#as long as they're mother and father I don't really mind in which sense of the words

[palamedeez-nuts]

please tell me I'm not the only person who can't decide if I want Abigail Pent and Magnus Quinn to adopt me, or see me across the bar and like my vibe

[ghostradiodylan]

Probably a lukewarm take, but other than the (lack of an) ending, the Laura and Ryan scenes are some of the worst written and conceived parts of The Quarry.

And this is completely separate from whether Ryan is interested in Dylan (he is, but that's another post and not important to this rant) or Kaitlyn; even if Ryan had no other potential relationships in the game, even if Laura wasn't practically married to Max, wearing his ring around her neck the entire time they're talking, it still would feel flat to me because nothing about it is earned.

Laura is on a killing spree with the single-minded goal of saving Max. She genuinely believes the only way to do that is to kill Chris Hackett. Even if you've made her argue with Max to the extent that they can, they're still a strong unit when she goes out to solve this werewolf thing once and for all. Even if you don't believe in love think their relationship would survive all this trauma, she deeply believes she owes it to him to rescue him, that is her entire guiding ethos during the game.

Ryan is going with her to try to keep that from happening because Chris has been his friend and mentor for years. We know Ryan has an absent mother, unmentioned father, and a potentially turbulent family life, and he's been coming to HQSC for so long that it feels like home to him, that Chris and his kids feel like family. Laura has already killed Kaylee. Even if Ryan completely bought into the werewolf thing by now, that would be a tough pill for him to swallow, given his reaction to her death.

Then, they fall in the titular Quarry and suddenly have the option to express a completely unearned sort of camaraderie with each other. Why is Laura asking Ryan about his love life in the first place? The question about him being single makes sense as a dig, but it doesn't make any sense for her to ask about him being a 'brooding and mysterious loner' because... she hasn't actually seen him do anything brooding or mysterious? How did she even get that impression? If Laura's got some kind of borderline psychic intuition then this is really the worst possible use of that ability--she should have foreseen her need to go to that motel and stay the fuck out of locked storm shelters instead.

It doesn't make a lick of sense for her to say that Kaitlyn looks up to him either. She hasn't seen that. Hell, we as players haven't even seen that! Kaitlyn seems generally tolerant of but unimpressed by Ryan. She has the option to be impatient with him multiple times and even get the chyron that she's ‘losing respect’ for him if he suggests she take the gun and go after Nick instead. This seems like an objectively good idea, since she's a much better shot than Ryan, a fact which the game keeps telling us despite refusing to give her a gun until the last possible second, though maybe the concern is that she'd have to drag Nick back to the campfire herself. (Honestly, I think Kaitlyn could do it, I think she's like a mighty ant who can lift many times her own weight, but that's not what this post is about.)

Ryan, for his part, shouldn't really be willing to talk about any of this with Laura either. He canonically doesn't even want to talk to his coworkers about his animation school decision (in the office scene with Dylan and at the campfire with Emma if you choose truth like a lunatic) and he's known them for at least two months, if not for years attending the same camp. But he met Laura a few hours ago and is suddenly willing to spill his guts about who he does or doesn't have a crush on and who does/doesn't have 'the hots' for him, despite the only experience they have together being her leaving his friend of several years dead facedown in a pool and expressing a strong desire to kill his father figure? I simply do not buy it.

I'm not sure if this was supposed to go along with the relationship system that they scrapped or what (there's not a single shred of Ryan and Laura stuff in the datamine that I've been able to find), but all it really serves to do is muddy the waters by trying to force some level of intimacy on Ryan and Laura before the big confrontation at the Hackett House. But that confrontation itself should have been the thing that forged that intimacy between them and allowed them to go on to fight Silas together.

Overall, I think it's a major sign that the back third of the game got a very rushed and, frankly, bad chop job (which we know is true) and that they struggled to tie the resulting loose threads off in a way that made any kind of narrative sense. It's a shame, because the writing in The Quarry is actually way better than most people give it credit for, it just wasn't allowed to pay off in a lot of ways that clearly were intended.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

the thing is. why bring Rose back for this finale. she didn't particularly do much other than standing around and looking pretty. I assume there'll be more of her for the second part. I stand by my original assertion from the star beast that it doesn't make sense that she can just 'give up' the alien DNA she was born with. my point back then was that it would be fun if she could regenerate, and ended up becoming the timeless child herself, thus making the Doctor's entire existence a very fun paradox AND also canonizing the 'half human, on my mother's side' line from the 8th doctor's movie (my beloved) (because Donna was only half human whether she knew it or not).

HOWEVER.

all the susan-baiting is really getting to me. I want our weird little granddaughter back. they canonized the fact that the Doctor doesn't actually know who her parents were. and I REMEMBER. that Susan's original gallifreyan name was Rose. well, their language's equivalent of it. that's how Rose Tyler got her name, it was meant to be a cute little easter egg, the first classic companion and the first new who companion sharing a name. so walk with me. the weird girl daughter of Donna Noble, who grew up on earth but never fit in there, who has the Doctor's DNA woven into her being, and access to a yardis, and can in this scenario regenerate...coming across a younger version of the her father/uncle, introducing herself as Rose (which translates to gallifreyan, I really don't feel like looking up the spelling rn I'm sorry it started with an A), the doctor can recognize her- as family, he thinks, not knowing its a spark of him, their shared mind. she knows about how risky spoiling the future would be, she doesn't know if he has siblings and he looks older than she's ever seen him, so she says she's his granddaughter instead of his niece. daughter. him. she's part time lord. she lives longer than her human family. the Doctor is all she has left and she wants to be with him even if it isn't a him that knows her yet. she's heard the phrase 'timey wimey' before, and she's a smart and careful girl. she finds she doesn't fit in on gallifrey any more than she ever fit in on earth. the Doctor knows exactly what that feels like. they travel. when her human friend renames her Susan, she likes it a lot. feels like when she changed her name the first time. freeing, empowering, becoming. feels like the new name fits her new life better. Rose has a long dead family but Susan has her grandfather. the part of her that is her mother and father, though, still craves human connection. the love and fascination with humanity that she inherited from the Doctor is still there. she tells him all about humans and he takes her to visit them more and more to humor her. she ends up fostering his love for earth that will one day define him AND lead to her creation. she accidentally coins the name tardis the same way the doctor will accidentally invent a banana daiquiri a few centuries too early. he just thinks she's creative and silly. a very dear child. odd and bizarre to her classmates at school, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was the first time around. sometimes she even goes to see a younger Wilf. he's somehow exactly how she remembers him as an old man. she's so grateful they're in the 60's though, because if she ever has to look into the eyes of a Donna Noble who didn't know her, she thinks she may actually die. but the Doctor- he IS enough. he is still part of her, part of her mother, even if he doesn't realize it. she can't help but worry over his health, even knowing he lives long past this, because she got so used to helping his older self in his retirement. she knows him better than he knows himself. she'd do anything for him, and she knows he'd do anything for her.

she just never thought leaving her was something he'd do, though.

[ilikekidsshows]

I remember years ago when Ladybug the episode airing, there's so many people called Tom and Sabine as a bad parents... for whatever reason, and I was one that keep saying they're a good parents. Now though... it make me wondering if they are really as good as I thought they were if Marinette turned out to be this bad.

I saw some people say the reason why Marinette turned to be this spoiled is because she has one child syndrome, but Adrien is one too and ironically he become a better person than Marinette ever be. And the only one child who become spoiled is Chloé and Felix whose parents is also way too doting that they let the kid do whatever.

Today I found out the term "Helicopter parenting" A helicopter parent (also called a cosseting parent or simply a cosseter) is a term for a parent who is overattentive and overly fearful of a child's experiences and problems, particularly outside the home and at educational institutions. And I feels like its something that Tom would do, especially in Weredad episode. He doesn't want Marinette to feel sad so he will create a situation where she won't be sad, emotion need to be fixed or prevented, which... Track with what Marinette's tend to do.

I know I shouldn't put pshycological aspect into a cartoon, let alone a toddler show, but it just fit. 😅

---

The thing about discussing psychology when it comes to media isn't really about who the media is for, I think. The issue, as I see it, comes from using stereotypes of different conditions to classify characters in a negative way, regardless of what genre a piece of media belongs to. It's kinda how you would go about actually writing a story with these same themes: don't forget there are real people who deal with these things who won't appreciate being demonized or dehumanized, so treat the topic with compassion.

However, sometimes it can be useful for your self discovery to discuss whether or not a character fits similar categories as you yourself do. It can be a fun topic to discuss when it's done in a compassionate way. Sometimes small details just fit together way too well to not bring it up. Sometimes it can be good to be aware that the writers might be codifying their characters a certain way and what kinds of attitudes that codifying enforces.

Those people calling Marinette's problems "only child syndrome" when we can see her parents and their parenting techniques are definitely barking up the wrong tree. Only children aren't naturally spoiled, they might not be spoiled at all. But helicopter parents are common these days. A lot of modern parents are afraid of screwing up because we're more aware than ever of how parents can traumatize their kids, and that makes them easily veer into overprotective territory. I do agree with you that helicopter/cosseting parenting seems to be a far more fitting descriptor for what’s going on with Marinette.

Miraculous does often genuinely hit the nail on the head on what some types of parenting do to kids, which makes it so absolutely bonkers when they claim that it's not on purpose. It’s more likely that some of it was on purpose, but the writers then changed their minds about what they wanted to say about parenting. Like, Chloé’s issues get built up as being the result of being spoiled and neglected by her father and mother respectively, but then season five claims Chloé‘s just an evil hellspawn who was born that way.

The thing about Adrien is that his disposition also makes sense with his upbringing. His only friend growing up was Chloé, the epitome of a spoiled brat lashing out because she doesn’t get actual care from her parents, and sometimes Félix, another emotionally unskilled kid lashing out at others because he doesn’t have friends. Add to this Adrien’s emotionally immature father, who goes on a year-long magical rampage where he purposefully tramples on everyone else’s emotions in a misguided attempt to get his wife back with no consideration towards the son he also loves and who's actually still alive. Gabriel also doesn’t want to shield Adrien from disappointments, he often causes them and seems to have that attitude that it’s character-building.

But yeah, it makes sense that Adrien is emotionally astute, since his own emotional well-being relied on him developing the skills to work around the social bombs he grew up around. And then the series decided that, actually, Adrien being so attentive, often even to his own detriment, is a good thing because Marinette can benefit from it. Suddenly Gabriel’s behavior was claimed to not be abusive or emotionally damaging to Adrien at all and Félix is a caring cousin and a good guy. Considering there are still some throw-away lines in the post-retool episodes about how harmful Adrien’s fawning is to himself, it really seems like either there’s been a change in course or the writers disagreed on what the takeaway over Adrien’s family situation was supposed to be.

As for Marinette, ‘Weredad’ does, just as you pointed out, confirm Tom as an incredibly overprotective parent. I’ve also previously made a post about how Marinette exhibits a lot of signs of being an overly coddled child, which is the same thing as a child with cosseting/helicopter parents. Marinette can’t handle stress, because her parents don’t expect things from her, not wanting to pressure her. The one time her parents asked her to do anything for them in the show was handing off a cake to a customer in ‘Timebreaker’. The rest of the time Marinette seems to almost be a free-range child, with no mention of bedtimes or her parents expecting her to have her homework done. Marinette’s studies barely get mentioned, which is really weird for a middle school teen hero show where the characters spend a lot of time in school and classes. But Marinette’s parents are apparently completely unaware of what Marinette does with her day or what happens at school, outside of the letter/email they received in ‘Simon Says’ about Marinette’s repeated absences. Nobody keeps track of or expects anything from Marinette on a more casual level, so when things actually rely on her performance, she buckles under the pressure.

Marinette also can’t handle setbacks, because her parents refuse to voice out her failures and weaknesses so that she could accept them. In ‘Animaestro’, where Marinette starts badmouthing herself, her parents, instead of dealing with this self-deprecating attitude directly, insist she’s definitely not a klutz and totally gets to be a server. They also completely sideline her reason for wanting to be at the event because of this, which they know is to see Adrien. The instant Marinette’s lip starts wobbling, her parents will lie to make her feel better instead of discussing the situation with her. Basically, they treat her like she’s a toddler incapable of understanding that they have a responsibility to their client to not bring an untrained child to work as a server at a public media event with a lot of celebrities.

This lack of dealing with Marinette’s self-esteem problems is also related to Marinette’s past as a victim of Chloé’s bullying. Marinette’s parents are very unengaged with Marinette’s role as a victim; even when she gets expelled on what they think (rightly so) are false accusations, they leave things to the authorities and just tell Marinette she can work at the bakery. To a child, that preparation for the worst-case-scenario feels like the parents aren’t on her side at all. Of course, we don’t know if the parents are aware of the past bullying Marinette faced; even in ‘Origins’ they merely encouraged her to go to school and bring everyone pastries. In general, Marinette’s parents seem to know very little about her friend group (they think Sabrina is a close friend of Marinette’s in ‘Darkblade’) and social standing in addition to her daily activities, which lends credence to me deeming her a free-range child.

Marinette also can’t handle rejection, because her parents never deny her anything except for a single episode, ‘Simon Says’, where they told her she couldn’t go out with her friends until she stopped skipping class. They were incredibly gentle about this grounding too, and held each other's hands afterwards, like this was an incredibly difficult task they’d just completed, gently telling their teenaged daughter she had to stop skipping class for a week before she could be allowed out whenever she wanted again. Basically, it takes extreme circumstances for Marinette’s parents to give her any boundaries, and they clearly don’t like doing it, which explains perfectly why she has no boundaries when it comes to pursuing her attraction to Adrien.

The problem with all of this is that this should be a good ground for Marinette to grow from. This is a valuable topic to discuss. As I said earlier in the post, overprotective helicopter parents who are afraid that every single disappointment or setback will traumatize their child for life are a thing. As such, this is an important thing to teach to families and especially to kids who wouldn't understand what's going on in their lives unless someone brought it up. But this isn't what the show does, because the head of the showrunners is the most overprotective parent of them all for his fictional creation, so of course he isn't going to criticize himself.

[leillaaaa]

𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐮

I find it strange how people assume that Teru could easily change his mind about supernaturals since I honestly can't see him budging much. He, as a character, is very grounded in logic (when it comes to supernaturals), only going off emotion when Kou or someone he loves is involved. He probably had to separate emotion and feeling from thinking through things logically, ever since he started working in the Minamoto family business.

I'd say, in my personal interpretation, that he thinks this way because he has seen how dangerous supernaturals can be. He has probably experienced something like he thinks Kou did - he thought a supernatural was his friend, it was harmless, it wouldn't hurt anyone if he didn't kill it ... and was proven wrong. The amount of bloodthirsty supernaturals he's seen is also insanely high. I think him distancing his emotions lessens his guilt of killing them if he seems them as simple, one word concepts and objects. If they're objectively evil or "not living," then it's easier for him to deal with them and have it take less of a mental toll on him.

It's interesting to think about how his relationship with his family so heavily influences his relationship with supernaturals. I honestly just can't think of a situation where his mother is a "good" Mom. There's been flashbacks where Teru, as a child, was fighting supernaturals larger than even the mermaid Hanako fought in the first episode or any of the mysteries and supernaturals Toilet Trio has faced so far. There's also panels where Teru, as a child, was wearing bandages over his hands and arms - proving he at least got a little bit scraped up. Maybe even burned himself with the staff like Kou did. What kind of mother would allow her six to ten year old son to be hurt like this, knowing she could stop it?

Yes, this was absolutely in the timeframe of her being alive. The Minamotos' mother died around the time Tiara was born, which was around when Teru was around eleven years old. She most likely wasn't even sickly at that point, either. She, in full health, allowed for her son to be harmed. I could see Teru trying to hide his injuries to not worry anyone, so he wouldn't be a burden, but come on - she's his MOTHER, I think she would notice something like this happening.

Even if she was the one bandaging his wounds, that honestly doesn't make it much better. She would be fully aware that he was getting hurt and still unhelpful towards Teru's issue. There may have been backlash from the Minamoto Clan and her husband if she tried to withdraw him from training, but the conclusion is clear: she failed to protect her son. It is clear it was a difficult situation, however, and there was not much she could do.

I imagine their relationship like this: Teru thinks that his mother loves Kou and Tiara more, because Kou reminds her more of herself. Teru also seems more like their father, in her eyes. And Teru ends up seeing everything as a burden he must bear, because he is the eldest son. Since that is what he was taught.

Teru honestly has bad mommy issues ... not just because his mother is dead, basically ... I also think it humanizes the mom more if she had some flaws, because the Mother Kou saw in the Red House was an idealized version of her that he remembered. (As in, all her flaws were washed away.) I think it would be interesting if Teru's perception/memories of her were the most realistic to her actual character, and he both hated and loved her. He longs for a mother's love that he never really properly got. But he also resents her for dying and leaving him, Kou, and Tiara, for "not loving" him in the first place. So he has pretty complicated feelings on her.

Obviously, she wasn't a horrible person. She was a loving mother and tried her best. But she also was far from perfect, I think.

I would sum up their relationship through cooking. I don't know if this makes sense, but to me, Teru's horrible cooking skills seem to stem from a lack of interaction between him and his mother. She spent time teaching Kou how to cook, but neglected teaching him. I think it shows sort of subtly that she just ... didn't really form a strong bond with him, and kind of brushed him aside out of guilt. Kou, she saw as the one child left she could protect. In a way, Teru is almost like a Kannagi - a sacrifice for the Minamoto Clan's sake.

Teru shoulders the burden of being the Minamoto Clan's weapon - the perfect exorcist. His worst fear is probably Kou or Tiara having to take his place. Especially since Tiara is powerful, and they seem to start exorcism training at around six years old.

I'm kind of sick of this fandom acting like Teru barely has any trauma/getting him wrong so that's what this ramble is for ...

( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;) 

Anyways, Teru lovers mutual me pleaseeee !! ‎٩(⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝)و*̣̩⋆̩*

[moongothic]

This is gonna turn into some Crocodad Propaganda eventually but putting the man aside for a little bit

Let's be real for a moment. Regardless of who Luffy's other biological parent is, regardless of if they're relevant to the story or not, no matter what has become of that person, if they're dead or somewhere out there alive, etc-- I believe Oda "knows the truth".

Although it took One Piece until post-Enies Lobby to reveal some of Luffy's blood relatives to us, Oda had technically introduced both Garp and Dragon to us all the way back in the East Blue saga. And Ace was introduced not too long after in the Baroque Works saga, along with his tattoo which held that secret tribute to Sabo all along. (Also he was introduced as "Portgaz D. Ace" meaning Oda must've intended to make the two non-blood brothers from the get-go.) All this means that Luffy's family, both adopted and blood relatives, have been in Oda's mind from the very begining of the story. And so if Oda had figured out Luffy's grandfather, father and at least one brother (if not both) from the begining, then why would he not have decided what became of the person who gave birth to the idiot as well? Like considdering how detail-oriented and meticulous Oda can be, would it not be unusual for him to essentially forget about a character that important (in the sense that Luffy literally would not exist without them) and just handwave them away without much thought? Would that not be out of character for Oda? As such, I don't think it is not unreasonable for us to believe that Oda would know what happened to Luffy's other bio-parent. Mind you, it really could be just something like "Luffy's mother died of The Disease when Luffy was a baby", or "the mom fell down the stairs" or "was eaten by a bear in the woods" or something, anything, whatever. Even if it truly does not matter to the story one bit, I'm sure Oda knows the truth of what happened and why that character wasn't a part of Luffy's life.

But at the same time, if the identity and the fate of Luffy's birthing parent truly did not matter to the story at all, then why wouldn't Oda just tell us who that was and what happened to them? In an SBS or an interview? It's not like people haven't been asking about it, because fans and staff alike have been asking about it for years. If the information really would not change anything, be it the direction the story will take or how we view the characters, if it really is just worthless trivia, then why keep it away from us?

Now of course, I'm sure you'd want to point out that one time Oda told Mayumi Tanaka that "A young boy's adventure begins after he leaves his mother's arms. I want to tell this young boy's adventure story, so his mom is not part of it." And Oda isn't known for lying, we do kind of want to take what he told Mayumi Tanaka at face value. At the same time though. If Luffy's other parent did become a plot relevant character in like the final 200 chapters of the story, after a 1100 chapters, they and their potential connection to Luffy would not have mattered to the story for 90% of its run. For an overwhealming majority of Luffy's adventure, that person would not have been a part of it. So if that character did become relevant, and Oda was lying, then it'd be a white lie at worst. But also, if Oda did intend to reveal that other parent eventually, when the time was right, then surely he wouldn't want to get people hyped up about it way ahead of time. If it did turn out to be a big plot twist or an otherwise important plot point, Oda would want to keep it under the wraps and a secret until the right time, you don't want to spoil something like that. Not to mention it could end up working like a distraction and make people not focus on the more important things happening in the story currently. So really, I think we'd all forgive him for a white lie there. Not to mention, technically speaking, if Luffy doesn't even have a mom but two dads, then Oda wouldn't really be lying either.

But that does bring up an important thing to considder.

If Crocodile does turn out to be Luffy's other dad, when did Oda get that idea, and when would he have committed to it?

Because, keep in mind, One Piece began back in 1997. Twenty seven whole years ago. Which means there's two things to considder; the evolution of queer rights over the past near three decades, as well as the fact that One Piece has more than surpassed Oda's original plans for the series. We must not forget how for a manga to remain serialized in Weekly Shounen JUMP, you need to perform well in the popularity polls consistently; if your manga starts dropping in popularity, JUMP can cancel it and force you end it prematurely. Of course, Oda arguably does not have to worry about those polls anymore after all these decades, there's no way in hell JUMP would ever cancel fucking One Piece in this day and age. But that might not have been the case 15 years ago, that was not the case 20 years ago, and that was absolutely not the fucking case 25 years ago. Like we all famously know that Oda originally planned One Piece to maybe run for like a year, then five years, then ten etc etc. That really is because at the begining of his career he had no quarantee he'd be able to tell the full story he was slow cooking at the back of his mind. Back in the early days, One Piece could've been canceled and ended prematurely, so Oda smartly chose to write it focusing very specifically on what mattered to the story at that moment, in the short term. Yes, he did start laying out the groundwork for things to come, but he did it so subtly that had OP been forced to end early, the series wouldn't have been left with too many massive, gaping plotholes or unresolved sidestories. Another thing to keep in mind is how comic artists for JUMP do have editors etc who can have a say in what goes into the manga (famously, Sasuke only existed because Matashi Kishimoto's editor suggested it). So again, while Oda might be able to do whatever the hell he pleases in One Piece at this point, that wouldn't have been the case 20+ years ago. He would have been more or less at the whims of his editors back in the day.

So would Oda have thought about giving Luffy, the main character of the series, a transgender father back in the year 2000? Could that really have been the secret plan from the start? And would Oda's editor(s) at JUMP have allowed that? Or, did Oda maybe come up with the idea later?

Now just so we're clear, I am NOT suggesting Crocodad was Oda's original intent and that his editors didn't let him do it or anything like that, my tinfoil hat isn't on that fucking tight. What I do want to suggest, is that it is plausible Crocodile being Luffy's other dad was an idea Oda was playing around with at the back of his mind from the begining, but wasn't sure he'd ever get to, mainly due to the uncertainty of series' future and partially because he could've been unsure if his editors would even allow him to write that story. And IF this was the case, Oda may not have even started committing to to the idea until around the CP9 saga. Or, it's possible Oda only got the idea sometime after the completion of the Alabasta arc/during Skypiea saga, and started laying down the groundwork for during Summit War so that, if he ever got around to it, he'd be able to commit and tell that story.

Regardless, let's be real.

It is interesting and kind of suspicious how Crocodile does just happen to be introduced around the same time the rest of Luffy's family was first shown to us, even if we didn't know Garp and Dragon were Luffy's family yet (this was also the same time the first canon queer character was introduced; Oda was playing around with queer characters during Crocodile's introduction, possibly testing the waters to see what he could get away with?) During the CP9 Saga we got the Miss Goldenweek cover story, where we see what's become of Crocodile after the fall of Baroque Works. This is of course adding to the world building of the CP9 Saga (where we're told the criminals who go through Enies Lobby are either sent to Impel Down or to Marineford; so us finding out Crocodile's gone to ID is playing off of what we knew would become of Robin and Franky and the Strawhats not come to rescue them. AND it's foreshadowing for the Summit War Saga), but also, soon after we were reminded of Crocodile and told where he's been sent off to, we were finally formally introduced to Garp and Dragon (Garp having already been mentioned by Aokiji at the begining of the Saga). And we close off the Saga watching Ace and Blackbeard have their fateful match. So again, Crocodile was on Oda's mind around the same time the rest of Luffy's family was. And indeed, after Thriller Bark we then move onto Summit War proper, where Oda does all The Things we would considder The Groundwork for Crocodad, most important being the introduction of Ivankov and their Devil Fruit. But again, just like before, Crocodile just happens to be there at the same time as this saga, which really heavily focuses on Luffy's family, plays out. While we learn about Dragon's secretive nature and connection to Iva-chan, Garp's feelings for the boys, Ace's struggle with his heritage and Luffy's love for him, Sabo and Garp... Yeah, Crocodile's just... Also there.

Whenever Oda starts dwelling into Luffy's family, Crocodile is always there. It's a bizarre coincidence if nothing else.

(And oh won't you look at that, Crocodile has once again become a plot relevant character, just in time for The Final Saga where Dragon has also started becoming actually plot relevant as well)

All of this to say, again.

The fact that Oda has refused to tell us anything about Luffy's other parent is sus, and to me indicates that either although unusual for him Oda genuinely just doesn't give a damn about Luffy's other parent, or he's been trying to play it safe for years so that if he ever got the opportunity, he could give Luffy two dads. (Or maybe there's some other twist that has nothing to do with Crocodile, that is possible too, I just feel like if that was the case then why hide it for 27 years?)

Whatever the case, I'm sure Oda knows the truth.

And I'm sure we will find out the truth eventually, be it on the pages of the comic or in the SBS.

[starreyblueberry]

Hey! How are you doing? I hope you're doing well!

I have a few thoughts on my mind about Timmy, man I miss him so much! I know we have the original series to watch but still. (So sorry that it’s long one!)

I would imagine that Timmy would turn out to be a great man with a good job, a lovely husband and father to his family.

I think maybe his job would be a lawyer, writer or a job that helps children with problems of their own like social worker or something.

About his wife...

I'm not quite sure about Trixie because I have mix feelings about her. She seems to not care about Timmy at all. I know they're still kids and we have no idea what happened as they grow up after the original series (not counting Season 9 and 10 as I heard both don't exist anymore in FOP New Wish.) | don't know if I really like her or she's right for Timmy.

Maybe Tootie would get over her obsession at least I hope so. I know she went through so much thanks to her older sister, which I'm disappointed in their parents for not doing anything due to many reasons, they may have been good people but not good parents.

Anyway, due to Timmy's future daughter from Channel Chasers, they looked similar so it's most likely that it has to be Tootie. If that's really her then I would hope she grow up and more mature, she will not be afraid of her sister, Vicky!

Kind of hope Vicky won't find out that that she has niece and nephew if they never told her…

Tootie or Timmy meeting a new lovely woman that is rightfully for him that cares and love him very much. I don't mind having Tootie, I would love to see her, all I hope she no longer afraid of her sister!

I'm not sure how it works with twins from Channel Chasers' ending like how it does make sense. I find it hard to tell because that ending takes place in 20 years later but FOP New Series takes place into 20 years later as well. Cosmo and Wanda were seen with twins but in the canon they're Hazel's. Poof/ Peri wasn't planned/added until Season 6 of the original. Channel Chasers episode came from Season 4. Twins can't be 10 years old because it seems like Timmy had them at 20 years old. It wouldn't make sense.

It would make more sense if the twins, Tammy and Tommy were younger than Hazel and Dev like 5 years old or younger, but I'm not sure if they will become canon to FOP New Wish. It would be interesting if they do. I don't know about the names Tommy and Tammy. If they become canon and are 5-6 years old, it would be interesting to see their personalities being opposite, like one twin is more calm and chill during other one is more cheerful and funny. That one of them or both are into the mystery and adventures.

I kind of hope that they will have their clothes different designs and not look exactly same as 10 years old Timmy and 10 years old Tootie.

Or maybe they would be toddlers.

About Timmy's parents…

Do you think Timmy stay in contact with them? I wouldn't be surprised if he no longer wants to do with them due to reasons and that they don't know anything about Timmy's children. It's not like Timmy wants to keep them secret, his parents can be, well... them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents have not changed much.

Timmy and his family would no longer live in Dimmsdale City because of well.... We saw how they are... yikes, poor Timmy.

Do you think Timmy still friends with AJ and Chester? I'm not sure if they're still friends or something. I mean AJ has the business of his own and is such busy. Still can't believe he became fairy hunting- (Big YIKES for Fairy World!)

We have no clue about Chester but hopefully we will see him. :'D

I'm not sure if we will see ALL characters to return, cause that's too much and some only appear a few times, some appeared once. Timmy’s grandparents, Crocker’s mother and some probably are dead.

I'm not quite sure about Chimson Chin and Dark Laser because they were wishes along with Imaginary Grey, right? I got feeling that probably they all got erased along with the rest of Timmy's wishes and are no longer exists because Timmy is no longer a Godchild as we saw in Timmy’s secret Wish, how when a Godchild lost their fairy/ies, their wishes has vanished.

But seriously, poor Chimson Chin, Dark Laser and his dear little dog. :(

I know Peri and Irep are still around but I believe probably Fairy Council has a way with them, well with Peri, that they're different from the rest of wishes. Probably there’s a reason why Peri has his own special wand.

I would like to see Peri’s reaction when he sees Crocker, I mean he saw Vicky and thought she wasn’t real! :’D

Anyway, I can tell it’s going to be hard seeing Timmy with no memories of his fairy family and magic. I know we have to deal with it. We can do it! We just have to see what they’re planning with him. I would like to see Jorgen, how he deals with seeing Timmy to go with the final goodbye, after everything he had done for Fairy World. How many times he had saved them from the dangerous situations especially with Darkness.

(I loved that Wishology episodes-)

I’m bet it was very difficult for Wanda, Cosmo and Peri to say goodbye to Timmy. It was really hard for Peri to understand what’s going on cause he was 7 years old.

Hopefully Hazel doesn’t have to deal with some huge challenge adventures herself like how Timmy did, not counting the final season of FOP because it was kind of easy and she had a lot of helps from her brother, friends and her wishes.

I don’t know if you know but there was a theory that Timmy still remember them due to his memory not getting wiped away by Jorgen was because of Love. The Love is more powerful than magic that can’t be done. Kind of interesting but also I would think that if his memories really wiped, maybe his memories didn’t got wiped away, they just blocked out and are blurry, then returned years later. If his memories got wiped away then his feelings of love cannot be gone, still there, deep inside. He probably went to have some therapy. I saw one theory that his favorite colors are green, pink and purple that made him feel special and happy, which is interesting.

Memories or not, I think Timmy would feel uncomfortable and unsure about AJ’s business like AJ telling him some stories which doesn’t make sense. Timmy would say something like:

“But AJ, what if there’s good ones?.. I mean if they’re real.”

Or something like that. He probably wouldn’t be wondering why Crocker was at Galax Institute as he wouldn’t want to know why as we know why how crazy Crocker is…

It would be cool if Timmy and his family became the next neighbors of Wells’ and Cosmo and Wanda’s.

My apologies if anything that doesn’t make sense-

SORRY IT TOOK ME A BIT TO RESPOND TO UR ASK!! Anyway GIRL UR IDEAS?? 10/10!! ok so there's so much to cover so very sorry if I don' get to it all! I love the idea that Timmy is skeptical of AJ and his whole business, AJ did start it when he was 10, so Timmy would have his fairys DURING the creation of this company. He must have been lowkey terrified LOL. Ive seen the theory that Timmys memory couldn't be fully erased due to love, and tbh I really want that to be true. Out of all theories, Its one of my favorite ones! Hazel is def gonna have a lot of an easier time compared to Timmy, as Timmy kinda delt with all the universe-ending stuff of his time. Hazel has a lot more support, especially as more people know about her fairys in the finale and she dosnet have to worry about hiding them all the time! DONT GET ME STARTED ON JORGEN AND TIMMY.. IN MY MIND TIMMY HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN JORGENS HEART AND NO ONE CAN EVER ERASE THAT... LIKE HE IS A STICKLER FOR THE RULES AND HE WILL ABIDE TO THEM BUT HE ALSO SEES THAT STUPID ASS PINK HAT AND SMILES SOMETIMES sorry if I didn't go over everything u said!! Ive had this in the drafts for a while but I love ur thoughts :3 also I hope he went no contact with his shit ass parents :D

[thehollowwriter]

The Official Bio of Clyde Sentry

Basic Info:

Name: Clyde Sentry

Homeland: The Scalding Sands, but they were born in the Queendom of Roses

Species: Human (at least, we think so?)

Birthday: 1st October

Age: 18

Height/length: 162cm

Dominant hand: Left

Gender: non-binary

Sexuality: Asexual, panromantic

Class: 3-A

Dorm: Ignihyde

Best subject: Magic analysis

Club: News club. Not the newspaper club. They comprise relevant news and announce it to the school. Also weather announcements, which they also play music for, for some reason.

Unique Magic: Ceaseless Watcher. They know. What do they know? Whatever they want to. It has many drawbacks, however. It gives them migraines, and it can be difficult for them to see the bigger picture. They don't like knowing other people's thoughts.The information sometimes overloads their brain and makes them pass out. They cannot see into the future, however.

Family:

Unnamed grandmother

Unnamed mother and father (deceased)

Preferences:

Favourite subject: Music

Hobbies: Investigating things, reading, bowling

Likes: Cats, horror, knowledge, stories,

Dislikes: Spiders (they know things), worms, eye symbols, tight spaces

Favourite food: chicken pasta

Least favourite food: mashed potato

Appearance:

Clyde is neither tall nor short. They're neither thin nor fat. They have hair. Yes, they do. It is long, pink, and sage green. They also have eyes. They are dark pink in colour, like dark gemstones. They have dark skin and pearly white teeth. They also wear glasses.

Personality:

Clyde is an interesting fella. They manage to simultaneously be a shut-in and an extrovert. They're friendly and fairly kind, but they can be cryptic and apathetic at times. They're one of those people who are genuinely nice but have little to no morals. They show very little concern when violence or terrible incidents occur around them.

They're absent-minded and easily distracted. They are very inquisitive and will constantly asks question after question even if it is not wanted. They always look less pale (for their skintone) than before once they've needled stories out of various people.

They will occasionally get suspicious of someone for some random thing and investigate them by following them around. They like investigating in general. When they don't use they're UM they're either extremely horribly wrong or 100% right with no in-between.

They often spout what, to others, sounds like nonsense. They also like to narrate what they are doing sometimes and always walk around with a tape recorder.

They are kind of paranoid and have many conspiracy theories, but nobody can tell if it's satirical or not. ("We're nothing but the playthings of a higher being, going through the motions with nothing but idle movements and stories designed for us." "...Is that a no on the tea?")

When they have a bad day or in a bad mood, they can be found huddled somewhere or staring into the distance, muttering into their tape recorder. (If you really want an example: "The thing that is but is not, what is a face is not a face what is a face, what is a smile is hollow plastic, cotton hair and taxidermied skin.")

Some Fun Facts/Extra Info

•Clyde is twisted from both Jonothan Sims from The Magnus Archives and Cecil Palmer from Welcome to Night Vale. They are excellent podcasts, and I recommend them, especially TMA :)

•Has their own podcast, though nobody knows where their recording booth is or when they started the podcast

•They have a deep, velvety voice that can sound creepy at times

•They have a TERRIBLE fashion sense. Fuzzy pants with a waist coat and sandals, anyone? Occasionally, they manage to look like a librarian, but...

•They're basically living Azul's wet dream with all the blackmail they want at their fingertips but they do nothing with it, apart from the occasional podcast livestream where he starts narrating what a random student is doing and freaks the shit out of them

•They are not made for violence pls don't hurt them 🥺

•They can often be found lurking in the library, reorganising the books

•Some students think they should be at RSA, others think they would make those soft boys burst into tears

•They always stare at Grim when he's in their line of sight

•They never run out of stories to tell

•They almost never stop smiling

•They once made an announcement about the school's third overblot and recommended you stay cautious, as the organisation they cannot name will come collect those poor poor students. Nobody believed them.

Art by @/the-trinket-witch

...........................................

A/N: I hope you like the skrunkle! I hope they capture the essence of The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Night Vale well enough (especially WTNV)

Tagging: @distant-velleity @br3adtoasty @rainesol @theleechyskrunkly @jovieinramshackle

@galaxies-and-gore @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @officialdaydreamer00 @krenenbaker

@offorestsongs @kitwasnothere @elenauaurs @boopshoops @inotonline

@1dont-really-know @kazumify @minteasketches @elysia-nsimp @skrimpyskimpy

@casp1an-sea @offorestsongs @tixdixl @poisoned-pearls @the-trinket-witch

@ramshacklerumble @ghostiidasponk @thegoldencontracts @the-banana-0verlord @cloudcountry

@skriblee-ksk @quartztwst @twstinginthewind

@natsukishinomiyaswife

[controversialhottakes]

Apparently these are unpopular opinions but I don't want Wilmon to be endgame and I don't want Wilhelm to abdicate. (I think the show might be heading down the Wilmon endgame + abdication route but I can't imagine them doing it in a way which would feel satisfying to me personally.)

All I could think about throughout the whole season was how unsuitable for each other these two are. They're so different, and I don't just mean their backgrounds, I mean every single thing about them. Their personalities (this one is huuuuge), their values, apparently even their interests since after 3 seasons I can't really name a single thing they both genuinely enjoy (maybe rowing? or was Simon there for a reason? can't remember), unless we count sex which... fair but a rather shaky framework if a long-term relationship is what you're after.

What do they even talk about? Other than Simon hating the system which Wilhelm is at the very centre of. Or the fact that they don't understand each other because Wilhelm is too privileged and Simon is too big a socialist. And while I hate the phrasing I do agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly because it's actually absolutely 100% true. What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a conflict of interest. Plain and simple.

One thing that was very clear from the very beginning is that Simon doesn't understand what a relationship with a crown prince entails and that he's really not the kind of person who'd want or should be in such a relationship. He cares too much about other people's opinions, which isn't necessarily bad in and of itself, but people are going to have a lot of opinions if you're dating someone in the public eye, especially the future king, and they're going to be nasty af. Because they can. It's just the reality, nothing you can do about it.

I know a lot of people say that he didn't get media training and so on and so forth. And it is very true and valid. However, a lot of this boils down to his personality. You don't need media training to know that reading comments is a bad idea, let alone replying to them. To me, it's just common sense, and I know he's only 16, but even though it's been a while, I do still remember being 16 and my mindset (on this subject) has not changed since then. Especially if you know you're going to take it to heart, you shouldn't even be looking at the bs people post online.

Simon doesn't fit into Wilhelm's world not because he's poor. He doesn't fit into Wilhelm's world because his personality and values simply don't work in this context. How do you even begin to solve a problem like this? You just can't.

Simon has a very strong personality and even stronger beliefs. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, it's admirable, but this creates so many problems that are virtually unsolvable. If you watch the series (not just the third season, it's been shown consistently), Simon needs Wilhelm to agree with him. And he wants Wilhelm to do it openly and preferably to feel about it as strongly as he does. Which simply isn't going to happen. In order for this to work, Simon would have to change his entire personality and that would be just awful.

Re: Wilhelm abdicating. You don't make a decision like that at the age of 17. Because this is literally life-changing and there's no going back. His brother just died. His mother is having a nervous breakdown. His father is absolutely helpless. You work through all of that first.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it's only been a couple of months since the accident. Oh and now Wilhelm finds out that his brother was human and not some perfect Disney prince. And he gets front row seats to his always-unnaturally-composed mother's descent into literal madness. Just imagine how terrifying it must feel. This boy is going through a lot, this is not the time to be making huge decisions.

I genuinely believe that Wilhelm would make a great king. Keep in mind that for 16 years, it never occured to him that he might have to do this. This was dropped on him like a bag of cement, together with the news that his older brother, whom he worshipped, was dead. All things considered, he's doing great. Come to think of it, Erik's death is the root of 99% of Wilhelm's current problems. Like he said, he never got to grieve and now on top of that he thinks that his brother was an arsehole and would have hated him for dating another boy. But I think Wilhelm finding out about what happened at the initiation is actually going to help him heal.

Wilhelm abidicating just feels too much like giving in, like he was running away from his problems which is a bit OOC. And it would feel like he was doing it for Simon which is such a bad idea on so many levels. I can't put into words how stupid it would be and, as impulsive as he can get at times, Wilhelm doesn't strike me as the kind of person to just completely fail to think of consequences of his actions when it comes to something this big. I can't for the life of me explain why, but he does come across as rather level-headed and sensible, specially for a 16/17-year-old going through what he's been going through. Certain... incidents... aside (the rifle... yeah, the hell were you thinking? you need to chill out and let it go). Season 2 was peak recklessness, he seems a bit more mellow and settled now. Although breaking up with Simon might turn out to be the final straw, yikes...

[senka-mesecine]

What platoon characters do you think would enjoy being a parent the most? I think Barnes might enjoy the control aspect, while Wolfe would probably enjoy the praise and bonding

-

― I mean, listen, Chris' probably expected to have some children. Wasn't that what he ran away from in the first place? Being conventional? Normal and ordinary? Just like his mother and father? Settling down? Adhering to tradition? Inheriting his status and doing nothing of note that's truly his own? Living a life where the path has be well trodden for him by those who came before? Depending how wealthy we tend to read Taylor as, heirs are undoubtedly something that was either wanted out of him before the war, during, after or generally all throughout his life one way or another, and while I don't think he minds kids as a concept (heck, he might even like them) I think he loathes the overall notion of being boxed in and having them because it's one of the to-do landmarks he's supposed to achieve for its own sake. Kids are fine. Just not under the circumstances his family and the environment he himself was born into expects him to have them which means I almost see Taylor having a long, rebellious and enduring phase where he doesn't have children on purpose precisely to combat this whole idea. Whether that makes him happy or not in the long run is a wholly different conversation, but point is he will make a difference and he will be himself no matter what.

― Which is the case for Wolfe too because I actually visualize him coming from a (military) family similar to Taylor's, in status, money and position but him actually walking the walk and having kids by choice and being...pretty good at it. Fairly well adjusted post war and what he lacked as Lieutenant in authority, skillset and success he might actually make up quite well as a dad, meaning...he'd be good at it. Meaning he enjoys it too, yes, you guessed it. What I'm trying to say is that while some people might be pretty bad at one lifestyle (this being the army and maintaining the upper hand of authority and respect) they could actually excel at an entirely different one (this being fatherhood) and Wolfe strikes me as the type. Strikes me as the type to be liked by his children too as opposed to his platoon who just...didn't really. Not tremendously, anyway. He wasn't cut for one time and place and he turns out be just perfectly well suited for the other and that's...not at all a bad conclusion to have. Quite the contrary. Might suffer from some stolen valor syndrome, admittedly, especially in front of his children who, judging off of daddy's stories, might think he was slightly cooler in the war than he really was, which I think would be the case for, say, O'Neill too. That man would paint such tall tales for his children they'd think he's won the war personally and singlehandedly.

― Kill me, but I almost see Barnes as a father of daughters. Multiple of them. Maybe even several. On purpose. That's what he wants and what he expresses to want. Sick of boys. Sons get brought up as a concept and he waves his hand dismissively with a disinterested, gruff 'Eh.' and doesn't go further on with any clarifications. Had a whole platoon of boys and by extension, countless surrogate sons and lets say by some happenstance he survives the war and returns home, he's had a whole platoon of boys and god knows how many of them he's lost, how many got shot, blown to pieces, smithereens --- so having biological sons of his own? Hell knows he'd only be recreating a dynamic he's left behind in the war and I think he's aware of that. Introspective enough to know the basic reality of things. He'd be the Sergeant all over again and the sons would be the grunts, but if they're all girls, that ain't as likely to be happening, is it? He can actually be Barnes instead of someone's superior. But then again, maybe that's exactly what he'd want in the most meta of senses. He's a lifer, after all. The war never ends. Just takes on different shapes in different places with different people. He becomes a father of sons and it's like he's sired another Taylor, another Rhah, another Junior, another Gardner, another Elias all over again.

― Envisioning Elias (or / and Rhah) as a cool uncle, frankly. Not to say he wouldn't have children of his own under any circumstance, but he almost strikes me as that sagely, non-judgmental, laid back family member or relative one could tell things they couldn't tell their own immediate parents. The family member offering poignant advice, counsel, help, support and almost selflessly serving as a third space away from one's own family. And yes, this is a role he'd very much relish. A role he'd be immensely good at too, indirectly being a better father figure than the actual biological father to these figurative kids or kid. Humble and excessively down to earth about it too. Isn't here to steal anyone's spotlight or eclipse anyone he's just...you know...kindly here when needed. A buffer zone of sorts. Think that would suit Elias perfectly fine because he'd retain the mystique (and freedom) of being a wise, empathic mentor all while not being a non-stop, possibly oppressive presence to where he'd lose his gravitas in the process bogged down in daily minutiae. He's not seen that often but when he is those are usually some of the most formative and lifechanging moments of that kid's life. What he teaches, as say, an uncle is possibly better remembered and more profound for that child than what the actual parents thought them.

[lucius-morningstar]

Possible Next Gen (Maybe?)

So only one maybe two of these will be canonical for the next gen I'm working on. (One in particular will not be but will probably be put in a separate AU. First off let me start by saying thank you to LeonTheDemon on Toyhouse for designing these characters for me, they're honestly gorgeous and I can't wait to find a place for them. First off is one who will definitely be in it. I have decided to make Eris a little brother. The age difference will range from 2 to 4 years of a difference. Not big enough to really make a huge deal of it. He will also be the future love interest to Harper/Raziel. His name is Liam Samael Morningstar

Why him, honestly why not. Nothing would piss off Lute more then her first and only child being attracted to the son of her enemy. Say hello to Liam Morningstar. His personality leans a bit more towards his mama (Vaggie), he's stern a little grumpy and a bit of a realist in most situations. Gaining his trust and loyalty will earn you a good friend in the long run. He has his mama's temper as well, if you know what buttons to push you'll have hell to pay, pun very much intended. Little Quirks/traits - The x in his eye is actually not an issue, in fact the x works to his advantage, people mistake it for him being unable to see but it's fully functional and it's capable of sensing where the weakest spot on his enemy is. - He has a close relationship with his sister, to no one's surprise but his cousin and him don't always see eye to eye and often argue, he isn't huge on Molly either. -------- Next we have my possible replacement for Lila, Estelle Carmine.

She is the daughter of Zestial and Carmilla Carmine. Her buggy appearance from her father's side, shines in a lot more. I am not sure if she'll be apart of the next gen I'm working on. That's still in the air. Personality: She's oddly calm, very forthcoming and highly intelligent, she was and has been trained by her mother, do not let her looks fool you.. On second thought, let them fool you. She'll take more joy out of surprising you. Little Quirks/traits - She's actually quite flirty, which is another way she gets her enemies off their guard. - Estelle's antennae allow her to sense movement from all directions, she senses the air motion as well as vibrations. Yes they're also capable of smell and touch but that is one of the few things that bother her. ------ Last but not least.. I've jumped on the bandwagon and had a Radio Apple child made. Why because I have no self control and honestly the design potential is just too good. So everyone say hello to Minerva Mae Morningstar.

Everyone say hello to Minerva, so for her I really wanted to inherit some of the "Seraphim qualities" that Lucifer possibly had at one point and figured hey why not put it into one of his kids. Hence the blue iris colors, the red obviously comes from Alastor. Now I know looking at her she looks pretty intimidating right. Well don't judge a book by it's cover because she is actually different from many of the Radio Apple children I've noticed. I decided that while its fun to make a chaotic child, it's even more fun to subvert expectations. Minerva takes more after the angelic side of her family, she's got a pretty gentle and kind demeanor and prefers to talk out her problems instead of outright using violence. All in all she's a lot sweeter then she looks. Little quirks/traits. - She has Alastor's ears and smile but purposely hides them. She knows the smile is eerie to people so she does her best not too which results in her just looking rude when she has a solemn face twenty four seven. The ears, she just personally doesn't like them and they're super sensitive to sound. Sometimes her ears perk which often knocks off her hat. - Her outfit was designed by Rosie, yes she's aware pink stands out more but she doesn't mind. - Her eyes have a sense of holy magic in them, so she's capable of spotting honesty and virtue in the sinners she bumps into. - She is very insecure of her looks. Why, why not. However she does find a friend in a dog much like Lucius. I am trying to get some kind of pitbull demon lookin thing. Misunderstood babies who just need love.

[pikachiee]

Some of my ideas in my " Lila the evil" au.

Anyways.. there's Lilix/felila on my " Lila the evil" au lol

I have so many other ideas with my au, that it's straying very far from the original concept. So I'm gonna talk about some of it, because, I felt like :) and I will eventually draw it. So I'm just gonna be rant about my ideas, at least the ones I'm not too lazy to write about lol.

So a bit of a rant below:

Mostly of Felix x Lila

And some spelling and grammar mistakes.

Anyways, Felix's design is all over the place in my head. But he's supposed to be looking like Lila's superior ( because he is. ) He's still gonna be wearing so much black lol.

And I fully intend on making Lila Italian. But she just was raised in " empire". Many people notice that she looks a lot different than what the other people did, but she didn't seem to mind too much.

Basically, Lila is an orphan. She didn't know who her family was, and what was even her name. So, she often traveled around the desolate streets in search of money or something. Many people helped her out ( cute kid duh), they were shocked that she didn't even have a name and named her all sorts of different names. Each name didn't mean much to her, and she just used it lie.

( I also have a reason for why she names herself as " Lila" but it's somewhat edgy, and I'm planning on making a short comic about it.)

Anyways, long story short she's an orphan. She lies about that to everyone though. And often claims that she's from a small yet noble family. Most people believe her ( *cough* kagami), except Felix. He's kinda done with her lies, but stays with her. The formal reason is because his dear uncle asked him to look after her.. but really he's curious about her.

I'm planning on keeping Felix, kagami and Adrian as sentimonsters. But have Felix and kagami be at least somewhat aware. All his life Felix has always been by the books, and following whatever order his father or superiors tell him. He's gotten so good at obeying and killing it's second nature to him. ( And I feel like he would be a sniper guy lol) It's a breath of fresh air, when he mets Lila.

Lila finds a way to bend the rules and commands in the most perfect way so that they would benefit her, and if it doesn't she simply won't do it. That's something Felix never really seen, since his most close friend other than his mother or Adrian is kagami who is exactly like him.

In this au, due to how perfectly " obedient" Felix is. He's called the " empire's dog", which is supposed to be a menacing title. But Lila takes that opportunity to make fun of him, and make "dog" jokes.

Since Lila was an orphan living in the slums of a war like country, she's had absolutely nothing to lose. That's why she's such a monster in that au, and why she likes to screw with Felix. Sure she's a complete Liar, but she's not just lying to be popular. She's doing it to live comfortably.

Felix is very good at observing, and he notices how her lies don't match up. Like how she claims to taste very fancy food, yet fawns over every dessert they have. Felix can tell she's.. not what she's saying she is. But doesn't expose her.

I made this romance not only because I like the ship, but it works well enough in my au.

Felix is somewhat relieved that she doesn't confuse him with Adrian ( they never met lol), and finds her fascinating and somewhat adorable.

While Lila never had actual friends before, or even a real family. But every time he protects her from certain death ( with how much Lila provokes people, it becomes way too common ). And genuinely sees her, as her. He sees past her lies, and sees.. well her. All her life she makes sure to give everyone what they want to see.. so it's very unnerving and interesting Felix is to Lila. Since no matter what lie she makes, Felix finds a way to prove the truth.

They're both monsters, yet they find a sense of care with each other. They both have committed heinous acts, each with a reason why. But they both know that their sins won't be forgiven so easily. So, they enjoy it while they can. The power and the luxury, at least that's what Lila plans to do and Felix will follow.

Sure they're not entirely sure how loyal or likely each one is to stab them it the back. But they find solitude with each other. Knowing that they can be monsters together.

There's more but I'm about to pass out lol.

[the-meat-machine]

Im confused about Cherub anatomy

I thought it was kind of odd that they have gender? Like you could assume that they just choose one because they're trying to project an identity on the same body which sorta gives an indication that the body lacks male or female traits for this reasoning to make sense. BUT, if we look at Caliborns/Calliopes mother and father theres some clear sexual dimorphism. It makes me wonder how their bodies even get that way? I ended up theorizing that they may metamorphosize to achieve these differences. My theory 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 hold some weight, ex: in Caliborns Masterpiece we can hear that his voice is deep and snarly. Now, we haven't heard Calliopes voice to make a fair comparison after all, she could also possibly sound just like that. So maybe this isn't the strongest example but when Cherubs sleep and when the other personality takes over, the body does change. From the eyecolor, tongue color, cheek color, and blood color, as for body figure it's unclear if that changes when waking up. If we want to count how Caliborn and Calliope are drawn in Act 7, in the opening you can see Calliope has a curved figure and breasts while Caliborn has a wider shoulders, and a flat chest . But then again, Calliope is drawn differently multiple times throughout the act 7 flash so maybe not much weight either. The strongest basis i have for this is probably just how their mom and dad look. In conclusion: either their body fully transitions into the other gender when one of the personalities wakes up then swaps into the other gender when sleeping for the other personality to take over the body with their traits included OR the body has both male and female traits at all times and are stuck there until the one the personalities wins the body and the loser personality bodily traits disappear from the body so the winners traits take over. But this could also not hold weight since Caliborn apparently didn't know what boobs were when talking with Jane. But yet again Calliopes drawings featured boobs so idk. Feel free too tell me everything i got wrong not even i know what the fuck im talking about I've been listening to karkalicious for like 6 hours today (newer version)

So I came into this ask fully intending for my answer to be "cherub sexes make no sense, just throw them out". But then as I was writing out why they make no sense, I accidentally came up with an explanation that makes them (sort of) make sense. Whoops. I'm going to post that as its own separate thing, 'cause it got long, and I probably should edit it to include a clearer explanation of isogamy, ha ha… ha.

But anyway, that aside, some of the details you brought up still don't really make sense - especially alt!Calliope's appearance in Act 7. Because the thing is, alt!Calliope shouldn't look like an adult cherub at all. Even if she predominated "correctly", she still died young, before she could fully mature. If she was truly fully grown, she would have wings, but she doesn't. And during the conversation where she and alpha Calliope meet, the two of them appear to have the same height and build.

The simplest explanation for her Act 7 appearance is that it's just art weirdness. But if we wanted to come up with an in-universe explanation, two possible ones come to mind:

She's a ghost. Ghosts are shown to be able to change their appearances, either consciously or subconsciously. So she's given herself a more adult body that matches her adult mind.

She lived long enough after predomination for her body to partially, but not completely, mature. Thus, she has a somewhat adult-like body, but doesn't have wings and doesn't look as large as the adult female cherub we see depicted elsewhere (because even the females are pretty darn ripped). In this case, it's during the conversation with alpha Calliope that she's altering her appearance, perhaps choosing to make herself look younger to put Calliope and/or Jade at ease.

As for Caliborn seeming to have broader shoulders in Act 7 than Calliope does, we could say that maybe it's just that Caliborn has more muscle mass there by virtue of being more physically active.

I do like to imagine (when I accept that cherubs have biological "sexes" at all) that young cherubs have undifferentiated bodies, and they only develop into "male" or "female" forms after predomination. This fits in with what Aranea says about how the only way to tell the two young cherubs apart is by the color of their cheeks (though as you note, there are a few other differences too).

But that's still kind of complicated, because what makes one of the personalities definitively "male" and the other definitively "female" when their bodies are identical? My best theory is that there's some sort of hormone or something in their blood that differs between juvenile males and females, since the blood seems to be the main thing that physically changes when they swap bodies.

As for Caliborn not understanding what boobs are while Calliope does... that's probably just because Calliope actually pays attention to humans, whereas Caliborn is willfully ignorant about them.

(p.s. I didn't notice until this ask that alt!Calliope appears to have boobs in Act 7. I always assumed cherubs didn't have them, since during Aranea's explanation, the art is ambiguous enough that you could interpret the female as being flat-chested. But no: act 7 says cherub boobs. Argh. Why. I am rejecting this from my personal headcanon and assuming that it was just some weird folds in alt!Calliope's robes that made her look like she had boobs.)

[joprompts]

chess (musical) starters. part one. *starters from the musical. adjust as necessary.

everybody's playing the game but nobody's rules are the same. nobody's on nobody's side.

all men have a weakness: his is that woman.

no one in your life is with you constantly. no one is completely on your side and though i move my world to be with him, still the gap between us is too wide.

no one can deny that these are difficult times.

knowing i want you, knowing i love you, cannot compare to my despair, knowing i've lost you.

they're not too polite.

who needs a dream? who needs ambition? who'd be the fool in my position?

don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining.

that's the problem. he's a brilliant lunatic, and you can't tell which way he'll jump. like his game, he's impossible to analyze. you can't predict him, dissect him, which of course means he's not a lunatic at all.

i've been a fool to allow dreams to become great expectations.

how can i love you so much yet make no move?

one of these days--and it won't be long--he'll know more about me than he should.

if it were love, i would give that love every second i had.

wasn't it good? wasn't he fine? isn't it madness he can't be mine?

i'm on the case, can't be fooled. any objection is overruled.

pity instead the careless mother, what she missed, what she lost when she let me go. i wonder, does she know?

pity the child who knew his parents.

if i knew from the start, why am i falling apart?

i'm not getting rich. my only interest is in something which gives me the chance of working with the best.

you have caused such grief i can't forgive this evil thing you've done.

if you walk out on me, you're really betraying your father. were he alive now he'd surely be dying of shame.

you're on nobody's side, but your own.

there will be days and nights when i'll want you more than i'll want to.

you and i, we've seen it all.

this is the one situation i wanted most to avoid.

the one i should not think of keeps rolling through my mind and i don't want to let that go!

what's going on around me is barely making sense. i need some explanations fast!

what if he saw my whole existence?

what we've just seen's a pathetic display from a man who's beginning to crack. he's afraid. he knows he isn't the player he was and he won't get it back.

once i had dreams now they're obsessions. hopes became needs. lovers possessions.

maybe it's best to love a stranger. well, that's what i've done. heaven help my heart.

who'd ever think it? such a very pretty setting. tell me what's the betting, very pretty plotting, too. no matter--i've done all your work for you.

i want to talk chess.

how'd we ever get this far before you showed me what you really are?

never lose your heart, use your head!

looking back, i could have played it differently. won a few more moments, who can tell?

not much is known of early days of chess beyond a fairly vague report.

where's daddy? dead or in the KGB?

when i was nine, i learned survival, taught myself not to care.

pity the child who twenty-five years on, finds her confidence gone!

how you've hated my success!

it's the only thing i can stay true to.

you got your tricks, good for you, but there's no gambit i don't see through.

there must be more i could achieve but i don't have the nerve to leave!

how can you let mediocrity win? you have one chance left. win for chess. you were five one up. now it's five all. get a grip.

i don't see anything outrageous about demanding what i'm worth.

chasing our hearts' desire, but we go on pretending stories like ours have happy endings.

did i plan doing all of this for the love of a man?

[ro-botany]

@silque Hope you don't mind me pulling this into it's own post; it's a critical enough point that I really wanna expand on it.

For context for those who didn't read my recent longass post about Frederick in general: We're talking about the canonical age at which Emmeryn was crowned Exalt of Ylisse.

According to the numbers from Awakening Chapter 6, when Emm took the throne she was

NINE YEARS OLD

Maaaaaybe 10, at the most, if you stretch the meaning of "before her tenth year" a bit and play around with the exact date her dad died.

(To be clear, Frederick's age in that table is a headcanon, not canonical in any way)

You are making several excellent points and I'm Big Emotional about all of them, so naturally, I'm going to take four miles of post length to screech about this in more detail.

It is fucking wild to me that the game breezes by the war timeline and the ages of the royal kids so fast. To the point where I straight up missed it! Or forgot, I guess, in the years since my last full playthrough.

I just. I have to set the scene.

Ylisse has just been through an unfathomably bloody holy war. Almost anyone of fighting age was given a weapon and dragged to the desert to fight, leaving behind a halidom populated almost exclusively by children and the elderly, with a dwindling food supply. A country driven into desperation and chaos by its own ruler.

We don't know how the Exalt dies--if his own men turned mutiny or he was routed by Plegian forces or what--but the Exalt does die, and the war dies with him. When the news from the front finally trickles back to Ylisstol alongside what few broken men and women survived the violence, the oldest person of exalted blood is duty-bound to take his former place on the throne.

Overnight, nine-year old Emmeryn goes from playing with her baby brother and awaiting the day her baby sister is born, to being crowned Exalt of a dying country and a shattered populace that now turns all their hurt and ire onto her.

She has her council of old, withered politicians to guide her hand. She has the castle guards--all either old enough to be her grandparents or young enough to be her peers--to protect her from the worst of the violence. She has her mother, too--until one day, too soon, she doesn't.

The game certainly doesn't gloss over the tragedy of that. It neglects to emphasize the ages these kids were dealing with all this at, though. I could tangent off into another 500-1000 words about how fucked that family situation is if I chose to and the unique ways that has played into the characterization of everybody involved. That Emmeryn grew up to be as competent and well-loved a ruler as she did is a monumental feat, not only on her part, but on the parts of the people who supported and raised her.

And to bring it back to the man of the hour on this blog… At some point, Frederick became one of those people. He's been looking after Chrom and Lissa for who even knows how long; there is no doubt in my mind that, like tumblr user silque suggested, Frederick also helped look after Emmeryn. Helped her and her siblings make whatever sense of the ongoing tragedies they could, while probably dealing with a mountain of issues of his own.

He's something at the nexus between older brother, father, bodyguard to all of them. He's been by their side, a constant rock, since all four of them were arguably children. Frederick doesn't let his guard down for a second. He sees the weight on the shoulders of these kids, and he knows helping them bear it is the best thing he can do to help the people starving in his village and every other like it, or to help avert this war, or end that war swiftly. He devotes himself to this duty so utterly that he's practically killing himself from stress and overwork. Always watching for the wolf in the shadows, that Emmeryn and Chrom and Lissa might be able to avoid the fangs and continue being the beacons the halidom needs them to be.

Even when they're at peace, the eyes at the edge of the firelight are all he can see. It confuses Chrom and Lissa; and that's how he knows he's doing his job correctly.

And this relationship between Frederick and the royal siblings.

Is reduced to jokes about pebble-clearing and overzealous recruitment posters a solid 80% of the time.

I JUST.

I want to clarify that these games being goofy and silly and over the top as often as they are is one of their draws, and that I do enjoy how just, cartoonishly cautious Frederick can be. I love the jokes. I am that guy who played the Before Awakening DLC in Fates literally 128 times to max out the pebble joke weapon. In no world do I think we need to wholly kill comedy here.

But at the same time I can't help but be blown away by how often the heart in this relationship is neglected in favour of comedy. The second you start thinking about how Frederick got where he is and why he is the way he is, there is just, SO much there.

It's of dubious canonicity at best, but I want you to read the conversations that Chrom and Frederick have with Emmeryn during her recruitment paralogue. I want you to notice how Chrom, though clearly emotional, is capable of putting his emotions aside, and opts to focus on keeping her safe rather than indulging in his grief, which he knows would only confuse her.

And then I want you to notice how Frederick, stoic, icy Frederick, breaks down. A paragraph of two years of repressed grief comes tumbling out all at once to a woman who, ultimately, is only a ghost of the person he knew. He begs her forgiveness. He cannot, cannot think clearly or objectively in this moment. He hurts too deeply. He cares too much.

The so-called Cold Lieutenant of the Shepherds cares so deeply and self-sacrificingly about everyone and it can be really damn funny, or utterly heart-melting, or utterly heart-breaking depending on the situation and how you play it. AND YET. THE SIDE CHARACTER CURSE. The most genuinely they ever play this bond is in a side chapter that isn't even canon.

How do I end this post.

I am inconsolable for SEVERAL REASONS.

[1800duckhotline]

Uncommon OC questions

Ok so these are so many questions I fear the post may become literally as long as a greek epic so. I decided to screenshot the ask, and I will be breaking up the answers in different posts/parts. Took me so long to get to these because I'm... complicated and fun<3 (had no energy/focus elsewhere)

TY FOR THE BUNCH OF QUESTIONS THOUGH THESE ARE REALLY GOOD. Be ready my oc warriors much food ahead.

Part two with all Adona answers here!

Part three with all Rina answers here!

Part four with all creator answers here!

Part one: Salice

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Genuinely not too hard if you get her sense of humor, which tends to be on the more grim and "boomer" side for lack of better word. Another factor may be whether or not she has drunk any alcohol prior to the conversation or not. If none of those things are applicable to your situation, chances are it's impossible to make her laugh, at least genuinely - it's easier to see her laughing to make fun of others, or if she is swelling with pride for something she's done or a reaction she's provoked.

5. How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

To be fair, she hardly trusts anyone by principle. So it is extremely easy for you to enter "absolutely untrustworthy" territory if you make the smallest mistake at her expense, if you are barely acquaintances. She picks people she trusts and relays on with extreme caution.

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

Definitely flexible... when you know how to bend them right. Which is convenient for her, since she is a lawyer... and has done this a good amount of times before, for her benefit, or her clients'.

7. What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

Salice loathes nostalgia - it makes her feel weak. But for her what tends to trigger nostalgic episodes the most is smells... both specific and generic ones. Unfortunately, smells are very easy to come by, which means she's stuck in a bad mood whenever she feels a longing for the long gone days of her childhood. Living nearby the sea doesn't make it any easier, as she associates the briny maritime smells the most with her dad & Venice by association.

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

What wasn't she told to stop or start doing the most as a child? Between a father who wanted the perfect son and a mother who wanted the perfect doll, she heard often contrasting versions of the same tale. However her dad and mom often agreed on one thing to reprimand her most often for: touching dead animals.

This is something she unlearned by force when she moved away from Venice, but it is a itch she gets still from time to time, as is natural for a necromancer to get that instinct - she picked it up from her grandmother who encouraged her often to not be afraid of death.

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

Salice has a really big mouth and tends to not care or think much about what she says (outside of job and court environment). She tends to be really sarcastic and cynical with others, though she has a layer of care underneath the mean shit she says whenever she talks to Adona and Allen (sometimes, it's hard to tell, to be fair).

In a natural, out of work environment, she will say about anything that comes to mind without giving a fuck about the consequences - which is what gets her in so many bar fights to begin with... Of course she does a complete 360° when she's at work or has to participate to court proceedings. It's really easy for her to flip the switch.

16. What makes their stomach turn?

It is a very broad question... I would say that the thought of not being able to keep practicing necromancy is the one thing that makes her feel nauseous.

18. What embarrasses them?

People who don't know what they're talking about - pompous assholes with no regards for others (pot calls kettle black) - Adona (when they are in social environments together because Adona has the unfair talent of being able to render Salice speechless with very little effort) - having feelings.

29. Do they usually live up to their own ideals?

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind of... it's complicated. She didn't have many ideals to begin with: she wanted to be rich, and she wanted to be respected by many. Unfortunately neither of those things are approved of by her dad, so for what it all is, it's useless (not that she'd ever admit it, but her subconscious has some strange priorities like that).

38. What memory do they revisit the most often?

Her dad telling her bedtime stories when she was really little; her grandmother letting her read her notes and studies on necromancy while still little. She really loves those memories of just being talked to... without any kind of animosity or condescension to it.

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

If you point out her flaws, she's going to blow up on you. I'd say very. Imagine your dad being extremely uncooperative when you tell him that he should clean up after himself instead of forcing you or/and your mom to do it: same kind of reaction even if for a different problem.

42. How badly do they want to reach their end goal?

She would be willing to give up everything to do it. Alas...