#but no shot is it gonna be a canon ship

[new-cross]

guys I honest to god did not notice any nandor x guide stuff in the new episodes until I came on tumblr and people freaked out about super small things that i completely missed

[deadshadowcreature]

I think Otta would be very likely to hit on Packpatty instead of Mayjack

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #29

Jumping off from my previous and pending liveblogs through The Battle of Big Wand -> but this is mostly me talking about Dale headcanons and 'fics

Partway through my next liveblog post, I started rambling about Dale and doodled a joke, and... it got really long, so now it's in its own post.

I'm sorry you have to see this, SDKFLJ...

Mildly suggestive stick figure honeymoon doodles - #ScarletPenguin

why does he still look anxious and pathetic even when he's plotting a takeover... he's the goofiest guy. I love him.

Liveblog Notes

As far as me loving characters with traumatic backstories goes, I do enjoy Peri, but he has way too many blank spots in his lore and things that are making me look at him sideways, waiting for him to say something I can work with.

I would've liked to see more of his backstory come into play... I feel like that would've been a great episode theme focused on the Peri-Dev dynamic (Them figuring each other out, uncovering bits and pieces, struggling to find areas where they relate until they do... like the clinginess or abandonment issues). Hopefully we get that in the future.

- Don't get me wrong- I'm really enjoying Peri, but from a fanfic perspective, I don't have enough breadcrumbs that don't come from the OG series I based my aged-up Poof on anyway. - That said, still love the implication that he brought Dev to his parents' house while he ate too much sugar and Jorgen almost caught him, and I'm deeply interested in his many layers of trauma. No notes.

I can make up stuff for Peri, but... I've already been making up his story beats for 8 years, so I'm personally not excited at the thought of designing a new backstory from scratch if I don't have any springboards like his friends, school life, where he's been living, or what he did while his parents were gone for 10,000 years. The OG series gave me Sammy Sweetsparkle, Goldie, and Spellementary and Steve, my beloathed. I don't have much to go off here.

We don't even know what his relationship with Irep is, like if "Best of Luck" was the first time they'd seen each other since Spellementary and/or if Irep was banned from continuing his schooling. I mean... one would have to assume Irep has his godparenting license if he's allowed to jump in on Dev, but who knows...

Me just now blinking in confusion that Da Rules allow Irep to yoink Dev as a godkid when Irep blatantly disregards all the other Rules. Cherrypicker...

And yes, I can work with it if I want to, but I already write a bunch about their dynamic, teen, and adult years in Cloudlands AU, so... I'm fine letting other people deep-dive into him; I'll probably be surface level on my end <3

So... That's all set-up for why I think Dale is my favorite in this show... He captivates me by having this clearly defined mess I can pick at. Locked up and forced to make lemonade for 7 years? wild. We know what it was like, where he was, how old he was when it started, who did it, for how long, how he escaped, what his family situation was, and we saw Doug's estate in "Engine Blocked," so we have a decent idea of where he lived and how he grew up.

We've seen a lot of clues about how his trauma lingers around him today, how he forbids his son from drinking lemonade around him, he seems to be withholding details from Dev (who has no clue who Vicky is and seemed grumpy that lemonade is presumably a trigger for his dad and thus he's not allowed to have it). We also know how his young self ended up as an adult... We know he has meltdowns when he loses money and he doesn't bat an eye about stalking or hurting children...

We've got a partner missing from his life, so he's got single dad stress in there somewhere unless the O-pairs were there from the day Dev was born... potentially divorce or widower baggage and either of those is funny... I still think Doug might be dead in New Wish and that becomes increasingly likely the more I look at my age timeline compared to how old Doug was when he struck gold, which is canon in New Wish rather than given to us by the OG...

And if he and Vicky are the same age, were they friends when his torment started? You can even mess around with vibes like "Did Dale get a fairy?" or alternatively, "Why WASN'T he miserable enough to qualify for a fairy?" because that gets really dark if you start thinking about Vicky yo-yoing his emotions to keep him on the line above misery. What was she doing to him...

Like ??? unfortunately, the most obvious thing I can think of is that Dale was so blinded by his vision of Vicky being his friend (and/or crush?? idk) that he kept forgiving her, which is... awful.

We never got a confirmed reason why Tootie didn't have a godparent despite Vicky tormenting her daily, though I always felt like age or her blabbermouth tendencies might play into it (or she clung to Timmy for stability and thus wasn't miserable enough so long as Timmy was there to "support and comfort her" (her perspective). ?? Did Fairy World think it wasn't worth the paperwork to assign someone to Dale because they assumed he'd just make a single wish to free himself and then be fine? skdljf... I just can't stop thinking about it. It's not like his father's wealth disqualified him; Remy and Dev both had godparents assigned. Idk! I think about it a lot. Fascinating.

AND you're telling me this kid grew up with the OG cast after his escape?? There's a LOT there I can play with. Did he have to go to high school with Vicky? I want to believe he was homeschooled, but we never see Doug with a partner AND Doug is a busy person running a ton of businesses. The logical assumptions here would be either "Dale went to public high school" or "Dale was shipped off to boarding school" or something like that. Each of those comes with its own implications, which excites me.

As a bonus, this guy's severe trauma is connected to lemonade?? A drink that shows up a bunch of times throughout the OG series because it's just casual and everywhere? That's so funny...

Insert joke about how it's smart to give your protags weaknesses or fears that are commonplace so they'll run into them in a casual adventure or everyday life

And YET... Despite everything we know about him, there's still plenty of wiggle room for me to play with. I like that.

Honestly, I love the entire Dimmadome household... Dale and Dev and the O-pairs and Peri and the weight of absence of whomever else was in Dale's life once upon a time. Dev is a cool character at all, but at the end of the day, he's a 10-year-old bratty bully who's neglected and lonely. I appreciate him dearly, but it's nothing I haven't seen before.

Dale is my favorite. His utterly bizarre backstory has captivated me. I can make him worse <3

I did have a role planned for him in my Cloudlands AU 'fics - have since 2018 - but I was gonna play him as quiet and jumpy... Curious, easily excited, but not as fingers-in-every-pie as his father. But nowhere would I have guessed 7 years of trauma. And that changes everything. I'm extremely excited to play with that.

He's been on my backburner for ages as "one of those characters I want to delve into when Timmy's older and has a reason to cross paths with him, such as in the working world as Dale becomes more involved with the Dimmadome businesses." My plan's always been to make a funny trio of Dale, Remy, and Dale's wife [my very first FOP OC, Hadley] (whom I've been slowly setting up to become Remy's close friend in the 130 Prompts series when they're kids) and they're just... laid-back rich people who hang out and go on silly rich adventures.

Here's a fun Hadley profile, finally digital since I've only drawn her in colored pencils up 'til now!

In spite of me repeatedly mentioning her in my New Wish liveblogs, words cannot express how shocked I've been to see Dale, who was a tiny mention in the OG series, come back as a critical character...

My girl's shy husband in Cloudlands AU canon, whom she was betrothed to when neither loved the other, turned out to be a horrible person in A New Wish who's 99% likely to have divorced her, and I could NOT be more ecstatic to work with that in 'fic. It's like this was set up just for me! :D

- How funny would it be if they had a Season 2 arc where Dev disappears for a while because he's staying with his mom? lol. - If Dev's mom suddenly showed up because she'd just left for an extended work trip or something, would that be silly'd up or what?

Bonus Hadley Facts!

- She's 12 & 13 around Timmy's time period and attends middle school with Remy. They went to a dance together.

- She and Timmy are briefly in middle school together. They vaguely knew each other in elementary school before either had a fairy- I like to think they had multi-grade gym classes, field day, lunch, and stuff like that and sometimes saw each other.

- Never had Crocker as a teacher, but has crossed his path at the grocery store and stuff. She skirts around him.

- Her mom is a professional painter. She also has a blood blossom garden. Leadly keeps making Hadley give them to people he's trying to sus out as witches.

- Very aware of her dad's horrible dating life. Unfortunately knows he's chasing magical creatures because he's getting desperate for "idk, something new and fun" at this point. Bribes Cupid on the regular. Unclear if Cupid is screwing her dad's life up on purpose to keep the money coming in.

- Has been to Texas a bunch of times (Pencil Nexus has a branch there - "The Boss of Me").

- She hums the Pencil Nexus theme a lot, especially if she's waiting in a line or doing chores. She's bad at sneaking around because she'll forget she shouldn't hum.

- At the time of posting this, her two speaking appearances are in the 130 Prompts "Back In Action," where she's at the Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour dance chasing squirrels, and "Trying Too Hard," where Ed Leadly brings her along when he tries shaking Gary and Betty down for the Learnatorium (again); Hadley's very embarrassed.

- Although offscreen, she was heavily mentioned in "End of the World" when Timmy led Remy to her house so she could help with the cure for Juandissimo's fairy flu. She was briefly mentioned in "Opportunity" when Leadly put the pieces together and realized his daughter has a fairy godparent.

- Her surname was dropped in "Entire World," "Solo," and "Looking Back," confirming her as on the Pixies' radar & as a member of Gary and Crocker's Fairy World invasion team.

- I designed her in December 2015! Nearly 9 years ago now :'D

So, there ya go... That's Hadley.

Basically, instead of meddling and buying buildings and stuff, my vision of the future "rich kids" generation is that they're "supposed" to be in the city like their parents raised them to be, but they blow it off to hang with friends. This whole generation is rebelling against their parents. Are they making things worse for the city? I don't know.

My rough plan was Dale and Hadley bringing their kid [His planned name was Dave] on ski trips and yacht adventures and world travels, with Remy and Juandissimo being bonus parents as the kid grows up :) Aroace Remy making peace with living mostly alone, my beloved... BFF Hadley ensuring he's not ignored when she gets a partner, my beloved... And my main idea here was "Their kid is so spoiled, but he's also getting incredible amounts of attention and love... It's the first time in AGES Dimmsdale has broken its "miserable rich kid" curse, and Remy and Juandissimo couldn't be happier. I just realized that probably doesn't make sense out of context- but yes, in Cloudlands AU, Juandissimo and Remy are still together when Remy's an adult. But it was always my "Eh, I'll think about it later" arc, and Dale a "think about him later" character. And now ?? I just want oodles of him... He's so funny. I've already got a whole sketchpage of him on my desk... I probably won't scan it because it's messy as I'm exploring him in my style, but I really like drawing his hair <3

Dale had a bad week or two with Vicky in my head, but he was gonna grow up fine and live with his friends :) Or... Hadley's friends. Unclear. This doesn't really work with the New Wish canon, but I still think it's funny. I think in some way, this still happened in my canon, but only during Dale's early adulthood. He and Hadley split, orz...

Like... I can't even be mad, because in my canon, they were arranged (upper class kids; Doug cared more than Remy's parents) and in Cloudlands AU, they're affectionate but not in love until they slowly grow on each other while raising their kid, but... GURL, you were supposed to carry this for me, SKDLFJ...

Hang on, I gotta draw exactly what I mean by "Hadley didn't ignore her BFF when she started a romantic relationship..."

Bonus context for Remy's arm for anyone curious & here's him in color

They're just so funny to me... Dale and Hadley are each other's comedic straightman somehow. My favorite thing is Remy being a good friend despite actively trying not to be.

There's a secret joke here about how Remy's dad is also aroace in Cloudlands AU, but his whole thing was being repulsed to the point that he was relieved every time his wife had affairs :'D Fortunately, Remy's glad Hadley found someone else to bother and never got him involved in that drama. Remy still doesn't know what's up with his parents' love life or lack thereof, but... he knows what he himself wants (Peace & quiet and 2 hang out with Juandissimo).

tl;dr - I like what A New Wish has done with Dale specifically. It's definitely wowed me, it's way more captivating than anything I'd loosely planned for him, and his layers of trauma, wealth, and negligence really take me back to the OG series vibes, so I like that!

I can't wait to do 'fics with this fascinating, traumatized loser... but Hadley is definitely his wife and/or ex in my works <3 b/c I set my plot up for this 6 years ago and it would make me sad to "boot" her from my Along the Cherry Lane 'fic plans lmao. I will never experience this oddly specific situation ever again; you gotta give this to me.

Also:

He done goofed...

I couldn't decide on dialogue, but I was thinking "In my defense, I never had a health class and I didn't know babies came that fast." (She was there for many hours btw).

Bonus honeymoon panel ft. (/checks notes) - mildly suggestive stick figures (again)

Other secret bonus ending: "Wait a minute, if Hadley's been to Texas a lot because of Pencil Nexus, does she ALSO have fun cosplaying in boots?"

...... :)

[fexarii]

They're my favorite characters, if u even care

(these were both requests 👍)

[magnificentmaya1]

"Be the change you wanna see in the world," they say soooooo...!!

I guess that means that I'm off to write some Dennis/Maya fic!!!! 👀🤩👏🏻💥🌟💯🔥💞

[tiredfoxtf]

A girlboss doesn't need a canon to shoot a ship.

[lecliss]

I finished the special story in Connections and it got me to bawl my eyes out so bad. That story was so much more meaningful and emotional and impactful than the entirety of Naruto itself. What the fuck do you mean it was written by Kishimoto????? He did NOT write something for a side story in one of the ultimate ninja storm games and make it better than anything he's ever done before. There's just no fucking way.

[coolspacequips]

Honestly dipped back into hsr at the last second of black swans banner bc I wanted her so bad lol, but I haven't played in forever so I could only pull a handful of times then give up.... Then I hated acheron's look so much I dropped it again LMAO but now that they're lesbians caught in an Eldritch horror romance 👀👀👀👀

[astro-b-o-y-d]

I will hate the plot twist of Webby being blood related to the Ducks until I die, but also I can’t pretend I’m not like...fine with any ships between her and the triplets being shot dead in the water as a result

[kxllerblond]

Anyway, on that note-—If I follow you, I like your writing. I like your muse. I like your HC's and metas, etc. I like you and your blog as an independent entity that has had hard work put into it that deserves respect. If ships happen, cool! If they don't, there's so many other dynamics to explore. I'm never going to fucking dip after everything if I prod about romantic shipping and get turned down.

Likewise, if you're interested in romantic shipping with me then tell me! But also, acknowledge if I say I don't see that dynamic that it's not (and should not be) the end of our interactions. There are soooooo many other different ways to interact outside of romance. Being turned down for romantic shipping does not mean my muse has nothing to offers yours or yours mine.

[thatonefandomjumper]

Someone posted a screenshot of this post on Twitter and it seems that many fans over there seem to be thoroughly ticked off over this take. (And like holy shit, a lot of people have seen it???)

Honestly, I'm taking this as a win. Those folks clearly don't know how to have fun with the media they consume and do not posses the ability to read the narrative in different and interesting ways. Whether that be shipping or not. I use shipping to analyze dynamics. It makes it more fun to engage with media when you look at it from different angels.

Like "I need to bleach my eyes," or "People like this need to get off the internet" or "Incorrect buzzer!" or whatever else people have said, like, who called the fun police, what the hell are you doing in fandom spaces if you can't have fun with it???

But as I have never truly experience hate on this scale before (and honestly, I am a little overwhelmed) it kind of just reinforces all my beliefs that some people refuse to let people who engage with stuff in a different way to them be, without having to loudly declare either their negative opinions or having to make sure they fit in with the masses or else the holy gospel that is Twitter will come to deliver justice.

Anyway, I might just write a follow up to this post out of spite explaining my thought process to each of the parings and how it relates to the canon material in the books along with what went unexplored.

Heroes of Olympus is just Leo being in love with Jason, who is in love with Nico, who is in love with Percy, who is in love with Annabeth, who is in love with Piper, who is in love with Reyna, who is in love with Hazel, who is in love with Frank, who is in love with Leo.

[woodlandscab1n]

i feel like i am going insane fr

[artbyblastweave]

One thing I really enjoy about Fallout New Vegas is that it's really really good at modeling The Long-Suffering Protagonist Who Things Just Keep Happening To. Fallout 4, one or two things happen to you at the start, and they're doozies, but then for the most part you start happening to everybody else. You don't suffer that many ignominies. Fallout New Vegas, you get shot in the head and dumped in a shallow grave. Two different guys stick a bomb collar on you and force you to run errands. You have to dodge howitzer fire like in that one Malcom In The Middle Episode. All your organs get stolen. You think you're gonna get an easy payday killing some feral ghouls at a test site and then boom, you're getting canonized as a saint by a ghoul rocket cult, pouring radioactive coolant out of toy rocket ships into a real rocket ship one at a time. You get tricked into initiating a nuclear strike. Twice. You play a shell-game with human trafficking victims to bluff a guy into thinking he's pulling a tantalus when it's really just beef. You're forced to have conversations with Mormons. You simply get involved in more situation per situation, hands down. Sole survivor's memoir, I mean, whatever, it'll be okay. Courier's memoir? Oh boy

[barblaz-arts]

I know you've been making a lot of art of it lately, but out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Hazbin Hotel in general? I'm referring to both the show and the fandom here. Just curious.

God. What a loaded question. Are you ready? Bcuz I'm fresh from Vaggie discourse on twitter and I have a lot to say.

I think that Hazbin Hotel seems worse than it is for people who know the fandom but haven't actually watched the show. Honestly, I think it's a fine show. It isnt super incredible and I'm not gonna sing praises about how deep and thought provoking it is or whether it's an artistic masterpiece. It never tried to be that and was never advertised as such(to my knowledge) anyway. I just had a lot of fun. Like, yeh sure the cussing in the dialogue can be a bit much, especially in ep 1, but there are different writers in other episodes, so it gets better. It can be super crude yeh, but I grew up watching things like the Scary Movie franchise and other dumb american movies (yes, i was too young for them. yes, i still watched them), so it's pretty tolerable for me. It also helps that Charlie is the main character. That's one of the main reasons why I watch HH but dont watch HB. It's probably a fun show, but without a sweetheart like Charlie to balance things out, I'd just get tired of the sex jokes and mean jokes.

Compared to my last hyperfixation, I think I have more things to love about Hazbin Hotel, believe it or not. With Netflix's Wednesday, I had already been an Addams Family fan for a while and hung on because I loved the family and eventually Enid and wenclair. The show itself was honestly meh... so far! I'll give season 2 another shot.

But with Hazbin Hotel, it catered to a lot of things I've always loved. Found family with a bunch of misfits? We didnt get to see it much bcuz of the fuckass 8-ep per season format we have nowadays, but its fine its there! The juxtaposition of a kind hearted woman in a harsh world? Love love Charlie for that, I watched the show in the first place because of her. A canon lesbian lover with a "fuck the world cuz my world is you" type of love for the protag? Fuck yes. How very Pearl-from-Steven-Universe of Vaggie. And the music? The music is soooo good. I didn't know the songwriter prior to watching, so I was nervous about the songs, but I knew most of the theater actors they cast(still cant believe Jeremy fucking Jordan is Lucifer) so I figured even if the songs are mid, at least the performances would be topnotch. And they were! But the songs were a pleasant surprise. Sam Haft did real damn well. I still listen to the soundtrack to this day.

The fandom, however, is probably the worst one I've been in. And I've been in a lot in my big age... Just... lacking media literacy, and based on the replies I get when I say something on twitter, it seems a lot of them lack reading comprehension and just plain emotional intelligence too.

There's a lot of criticisms about this show that I honestly think is fair. Pacing, character design, overuse of the F word, whatever. But in my opinion, claiming that Hazbin is a male-centered show is an unfair misconception that is mostly the fault of the fandom.

Bcuz, sure, the male characters are uber popular. Alastor, Vox, Lucifer, Angel Dust and the many web of ships they're involved in went trending every few business days. But come on now. How often does a fandom even have their main protag as the most talked about character? This has been going on for ages. Just because the boys have the most merch and fics and fanarts and thirsty fans doesn't mean that they had the spotlight for most of the show itself. It only meant that they were the ones the viewers paid attention to, in a fandom filled with people drooling over the next tumblr sexyman and toxic yaoi ship of the month.

But if you actually look back at what the show gave us so far, the boys didnt outshine the women. I actually think the women got to do more and be more as characters than the men did. Let's take a look at the male characters.

Alastor was not in all the episodes. In fact, he was MIA in two out of the eight episodes. In all the episodes he was in, he was a mere side character. His purpose in season one was to stir the pot and be the intriguing mystery that occasionally quips. But he was not the one whose deeper thoughts were explored and whose character and goals was challenged THROUGHOUT the show, merely alluded to at the VERY END of the season, which is hardly him taking the spotlight away from Charlie. If you merely looked at the fan content of him, you'd think he were a father figure to Charlie(or a love interest. whatever) and that he has developed a soft spot for the Hazbins deep down in that cannibal heart of his. But if you pay attention to the show, he never had even a meaningful one on one conversation with the Hazbins. The only time that happened is when (a)he threatened Husk's life (b)when he constantly mocked Charlie while she was down in the dumps and used this as an opportunity to manipulate her and (b)when he told Niffty watching the crew sure can "make one sentimental", even tho he had taken no prior opportunity to bond with them! There's no foundation for all the fandom's claims that he could be redeemed bcuz of a budding fondness for the group, but that's all you see of his fan content(aside from the horniness). I dont have any problem with his lack of an actual relationship with the Hazbins bcuz I believe redemption for him is not what the show is going for, but it's frustrating to see people interpreting it that way BUT not seeing how horridly developed it would be if that is the case, meanwhile they turn around and say that Vaggie and Chaggie as a ship "had terrible development".

Then we have the male Vees. Vox was only ever in episode two, and was essentially a youtube reactor in episode 8. He was in ep 4 but had no speaking lines. We only know of his obsession with Alastor and the toxic relationship he has with Val. Val, meanwhile, is merely shown as the sex obsessed fiend behind Hell's sex industry and Angel's abuse. They did what they needed to do with minimal screentime. It was fine, but that's IT. Despite what little CANON gave so far, you have hundreds of people writing essays and fics and fanarts about them being complicated characters. But to reiterate, this does not mean that they are bad characters or that they don't deserve the fame. But to say that these men are better written within canon than the women is such a bold statement when most of the depth they knew of these characters were lore drops given before the show and their own speculations as they dug into the shallow soil of what the show has so far.

I'm not gonna speak about Angel and Lucifer. Because I think they were characters who were legitimately well-explored so far.

Now onto the women. So many of them were given the opportunity to have their characters challenged or given the agency to push characters and the plot forward or give you intrigue about implications of what's to come for the characters and the plot. I've talked a lot about Charlie and Vaggie. So let me talk about the other, terribly underrated women of Hazbin.

Velvette and Carmilla were the ones who advanced the subplot in the war against Heaven. Because of Carmilla's love for her family despite being a demon, an angel was killed. It gave Heaven the excuse to escalate things, but it also gave Charlie hope later on in the season that they're not powerless. Carmilla was also the first demon shown to make selfless actions that is contrary to what is expected of demons, making it proof that Charlie's belief that demons deserve a second chance isn't unwarranted. She's an interesting character, as an overlord who hangs on to power but clearly has morals. But how often do you see people writing essays about her? Eating up the fact that she's a powerful overlord but would sacrifice anything for her daughters? If Carmilla were a man, hundreds of girlies would be drooling over the crime boss who has a soft spot for his daughters.

Meanwhile, Velvette got to demonstrate why exactly she's an Overlord despite being the youngest demon in there. She's calculating and observant. She gives off a haughty vibe and constantly boasts about how she's young and fresh, but she isn't naive. During that meeting, she paid attention to Carmilla and Zestial's relationship. In order to find out who killed the angel, she riled everyone up, and when she got the feeling it was Carmilla, she mocked Zestial so that Carmilla could slip up. By playing these Overlords who are older and more experienced than her, Velvette showed what exactly her asset was to the Vees and why she's a threat, something that Vox and Val have yet to be given the opportunity to do when they were busy eye-fucking Alastor and literally fucking Angel. But in fan content about the Vees, Velvette is almost treated as an after thought to the boys...

Then we have the Seraphs. Not only were their designs gorgeous, their dynamic and presence as characters had impact to the plot and main characters.

Emily is a much needed character to show that this story isn't meant to tell you that Heaven = bad; Hell = good. There is good and bad in both, and it is so important for the protags to know that they have an ally in Emily who represents the true virtues that heaven is supposed to uphold. And I love the confrontation she had with Sera when her own view of what's right and good was challenged. We got to see the strength of her character and started the seeds of what could be heaven's acceptance of Charlie's goals.

Sera is such an interesting character to me. She was also important to show that not all angels were sadistic like Adam and Lute, but not in the same way Emily was. I have no idea so far which direction this show would go with her. But I'm intrigued by the fact that she seems to be driven by fear, unlike Adam and Lute's cruelty. She knew Lucifer and was there when he was cast out for his disobedience. Whether everything she's doing is to prevent that from happening again remains to be seen, and I'm looking forward to this kind of subplot for her.

And then Rosie! I really really look forward to seeing more from her. Spoilers aside, something I barely see people talk about is how interesting it is that Rosie is every bit the leader that Charlie hopes to be. Rosie is able to be a respected overlord in her own faction without needing to sacrifice her love for showmanship and music and her positive disposition. When we were officially introduced to her, they show how she seems to care about actually taking care of her people, not JUST ordering them around, by talking to them personally and giving advice. That's exactly what Charlie wanted to do for her people, isn't it? The hotel to Charlie was what the emporium was to Rosie. They have a lot of similarities that could set up for Rosie to be the one to teach Charlie in becoming a leader. Now whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen, but it is rather compelling.

So yeah! With all that said, I really dont think this show ignores its women at all. Just because a bigger part of the fandom gravitated towards the men doesn't necessarily mean its a misogynistic show so far. But if certain people are claiming that the women are badly written, then I hope they also own up to the fact that their blorbos are just as shallowly presented within the show, maybe even more so. Which wouldn't even be a bad thing! Since when did a show or character have to be amazingly written for a person to like them? That's just no fun at all. All I'm saying is... Fuck this fandom's double standards, hiding behind claims that it's the writing's fault when the problem is they couldn't be bothered to think about the women.

[meepmemez]

C'MON LET'S PULL A LAST MINUTE WIN FOR FLIPPY X SPLENDID LIKE THEY DID LAST TIME LETS GO

ROUND THREE:

Flippy x Flaky (Flippaky) VS Flippy x Splendid (GrizzledHeroism)

[luna-the-cretar]

Im gonna be honest here, the only OUAW ship I WANT to be canon is Coalecroux

And it’s not just because I ship Coalecroux. If that was the case, then id also want Frostbek to be canon, when I don’t want it to be (not bc I dislike Frostbek—I fucking adore it—but because I personally don’t think any romance would help Frost or Torbek’s characters or character arcs—same with Gricko and Grimmorning for the same reason)

No, I want Coalecroux for be canon because I’m 99% sure that Gideon and Kremy’s character arcs are kinda BANKING on Coalecroux becoming canon.

Let me explain;

(Spoilers and VERY long explanation/rambling below)

Gideon’s character arc—now that I took a moment to actually think about it after rewatching episode 18, and thinking more about Gideon’s conversation with Mrs Snake-Snake—involves him learning to allow himself to feel sadness and letting himself love, romantically and platonically.

“But Gideon already clearly loves and feels sadness” I hear you say. Well…yes and no? Gideon very clearly loves his friends, that much is obvious. But I don’t think he himself has actually acknowledged the fact that he does love his friends, or that he loves them as much as he does. Kremy and Twig in particular. Based on Gideon’s reaction to his portraits, I think he was either expecting his Pa to appear in one of them (considering Gricko and Frost’s portraits), or was expecting the entire party to show up in the portraits (like Torbek’s). But it was just Kremy and Twig—the two he loves the most, but refuses to admit it to himself.

Or how about the fact that Gideon hasn’t really let himself feel sadness (or fear, for that matter)? He has clearly felt upset, don’t get me wrong, but he also usually masked it with anger. Like when Kremy revealed that Gideon was the one marrying the pixies. Gideon was upset and (rightfully) mad at Kremy, but he was very clearly scared (if his tone, body language, and the fact that he was doing how many shots of fireball to calm himself was any indication). And that fear showed itself even further when Kremy calmed Gideon down. Or with Twig’s death. Gideon was angry at Bavlorna, sure, but he was also genuinely sad, hiding behind (or maybe being overshadowed by) his anger.

Even when he was stuck as a kempestri and couldn’t move very well (since he traded away his ability to dance), and ended up trading some of his fire to help them find the pixie camp, he was as dejected as he was frustrated (probably at himself, the situation, and just…everything, really. Poor guy had a ROUGH day tbh)

I could keep going on about Gideon specifically, but I still want to talk about Kremy and this is long enough, so…Kremy.

Kremy, Kremy, Kremy. Where do I even begin with Mr Kremy Lecroux? For one, let’s start with his character arc, which is another one I didn’t catch until late into the season (with a specific conversation with Pincushion), but upon a rewatch of the early episodes, has made me realize this was a thing as early as episode 6? 7? Whatever, it’s the lying thing. Though…it’s not JUST the lying thing, because it’s similar to Gideon’s, just…different. Because Kremy KNOWS about his feelings (towards a variety of things and people), but refuses to acknowledge them, and just outright lie about said feelings.

And it’s not just his feelings towards Gideon—tho it’s primarily what I’ll be focusing on—but also his feelings towards a variety of things. Like, for example, the unicorn thing (until he decided to finally embrace his love for unicorns once they really started getting settled into the Feywild).

Anyway, Kremy’s character arc—from my understanding—is not only about him letting himself feel comfortable in enjoying the things he does and feeling the things he feels, but also just…not relying on the lies he hides behind as much.

I mean, look at how Kremy acted at the Witchlight Carnival, the moment his ability to lie was taken away. He immediately became nervous, jumpy, trying to spin his words into half-truths, or just outright not saying anything—almost as if in fear that he might reveal something he definitely doesn’t want to be revealed (not now, at least). Or how about that one episode (don’t remember which one) where he had his outburst and called Gideon his husband (“You will not talk to my husband that way”)? The entire episode—before it was revealed he couldn’t lie—Kremy was quieter than usual, aside from planning.

Or, better yet, how about his fight with Pincushion when they first met? Kremy was trying to lie and bully his way into getting Pincushion to do what they want, and it wasn’t working. In fact, Torbek was the one who got Pincushion to listen to them, by doing the exact opposite of what Kremy was doing. And iirc, Pincushion even told Kremy that lying and bullying won’t just make people listen and do whatever he wanted—especially not in the Feywild.

And obviously, I can’t say for certain how Season 2 is gonna go (if we even GET a season 2 at this point ffs), but also…I DO know that Gideon and Kremy are so emotionally constipated and refuse to acknowledge their own feelings for anyone and anything. And I also get a feeling that, somehow, either Coalecroux becoming canon would either help end their respective arcs, or help begin the end of said arcs (if that makes sense?)

Idk, this is really long and probably doesn’t make any sense, so apologies for that