#canon meaning that the ccs were the ones who made it

[works-of-heart]

The fandom is so lucky to have you! We appreciate having you here and all that you contribute to it ❤️❤️

1. What brought you into the fandom?

2. What character(s) do you feel the most connected to and why?

3. Out of all of SJM’s books, which one means the most to you and why?

4. Out of all of the SJM couples (fanon, canon, endgame, etc) which one means the most to you and why?

Keep doing you ❤️

Awww!! Thank you so much! This really warms my heart!

1. I got into ACOTAR in 2020, I am not sure why I delayed so long, I was eyeing the series since 2018, and decided to dive straight in. Since the first book I was hooked and immediately picked up the rest of the series! I loved it so much but there wasn't anyone else I knew to talk about it with. So I found reddit and wanted to share my feelings.

I found some parts of the fandom so polarizing, and many of my thoughts and likes were the unpopular ones, so I retreated for a while. I recently stumbled back into Tumblr when I found that there were quite a lot of people here who enjoyed the books as I did and art and fics to share. I wanted to add to that, to be in this space and contribute my own works that I've been dying to share and geek out with others.

I've met so many incredible people in this fandom, many who are super talented and skilled artists and writers, others who contribute in their own ways, and I have been glad to be here ever since!

2. Honestly? Lucien and Elain.

Lucien because he doesn't ever really fit in. He's made a home for himself in spring yes, but then thar fell apart. He lost everything and is with two others who have been his companions and made their own way. He doesn't think a whole lot of himself, he doesn't believe he's needed, as he said "a whole lot of nothing." I resonate with this so much. I've had friends whole dumped me and left me for their own group, I've known what it's like to be invited into gatherings but feel so utterly alone and unwanted, those moments really sat with me when reading his parts of the story, and so I'm excited to see him find himself and grow into truly valuing who he is, realizing he isn't just some seventh son of a lord.

With Elain, the way she's seen by her family is something infeel all too well. She's the people pleaser, the one who tries to balance out the bad with good. She's the one people think is just simple, plain, and 'pleasant'. People think she's uninteresting because she isn't causing waves, that she just enjoys her hobbies and that's it. No one thinks she's capable of more and generally deny her of trying anything else. This really spoke to me on a personal level.

I resonate a lot with Elain who tries to make the best of every situation, but also has a side of her that many have yet to see.

3. I don't think I particularly have one that means the "most" to me persay. At least not yet. I would say the CC books hold a special place in my heart. My husband bought HOEAB on audio book and during a long road trip we listened to it and he was so into it, that it made me smile. He enjoys the series and eagerly bought HOSAB audio book so we took a long drive to listen to it.

4. This will come as no surprise to anyone that it's Elucien for me! The moment Lucien lunged for Elain to try and stop her from being thrown into the cauldron, I was already shipping them, and him whispering with shock "you're my mate" I was sold!

I don't know what it is about them, but the potential they have, the slow burn, the thought of Lucien having given up on true love after Jesminda, only to be given a mate in Elain??! I want it all! I want to see Elain and Lucien having the most tsundere romance, the kind where she's denying her feelings aloud as if it would assure her that she's totally not falling in love with him. The way we can see how their powers will sync, and find home in each other. Their relationship reminds me so much of my own journey with my husband that I can't wait to see it unfold.

I could go on and on as to why I personally love these two together, but at the end of the day, they bring me so much joy and have been the inspiration to so much of my artwork. ❤️

[freakinator]

being so brave and strong rn (ignoring a canon duo name in favor of one i like better)

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

is there a way to experience arknights that doesn't involve playing a gacha game? i kinda wanna see what it's deal is the girls in it are really hot

Yes there is!

There’s an online tool that lets you read the visual novel story sections: https://akgcc.github.io/cc/story.html. It lets you read the main story, event side stories, operator records (mini stories focused on specific operators), it even has modules (upgrades to operators that cost a lot of resources but also give you a short story blurb when you unlock them). It usually takes a bit for new stuff to get added, so it can’t really let you read along with the current ongoing events (unless you can read Chinese, the CN server is 6 months ahead of the global server and I think the story reader gets updates for their stories but I haven’t checked, it might just be the ones on global).

There are 2 8-episode seasons of an Arknights anime covering the first 2 parts of the main story. They’re called “Arknights: Prelude to Dawn” and “Arknights: Perish in Frost”

There are a handful of official manhua covering various groups of characters, including one for the main characters at Rhine Lab (American science company with a lot of well meaning characters working for a flawed corporation with ethics issues) and one for Blacksteel (the mercenary group with Franka, Liskarm, Jessica, and Vanilla, who I’ve been posting a lot about. The new event side story is about Jessica so that’s why. The mangadex fan translations of this one were tagged as “girls love” and then the official translation made it even gayer, highly recommend for foxgirl dragon girl yuri). As well as a few others. There’s even the mostly lighthearted Rhodes Island test kitchen series about different operators making different foods from their cultures and backgrounds and stuff, it’s very cute. Official translations are here https://www.arknights.global/comic but for the ones that haven’t been fully translated you can usually find them fan translated on mangadex.

Speaking of mangadex, there are also 2 other comic/manga/manhua things you can read. There is the light hearted 4 panel series “Arknights Operators!” that has short, usually comedic, comics about various operators and their lives on the Rhodes Island land ship. I don’t think it’s explicitly canon (it has a gag about Hoshiguma bumping into door frames bc she’s so tall, but her “canon height” is 5’11” [no one likes the canon heights]) but it’s pretty fun and cute.

And what I think is the last thing I have the mention is the Arknights anthology manga series. It’s explicitly non-canon as the comics are all made by guest artists, but it is officially published by Arknights. It was only published in Japanese but scanlators have translated a large portion of it and it’s very good.

[qprsmackdown]

propaganda (under the readmore):

BENCHTRIO PROPAGANDA:

My friend wrote a fanfiction detailing their platonic relationship from childhood friends to spouses. It is over 1 million words long. Pls he needs this

my good friend sunny wrote over 1million words of fanfiction about them that was so good it permanently altered my brain chemistry. also i think the feat of over 1mil words is worth the win (:

Ranboo and Tubbo are canonically married, semi-canonically platonically so. Tubbo and Tommy have known each other for years, and have an understanding of each other that no one else does. Tommy and Ranboo went through a very awkward and begrudging beginning of their friendship, but Ranboo would go on to make Tommy's grave when he died.

I want to start off by stressing that these 3 are characters and are not at all connected to the real world creators that portrayed them aside from having the same name.

c!Ranboo and c!Tubbo were canonically married, with the nature of their marriage being largely ambiguous and up for interpretation! They live together in a mansion with their adopted child, Michael, a tiny baby piglin! c!Tommy was never an official part of their marriage, but the three spent so much time together(before the series' writing took a very unfortunate turn due to behind the scenes stuff) that they might as well have been a qpr polycule! It is confirmed that c!Ranboo(an 8'5 foot tall enderman hybrid) can only look 2 people directly in the eyes with it being STRONGLY implied those 2 people were c!Tommy and c!Tubbo! Their relationship didn't get as much time as it needed due to the series's unfortunate downturn near the end, but while it was there, it was a very comforting, very tender relationship between 3 traumatized young queer teens who were their for one another through their journeys in healing from their various traumas. Also one time c!Tommy and c!Ranboo got high together in a tiny smoke box they made(they also met when Ranboo hit him on the head with a giant flower. An allium, to be specific!).

MAJORWOOD PROPAGANDA:

i went so insane about them they spawned inside my brain, guys ever

They are the Mean Gills and they are canonically qpr!! They would also canonically die for each other

Canon QPR! Confirmed by cc!Martyn :D (he confirmed it on stream after the series ended)

They're canonically a QPR guys!!!! Both the CC's who play the characters have said that they see them as being in a QPR!!!!!! literally the first time ever i've seen any media ever portray a qpr of some sort

someone in Martyn's chat explained what a QPR was and he said "oh that sounds like me and Scott"

[doublechocolate]

Haibara dissecting Conan/Shinichi like he's some kind of experiment ksjksjf

I think it was around this time when I started to seriously ship them. Haibara, at this stage, was still given the "cold and mysterious" status of a character but the story didn't shy away from showing us how her empathy extended beyond her own needs. She was well aware of Conan/Shinichi's pain, and also Ran's, because she finds herself to be in that same position as them, and has gone through layers of her own emotional turmoil by this point to recognize this.

But more than that, it's blatantly obvious here that if there's anyone who can understand Conan, it's her. There's a level of understanding between them that's deep and personal. And yes, Conan has that with others too, you can argue that, but what he has with Haibara is slightly different. You see, their "friendship" was born out of pain and trauma. They were each others' "doom", in a sense. Haibara created the APTX4869 drug while Conan failed to save Akemi. They saw the sides of each other that others haven't and had to learn to trust each other in their own way. Slowly, they grew to understand one another and from doom, they became each others' hope.

(Long rambling under cut)

There are many instances of Conan being able to understand Haibara's thoughts by merely watching her actions but to me, the one that stood out the most was none other than m26 Black Iron Submarine (not canon to you but canon to me) when they were underwater and Haibara is about let Conan's hand go but he pulls her back up. The entire conversation takes place inside their heads yet they knew exactly what each other was saying. Remember that post I made about them being drift-compatible?

That's why I think Conan is still unaware just how big of a presence Haibara is in his life. He came close to that in m26 but with Pinga, BO and Haibara's kidnapping, he didn't exactly have the time to sit and ponder over it. Surely people (non-shippers) would chalk it up to you, "aakchuallyyyy he just needs her for the antidote". But... are you sure? Are you really, really sure that that's all he is to her? Is that all you understand about Conan/Shinichi as a character? Even Takayama Minami and Hayashibara Megumi commented on how Conan losing his cool and becoming short-tempered when Haibara got kidnapped was unusual of him. In their opinion, the only reason why Conan calmed down was because of Agasa and how the Prof almost risked doing something reckless to save Haibara. Only then Conan realized he needed to remain calm to keep Agasa in check.

And also, Haibara noticed Pinga and Vodka's presence in the hotel first but Conan only noticed when Haibara was in danger. His train of thought literally went; something happened to Haibara -> it's the Organization -> oh shit they've taken her. Like, hello?? Excuse me?? What is this soulmate-level telepathy going on here right in front of my salad??

I've ~kinda~ mentioned this before in a passing before, but CoAi lowkey reminds me of SyaoSaku (from CCS) but in a different font - a more painful and (perhaps) tragic one. Haibara being Syaoran's counterpart, and Conan being Sakura's counterpart. Example; Sakura's infatuation for Yukito was loud and out there, literally everyone knew about it too (Conan/Shinichi with Ran). Meanwhile, Sakura's love for Syaoran was already growing quietly within her. She was showing signs of it but was too distracted to realize it, until the time came when Syaoran was going to leave Japan and return to Hong Kong. All of a sudden it hit her like a train that it was too painful to let him go (Conan/Shinichi with Haibara/Shiho).

This is why I'm convinced that when all of this is over, Conan will have to face the reality of just what Haibara means to him. It doesn't matter if Aoyama doesn't want to explore this, or chooses to address this in a different way. It's his story, he can do what he wants. But personally for me? I know Conan simply cannot go back to his original life as Kudou Shinichi anymore. He's too far changed, forced to recognize the grayness in a world he deemed black and white, empathize with people he would have classified as "criminals" in the past, and live a life of white lie even it meant hurting the people he cared for the most - in short, Conan/Shinichi simply cannot go back to being the same person he was before Tropical Land. And the one person we know for sure who will be able to understand him despite all of this, is Haibara.

I saw a comment once saying that CoAi/ShinShi are supplementary and wouldn't work. I disagree because I think they are more of a narrative foil. Haibara's existence in Conan's life taught him that he isn't invincible (failure to save Akemi) and that not everyone from the Black Organization are cold-blooded assassins. Haibara had her life and freedom stolen from her. Conan, otoh, taught Haibara to live. To not run away from life and to learn to trust people again. All the important people in life left her at some point, but Conan was the only one who kept coming back for her when she chose to give up, holding her hand as tightly as he can.

Conan, the boy who has everything. Haibara, the girl who lost everything. Conan, the boy who keeps trying to dig deeper into the viper's nest. Haibara, the girl who has lived in the viper's nest trying to pull him back from diving further. Conan, the boy who wants to keep tempting fate to save his friends. Haibara, the girl who is willing to die to save her friends. Conan, the boy who thinks his actions of holding back his love is immature. Haibara, the girl who understands his pain enough to know he is anything but. Conan, the boy whose life changed because of the drug Haibara created but in a way also saved his life (Gin chose to not shoot him in the head but fed him the drug instead). Haibara, the girl who lost her sister because Conan couldn't save her but now he'd do anything to make sure she stays alive.

Whether you ship them or not, or see them merely as friends, you can't deny that they play huge roles in each other's lives. We know that when the end comes, Haibara will be willing to let Conan go. She might have already prepared herself for this, even, because Ran is the last person she'd want to hurt at this point. Her resemblance to Akemi is too strong now and she knows Ran adores her a lot too. And from that scene above, we know Haibara feels the same pain Ran and Conan/Shinichi are going through.

But. Will Conan be able to do the same? Can he simply let go of Haibara and return to his old life? Even if Haibara/Shiho does remain in his life, when the dust is settled, can he truly move on from the person whom he has experienced so many life and death encounters with, and in a way, shaped him into becoming the person he is today?

We know the love is one-sided now because we're almost always seeing it from Haibara/Shiho's perspective. But how can we be so sure that something isn't growing deep down in Conan/Shinichi's heart too? If it's something subtle and quiet like the flap of a butterfly's wings now, eventually growing into something that could literally change the course of his life?

If you understand Conan/Shinichi as a person, beyond the shipping lenses, then I think the answer is already obvious.

"It's not cause the creator said so. They're just friends and Shinichi already confessed to someone else". Okay, like I said, the creator can do whatever he wants with his story. I AM choosing to read between the lines based on what that same creator has presented to us. I'm also always reminded of the Akai/Jodie/Akemi love story and how that panned out. I'm saying, things can happen because feelings are complex and sometimes you go through experiences in life that changes you inside out. Both Akai and Conan have had their lives stained by the Black Organization.

Not to mention that, in terms of their personalities, CoAi/ShinShi's relationship are quite a stark parallel to Yuusaku and Yukiko's relationship as well. What Conan/Shinichi needs is someone who can match his level of eccentricity yet at the same time call him out when his head floats too high in the clouds. Haibara is that person. And the best part about it is she didn't even have to change herself to match him - that's pretty much her personality already. Fitting in exactly like a puzzle piece.

Anyway, this is long-winded already. i'll stop rambling here. Also, if this breaches containment and reaches a non-shipper/anti and you have something negative to say, please do me a favor and be a mature person. Leave this post and let's both live in peace.

Love you, CoAi nation, bye!

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

sorry still thinking about Antoine calling the eye guy the Watcher, seemingly its canonical name, when we haven't seen a reason for q!Antoine to know that name.

Like he didn't just say something in french that could translate to the Watcher, he was speaking french and literally said "the Watcher".

There is the possibility that the name was made public and so cc!Antoine saw it and used it without thinking/assuming everyone is using it so he directly used it while talking with Pomme but.

1) he was in an rp moment with Pomme, where he was questioning her on what she can remember. he could have very easily used the same description as her rather than the name

2) cc!Antoine has always tried to be careful about separating what he knows and what his cubito knows. He kept himself fom asking about SOFIA despite knowing of her existence because q!antoine didn't know about SOFIA. When the Codes pretended to be eggs and Aypierre gave him a recap, he tried to ask the questions so Aypierre would give him the mimicked eggs names since cc!antoine knew who they were and wanted to make sure his character would know who they are too. So it seems weird he would let the Watcher name slip up like that when nothing in the conversation was given to make him do so. which brings me to...

3) I get there's a possibility that because it's been one month, cc!antoine has lost a bit the habit of separating what he knows from what his cubito knows. I was thinking it may have been the case, until I remembered that last week he literally was the culprit in a murder mystery and played well enough that at the end only one person decided to accuse him, despite everyone thinking for half of the game he was suspicious and could be the culprit. Which means he very recently played a character who knew things he shouldn't let be known, and had a recent rp experience. So it's not as if he simply didn't do rp and separating player knowledge from character knowledge for one month

I think I'm gonna rewatch that moment (and maybe some others) to be sure

Like it's still possible he simply messed up because it became common knowledge (and I missed the moment it became common knowledge) but also. It's possible q!Antoine is the one who messed up.

[rottenpumpkin13]

I think CC had a huuuge problem with fleshing out Genesis and Angeal to be honest. I feel like the personalities they’ve been given by the fandom are mostly fanon and don’t have that much substantiation in canon because AG were both largely used as plot devices- which again I think is a big problem because it doesn’t make you feel or understand either of the characters or why they behave the way they do. By the end of CC I felt really bad for Sephiroth, was ambivalent toward Angeal but still felt a twinge of sadness because of how sad Zack was over him, and absolutely loathed Genesis. I’m still not Genesis’ biggest fan but the canon characterization has made him a bit more endearing, though when I go back to canon and see him I’m left disliking him all over again. Unless you really dig into CC lore you have no idea how Genesis felt about Sephiroth, it just comes off like he was always jealous of him and that the relationship was painfully one-sided with Sephiroth practically begging for his friendship. It doesn’t help that 80% of Genesis’ dialogue is Loveless quotes and the other 20% is him being angry and hateful. I guess it’s justified, but unlike with Sephiroth and Angeal you never see Genesis being anything but hateful. With the other two I found myself sympathizing and mourning the loss of the people they were prior to realizing the truth, but with Genesis I wished he’d just shut up and go away already. The training room scene also doesn’t help his case, because first it starts out with Genesis being cocky and wanting to take Sephiroth alone- despite Angeal’s warning- and then later on blasts his best friend in the face with a fire ball all while talking about being a hero. He purposefully escalates the fight, then when Sephiroth gets serious Genesis gets injured and crap really hits the fan- and all this could’ve been avoided if Genesis hadn’t had an inferiority complex the size of the moon. I also find it hard to excuse this whole sequence of events because this was prior to his degradation, and while it’s unclear whether it had started even before his injury, I’m going to say he was still mostly in his right state of mind and he still behaves like he has no care for his friends, even his childhood friend who was trying to keep the spar friendly and prevent it from turning into a fight to the death.

Sorry about the rant, but that other anon talking about Genesis also brought back my thoughts about him and I felt like sharing since I’ve never really written them out.

Canon vs fanon aside, there's a lot of context and nuance often lost when adapting Japanese dialogue to fit English contexts. My biggest gripe with the training room scene in english is how Genesis proclaims "The world needs a new hero" right before he fights Sephiroth, suggesting he wants to take Sephiroth's place/ be better than him. But then you look at translations like this one and that scene gains a whole new meaning. Genesis instead says "I too would like to become a hero." And rather than the cocky "That's no way to talk to a hero," before he blasts Angeal in the face with a fire ball, he states "All I want is to be a hero."

The training room scene is a lost cause, because it's easy to place the blame on any one of them, or on whoever decided to go in there that day, or even on the fight itself, but accidents happen. But in the end, no one is truly to blame because none of them asked for Jenova cells or to be part of the Jenova Project, and the truth is that if it hadn't been the training room incident, something else would have triggered the degradation, or the conflict as a whole, and they would have been doomed regardless.

And that's why Genesis is so angry, and why he's so desperate for the cure that he keeps reciting what (in his mind) is the answer to the cure. I guess the reason we never see him be anything but reactive to the situation he's in because when we're introduced to him, shit has already hit the fan. He's deserted already. The first scene we see in Crisis Core literally has Angeal answer the phone and get the news that Genesis left. The only crumb of pre-degradation Genesis we get is the training room scene which—as mentioned above—got mistranslated in English, so of course we're going to think Genesis was hot-headed and envious (which in all honesty he could've just as well have been).

It's easier to sympathize with Angeal and Sephiroth because everything that's happening is happening because Genesis revolted against Shinra, and I get that. But what makes me sympathize with Genesis (and this is coming from someone who used to hate him) is the degradation and his motives. He wants a cure. He wants to live, and it's hard to live when your body is working against you and literally degrading because of something completely out of your control. On top of that, the people after you, the organization you've always aspired to be a part of because of your childhood hero, your friends including that hero, are on the side of those who did this to you.

Don't know if this makes any sense because I'm literally trying not to fall asleep writing this out asfshsjska

[nextstop-fixationstation]

Do you think Sasha's blatant dismissiveness of Marcy's interests was just a testament to her inability to care for things that didnt interest her, or do you think, perhaps, it's something that was developed over time as Marcy didn't stop trying to get them to watch War of Warlocks and play creatures and caverns?

I ask because, if I'm not mistaken, Matt once said they would sometimes play games together when they were alone and I always found it odd how the strategic side of CC didn't appeal to Sasha, which got me thinking if she didn't feel somewhat put off by Marcy's approach to the situation?

I quite like this interpretation because it adds another layer to their communication issues, but pre-amphibia Sasha definitely looked like someone who didn't give a chance to things that didn't outright interest her.

Sorry for the long ask and I hope I made sense here!

Thanks for the ask!

to be honest, I don't think it has anything to do with inability to care or reaction to Marcy's insistence that they watch WoW/play CC. I think that this is much more a testament to the state of their overall relationship, which allowed Marcy to do things no one wanted to do in their presence and allowed Sasha to be kind of mean about it, all while Anne panicked about how to handle the situation on the sidelines.

Sasha still played games and watched the film, paying attention enough to know the plot twist at the end and to know what kinds of things Marcy liked, she just wasn't very nice about it. I think it's more of a testament to how people can get comfortable with being casually mean to each other or bully each other even if they don't actually enjoy it. In the same way, it's easy for people to settle into a routine of being fine going through the motions during shared activities instead of discussing with each other and finding things everyone can enjoy. In Marcy's Journal, Marcy talks about how they all come to terms with the fact CC isn't something they all enjoy, and Marcy resolves to find something they can all do together!

(Also, and this is an aside, I suppose, very little is actually said about Sasha and CC, and it is the case IRL that sometimes people just don't like a game system. Sasha could have liked the strategy but hated the RP or vice versa, or the dice and number system could have been too frustrating for her to enjoy. D&D has strategy and RP elements, but it's far from the best in either direction. If you wanted a pure strategy game, you could probably just go back to Chess, and if you wanted a better RP system, you could almost certainly find a better one out there by an indie creator or big company! D&D just has brand recognition.)

I think that when it comes to Sasha, it's important to note that Sasha's character and arc don't pertain very much to the concept of pure "interest." That's a very "Marcy" or "Anne" thing. While everyone in the Calamity Trio has something to do with attachment, Sasha has much more to do with power and control. Sasha and Marcy maintain a relationship wherein they don't question each other and just go along with what the other does, backing them up even if they don't care about or for what they're doing. It's why Marcy has so much confidence that Anne and Sasha will be okay with the plan with Andrias, and it's why Sasha is so convinced that Anne and Marcy will just go along with her coup. This is a flaw in their relationship, not a feature.

Perhaps Sasha wouldn't give things she didn't care about a chance if she didn't feel it interested her, but I think it's probably more accurate to frame it as it being ignored if it wasn't beneficial. Canonically, we actually see that Sasha pays great attention to things that seem to disinterest her, even if it doesn't feel that way! That's part of what makes Sasha so interesting, at least to me

[getvalentined]

What’s your opinions of the various ffvii compilation games?

Oh I am a huge proponent of the Compilation as a whole; I know that opinion is rare for someone who's been in the fandom from the beginning, but I'm an insufferable lore gremlin and I just eat up everything the series has to offer. I have three different copies of Advent Children (the original on DVD, ACC on DVD, and ACC on blu-ray) and even still watch Last Order on occasion.

The series itself is really fascinating and staggeringly consistent (I've talked about how the implied timeline of the Jenova Project as presented in-game is so consistent that it matches up with real-world human gestational science), with the exception of the FF7Re series—which I can deal with, since it's canonically on a different timeline and therefore any retcons there are literal in-universe retcons, which is pretty brilliant.

That said, I'mma put ratings for the pieces of the Compilation individually under a cut!

OG FF7: 9/10. would be 10/10 if the English localization were better. Where it all started, still one of my favorite games of all time.

Advent Children (+Complete): 8/10. Not a game, but part of the Compilation! Anyone who says the plot makes no sense doesn't realize that they're watching a sequel that relies very heavily on people understanding the history and characterization of every single character shown.

Last Order: 6.5/10. Also not a game, also part of the Compilation. Love that this is implied to literally be Tseng's coverup of what happened with Zack, presented in anime form. Makes no sense in multiple places as a result, but if you know that's what it is then you can 100% see why it's portrayed that way! Honestly I really enjoyed it and wish more people would appreciate it for what it is.

Dirge of Cerberus: 7/10. The gameplay kinda sucks but honestly the storyline is super good—or it would be, if the entire fucking prologue hadn't been cut from any release outside Japan, thereby leaving the entire issue with DeepGround completely unexplained to all other audiences. Once you know what is going on, the storyline here is fantastic, and I've never really forgiven SE for not releasing the rest of it. I love that Dirge fills in the lore for Vincent that was cut when he was relegated to "optional" in the OG, and that it also helps to clarify why Midgar could have 9 functional mako reactors while every other reactor in the world is either sputtering to nothing or exploding. (It's Omega. Midgar is built over Omega. It's the place where all lines of the Lifestream converge so that Omega can draw it all in and carry it away at the end of the world, and Shinra never discovered that's why the mako well there is so expansive. I love good worldbuilding, and Dirge is a beautiful example of that.)

Before Crisis: N/A. I want this game so bad man where is it give it to meeeee. Honestly tho I've watched playthroughs and read scripts where available, and while I don't think it looks like much fun from a modern gameplay perspective, I have huge respect for it as far as development goes. This is one of the first really mainstream mobile games ever made, it was made for flip phones, and it's super extensive! Also it gave me Veld, who is one half of my favorite ship ever, which means it automatically gets a 7/10 even if I've never played it.

Crisis Core (+Reunion): 9/10. As fun to play as the OG. When I first played this on PSP over a decade ago, it hit me with such an intense feeling of nostalgia that it almost took me off my feet. In spite of the dramatic difference between game mechanics in CC versus the OG, it felt exactly like playing the OG again, and that feeling never really left. Humanized Sephiroth in a beautiful way that pissed off a bunch of fanboys and made me fall in love with him all over again. Also introduced my second favorite FF7 character ever, Genesis, who is one half of one of my core FF7 ships, so A+ on that too!

FF7 Remake (+InterMISSION): 8/10. Had a lot of fun with this one, and it's beautiful, but it doesn't have a lot of replayability in my experience, which is a shame. Would have been 6 or 7/10 if not for InterMISSION, which was a fucking delight.

FF7 First SOLDIER: 6/10. This applies to both the Battle Royale and the title in Ever Crisis. I am not a fan of Glenn & Co. but I love 14 year old Sephiroth and really appreciate that extension of lore and worldbuilding, so it's a decent balance. I love that the opening cutscene for the battle royale literally filled a 20+ year old plot hole in under two minutes.

FF7 Rebirth: 9.5/10. The only things that could make me like this game more would be if Vincent were playable (although I understand why he's not and, in spite of him being my favorite fictional character ever, I agree with this decision), and fewer required minigames. Just cut like one or two. Or fix the controls, maybe. Glide de Chocobo is even more broken now that it's been patched.

[emi-writings]

Honestly, still kinda pissed that someone saw my jokey post about changing c!Wilbur – in a way that would have resulted in the exact same mc skin – and decided to scold me for “changing a loved character” in a way they considered “sucks”.

Could you imagine if commented every fanart of zombie Wilbur with “this isn’t canon and also it sucks” just because I personally didn’t like the zombie Wilbur headcanon?

My headcanons also aren’t something new, I just held back on how extreme they were because I knew people who were obsessed with cc!Wilbur would get upset for doing things cc!Wilbur wouldn’t like, even if I could back up why I have those headcanons from the canon material!

Just because I posted something in a jokey way, it doesn’t mean that these aren’t things I have spent years exploring in my fanfics, ideas that always wanted to expand on but never did before.

Why do I headcanon Wilbur as a witch? Because potions in Minecraft are considered magic, you get the death message “killed by magic” when killed by potions, and the mob witch uses potions. Wilbur is strongly associated with potions because he started a potion scam when he joined the dsmp! I held back from including things like astrology, but now that cc!Wilbur is dead to the fandom, I figured I wouldn’t need to anymore.

I’ve actually included Wilbur with witchy tattoos in my fanfics before! In the first ever tattoo artist/flower shop in the tntduo fandom!

Gender nonconforming Wilbur is simply based on the fact that he does act very gender nonconforming in canon. He serenaded Quackity to get him pregnant, he refers to himself as the Yin to Quackity’s Yang, I don’t want to touch on the Ghostbur and Friend shenanigans.

Wilbur not understanding geography? He needs help finding things on the server, and he clearly doesn’t know how countries work if he thinks he can just claim a piece of unused land and call it a country. It’s a funny little joke, he doesn’t even know what exactly is going on in terms of countries in the server, he just cares about his own thing.

Wilbur is one of the many characters that didn’t have a canonically height listed, so I made him a bit shorter than his cc! counterpart… He’s still taller than most other characters, it’s not much of a difference that I think would matter.

We know Wilbur is a musician as he composed the L’manburg anthem, but canonically the only instruments in the dsmp are the noteblocks. But I think woodwind instruments make sense for Wilbur, since they’re capable of playing some hauntingly beautiful melodies, and as the son of the angel of death, I think that would make sense for his character.

Like, I shouldn't feel more pressured to make my headcanons of c!Wilbur more like cc!Wilbur after we all agreed that the character was separate from the content creator!

[autumnwhistles]

Introducing Last Life SMP: The Unofficial Musical

“There is an old, old tale to be told

Of green like the spruce, of crimson and gold.”

[Full song list and links under the cut]

NOTE: AUDITIONS ARE OPEN UNTIL NOV 20TH!!!! If you're interested, please check out the #auditions and #info tags for more information.

Those are the first lines sung (...kind of) in a musical adaption of the Last Life SMP I’ve decided to talk myself to write, for... some reason. Please note this is not an actual play and never will be (rights and crediting issues, for one thing, the CCs deserve to take credit for the storyline they’ve made), but I will record, put it together, and upload songs to Youtube in a playlist. Most of the plot is from Last Life itself, and is stated in the songs, so it should be easy enough to follow. There will also be the relevant plot in the description of each song.

My aim is to tell a coherent story through songs (which, because I can’t hold myself back, I’ve planned 45 of...), meaning that I can’t just jump perspectives continuously and chronicle events. This means that some of the CC’s characters are going to have a bigger role than others, though I do want to honour everyone involved, so I’d appreciate any ideas on doing this (especially for Tango and Skizz). However, so far:

It mainly follows Martyn (especially due to his lore, he had the easiest storyline to adapt into a narrative setting, and to me at least was the main character of that season), partially following Scott as the winner as well. They do foil each other quite well this season, which is a bonus – though I am going to be stretching this for the sake of Cohesion^TM.

Important events and important exposition are given to us by the Chorus, keeping the storyline in tact while shifting focuses (Joel going Red, for example). The Chorus are actually Watchers observing the events, which is hinted in the opening song (they sing a lot of references to Martyn’s Last Life teaser, for instance).

This means that Watchers and Listeners are technically canon (especially since we’re following Martyn’s lore), but the names aren’t going to be stated so things can be interpreted differently for people who don’t keep track of/aren’t fans of that. 

Memories of 3rd Life are also canon, as they are in the series.

This follows the headcanon (and out-of-universe truth) that 3rd Life took place in Spring and Last Life in Autumn, so if there are references to that in songs (which they are), that’s why.

Also, though I’ve tried to keep everything as faithful to the events of Last Life as possible (except one confrontation/song that doesn’t happen, to resolve various things), but I do tweak some minor chronological aspects (eg when alliances were established) and omit some things  again for cohesion, and also to help establish information early on.

Progress-wise first song is nearly finished, though I do still need to record it. I have pretty concrete ideas for others, and some I don’t really know yet, but hopefully they’ll be coming out at a steady, if slow, pace. I am somewhat a novice at music production (as in recording and putting tracks together) though, so help with that would be appreciated.

*if you’re not convinced, watch the start of his session 8 until 1:57, he canonically hallucinates his friends and this is due to a sinister entity only he can hear speaking to him and commanding him to follow it even somewhat despite his will, manipulated by promises of bringing back these dead friends. And all this is in his episodes. Main character behaviour, guys. Main character behaviour.

Full song list:

Part 1:

1. Overture/Middle of Nowhere: We’re introduced to the Last Life world by the Chorus as players spawn in. Martyn seems to hear something, but brushes it off.

2. Corners of the World: Through Martyn’s perspective we’re introduced to players and their alliances. He meets Scott and Pearl and chats to them for a while, before heading with them to spawn.

3. “Tales: Record 13″/”The Boogeyman”: At spawn, Grian narrates his experience with BDubs’ Boogeyman curse, and all around the map the players express what they’ve heard about the Boogeyman curse themselves.

4. “A(ha)lliances”: The Southlands ally, making a-ha jokes, and Pearl and Scott solidify their alliance via Pearl gifting Scott a life.

5. “The Table Song 1″: Now some time into the series, the Chorus updates us on the alliances that have formed: the Fairy Fort, Team BEST, Magical Mountain, Scott and Pearl, and the Southlands. It also chronicles the journey of the Enchanting Table, now in Magical Mountain, and the Southlands’ trip to enchant which ends with Scar’s Boogeyman kill.

6. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 1)”: Martyn hears a mysterious voice speaking to him for the first time, telling him to give Ren some Nether Wart. He does so.

7. “Debts (potentially an instrumental)”: Martyn extinguishes Ren’s burning tower and Ren tells him of his alliance and pledge to Lizzie, reminding him of his time in 3rd Life.

8. “In Spring We Met”: After returning to the Southlands, Martyn thinks about the conflicting loyalties he feels between the Southlands and the remaining ties he feels to Ren, despite it being a new life. As he falls asleep, the voice whispers to him about betraying the Southlands and forming an alliance with Ren to suit its own goals.

9. “Green, Crimson, Gold”: Joel is now Red after an unlucky session, and news of a Red name spreads throughout the server.

10. “The Table Song 2″*: The journey of the Enchanting Table is further chronicled, coming into Scott and Pearl’s possession, who then sell it to Lizzie for a life each, putting Scott up to the same number of lives as Martyn, 4.

11. “Their Dubious Game”: Scott wonders about how trustworthy the rules of the game actually are, prompted by the forced isolation of Red names this time due to their nature contradicting his experiences in 3rd Life with Jimmy, while Martyn, breaching the border with the Southlands, hesitantly wonders the same thing. 

12. “Northern Lament”: Below Magical Mountain, Joel fumes at being distrusted by everyone and isolated purely due to his Red name. Above, Scar muses about being isolated and distrusted for the opposite reason, because of how many lives he has.

13. “A(ha)alliances (Reprise)”: Time passes, and Martyn grows closer to the Southlands. However, he’s still meeting up with Ren who offers to introduce him to Lizzie and the rest of the Fairy Fort, potentially considering a betrayal. The Voice prompts him to accept this, as they can be useful in its plan.

14. “unnamed Wither theme (Instrumental)”: Grian informs the Southlands that Scott and Pearl are in possession of a Wither Skull, expressing his desire to retrieve it. Martyn, Impulse and Mumbo go, Martyn however intending to eventually destroy it because of how unprepared everyone is for a Wither fight.

15. Unnamed Song: After they’re found out by Scott and Impulse and Mumbo flee, Scott informs Martyn that Grian also has a Wither Skull, Martyn immediately gives the skull back, and the two talk about their distrust of Grian and his desire to bring complete chaos to the server. However, that night (post-song) the Voice informs him that its goal is to watch the server burn.

16. “The Table Song 3″: The Chorus further chronicles the Enchanting Table’s journey, now in the Fairy Fort, where two members – Ren and BigB – are chosen as the Boogeyman. Team BEST visits and Bdubs gives a life to Lizzie in exchange, giving enchanting to everyone free of charge. Ren manages to kill a member of Team BEST, Skizz, but BigB has not gotten a kill yet, and the session is nearly over. He catches sight of his closest ally Cleo by the side of Ren’s pit trap.

17. “Green, Crimson, Gold (Reprise)”: Cleo, now Yellow, arrives at Scott and Pearl’s base informing them of BigB’s Boogeyman kill on her, wanting to cut TIES. Scott and Pearl accept (song intro). Meanwhile, Joel is getting desperate for allies, now hunting for Yellows to convert to Red with him. Hearing about Grian’s wither skull, he goes to the Nether, where Grian and Mumbo are building a Ghost farm, and shoots Grian off the edge, turning him Red. BDubs, fighting in the Nether, falls and turns Red too. When heading to Scott and Pearl’s base, a Yellow Cleo is killed by Joel’s trap. 

18. “Friends”: The Southlands are informed of Grian’s death, and, now Red, Grian is to be exiled from the Southlands. He desperately tries to kill Mumbo as Impulse and Jimmy arrive, asking if they can still be friends, while Scott and Pearl mourn the loss of a friendship with Cleo, and Martyn is introduced to the rest of the Shadow Alliance under the gaze of the Moon, giving Ren a life.

Part 2:

1. “Walls”: Grian has been exiled from the Southlands, the stone wall he built separating them. In the Snow Fort, Etho and BDubs build a wall to keep them separate until he can gain a life again. Cleo, wanting vengeance on BigB, meets Scott on the other side of his wall, Scott giving her some sugarcane. Post-song, Grian, Joel and Cleo express their desire to gain lives back from Scar. 

2. “Their Will”: Martyn relays the aims of the Voice, which he now interprets as the Moon, to the rest of the Shadow Alliance, who agree with it.

3. “Die For Me”: In a Shadow Alliance meeting, Martyn asks if there’s anything recent he should know about the Fairy Fort. They tell him the Fairy Fort has burned down at the hands of Cleo, relaying the tale as a flashback (with mainly Cleo singing). 

4. “Promises”/“Coal Mine”: Martyn chases Jimmy, who’s stolen his life in the Southlands life-passing ritual, spurred on by the Voice. He lies to Jimmy, telling him they can run away from the Southlands together if he gives him back his life. Jimmy expresses his worry about potentially being the first out again in the process, as this has happened before and he is very vulnerable as a Yellow, and agrees. Martyn runs back with his life straight after.

5. “The Table Song 4”: Since there are only three of them now, the three remaining Southlanders spend the day together, including sneaking around Team BEST’s snow fort looking for the Enchanting Table and finding a secret entrance. They are caught but let go due to some lies of Martyn’s about their aim, telling them he was simply looking for Ender Pearls.

6. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Song: Precursor)”: During the day, the Southlanders meet Scott, Martyn bringing up the danger of Grian’s Wither Skull as he’s now Red, and they decide to look for it. As Martyn is called away to a Shadow Alliance Meeting, Impulse manages to find it, and entrusts it to Scott. Scott gives it to the Fairy Fort for safekeeping.

7. Unnamed Song: Cleo, now Yellow again, visits Scott and officially joins their alliance. Scott expresses his desire to simply protect his allies and simply live a quiet life in these games, though violence is necessary as a means to this end as he knows the chaos that will ensue.

8. “Tales: The Wizard On The Mountain”: a Yellow Grian rejoins the Southlands, telling them (especially Martyn, as he did not know when this happened due to his absences) how he got a life back from Scar, who’s now Yellow himself. (And yes Grian gets songs where he’s relaying events to others instead of ones of them happening to him because he’s a Watcher hehe, he’s not involved in the action songs he watches)

9. “The Trial of Timmy”: The Southlands hold a trial for Jimmy about whether he should be exiled or stay in. They will anonymously vote their verdict in a book, Grian campaigning for Jimmy to leave, while the others, minus Martyn, campaign for him to stay. When it is time for them to vote, Martyn votes him in.

10. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 2)”: The Voice is angry at Martyn, asking him why he’s still attached to the Southlands when he wishes to join the Shadow, appearing to him and telling him a demonstration is in order... “Lights extinguish/Begin the Slaughter/Our Will Be Done!”

11. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Instrumental 2)”: Grian manages to gather the three Wither Skulls he needs with the help of Impulse, who wants to stay loyal to his allies and feels regret for taking it with Scott. Martyn, though not active, does not try to stop him, and distracts Team BEST while the other two take it. 

12. “Red, Crimson, Gold (Reprise 2)”: As Grian is distracted by this aim, the other members of the South fall to boogeymen, of which there are six of this session, due to the Voice’s promise. Impulse falls to Yellow at Scott’s hands, and Mumbo and Jimmy both become Red, along with many other players on the server, including Lizzie and once more, Joel.

13. “Friends (Reprise)”: Returning to the Southlands after their mission, Grian, Martyn and Impulse find the South blown up by Mumbo: mourning the loss of the alliance, they mournfully burn the walls in commemoration. Grian and Martyn muse on each other’s untrustworthiness, Impulse remaining loyal to both, as the allyship between Scott, Pearl and Cleo strengthens. Far away, Etho, with Bdubs once again on the other side of the wall, discovers the missing Wither Skull, suspecting the Southlands.

14. Unnamed Song: Martyn and Grian, now the last two Southland members after Impulse is shot by Mumbo in the Nether and becomes Red, mentally comment about their distrust of the other person and about there being something off about them, Martyn due to the Voice’s seeming hatred of Grian and Grian’s apparent apathy to everything apart from causing bloodshed, Grian because he senses something around Martyn (Watcher powers heh) and his relative absence from the Southlands when they were still around, though he does express a wish to protect their last remaining threads of alliance. They express none of this aloud. 

15. “When Will You Learn?, Parts 1 and 2”: Heading back to the Southlands, Grian and Martyn meet Jimmy and Mumbo, who attack them. Grian kills them both, to Martyn’s shock, and shocked himself, tries to defend these actions. All of a sudden, the Voice appears again and a Boogeyman curse strikes Martyn. Prompted by the Voice (seeming to have a specific hatred of Grian) and by vengeance for Mumbo and Jimmy, Martyn immediately moves to kill Grian. He succeeds, but the kill is attributed to Joel, who has sniped him. Exhausted, Martyn managed to kill Tango. When called to another Shadow meeting, he returns to his empty Southlands tower instead.

16. “Unnamed Wither Song (Proper)”: The Wither is raised by Grian and Impulse in Team BEST’s base. Etho wants to run, but Bdubs attacks it, giving him the courage to attack too – however, Bdubs loses a life to it, turning Red once more. The remaining Greens and Yellows flock to fight it as the Reds join in, trying to kill the other players. The Wither is defeated by Etho; Impulse falls to Scott’s hand, dying permanently; Bdubs takes Lizzie’s final life as he was promised a life in exchange for killing a Red; he is shot by Grian as he runs to Etho to inform him of this.

17. Unnamed Song: In the aftermath, Etho mourns BDubs’ death, while Ren mourns his failure to protect his Shadow Queen, even if she was Red.

18. Unnamed Song (and the only one not following ‘canon’ events): With Impulse’s death as a catalyst, Martyn seeks out a Red Grian, proposing a temporary truce for him to explain what's going on. They confront each other about their various actions against the Southlands, and their apparent detachment from it, and talk about their suspicions that the other person knows more than they seem about the nature of the games – as the Voice tries to stop Martyn from inquiring further. Grian says he experiences this alongside his friends as a decision when prompted by Martyn stating he never cared in the first place. He wonders if Martyn would understand the situation due to his position; however, he does not know what Grian is talking about and distrusts him. Angry, Grian leaves, calling Martyn nothing but a follower. Angry, the voices swell around Martyn and he falls asleep.

19. “Our Will Be Done”: Waking up all alone, Martyn hallucinates his friends, before they are revealed as fake, the Voice in their places. He snaps at it, finally asking why they’re doing this. Why are they speaking to him? Why are they hell-bent on killing Grian? What did he mean? Why does he have to follow it when he wants to do the opposite of what they tell him? Who are they – why should he do anything they say? However, they pacify him, promising that if he does what they say, they will bring Impulse, Mumbo and Jimmy back. Martyn concedes.

20. “Scott’s Elegy”: Scott, cursed as the Boogeyman once more makes a decision to surrender himself to the curse instead, as he doesn’t want to kill any more allies with so few lives left in the game.

21. Unnamed Sad Martyn Song: Martyn thinks on Scott’s decision, thinking about what he’d once wanted, everything that’s now impossible as he’s pushed around by the Voices with not enough willpower to say no: he wishes to make choices but cannot, and thinks about Grian’s words. 

22. “Our Will Be Done (Reprise)”: In a meeting of the Greens and Yellows, the Voice tells Martyn to place an End Crystal in the centre as a test for Scott: if he blows it up, he passes, if he doesn’t, he fails. Scott chooses not to, and as Scott turns Red, the voices talking to Martyn become loud and angry, commanding him to kill Scott for disobeying them, yet again promising him the Southlands back if he does. While walking around, Martyn loses his first life to a trap at Grian’s hands.

23. “Boogie Boogie On The Dance Floor”: The Chorus informs us that it is the last day. Pearl is chosen as the Boogeyman, rigging a TNT trap on a disco floor, turning Ren’s red. The others quickly fall to the Reds, including Cleo.

24. “Martyn’s Stand”: Now left as the last Yellow, Martyn decides he is tired of hiding, deciding make a last stand against everyone. At first humming the start of “In Spring We Met” as a comfort, he heads to a mountain and pouring lava down the sides as a beacon for the Reds. However, though he puts up a good fight, he doesn’t manage to take any of them down before dying himself, marking the server entirely Red. 

25. “Battle Royale”: With the Reds having turned on each other, the four survivors – Pearl, Scott, Ren and Martyn – agree to a Battle Royale to decide the victor. Pearl dies early on, prompting Scott to grieve and resolve to win this fight, no matter what it takes. Martyn eventually falls to his own End Crystal. Only Scott and Ren are left, and they fight to the voices of dead players telling them to play the game. After a long fight, Scott manages to kill Ren, partially due to a zombie which he interprets as the world maybe doing something after all for his defiance. He is crowned the winner. However, the Voice does not like this, the Chorus supporting this, and Scott is stricken dead with heavenly lightning.

26. “Plainly Spoken [Epilogue]”: All is silence, and yet Martyn opens his eyes once more, to the Voice and the Chorus, now joined as they are the same entity, informing him how disappointed they are in him, and that he is heading closer and closer to the light. As he asks questions, he is cut off, and they say he will forget all that has happened with them as he and everyone else moves into the next game. Up above, the land is now in the state it was at the start of “Middle of Nowhere”, and they are revealed to be those that run the death loop. 

*This may be later excluded due to not adding much at the moment.

[yasminthespiritfaninnit]

Hello everyone! I have something to say. I have seen some arguments that I didn’t like at all. But, I still respect everyone who made it.

So, Imma say my perspective.

Tommy didn’t deserve Exile or to be exiled at all.

Dream didn’t deserve to be tortured in prison or to be imprisoned without a fair trial.

I will detail what I mean the best that I can.

First, let’s start with Dream and the prison.

Dream was imprisoned, after Punz led the entire server to him, before he could kill Tubbo in front of Tommy.

Am I saying that he shouldn’t have been arrested? Hell no. His list of war crimes and atrocities against humanity at this point was and still is a mile long.

But the group failed to give Dream a fair trial to defend himself.

Instead, Tommy (after killing Dream twice as revenge for the two deaths that Dream committed against him. Note on that one, I completely understand Tommy’s rage. But killing Dream was not right, nor did it help anyone.) had Sam, (the warden) to imprison Dream after he claimed that he could revive Wilbur.

Neither Tommy or Sam or anyone here had the authority to imprison Dream. Especially not without a fair trial. But they did it anyways and that’s not right. Dream was unlawfully imprisoned against his will.

Now, the torture. Imma say it bluntly. It was 100% not Dream’s fault.

Quackity, who had no authority to do this, wanted the revive book.

Dream said no as he had the right to say that.

So, grossly abusing his rights as a visitor, Quackity started to torture Dream.

So, yeah.

And now, we get to Exile and Tommy.

Exile was an overreaction and rigged from the start. Plain and simple.

Was Tommy completely in the right for the conflict? No. (In order of least to most fucked up in my opinion.) He grief-ed and robbed George’s house, compared Tubbo to Schlatt, tried to frame Niki, and tried to use Dream’s dead horse against him.

But also, Exile was both a unfair punishment and one that was pushed so heavily.

Dream, (the main ring-leader for getting rid of Tommy from L’Manburg) provoked Tommy to make him look worse, pushed Tubbo into a corner about the topic, and tried to frame Tommy of many more griefing incidents (with the help of a unwitting Puffy.). He was pulling the strings when the real victim, George, didn’t even give two shits. Tommy’s damages were easily fixed and everything stolen was easily recovered.

Should Tommy be punished for griefing George? Yes. But he should have been put on probation and made to fix the damages (and recover the stolen property) to George’s house, not put through a rigged series of events that got him banned from his own home.

(And I have an extra argument for this part. Canon is canon. Just because nothing came of something doesn’t mean that it is not important. Tommy’s framing of Niki was immediately shut down. But he still tried instead of fessing up. Dream’s framing of Tommy didn’t seem to do much. But he still did that, showing that he was trying his hardest to get Tommy out of L’Manburg no matter what.)

And now, the exile itself.

It was 100% not Tommy’s fault. Nothing during exile was his fault and nothing was exaggerated by the fans.

Dream really did make Tommy throw his stuff down the hole to destroy it.

Dream really did beat Tommy with an axe if he mustered the tiniest rebellion.

Dream really did changed up his rules and the rules of Exile on a whim.

(For example, Tommy was only banned from L’Manburg. But when they got there, Dream told him that he couldn’t go *anywhere* that was established.)

Dream really did make sure that Tommy was dependent on him for everything.

And Dream really did all of this to control Tommy, to make him a protégé. (Cc!Dream confirmed this over Twitter.)

When people say that Exile was abuse, we didn’t exaggerate it. In fact, I think we didn’t do the horrors justice. Exile was torture as much as the prison was for Dream and Vice versa.

If anyone wants to discuss, please reblog this with your opinions or comment on this blog.

[t0bythebat]

i have a small fnaf theory. before you go yelling at me, i’m aware it has MANYYY plot holes. i just wanna get my thoughts out there.

the candy cadet stories have always intrigued me because we don’t know anything about them (as well as the fnaf 4 box. it keeps me up at night smh). we all know each one has something to do with five becoming one. five keys being melted into one, five kittens becoming one, etc. this seems obvious but the first connection i made with five was the five missing kids. Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz and Cassidy. although, we don’t know much about Cassidy. All we know is they (using they because we don’t know the canon gender of them. Scott said they could be male or female) have a huge want for vengeance against William, their supposed killer. but we don’t know anything about them other than that. we don’t even know if their name is Cassidy, since it was found in an unreliable word search and their name has always been obviously hidden in the games. we know more about the others than them. Susie has her whole backstory with her dog and that she was the first victim and Jeremy has the dialogue in SB that could be about him.

Because we know so little about them, it got me thinking. what if they weren’t ever an actual kid.

William had more than five victims if were counting Cassidy. Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Susie’s dog, Fritz, Cassidy, Charlie, Elizabeth (could be argued she wasn’t a victim of his but i’m gonna count it), and possibly many more if we take into account the fact he made the SL animatronics mass murder machines. some argue that CC is also technically a victim of William so for now we’ll count it. even if we exclude Cassidy, thats still more than/at least five.

I was thinking maybe five of William’s victims decided to merge somehow to become Cassidy. they aren’t an actual kid, but instead an embodiment of their rage and anger towards William.

but see now the question is who’s the fifth soul? i think if they were to merge the main four would be in it. the options i was thinking were CC and Charlie. CC never really had anything against his father, as far as we’re concerned. although we do know that Charlie does. at first she was more worried about making sure the souls were able to get a second chance. and if they were to merge it’d have to be after the happiest day. so it could very well be plausible that she was involved in the merge.

and if they did merge it doesn’t necessarily mean that every part of them did. it could be an ennard-like situation where only parts of them were combined. and that would make sense with the fact that the fnaf 1 animatronics + the puppet are still possessed while Golden Freddy is too.

basically my theory is that five becoming one is the kids merging some parts of themselves together to make Cassidy.

i hope this was at least kind of readable and makes somewhat sense. again, this isn’t me claiming this is canon or anything i just wanna get my scrambled thoughts out there.

[a-sky-of-diamonds]

Disjointed but detailed notes about the new lore on Martyn’s stream

I took a lot of notes while watching the VOD of Martyn’s lore stream, and thought I’d share them if anyone’s interested? They may not entirely make sense in the order they’re in, they were mainly for me to keep track of everything, but why not share it

Notes under the cut because it’s long:

General:

Watchers pay a particular interest in him because

This is why why Pearl asked Martyn if he had Tilly, etc. Martyn showing Pearl Tilly’s ashes really hurt and made Pearl go on a downward slope, and in recognition of that it was the first time the Listeners were able to step in and do a temporary swap, to lighten the load on Pearl’s soul by having Lizzie be the embodiment of it. This is because Lizzie wasn’t there for the whole of Double Life (Watchers didn’t need her ready after Last Life), but had enough left “in the tank” to sub in for an episode.

Google Docs on this: “It was more taxing than usual. Sure, Pearl is a top tier player andr reaches the end consistently, but the trauma she experienced was a new level of [bleeped]. It explains why she’s been somewhat uncharacteristic this season, reeling on the loss of Tilly, begging for her back, and then lashing out when she can’t return to those times.”

The second one is now canon.

Originally: returning the memories of war had happened in Cleo and Pearl’s absence was mutually beneficent to both groups, so Cleo and Pearl were none the wiser as they think they lived it, they were given all the emotions and memories to their vessels.

NOTE: this was changed after Martyn is informed Cleo refers to it as an “amnesia cold”, this is what was imprinted into their minds. They have flickers of memories.

It’s advantageous to the Listeners because that puts less strain on their souls than “I completely blacked out last week what happened”.

However, maybe at some point, one of these players would be able to leave and become a Listener/Watcher (the Watchers were able to convert Grian, after all). It would be very difficult for them to, though –it was easy for Grian because it was his and the Watchers’ intent, the Watchers pulled him out for themselves, etc. However, these players are under such scrutiny and under such close watch from the Watchers, it’s very hard for the Listeners to make a dent.

Martyn’s not sure whether he wants to further Grian’s capabilities much.

Evo:

Watchers were entities that were originally meant to represent the viewers, as a vehicle  to have the viewer’s thoughts able to be brought into the world, as well as as a vehicle for him to leave the series.

When he left, the CCs wanted to explore other places, so brought in the Listeners as a rival entity to the Watchers. They tried to help the players flee the Watcher’s grasp and were unsuccessful. As a punishment for fleeing, the Watchers put the Evo players into these death games. The characters who aren’t in the Life series are canonically in different death games with different creators.

It’s not just Evo cast members because the Watchers have dominion over all Minecraft realms and existences and can pull people in from different servers into the death games.

But the Watchers are particularly angry at the Evo crew for trying to flee.

One of the first things the Listeners said to Martyn and Jimmy: “there are some who watch, we are those who listen, and we do not agree, with their most recent decision” – so seems like listeners always 

Ep 4:

Slight shift in comfort for c!martyn this season because men’s not there (unguided hand as an acknowledgement), ren is always close to c!martyn

“Forever moulding in the sands” – idea that everything was going to be washed up onto the shore and would just be rotting on the beach, again also idea that Scott would be killed

“Fleeting gill” – fleeting connection to Scott, not SUPER super deep

Ep 7:

“Echoes ring for brief exchange”: First part means that with the listeners you hear an echo – echo is a temporary ripple/thing (as in the sub)

“Disruptions by the ones estranged”: a recognition that the Listeners are of the same race/type of existence as the Watchers.

Ep 8 (before death):

Note: cc!Martyn wishes he’d slightly distorted the voice at the end to make it sound more like the voice to draw attention to this.

He’d also have loved to have random voice clips of important moments for character Martyn throughout the entirety of the life series “eg “my lord!”, different betrayals, different moments that made up c!martyn’s journey so far) interspersed throughout the final countdown, but didn’t have the time.

He wanted to do the countdown in the order that people died, with others joining in as they died, but was unable to get recorded voice lines from everyone. It was also a bit empty with just Jimmy, even if he’d included the voice as well. And again, he was pressed for time.

He initially had the Watcher’s voice as the most prominent one, but ended up pulling different people’s voices to become the central channel.

After death:

Their colour isn’t purple (they’re pure bright light), but they’re sort of tainted purple because the games and void are the Watcher’s domain. The void makes everything purple.

One on hand (repaired): limited life

One on heart: double life (closest to heart, tied to someone else’s heart)

One out of frame but same size, somewhere beneath clothing on his shoulder blades at the back: last life

One on cheek: 3rd life, cc!Martyn likes the idea of it being there because that was a tear shed when Ren fell, that was the moment that sort of broke c!martyn and made him more selfish in future series (ouch).

Character Martyn:

He doesn’t know all this is going on. He’s completely unconscious in the void when the Listeners do stuff, and in the world there’s no point in which e knows c!Grian is a Watcher who’s inserted himself into the game. The only time c!Martyn was a glimpse at the truth was at the end of Last Life, when they dropped the veil and spoke to him, but couldn’t comprehend it.

Despite fragment protection, there won’t be much change in how c!Martyn’s games will go. The beings are very very old and powerful, and we as the audience doesn’t know if there have been a bunch of different life series and games that have happened in between of each of the shown Life series. They could have run 3rd Life a number of times, could have run Last Life a number of times, etc, without our knowledge.

Listeners probably won’t be able to communicate with Martyn next season.

Other characters/characters in general:

They still hate Scott, despite him obeying the Boogeyman in session 1, partly because he still holds onto his principles and is still honourable and trusting of others, and doesn’t hold contempt even prior to Watchers feeding on emotions – he’s always happy for others to take the win, etc. They don’t get many negative emotions from Scott, which frustrates them from.

Theory that Grian and Jimmy were pushed off by the Watchers isn’t canon to Martyn’s POV, but still can be in fanon of course.

Any players that haven’t returned yet are absent because they’ve gone through too much trauma and haven’t recovered yet. If they go back in too fragmented and broken, they’d stand to ruin the game – they’d be sort of ‘deranged’, but not the way the Watchers could feed on – they’d be cowering in the corner as easy kills, and it’s not what the Watchers are trying to do – they want people to be calm and calculated and lie and betray, they like feeding on more complex human emotions than just emptiness.

Other notes:

Clips/visuals in the countdown (they were reversed btw):

Lim life 5 (martyn landed on glass), dl 4, ll 9, 3l 8. There are frames of the Red Winter moment too

He wanted to choose episodes of prominence, didn’t think about clips too much (they were randomised?).

Song at the end is a custom song made by sparkles

We’ll be delving into lore late this year! There’s a comic cc!Martyn wants to make about it, and also more he wants to do with Chapter 3.

He’s currently in Chapter 3 of the lore (“Into the Datastream”), which is part Vtuber part Life Series. 

Chapter 4, which we’re not in yet, is called “Fragment Wars” – fragments are still more layered than they appear, but we somewhat have an idea of what they are now.

Chapter 2 was just called “Life” – beginning of Death Games. Chapter 1 was called “Memory Lane” (Evo – trip down Minecraft lane memory versions), using Evo as a launch part to begin Martyn’s story.

There’s a transition he wants to do from Chapter 4 into Chapter 5, there’s a certain something he wants to do (which has something to do with the Vtuber lore, because cc!Martyn said he wishes the Vtuber stuff took off more than it did).

Vtuber lore: Chapter 1 has no interfacing with VTuber stuff, it’s not intertwined with Evo. Chapters 2 and 3 are a weird blend with some sort of transition points with Vtuber stuff between them, and 4 and beyond are properly intertwined.

He didn’t lost fragments in Rats.

Martyn currently has around 12 A4 pages of lore and story, which is all a very condensed version of the events, so there’s a LOT to come!

[dogmanincorrectquotes]

Do You do headcanons if so what are your headcanons. Some of mine(mostly for petey cause hes my spirit anime) are: peteys an aroace level 1 autistic,Molly definently bullys little kids on roblox,flippy and petey would def be drinking buddys,petey has insomnia that keeps him up all night were he questions his life's choices,dogman has the mine of a dog and isn't capable of human consent whichi why I don't ship him with anyone,lil petey can draw hands,sarah and yolay are dating

Those are some interesting ones! Thanks for sharing them, def going to accept some of those (especially the Petey insomniac one)

Here are some of mine below the break:

- Petey can swim, but Li’l Petey can’t. The former learned how to swim soon after the vaccum cleaner incident (from the first book), but only because he didn’t want to nearly drown again.

- ‘Molly’ is a nickname. Her real name is Margaret, but she hates that ridiculously long name with her guts.

- Grampa wanted to name Petey after himself, but Grace argued for for the name "Peter", with Petey as a nickname. Even after, Grampa still calls his son Junior because of resemblance.

- Big Jim and Petey are very distant cousins. (I've had this hc long before Scarlet Shedder released)

- Sarah and Zuzu met in passing after the latter bumped into the former during the Mutt-Masher scene in the first book. Sarah took a liking to the poodle, and then adopted her in the next book.

- Melvin used to keep a list of all his siblings’ names, and cross each one off the list when they got their first timeout. (He was ecstatic when the last one was crossed out)

- Adding to the above, Molly got her timeout after the infamous Chip-Dip Incident; afterwards, Molly made the frogs swear they’d never speak of it again. Because of said incident, Flippy no longer buys chip dip for the frogs.

- Even though Knight would screw up a lot in Chief’s presence, they were close friends before the former’s death - rip :’(

- There is a Captain Underpants cartoon (possibly TETOCU?) existent in the universe - this stems from the (canon!) fact that LP learned to draw from cartoons, saying this while doodling CU.

- Molly came to Petey lab in Mothering Heights with the intention of working on Squid Kid and Katydid with LP (and they actually did - whenever they took a break, they made song parodies)

- As an anthropomorphic cat in the DM universe gets older, they lose some fur, especially around their paws. So Li’l Petey actually does have fingers/an opposable thumb; they're just covered by mass amounts of fur.

- Both Officer Knight and Greg had heterochromia, the former with blue-green and the latter with brown-blue. (By extent, doggy man has it too)

- Petey used to be quite the doodler as a kitten, until something involving Grampa happened (screw you Grampa >:/)

- A bajillionth reason to hate Grampa; the motor brain was Petey’s idea, but it was a blueprint when the former raided the latter’s house. Grampa had changed most of its design so he couldn’t be sued. (That doesn’t mean he won’t be sued though haha)

- Grampa found Grace’s ukulele while raiding Petey’s house. Since he didn’t want it, he stuffed it somewhere Petey wouldn’t think to look, which is why Petey thought he lost it.

- Frida (who was noted to have designed the frogs in Baby Frog Squad) designed CC after Molly, at the latter’s suggestion.

And a wholesome one to close out: both of the Peteys love strawberry ice cream :)

[princess-of-the-corner]

CC!NextGen

Ok, stay with me here.

The CC!NextGen’s big bad IS the HPSC - specifically the branch that made Nijiko.

After the “War”, the Hero Public Safety Commission was pretty gutted. Most of their top guys died, after all. While this left space for new blood, it also left space for some of the “Old Guard” to come in and start a few projects that were probably not cool with the old administration. Projects like creating their own “heroes” from scratch, rather than just dealing with whatever they can get.

Like, I’m not saying they weren’t given serious consideration, but the Commission seemed to be a certain flavour of corrupt. The kind that says “we can justify this for the greater good”. Like, they threatened Lady Nagant. They made Hawks a child soldier. But I get the feeling, in the world of MHA, experimentation on human DNA is viewed as even more taboo than WE see it as. Like, when it comes to Quirks, you aren’t just fucking around playing god, you’re basically messing with creating WEAPONS. It’s why Quirk marriages are viewed so poorly (and in a few places, are probably straight up illegal). 

I’d propose, by the time the Next-Gen CC class gets to U.A. (either under Aizawa once again, Vlad - to give him the limelight - or maybe a mostly rehabbed Kurogiri, just to really go hard on nonsense) the HPSC is basically stuck in an internal political struggle. You’ve got the New Guard, people who came in after the “War”, who are determined to do “better” than their predecessors, and are trying to be as transparent as possible. They want to be what the HPSC SHOULD have been. Then you have the remnants of the “Old Guard”, those who survived the “war”, and are doubling down their old ways. They need control. They need to bring back the peace, by any means necessary. And you’d have the thing that sprung up in the middle as a result:

A program to “create” new heroes, through illegal experimentation and DNA manipulation. While Nijiko might be their “one that got away” and the one they desperately want back, she wouldn’t be the only one they made. Hell, she probably isn’t even the oldest one “created”. And whoever’s in charge of that nightmare?

Congrats, Doctor Frankenstein, YOU are the new Big Bad!

-

Ohohohohohohohohoo

Actually I was gonna make a side note on like the suggestion of our Edgelord so here’s a vote on that: Actual edgelord speaking delusional nonsense or another experiment but this time with whatever remnants of AfO’s DNA they scraped off the battlefield?

(also my one thing re: this hot mess is going to be squishing the nextgens’ ages so everyone can be involved. Some would be rookie Heroes while others are first years. Which does technically work given the canon character’s age ranges)