#didn’t think to include any

[flintandpyrite]

Finished! He’s been wearing it all day, I’m so happy it fits.

[mollysunder]

The Medarda arc of s2 struggled to be good, because the plot viciously smothered it. You can argue that Arcane was never about politics but you cannot say the Medardas were never explicitly a family defined by politics. So when the show shifted it's priorities from a drama steeped in political conflict where even though the setting was fantastical the stakes were grounded to a shift where magic is the end all be all threat to humanity, the Medardas are rendered largely irrelevant.

In s2 Mel's agency over her own story is both largely stripped from her and poorly communicated. Arcane has Mel abducted from the plot to be the Black Rose's captive. Even when Mel manages to free herself it's not through the traits the audience understands are her strengths, her cunning and social intelligence, it's through an innate instinct that natural to her and indecipherable to the audience.

Ambessa as a character is more or less a villain of convenience, which would be fine if she wasn't immediately following Silco's act. Once Mel is removed from the story Ambessa is largely disconnected from any emotional tension fuels conflict between the characters and previously drove the plot in s1. She's there to play the worse bad guy for Caitlyn and then give Viktor the man power for the Glorious Evolution.

It's frustrating to see the Medardas used the way they are in s2 because when they're together I can see how it could be good. When they're together Mel forces emotion out of Ambessa. In Act 1, Ambessa proved she could do circles around Piltover's court, which could actually put Mel in a tight spot.

Their final scene on paper sounds like a good idea where the true resolution to Mel and Ambessa's story was that Ambessa saw Mel's own ruthless behavior as she not only betrayed Ambessa to the Black Rose, but used her as BAIT to double cross LeBlanc. Ambessa died proud that her daughter killed her the way she did, and that's so cool and tragic, but the execution was a flop.

One, their final fight is completely unimportant to the actual Glorious Evolution, Mel's grief can't even be a highlight because it's interrupted by Viktor's mind trap. Two, their fight didn't rely on any of Mel's actual strengths, just magic and the poorly explained MacGuffin LeBlanc gave her. How did Mel even know it would do that?

It's like the writers had the bones for a great story for the Medardas, but then they're like the world's worst archeologists and fit those bones together in the worst way possible because they were convinced the bones made a stegasaurus instead of a T-rex or something.

[i-love-ropes]

LOOK AT MY BABY COUSIN!!!

LOOK AT HER!!!

I’VE NEVER SEEN HER THIS HAPPY BEFORE!

(Not everyone in Rope MF’s family have such strong emotions displayed on their faces naturally. It’s a recessive trait.)

THIS IS THE PICTURE MY AUNT TOOK OF HER ON HER BIRTHDAY TWO DAYS AGO

SHE JUST TURNED FOUR!

THAT’S THE DOLL SHE WAS GIFTED

I GAVE HER A PRESENT TOO!

IT WAS A DOLL HOLDING A ROPE!!!

SHE TOLD ME THAT MY GIFT WAS HER FAVORITE!

ISN’T SHE ADORABLE?!

I LOVE HER AND ROPES SO MUCH!!!

Size difference:

[frogaroundandfindout]

You people had me thinking joker straight up beat Jason to death with a crowbar

He was unconscious from the beating for most of the ten minute countdown on the bomb and woke up at the two minute and four second mark. He then decided to try and save his mother (who earlier betrayed him to joker to cover up her embezzling money) and they both managed to get to the door before finding out joker locked them both inside. Then they got blown up together

It’s like 200% worse

[blasphemousclaw]

a closer look at the weapons of Mt. Gelmir

Do you ever get possessed by the uncontrollable urge to catalogue every weapon related to Mt. Gelmir, overanalyze both their visual design and their purpose, and then arrange them in a rough timeline reflecting Mt. Gelmir’s history? Because I do! There might be something wrong with me. Anyway, I ended up grouping the weapons into three main eras: the ancient cult of the great serpent, the Inquisition era under Praetor Rykard, and Rykard’s war of blasphemy against the Erdtree. This analysis became ungodly long, so I’ve put everything under a read more:

CULT OF THE GREAT SERPENT

Long before Rykard took up residence on Mt. Gelmir, the volcano was inhabited by a civilization who worshipped the Great Serpent: they practiced pagan hexes of poison and magma, and offered up blood sacrifices to their Serpent God. The weapons associated with this civilization can be identified by the following characteristics: an association with pagan magic and ritual sacrifice, dull-colored metal or wood material, and serpent imagery.

Serpent God’s Curved Sword

“Curved sword fashioned in the image of an ancient serpent deity and tool of a forgotten religion practiced on Mt. Gelmir. Formerly used to offer up sacrifices, this sword restores HP upon slaying an enemy.”

This weapon helps establish the distinct visual style of the serpent cult, since the cult is specifically referenced in the description.

Serpent Bow and Arrows

“Malformed bow in the shape of a pair of poisonous snakes. Imbues arrows with poison through pagan magic, revealing its true worth when used with poison-infused arrows. Used by assassins known as the Formless Serpents.”

“Arrow carved to resemble a flying snake. Used in tandem with the Serpent Bow. Loyal minions of the Formless Serpents, their fangs are daubed with deadly poison.”

Who are the formless serpents? Who the hell knows. But what tells me that these weapons are from the same era as the serpent cult is both the style and the mention of “pagan magic,” which brings to mind the ancient magma “hexes” that Rykard eventually rediscovered. We find the bow in the Caelid Abandoned Cave, among a hoard of ruined abductor virgins… this seems to be a case of Rykard utilizing the weapons of the serpent cult in tandem with his own modern inventions.

Serpentbone Blade

“Sinister katana modeled after a serpent bone. The densely packed row of spines that jut away from the cutting edge are coated in a lethal poison.”

A quest reward from Tanith, which implies that Volcano Manor has many of these serpent cult weapons stashed away somewhere. This weapon is likely infused with the same poison-imbuing pagan magic as the serpent bow. Notice how the hilt is decorated with coiling serpents in a dull metal color.

Devourer’s Scepter

“Scepter in the shape of a serpent devouring the world. This weapon will one day become the very symbol of the Lord of Blasphemy. A vision of the future briefly seen by Rykard in his final moments before being devoured by the great serpent.”

I believe this weapon was crafted by the serpent cult as a premonition or a prophecy of their god that they had glimpsed, which Rykard himself glimpsed in his final moments. The description says the weapon “will one day become” his symbol, implying that it had existed long before him. We also know that this weapon can’t have been made after Rykard was devoured because, since we know that Tanith was “the only human to remain by his side when he became the serpent of blasphemy,” the only ones who could’ve created the weapon are the man-serpents — and as we’ll later see, the three weapons we know they created have a uniform design that’s entirely different from the Devourer’s Scepter. Lastly, the serpent depicted on the weapon does not have Rykard’s face, while his personal sigil does depict both his and the serpent’s head.

INQUISITION ERA

Now, we skip forward in time to the weapons created under Rykard’s tenure as Praetor, during which he enforced a brutal inquisition involving the imprisonment and torture of people most likely presumed to be heretics (ironically, this inquisition in the name of the Golden Order was itself physically built upon a hotbed of ancient heresy). We can distinguish the newer weapons from the ones of the serpent cult based on a few factors: they were made to be instruments of torture, they are decorated with loopy flourishes, and there should be no serpent imagery — I don’t believe that an Inquisition of the Golden Order would be using weapons decorated with snake imagery due to their society’s view of the serpent as a “traitor to the Erdtree,” especially because the previous heretical denizens of the volcano had been crafting weapons in the serpent’s image.

Inquisitor’s Girandole

“Instrument of torture used on nobles behind the curtain at the Volcano Manor of Mt. Gelmir. Its numerous spikes pierce the flesh, then singe the wounds with flame. The smell of burnt blood induces despair in the victim. A candlestick conceived by a thorough mind.”

Unfortunately, this is really the only example of a purely inquisition-era weapon in the game, but it is immediately noteworthy that there is no snake imagery here whatsoever. The loops and flourishes are consistent with other design work we see throughout Volcano Manor, such as on the mechanized metal bridge:

Ghiza’s Wheel

“Great iron wheel lined with flesh-flaying blades. Device of torture used by Inquisitor Ghiza. As the wheel spins it causes severe pain and blood loss. The design was adopted for use as the iconic weapon wielded by Iron Virgins.”

We know that Ghiza’s Wheel was created as a weapon of the inquisition. The wheel itself is also decorated with a loopy design, but the handle is interestingly covered in golden snakes. However, the description also reads that the design of the wheel was “adopted for use” on the iron virgins: the handle of the wheel matches the gold coiling snakes of the abductor virgins, so I propose that the special handle was added later on, when the iron virgins were likely created as machines of war for Rykard’s blasphemous crusade. Perhaps Ghiza worked on them too, and made adjustments to his wheel’s design himself?

WAR OF BLASPHEMY 

When Rykard declared his treason against the Golden Order and the Erdtree, it’s likely he embraced the serpent as a symbol of his blasphemous intentions. For this reason, I theorize that Rykard only started actively using serpent imagery after his treason, which is also why we don’t see serpent imagery in the architecture and design of Volcano Manor itself. 

Abductor Virgins

Looking at the abductor virgins, we see serpents throughout the design mixed with intricate swirls and flourishes, which in my opinion places their creation after Rykard's treason. We also don’t know for sure if they were created before or after Rykard fed himself to the great serpent, but I’m inclined to believe it was before: The iron maiden is a notorious real-world torture device, so it would make the most sense if Rykard’s own torturers had a hand in its creation, and we know that they had abandoned him after his devouring. It's also possible that they were altered after the fact by the man-serpents, however.

Magma Weapons of the Man-Serpents

After Rykard’s devouring and the subsequent birth of the man-serpents, we have a new subset of weapons that appear — all of these weapons make use of Rykard’s innovations in magma sorcery based on the old hexes of Mt. Gelmir. They are all made of filigreed gold and embedded with glintstone, and are created and wielded by the man-serpents. 

Magma Blade

“Curved sword with a blade fashioned from the lava of Mt. Gelmir. An armament of the man-serpents, impossible for a human to have made.”

This description implies that this trio of magic weapons must have been created by the man-serpents, which makes sense as we know that Tanith was the only human left on the Volcano Manor’s staff. The man-serpents are clearly capable of forging complicated weapons.

Gelmir Glintstone Staff

“Staff with a forked tip, embedded with red glintstones. Enhances lava sorceries. The Man-Serpents of Mt. Gelmir draw from faith in addition to intelligence to enhance the potency of their sorcery.”

Again, this description identifies this as a weapon of the man-serpents, and tells us that they are adept sorcerers who have followed in Rykard’s footsteps. The design references a serpent’s forked tongue.

Magma Whip Candlestick

“This ritual implement is a three pronged candlestick with solid flames formed of the magma of Mt. Gelmir.”

Volcano Manor sure loves its candles!

Man-Serpent’s Shield

“Small copper dome-shaped roundshield carried by the man-serpents of Mt. Gelmir. Said to have been tempered in lava, it boasts great resistance to fire.”

This one isn’t technically a weapon, but it’s still worth examining. Notice the embedded gems and the bright gold snake imagery, consistent with other weapon designs of this era.

CONCLUSION

The art in this game is extremely deliberately designed, and it can tell the story beyond what just the words on the screen say. Many of the specific details are my own conjecture, but I think it’s quite clear that these weapons are consciously designed with similar features in order to place them within the game’s world and history.

[animangalover-writes]

Billy Hargrove fandom I love you. You are the only safe space in this cursed fandom❤️

[blossoms-phan]

will never pass up the opportunity, so! i am asking. what are your phanfic recommendations?

ask (honoured!) and you shall receive bestie! quick preface: i returned to the wonderful world of reading phanfic around the start of this year and have admittedly missed out on years of incredible work i am now catching up on! also in terms of what i read i generally lean towards current-era fics, canon compliant/fluff/smut- although i'm always taking recs from lovely moots/whoever, you may find this isn't the largest range (no aus/long chapter fics or whatever) but this is just a selection of what i've discovered/loved in the past few months and i hope to make more of these as i discover more writings!

shoutout to everyone on here for their recs, all the incredible fanfic writers and the peeps at @phanfictioncatalogue for their work and accessibility and being the reason i discovered so many new fics/tropes i now love <3 ok lets get into ittttttttt

"you look at my face a lot" by natigail: i credit this fic for getting me into reading phanfic again in 2024 <3 one of the first ones i read post-hiatus and i've returned to it countless times! it makes my heart jump, just so sweet and so them. the slittening(s) were such an iconic moment i can't believe it's been 6+ months since them but i love the little moments like dan describing phil's hair colour to a sephora worker, always wanting to know more about each other and the soft intimacy.

"the angel in the marble" by ivylakes: OHH MY GOODNESS this one is artttt. this one is my fave of the post-phlondeing fics i can just see and feel everything that happens, the loving, lazy intimacy, and following this week's t-shirt events it absolutely cements my HC that angel is a nickname for our philly. introspection, hair-kissing, body worship- i eat it up (im having a thing for mirrors in fics rn so there's also that)

"slumber party" by possumdnp: if i wasn't already clear reality-based fics really just do it for me and i love this one!! slumber party is one of my favourite recent-ish gaming vids and i just love the cozy comfort vibes of having a sleepover and getting a little flirty with your best friend/crush going on 15 years <3

"after the birthday stream" by trashcanfromgallifrey: the birthday stream ignited something in all of us but this is just such a perfect depiction of (possible) events after hehe. feels so them, just love the loving intimacy and shower activities and fluffy endings with cake <3 (shoutout hannah ily!!)

"lovers, keep on the road you're on" by possumdnp: another personal fave. japhan 2019 is EVERYTHING to me, this is so lovely and well-researched and i just go in between reading this and watching the stories from it when i want to cry and book a flight to tokyo

"welcome home! (never leave that long again)" by natigail: this one is just soooooo soft and sweet and fluffy. so heartwarming and one of the many wad reunion fics that has my heart <3

ok i'm going to end up including all 40+ of my bookmarks (not a lot. but working on it hehe) if i don't stop myself so as much as i could write paragraphs about all of these just know that my PPA test is positive and i was probably sweating/giggling/kicking my feet at all of these so here's a speedrun list of pure smut (sorry it's a lot of what i read lmao):

"juxtaposition", "slow down", "sensitive", "some kind of mood" and literally everything written by the force that is intoapuddle

"come light me up" by JudeAraya (perhap not pure smut but I loveeee the teasing and characterization in this so so dan ugh)

"appreciation" by Scuddleduck

"a little vitamin D" by Spring_Haze

"good for you, good for you" and "under my thumb" by dvp_95

"lucky" by iihappydaysii

i could keep going but for now i'm going to stop here! i'm sorry if this is messy i have no idea what i'm doing with linking and stuff but i hope this introduces at least one person to a new fic they end up loving! i lurked/read sooo many fics before finally creating an a03 account only a little over a month ago so i def might be missing some i've forgotten to go back and bookmark! shoutout to all of these writers (i could include multiple works from them all u ppl are amazing)- again i'm soo open to discovering more phanfic and want to expand my horizons, i've started to read some chaptered fics i didn't include on here but will reblog more current reads where i can! also if we're moots pls shamelessly promote your works i'd love to check them out! need to start commenting more too but ok ok wrapping it up

[wubbybubbly]

something that I find fascinating in bridge to the turnabout is when edgeworth says that while he was caught up in the middle of the dl-6 investigation, he had actually met misty fey himself.

I’m sure this was before the channeling began. whether or not he was actually in the room when it happened is up for debate. but because edgeworth never alludes to a reunion with his father, I think it’s safe to say that the police barred him from interacting with his spirit. maybe he was forced out of the room. or maybe he just sat there, crying to himself believing his father was right there and he couldn’t speak to him.

what’s interesting is that edgeworth vehemently dismisses the kurain channeling technique and sees all spirit mediums as frauds (even when mia is channeled in court and clearly visible). so, it’s possible that this anger stems from something a lot more personal than “it’s scientifically impossible.” I think he staunchly refuses to believe in the fey clan’s legitimacy because accepting it means that he could’ve seen his father again, but wasn’t allowed to. so he’d rather think that there is absolutely no way to bring back the dead, ever. it’s a way to protect himself—the police were wrong, so he didn’t actually miss his chance to speak to his dad.

I don’t know, there’s a lot more to edgeworth seeing misty as a fraud than just this, and maybe I’m totally wrong. but it’s a possibility that I thought of.

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

Y’all there was a reason the curtains were blue, I’m starting to think some of us here just hate reading comprehension

[qroier]

they're always next to each other

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

“Jason should get over being upset about his death” - he has, he wasn’t angry at Bruce or the world because they failed him and he ended up dying, which he made clear plain as day and that’s about the most reasonable a person who went through what he went through could be

anyway I don’t think these people realize how gory being bludgeoned to near death is, and maybe it's because of the limitations of the medium that scene was presented in

[thepromisedbride]

i don’t talk about bridgerton on here but just to clarify. i will not be having ANY eloise hate on this account. i will bite.

[eightdoctor]

someone: so which of the doctor’s children is your favorite? [strange question probably no one would ever ask but one i have concocted for the purposes of this post so literaly maybe just suspend your fuckinf disbelief for once…]

someone else: jenny!

another: miranda!

me, sagely and serenely from the antique armchair tucked in the corner by the hearth: the little angel that iris cut out of his leg 😌

[yuwuta]

i have never done kinktober before bc it’s usually such a hellish time of year for me but i think i might actually have time for once omg………..

[galadrielspeaks]

just thinking about thranduil and how he categorises his life and how the events of his life affects the way he rules his kingdom…. how so much of his development was defined by huge cataclysmic tragedies… thinking about how his youth is defined as before Doriath and his adulthood is defined as After Doriath… how when he became a prince he probably held on to his more idealistic beliefs only to be sternly reminded of the fickleness of life during war….. how the entire kingdom of the woodland realm probably has a Before Dagorlad and an After. how could you not after losing your king and the majority of your people? it is incredibly telling how these events of Thranduil’s past has affected his rule and everything about him down to his parenting. he understands he’s alone. that’s tragic. but he also understands his kingdom is alone. he’s a lonely king. there's no one higher than him, no one to seek advice from. he understands he is the final defender of a kingdom and he is fighting an inherited war, he has first hand witnessed the tragedies of this war and has been directly critically affected by it, he is just as much a victim of Sauron as his people. his nobility offers him zero protection, at any point he could lose everything, and yet he remains empathetic. he remains kind. he remains generous. he obviously sees the worth in fighting, he refuses to give up fully. he is (reasonably!) incredibly cautious which some call him an isolationist or consider him fickle for, during events like his refusal of gandalf’s invitation to the White Council but it becomes incredibly clear why he is like this when it’s put into context of his past. he has trusted allies before, he has seen what has happened. to join an organisation full of ring bearer’s as the sole leader of a nation with no ring to protect his people is almost an insult. they would not and do not understand what it takes to lead in that situation. Thranduil and all of his people are living in the after of the war of the last alliance. why would they join another? Thranduil has put his people first. He recognises that they themselves are the only ones who understand just how at risk they are. and yet with all of this in mind it should noted that he allies himself with men (who historically have experienced and understand the dangerous climate of their respective nations) and creates trade routes with them to provide for his people and also provides aid to them. and it is noted in the text that Legolas has been raised incredibly happily, and he is well-adjusted. throughout fighting a seemingly losing war thranduil found it implicitly important to raise his son with joy and hope. i like to believe he understands the importance of childhood whimsy and enchantment and worked to instill and maintain his child’s innocence. he raised his son as trauma-free as he could (saying this bc we do not know if his mother is dead or sailed or not but either way to be without the mother is traumatic but besides that Legolas appears to be generally mentally healthy). despite knowing first hand just how cruel and painful life is he did not feel the need to raise his child to be prepared and worried about very real threats. rather he raised his child happily, and simply worked to give his son the skills he needed to survive and to defend himself. usually military father's who have expreienced a great deal of trauma and haven't processed it correctly tend to succumb to the urge to raise their children to understand the cruelty of the world, and loathe their children for their innocence. i think that in thranduil not doing this with legolas, we can infer that he has taken time to healthily process his experiences. I believe that Thranduil is an incredibly important figure in the Lord of the Rings because he is truly an incredible example of someone who learns from their mistakes, learns from tradegy, who learns from life. i think that Thranduil never wanted to be a King, it is a responsibility that fell into his lap unwillingly and that is why he is a successful and well-loved ruler.