#dr alternative route

[fluffypotatey]

Something that could happen in Things Dr. Geyer Notices

David Geyer, trying to hint that he's aware of the supernatural to his son: i just want you to know that your mother and i love you so much. nothing could change that. absolutely nothing. nothing. Liam Dunbar: i'm bi David: *sighs*...so am i, kiddo

[egg-emperor]

I love the Shadow android concept that was never properly utilized in the games and I find that sad. I can't expect that from IDW either (I like the times they have used them but they never dive in that much because they barely use Eggman either) so I've came up with a lot of ideas for them myself over the years.

Like Eggman really just contained the real Shadow and likely used him to make his tons of android clones of the ultimate life form and they barely used them for anything but that's so cool. I can imagine his mindset was like "my grandfather created just one but look how many I can make haha" even though they're not as powerful as the real deal but hush

It could be a reason why he scoffs and says Shadow is the "so called" ultimate life form and disses his grandfather like that in the TailsTube ep. He thinks he can do better, like it's nothing he can't do too, and maybe if he improves the accuracy of his androids they can be close to Shadow and be mass produced and he could use that to prove he's truly the most brilliant genius scientist lol

[mawenskiblue]

👁️ 👁️ what is this “nmg au”? Tell me more?

🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️💦💦💦 hides snippet under the cut (rambles in tags)

... It’s hard to tell what they’re feeling at times. Still, they shook his hand and introduced their name.

N.

A simple, one-lettered nickname. Unlike his, clearly inspired by his appearance; but he’s not complaining. Nightmare gave him a better nickname than what the multiverse did. ...

[ask-human-lancer]

I want to see my Little Genocidal boy, Sans again.

*man. this isn’t the first time i’ve gotten mistaken for a different sans. i’m not sure whether i should be flattered or offended that i’m so popular.

[babygirlwolverine]

loving on island time

Kiss #24 - Deep kisses where they have their hands tangled in each other’s hair to pull them closer.

Birthday Prompts: Country music, lover, beach kiss, purple, “Will you accept this rose?”, Dr. Sexy, sharks

Summary: Cas slipped a note into the handle of Dean’s coffee mug, set it on the bedside table, and placed a kiss against Dean’s temple. 'Let’s go on a road trip. I’ll drive.’

Word Count: 2,015 (continued under the read more). Also posted on ao3.

It had been an idea created out of something unexpected, sparked by Dean pointing out a piña colada at a bar, saying, “Not as fun without the umbrella in it.”

Cas cocked his head, stirring his own drink with a straw. “Where did you get a drink with an umbrella in it?”

Humming, Dean took a sip of his beer and his lip curled up into a half-smile. “I haven’t. It’s just the cliché beach drink in all the movies,” Dean chuckled. He changed the subject after that, directing Cas’ attention to the menu, and how Cas’ reflection in the condensation of the glass made him look even more devastatingly handsome. A fact that was ridiculously untrue yet made Cas fall even more in love with his husband.

No matter where Dean steered the conversation during their date night, though, Cas couldn’t stop thinking about Dean’s earlier answer about the tropical drinks with umbrellas in them. And now the seed had been planted and an idea was percolating in Cas’ mind.

~

A week later, Cas slipped a note into the handle of Dean’s coffee mug and set it on the bedside table. He placed a kiss against Dean’s temple before making his way back to the kitchen to get his tea. By the time he made it back to their bedroom, Dean had his back pressed to the headboard of the bed with an old rerun of Dr. Sexy playing quietly on the TV. The note was in his hand.

“What is this?” Dean asked, gesturing at Cas with the note. 

Cas quirked a smile at Dean and shrugged his shoulders. “An anniversary gift?”

Dean raised an eyebrow at Cas in response. “Our anniversary was almost 2 months ago.”

Cas sat on the edge of the mattress, his hand settling on Dean’s thigh. “Okay, just a regular gift. But someone once told me you accept gifts when they’re given to you.”

“Must’ve been a wise person.”

Cas smiled warmly at Dean. “For once, let me take you somewhere.”

Dean leaned into Cas’ space, brushing his lips against Cas’. “You’re not going to tell me where you’re taking me, are you?”

Shaking his head, Cas murmured, “My lips are sealed.”

“Does that mean no more kisses?” Dean asked. 

Closing the gap, Cas pressed his mouth against Dean’s softly. “I’ll make an exception for kisses.”

The note fluttered to the ground as Cas let Dean pull him down, down, down onto the mattress. 

‘Let’s go on a road trip. I’ll drive.’

~

Cas made sure they took his pickup for the roadtrip and insisted he do all the driving to ensure it remained a surprise. 

Anytime Dean picked up a map, trying to plot points to see what roads Cas was taking, Cas leaned over and tugged the map from Dean’s hands. “Nice try, Dean.”

After that, Cas made sure to change up the roads he was taking so that Dean couldn’t extrapolate anything from the route they were taking.

They alternated playing classic rock music and country music. Cas liked it because he knew Dean pretended he didn’t want to listen to country music, then he’d catch Dean tapping his along to the music against the window as they drove. 

They spent days on the road, and somehow it felt like every other road trip Cas had done with Dean, and yet completely different. This was just them and the open road. Cas driving Dean instead of Dean driving Cas. Something old and something new all at once. And looking over at Dean as the sunlight lit up his face through the window, so beautiful and breathtaking, Cas never wanted this road trip to end. 

~

The way Dean reacts when he gets his first glimpse of the beach is nothing short of stunning. A soft gasp, followed by a surprised chuckle, and then a grin spreading across his lips as his hand finds Cas’ thigh and squeezes so fondly it makes Cas’ heart ache. 

“You’re kidding me? Is that–?”

Cas nodded, tilting his head to offer Dean a warm smile. “Is this okay?”

Dean met Cas’ gaze and replied, “If you weren’t driving right now, I’d kiss you senseless.”

“I can pull over if you’d prefer?” Cas asked.

The laugh that slipped from Dean’s lips filled the truck. “Just drive. I’ll kiss you on the beach.”

Twenty minutes later, Cas stood where the sand met the concrete of the pathway. His eyes were on Dean.

Dean. Who had his feet in the sand. Even from a hundred feet away, Cas could see the way Dean’s head was tipped back with his eyes closed, sun bathing his skin in golden gleams.

Serenity.

It was written in the downward slope of Dean’s shoulders and the way his lips tilted up.

So beautiful that Cas was captivated. 

A throat cleared, and Cas tore his eyes away from Dean. “You said you wanted umbrellas in your drinks, right?”

“Yes, two umbrellas…” Cas trailed off, his gaze moving to something on the counter at the back of the bar. “Could I have one of those too, please?”

The bartender offered Cas a knowing smile and nodded his head towards Dean. “Trying to make an impression, huh?” 

Letting his eyes wander back to Dean, Cas shook his head. “I’m already his lover,” Cas replied, his wedding ring glinting in the sun as he picked up the drinks that the bartender had completed. 

By the time Cas had stepped up next to Dean with the drinks, the sun was starting to dip beyond the horizon; a purple dye stained the sky and the water below.

“Hey handsome,” Dean said, turning his gaze from the waves on the shore to Cas. 

The look in Dean’s eyes took Cas’ breath away. 

“What’s that?” Dean asked, gesturing to the drinks. There was a crinkle in the creases by Dean’s eyes as he smiled at Cas, and Cas ached to press his lips against those lines. 

Shaking the thought from his head, Cas gently offered the drink with the splash of color to Dean. “Will you accept this rose?”

Dean’s eyes flickered from the rose perched against the rim of the drink, to the matching red umbrella in the center of the drink, to Cas, and then back to the rose. “Castiel Winchester, you really are something,” Dean murmured, plucking the rose from the drink and twisting the stem back and forth between his thumb and forefinger. 

“Is that a yes?”

In a deliberately slow motion, Dean plucked the drink from Cas’ hand and crouched to wedge both drinks into the sand. Then, he stood up and stepped into Cas’ space. Dean wrapped his arms around Cas’ neck, and Cas immediately leaned into the touch. “The answer is always yes. To marrying you. To being your husband. To the rose. Yes, Cas.”

A moment passed between them, Dean staring into Cas’ eyes, and Cas reaching out with his Grace to feel the warmth of Dean’s soul. And then they were kissing.

Cas let out a hushed breath as his lips traced the curve of Dean’s mouth. The taste of salt air transferred from Dean to Cas, and it sent a shiver down Cas’ spine. 

It was so easy to get lost in the way Dean licked his way into Cas’ mouth. The way Dean let out these stuttered little gasps against Cas’ lips that melted into the kiss.

Settling his hands on Dean’s hips, Cas rucked up the corner of Dean’s shirt, letting his fingers graze against Dean’s skin. 

Dean let out another quiet groan, his hands moving up into Cas’ hair, instinctively pulling the angel closer as he deepened the kiss. Their tongues grazed against each other, and Cas chased that intimate touch again and again.

When Dean kissed him like this, hurried and desperate as if he couldn’t bear to spend a second not kissing Cas, it felt like Cas was drawing from a live wire every time their mouths brushed against each other. Intoxicating, overwhelming, and utterly addictive.

It was Dean who pulled back from the kiss, shaking as he drew in a deep breath. 

But that wasn’t enough for Cas. He needed more. Needed to let everything that Dean was consume every molecule of his being.

With one hand on Dean’s waist, Cas mimicked Dean’s earlier touch by sliding his other hand into the hair at the back of Dean’s neck, bringing Dean back into the kiss. And Dean went willingly, his fingers tugging at the strands of Cas’ hair as he teasingly traced his tongue over Cas’ bottom lip.

Cas opened his mouth, letting Dean lick his way across Cas’ tongue and the roof of his mouth as he focused on the way their lips fit perfectly together. 

Each time they broke apart for a breath, they dove back in, trading deep kisses back and forth as if it were their air supply. The sand beneath their feet, the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the wind whipping around their bodies. It all faded into the background as Cas chased the taste of his husband’s lips.

Finally, Cas eased back from the kiss, nudging his nose against Dean’s before pressing their foreheads together. They were both puffing quick fast breaths against each other’s cheeks. 

It didn’t matter that Cas didn’t need to breathe to live, Dean still had the ability to steal all their air from Cas’ lungs.

Dean let out a breathless laugh, tracing his fingertips across Cas’ neck and down to his shoulder blades. “God, I love you.”

A flush creeped up Cas’ cheeks and he dropped his forehead to Dean’s shoulder. He peeked out across the water, realizing there were stars glimmering above their heads and the moon had replaced the sun. They’d spent far too long and yet not long enough kissing on the beach.

“Our drinks have melted,” Cas mumbled against the crook of Dean’s neck.

“Looks like we need more then,” Dean said, and even without seeing Dean’s face, Cas knew that he was grinning.

Dean pulled back, his hand sliding down Cas’ arm and entangling their fingers together as he started to guide them away from the ocean and back towards the beach bar. They’d only walked a few steps when Dean stopped their movement. “Oh, wait, I forgot. Found this washed up on the beach and thought you’d like it for your collection.”

When Dean reached into his pocket he pulled out a black fossilized shark tooth and placed it into Cas’ hand. Cas turned the tooth over in his palm several times. It was beautiful; smooth and shiny and perfectly preserved. “Thank you,” he murmured, running his thumb across the edge of the tooth before tucking it into his own pocket for safe keeping.

As they started walking again, their hands linked, Cas nodded his head up to the bar. “The bartender saw me staring at you when you were watching the waves earlier. He thought I was trying to flirt with you by buying you a drink.”

Dean laughed again, bringing Cas’ hand up to his lips so he could place a kiss against Cas’ knuckles. “And here I was thinking it was me trying to flirt with you all those years ago.”

Humming, Cas turned his gaze towards Dean, “And yet, it was me who kissed you first.”

Dean pulled them to a stop just short of the bar. “Hang on, I kissed you first when I rescued you from the Empty.”

Cas felt a laugh bubble up from his chest. “Fine, I’ll give you that one. But I was the one to propose to you.”

“Only because you beat me to it by one day,” Dean said as they both sat down at the bar, their hands still linked together.

“Gotta be quicker than that, Winchester,” Cas teased. 

Dean leaned over and pressed a kiss to Cas’ cheek.  “Two can play at that game,” Dean murmured against Cas’ jaw. Turning his attention to the bartender, Dean said, “Two piña coladas with umbrellas in them for my husband and I.”

[therainingkiwi]

Train travel in The Lightning Thief/PJO TV season 1

Oh look, I'm overanalyzing fictional train travel because I'm one of Those neurodivergent people. Let's get into it. Warning for VERY minor book spoilers (just mentioning the names of all the cities our trio travels through).

TL; DR our trio's cross country travel route makes no sense at all.

In the first book/season of the Percy Jackson series, our main trio takes a cross-country trip from Long Island, NY, to Los Angeles, CA. In the beginning, it appears as if they've boarded a cross country bus that will drive them the whole way there (a trip that usually takes ~72 hours). However, they get derailed in rural New Jersey (presumably the northwestern part of the state).

After New Jersey, the action immediately skips ahead, and we next see our trio on an LA-bound train that's about to stop in St. Louis (and in the book, has a later stop in Denver).

So, just off the bat: the train route that the trio are taking doesn't exist IRL (assuming they board a train in Trenton, and that train stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Los Angeles). It's also impossible for a single person to travel that route for $200, much less three people. Chiron needs some up to date information about cross country travel prices.

If they were traveling a reasonable IRL amtrak route, they'd probably take the Cardinal from Trenton to Chicago, and then take the Southwest Chief from Chicago to LA. However, if they can get back to Penn Station from Aunty Em's, they could take the Lake Shore Limited from NYC to Chicago, which would be 7-8 hours shorter than getting to Chicago via the Cardinal.

They could also take a bus from north New Jersey to Chicago.

However, the Southwest Chief (most direct amtrak route to LA) stops at neither St. Louis nor Denver. The most notable cities along the route are Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.

If they wanted to take a route to LA that had them pass thru St. Louis, they could take the Texas Eagle from Chicago to St. Louis to San Antonio, and then take the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to LA. There are 3 trains per week that make this two-leg trip without requiring travelers to transfer at San Antonio, so our trio are probably on one of those. Why they didn't take the (shorter, cheaper, and more frequent) Southwest Chief is a mystery, honestly.

Since Chicago is the USA Amtrak hub, most routes will pass thru that city. The only alternative route is taking the Crescent from Trenton to New Orleans and then taking the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to LA. This would take them nowhere near Denver or St Louis, but probably wouldn't have a significant time/price difference from routing the trip thru Chicago (assuming they travel direct from Chicago to LA rather than taking the Texas Eagle thru San Antonio).

Unfortunately, there are no trains in the USA that travel between St. Louis and Denver (or even between St. Louis and Colorado in general), so that leg of their trip would have been made via bus. Greyhound (the USA's main long-distance bus travel company) has buses directly from St. Louis to Denver that end in California (but in San Francisco rather than LA).

In conclusion, I propose a new Amtrak route called "The Lightning Thief" that travels from New York-Penn Station, down the Northeast corridor thru New Jersey, and then turns west, making major stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Las Vegas, before terminating in LA. It doesn't stop in Amtrak's Chicago hub because all hub-and-spoke transit systems should have rim routes, and because Chicago isn't mentioned in The Lightning Thief.

Also, in conclusion, the USA needs better rail infrastructure and I'm a fucking nerd.

Amtrak map below for reference.

[kiriska]

I originally made this zine back in October. There was no particular impetus for it except I think I’ve just been low key constantly thinking about ghost bikes since I learned about them some years ago.

I rewrote some parts of this a few times and I’m still not happy with it, but it feels kind of pointless to keep fiddling with it. There’s too much I want to say and 8 pages isn’t enough.

Saying that drivers “choose” vehicular manslaughter sounds aggressive. I know (most) drivers don’t intend to do harm, but it doesn’t actually matter what their intentions are if someone gets hurt or is killed. Maybe drivers aren’t “choosing” to kill, but they are choosing to get gigantic vehicles and to go fast enough to kill.

Most recent cyclist deaths in the Seattle area have been on common biking routes, though none of them have bike lanes (Seward Park Ave, Spokane St, Marine View Dr). I’ve biked on all of these, some of them very frequently. It sucks passing by each time and knowing someone died there, and that it could’ve been avoided.

Basically everyone I know who bikes has been hit by a car at some point. A friend was hit while in a crosswalk a few months ago. (In a similar incident, a 13-year old kid was killed in a crosswalk last year.) Thankfully, no one I know has died yet. It does sort of feel inevitable though.

Recently, a car ran a red light and hit a bus. The bus was forced onto the sidewalk, where it killed a pedestrian. I walked by on my way home with groceries 5 minutes after this happened. Couldda been me. Everyone is a pedestrian at some point, but so many people avoid living life as a pedestrian. They drive everywhere and are only ever on foot within a building. My high school was one (1) mile from my house, but I had to drive to get there because of the 6-lane highway between us.

The problem is complicated. I mostly blame infrastructure, but that’s not easy to fix. We designed and built whole cities around cars and left no space for people, and that can’t be corrected without a lot of money and political will. We need roads that are “inconvenient” for cars and drivers. Ones that are narrower and have speed bumps and “traffic calming” devices slow drivers down by design, without relying on speed limit compliance or enforcement.

Seattle is cramped as hell and there aren’t sidewalks in a lot of places. But in order to build sidewalks and bike lanes, we need to take away space from cars, and hell gets raised every time anyone even suggests taking away parking, much less an entire travel lane. Lots of people depend on cars, but that’s never going to change without cities investing in the alternatives.

Buses and transit can become reliable. Bikes offer a lot of the same freedom and personal autonomy as cars. “No one wants to bike in the rain/cold/hills/etc” and yet Seattle has such a robust cycling community, both in commuters and recreational cyclists. “You can’t haul groceries/supplies/kids/dogs/etc by bike,” and yet so many people do.

And if people don’t feel safe on bikes, it’s just because of all the cars.

RIP Steve Hulsman, who was killed at the intersection of Marine View Dr and 46th Ave, the intersection in the photos, on December 21st.

[swe3tcoffe3]

Theatre Theory: Why Frisk Can't Be A Vessel Controlled By A Player (And How The Player Can Still Be Canon)

I often see people talk about the existence of a Player in Undertale. Specifically, people insisting that the REAL protagonist of Undertale is The Player, that Frisk is a non-character, a blank-slate vessel controlled by us who follows our whims; in short, a more compliant Kris. In this post I will set out to, as succinctly as possible, explain why this interpretation is just wrong, and that Frisk cannot be possessed by a Player at any point during Undertale (but that doesn't mean The Player isn't canon).

First of all, let us define how 'possession' works within the context of UTDR lore, and specifically what it means. 'Possession' refers to a state in which the person in question is unable to make decisions for themselves and is instead puppetted by a higher power who has taken over their Soul (specifically The Player, according to our current knowledge that is. It is unknown if other people are capable of this as of now). Our main example of this is Kris who rebels against our control several times throughout Deltarune.

However, The Player can't just possess anyone they feel like; this isn't a power that they possess. A connection must be established between host and Player (hence why it is also referred to as a 'connection' sometimes), one that is facilitated by a third party, someone who also is responsible for our save files. Without the help of this third party a Player cannot possess a person.

Using this knowledge and definition and taking a look at Frisk reveals that they don't match this criteria. There is nothing in Undertale that suggests the existence of any third party helping us establish a connection to the game's world, and we are explicitly told several times throughout the game that the save file belongs to Frisk, not The Player nor a third party managing things for us.

(Keep in mind that 'you' usually refers to Frisk within the context of UT)

This therefore leaves two possibilities:

1. Frisk is possessed, possession just works differently in UT than in DR

2. The Player is not possessing Frisk

In order for option 1 to be true sufficient proof must be put forward to show that Frisk is possessed in the first place via a different method, either by instances of them showing resistance or through dialogue about them being strange or off.

This scene is the only proof of something like this occurring, as Frisk ignores an inputted command. However, this isn't enough to prove that Frisk is possessed, as there are several possible alternative interpretations for what this could mean. It could be proof of Frisk being possessed and that this might be them rebelling against our control in this moment. It could also be Frisk choosing to ignore an inputted command if you believe that The Player is merely a spiritual guide and not directly possessing Frisk, and so subtly different to Kris' acts of rebellion. It could also be neither, with this dialogue only serving to set an eerie tone. It is an inherently ambiguous line open to several interpretations, leaving us back in the same situation with two possibilities once more: either Frisk is possessed in a way unique to Undertale, or they aren't.

And this leads me on to my final point on this matter, and the main reason why I personally believe interpreting Frisk as a vessel is wrong, and that is the narrative for both games.

Firstly, Undertale's diagetic Player possession, assuming that it is true, would be entirely redundant, simply because Frisk with their "because they can, they have to" attitude, would be fine with any route being done, so no additional drama or turmoil can be added by forcing them to do things they don't want to, simply because they'd still want to do whatever; they simply don't care. Frisk being possessed adds nothing to the narrative.

And while it can be argued that Sans' dialogue refers to The Player here, I'd say that by proxy it MUST also apply to Frisk too, given that they show no resistance to any of this (and even seem to revel in it, given the fact they willingly eat the Snowman alive of their own volition, and this is pretty early on into the Geno Route):

Contrast this with Kris, who has a strong moral compass and expresses clear distress about their predicament, and so their possession is able to create a more interesting plot and dynamic between Vessel and Player.

The Player existing in Undertale also contradicts Deltarune's metanarrative, and to proper illustrate how, I must first present to you an alternative to the 'possessed Frisk' proposal so that everything that comes after that makes more sense.

Imagine an interactive theatre play. The characters can interact with the audience and the audience can call out to them, yes, but the two are ultimately separate from one another, even if some characters may break the fourth wall on occasion. These characters may give long soliloquies to the audience, heartfelt pleas and speeches, but ultimately, the audience will never get to be a part of their world, regardless of how much they may love the play. This theatre play is Undertale. The audience is The Player.

Our instructions to Frisk are nothing more than us calling out to Frisk in the play; they then respond however they wish to. Flowey's and Chara's speeches happen within universe yes, but are also simultaneously fourth wall breaks where they speak to 'the audience'.

But the audience wants more. They want nothing more than to be a part of the play. They want to be part of the play's world, a character in the story.

This is when the devil appears, offering a  'survey program'. The audience may not be able to be part of this play, but they can be part of another one. They can be a character. The main character. They can have all the adventures they want, all the fun they want. They need only accept everything that happens from that point on.

The Player is diagetic to Deltarune because they wanted to be part of Undertale's world, but couldn't, so they became part of the next best thing. That's why they accept Gaster's offer in the first place, because they WANT to live in that world. It's their own form of escapism. In many ways, they parallel the Lightners in their love for fantasy and indulgence in it, who also want to share a world with their Darkner friends.

This is the heart of the conflict in Deltarune as a whole, especially our conflict with Kris, who wants to be free from our control but we The Player want to stay in their world to continue in our escapism. In a way, this is Deltarune's purpose: it's the next step for an unsatisfied player who wanted to join their beloved characters, a 'sequel' that isn't quite a sequel, if that makes sense. A way for their fantasies about joining their beloved world's realm to be real, and (most likely) one we must come to accept is impossible. Fiction cannot replace reality after all.

If the Player was controlling Frisk in Undertale, then all of this meta is ultimately pointless. There would be no need for Gaster to offer us his program if everything we already wanted (that is, to be diagetic and part of our favourite world) was already achievable in base Undertale.

In fact, The Player would actually be discouraged from accepting the survey program because Undertale would also grant The Player far fewer restrictions in what they can do and achieve within the game; they aren't necessarily discouraged from playing like they are in DR.

And this is the main reason why I believe Frisk cannot be a vessel, because Frisk being a vessel defeats the entire purpose of the message Deltarune is trying to say.

(Adding this last paragraph in at the end because I picked up Homestuck midway through creating this post and I feel like it's important to mention this, but a better analogy would probably just be Homestuck. There are these characters called "exiles" who can communicate with the players of "the game" known by the humans as Sburb. They can input commands to them that the players can either follow or ignore, and can also watch over this player, but are "exiled" or separated from this world. This is almost identical to what is happening with Frisk, according to this theory)

[yourlowkeyidiot3]

Funny how the delta rune fandom treated Berdly as some supervillain and forced homo/transphobic and/or misogynist characteristics on him just to find a valid excuse to hate on him, when he is literally a CHILD that's HEAVILY implied to have been neglected by his parents, and made clear that he wasn't born smart and that he worked HARD for it. When in reality he really just wanted the best for Noelle and was manipulated by Queen. But then proceed to to treat the madman Spamton that literally sells you a damn torture device to two kids on the Alternative Route like a damn poor meow meow. Don't get me wrong Spams got an incredible sad backstory too but it's no excuse for what he did on the Weird Route.

Not saying you can't hate Berdly I just wish they had taken Queen's "there's nothing wrong with him he's just annoying" line to heart because that's it. That's all about it. There's nothing wrong with him, he isn't a super villain or anything like that he's just annoying, he's a TEENAGER for heaven's sake every damn teenager is annoying, Instead of pushing problematic characteristics on him.

Especially with making him "homophobic" when really. He respected Kris pronouns better than the whole fandom every did. (All the humans in ud/dr are non binary and only use they/them)

You want my honest opinion?

I believe Berdlys actually very damn brave and cares much for his friends. I absolutely love him and the Weird Route literally shows this:

He realised that something was wrong with Noelle and Kris. He realised that we were hurting Noelle, we were also hurting Kris too be unforntaly he doesn't know about this. But he didn't run away, no no instead he fought us, He wanted to protect Noelle. He wanted to stop what he realised was wrong, He also only targeted Kris because he believed they are hurting Noelle (when in reality it was us but like I said he doesn't know of this) and he isn't stupid he probably realised what Snowgrave was the moment he heard it. But he still didn't run away, I can't imagine how scared he must of been at his last moments but he still didn't run away. Because he cared too much to continue letting us hurt Noelle.

Again it's okay if you dislike Berdly I can understand why but the amount of mischaracterization he got was absolutely insane to me

[dumb-hat]

alternate: What would your OC's alternate universe look be? If they're a fantasy character, what's their modern look? If they're sci-fi, what's their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU! (Really expecting an Exalted answer here...)

Okay, goddammit. I'll do it. I'll do the damn thing.

So here's the issue, right: I love Exalted. I really, really love Exalted. Some of my best friendships have been made across a table where we played that game. A lot of the ones that weren't made by Exalted were made better by Exalted. Aside from a few breaks here and there, the game's been a big part of my life ever since it came out in 2001. I'm running an Exalted game right now, and I'll be running more soon.

So of course I've spent a lot of time figuring out where Evander could fit into all of that. Hell, I've done that across multiple editions, at this point. I'm going to stop myself short of doing an entire Exalted-focused rewrite of his character history, but trust me, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it.

(Okay, okay... Fine. tl;dr: Replace Limsa Lominsa with Wu-Jian, you should probably replace Ishgard with a Northern satrapy to the Scarlet Empire, but I'm gonna swap it with Whitewall because I love Whitewall, then replace Ul'dah with Chiaroscuro... again, mostly because I love Chiaroscuro. If none of that makes sense, feel free to ask me about it and I will give entirely too much context. I will give so much context that you will hate me.)

Anyway... The quickest question to ask and answer regarding an Exalted AU Evander is "What kind of Exalted is he, anyway?"

Okay, quickest isn't the right word, or we wouldn't be here. But it's the question that people would ask if we were actually talking about it, so it's the question we're going to answer. There's... There's a lot of places to go with this. Depending on which edition you're going with and how you want to slice things up, there's like... anywhere from 5 to 10 different playable kinds of Exalted, and even then, you can break some of those down into like... subgroups and stuff. My point here is... I'm going to exercise some restraint and not go into each one.

I'm going to do three and whittle it down to one.

So, maybe the most obvious option would be to say he's a Solar Exalted. Solars are the chosen of the Unconquered Sun, the King of Heaven, the god of virtue and excellence. His chosen are champions and exemplars among humanity, and their legendary deeds are backed up by ambition and limitless potential. They're just fucking good at stuff. Given how much Evander likes to design and tinker with shit, and how much he loves just knowing stuff, it'd be tempting to go a bit against type and call him a Twilight Caste, the Solars who are chosen to be sages and scholars among their peers... But nah, he's an obvious Night Caste. Night Caste Solars are the shadowy left hand of the Unconquered Sun, acting decisively from the shadows. They're your superspies, superthieves and superassassins... And if we wanted to take the easy route, your SuperEvanders.

The Solar Exalted are my favorites, but I think it might be more fun to imagine him as one of the Dragon-Blooded, whose family lines have been chosen by the Elemental Dragons to wield their elemental gifts. They differ from Celestial Exalted (like the Solars, and another type that we'll get into soon) in that their power is not passed down through reincarnation, but through bloodlines and dynasties. Individually, the average Dragon-Blooded will be less powerful than your average Celestial Exalted (if either could be said to exist), but they're way more numerous. Exalted traditionally recognizes five elements within the setting of Creation: Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. It wouldn't be a stretch to make him out to be an idealistic, innovative Air Aspect, a quick-witted and passionate Fire Aspect, or a hedonistic, thrill-seeking Wood Aspect, but I don't think any of those are a perfect fit. Personally, I think if we're making a Dragon-Blooded Evander, he works best as a Water Aspect: Like water, capable of calm stillness, or relentless, torrential waves; able to adapt to any circumstances, able to find weaknesses in the tiniest gaps.

Solars and Dragon-Blooded are both pretty easy, though. Lets get a little weird. We're not going to go full weird; like, we're not making him a communist war robot hero who will eventually become a city, and we're not making him a weird hero-from-another-world-that-doesn't-exist-because-his-strand-of-destiny-was-cut-from-the-loom-of-fate, heck, we won't even make him a spite-and-fury-powered punk rock prince of Hell. We're only gonna go, like, half-weird in Exalted terms.

We're gonna make him a Sidereal Exalted.

The Sidereal Exalted are chosen by one of the five Maidens of Fate: Mercury (The Maiden of Journeys), Venus (The Maiden of Serenity), Mars (The Maiden of Battles), Jupiter (The Maiden of Secrets) and Saturn (The Maiden of Endings). The Sidereal Exalted operate out of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan, where they work as a part of the Bureau of Destiny, a division within the Celestial Bureaucracy tasked with making sure that the destinies planned by Heaven come to pass to ensure safety and stability for all who dwell within Creation.

It's like the 36th Chamber of Shaolin meets the Adjustment Bureau. It's like Journey to the West meets Office Space.

It's amazing.

And it feels like a weird fit for Evander! As far as FFXIV characters go, he's pretty down-to-earth. He's not a god-killer; hell, he's barely a people killer! He doesn't channel the vast power of Hydaelyn, he doesn't roam other reflections; he's... he's just a little guy, who mostly gets in trouble and cares way too much about stuff while trying to pretend he doesn't. He's defined more by his connections to the people and the world around him (and his desire for those connections) than he is anything else, which is why he's the perfect candidate to be a Chosen of Serenity.

Also, I apparently love making him miserable, which is why he's the absolute perfect candidate for Sidereal Exaltation, because... well, the Sidereals are kinda fucked as far as that whole connection thing goes. The Sidereal Exalted are subject to arcane fate, a curse which dooms them to be forgotten by most, as it conspires to erase memories and records of the Sidereals alike. Sure, other Sidereals, many gods, and the occasional other Exalt (or rare exceptionally tricky mortal) might remember you, but the rank and file? Nah, you'll be forever forgotten. Trying to forge those connections that are oh-so-important to him would be like swimming upstream against the current of inevitable loneliness.

Venus, the Maiden of Serenity, oversees relationships of all kinds... And it's worth pointing out that societies, in this case, are kinda just like really, really big relationships, aren't they? Venus' chosen are entrusted with making sure that things under her eye unfold according to Heaven's will. They struggle to bring joy, peace, prosperity and (of course) serenity to a world drowning in chaos.

...

So, I was originally going to actually fill out a character sheet and out that here, but then I looked and realized that it's almost 4 AM, and, like... I have to work in the morning and then actually run some Exalted in the evening, so... I'm gonna pass on that, actually.

For now.

But, uh, yeah. So, Exalted AU: Evander's a Chosen of Serenity, I guess.

Ask me stuff! oc asks: character design edition

(If anyone ever wants to talk Exalted, omg please please, I'm right here, I'll do it. I love this shit)

[xeonetrlight]

Sol Dimension World Building Ft Silvaze

Hey there everyone, Xeon here and I am here to share a few headcanon ideas that I wanted to go over and share with all of you. So basically, I wanted to review a power scaling thing for the Sol Dimension. So while the Chaos Dimension(Sonic's Dimension) uses Chaos energy to bend reality to their own whims, I have decided that the Sol Dimension's main power is the abundance of elemental users in that dimension. This means that Blaze's world is teeming with people with cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, and aerokinesis, as well as many other elemental users living in the Sol Dimension. While there are elemental users in the Chaos dimension, compared to the Sol Dimension, it's a lot rarer due to the abundance of other abilities and technological advancements I also wanted to add more to the world-building itself by adding characters and locations to this world. As I will talk about later in other posts, there are many other nations besides the Sol empire. However, I wanted to talk about two characters that are tied to Silver and Blaze in this headcanon world-building Khione (Blaze's rival)- I wanted to make a rival for Blaze in her dimension since she is technically an alternate universal counterpart to Sonic so meet my Oc Khione. Khione is an artifical being created to destroy the Sol royal family by her creator and was infused with cryokinesis to make this goal a reality. Since Khione was never given a name by her creator Dr. Abaddon (My Oc who is the Sol Dimension counterpart to Starline), she lacked a sense of agency as Dr.Abaddon spent a decade trying to find ways to bring her to life but was unable to due to Khione lacking memories and as a result, being completely lifeless. However, after Dr. Abaddon studied and copied Blaze's memories onto Khione after he captured her, Khione was finally complete. However, due to having Blaze's memories, she often confuses herself with the original. This idea was originally made by Snow_Cloud4 on Twitter but I wanted to make a slightly different version but this idea is from them. Metal Silver(as a robot)/Prototype Argentum(Bio-android)- For this creation, I wanted to copy what Eggman did for Sonic but for Eggman Nega and Silver. So basically if I'm going the drone route, Nega creates an artificial copy of Silver using Anti gravity technology to copy Silver's psychokinesis but if I go the bio android route, this false Silver will have gravity powers that mimic the original Silver. However, just like with Metal Sonic, this false Silver will often believe he is the original and try to destroy him. For @sonicartisx and @sonicblog

[mariacallous]

Well, if you’re just joining us, the nation has delivered an all-night victim impact statement. Labour has won a landslide and the Conservatives have suffered their worst ever general election result. Keir Starmer – the prime minister – has promised “national renewal … to fight until you believe again”. Liz Truss has failed to save South West Norfolk, let alone “the west”. That is the big picture (if not the whole picture, with turnout and Labour’s vote share notably low). Meanwhile, it’s incredible to think that only a short while ago we thought we’d eradicated measles and Nigel Farage. Both have now been brought back, largely by the same people.

But look, after the 3am to 7am shift, no one will be able to say the right doesn’t do comedy. There were moments worthy of entire Netflix specials as in sports halls and community centres various Dickensian grotesques were ushered into their Christmas future, live on stage. Alas, it was going to take more than buying the Cratchits a turkey to get out of this one. Jacob Rees-Mogg heard his fate standing next to a candidate wearing a baked bean balaclava. He’ll be crying into Nanny’s starched bosom today. Committed sewage apologist Thérèse Coffey was pumped into the sea in Suffolk Coastal. Andrea Jenkyns had the middle finger given to her by the voters of Morley and Outwood. In Welwyn Hatfield, Grant Shapps chanted “supermajority” five times into the mirror, and then it came for him.

Then again, Michael Portillo losing his seat was supposedly 1997’s big moment. So perhaps the question is: in two years’ time, which current hate figure will be presenting a cosy travelogue on Europe’s most picturesque illegal migration routes? Alternatively, do remember that one person’s onstage humiliation is another person’s milk round for directorships in the arms trade.

Speaking of absolute weapons, hat twat George Galloway wimped out of his own count in Rochdale, presumably out of fatigability. He lost to Labour. There was jubilation for the Lib Dems, who finished not a million miles behind “the natural party of government”, and for the Greens, who won all four of their target seats. The SNP can now squeeze its MPs round the flip-down dining table of a motorhome. Referendum arguments may move to Northern Ireland, with Sinn Féin now that nation’s largest Westminster party.

As for Reform … Farage won in Clacton, a constituency for which he will now have to hold surgeries, presumably by Zoom link from his hot desk in the US presidential colon. Or as he put it in his victory speech: “This is the first steps of something that is going to stun all of you” – at least confirming his political abattoir will be bolt-gunning its victims unconscious first. Farage is the horror version of Inside Out, where Mendacity is only just holding off Racism at the control console. His cultural hinterland extends to a single Goodbye, Mr Chips DVD he got free with the Sunday Times in 2008, and the idea that this hollow chancer should still be one of the most significant politicians of the age says everything about the age.

Anyway, back to the Conservatives’ four-hour in-memoriam reel. Penny Mordaunt, Jonathan Gullis, Michael Fabricant, Gillian Keegan, Steve Baker, Alex Chalk, Johnny Mercer, Michelle Donelan, Victoria Prentis, Liam Fox, Mark Harper … all out, along with many more. So many cabinet ministers fell that the ones who live may actually develop survivor guilt. It’s currently unclear how gruesome things will be among the extant Conservatives in this post-apocalyptic world. As a fictional president once wondered of Dr Strangelove, will the living not end up envying the dead? Far from it, Strangelove reassures him, forcing down an involuntary Nazi salute. What will abound is a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead!

Speaking of which, 13th fairy Suella Braverman finally turned up, holding on in Fareham and cooing: “I am sorry that my party didn’t listen to you. The Conservative party has let you down.” Expect to see her humbly attempting to disembowel fellow survivors Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly in the forthcoming trial-by-combat for what convention demands we style as “the soul of the Conservative party”.

At his count, Rishi Sunak explained he’d already conceded the election in a congratulatory call to Keir Starmer, adding, “I take responsibility for the loss.” In Downing Street, he confirmed he would be standing down as Tory leader in some sort of due course, stressing, “I have heard your anger.” Then, instead of yet another speech straight from the Tortured Prime Minister’s Department, this one offered humility and magnanimity, as well as a pointed reminder of the positive (and fragile?) progress that saw him become the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister. What a contrast to the relentless negativity of his past six weeks. Sunak’s campaign was conducted like a gender-reveal party where the device that’s meant to release the puff of blue smoke accidentally functions as a pipe bomb and burns the house down.

It also closed out several years of mindboggling chaos, dysfunction and national decline. They won’t be playing anything from this album on the Conservative party’s Eras tour. The Tories have cycled through five prime ministers over the past eight years, to the point where they were recently found going through the rubbish, pulling the first guy back out, thinking, “Actually, he doesn’t look half bad now,” and making him foreign secretary. This is the behaviour of addicts.

Not that they have the monopoly on erraticism. Any dispassionate view of these results suggests the fabled post-Brexit “realignment” is more of a dealignment – the huge sweeping gains of this or that political moment able to be reversed in previously unthinkable timespans. Volatility might now be our defining electoral characteristic, and a rise in sectarian politics cannot and should not be ignored. Because hey – what’s the worst that can happen with that one? Meanwhile, many people who derided the simplistic “Get Brexit done” slogan in 2019 have pretended not to notice that the winner here went out under the even more gnomic banner of “Change”.

Yet in the wider global context, what a win. One summer evening in 1914, the foreign secretary, Edward Grey, famously remarked: “The lamps are going out all over Europe.” In our own times, a darkening has recently felt at hand, as hard- or extreme-right parties have gained ground across the continent, to say nothing of the US. But here – in this country, in this moment – a different direction has been taken. That matters today, and anyone not on the wingnut fringes, who hopes to avoid those gathering shadows, should wish Keir Starmer good luck with his task. For plenty who would snuff out the lamps are also rising – increasingly, they walk among us.

[embyrinitalics]

Hail, whump queen! Do you have any thoughts or head canons about the end of TotK?

Ah! You're too kind. 😌 Though I usually feel more like a whump jester than a whump queen. 😅

Mmkay, so. I have Complicated Feelings toward TotK. I had fun while playing it, but trying to reconcile it as a sequel to BotW left me with a bad aftertaste (WHERE IS KASS), and as a result I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about the story or the ending or what came afterwards.

But what I HAVE spent a lot of time thinking about is How The Heck Does TotK Make Any Sense, and I have a timey-wimey cockamamie theory at which you are all sure to HOOT.

You know how there was always a sky full of floating islands and this mind-bogglingly huge underworld above and below Hyrule for thousands of years and everyone just never noticed. That really bugged me from day one. And whenever it gets brought up people are always just like "Oh yeah, it was the Upheaval."

What is that even supposed to mean? Ganondorf lifted the castle into the air and now the sky is filled with islands and we have giant chasms leading to an underworld? How is "it was the Upheaval" an explanation of anything?

But then I was thinking about how the game begins with time travel, and how Zelda has always been fast and loose with their time travel rules, and how maybe "the Upheaval" is just what people call it because it's all they can see to blame it on, but what they're really referring to is "the moment Zelda went back in time."

There's a couple different time travel options, right? You have alternate timelines, like Ocarina of Time, where you create multiple branches when you go back and forth in time and change things. You have the Back to the Future type, where there's only one timeline, but only the time-traveler notices things have changed. You have Dr. Who, which has no rules whatsoever except for when it does.

Tears of the Kingdom presents itself as more of a predestination paradox type time travel, which is more Star Trek-y. Ganondorf recognizes Link and Zelda beneath the castle before she ever goes back in time and there is a mural of her turning into the Light Dragon in the catacombs, implying that she has already done what she's about to do. If that's so, then she and Mineru have also sent the islands into the sky in preparation for Link's future, and basically everything that he discovers after his awakening has been there all along, unbeknownst to everyone.

OR HAS IT?!?

I think the game isn't a predestination paradox at all. I think, prior to their jaunt beneath the castle, there are no islands in the sky, nor Dragon fly-through routes through Hyrule's underbelly, nor any of the new, inexplicable things that crop up between BotW and TotK.

I think that when Zelda traveled back in time, she altered history. During the events of BotW there were no sky islands and no Light Dragon and no geoglyphs. But unlike in Back to the Future, when Zelda alters history everyone is aware that things have changed. They just don't know why. They blame the "sudden appearance" of sky islands and a Light Dragon and geoglyphs and everything else on the strange event they could all see happen at Hyrule Castle: the Upheaval.

Now maybe I'm just a dumb-dumb and this was what we were supposed to think all along? But I didn't get that during my play-through. O_o

BUT WAIT, you may be thinking. If that's the case, how did Ganondorf recognize Link and Zelda beneath the castle in the intro, and how was there already a mural of her turning into the Light Dragon down there? And I'll give ya another one! How do we see the Light Dragon flying around the Great Sky Island when Link still has the decayed Master Sword in his possession?!

SO THIS IS THE HOOTABLE PART.

Things don't change when Zelda goes back in time. Things change when Zelda picks up the Secret Stone.

The stone itself is a magical magic-amplifying device, and rather than the instant Zelda warps backwards being the time-altering event, I think that it was the moment she touched (and "activated," if you will) the stone and it's timey-wimey powers that the timeline began altering.

At that point she is existing in a midst of a magically-created spacetime paradox bubble, wherein time no longer functions linearly for her. She exists as the princess beneath the castle, as the time traveler in the past, and as the dragon in the sky simultaneously. All of the events that are currently happening (from our perspective), have happened (in Hyrule's past), and will happen (in Link's future), are all swirling and altering the timeline at once. This is why Ganondorf already knows her name, and why she exists as the Light Dragon in the sky despite Link not having sent back the Master Sword yet.

BUT WAIT, you may exclaim. WHAT ABOUT THE MURAL.

Ok so. This is a cop out, but listen. We don't ACTUALLY see the contents of the mural. It's covered up until later. So. It might not have been an image of the Light Dragon at all. PERHAPS.

...

Look. I know this whole theory is riddled with holes and I don't think this is what the developers intended at all and I'm not even sure I really believe it myself. But if I had to write a fic and I needed the events I see in the game to make sense, this might be a route I would take. Just so my brain would stop hurting.

So! That's totally not what you asked but there you have it. 😂

Thanks for writing in!

[vorestarr]

i want to talk about something with Astarion that i think is important to how i read his story but also maybe kind of a touchy thing, which is how a positive relationship (whether friend or romance) with him can start: him attempting to drink the player character's blood while they sleep.

at that point in the story, Astarion has not told them anything about his vampirism or need to drink blood (even though they may suspect), and he attempts to feed on them while they sleep so they remain unaware of this. in his origin route, he can even do this successfully and feed on other companions while they sleep without them knowing.

the alternate way this can happen is Astarion eventually confessing to the player in the camp that he's a vampire, and at that point the player can offer that he drink from them.

so, the glaring thing to me about the first option where he approaches the player to drink at night is that, when looking at Astarion's vampirism as a physical manifestation or symbol of his trauma (see this post), it feels impossible not to address this as something nonconsensual that he specifically tries to hide from the player character.

i think there's a lot of ways someone can read this, but after turning this over in my head for a while now, i think the way i read it is: regardless of whether he confesses he's a vampire first or the player catches him trying to feed from them, this event is the perspective shift that changes things for him.

Astarion at this point has had his perspective warped by years, literal centuries, of Cazador and the other spawn being his only context. his baseline for interacting with other people is them, and the victims he lures to their deaths. in Astarion's origin route you learn that the first night, he has a nightmare of Cazador and his rules. Astarion then realizes that if he can walk in the sun, maybe he's free from Cazador's influence too, and he decides to test this by breaking Cazador's rule to never feed on thinking creatures.

from this perspective, Astarion is only thinking about himself and testing the limits of his new freedom. he doesn't think about the person he drinks from expect to select the most appealing one (which is always the player in his non-origin route). he also does not think of this as a problem, except in that he has to keep it a secret because people tend to not like vampires (or want to stake them). this is just how vampirism works. vampires feed on people and they generally don't like this, he's a vampire, therefore he doesn't want people he has to rely on for help/protection to know, but he needs to feed, so this is just what has to happen.

however, after he feeds from the player with their permission the first night, if he continues to feed on them, it's because they tell him he has permission to. and if you play as the dark urge and romance him while resisting the urge, there's a dialogue option on the night durge attempts to kill him where he scolds them and says "we ask before we bite."

notably, the main other times he bites people are if he uses the vampire bite in battle (against enemies the party is killing anyway) or to turn the player into a vampire (which he also only does with their permission).

so something here has changed. first, he realizes that he's no longer under Cazador's control thanks to the tadpole. then, he realizes that the world and context Cazador created, his only reference point for his vampirism up to this moment, is not the only way to be a vampire. not only can he do things without Cazador's control, but he can also choose different things -- like asking permission before feeding from someone (at least someone he likes and/or isn't going to murder in battle anyway).

tl;dr: imo, the nighttime-sneaking-up-on-the-player scene (and the confession where the player can give him permission to drink from them) is a perspective change, where Astarion goes from Cazador's perspective of how vampires are (monsters, to be brief) to his realization that there are alternate ways to be and he can choose (or not) to find one of those alternate ways.

[mmelusinee]

♡ Introduction post ♡

Haiiii, I am Melusine & this is my blog <3.

I am not new to shiftblr and have had previous accounts but I thought I'd like to start over, on my journey and with a new account.

( I personally think my theme goes better with tumblrs dark mode)

More about myself......

I'm 15

I'm a shifter (duh 😭)

I practice law of assumption too! (It imo goes hand in hand with shifting)

I'm alternative and love music, art, writing ect ect.

My main Dr's!....

The arcana (visual novel & I'm specifically shifting to/for Lucio's route <3)

Fortnite !

Dni?

The basic DNIS apply, js don't be weird !

My dms are open & I'd love to be mutuals with any other shifters!!!!

song of the day! :

[synergysilhouette]

An alternate take on "The Princess and the Frog" (2009)

Given that I've remade several Revival-Era films by now, it was only a matter of time that I remade the film that started it all (unless you're one of those fans who considers "Bolt" the start of the Revival Era). I wasn't the biggest fan of this film for musical and story reasons, so I hope you aren't too offended by my changes.

The film features more fantasy elements. I recall controversy about how voodoo was portrayed as magic rather than a religion, and to alleviate that, I think we should confirm that it's magic we're dealing with rather than a specific counterpart to a real-world concept. I'd definitely take inspiration from Alphonse Muca imagery. I do like the idea that magic is regarded as mystical and dangerous, explaining why Tiana steers away from it while Naveen is enamored by it.

2. Naveen's background and culture is more clearly defined. It was CONFIRMED when the film was released that Naveen's race is fictional since Maldonia is a fictional place, however many fans view him as being Indian. I noted in another post that they could've easily made him the prince of an Indian-inspired country (or a fictional Indian state) and educated in Europe, explaining the westernized fashion and interests--even though westernization was common in general around that time. Of course, if we go the "fictional location" route with the setting for the film rather than New Orleans, this isn't as much of an issue--but it'd still be a nice touch if it was an explicitly Indian-inspired fantastical kingdom, perhaps taking inspiration from Indian fantasy films.

3. Play the duality plotline: Naveen is cursed to be a frog during the night, and a human during the day, albeit forgetful of this. A big criticism people had was that the two leads of color were frogs for most of the film. What if this wasn't the case? Naveen appears to Tiana both as a vain frog and a hedonistic young man. Due to Dr. Facilier's curse, Naveen is unable to remember his froggy curse by day, and thus cannot go about solving it, and the night is filled with shadow monsters who hope to stop him from breaking the spell, with Lawrence and Dr. Facilier manipulating him during the day to make him marry Charlotte. Tiana takes pity on his frog form (not knowing that he's the prince), and unlocks his kindness and selflessness, and as time goes on, human Naveen becomes kinder, and finds himself thinking about Tiana until they share a kiss at Mardi Gras, where he marries her instead of marrying Lottie, like the villains planned. When Facilier tries to get revenge on Naveen, Tiana battles him and breaks his talisman in a similar fashion to the original. (I feel like there's some inspiration you can take from "Howl's Moving Castle" with the plot.) Also when the kiss on Naveen fails to work the first time, Tiana gains the power to speak to animals.

4. Give Lawrence and Dr. Facilier more backstory. It's mentioned that Lawrence has been taken advantage of all his life, and it'd be more powerful to see his villain arc if we knew how much pain he went through rather than simply seeing him as greedy and selfish from the start. Plus Facilier's magic is QUITE interesting, and something I'd love to know more about. Perhaps tying into the racial subplot, he had a life similar to Tiana and her family, only he couldn't achieve his dream and turned to the shadows. Some may consider this a sympathetic villain story, but I do think that Facilier's backstory in the original would've included some racial themes as well.

5. Make Ralphie older and give him more relevance. I do like the idea that Ralphie is close in age to Naveen (with Ralphie still being the younger brother), and they have a relationship similar to Dreamworks characters, ie Moses/Ramses, Sinbad/Proteus, and Miguel/Tulio. I also like the idea that while Naveen is selfish but somewhat innocent of the world, Ralphie is selfless but easily stressed and flustered. I picture him being a mix of Aladdin and Hercules. I love the idea that he came to keep tabs on Naveen, and both he and Naveen pursue Charlotte, though Ralphie actually develops feelings for her, and she reciprocates. Plus I do wish he had a different name, but that's just me.

6. Charlotte's friendship with Tiana is a bit more pronounced. Some people think that her selfless act for Tiana at the end of the movie was too little, too late, as they found her annoying and spoiled. I'd enjoy more moments where we get to see their friendship, ie after Lottie gives Tiana a makeover, she asks her what happened at the party (which Tiana apparently never told her about since Lottie mentions how they're both getting their wishes granted that night).

7. Embrace the green! I do want Tiana to enjoy wearing green without it being associated with her being a frog. The concept art has really great designs, and it could correlate to her growing to love Naveen--plus it'd make her a good contrast to Lottie, especially if it was Eudora making these dresses.

8. Alter the soundtrack and side characters slightly. Take "Never Knew I Needed" and make it an actual song for Tiana to sing! I'd also take Luis and make him a human (his story did feel like a racial allegory) while Ray would stay a firefly for his "Evangeline" story. Plus this could also make "When We're Human" a solo for Naveen. And maaaaybe make the "Down in New Orleans" a song for Tiana or an ensemble number. And a part of me wants Lottie to have a song (maybe with Ralphie).

9. Remove Mama Odie and give Eudora more credit. I say this since Mama Odie didn't really do much to move the plot along (her advice of kissing a princess didn't really matter since Naveen and Tiana get married anyway), and she gave Tiana a good amount of insight that she wasn't able to appreciate until later. Allowing her mother to be a bigger part of her story is BIG for a Disney princess, especially if Tiana is staying human and staying in town.

Lemme know what you think! I hope you enjoyed this reimagining.