#but him being a cobalt actually makes a lot of sense now that i'm thinking abt it lol

[beatriceeagle]

I'm sorry for immediately ignoring the structure of the DVD extras game!! I just came here from the final chapter of THE (and what a triumph!!), and I had three questions, if you'd permit me:

1) Just something simple I was wondering - I couldn't remember if it was mentioned in the text, how old was Eccron when she abused Jasper?

2) How did you come up with/develop the side characters, like Jasper and Eccron and Ange, and their place in the plot? Was it that you first decided which parts of Caleb and Beau you wanted to poke?

3) Veth being very motherly and suggesting Bren/Luc was very funny. How well do you think Bren and Luc actually get along?

<3 <3 <3

Don't worry about it—questions in any format are appreciated! <3 Answers under the cut.

1. It was never said, but she was in her early-mid 20s. Probably 23 or 24.

2. Basically, yes! Ange actually came before Jasper—the very earliest work I did on this fic was when it was still supposed to be a fairly short one-shot, and the first three of four paragraphs are basically unchanged from that version. I basically just modeled her after the four-year-olds I've known personally, and a lot of her specific traits developed organically from the details I happened to choose for that scene. The Tiefling and the Tailor led to the bear-shaped pancake led to her massive stuffed animal collection and so on. As the fic developed, I knew I wanted her to be a mostly cheerful presence, both because Beau and Yasha deserved to have some fun parenting, and also because I wanted the eventual reveal of what Grankton did to hit hard.

In the one-shot version of the fic, Beau didn't really have a plot, but I wanted her to have kids because I wanted to tap into that idea of seeing yourself from the outside. Caleb is seeing his literal self, and Beau is seeing her teenage son, but also her teenage self. So Beau always had a teenage son named Jasper who was into the Cobalt Soul, but in my one shot draft, he and Beau got along.

Once I committed to writing the long version of the story, that changed, and Jasper's personality developed to fit. I had a few driving ideas: I wanted him to be a basically good kid, helpful and well-behaved, because that would make his antagonism towards Beau much harder for her to deal with. (Beau expects teenagers to have attitudes; she was a teenager with an attitude!) I kept the Cobalt Soul angle, because that drove the plot, but now I had to think about what kind of person Jasper would be to be drawn to monkhood: curious and thoughtful and extremely protective. Very early on, I figured out his relationship with Ange, and that fully unlocked him for me. And then, as with Ange, the more I wrote him, the more the little details accumulated.

Eccron developed as she did almost entirely to reinforce the parallels that I was building between Jasper and Bren, Jasper and Caleb, and Jasper and Beau.

3. Bren has zero feelings about Luc at the moment because they haven't interacted much. Luc, I would imagine, is extremely curious about Bren, but he has Veth's sense of social graces on top of a teenage attitude, so he probably expresses it in weird ways. I think over the course of a lot of Mighty Nein reunions, Bren would probably come to see Luc as something like a lovable, kind of funny but kind of irritating kid cousin. Veth's matchmaking dreams will be tragically thwarted.

[astroboyanalysis]

4. His Highness Deadcross

Note for people actually following this: The slight delay in post will probably be common. I work almost every weekday and come home really exhausted so I don't normally have the energy for something like this.

While I generally don't question the order the comics are placed in in this compilation, I will say that if someone were reading Astro Boy for the first time in this order, they would probably be pretty confused right now. "But Atom is in this panel!" "Who are any of these people?"

I'm curious where the comics introducing the creation of a family for Atom will end up in the compilation. This being a serialized manga without a singular coherent storyline, this type of thing happens a lot, where it makes more sense for a story to go early, but some detail in it won't be explained fully because it's a change made in the years between whatever comics you read.

While I'm fond of the more coherent storylines of modern animation and comics, I do sort of miss serialized stories and the return to normalcy at the end of each "episode." I understand it's more common in childrens' TV, especially childrens' TV we might not think of as Artful when compared with the childrens' TV that has those storylines (thinking of like. Uncle Grandpa. That type of show.)

I think the general culture around media has shifted to one of character and story development, which is interesting. Characters and stories can still be evolved over serialized media, but it's a different approach. I remember when Wander Over Yonder was airing thinking "wow, this is a great cartoon and it's episodic instead of arc-based!"

This is a ramble. I just think it's becoming much rarer, so this problem the omnibus has to deal with is not as much of an issue anymore, at least with officially published content.

EDIT: I realized the reason for this ramble is unclear. It's much more difficult to present a coherent storyline when the changes to the main cast are episodic rather than arc-based, because the pacing would be very strange. Many times these character introductions are apropos of nothing in a larger arc or storyline, which is fine, it's just a different approach and presents a challenge when trying to create a cohesive work later, because there are many possible ways to organize the "episodes"

Genuinely Uran is so funny for this. I know this is the first time we're seeing her in the omnibus but I'm just so fond of her. Her childish but sneaky approach parallels Atom's polite near-deference with figures of authority (unless they are "evil," but at this point we don't think anything of the Pants we are being presented) Part of me believes in my heart that this is because Atom has had high responsibility for his actions - He is held accountable to a standard human children are not, and the optics of what he says and does are scrutinized somewhat. Uran has not had this, but has the same type of "free will" and lack of given purpose that Atom does. Oh yeah cobalt is there too. Hi cobalt.

Really funny visual gag where did you get that bigass weight. Don't answer. I do love that he's ostensibly working out in his free time despite this giving no real strength benefit to a robot with a set strength built in, although I do suppose getting used to how weight handles and how heavy objects throw as opposed to light objects would be extremely useful for him. Anyway. You could probably guess this but as I grew up on the 2003 Astro Boy dub, I was also a Teen Titans (2003) fan. Cyborg has a great episode surrounding the idea that strength is built in called "Sum of His Parts". I have my artistic preferences with that episode and personally would not have done everything the way it does, but the evaluation of psychology when your physical limits are perceived as set in stone is very relevant here.

We are like two pages into this one btw. I'm normal.

Another robot specific law: Robots aren't allowed to go overseas by themselves/unaccompanied by humans without a permit. This makes a bit of sense relative to robots widely being property to be protected (read: you do not want them fleeing). This was actually shown in "The Birth of Astro Boy"

See the above panel from the first comic in the omnibus.

It's also funny that they didn't just also get Atom permission on the way and were instead like. Okay Atom we're just going to do a whole trenchcoat deal. I imagine that permission to move between borders is different to acquire in different countries, and likely far more difficult in countries with more restrictive laws around robotic existence. Japan is fairly forward in robotic tech from what we see, but it's likely the bureaucratic process would take a while. Easier to just break the law. (In some regard, this can be argued as a loophole rather than an outright crime - It depends how "A Robot" is defined. One could argue that a robot is based on their singular brain, so one pass per brain, but there are robots with parts that operate independent of one another, and this would mean they would need multiple passes. This is like, really specific legal wording type issues. What is shown here indicates that this is the case, but I can't say for certain why as we don't know the law in full.)

Also, while they say overseas, it's likely more like humans needing to acquire a visa, and certain countries or borders have agreements on the issue. Japan is surrounded by water, so any other country is "overseas."

Also, pretty sure we'll see Atom go to other countries without permission.

It's funny to me that they both act like younger siblings a lot of the time because Atom is just a lot more mature and has a lot more experience in the world. Anyway Ha ha ha ha lookee! lookee!

Ban really does get some of the best reaction expressions lol

I'm not asking how they made indent footprints in what seems to be concrete or stone. I'm not.

Seems to me that this indicates some amount of standardization in robots, or at the very least, robots meant to look human, by country. This also would make sense to identify what's going on, but uh. Can't they wear shoes...? Anyway, this kind of standardization would likely be required for those roaming permits to be functional in other countries. I.E. If Canada does not agree to standardization law x394.32, the USA will rescind their robotic passage permits and any permits currently in use will be void.

If I were making an Astro Boy comic, I'd keep some element of this standardization. Just maybe not on the feet.

God I love this series so much. WE CAN'T LET HIM KNOW WE ARE BOARDING FLIGHT 0036!

MORE ON ROBOTS BEING DISALLOWED FROM HURTING HUMANS: "We had no choice" is apparently a retort to this. So it's definitely a choice-based thing and not a built-in limitation of the AI. Anyway Atom looks really nervous about having hurt a human, probably for multiple reasons, one being that his teacher is out cold, another being what the consequences would be for this law being broken - And also the optics of Atom possibly being within blame.

I have no comment on this really it's just something that's likely disallowed in other countries. Sentiments would have to be extremely positive toward robots in a country for one to be allowed to run for president, and for them to win ).

This would be one of those countries with lax robotic laws I mentioned earlier.

.

Actually gruesome as hell

Another progressive robot law Gravia had that allowed this to happen, robots can vote. I sort of doubt this is the case in other places, but I'm not sure within the initial run of the manga.

Rag your minister just kicked a human in Japan like. For not even that much reason he could have just run faster instead.

Puts you in my torture chamber I devised full of polyester balls and pours water into it, half-crushing you (but not to worry, it's a comic strip, after all.)

Our first actual portrayal of a hate group, the Deadcross Society.

SPROING. I love the ZERO pause between "how can I meet him?" and Atom just using the window immediately.

I believe this is Atom Using An Unopened Window As A Door #1 of our read through. I suppose it indicates synthetic robot skin is more difficult to cut than human skin since he's so willing to jump through windows, but he's not really worried about his clothes either. So who knows.

Atom is highly capable in robotics. This is not new it's just the first we're seeing of it in the read through.

Also, Rag is really fruity about this. Strange two panels.

I know I add this kind of thing a lot but I love this detail. Looking forward to seeing it disregarded later <3 (Said with genuine love)

While simplified (because it's a kids manga), this is a pretty realistic and also like. realistically dark (? I don't know how else to describe it. It parallels how messed up they are in real life too with real tactics) portrayal of a hate group. The explicit "The fear this and the attacks put into you is with the intent of making you resign and return to subservience" is good for kids to see, I think.

Future technology. I do agree in the world of Astro Boy it's probably much more possible to have a realistic 3-dimensional display of something, which we haven't actually really acquired yet in the real world. That said, in this case, it can't be touched or interacted closely with (It's like a stage, you just can't step past the screen and into the scene), whereas something like Pluto shows holograms that can allow for closer investigation of detail. Looking forward to analyzing how other Astro Boy media approaches this type of technology.

Having to plan ahead and conserve energy for later things is notable since if two things happen one after the other he just runs out. He conserves energy even during combat if he thinks there will be More Combat After That.

Most days he probably hardly uses any though, assuming he doesn't fly to and from school.

Fucked. Jesus Christ. (no pun intended)

his beutiful eyes

.

Post to be continued in a reblog. Guess who hit 30 images. I'm so silly goofy like that.

[atlasifyllm]

beta SUL character names are a little... unique....

For each SUL character, it's actually VERY difficult to find names for certain colors; even harder when you're trying out a specific "vibe"

However, that's talking about 21 year old me who actually HAS a system of strategies to name SUL characters now... SUL has existed for 7 years, and 14 year old me absolutely didn't have ANY of my modern strategies and like any 14 year old, threw spaghetti at the wall 😭😭

Let's talk about those old beta names, shall we?

Ruby Raleigh

She's honestly always been "Ruby Raleigh", BUT I did genuinely consider naming her "Ruby Rose" at a brief point... I felt like Ruby Rose the RWBY character and Ruby Rose the actor(?) were both too famous to risk lumping in with my little Sonic expy 👁👄👁

Jacinthe Helenium/"Jacinthe Tod"

Not including their time as "Tigerlily" Helenium, Jay was originally randomly named "Autumn Calendula"! It was a friend who came up with it from rejected names for another orange SUL character, but I felt it lacked an "oomph" because it was randomized... "Helenium" was always a reference to My Chemical Romance's "Helena" but eventually we settled on "Jacinthe" as their first name, as I thought the nickname "Jay" had a bit more pizzazz I was looking for + was a nod to a Filipino surname I saw, "Jacinto". That's why Ethan from Infinity Crisis, a Filipino Youtuber, also has the surname Jacinto :] 👍

Blaze Saffron

Originally at some point, her name was fully "Sunny Fireflame"... yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either 😭😭

Honestly nowadays, I'm really tempted for "Blaze" to also be a nickname since it's not specifically a "yellow" sounding name; just a fiery sounding one. However nothing's actually stuck so far! One of my hypothetical "real names" for Blaze was "Dandelion 'Lio' Saffron", and I swear she also had another one that's not coming to mind right now @_@

Rina Midoriya

Rina was technically made BEFORE the plot of SUL even existed... so her original name was "Ruri Lapizuli" 😭😭 A friend suggested to yoink "Midoriya" from the protagonist of BNHA since her name wasn't actually green-related, but eventually I found out "Rina" in certain kanji could mean "green jasmine". So, she eventually became Rina Midoriya!

Turquoise Sky/Cobalt Zaffre

Honestly? He's been the same since his creation nearly 7 years ago... but fun fact, Cobalt originally didn't have a last name! I actually conceptualized him with just his first names, "Turquoise and Cobalt", but after settling on Ruby's full name, "Turquoise Sky" came to mind since Ruby and Turq were pretty much the first SUL characters to exist in the SUL universe. Which means there was a fair bit when Cobalt just... existed without a last name lmaoo.

Originally "Zaffer" was the name of another character (nothing much to say about him, he existed to be fridged for Cobalt's development and never even had a personality otherwise), but eventually I just settled on "Zaffer" being Cobalt's last name, then eventually changed the spelling to the alternative "Zaffre" since I felt it sounded... "more last name like", if that makes sense

In hindsight, I probably would change Turq's last name to something else, since "sky blue" in-universe is moreso associated with azure blue rather than cyan, but nothing has really stuck so far... however, it WOULD be in-character for Cobalt to accidentally name himself after a completely different shade of blue than he intended 😭😭

Amethyst Wolfsbane

She's always been Amethyst, obviously because it was the first purple name to come to mind that WASN'T "Violet" 😭😭

Some may remember however, her last name for the longest time was "Violetta"!

There was actually (very spoilery) reasoning for her surname being Violetta but... eventually lore changes happened to make it less sensible. What lore changes DID happen though...

|

v

Tarum/ Taro Wolfsbane

Tarum is only 1 year old in out-universe time, so he was made AFTER a lot of my strats were put in place!

I actually had friends tie break on a few options for what his name should be, which included:

- Tarum (Indonesian for true indigo flowers)

- Glastum (Synonym for "woad", aka indigo dye)

- Vitrum (supposedly Latin for "glass", but also somehow also a term for woad)

- Nil (supposedly Bengali for indigo as well; I thought it would be "cool" considering 'nil' is also a synonym for 'zero/nothing')

We all know which one won the tiebreak LMAO

HOWEVER for their last name, I actually had "Wolfsbane" as an ace card SUL surname up my sleeve for ages! Considering I made him to be the twin brother of the first Violet Paladin, I felt it would be a nice nod to the founding of Rome being a pair of twins being raised by a she-wolf. I always intended it to go to a violet souled SUL character, but I found out later that wolfsbane flowers are described as a "bluish purple"; it made for a fitting surname for a violet-soul-turned-indigo!

Rose Morganite

I'll be real? I'm... still not happy with this one 😭😭 she's basically had it since her conception!

I think at some point her name was "Rose Tourmaline", but I wasn't too happy with that one, especially if I couldn't use the full "Rubellite Tourmaline" term I'm trying to refer to.

Obviously "Rose" is fine on its own, but the more I researched "color names" for SUL, the more I've been unhappy with the sound of the "-ite" part of most gemstone names. I think I have one SUL-related character that uses one of the many "-ite" gemstones as a name, but I'm still not particularly happy with using it as specifically Rose's last name, considering she's a main character -_-

Might finally be motivation to change it, now that I'm yappin about it here...

PYRRHICS

Nothing much to say for Pyrrha Amaranth and Ciel Spindrift funnily enough, but I do have a few stories about the others since it took quiiite a few days to name them all! They were conceptualized as a group that's why ^_^;

Oriole Valencia

Ah, my baby boy.

I think immediately "Valencia", after the orange, was locked in immediately; but his first name was harder!

I tried looking up more orange types and his potential names could've been:

- Seville Valencia

- Tangelo Valencia

HOWEVER during the "Pyrrhic Naming Session" with my friend, they pitched:

- Oriole Valencia

- Fulvous Valencia

which are actually both bird-related terms for orange!

I ended up tiebreaking with "Oriole", obviously... though I would eventually use the name "Tangelo" for Tarum's Orange Paladin, from 1900 years prior to SUL's main plot!

Aureolin Goldenrod

I also had "Aureolin" as an "ace card" SUL character name, specifically because it's also called "cobalt yellow"! Funnily enough, me and my friend had varying surnames for him; I was team "Solidago" and they were team "Goldenrod", both the same flower but one of them being its scientific term!

I ended up tiebreaking because I was hoping that the "sol" part of Solidago was sun-related, buuut it wasn't... so Goldenrod ended up taking the lead!

EDIT: Apparently before the Solidago vs Goldenrod debate, some of my ideas were "Aureolin Daffodil", "Aureolin Heliodor", and a few jokes about "Aureolin Mustard" and "Aureolin Dijon" LMAO

As for Aureolin himself... he's unfortunately the least developed Pyrrhic so far :') I need to overhaul him...

Sage Mignonette

Funnily enough, Sage's first name apparently went like this:

BUT their last name took a bit more time, though definitely not as infuriating as other colors. Green is actually pretty easy to search for!

Some of their potential names included:

- Sage Lovat

- Sage Celadon

- Sage Reseda

- Sage Laurel

- Sage Myrtle

- Sage Catalina

Nila Baptisia

Nila actually predates Tarum, so it was much MUCH harder to research for her, since it was the first time I've looked for "indigo" specific names!

I think at the end of the day I was debating on either "Baptisia Anil" or "Nila Baptisia"

"Baptisia" I'm pretty sure is "fake indigo", and "Anil" and "Nila" being both foreign languages for indigo dye! I hesitated using the former because it sounds... a little sus, but thankfully I was able to factcheck that "Nila" being a term for indigo was a REAL thing and then settled on it 👍

Alpine Mandevilla

I think I actually settled on "Mandevilla" being his name immediately, but for a good bit I was thinking "Rubelite 'Rubel' Mandevilla" would be his name!

I was talked out of it by my friend, so I ended up being on the hunt for specifically pink flowers; "there's a lot of pink flowers out there" was my reasoning lmao

Some of my potential names were "Frel Mandevilla" and "Astilbe 'Bee' Mandevilla"!

We ended up settling on "Alpine 'Al' Mandevilla", as according to my research, Alpine is a term for the actual flowers named "pink"

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed my yapping!

[avatarskywalker78]

11 & 12 for Writer's ask game.

11. Character/WIP Lore! (blabber about character/ WIP of choice)

Well at the moment I'm working on a Malcolm Thawne wip that's probably going to be the angstiest one yet, as it features Malcolm, now with his life on track and away from his toxic parents, decide to finally reach out to Eddie and repair their relationship if he can...except he never gets the chance, because on the day he was going to go to Central City he's informed that his brother died during the singularity. And this absolutely guts him - though he doesn't break down until he actually attends the funeral as all the grief and sorrow comes crashing down on him because he's never going to see his brother again, because Eddie probably died thinking his brother hated him and there's absolutely nothing Malcolm can do to fix that.

This brings him into contact with Barry and Team Flash, though the whole thing is awkward because 1) they're grieving for someone else and 2) he can tell they're hiding something, and though he gets along slightly better with Iris - and thinks she would've made a good sister-in-law - she's also a painful reminder of the life Eddie will never get to have and he retreats to Keystone with his girlfriend Laura for the next six months.

But he returns, wanting to find out more about Eddie's life, and is eventually looped into Team Flash during an alternature version of S2 - this fic will cover every season and some canon events will play out the same, but I'm not going to be covering every single detail, because the focus is on Malcolm and how he has to deal with his grief and how he has to move on with his life and slowly, slowly, learn to forgive himself. It isn't easy, and he ends up holding one hell of a grudge against Barry after learning of the role he played in his brother's suicide, and at some point he gets powers and becomes Cobalt Blue and though he comes to tolerate Barry they never really become close friends. Malcolm will also tend to call the Team out on their bullshit and hypocrisy over the next several seasons - even as he does become friends with most of them. He ends up building a life in Central with Laura - who will also get more of a focus here - and even has a kid with her later down the line.

His name is Theodore Edward Thawne.

12. Name a WIP that you scrapped and why did you do it?

I had a Sherlock fanfic around 10 years ago where I was planning to modernise the Baker Street Boys/Irregulars - a group of street urchins that appeared occassionally in the original books, and were later the stars of their own book series by Antony Read, which I loved. I scrapped it for several reasons - the main one being that Sherlock was a shit tv show and I no longer gave a shit because hey, turns out, it was all bullshit. Also the Homeless Network was a version of the Irregulars anyway, and it was hard to try and justify and make sense of a bunch of kids running around solving mysteries in modern day London because there's a lot more danger these days and also I couldn't see teen detectives being taken seriously in the Sherlock 'verse.

Writer ask game

[inksandpensblog]

We completely misinterpreted the hug scene

I was going to make this into a nice, well-composed essay, with each section talking about a different aspect of the episode's construction or execution, and about narrative theming and character arcs, and about why so many people thought this scene was enough to ruin the episode for them. I was going to do that, but then it took me eleven hours to try and narrow down what the actual problem with the scene was, when taken into context with the entire rest of the episode and episode 29; and then another three hours to realize what the actual intent of the scene had probably been and why nobody, including myself, seemed to have picked up on it (except for Lui and @k1ttyadventurer apparently-). So instead of the nice essay, you're getting a conceptual overview of my entire thought process, from beginning to end, as I tried to figure out the deeper reasons behind why everyone hated this scene so much, and then why we all had it wrong. You're welcome.

For the sake of internal consistency, I'm invoking author's bypass and using the names my server-mates and I have picked up for these characters. King shall henceforth be known as Mango, his child as Apricot, Purple's dadfigure as Cobalt, and Purple's momfigure as Orchid.

--

What started me on this path, was this thought: We didn't like Mango's reconciliation with Purple, but aside from pacing issues, Mango's arc (thematic, character, narrative, etc.) is pretty solid. So if the problem isn't with Mango's side, it must be with Purple's.

So, what was wrong about the way Purple's arc was written? Was it just that reconciliation scene in episode 30, or was it something from back in episode 29 that didn't show its full implications until now?

But, again, Purple's arc in episode 29 alone is pretty solid. So, the problem was just the reconciliation scene. And, again, for Mango's arc the scene works, it's only for Purple's that it doesn't.

So, what's wrong with it? Does this scene contradict episode 29 in some way? That's how a lot of us felt, at first, I think. Purple learned last episode that he didn't need acceptance from Cobalt, and he follows through on that in this episode, choosing to do what HE thinks is right and not what he thinks will earn him approval, and his reward is...symbolic acceptance from Cobalt? It didn't make sense, and sat wrongly with many of us.

--

But I still couldn't pin down why this didn't work, so I circled back. Maybe it was the relationship dynamics? Was that why many of us didn't like the idea of Mango being Apricot's father instead of their older brother, at first?

--

But then I noticed something amazing: if you watch the episode while viewing Apricot as Mango's sibling, and then watch it while viewing Apricot as Mango's child...nothing about Mango's arc actually changes, on a thematic level. It all still works, no matter which interpretation you go with.

Why, then, is the distinction given so much emphasis? Why is it important that we know that Apricot is canonically Mango's child, if it doesn't change anything about Mango's story either way?

Because what it DOES change, is the implied dynamic between Mango and Purple, and the number of inverse parallels in their stories.

--

I also think that at this juncture it's important to note that Mango seeing Apricot in Purple is something nobody seems to have had a problem with, even people who didn't like the episode. It's literally just Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango that people had issues with. Purple's side of the story, again, is the one that seems to be flawed in either its construction or its execution.

--

Now, while the status of who Apricot is, to Mango, doesn't influence Mango's story much, something about Apricot that does hold heavy sway over Mango's story is Mango seeing Apricot in Purple. And, since this seems to be paralleled by Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango,  we'd naturally expect this element to have an equally weighty effect on Purple's story. But what does Purple seeing Cobalt in Mango actually DO, for Purple's story?

--

@kikoqueenofrats and @luizastarry mentioned how after seeing Mango's backstory, seeing him be likened to Cobalt felt wrong. Specifically, that if Mango was meant to become a new parental figure for Purple, then having him become the new Cobalt, instead of, say, the new Orchid, felt really wrong, given how poorly Cobalt treated Purple (and, in my opinion, given how well Mango appears to have treated Apricot, whom he had recently likened to Purple earlier in the scene).

This is when Lui first brought up the idea that maybe the hug scene wasn't supposed to be a comparison after all, but was actually supposed to show how Mango and Cobalt were different. @iluvylalevu brought up pacing issues again, as a possible reason why the idea wasn't communicated clearly enough to the audience. Then they both discussed how some different body language from Purple in reaction to Cobalt's approach would've gotten this story point if it was indeed the intended point of the scene across to the audience a lot better; made the irreconcilable differences between Cobalt as Purple knew him and Mango as whoever he became over the course of this episode a lot clearer. 

I missed what Lui had already figured out, though, because my eyes caught on the body-language conversation, and it made me remember something: Cobalt, again and again, no matter what, forcing Purple to get up again when he fell.

--

So, I muted the video, and watched the hug scene again, and observed Purple's body language. He doesn't look like he's expecting he'll need to fight, but...in my opinion, it doesn't look like he's expecting a hug, either.

--

...maybe what he was seeing, during that moment in episode 30, hadn't been Cobalt turned around and returning to accept him, like he'd learned to stop yearning for in episode 29. (And really, would it be in-character for Purple to imagine his dad doing that? I think he knew his father better than that.) Maybe he’d seen Cobalt coming to admonish him, again. He had just defied Mango, after all, and then failed to stop him. And Green and the others weren’t here, to accept him regardless of his failure. And Orchid wasn’t here to catch him, all that was left were petals. And when it wasn’t Orchid standing over him to shelter him, it was always Cobalt, looming. But he knows it’ll be worse, if he stays on the ground. So he gets up.

And then the hug closes in, and Cobalt is gone, and it’s Mango.

--

The episode isn’t trying to compare Mango to Cobalt, like some questionable construction and execution choices for the scene led audiences the web over to believe. Instead, it’s contrasting them. Mango isn’t “the better Cobalt,” he isn’t “who Cobalt should’ve been.” He isn’t “the Cobalt Purple needs,” because episode 29 established that what Purple NEEDS is to get out from under the shadow of Cobalt’s expectations. Mango isn’t Cobalt. Mango is Mango. And Mango accepts Purple, not because of anything Purple did, and not even because he saw Apricot in Purple; the only time Mango saw Purple as Apricot was in the wall drawing, never when they were looking directly at each other, never the same way that Purple mistook Mango for Cobalt. Mango accepts Purple, because he’s Purple. Just like Green said his friends would.

Which is much less of a rancid vibe than what we’d all thought we were seeing, when all of us most of us first saw the episode.

--

I'd like to thank my server-mates for letting me figure this out, and for asking me to make sure it's shared.

[taffy-glitch]

ok so. i apologize for blorboposting on main (just kidding i'm not sorry) but i've been having some Thoughts about Larry and Crimson and i just wanna try and put them to words and this is probably gonna be too long to post on the discord (big ole spoiler warning up to cpuk32/blue!!!)

So like. I find it very interesting that Crimson specifically chose Larry to be his "respawn point" in cpuk31/orange. Like, it makes a lot of sense from an in-universe perspective - Larry's shapeshifting ability is probably really useful for Crimson getting up to mischief, plus he knew from J0hn's intro that episode that J0hn and Larry (the two of them. together) were planning to get in his way. There's also the thing about Larry's deal with Cobalt, all of that. But I want to take a step back really quickly and think about the story implications of Larry and Crimson being stuck in the same vessel for the time being (with the preface that this probably wasn't specifically planned by Ryan, because a lot of the story is improv, this is just like. an observation)

So like. I feel like a part of Larry's character that doesn't get brought up as much (which, to be fair, a lot of the time you don't have to go further in your description of him than 'chaotic' and 'gay'), which is particularly highlighted in cpuk28/red, is just. idk how to word it aside from he just wants to be on good terms with everyone? And I don't mean in, like, a people-pleasing way, he just makes it a point to be friendly with everyone he's fighting against- chatting with Alabaster about how Juniper's doing, inviting Cupid to play backgammon, plus you've got little things in other episodes like the interaction with Twist and Chili's in cpuk17. Even with Cobalt, he refers to their relationship as a "rivalry" (which is. I mean it's something).

And this goes both ways- Folk even goes to him and J0hn for help at the end of cpuk31/orange even after the whole Sephiroth incident- and, I mean, it makes sense, right? Aside from a couple of... poorly thought-out scientific endeavors (he can be just a little unethical. as a treat) he's done mostly good in the grand scheme of things (the big things obviously being reviving The Grunk and defeating Doctor Order) (and not talking about the general, morally neutral chaos he commits outside of the tournaments) and is a pretty chill dude overall (not chill in a low-energy way but. y'know). We as the fans obviously love him, but he's also fairly well-liked in-universe because of that!

Now, you might ask, where am I going with this? Well, let's talk about Crimson for a minute. Crimson is, to put it bluntly, a rancid little bastard. Putting aside all of the possession stuff and killing The Grunk, like, he almost destroyed cpuk's dimension just because he wanted to see what would happen and because this dimension in particular was pissing him off (which, to be fair, there was a decent big of dimensional fuckery in season 1 that he probably wasn't happy with, but. that doesn't really excuse the fuckshit). And, understandably, most people strongly dislike him, because he hurt a lot of people and has shown basically no remorse.

But here's the thing. That was all up until cpuk32/blue. But in that episode, both Crimson and the audience learn something very important: that Crimson is the god of treachery. And that has to throw a bit of a wrench into Crimson's worldview, because sure, he's causing problems on purpose because he wants to, but how much of that is just because it's his "higher calling?" Would he be fine continuing as the way he was knowing that he was just doing what was expected, playing into Prism's plan all a long?

Now, again, consider the fact that he chose to possess Larry, specifically. And, despite the ways they're complete opposites, you can still draw comparisons between the two of them - J0hn outright says in cpuk31/orange that they're both chaotic as hell (also including himself in that). Regardless of what they actually think of each other, it's sure to be an interesting dynamic between the two of them, and I think that, if we do get to see the interactions between Crimson and Larry, they could have a real influence on where Crimson's character is going.

I'm not even saying I want a Crimson redemption arc, necessarily- I'm not sure what direction Crimson is developing in, but I do know that it's probably going to be. really interesting. And if he is going to get better, it would make sense that he's doing it while stuck with the Florida Man himself.

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

EPILOGUE: in which Vikare Ratite and Jake English hold a conversation (jk)

sanguineHawker (SH) began trolling healingIntuitive (HI)

SH: Did you see the news to<<night, chum?

SH: So<<me blo<<ke bit the dust.

HI: +oh dear+

HI: +what happened?+

SH: I do<<n't kno<<w the full tale, but it appears so<<me co<<balt sto<<le fro<<m the Empirical Factory earlier today

SH: And he didn't co<<ver his tracks well enough.

HI: +I'd heard about the robbery. I never would have guessed that it was a cobalt who did it+

SH: Well, the dro<<nes sure tho<<ught it was him.

SH: They up and caught him almo<<st as so<<o<<n as he left his hive to<<night, fro<<m what I gather.

SH: Funny thing, I so<<rt o<<f knew the lad

SH: I saw him with my neighbo<<r a lo<<t, I think he was her mo<<irail

SH: I wo<<nder if that hit her hard.

SH: I may check in o<<n her, see ho<<w she's do<<ing...

HI: +I don't know that I would do that if I were you+

SH: O<<h no<<?

SH: Is it that funny sense o<<f yo<<urs that's saying that?

HI: +Probably+

HI: +But also, if im being completely honest... I don't think your neighbor would appreciate the courtesy call, if it's who I think it is+

HI: +At least not right now+

HI: +Maybe check her hive tomorrow, give her some time to process the news first+

SH: Righto<<, o<<ld chap!

SH: I must admit, I'm glad yo<<u're in my co<<rner

SH: I do<<n't kno<<w where I'd be witho<<ut yo<<ur level thinkpan to<< keep this captain's ship o<<n track!!

HI: +I'm happy to be of service+

HI: +Actually, this is a little off topic, but speaking of your neighbor, there is something I was wondering about just before you messaged+

HI: +How is that "Project" that she wanted you to do coming?+

SH: O<<h, that o<<ld thing?

SH: Well, I'm almo<<st finished with it but

SH: It's just as yo<<u said, I think this "game" is mo<<re than I wo<<uld have guessed.

SH: I'm having seco<<nd tho<<ughts abo<<ut selling it to<< her...

HI: +As you very well should+

HI: +It's a lot more dangerous than she let on, and I think she knows that+

HI: +To put it simply, I wouldn't trust her with it. Not without a change to the original agreement+

HI: +Because if this truly is what I think it is, then you don't deserve to get the short end of the stick+

HI: +I truly think you should try to see if she'll let you play+

SH: Let me play? That Deathtrap???

SH: No<<w, I'm no<<t questio<<ning yo<<ur keen judgement per se but

SH: I tho<<ught yo<<u to<<ld me that it's essentially a do<<o<<msday device!

HI: +I still believe it is+

HI: +For our world+

SH: ?

HI: +I sincerely hope I'm wrong because I wouldn't trust anything with her involved but+

HI: +I think the game is the most dangerous to those who DON'T play it+

HI: +When I think about you playing it instead of just selling it to her, I don't feel as... concerned+

HI: +And I think her insistence on playing it confirms that - why would she ask you to give her a program that would cull her, you know?+

SH: Hmmm

SH: O<<nce again, my dear Co<<-captain, I do<< believe yo<<u have a po<<int!!

SH: I can't even begin to<< fatho<<m what difference it wo<<uld make, to<< play it versus no<<t, but as I've said befo<<re... yo<<u haven't steered me wro<<ng yet!!

SH: I'll see what I can do<< - I'll pro<<bably see if she'll take yo<<u, to<<o<<. She's a bit finicky, that o<<ne, but I bet I can win her o<<ver.

HI: +Me too?+

SH: O<<f co<<urse!! Ho<<w co<<uld I have go<<tten where I am to<<day witho<<ut the assistance o<<f my stellar mo<<irail?

SH: I daresay yo<<u're mo<<re fitting o<<f the reward that is co<<ntinued existence than I am, anyho<<w!

HI: +That is entirely incorrect but I appreciate the sentiment+

HI: +You definitely deserve this chance as much as I do if not more+

HI: +Your visions will make a great difference for our species if you can survive this, I just know it+

HI: +So if she won't let us both join, at least try to convince her to let you play. She may be more lenient since you're the one who made her the program+

SH: Ahh, Harris... Yo<<u're rarely wro<<ng, but I do<< believe yo<<u're selling yo<<urself sho<<rt o<<n this o<<ne!

SH: My visio<<ns fo<<r o<<ur future mean no<<thing witho<<ut yo<<u helping guide them!

SH: But if it really makes yo<<u feel better, I'll try to<< argue fo<<r at least myself if no<<t bo<<th o<<f us

SH: Because if it's just me, I can smuggle yo<<u in under my co<<at, and she wo<<n't no<<tice a thing!!

HI: +Oh my Sufferer, Rubele+

HI: +I'm not THAT small+

SH: Yes yo<<u are <<>>

HI: +<>... I gueeeeeess+

SH: Yo<<u kno<<w yo<<u pity me

HI: +Well, you're not wrong there+

SH: <<>><<>><<>>

SH: Wo<<o<<ps, speak o<<f the cho<<lerbear...

SH: She's messaging me abo<<ut the pro<<gram!

SH: And fro<<m the lo<<o<<ks o<<f it, she's ready to<< pay up

HI: +I suppose this will be the moment of truth then+

HI: +Before you go, one last thing+

HI: +Whatever you two agree upon for a meeting location... Don't go to her hive+

HI: +Don't trust anything she offers you+

HI: +Be CAREFUL+

SH: I'll do<< my best.

SH: Catch yo<<u o<<n the flip side, chum!!

-sanguineHawker (SH) has ceased trolling healingIntuitive (HI)-

HI: +Let's just hope that isn't on the flip side of the door of life, old friend...+

I hate both Google Docs and Discord because they have forced me to post this here: a fantroll short story

I'll tag this too but content/trigger warning for some in depth focus on a troll being Faygo Drunk™

(Sorry i cant readmore because im on mobile WHICH HATES ME TONIGHT)

---------

It's a fine night to go for stroll, you think to yourself rather decidedly. You had left your hive on somewhat of a whim, not really with any intention or concept in mind. It had been an impulse that you'd felt compelled to act upon. But despite its rather on-the-spot nature, it was a decision you're glad you made. The air felt crisp and clear, and the pink moon shone rather serenely over the cityscape as you walked leisurely down the street. You breath deeply, appreciating the pleasant chill in your lungs, and gaze around you through your tinted glasses. There weren't even any trolls acting up in the area... things were almost quiet and safe. You could barely recognize the neighborhood you called home, for how picturesque things seemed to be for the moment.

Of course, it was a moment that wouldn't last, and as your eyes land upon a form lying prone off the side of the road, all sense of calm in you is replaced with an urgent, familiar sense of concern.

You approach tentatively, rolling up your baggy coatsleeves as you study what you presume to be the scene of the.... crime? Could be a murder at least, but crime... depends on the troll.

As you get closer, you find it to be a rather shoddily dressed cerulean troll, his blood caste only identifiable by the blue symbol on his baggy shirt. His face was mostly obscured by messy, long bangs, but despite that you could still conclusively say that you don't recognize him in any manner. He appears to be about your age, if taller and more gaunt. You don't note any fatal wounds of any sort, or even any blood pooling anywhere, and as you kneel down next to the troll, a faint snore reveals him to be merely sleeping.

Despite yourself, you snort in amusement, both at the stranger and yourself. And here you thought he could have been in grave danger...! The only danger he was in like this was getting his pockets picked, really. Maybe a lynching, but only if the lowbloods are feeling cautiously rebellious tonight, really. And that doesn't seem to be the case so far.

Still... Something didn't seem right about this. You have a nagging feeling in the back of your mind, a familiar pull tugging at your thinkpan. Maybe you should try to wake him, just to be sure everything was alright. You're both the same bloodcaste, so the risks from being overfamiliar aren't TOO life-threatening...

"Hm-hhhm. Er, excuse me..." you intone, leaning somewhat over the troll. No response.

"Hello there...?" You try again, a little louder. Nothing. Frowning, you gently rest a hand on the troll's right shoulder and, still with no response, shake it firmly. His breathing shudders, but beyond that he barely stirs. Hmmm. Maybe it's a good thing you listened to that instinct after all. You pull out a small flashlight from your coat's breastpocket, and prop the troll up by the shoulder. Holding the flash light between your teeth as you readjust him, you pry open the ganderbulb not hidden by his mop of hair, shining the light into it. This seems to be what finally wakes him, and he shifts in your grasp as you examine his eye movements. Talk about a blown out pupil. A quick breath in reveals an unusually sweet scent, like he'd been coated in syrup. You'd recognize these signs anywhere. The troll seems for his part rather stunned, blinking as you release his eye and lower the flashlight.

"That explains it... You've been imbibing Faygo, haven't you?" You ask the other troll. He squints at you, still dazed and confused from being roused with a light shining in his eye. That look is answer enough. You shake your head slowly and click your tongue.

"Tale as old as time, that," you say, tucking your flashlight away.

"And such a shame, isn't it? High as we are on the hemospectrum, only to be used by those laughable purplebloods above us. You'd think we'd be above such indignities," you sigh, standing up and brushing the leaf blades off your kneecaps. You offer him a hand, but he glares up at you rather crossly. "Who th' fuck are you?"

"Of course, of course, I haven't introduced myself, have I?" Rummaging around in the same pocket you stored your flashlight, you produce a frondmade business card.

"My name is Harris Longvo, mediculler-in-training. Now, now, I know that look - "ceruleans can't be medicullers". BUT, we no longer live under the tyranny of The Condesce!!! It's centuries past time we started acting like it! And given we highbloods are still treated with some privileges- why not use this station for good? Take advantage of the vestiges of the old system, and use them to inspire a new one?"

You falter, seeing how unfazed your audience appears by the concept.

"Well, of course... this call to action is strictly optional, more of a personal choice really..." you mumble, glancing down through your thick glasses. The other troll sighs, still looking somewhat annoyed, and takes the card from your hand.

"Look, dude, just... whatever," he sighs, pulling himself up somewhat shakily as he stores the card directly into his sylladex.

"S'not like I'm gonna tattle on you to the drones.... 'sides, I could probably use a mediculler... I feel like shit right now," he huffs, as if trying to blow his bangs out of his face. You frown as you take a better look at him.

Initially, you had assumed his bedraggled appearance was strictly due to a day of intoxicated merriment - but the more you look at him, the more you notice other details as well. Some sunburn, the occasional bruise, and you think you glimpse an unusual scar by his collarbone, before he yanks his oversized shirt up to cover it from your scrutinization.

"You got a problem?" He growls, straightening up a little. You frown thoughtfully, finding his intimidation tactic a little lacking. It doesn't help that you can tell how bad off he is. Deep bags from little sleep, dry skin, chapped lips, looking fairly gaunt for a troll his height...

You understand now. In the process of taking just a casual jaunt around town, you've found yourself another "patient". One with low chances of recovery, if you're reading him right.

You can tell he's about to get really pissed off now, probably at your silence. You're not too bothered by this though, you've seen scarier trolls before.

"Not a problem at all, my fellow troll," you shake your head dismissively, unrolling the sleeves of your baggy coat.

"I was just thinking it was probably a good thing I was the one to find you... You certainly look like a troll who could use my services, if you don't mind my saying so."

He squints at you in thought, confused by your nonchalance, and opens his mouth to say something--

"And no, it won't cost you anything. It's not a scam, I don't need your caegers, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not a Tealblood, you know." A glance askance.

"All I would ask is for you allow me to... practice, my craft on you, if you need medical attention. I'm quite skillful, so the risk is incredibly low. But I do need to stay in practice with my tending, and it never hurts to have some live cases to sharpen my skills on."

He studies you, still distrustful.

You're especially going to be someone who need my expertise, you want to say.

But you refrain.

He wouldn't understand.

They never do.

That's always the most painful part.

"...fine, whatever," he relents with a roll of his visible eye.

"Got a prognosis for me now, 'doc'?" It's not so much a question so much as it is a challenge, as he folds his arms in front of him, rocking back on his heels.

"I don't know that I would go that far yet, but I will say you're not looking too good. You need to return to your hive for some 'coonrest. Eat something substantial, drink something other than The Clown's Sopor... perhaps apply some standard sopor to those burns," you add as an afterthought, gesturing to the darker patches of skin on his arms.

"But most importantly, take it easy for a night. Sit on your loungeplank, watch Grubtube or Grype someone... just don't run any errands."

He raises his eyebrow at you, as you stress your final words at him.

"Errands...?"

"Yes, you heard me, thus proving your auricular sponges work just fine. Excellent. Yes, errands. Any, and all, errands. Your errands, your lusus's errands... Stay inside tonight. Just, whatever you choose to do with your night... Don't. Go. Anywhere."

He frowns at you, his expression rather inscrutable. After a moment, during which you can feel him trying to read your thinkpan -to no avail, you might add- he scoffs and turns away from you.

"Fine. Whatever. Sounds like what I was going to do, anyways."

You watch him stalk off, that uneasy feeling still nagging in the pit of your grubchute.

It didn't work. You didn't change anything.

But his life is not yours to change. And you did what you could. All you can hope is that it'll change something before it's too late.

[coldtomyflash]

Any thoughts/theories on who Savitar might be, in light of the "Once and Future Flash" episode? I'm hearing people suspect it might be Eddie, which could be cool. And that fits in with the whole "Barry ruined my life" thing and also 2024 Killer Frost's comments that Barry would be "so surprised" when he found out. But I also feel like if that was the case Caitlin would have been more confused/suspicious towards him instead of just immediately giving in like she did at the end of the episode?

I’ve talked a lot about my theories and the various ones I’ve heard, weighing the possibilities, but maybe I should have it all in one place, so here we go.

Who Savitar might be (in descending order of likelihood).

1. Barry Allen

This is my favorite theory. 

Maybe it’s a Barry who becomes so twisted by the death of Iris that he makes a time remnant who becomes Savitar somehow. Maybe it’s the version of Barry that was destroyed by Barry changing the timeline so many times, and he’s been caught in the speedforce going mad all this time, re-witnessing his mother’s death. 

Who knows? Not me. But I can see it from how this season has gone, with it being about consequences to Barry’s time travel. And Caitlin knows enough about time travel and time remnants to put that together quick, upon seeing Savitar’s identity. Like I mentioned somewhere else, her reaction could’ve been a “this version of you is as twisted as I am as Killer Frost” - a mutual understanding of what they’ve both become.

This theory also makes the most sense from Savitar’s “it’s me or you” thing with Iris. Maybe Barry needs to become so twisted and broken to become Savitar, and Iris has to die in order for that to happen.

2. Eddie Thawne 

This would warrant some surprise from Killer Frost, given that Eddie was pretty dead last we checked. She wasn’t quite confused enough for this, maybe?

But note that Eddie died within a time loop, right? The only reason he killed himself is because Eobard time travelled. No Eddie procreating, no Eobard to travel back in time and cause Eddie to ultimately kill himself. The speedforce shelters that timeline (Eobard’s original timeline) to prevent a world-collapsing paradoxical time loop, but we don’t really know if that means Eddie just stays dead, or if he’s maybe been stuck in the speedforce or caught in a time loop going mad?

It also plays into the “you’ll never guess” thing they’ve got going, but fit with it being someone who knows the team / has been watching them, has a personal connection to Iris. Idk, this gifset had some interesting points/parallels for it.

3. Cobalt Blue / Malcolm Thawne / Barry’s evil twin

This one is out of the comics but I’m a fan of this theory. Separated twins at birth, a twin who thinks Barry took “everything” from him by having the life that he was supposed to have but never got to, raised by the Thawnes and not the Allens. It seems unlikely to me that they’d actually play it out this way, but some Cobalt Blue reference or tie-in wouldn’t really surprise me.

Anyway, @ladyofpride and @prouvairablehulk have made an interesting case for this.

4. Ronnie Raymond

So people are suggesting this one I think because of the Killer Frost tie-in? And maybe because it’s sort of unclear what the heck happened to Ronnie’s body when he was sucked into the singularity. Maybe he wasn’t crushed by gravity and maybe he didn’t get chucked out as a corpse onto Earth 2. Maybe he just got lost in the speedforce, sucked in like Roscoe (Turbine) in the New 52.

I kind of dig this theory on a few fronts, including that it would be a genuine twist, fit with the comics in that weird way, and sort of have a strange tie-in with how Julian was Savitar’s avatar and was falling for Caitlin all season. But, I do believe if this were true, Killer Frost’s reaction to seeing him would’ve included more shock and awe and joy?

5. Iris West

This is a new theory I’ve seen floating around. It’s neat, placing the “it’s you or me, Iris” thing in an entirely new light. Iris doesn’t die, she becomes Savitar. Or I mean, she does die, and thus becomes Savitar.

I feel that Killer Frost’s reaction at the end of 3x19 would actually fit with it being Iris, to be totally honest, but I still think it’s ultimately a little unlikely. That being said, the seasonal big bad being a woman? Into it. And it would be an unexpected twist. What better to ruin Barry than the woman he loves becoming the one who ruins him? 

6. Another speedster: Jay Garrick, Wally West, Jesse Quick, Eliza Harmon

Mostly Wally and Jay, but I think these are all at least a little plausible, right? Jay is stuck in the speedforce right now though, so it would have to be a Jay from a different time. Wally is an interesting theory to me… Savitar took a shining to Wally and used him, got close to him, imprisoned him and the speedforce didn’t want to let Wally go.

Also, it would but a neat spin on 2024!Wally. Wally goes after Savitar, Savitar breaks his back and does something to him, and Wally becomes permanently catatonic? Maybe he’s catatonic due to becoming Savitar? I know it’s convoluted and silly and unlikely, but hell, this show handwaves a lot.

Jesse seems unlikely but she’s a speedster so? Same with Trajectory – she was destroyed by the speedforce after all. Maybe Velocity made her one with the speedforce. It’s silly and I doubt it, but hey, I’m being thorough.

7. Leonard Snart

I don’t think this is likely, but some people think Occulus!Len might’ve become the God of Speed. @literallyflashtrash suggested it as a crack theory but it’s taken off since then, and others have thought it up independently as well. I think we all just miss Snart. It’s okay guys, I miss him too.

8. Humanized!Grodd

“I am the future, Flash…” - Grodd, New 52. Enough Said.

9. Patty Spivot

@terrie01‘s joke but hell, at this point, I won’t even be surprised. Throw us all for a loop, writers.

10. A random hot dude because KF is thirsty

Someone joked about this and I 100% approve. “you’re gonna be sooo suprised… that Savitar is someone you haven’t even met!”

11. Edward Clarriss / The Rival

The dude had a big enough ego, right? Was created by Flashpoint. Maybe Savitar is somehow a remnant of him, and that’s part of why he killed Clarriss when he was done with him? It’s not like Zoom didn’t pull the same move with killing his remnant, and this show loves its parallels.

12. (Grown up) Sara Diggle

Barry erased her existence from the timeline. If I were her, I would want revenge too. Obviously not likely, but damn does he deserve this coming back to bite him.

[heirofall]

Oh god this is so long I'm sorry

Okay so I’m making a Bloodswap fanventure (Bc I’m trash ;)) and I heard you did session analyses, so here I am!  It’s kind of like Hivebent, except everyone has different titles and I’m not sure how their personalities would change the outcome.  Here are the players’ info:

Gamzee (Burgundy) –> Bard of Time, Derse dreamer, Land of Tents and Melody. Likes pranks, speaks sign language, killed by a rockslide in a FLARPing incident. Able to hear the voices of the dead. Tends to get quiet at times, but is usually pretty peppy.

Eridan (Bronze) –> Prince of Breath, Derse dreamer, Land of Wrath and Zephyr. Enjoys science, especially chemistry, and is avid in writing Troll Star Trek fanfiction. Spends a lot of time RPing on the internet. Hesitant to try new things. Has a bit of a superiority complex. 

Feferi (Gold) –> Witch of Doom, Prospit dreamer, Land of Dew and Fire. Very sporty, sassy as all getout, loves making terrible jokes. Believes her memes are the best memes on the planet. Will not hesitate to verbally roast a bitch if need be.

Kanaya (Candy) –> Sylph of Blood, Derse dreamer, Land of Rays and Haze. Reserved, loves fashion, decent at painting, dubbed the Mom Friend. Hides blood color from the public by lying, but other than that, very true to her word. Acts like a bronze blood, has candy red.

Terezi (Olive) –> Seer of Heart, Derse dreamer, Land of Thought and Tea. Excited about everything, hoarder of nature themed items, blind and relies on smell, loves bugs to an extreme. Has a very poorly timed sense of humour, and doesn’t have much of a filter.

Karkat (Jade) –> Knight of Space, Prospit dreamer, Land of Pulse and Frogs. Constantly harsh on and unsure of himself. Creative, but never finishes anything he starts. Loves shitty TV shows. Very impatient and blunt. Sees taking care of the Mother Grub as a burden instead of an honour.

Nepeta (Teal) –> Rogue of Mind, Derse dreamer, Land of Little Cubes and Flow. Against the idea of a caste system, quite a troublemaker, very passionate about interests. Never able to decide one thing over another. Very brash at times, but is able to take charge when needed.

Equius (Cobalt) –> Heir of Light, Prospit dreamer, Land of Caves and Treasure. Very adventurous, loves exploring. Very good at programming various types of software. Very superstitious, and is adamant about his beliefs. Not controlling, but can be pushy at times. Has all the luck. All of it.

Vriska (Indigo) –> Thief of Void, Prospit dreamer, Land of Maps and Silence. Quiet, very antisocial, stays in the background most of the time. Steampunk trash. Somewhat of a kleptomaniac, mainly steals writing utensils. Good at keeping secrets, often successfully lies through things.

Aradia (Purple) –> Maid of Rage, Prospit dreamer, Land of Quartz and Mirth. Often feels unattached to reality, disassociates quite a bit. Usually angry at herself and afraid of disappearing. Often questions belief in the Mirthful Messiahs. Can be very stubborn, but is good at cheering people up.

Tavros (Violet) –> Page of Hope, Prospit dreamer, Land of Sand and Angels. Very optimistic, sees the glass as half-full. Quite naive, willing to believe anything anyone says. Loves animals, probably vegetarian. Calms Sollux’s lusus with paps instead of killing lusii to keep her quiet.

Sollux (Fuchsia) –> Mage of Life, Derse (and Prospit) dreamer, Land of Brains and Glass. Talkative, impulsive, likes diving right into things. Interested in video games and coding. Has low self esteem, covers it up with a self-deprecating joke and an “ayy lmao.” Doesn’t handle responsibility well.

The first big problem they face is the fact that Sollux decided it was a good idea to prototype his two-headed Horrorterror lusus, because now the Black King is really big. Great job, Sol. Assuming they defeat the Black King, the next part of the plan is for the Black Queen to grow vengeful and hop into the Kidswap Betas’ session, grow stronger like Jack Noir did, and return to the trolls’ session to possibly erase their chances of success.

They also keep getting “pestered” by an overly-excitable Heir of Space (John), a pop-punk cool kid Seer of Time (Rose), a creepily cutesy Witch of Light (Jade), and an awkward bedroom-dwelling Knight of Breath (Dave). It’s kind of like how the kids were trolled in their session except the opposite.

I’m still working on the human session and how the Black Queen’s going to do the thing, and I might come back to ask about the kid session, but my main focus is the trolls right now. What do you think their success rate would be?? I’m so sorry this was so long ugh

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Okay, before I even get into it, two things. One: this has been sitting in my inbox for way too long and I am so sorry, and two i absolutely LOVE the classpects of the beta kids, but I’ll get to them later! 

On with the lengthy analysis!

So, let’s get something out of the way. You have the same classes and aspects, just shuffled around. Therefore I don’t even need to address the active/passive balance, Knight, Space and Time players, and everything else present. We’re all pretty familiar with that stuff as it is! Things are looking pretty good!

You’ve given me literally everything about the characters, so for that alone I’m going to put in as much effort as I can muster for this. Thank you so much, it helps a lot. 

Well, why don’t we go in blood caste order!

Gamzee

First off is Gamzee and OH BOY ALARM BELLS!!! Almost all of the classpects in this session I’ve dealt with before and the Bard of Time is no exception! A destruction class with any cardinal aspect is big danger, but as far as they go I would be tempted to say Bard of Time is one of the more preventable (nowhere near as dangerous as its active counterpart, but still dangerous!).

Most of his personality quirks seem to align themselves with not being too destructive at all, actually! A dead Bard of Time is the best kind of Bard of Time imo, so hopefully you’ve saved yourself a bit there! However, if you really want to cause some havoc, the Bard of Time could direct people in the complete wrong direction and, as a ghost, have no regard for stable time loops at all, causing a lot of problems (THAT COULD EVEN LEAD TO THE RISE OF LE if you’re going for that of course lmao). This Gamzee actually seems like a pretty chill dude, so hopefully he’ll be ok! I can see him being friends with Karkat and maybe even Equius! He would need to make sure his pranks didn’t get the better of him and lead him on a destructive rampage!

Eridan

Oh lord you are after my own heart. My favourite Prince (one of my god tiers >:D) and a fantastic role for Eridan, the Prince of Breath is one of the least “Bad News” Princes in the game. You definitely seem to know what you’re talking about too, as a Prince of Breath would be hesitant to try new things (or outright destroy them!) and would definitely have a bit of a superiority complex! 

If you want to look it in a positive way, Eridan could forge bonds in the team out of the destroyed freedom, or even destroy the freedom of the enemy! If you want to make Eridan the bad guy he is in the canon, you could get him to destroy the freedom and confidence of the team, possibly by blowing up their meteor, chopping someones legs off, etc! It’s up to you to decide!

Feferi

Oh thank god, the best Feferi. I love your writing of her so much (incidentally, if you end up making this let me know!). 

The Witch of Doom Feferi would be able to manipulate and control the Doom in the session or just in general! No one would be dying on her watch, and could take the death or restrictions of the team and place it upon the enemy! If any member of the team were to sacrifice themselves, much like a Rogue of Doom Feferi could move that sacrifice onto the enemy!

I can still see Feferi being friends with the same people, possibly even more!

Kanaya

Now if there was ever a counter to the Prince of Breath, this would be it! Well... apart from a Sylph of Breath but that’s beside the point!

Kanaya being the Sylph of Blood would be able to mend any relationship or bond in the session, making it one with great teamwork! The dubbing of her being the “Mom Friend” would be very accurate indeed, as she would Meddle And Fuss in relationship and make sure that everyone was getting along!

Of course, I could definitely see a rift between her and Eridan, as they each would take different approaches toward teamwork and making friends (or making people be friends with others!). That is a little of an oversimplification, but we really don’t know a whole lot about her class and her aspect!

Terezi

Being the Seer of Heart, Terezi would work very well with Kanaya, instincively knowing an awful lot about people’s emotions, and be able to read people very well, despite being blind! In terms of personality differences based on the change of aspect, I could see (hehe) her changing the most! 

Although she would be able to read people well, she may struggle with knowing how to use this information and when to apply it, as well as possibly not knowing her own sense of belonging and identity, leading to some possible complications. A good moirail would be useful, possibly even Kanaya!

She may also find it hard to know when to use her emotions, which would go well with her poor comedic timing and over-excitable personality! However, through the adventure she would learn to deal with this!

Karkat

Gee, I really don’t know why you’re coming to me, because this is a very adept analysis of Karkat is he was to be a Knight of Space! Again, love the classpect, a personal favourite.

I can see this classpect working very well with Karkat’s already existing temperament, as his creations would be very good and interesting, but he would see them as pointless and awful, going as far as to stop working on them simply because he thinks he isn’t good enough. Knight of Space and inferiority/self-confidence go together like (enter witty Homestuck reference here), and I can definitely back it up on this one! Karkat would definitely struggle with raising the mother grub and breeding the Genesis Frog, but with good enough support I can definitely feel like he can do it!

The main problem here is that the Space player instructs the Knight, and if someone is a Knight of Space, perhaps they would need to be guided by...nothing? By that I mean VOID PLAYER!

Karkat would definitely have a lot of room to grow, but largely it would be quite similar to his canon arc, just with space instead of leadership!

Nepeta

Rogue of Mind is a classpect which I haven’t had much to do with, but that doesn’t mean I don’t work with it! Nepeta would have trouble applying herself when it comes to analysis and calm-headedness, but would learn how to use her talents of the Mind! 

Nepeta would have a general ability for Mind but not realize it, which may go hand in hand with her thinking the caste system is a bad idea (because it is!!). She, like you mentioned, would have trouble deciding on things, as she may wax and wane on issues which are actually pretty important, and not understand the gravity of the situation.

I LOVE the idea of a troublemaker Nepeta, and I feel like with her personality she would be ok at it! Maybe she could hang out with Gamzee sometimes (do i hear moirail in order to protect the timeline? i think i do >:))

Equius

I’m glad to see Equius get a bit of light! He deserves all of the luck (aaaaaaaall of it!). 

Equius would hold fast in what he thinks is right and good in the world, and would often be protected by his own good luck. The Heir of Light is quite similar to the Heir of Hope, but there are definitely differences! Equius would often strike the jackpot when adventuring and exploring, adding to his already substantial hoard of money and treasure, thanks to his good luck. 

Equius would be superstitious, of course, and would probably cop flack about it from his peers, and may be subconscious about it!

Vriska

Ah, the Vrisk. I take back what I said about Terezi, this is definitely the most unlike the original character! That’s perfectly fine though!

Vriska, as the Thief of Void, would do the exact opposite of what she does in the canon source, as in she would take away the insignificance from things! She would enable other people to shine brightly, but may use this darkness and irrelevance to wreak some kleptomaniac trouble! Perhaps she and Equius could be in a mutually beneficial relationship, with her providing him relevance and him providing her cool steampunk stuff!

Vriska would definitely steal stuff, and I would imagine that she would be an avid hoarder of other peoples secrets, loving to get some sweet goss to blackmail people if she needed! She would be a master manipulator from and with the shadows, but would still be pretty well liked!

Aradia

Aradia would have issues with internalized Rage, and would rely on other people for power, anger, and other things related to her aspect.

She would also suffer from Rage a bit, like how Jane as the Maid of Life suffers from having so much energy to do things but is restricted!

Aradia would definitely feel unattached, due to her questioning of her own anger and emotions, and may sometimes rely too much on the wrong people, who either manipulate her or simply can’t or won’t help.

Despite that, she would end up being very good at using her anger to create things and directly heal others, possibly through sheer determination! She would be very powerful and may simply, in some kind of purple frenzy, create the end for many of her enemies! I haven’t looked much into the Maid of Rage, but you can count on her being equally as scary!

Tavros

Well, we’re in luck here because we’ve already got a canon Page of Hope, our buddy Jake English who, funnily enough, Tavros is quite good friends with! 

I can definitely see Tavros as a good Page of Hope, and being very optimistic and guillible, definitely to a fault. Just like in the source material, I could still see Vriska manipulate him a bit, but with Tavros having a bit more confidence and a hell of a lot more power in terms of blood type, he wouldn’t have much of a problem!

I could actually see Tavros progress quite nicely, either that or being killed in some kind of horrific accident with Sollux’s lusus! I also love that Tavros paps the lusii. Adorable.

Sollux

My man Sollux. I’ll be honest, I’m totally bias and I LOVE Sollux, and this is probably going to be longer, as not only do I love Sollux, but I also have quite the extensive knowledge of the Mage of Life!

Like Mage of Doom Sollux, Mage of Life Sollux would suffer from bipolar, probably worse than he already has it, due to him suffering from life and energy. He would be a lot more free and able to do what he wants, but would still struggle with the fact that there is a fixed amount of Life for everything.

Like any good person suffering from Life, he would be very impulsive and talkative, like you state, as he would act first and think later. He would also struggle with authority, like other Life players do, and being in a high position in the caste would make him not be able to handle responsibility well.

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Well, you seem to have done a pretty good job so far! You’ve got enough complications to make something bad happen, but also enough good things to maybe not let everyone die!

Beta Kids

I’m not going to analyse the Beta kids, but I will tell you that you’ve definitely got the right idea, and I encourage you to be confident with their personalities! John and Rose wouldn’t change much, but Jade and Dave would be influenced by their aspect. It’s fine as you have it though! I would love to see their interactions with the trolls!

Overall Analysis

Depending on how you want things to go, I could give this between a 50% of success and a 90% chance of success! The characters would work quite well together, and I can definitely see a lot of different dynamics at work! If you ever end up making this a thing, link me it, it sounds really interesting!

And that is THAT done! Hope you enjoyed!