being written to have untapped potential, and he is FUCKING angry. I think our good bitch is gonna snap.

[chelular-device]

Ahhhh, thank you! My land sounds so cool! Onwards to the next one!! What do you think our typing quirks would be? I succ at being creative, so here they are! Page of Space (me lol); Seer of Void; Thief of Time; Rogue of Time; Maid of Doom; Mage of Light and Prince of Breath -w-

Although typing quirks do not directly relate to someone’s classpect, I will make some based on these classpects’ personalities (according to me)

I’m going to go in backwards order for this, just cuz I feel like it I guess.

Prince of Breath. Actively destroys freedom, individuality and movement/progress.

mega procrastinator. Likely has been alone all their life and HATED it. Touch deprived and probably can’t form an opinion of his own for fear of becoming an outcast.

llikely mmakes. mmany ppauses. bbetween eevery oother. wword. aalso. ssorta sstutters. uum. aa llot.

Next one.

Mage of Light. Active knowing class. Understands light, knowledge, and luck/favorable outcomes.

While they may be able to basically foresee what you should do, they probably won’t tell you until you do it wrong. Gets angry because you’re not as smart as him. 4.0 GPA and brags about it. A lot.

Maybe just to spite you, he uses 4 and 0 in replacement of A and O. Probably uses big words. Has a thesaurus on hand at all times. Capitalizes his initials. So if his name is Logane Rokter:

4LL y0u dumb fucks need t0 get y0uR shit t0getheR.

Maid of Doom. Active creation class. Creates fate, rules, and death(?)

Not a bad person. Usually. They stick to the rules for the most part… But if something gets in their way, they just make a rule. Likely the leader of most group projects. As for the session? Might be fighting over it for one of those time players.

As for a quirk… Hm…

They legitimately just talk normally. Occasionally goes all uppercase if they’re mad or want to make a point. But for the mist part just good grammar. While he ends most of his sentence in periods, he tends to stick to the rules of grammar. Cuz, yknow.

Rogue of Time. Passive stealing class. Steals time, inevitability, and speed from others for the benefit of the team.

gotta go fast!! sonic speed!!!

Uses way too many exclamation points. Rushes everything. Makes a lot of spelling mistakes. Ends everything with an exclamation point and replaces is with them.

Cmo on guyss!!!! We gotta Hecc!n goo!!

Thief of Time. Active stealing class. Steals time, inevitability, and speed from others for the benefit of themselves.

Rushes everything but just in there head. Passive-aggressively tells people to “take their time”. Heh get it. Take your time… cause that’s what they’re doing….

The opposite of the other one, sort of. Ends everything with three periods (you know, the “…” Thing) and, also, makes is colons and js semicolons.

oh no, take your t:me, really… *under breath* ;ust k:dd:ng…

Seer of Void. Passive knowing class. Is knowledgeable about nothingness, horrorterrors, and grimdarkness. and also apparently void players have something oddly sexual bound to them…? So that’s too??

In case you’re wondering what I mean by that, look at Equius. Horses. We know that. Now Horrus. Wants to fuck Damara and owns a dildo. Roxy is sort of self explanatory, drinks a lot, tends to sort of fall in love with literally all three of her friends. Well not Jake that much but STILL.

But anyways, back to being serious. They see horrorterrors. Derse dreamer for SURE. Likely goes insane at some point.

maYBe hAS soMEthINg sIMilAR to GAmzEE’s qUIrk.

except now it’s every two letters.

AND WHEN THEY GO NUTS, THEY SCREAM AT THE TOP OF THEIR GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKING LUNGS.

This is why void players are either really chill people or fucking terrifying.

And finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

*kazoo doot*

Page of Space. passive(??) serving class. Gets served Space by others, then eventually releases their true potential for creativity, space itself, and physics.

Makes Fanart. Doesn’t like criticism, probably. Eventually learns how much criticism really helps, etc etc…

Hmm. Maybe makes planet puns? Because of course they do.

And also capitalizes O’s (looks like a planet le xd) and leaves a star at the end of every message. Because that’s the only thing I’ve ever seen you literally do.

“hhey. ddid yyou ssee. uuranus ttonight. ”

“Nah, lOOking at my anus wOuld prObably break my back! 🌟 ”

it’s the only one I could think of okay??? I’m not good at puns.

This was fucking LONG.

Okay then. Thanks for the ask. This was really fun!