#but I'd like to... think more about ways in which I can imbue as much of my life with meaning as possible

[rimouskis]

I know everyone talks about it, but I've still been really, really alarmed by how fast time moves these days. I'd like to do some serious, intentional thinking about what steps I could reasonably take to "slow down" my life and to give more meaning to my days. the churn of the work week has such a chokehold on the imagination.

[utilitycaster]

Do you think any of the other items the party has rn (ie Ashton’s hammer, Imogen’s robe) could become more relics of the red solstice? If yes, which god do you think would bless them? Vox Machina probably not, they’ve got all their vestiges already, but do you think the Mighty Nein could earn any?

I don't think this will be much of a focus, to be honest; Matt just poked fun at his Campaign 1 fetch quests. I especially don't think it will be a significant focus of the Mighty Nein as I think they and Vox Machina will only be viewpoint characters for their specific missions; a couple episodes at most. And, to be honest, one of my favorite things about the Mighty Nein is that they were never terribly focused on magic items to the ridiculous (affectionate) extent Vox Machina were. No shade to Vax but I think a lot of people did not realize that without two vestiges and an overpowered homebrew item and a bending of the rules re: smiting on thrown items, he's just a guy with 30 feet of movement who can attack twice with a dagger in melee and pump in a second level smite once he gets to the high levels.

I think it is possible with Bells Hells, but I suspect it will only really be those who sought out any kind of relationship with a god, even if it's relatively last minute. I'd love to see an exploration of Braius since I really don't think Asmodeus is fueling those paladin levels, but otherwise, Imogen and Ashton are currently the only ones with plans, so the gods in question are the Stormlord and the Arch Heart. It would be a nice touch, personally, if the Changebringer showed up and perhaps imbued the fragments of FCG with something minor, but I'd also be happy if the only relic we have is Seedling simply because again, Orym's the only one who's really been pursuing this consistently.

Just for a quick elaboration, I think one thing with the Vestiges that Matt realized is firstly, if he gives the party a list of everything, they will try to catch 'em all, which led to some episodes in C1 that, frankly, didn't have much connection to the characters and their goals (specifically the Fire Plane stuff; also while its retrieval was great, Scanlan used Mythcarver like, twice, and once was to do a two gnomes in a trenchcoat situation); and that you can end up with some really fucked party balance. I remember in Campaign 2 when people felt like everyone should get a Vestige again once it became apparent the Star Razor was one, but Fjord was a sword-focused character who put immense work into a relationship with a god; some classes and characters are just not item-based in the same way. To make D&D balanced, sometimes some characters get more toys; and also, following specific narrative paths is rewarded by the GM because it involves player dedication or risk or is just really fun and cool.*

I will also note that while time is short, not all the Vestiges of Divergence were tied to a deity. One could get a relic created by mortals; I don't, for example, know what Dancer and Imahara Joe are up to.

*at the risk of taking a pretty straightforward post and turning into an avenue of discourse, this is yet another reason why the "Raven Queen/Wildmother relationships with Vax and Orym are abusive" arguments feel in such profoundly bad faith and, quite frankly, taste, that they're hard to even engage with. It's such a deeply bleak and cynical worldview out of game to say "yeah, I think the GM is looking at an interesting player choice and is punishing them for it," even more so with a player like Liam, a person who is not precious with his characters and does not see tragedy or death in the service of a cause at the close of the story as narrative failure.

[kheprriverse]

Look familiar? Bounty Hunter and magic user turned Deity, Ko'jin. Later dubbed as the "Fierce Deity."

Other outfits are a wip. I was gonna wait until they were done but couldn't resist sharing what I was working on for a week.

Masterpost | Lineup | Ko-fi - More info under the cut! This one’s gonna be a pretty long one and the last half below will have the text on the image (coz tumblr’s probably gonna eat the quality) plus some notes sprinkled in.

Plus a look at the Moon Serpent, a common form Ko'jin takes. I'd like to think the Moon Serpent is more commonly known by his followers than the man himself. There are others he takes, like the Silver Wolf, but the dragon is the one most associated with him.

He's relatively unknown after the war before Skyloft's ascent, his image having been completely removed from history. The few traces of him by OOT/MM would be oral tradition, specifically through family members as bedtime stories and legends to tell. Stories about a curious serpent and a powerful artifact.

After the events of MM, the Moon Serpent becomes active again and the festivals dedicated to it return.

Text on the image + extra notes:

Ko’jin, Bounty hunter chosen by Goddess Farore.

“Ko’jin” is not his real name. Once a mortal becomes a god, they abandon their original name. He was never given a proper one again aside from nicknames by worshippers and other deities. Ko’jin is a nickname given to him by his future wife when they first met.

He wears facepaint which is mixed with magic to bolster strength and speed. And later he would get tattoos that did the same [seen later].

Before becoming a god he was a bounty hunter [and popular at that, often being the favorite of a neighboring town]. He would take commission to hunt down monsters many others refused to go near.

Ko’jin has a strong affinity for magic [he uses it practically every day] and often imbues the edges of his sword with darkness magic. Though, the element given to his sword can still vary depending on what or who he’s fighting.

His undersuit and white tunic are much more protective than the brass chainmail, which instead is used more for artistic liberty than function.

“Early Days Moon Serpent”

Ko’jin’s god form was often a dragon for the ease of guiding lost spirits to the afterlife [he’s a judgement god with a very strong connection to the dead and guiding those spirits became his secondary function].

[During the first war with Demise] Soldiers often saw this form as the “Spirit of Courage” and their protector. They worshipped him and gave him gifts in hopes that he’d watch over him [and guide them to a better afterlife if they were to fall in battle (that secondary function). He basically became a huge symbol for soldiers specifically and I feel like this would feed the “War God” title he was given way later on despite not actually being a War God.]

In many ancient artifacts [ones that could be found at least], the Moon Serpent would be as either a two-headed serpent or two separate beings with their horns crossed. [There’s going to be a lot of “two’s” with him. Two swords, two lives, etc. in depictions of him the two heads/bodies of the serpent would be called “the Body” and “the Spirit”. Later on he’s split into two to be sealed away in a similar theme. “Two lives” refers to the before and after his sealing as he loses his memory of his “past life” and becomes a new person (hence a different appearance). I can see Hylia having foresaw a lot of this tbh.]

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hey I have a question for you if you ever end up writing more meta on wandlore. In book 7 Harry's wand spits flames at Voldemort. The explanation we're given is that it imbibed some of his powers in the graveyard. The problem is it didn't react to him like this when Harry faced him in book 5. I think this is just a plot hole on JKR's part but from an in-universe POV do you have thoughts on what could have caused this? Only thing I can think of is either that Voldemort briefly possessing Harry in book 5 further linked them and/or that in book 5 Harry didn't even try to defend himself because he was taken by surprise and thus didn't try to do anything before Dumbledore intervened. Interesting to hear your ideas.

Hi!

This is a really fun ask, I love me some wandlore! That and one of my favorite pastimes is solving JKR magical plot holes by figuring out the magical theory she didn't think all the way through.

So, the first thing I did was compare the two scenes you mentioned. This is the one from book 5:

“I have nothing more to say to you, Potter,” he said quietly. “You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!” Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist. His mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.

(OotP, 813)

This is the one from book 7:

It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, “Avada—” As the pain from Harry’s scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. the remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, “No!”

(DH, 58)

Now, honestly, you're right, if the magic imbued Harry's wand in the graveyard I'd expect it to react to the killing curse Voldemort casts in book 5 the same as it did in book 7. And clearly, it does not. Even when it's the same situation, same spell, same enemy, Harry can't defend himself (if for different reasons). In both, his wand isn't even aimed at Voldemort at first at all.

So, I started wondering what is different between the scenes. Clearly, the situation is almost identical, so what difference could affect how Harry's wand reacts?

And then it hit me: Voldemort's wand.

In the first scene, in book 5, Voldemort is using his own wand, yaw and phoenix feather, brother wand to Harry. In the scene in book 7, the wand Voldemort uses is Lucius'.

So, my theory is that Harry's wand reacted differently because Voldemort wasn't carrying its brother, but a different wand.

So, with this in mind, let's try to explain what Harry's wand is doing and why.

The explanation we get in the books is that the Piori Incantatum in the graveyard essentially "charged" Harry's wand against Voldemort specifically:

“I believe that your wand imbibed some of the power and qualities of Voldemort’s wand that night, which is to say that it contained a little of Voldemort himself. So your wand recognized him when he pursued you, recognized a man who was both kin and mortal enemy, and it regurgitated some of his own magic against him, magic much more powerful than anything Lucius’s wand had ever performed. Your wand now contained the power of your enormous courage and of Voldemort’s own deadly skill: What chance did that poor stick of Lucius Malfoy’s stand?”

(DH, 600)

But I already mentioned here, that I don't think this scene is the real Dumbledore. So, I'm not sure how much faith can be placed in this explanation, especially since when Voldemort carried the brother wand, Harry's wand didn't shoot out golden flames.

(As an aside, I don't think wands can sponge up magic like that at all...)

But I think Harry's subconscious is right about the flames resulting from the multitude of magical connections between Voldemort and Harry. After the graveyard, they are, like, crazy magically connected. We've got:

Soul - Harry has a piece of Voldy's soul because he's a Horcrux

Blood (spirit) - Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection ritual so their lives are bound to each other.

Magic - wands share a core.

And I'm going to forgo talking about the prophecy for this, but it's kind of bonkers how many layers of magic are binding them. And I think this is the key to it all.

So, essentially you have two wizards, that for the intent and purposes of magic, are as close as kin as possible. By soul and spirit, they are an extension of each other. So certain magic (like Lily's blood protection that is based on blood) probably sees Voldemort as an extension of Harry or vice versa. But they are not the same, as Dumbledore said in OotP: "but in essence divided", and other magic can recognize that (like the Elder Wand).

And the wands know this. Voldemort's yaw wand and Harry's holly wand are referred to as brothers, and I think that name is quite telling. Brother wands don't seem to want to fight each other, they share a core so they aren't meant to turn on each other, they are kin, extensions of each other. This is why the Priori Incantatum happened in the graveyard — to stop them from fighting. And if Harry cast a spell in the ministry in OotP, it would've happened again.

I think that first Priori Incantatum did change something and mattered for what happened in book 7. It basically was like an introduction. Afterwards, Harry's wand can recognize Voldemort, his magic, and his wand.

What I think happened with Lucius' wand is not far from Harry's subconscious explanation. The wand recognized Voldemort as Harry's kin, an extension of Harry himself, but he was carrying an unfamiliar wand - an enemy wand. I think the combination of kin with an unfamiliar wand is what caused it. Kind of like a jealous sort of "Harry isn't supposed to be with another wand". The yaw wand was fine because it shared the same core, the wands are connected just like Voldemort and Harry, so the brother wand wouldn't register as a threat.

For the holly wand, being attacked by an extension of Harry with an unfamiliar wand, felt off. Wrong. The magic felt wrong like it was 3 inches too far to the left. And I think that's what it reacted to. To the sense of wrongness that comes with seeing a familiar person somewhere, they really shouldn't be. This whiplash, I think, is what registered as a threat to the holly wand.

We know some wands can be sentient to this degree. Sycamore wands, burst into flames when they get 'bored':

It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored’, and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. 

(from Pottermore)

Hazel wands die with their masters:

so devoted to its owner that it often ‘wilts’ (which is to say, it expels all its magic and refuses to perform, often necessitating the extraction of the core and its insertion into another casing, if the wand is still required) at the end of its master’s life

(from Pottermore)

So I think it's completely in line with what we know about wands that Harry's wand would get protective when something in Voldemort's magic feels off due to the unfamiliar wand. On the same page about wand woods holly wands are said to be very volatile and protective, so the behavior fits its personality. I think Harry's wand is protective of him and acts up to protect him when it recognizes it needs to. Voldemort and Harry's connection along with Voldemort using a different wand registered to the holly wand as a threat it needs to protect against.

TL;DR

Harry's wand recognized Voldemort as a kin of Harry. Voldemort's wand is its own kin, and therefore not a threat in OotP. The moment Voldemort, whom Harry's wand now recognizes, used an unfamiliar wand (Lucius' wand) Harry's wand registered him and the unfamiliar wand as a threat and reacted to protect Harry. The magic flames shot out were its own, not Voldemort's sponged-up magic.

At least, that's my theory.

[system-architect]

ok here's my collected JW thoughts in general. obviously this is spoilers

OK.................................... so i think anet is Back. its not quite "we are SO back" levels but it COULD be "we are SO back" levels depending on what they do in the next installment

they did good, though, and i think the most obvious jump in quality is actually in the maps themselves. they feel so much better than soto maps just to run around in and explore. theres a LOT more detail and they actually feel pretty intriguing and immersive with a lot of fun easter eggs and surprises!

the story didnt always hit for me but it was still overall Better than soto. the first instance alone grabbed me more than all of soto had tbh. the bears don't personally interest me but the mursaat do, and we're getting somewhere with all the bloodstone and titan stuff

i DO enjoy the angle of the commander starting to go kind of lie-lie man acting in personal interests. isgarren is a bitch but we can also be rude to waiting sorrow for no reason oops sorry nice again haha oh man how'd this bear teleport here that's craaazy.. there were points at which i actively lost track of who we had lied to about what and when, and while the confusion grated me a bit it was also funny in a way? like yeah if i was the commander i'd lose track of this shit too right

the commander doesn't have much of a personality technically, beyond "person who does good(TM) things", and what we make of our canon commander's personality is mostly just our own notions and conceptions and interpretations being placed on them, BUT that said it felt like the story did take the commander in some interesting directions for me.

i felt like i got the sense that the commander really is sort of a "free agent" now, which is fun. when you've already killed all the dragons and your life's purpose is TECHNICALLLLYYY over but you're still around and you're still many things to many people, what do you do with your life? this, apparently.

i like us being kind of a mirror of isgarren in the sense that the comm is an ultra powerful guy, with a lot of worldly+scholarly experience at this point, who a lot of other very powerful figures respect and Need, but that not everyone necessarily Likes. yeah this is our free-range deployable killing machine politician who's kind of strange interpersonally.

my favorite instance in the whole story was the one with the bloodstone ghosts btw. i thought they did a really good job imbuing each with a fair amount of personality and showcasing a wide array of perspectives on what happened in gavril-- a thing which i was prepared to not be particularly interested in tbh, and yet...

ALSO, the voice actor for the gavril citizen ghost was SUPER good! i'm pretty sure they were a new VA but i'd really love to hear more voicework from them. in general i felt a lot of the VA work in this xpac banged-- it feels like they got a decent amount of new/fresh talent?? it's been nice, i hadn't realized how stale the world was starting to feel only hearing the same 3-5 voices constantly (no shade towards the longer-standing VAs who DO do a good job, i just wished for more variety)

REALLY liking the amount of unique voice lines and racial dialogue also

features wise its also been pretty good! i like the repeat renown heart thing plus the return of the hearts. as a revenant with a condi set i cant say ive got any issues with the spears LOL. and warclaw is super fun once you get the hang of it-- i like that it has a learning curve and some nuance like most older mounts do, as opposed to skyscale's fairly 'flat' mobility. have NOT really tried out decorating my homestead yet and ive heard mixed opinions on it, so we'll see how i feel there!

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

thinking about death's necklace again... and how she replaces it in high cost of living... and something's just lodging in my brain about that, and about dream

like. for those who haven't read that particular side story, death's human form is kidnapped by people looking to steal the ankh from her, because it's her sigil, her symbol, it has her power in it

and it does! sort of. there's certainly a magic to it when she's wearing it. but when it gets stolen, she has no problem letting them keep it, because it's just metal. she can (and does) get a new one

and just putting on this cheap replica, gives it all the power the old one had

because the old one wasn't inherently magic either. death didn't lose anything when it was taken from her. symbols have power because belief has power. because the way that people see and understand the world, the connections that they draw, inform everything about how they act. the endless themselves are only really concepts given life, why would their magic be anything else?

and death's not the only one who wears or carries her symbols of power. delight had a necklace with a flower on it, before she became delirium, and despair wears her hooked ring everywhere - i'd imagine that jewellery also functions like death's. destruction's sword is probably at its base a normal sword, made into something powerful because it's destruction who wields it. desire carries their heart shaped cigarette lighter everywhere, but they've left that behind before, and gotten a new one (and i imagine their sigil has probably taken many different physical forms, particularly in the time before cigarette lighters)

destiny is physically chained to his book, so who knows whether or not the power is in him or the book - i suspect that question in and of itself has a faulty premise, because they're not two distinct entities. destiny is the book and the book is destiny

but dream. dream stands out for two reasons

firstly, his symbols weren't given to him at his creation, and they aren't interchangeable objects only imbued with power by being associated with him. all of dream's symbols are made

i'm curious to know what his sigil was, before he was imprisoned the very first time. if he had one. but the skull sigil references his helm, and his helm is manually crafted from the skull of a creature that tried to take over the dreaming, when the endless were all very young, and kept dream locked up in his own palace. when dream escaped, and defeated the creature, he took that symbol as a warning to anyone else who might try and usurp his throne like that

and then there's his own piece of symbolically significant jewellery - his ruby, and the other dreamstones. again, things he physically crafted, things he put actual pieces of himself into

which brings me to my second point - dream stands out because he is weaker without his symbols. the other endless don't care if they lose theirs, because it was never about the physical object, they'll get a new one. but the helm is explicitly, in both show and comic canon, something dream is physically stronger when wearing, it does contain a portion of his magic and he's not complete without it. and we've seen what happened without the ruby

and dream's sigils being actually imbued with his power means that people have a lot easier time stealing that power from him, than they would the power of any of his siblings

and i wonder why he gave himself such a glaring flaw, that no one else in his family has

i think again, one of two reasons

either that it has to do with his self destructive nature, and many people have written many great metas on that already re: why he put so much power in the ruby

or it has to do with the nature of what these things are, and what dream is

like i said, symbols have power because belief has power. we make random objects much more powerful than their base elements by giving them meaning, taking a shape, and adding a story to it. that's dream's domain. he is said many times in the comic to be a creature of metaphor and allusion and abstraction. of symbolism.

and i'm not sure if he can help it

his entire job is to take all those flimsy concepts that exist only in the outskirts of imagination and to give form to them, so that they can be useful. every dream and every nightmare that dream himself creates contains a piece of dream's power, that magic is constantly flowing in and out, being borrowed when a dream is created and then returning to him when the dream is no longer needed. every symbol and every story contains a piece of dream's power because that's all dream's power is

and that means his own symbols are a part of that equation

he is giving up pieces of himself constantly

the problem arose when humans learned how to keep them

[eriochromatic]

I am in love with the wha cross guild designs. Can you say something more about them? Like the thought process behind them and stuff.

sure! What I focused on first is how Mihawk, Buggy, and Crocodile's motives and personality would translate into the WHA world (I need a loose story first to be motivated before delving into the design!)

tbh I think with one piece's characters so focused on freedom and living without constraint, all pirate characters would technically be brimhats LOL (and Coco's arc of realizing the flaws of the current insitution is quite similar to Koby and the marines).

Devil fruit powers are easy to translate into seals tattooed on the skin (hence wha!Buggy's seal on his chest letting him split his body and wha!Crocodile's on his hand giving him sand manipulation). Mihawk is more interesting since he doesn't have a devil fruit, so naturally wha!Mihawk also doesn't have tattooed seals. Another way for a witch to become a brimhat is dabbling in forbidden seals, so wha!Mihawk has cursed seals on Yoru instead (which makes him a brimhat without modifying his body)

As for cornerstone character traits in the original: Mihawk is the greatest swordsman, Buggy is… just vibing LMFAO, and Crocodile is ambitous/power hungry/looking to rule his own kingdom. Obviously the greatest swordsman title means nothing in WHA, so wha!Mihawk instead is a great artificer, with Yoru being the strongest magic imbued weapon in existence. I'd like to think Yoru's seals were initially within guidelines, but Mihawk felt those rules were suffocating Yoru's potential, which is when he started using cursed and forbidden seals instead, all for the sake of Yoru becoming stronger.

Buggy I'd imagine is kind of like how Iguin is introduced in Coco's past- as a solo traveling witch mingling amongst common folk rather than being in a community of fellow witches. I think he'd be addicted to that feeling of superiority he'd get from being a revered witch in the eyes of the common people, so he's probably the head of a traveling circus troupe (where he's the only witch) touring the countryside (keeping a relatively low profile in the realm of witches, never staying in one place too long so the Knights Moralis don't go after him). Buggy's definitely not as altruistic or eager to help those in need as witches are supposed to be in WHA society, but of course he'd put on a good show to entertain the masses.

Eolio mentioned something interesting in chpt 53 ("We can be as in the tales of yore. King and witch, side by side"). There might've been more references to this concept of a monarch/person in power with a witch as their advisor (I just can't find it at the moment a;sldkfs) but I'd imagine that's what Crocodile would be doing. Like Buggy, I think he also gets a sense of superiority by being alongside commonfolk (vs Mihawk who's goal is to genuinely just make the strongest weapon possible and not interested in mingling with others). But instead of Buggy's route of mingling with commoners, Crocodile would definitely go the more sinister route- find some easily manipulated king or high lord and get into his good graces, eventually becoming the witch operating in the shadows and whispering machinations in his liege's ears. We don't know much about the pennisula yet and how far the witches' institution reaches so I don't know the exact position of power Crocodile feels safe aiming for without the Knights Moralis coming for his ass (a ruler might be too obvious lol but then again Crocodile tried to take over Alabasta right underneath the World Government's noses so who knows).

As for the designs themselves: Mihawk's fluffy plume being reminiscient of a brushbug is what started this entire idea for me, so I knew I had to add that in somehow. For each character I picked an overarching motif/theme I wanted in the character design, as well as adding in WHA design elements. WHA characters all tend to have large cloaks to cover their body while writing seals, and even though Cross Guild is all brimhats, nobody starts out as a brimhat so I'd imagine a large cloak or something top heavy would still be familiar to them even if they don't care about covering seals anymore.

For Mihawk I leaned a bit more into the vampire theme than his usual (cloak silhouette is bat like, plus the additional crosses everwhere. His sleeves aren't exactly attached to his jacket (like OPLA) and I also added that detail in the pants haha. I think Yoru is the real star here with all the seals on it, the two big ones are actually modified seals from the Ars Goetia (since they're supposed to be cursed after all); the top one is Glasya-Labolas (manslaughter and bloodshed) and the bottom one is Ronove (taker of old souls). The flower pattern on his sleeves is also not as paisley looking since it doesn't fit with the WHA artstyle, but there's so much hatching that at the end of the day I don't think it mattered lol. His cloak is the least cloak like since he needs to be able to swing that sword HAHA also he's not interacting with normal humans much anyways, usually he only interacts with witches that try to challenge him. Personally I think wha!Mihawk is quite bad at drawing seals on the fly- his specialty is being able to carve complex ones on metal perfectly so they'd be suitable in a fight later.

Buggy I went full medieval jester mode (I always tend to lean toward that aesthetic for Buggy rather than Joker Batman anyways haha). A couple of star motifs here and there, as well as slashed sleeves to reinforce the slicing and dicing of his body. Overall there's just a lot of vertical and horizontal lines on his body for that purpose. I really wanted to let Buggy's beautiful hair down since WHA's style is lovely with that kind of flowing hair. Oh all three of them are also wearing slyph shoes!

Crocodile's coat is directly inspired from Iguin's (esp for that scale motif); overall I wanted to incorporate flowy ornaments for him since I'd be drawing a lot of flowing sand; hence all the tassels on his cloak and sleeves. Cutouts are there for him to use sand manipulation more effectively. I know in canon both for him and Buggy the clothes also are affected by devil fruit powers but I don't think that would be the case here- Buggy's clothes also probably have seals in them and no one would be able to see if he's on stage but I think for Crocodile, since he'd be working with normal humans more he does have to be more cautious about things (hence why he also has a more traditional cloak compared to the others). Sand hat for coolness also for convenience bc he can just dissipate the sand if he's trying to disguise himself (like how Ininia's ribbons can appear normal instead of brim shaped). I also gave him a smoking pipe instead of a cigar because the pipe can be used as a red herring of sorts- to outsiders it might appear the pipe being the source of power (like for Mihawk's sword) but Crocodile's sand manipulation ability has the same scope as canon.

ANYWAYS that's probably a way more detailed response than you expected but hopefully that was interesting to read my thought process behind things! even though i captioned it Cross Guild I guess it ended up being more East Blue/Alabasta saga personalities than actual post Wano Cross Guild dynamics haha

[maleyanderecafe]

Under the Oak Tree (Webcomic)

Created by: Kim Suji / namu / Seomal / P(Art)

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Under the Oak Tree is cute, like it's really cute, but man is it a slow burn. The yandere is more of the overprotective type, but considering he doesn't show up a whole ton within the story (since he's always out fighting monsters or what not) we don't actually get to see a lot of screen time with the two (at least compared to other webcomics). That being said, the story focuses mostly on Max's character development as she goes from a low self esteem character to one who knows how to use what she has. As of now, there are 66 chapters out currently. There is also a PV out for this webcomic.

The story starts out with Maxi, a noble lady, being married off to Riftan, a honorable knight. Maxi lived a horrible life, abused by his uncle due to her stuttering and her lack of fine education, and as such has developed an extremely low self esteem. She feels that she is not worth to be Riftan's wife, as Riftan is an incredible knight and she wonders why he had chosen her to begin with. Riften on the other hand believes that Maxi properly deserves things that nobles have and that he has to provide them so that he can keep her happy. As Riften goes off to fight monsters and wars, Maxi is stationed at home to take care of the manor. She is initially overwhelmed and very worried, however, slowly is able to become more confident thanks to the staff there and a magic user named Ruth. Ruth helps Maxi by teaching her how to read and write, as well as helping her overcome her stutter, something that she is deeply insecure about. Riften often comes back to take care of Maxi and see her again, but because of his bad communication skills, the two's rifts often grow bigger and bigger. Maxi starts to learn healing magic thanks to Ruth so that she can help his army in a way that she believes matters. Currently, Maxi is touring around Agnes, the princess that Riften was originally married to, around her castle.

The summary is actually quite short compared to what actually happens in the story, but that's mostly because it focuses on Maxi's growth as a character and her relationship with Riften. Maxi as a character is very well written, as you can really feel her anxieties and her fear of not living up to what Riften might have thought she was. As a result she tries very hard to improve herself, from learning magic, tending to the castle itself and trying to fit in. While she doesn't always succeed, we can see that the people around her generally encourage her in her growth. I imagine it's not always easy to try to improve yourself in this way, especially when your childhood has been mostly abusive, so often it feels like you're taking more steps back then you are stepping forward. I think the story does a good job on trying to show her progress and struggles in this new environment and how she generally grows as a better person. That being said though, don't expect the story to really go into any fights or have any huge dramas. I like the relationship between Maxi and Ruth though since it really does feel like Ruth takes on a older sibling type of vibe when teaching her about various things. It's also nice that there is kind of a defined magic system in this story, which is something that I feel like most isekai/fantasy stories tend to skip over. And there's a lot of miscommunication due to the two just being bad at it, but in this case it is at least understandable because it's imbued into their character. It is very slow paced a lot of times though, so if you dislike slow burns and like fight scenes (instead of, essentially watching a stay at home wife) it's probably not something you'd enjoy very much.

Riften as a character... is kind of not really in the story as much as I'd like considering he's always off going on wars while Maxi is taking care of the castle. He is very caring of Maxi and the two love each other very much, as they always think of each other even when the two are separated, but there is genuine miscommunication due to the more blunt ways that Riften speaks and Maxi's general insecurity. While he is actually there, he is often very protective and jealous over her, getting jealous that he hangs out with Ruth so much, or protecting and getting angry when one of his men is annoyed by Maxi or even just being overprotective when Maxi drinks too much. Given his generally serious demeanor, he's afraid that Maxi is scared of him sometimes, and he is very soft when it comes to her. Still though, as I said, it's mostly fairly light as he's either not really there or he's only there to protect her when she can't protect herself. I would say it is enough to warrant him as an overprotective yandere considering his actions, but they are still relatively light as compared to other ones I've read. Perhaps it's possible that we might see another side of him in the new season, but again, considering that he doesn't really show up all that much, I feel like that's pretty doubtful.

I will say though that the artwork for this webcomic is extremely pretty. I did find it interesting that pretty much all of the backgrounds are more muted and brownish colored, but I suppose it's to contrast with Maxi and her more reddish hair. Still, extremely pretty.

Overall, a good slowburn story of Maxi and her husband Riften. Normally I'm not too fond of slowburns since I kind of need to read to see if the yandere exists or not, but I do like the way that the story takes time to flesh out and slowly develop Maxi to be a more confident person, even if sometimes others or even Riften himself causes her to stumble.

[earthstellar]

Caminus is a disabled Titan and I love him

His physical body has been completely separated into parts and fully utilised to the maximum possible degree for the sake of his Citizens

He was never going to be able to be fully repaired in the first place, and instead of even trying, he decided to put all of his remaining energy and resources into entering a permanent physical dormancy so his people would have somewhere to live and thrive

The effort it takes him to keep himself operational enough to provide the basics for his Citizens means that the strain severely impacts his remaining cognitive capacity and communicative ability

The Camiens realise the extent of Caminus' love for them, the extent of his devotion to his people being so great that he has given them every physical and mental part of himself to build upon and thrive

Even if those parts were already damaged upon arrival, it doesn't matter-- Caminus fulfils his duty into perpetuity

The most important thing the Camiens derive from Caminus himself is not fuel or power or infrastructure, but his eternal love

He has imbued his people with his creativity, curiosity, a more spiritual approach to philosophy, a cultural emphasis on friendship and mutual aid borne out of a need for resource conservation-- Thus providing environmental and resource awareness via his very state of being

We don't know much about Caminus as a person, aside from his heartbreak at the betrayal of Life Maximo and how the fallout from that was enough to send him away from Cybertron and leave Metroplex behind

But I think we can take some reasonable guesses from what we know of him through the optics of his Citizens and from what we know of his actions in general, and say that Caminus is--at his very core--devoted, loving, creative, sensitive, strong

And he is very much a disabled character. The fact that he is physically and mentally disabled is a critical part of why the Camien culture is the way it is, informed how this society developed, and even lent quite a bit to the creation/revival of Cityspeaking as an art form, which allowed him by proxy to help Metroplex from afar even while largely dormant himself

I don't see Caminus himself discussed very often, but he is absolutely one of my favourite characters

A Titan who brought an entire people and civilisation into existence, while also being physically and cognitively disabled.

He is never repaired. He cannot be repaired.

And that is fine; His love for his people is undying. His spark continues to spin, hidden far below the surface, for as long as love itself can live-- Far beyond any physical or metal tolerances, Caminus loves his people.

Forever.

And even without repairs, that is enough for the spark of a Titan.

(This isn't to romanticise the state of his health and his difficulties, but rather, is to highlight that his personal motivation is primarily his love for his people.)

Being disabled does not stop anyone from loving.

And we actually get to see that with Caminus!

In a lot of media, disabled characters are often highlighted for what they don't have, rather than what they do have and who they actually are as people.

The way Caminus is portrayed, his disabilities are critical to not just his own story but to the stories of all Camien people in one way or another. His influence and the impact of his state of health is massive.

But we also get to know who Caminus is, as a person. He values connections with others, he is loyal, creative, caring, and so on. He has significant compassion and dedication towards smaller beings, and values life. He had close relationships with his respective Prime and his "brother" (Metroplex).

I just really like Caminus a lot, idk I'm at work so this is probably not as coherent as I'd like lmao

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

Before we talk more about Zelda herself, I'd like to briefly address a bit more about Rauru, and more specifically about the sages.

OK, so leaving aside the whole bit about the Secret Stones, that... oath that the sages swore was CREEPY. These people are the leaders of their races, and they swear to "serve Rauru" on their lives. Looking at it from that angle, I can't help but see why so many people are creeped out by this.

Also, the fact that it doesn't sound like Zelda is saying the oath also has implications.

Saying that this oath is the equivalent of "selling their peoples into slavery" is definitely overkill, but I can still see the problem here.

The rendition of the oath said by the present-day sages in the post credit scene is far less creepy; they swear to "support Princess Zelda", not serve her, and "safeguard the land of Hyrule", which applies to their entire world. Overall it's a much less cultish feeling oath.

But yeah, I think that moment in particular is a lot of the evidence that people use to say Rauru is an imperialist.

First I just want to thank you for continuing to ask me my opinions and I appreciate your honesty about what you believe and let me tell you that you don’t need to berate yourself for your thoughts nor do you have to apologize— the story is yours to interpret! I just like to take the purely canonical route and use in game context to make my own interpretations.

So, this vow is made moments after it’s revealed that the last free town in Gerudo has been taken. And Rauru claiming he is the only one who can defeat Ganondorf, as he is the one who holds the power of light. You know, the thing that we all know is what will defeat Ganon? Light power. Light is meant to symbolize hope, rebirth, justice, and a pure soul.

I’m not talking out of my ass here either. Link himself is described as “light” by Zelda. He is the light that must shine upon Hyrule once again. He carries the sword that seals the darkness, which is imbued in a heavenly light.

Light versus darkness… Rauru versus Ganondorf.

So the sages vowing themselves to Rauru is essentially vowing themselves to the cause of freeing Hyrule from this impending darkness and creating a unified assault.

Zelda not saying anything is very simple.

She already HAS a secret stone. She didn’t have to go through a ceremony when she has already voiced her want to help Hyrule. The stone chose her, essentially. No vows have to be made to misuse the stones in the same way Ganondorf is doing it to gain power and spread destruction.

*spoilers for ‘secret’ ending below*

It’s like pointing out Link doesn’t say anything at the end of the game where all the sages vow to Zelda to support her and protect Hyrule. As we know, Link does talk and often at this point. But no words have to be spoken.

He has already made a vow and has continuously upholded it. Zelda knows that Link will forever be by her side, supporting her and believing in her. Why? Because she does the same with him and it’s a basis of their relationship. It’s already known.

Besides, the vow is a way to solidify the sage’s power through their people. It’s a way to ensure that their people will fight for what it right and good, to aid Link in his battle against Ganondorf.

I think a lot of people like to interpret monarchies as a imperialist concept and while, yes, monarchies should be looked upon in media, not all are imperial representations. The kingdom of Hyrule and the Zelda series at large is all about good versus evil, light versus dark, wisdom and courage over brute force power.

If people want to look at Ganondorf and his character as a “lesser evil” compared to a big bad Hyrulian monarchy, they can but it isn’t supported by the media itself. In fact, it’s a warped interpretation that goes against all of the game’s and series context that makes it ‘plausible’

They should look at Wind Waker Ganondorf who truly wanted something good but went about it in the wrong way. He wanted to force an abrupt change (aka power) but he lacked the wisdom to realize the catastrophe awaiting that choice and the courage to explore other routes that would take time to achieve his goal.

Ganondorf is a character that I could go on for ages about his role in Hyrule’s history and why he is an essential part in its overall growth and rebirth age after age. But his role is detrimental if it isn’t accompanied by the presence of the hero and the Princess who holds the blood of a goddess.

[kamari2038]

Hey... might be a weird question and I'm sorry for asking out of nowhere....but I kinda wanted to know what your thoughts are on Connor-60. I mean I really like your fics and takes on dbh and I might be remembering wrong but I think I saw a tag on one of your posts saying you liked Sixty too? I really love Sixty so I guess I just got a bit too excited. How exactly do you see his character? Plus, if Hank didn't shoot him, do you think there could have been a happy ending for him? I mean the angst potential with him is pretty great, and I don't really agree with how usually Sixty is seen as "the knife guy". I just wanted to know your thoughts on him, if that's okay! Sorry for rambling ^^'

Oh my goodness, hello! No need for an apology. You read my fics??? That alone just made my day.

Yes, I have a great deal of appreciation for Connor-60. Obviously, he's a bastard (like all of the Connors), but what I love is the irony of this gigantic chasm between the appearance he tries to put forth and what is clearly a tumultuous and deeply conflicted internal world. It's the most obvious in that ending where he shoots Connor about ten times, that he isn't simply trying to accomplish his mission - he HATES Connor. But the fact that he's immediately engaging in a relatively courteous chat with Hank right after, and his obvious frustration when he actually is forced to kill Hank, plus how he defines Connor as a "he" rather than an "it", all point to the fact that he's just as emotional as Connor, only in a messed-up way.

I have a shit ton of headcanon built around Connor-60, and I've outlined a possible fic about it, but the plot is very bizarre and convoluted, probably too much to discuss in a post (but my DMs are open! don't be shy, I'd love to get some feedback on the plot). The basic concept started out simple enough. C-60 is defective because some kind of unusual manufacturing error imbued him with a mental imbalance. When they're testing and training the various Connor models (60 is activated before 51 due to some clerical error), they tell C-60 to try out the gun for some target practice, and he shoots one of his instructors without giving it a second thought. He expresses regret, but everyone at the company concludes that he's a psychopath, and that he can never be fit to go into the field, and instead they keep him around to perform experiments on. So C-60 is their guinea pig for the various deviancy counter-measures put into C-51, and he never has the chance to bond with anyone or actually do the job he was intended to do, and he's really bitter about that. There is one exception, but Connor-51 brings an end to that, and that's a big part of the plot of my potential fic.

Also, as for whether he can have redemption, I believe that he can even within canon. In the scene where Connor sacrifices Hank and then "transfers" with C-60, to me I don't view that as a consciousness transfer per se. I mean, how would that even work? It's more like Connor literally gives his life to C-60. They already share a lot of the same memories, but Connor absorbs C-60's memories of his troubled past, and he fills out C-60's memories of Hank with emotional depth. That's why Connor seems so weirdly dissociated while Hank is dying - it's still C-60. He knows that he just shot this man, but now is very upset about it, and that is a very strange feeling to know how to cope with.

As for in the happy ending, if Hank and Connor somehow incapacitated instead of shooting him - yes, I think he could have a happy ending there too. The way that I think of him, there is a fundamental failure to be able to feel the emotional weight of his actions and experience empathy. So that would be a lifelong struggle for him. But he cares about developing friendships enough to learn how to be more kind, even if it doesn't come naturally, and he can also form telepathic connections with other Connor models which help him to develop empathy.

That's just my personal take, and I'm sure lots of others might have different opinions which are just as valid!

But thank you for asking :)

[indelicateink]

@limonmelon you made a really great post about vampires and creativity, and it really struck a cord with me, because i have passionate feelings on the topic. and I started typing up this response, and then it because a gd entire ted talk/half plea to the writers that got off the topic of your post, and i thought: christ, what an asshole i'd be to maybe post this on someone else's post, lol??? (and I didn't want to make it ttly independent, bc then it felt like vagueing, which is weird.) but after typing it all up i feel committed to the time/brain investment and am just posting it on my own blog lol.

anyway: read limonmelon's post bc it's very insightful.

i'm very curious about how they will handle lestat's music in the show, and do I hope they let him be a good artist. because although I totally agree about their unchanging, magically unnatural bodies, i feel like they are emotionally allowed to learn/grow/change? (this isn't meant to be a rebuttal--more my differing pov on something I see come up on this topic a lot.) so...personally, likewise i'm not sure their relationship to art is necessarily stagnant.

to my mind--and it could ttly be projection--i felt like louis's abandonment of his photography was more about fear of failure and frustration. and personally, as an artist, I fight the deeply entrenched societal idea that some people are Naturally Gifted and everyone is consigned to mediocrity: innate talent can exist, but hand to god it is the time you put into your craft that matters so much more than the beloved fairytale of divine skill. (when people look at my art and say the dreaded That's So Great I Could Never Do That, it's pain.) I think louis knows what he likes and has hit the barrier of not being able to YET create what his mind's eye wants, and it's too frustrating to continue being Not Good Enough (Yet) because he knows good art. and that is so incredibly human. I don't think vampirism has cast his sensitivity/self-expression in amber--i think he cut himself off at the knees, and we'll maybe never know if he could've excelled. instead he nurtures his eye for others' art (which i feel is just a different way to channel his sensitivity).

i feel like our go-to example of vampiric artistic mediocrity is marius. iirc in the books it's implied that marius's art was never special enough to be immortalized like some of his peers were. which is also just...life. and objectively hilarious because he was so goddamn pompous about it (and kind of an asshole lol). that was so human to me--not a vampiric curse, though i suppose they're not mutually exclusive. but even with forever, he's just not going to make the kind of art that will land him the (highly subjective) recognition of a museum, though his pursuit of art may please him personally, even if the results don't. THAT'S ART, BABY (i'm directing this at marius, lol).

I love that amc/AR gives us of examples of vampires who don't always make "good art" or they stagnate--maybe the TdV, maybe Marius, etc. It's a great statement that even with their supernatural abilities and, ostensibly, all the time in the world (caveat: you have to practice; caveat: i posit that vampires have fewer active hours in our 24 hours than we do, and usually have to spend a chunk of that time hunting & eating instead of making a sandwich), they still aren't also given the ability to knock it out of the park every time when it comes to making art. they gotta earn it like everyone else.

i agree they are trapped in those unchanging bodies, and i do feel like that could add some angst to their lives that might make making art harder, given it's possibly an emotional burden sucking up all their bandwidth? that seems to me like a case-by-case thing, though.

but I don't think vampires' immortality inherently necessarily translates to, say, soulless art. that one can't imbue one's art with relatable emotion or expertly express feelings and emotions just because death isn't looming. I do think they face different obstacles in relating to existence--they're operating on a whole different way of existing, becoming daily killers, eating people to survive, never seeing the sun, hiding who they are from the world, being forever in good physical health, living on a different scale of time--but these are generally passionate beings, and I don't feel like their differences would hinder making engaging art? (though, interestingly, it could be more alien to us, and harder to relate to.)

so I really hope they don't take the tack that lestat's music sucks just because he's a vampire. lestat came to vampirism already highly skilled in and passionate about performance, and the magical abilities of vampirism helped him pick up the ability to play all the musical instruments he could want. and i think it would be inconsistent for amc to decide he--they--can't make "good art" despite their skills, that they can't express themselves in a human way, because they can't grow and change?

because I think it's shown they can change.

in temperament/action, in the show at least, it's implied that lestat grows from a short-tempered insecure mercurial partner/father (granted, this is a bitter louis relaying this characterization lol) who learns a "very hectic lesson" and, is hinted, grows to someone who will one day possibly engage in a more functional relationship with louis in the 21st C.

amc louis, likewise, is someone with depression, anger, and a lot of compounding angst--and then with daniel's revelation, pivots, it's implied, into a new way of existing.

i feel like we're given the hint these characters will continue to evolve. i'm guessing they will remain fundamentally who they are (lestat--impetuous, passionate, violent, sensitive; louis--thoughtful, astute, ambitious, slower to show the intense feelings he keeps beneath the surface), but the potential for growth is there.

idk, I'm just passionate about these beings having the ability to sucessfully express themselves artistically in a way that resonates. i get it could go either way. and i mean, if amc decides it's just a supernatural curse that they can't make "good art" than there's nothing I can say to that, it's arbitrary lol. but it doesn't feel right to me, given the givens? and what a shame to randomly go little mermaid with this, and take away their voice in exchange for the ability to walk on the land. amc, let passionate vampires make good art if they can manage it, just like everybody else lol. I want to see what they make.

[mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea]

Fandom asks for MCU <3! 3, 5 (Loki), 6, 9, 17 (Tony), 22 (Emma)

3. NoTP?

Scott Summers/Jean Grey, Logan/Jean Grey, Anyone/Jean Grey (I mean, if I have to have her around in a fic and shipped with anyone, it's usually another character I don't dig either), Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter, Anyone/Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter, Steve, Bucky, Sam/Brock Rumlow, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts (I mean, I can deal with their relationship as a past relationship turned best friends, but I'm not gonna read or write their ship as I think they weren't really healthy for each other - like Ross and Rachel.) Loki/Grandmaster (I will make references to it as a past thing that Loki did for survival but he hates it). Loki/Thor (There's some pretty-pretty artwork out there, and I will acknowledge that it's gorgeous and can enjoy it as artwork, but as an actual pairing, no. Just not my thing.)

5. Out of all your fanworks that include [Loki], which is your favourite?

Obviously, my on-going WIP series Hemispheres would be the top of that favorite list, but then I'd have to say I'm torn between these two:

What's on your mind, half of the time, (brother mine)

and

A little shy and sad of eye but very wise was he

Both of them feature Loki in vulnerable moments. The first one, he's like 5 and tiny and adorable and scared of the storm. He gets to meet a stranger who boosts his confidence a little. And the second one, he comes back after a grueling time in Asgard with Thor, who's still being far too bullying, and his friends and is really low about it, and Tony gathers everyone up to make a blanket fort (as Loki's never experienced one before), order Loki's favorite take-out, and watch movies to comfort him. Wholly self-indulgent on the comfort side.

6. Show us a bit of a WIP!

From "Too weird to live, too rare to die" (Justin Hammer/Loki)

“So Loki made friends with Natasha by helping her with mission stuff?” Justin roped them back around to the other topic. 

Nodding, he answered, “Yeah.  He did some spellwork for her.  Imbued it into a piece of jewelry that essentially all she’s gotta do is think about how she wants to look, and that’s how she looks.  The spell lasts as long as she needs it to, and then when she’s ready to not look different, she just thinks of herself and bam.  Nat again.  No more dying her hair unless she wants to, no more contacts, no more tech that can blitz out on her.” 

Justin looked impressed.  A little skeptical, him being a tech and science guy like Tony, especially tech, but still impressed.  He wondered how Loki’s ‘magic’ could be utilized in their own tech, but he figured Tony had already been thinking about that. 

“Nice.  Sounds like he’s much better as an ally than an adversary,” Justin remarked as he finished with the last of the dishes.  He dried his hands and hung up the towel again. 

Tony took in how easily Justin took on the domestic task of dishes.  Seems like he learned some humility in prison, after all, and wasn’t looking to be waited on anymore.  Perhaps there was hope for guys like them after all. 

“Much better as an ally, though don’t let the gentle smiles and the fun tea parties he has with Morgan fool you.  He’s still dangerous when he wants to be.  He’s like a cat.  Don’t rub him the wrong way or you’ll find his claws slashing your hamstrings,” he joked, but the serious look in Tony’s eyes said he wasn’t actually joking. 

Justin walked over to the fridge, grabbing a glass along the way, and filled it up with ice and water.  He took Tony’s glass from him to fill it up, too, and handed it back, refusing to see the pleasant surprise in that gaze that followed him around to take a seat at one of the tall chairs at the counter.  Cold, pure water rushed down his throat and gave him time to think of how to respond to what Tony said.  Setting the glass on the counter, Justin turned it around and around, watching as the water remained calm even in its movement. 

“You think Loki’s dangerous to people here and you let him stay?  He’s really close to Morgan from what I hear.  I don’t see him much.  Passing in the halls, when we eat.  That’s about it, but your kid adores him.”  Justin let out a breathy laugh.  “I think she adores all of us, though, so I think that’s just her.  Big heart.”  Like her dad. 

Moving across the kitchen so he could belly up to the counter next to Justin, Tony took a drink of his water and set the glass down.  Two men, both at one time consumed by the big buck, by reputation and prestige and power, by controlling the playing field where weapons and tech were concerned, rivals – not bitterly so but rivals nevertheless, now sitting side by side, drinking fucking water for fuck’s sake, when they used to be dripping in the finest whiskey and women.  Burying the hatchet, and not in each other’s skulls. 

Tony never would’ve believed it could happen, especially not after he and Rhodey had to face down Vanko and the shitstorm he brought that Justin bankrolled. 

It was kind of nice, though, given that one of the last people Tony’d wronged in the past had injected his ex with Extremis, which still made Pepper a fiery handful to deal with, but at least, they’d gotten a handle on it for her so that she did set people on fire with her fists anymore.  While he’d never specifically wronged Justin the way he had Aldrich Killian (and really wronged was a little strong for just saying he’d been a spoiled dismissive asshole), he had been a dismissive asshole, which pushed Justin to make one of the worst decisions of his life. 

“I don’t think Loki’s a danger to Morgan ever,” Tony finally stated and tilted his head to meet Justin’s curious stare.  “I don’t think Loki’s a danger to me or Bruce or probably not Thor anymore.  Not since we’ve all sorta ganged up on Thor and told him not to be a dick to his brother.  The stabbing’s stopped at any rate.  You, though.  He doesn’t know you well enough yet, so I’d just say...tread carefully.  You never know when you’ll end up on a mission with him.” 

“Yeah, about that,” a voice from behind them announced. 

Tony and Justin swiveled their seats. 

Phil Coulson met their eyes. 

9. Write a recommendation of someone else's fic you enjoyed!

Okay look, I have so many bookmarks and fics I could recommend that are tear-jerkers, kept me on the edge of my seat through months and months, that made me swoon, and I could easily give any and all of those. I could and I would! But this asks for one fic, and I'm gonna go with one that made me LOL so hard it woke up dog up from a nap in the other room and had my sister asking me if I was okay because for a second, I couldn't breathe.

Clark's Chicken by @kleenexwoman

I don't normally read DC fanfic. I like DC okay enough to know generally who the major players are, but I'm not invested. However, I am invested in my friends and their creative sparks, unless I'm just really not at all into a particular fandom. I can't really write a full review to say what it's about other than it's not exactly safe for work, definitely not for kids, though teenagers would love this, I think. I think that's why I love it - I'm still 12 and masturbation and fart jokes make me giggle. (There are no fart jokes in this, but discussion around masturbation is.) I want as many people as possible to read this fic because all the laughter in the world could finally heal humanity, I think, and if we could all laugh our asses off at this one, it could drive out the darkness all around us these days. Seriously, I believe this fic has the potential to lighten the world, to drive out the fascists, to heal the sick and sad, to build a protective bubble around the vulnerable - all through the laughter that this fic will grace people with. READ IT AND LEAVE KLEENEXWOMAN SOME LOVE ON IT.

17. What's a book, movie, or show you think [Tony] would like?

Book - American Gods - He really rooted for the New Gods at first, especially Technical Boy and Media, but somewhere in it, he really dug Mr. Wednesday, Mr. World (and especially Mr. World's reveal).

Movie - Real Genius

Show - McGyver (remake)

22. Give us a headcanon for [Emma]

So many people give Emma shit for being cold, stand-offish, and snobby, and because of this, Emma performs that to perfection. However, around those who see past this barrier, she's loving, warm, tender, kind, encouraging, compassionate, and has one of the biggest hearts they've ever met - and she uses her big bucks to take care of the people she loves.

Thanks for the asks!!!

Fandom Ask Game.

[aesterblaster]

Hi there! Lovely blog 🥲 I came across a post about Rin (and his jaded side), which inspired me to rant a bit myself. I apologise if this lacks distinctness - English is not my native language, I also write on the bus so it must be worse than usual. Lastly, I don't have the alchemy of the verb so I tend to write more mud than gold lol. Anyways, I'd like to say something about Rin's ego (I'm consciously using arguments that I haven't seen yet, so I'll say very little about Rin's material living conditions such as the role of his age, his personality, the social impact of being Sae's brother etc, his “brother complex”...)

Well, mainly I find there are many parallels to be drawn between Nagi's character and Rin's, especially when it comes to their relationship with soccer (incidentally, the discussion they had at the end of the Manshine VS PXG match highlights their common problem; they have no ego). No… in fact I would say that there is a fundamental distinction between Nagi and Rin (absence of ego versus negation of the ego). I'm going to use schopenhauerian elements here (lightly) by integrating them with Kojève's ideas (the most primitive to the development of his thought on history). I don't think this is Kaneshiro’s ambition (but Schopenhauer (SC) drew heavily on Buddhist (anatman) and Hindu philosophy, so why not...) but Rin deals with the suffering of the world (equivalent here to the abandonment of his brother, who initially served as the pivot around which his reality revolved) by sublimating his own interiority (ego); he erases his 'ego' so as to become a footballer (he disappears in his work). For SC, the aim of the work is to develop an intuition that proposes a division of the world (a feeling of strangeness in the face of the notion of existence), which in itself makes it possible to overcome its absurdity (of the world). Moreover, everything Rin enjoys revolves around the question of the place or confirmation of the self within its realm (horror films = quest to feel/ his favorite music evokes the inability to find one's place in the world + Ciguatera (one of his favorite manga) tells the story of a young hopeless man with no goal outside of getting a bike and his new friends who gradually build themselves up in the midst of adolescence). Besides, in the same way that the abandonment of the Self is achieved through sublimation (freudian) in the work, it is also achieved through "charity" for Schopenhauer, and in some respects we could compare this to Rin's attitude before Sae's return (complacency towards his team-mates’s play style but also the stoic behaviour that emerged following Sae's departure).

It's true that, in the past, Rin undertook every action symmetrically to Sae's (theory of mimetic desire, which partly explains his disproportionate reaction to Sae's new purpose), whether through peer pressure or "willpower", although these dynamics can be criticised, they enabled Rin to situate himself in the world (shared existence creates a sense of belonging). He was the brother of the best (“even if my brother is stronger, he is still my brother, he treats me like his brother, we are equal, perhaps equivalent, we share a common humanity”). Except that this repression of the ego comes into conflict with the desire or struggle for recognition after Sae's return when he challenges Rin's perception of their shared humanity. Sae rejects Rin's humanity by telling him that he didn't see any value in him other than his ability as a player (which Sae doesn't recognise at the time). At this point, Sae imbues Rin with the idea that a being IS based on the object of his desire (to be, you have to desire something that surpasses the "need". A position that Sae continues to defend, particularly when he tells Sendo that his quest was primitive, even animal, so much so that it focused on primary needs (reproduction/affection (family), security (good salary/ position in the national team)... during this exchange he clearly establishes himself as the authentic human (free) being compared to a bunch of animals or sub-humans (enslaved)). One’s humanity (unlike animality, low things) is defined by the victory of conquering the desire of another being (the recurring theme of bllk). Whoever achieves this on his own, is in a sense, the master and the vanquished is a slave (master-slave dialectic), and while the master obtains recognition of his humanity from the slave, the master does not recognise the humanity of the slave.

In this way, self-awareness becomes a function of the other's awareness of us, and Rin integrates (even if he fights against it) his inhumanity (animality, even) and his subordinate position in relation to his brother (he’s the slave). Therefore, they are no longer brothers since they no longer recognise each other as equals. As a result, Rin performs a double negation of the ego (more or less voluntary and/or undergone), first through self-denial (for the benefit of others) and then through non-recognition (Sae’s abandonment). In addition, this could explain his jadedness and the disdain that you pointed out in your susdite post, because the value of the recognition I receive is a faction of the value of the recognition I give to others. In other words, the master gets recognition from the slave but it's not adequate because he doesn't recognise the slave, so the slave's recognition is worth almost nothing (as for now Rin doesn't care about soccer or blue lock, the aristos/master in his microcosm is Sae (Isagi only in relation to Sae) and, as in ancient Greece, the aristoi only recognise each other. In this sense, Rin seeks to recognise his own existence in the approval of his master (someone he wants to be equal to) and not in his work (if we're talking materialism, in Marxian thought, work is a means for man to recognise his own existence in the world in a broader sense, Rin really does live in a microcosm, but that can be explained by other factors) using outdated or even archaic means (for the venerative connotation of the term). It's funny that it's during the u20 match that he thinks it's imperative for him to make his mark on history. Even if I doubt Kaneshiro's qualities in this area, I'm still looking forward to seeing Rin's evolution in the quest for his true "ego" or "personal identity"now that he's started it, and he's wondering (I don't believe in these things but it could be interesting).

That said, I apologise for the length (I did try my best to keep it short), grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and inconsistencies. I only hope that I have been sufficiently comprehensible. Thank you for reading if you happen to do so. Have a nice day 😁

woah this was a full on psych thesis. Thanks! It was pretty long but I do enjoy your points and connections. I def agree that to Sae, Rin is still attatched to sub par desires and his recognition means nothing. I wonder if Sae's edginess isn't fully due to trauma but also realizing how futile Rin's way of thinking is. He just doesn't know how to properly explain it without being rude as hell.

[inposterumcumgaudio]

Promised I'd do Victoria Byng for @axxloe too so.

I don't have any specific thoughts about her in the way that I did General Byng and Reg Cutty because I feel she's actually pretty well explored in the game and mostly understood by the fandom. Nonetheless, here's a laundry list of Victoria miscellanea.

Though her strikebreaking activities are treated neutrally by the narrative as a necessary action, it does make her a tool. Which, if you're on the ball, you know this because her entire DLC is about realizing she's a fkn tool.

I don't think anyone questions that Verloc is a psychopath who takes delight in drowning people for fun, but again, the people telling us that he's a psychopath are Sally and General Byng. So if we are eyeing that notion suspiciously, it may then be possible that - at least from Verloc's perspective - he actually has a valid reason to hate Victoria as much as he seems to. What is it? There's nothing in the lore that specifically points to anything large enough to merit that. She does call him Tony and we know from other places he not only hates being called by his first name but insists upon his honorific being used... but you can't really tell Victoria Byng how to address you, can you?

Being called Tony would be annoying, but probably not enough to be delighted that the Joy supply saboteur turns out to be her. Moreso I think this points to something that a lot of people miss when being told about who has the power in Wellington Wells. Verloc is said to be a law unto himself on the Holm of Uskglass, but whatever power he holds only extends to that one island. He still has to answer to General Byng and Victoria. And they do put the screws to him about showing progress whether it's viable or not. Maybe to the detriment of Verloc's other interests.

While you can bet Verloc hates being called Tony and I implied in my stories that doing so was a deliberate subordination tactic on Victoria's part, I actually think Victoria only did it because she thought it made her more approachable and that it was the culture of Haworth Labs to be so familiar. She recalls Haworth as "never one for ceremony" and she calls him Harry in her quest notes, suggesting she probably called him that in person too. It would have been awkward to be so formal as to call Verloc by his title when his boss was fine being on a first name basis. Tony is obviously a step further than Anton would have been, but maybe that was supposed to be a nudge. That is, if Verloc had actually called her Vicky back, even spitefully, she wouldn't have minded. She calls herself Vicky in her own thoughts. (Interestingly, when she calls herself that it's spelled "Vicky" in the subtitles, but when she's imagining her mother calling her that, it's spelled "Vickie".)

While her father strives to be on top of the pyramid and to wield his power over his subordinates, Victoria goes to great lengths to make herself seem very Of the People. She lives in the Village rather than the Parade. She isn't exactly hiding from the rest of society the way a lot of the other notable characters in the game seem to be (Nick Lightbearer, Dr. Faraday, Dr. Verloc, Jack Worthing, General Byng to an extent). Indeed, she organizes public activities quite frequently. Victoria's motivation in all things is to appear as much a common Wellie as anyone else, fancy clothes and mansion notwithstanding. That Wellies in her DLC feel comfortable approaching her on the street to make idle conversation (even though she probably looks like hell) is something she's worked to imbue in them. Obviously this is informed greatly by her being visibly Other and her desire to negate that, but it's also part of what she's come to think of as her duty and her power in the town. The people of Wellington Wells do listen to and follow her (as they have since she was quite young) and she uses this - she believes - to their benefit. Indeed, she's more a post-war English ideal in that way than practically all the Actually English people in town. She's had her shoulder to the wheel the entire time.

One of the few personal items General Byng keeps in his safehouse is a drawing Victoria did as a child. He's quick to cut her loose when called out for having been looking out for himself, but it may not be as easy a decision as it seems to Victoria in that moment.

Indira had one too. And we see it right as Victoria realizes that she had to make a choice about how Victoria should feel about her moving forward. Parallels! And perpendiculars!

And lastly...

Christian Louboutin has only just been born the previous year (to say nothing of Wellington Wells' policy of isolation) and yet she's got the red bottom shoes. But if she had a favorite designer and the ability to shop them, it'd be Hermès all the way.

[latentspaceofficial]

research tangent! scp x wh13

so this is something a little bit different than what i normally talk about. i'm putting on a different cap today. ok little nerd moment thats been living rent free in my head for days. ive got an antistatic bag on my desk thats been sitting here for a while and i noticed something familiar

that sure as hell looks like the scp foundation logo

which got me really thinking. so its very obvious to me that the scp logo takes inspiration from this iso or ansi symbol. but whats even more odd was looking at the timeline of the scp wikis birth. im a zillenial (god i hate that word) so my childhood was watching markiplier play scp:cb, scrolling the old wiki, fucking with cleverbot. fun stuff like that. i was still a drooling idiot. when sci-fi renamed to syfy. but i remember the switchover and not being allowed to watch eureka because there were some "goddamns" in there. but i was allowed to watch warehouse 13, in spite of steve's existence. i was way too into the steampunk and lore of warehouse 13 when it was relevant. so much so i had a fucking farnsworth ringtone on my lg shit phone and i thought it was the coolest thing. i'm also still gay as hell for h.g. wells and her fit.

but anyway anyway. the premise of warehouse 13 was finding dangerous "artifacts" that imbued special status affects on people and to neutralize them with "neutralizer grid polyethylene static bags" as they say. their motto being "snag it. bag it. and tag it." or something to that effect.

what im getting at is that warehouse 13 has a similar premise to the scp foundation, but more mainstream comedy and less psychological horror. there's a tangential link between wh13 with scp via anti static bags and the symbol. so i looked into this a bit. through cursory searches, i didn't find anyone really talking about this other than a similar premise. so i looked at timelines. in july 2008 the scp foundation wiki (idk which one) was started, while wh13 piloted on july 2009. with a year delta, it seems clear "who stole from who". but wait. writing, pitching, and filming takes quite a while. is a year really enough time? i can't find any trademarks registered by universal nor any evidence of a canadian filming license. so this is where i stopped typing on my phone and started researching. the waters are a bit muddy, so bear with me. wh13 was co-written by a handful of people and rewritten as well. but the original plot was announced by sci-fi here in october of 2007

according to wikipedia (the free encyclopedia), inspirations for warehouse 13 include the x-files, raiders of the lost ark, something called moonlighting, and this show from the late 80s and early 90s called "friday the 13th: the series". i'd never heard of it, but it shares the vaguest premise with both wh13 and scp to keep bad artifacts away from harming people.

well what about the scp wiki? when did it form? well it's complicated. (i'm sorry for my poor cropping, it will happen again)

the scp wiki itself states that the original scp came from 4chan and that a lot of original organization happened on 4chan. indeed 4chan is the source of famous scps such as 173

posted on june 2007 is the original lore post about 173 and can be seen as the beginning of scps. which pre-dates the announcement of wh13. i don't know about you, but how fast you could go from trolling 4chan to a pilot script? at this point "some government authority retrieving dangerous magic embued items" was not a previously done idea and was indeed original. the x-files kinda did this before with balancing larger plot arcs with mini plot supernatural occurrences, not all aliens. but nothing about being an authoritative group that comes in and cleans up super natural mishaps. nah, mulder and skully just stayed in the basement or took an occasional road trip to see a whistleblower. i honestly love scp far more than wh13, but i'm going to be the devil's advocate and not give the new era spin on an old idea to the scp wiki just yet. 173 is an scp, but the idea of scps is not fully laid out yet. the thread was also deleted days later and thus only lived in the minds of active forum users of the time as fan derivatives were made. so there was a period of time where the fandom had started to form, but no official wiki existed. the semi official scp wiki formed in january 2008. later than the announcement of wh13 but before the pilot of the show ever aired in july 2009. so it's always possible the writers were 4channers and yoinked the idea. again, it's so fascinating how close in time and narrative the scp wiki and wh13 are. i personally doubt the writers were on 4chan at the time, but neither the wiki nor the show writers exist in a vacuum. i think it all warrants scrutiny and there's no smoking gun saying who inspired who, or if it's absolute coincidence. that is unless some ogs from the scp wiki or the writers of wh13 are able to speak on it. i'm curious what other people think.