#dragonofyang

[vergess]

On the animal field dressing post, what you’re looking for in the tags is “animal welfare” :D basically where you look at the animals and meet their needs to the best of your ability and providing humane culling practices when it’s time to harvest (for production) or euthanize (such as for severely injured animals)

WELFARE! YES!!! THAT WAS IT! THANK YOU!!!!!!

[violethowler]

Me, My Self, and I: An Analysis of the Operation Kuron Storyline

Back when seasons 3, 4, and 5 released on Netflix, Voltron fans were split into two camps regarding what was going on with Shiro: One camp insisted that we were still seeing the same Shiro as the one we saw in the first two seasons, while the other argued that the current Shiro was a clone programmed with the memories of the original.

On the surface, the show’s 6th season appeared to side with the clone theory fans, and I saw multiple people who had argued for it being the same Shiro lamenting because they felt that all the development Shiro had gotten after the end of Season 2 had been wasted now that we knew the Shiro we’d been following since Season 3 wasn’t the real one.

Even then, however, fans who supported the clone theory were upset because they felt that the resolution of the original Shiro’s consciousness being transferred into the clone body was effectively killing off a separate, unique character who deserved to have his own life independent of the original Shiro.

Yet while I could understand where both sides’ complaints were coming from, I never had that same feeling of outrage.

At the time, I assumed it was just because I noticed that it served as a bit of meta commentary on how the original 80s cartoon took two identical looking characters in GoLion and melded them into a single character.

But after talking to @leakinghate​ and @dragonofyang​ a while back, I realized that there was a deeper meaning and symbolism to the whole Operation Kuron storyline that, in hindsight, I had managed to pick up on subconsciously thanks to being exposed to similar ideas in other stories.

And once I became aware of those similarities, I couldn’t help but look back at Voltron and realize that many of the assumptions the fandom has about the details of Clone!Shiro’s story are not actually supported by the show’s lore.

For example, despite the paladins referring to him as such in Seasons 6 and 7, the idea that the Shiro we see in Seasons 3-6 was a clone in the usual sense that we expect from science fiction - that is, being a unique individual made from an existing character’s DNA with their own separate consciousness who develops their own identity and personality independent of the person they were created from - is not actually supported by the show’s lore.

For starters, the only people who use the word clone to refer to the other Shiro are the human characters, who do not have any intel on how “Kuron” was created. Meanwhile, none of the characters who are involved in Operation Kuron use the word clone to refer to him at any point in the series. In fact, even Haggar herself treats “Kuron” and Shiro like they’re the same person when she’s telling him to lead Keith away in S6E05. When you would think that if there was no point in pretending anymore she would at least acknowledge that he’s not the original.

Furthermore, based on what we are shown of the technological and magical capabilities of the Galra empire, it is not possible for Haggar or the Galra to just download Original!Shiro’s memories into Clone!Shiro’s head. Pidge and Hunk speculate in S2E03 about the possibility that the Empire implanted fake memories of escaping in Shiro’s head via his prosthetic arm are part of an elaborate trap. But not only are they proven wrong, but the series never even confirms that such a thing is within the mystical or technological capabilities of the empire.

The Galra military is never shown doing anything tech based with memory manipulation or the kind of brainwashing that would be required to make “Kuron” think that he’s the real Shiro.

Meanwhile on the mystical front, the only person in the empire who is shown doing anything that involves messing around with other people’s minds is Haggar. And the only abilities that we have seen her demonstrate in that regard are:

Looking into someone’s mind and viewing their memories (seen with Zarkon in S3E07).

Using a person as a conduit for Haggar to spy on the person’s allies (seen with Narti in S4E03 and Shiro in Seasons 5-6).

Removing a person’s spirit/consciousness from their body and storing it inside herself (seen in Season 8 with the spirits of the original Paladins).

Forcing someone to comply with her orders and bend to her will (seen with Shiro in S6E04-5, Lotor in S8E06).

Flipping a psychic kill switch and remotely killing someone from a distance (seen with Luka in S8E01).

Projecting someone’s consciousness outside of their body (Seen with Zarkon in S2E03, S2E07, and S2E12).

Transferring a person’s consciousness from one body to another (Seen with Myzax in S1E02 and Prorok in S2E03).

Nowhere does she demonstrate the ability to create an exact copy of a person’s memories and personality that can then be implanted into another person’s mind so thoroughly that they think they are the first person.

Based on what we’ve been shown of Haggar’s capabilities, the only way it’s even possible for the clone to have Shiro’s memories and personality is for Haggar to transferring Shiro’s spirit into a new body.

Which is pretty much the same thing that we’ve already sen her doing when she creates her Robeasts in Seasons 1-2.

She transfers the test subject’s quintessence from their original body into their larger, robotic one. And her words to Myzax in S1E02 Some Assembly Required indicate that the Robeasts are all meant to remain aware of themselves in their larger form and have all of their memories intact.

Because why would Haggar bother asking if Myzax wanted revenge against Shiro if he wasn’t even going to remember anything after she turned him into a Robeast?

This basically implies that all of the extra Shiro bodies that we saw at the cloning facility in S6E05 The Black Paladins were basically the organic version of empty Robeast shells - lifeless and incapable of independent movement until Haggar does her ritual to transfer the pilot/model’s quintessence into the new body.

And she has previously demonstrated that physical distance from her target is not an obstacle to being able to transfer a person’s soul from Point A to Point B. Because Season 8 shows that Zarkon was one of the spirits trapped inside her mindscape, even though she wasn’t anywhere near the planet he died on in S5E02.

In fact, “Kuron” being Shiro’s soul moved to a new body would also explain how Haggar and the Operation Kuron staff knew to release “Kuron” when they did. How could Haggar know Shiro was missing from Team Voltron unless she already had the ability to locate, and therefore manipulate his consciousness.

But there’s still one question about the logistics and timeline of “Kuron’s” creation.

Because in S6E06, Shiro indicates that his consciousness has been inside the Black Lion since the end of Season 2.

So how exactly could Haggar have yanked his spirit into a new body if he was inside the Black Lion from the end of season 2?

Well perhaps it’s something akin to how Steven’s gem turned into a copy of him when White Diamond removed it in the finale of Steven Universe Season 5.

That even if she couldn’t get his entire soul before he got absorbed by the Black Lion in S2E13, she only needed a fraction of Shiro’s consciousness in order to animate the new body.

In theory, this could hypothetically allow her to split Shiro’s mind into multiple bodies at once, explaining why S6E05 showed that she had made so many extra bodies.

It would also mean that the merging of the two Shiro’s in Voltron was the equivalent of Steven and Pink Steven fusing back together: Two halves of a single individual being made whole again, rather than one character being sacrificed for another.

But if the lore indicates that this is one Shiro with two bodies rather than two separate characters, why does Shiro treat his clone self like a separate person?

In one of my older essays, I pointed out how the visuals of Season 6 frame Haggar reclaiming her identity as Honerva in S6E01 as a parallel to Shiro and “Kuron” being merged in S6E07

Once Honerva goes through her “merging of two selves”, she tries to distance herself from her actions as Haggar, acting like the things she did to Lotor and others were done by someone else.

And her reason for doing that is obvious: she doesn’t want to face the fact that she hurt and abused her own son.

So following the parallels between, Shiro treating his actions in Seasons 3-6 like they were committed by a separate person logically reflects a similar level of denial. 

Like Honerva, he doesn’t want to face the fact that he’s capable of doing the things he did as “Kuron”.

Because Shiro in Seasons 3-6 is not as patient or compassionate with his team. He’s less considerate of others, and focused on his own priorities above everyone else’s.

And Season 6, he physically attacks and in at least one case injures the people he cares about.

Thanks to WEP’s meddling with Seasons 7-8, the payoff where Shiro recognizes and makes peace with that part of himself got left on the cutting room floor.

But the parallels with Haggar helps to at least make it clear what the writers were going for and what the point of this whole storyline was.

I’ve seen multiple people over the years note that Honerva’s transformation into Haggar, particularly the state we saw her in immediately post-Rift and shortly after Lotor’s birth in S5E02 and S8E02, can be read as a metaphor for Post-Partum Depression or something similar.

If you use their status as parallels to apply a similar logic toward the existence of “Kuron,” then the entire clone subplot can be seen as a fantasy representation of how Shiro is affected by his PTSD.

He goes through a traumatic experience and comes out mostly the same as he was before, but slightly off enough that he doesn’t feel right.

He initially hides his struggles and tries to pretend that everything is fine, downplaying what he’s going through. But eventually the strain starts to become too much and he tries to reach out for help, as we saw him attempt with Lance in Season 5.

But as we saw, he was brushed aside and his concerns were not taken seriously.

Without support, Shiro eventually reaches his breaking point, culminating in a fight with Keith in The Black Paladins, where - in contrast with his silent and stoic demeanor when carrying out Haggar’s orders - he repeatedly taunts and antagonizes Keith as if he's trying to goad Keith into killing him.

But Keith refuses to leave Shiro or let him die, and makes it clear in S7E01 A Little Adventure that he will never give up on him.

By refusing to let go in S6E05, Keith demonstrates that he will always support Shiro unconditionally, no matter what. This allows Shiro to finally begin to heal and come back to himself.

He’ll never be the same as he was before, but all the pieces of himself are finally whole again.

As I’ve outlined in older essays, the main theme of Shiro’s character arc is learning to accept that you don’t have to deal with your problems alone, and that needing support from others does not make you weak.

So when viewed in that context, the entire Operation Kuron subplot serves as a demonstration of what happens when Shiro doesn’t get that help and keeps on trying to deal with his problems alone.

TL;DR: While I understand how the idea became so widely accepted, the concept of “Kuron” as a separate character from Shiro is a fan headcanon that isn’t supported by the show’s lore. Instead, the themes and patterns of the narrative indicate that the “clone” is literally Shiro’s soul in a duplicate body, and the whole Operation Kuron subplot is intended to represent the consequences of his reluctance to let others help him manage his PTSD.

[mrmidnight]

✨ "You will always have it in you. You're the devil." ✨

#CosplaysByMidnight January 2023 — "Apple"

Please say hello to my stunning collaborator @dragonofyang as Eve! She hand-painted this replica of Eve's dress 🤯🍎🐍

[zscratch]

Of course this has to be the first post here. Honoured to have been able to draw my good friend @dragonofyang 's amazing cosplay.

[violethowler]

@dragonofyang

just so you know

[ao3feed-deckerstar]

Flesh of My Flesh

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/dpkGOyU

by dragonofyang

They say to understand a person, you should learn to walk a mile in their shoes. But sometimes the occasion calls to get under someone’s skin, instead. When the Devil’s involved, sometimes that has to be taken literally.

Words: 4364, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Lucifer (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Chloe Decker, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV)

Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar

Additional Tags: Eldritch Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Bodyswap, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Chloe Decker Finds Out, Fluff, Ambiguous/Open Ending, More of an eldritch Chloe Decker but shhh, local poet writes prose, Hell’s VIP Secret Satan

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/dpkGOyU

[leakinghate]

Commission for @dragonofyang of Nightmare Moon! First time I’ve ever drawn a Pony, and an interesting exercise!

[disregardcanon]

V!

V: A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

so I’ve been lurking in some of the star wars tags consistently for the past few months, and there’s still not nearly enough fic with trilla suduri in it

[violethowler]

@dragonofyang​

dragon tea kettle. if you even care.

[rhythmic-idealist]

@dragonofyang reblogged your post and added: “rhythmic-idealist: I’ve talked about this before but I’m thinking...”

I think this is a really excellently-put analysis, because the ancestors as thematic devices is something I really wish Homestuck had expanded on if only to explore avenues such as this. I definitely feel like the text (intentionally or not on Hussie’s part) makes the point about hemophobia and bigotry, but then fails to properly bring it home the way it deserved, especially since one of the main themes of the comic itself is that challenging the status quo of arcs/destiny/etc. is something we can and should do because there is more to life than accepting your fate. In fact I’d even argue that fighting fate is what can really develop a character and a story.

Kankri grew up in a world of “niceness”. Where he’s coddled and cared for and the people are good to him, but he’s ultimately denied his own agency. Instead of overt oppression the way the Signless endured, he grew up in a world of microaggressions and a thousand cuts to his independence. People insisting he not do things or let others help him because it’s their job, regardless of whether he is physically capable or not. He’s not allowed to challenge himself because his destiny is to be cared for and kept in a gilded cage.

The Signless, meanwhile, grew up in a world where if you were off-spectrum, you’ll die and so will everyone you know, everyone you had contact with, and probably their neighbors for good measure and whatever passersby pissed off the subjuggulator doing you in. So in this world, kindness is a radical thing, and the Signless had this unique perspective of being able to remember a world where he, once upon a time, was taken care of and treated with (some) respect as an individual, even if not as an agent with his own free will. Anything is better than the overt violence of Alternia.

And with all the dialogue about free will and fate throughout (but especially toward the end), it would’ve been really beautiful to me to see this addressed more fully as well.

But it’s hard to figure out how to word it since Hussie and the text itself are very closely linked thanks to Homestuck’s unique history/creation, so I totally get your struggle there. I had a hard time figuring out how to respond to you partially because of that. I suppose you could arguably say that the canon text is given to us via an unreliable narration, given the general snark of the omniscient narration, and the deep character flaws that influence the story whenever we follow one specific character’s point of view. I don’t quite remember what character(s) we follow when we get that framing about how Beforus’ softness ruined Kankri, but given how he himself feels about his position in Beforan society, it’s entirely possible the framing is partially due to a character’s viewpoint, so arguing with the text itself is totally appropriate since it’s challenging specific biases characters hold thanks to their upbringing.

I appreciate your response SO much dragonofyang; I didn't say that enough below so I'm taking the time to again right now.

This is a really interesting comment to me and I appreciate it a lot. I think that in response to your point about what framed Kankri like that.... I had to stop and think about that. We get introduced to Kankri through Meenah, and interact with him as Karkat, Latula, and Porrim- and Meenah again, as he later jumps into a conversation she and Horuss are having (and Cro... nus.....? I think?). But I don’t think the framing.... is actually inherently in any of those characters, so what is it?

I think what frames Kankri that was is his existence as satire, and the fact that he’s being interjected into a conversation with context.

If Kankri was just a person, that would be one thing. But we know, immediately, that Kankri is a joke about Tumblr SJWs, in a broader joke about 1) Tumblr users (the nature of Bubblr), and 2) various internet-user tropes in general.

So there already is a joke about soft snowflake SJWs. There already is a perception that SJWs are sheltered from the real problems of the world, and that being less sheltered would help them- to the point that people think that things like trigger warnings, people asking that you use the proper language about their gender and orientation, and other things that are either accessibility tools or seeking a kinder but not fake, playing-pretend, or damaging world are bad.

There’s already this perception that softness creates sheltered people with no character development and trauma helps people build character, and with characters like Kankri and the Signless, they would fundamentally be inserted into that conversation whether Kankri was an intentional joke about it or not. And then, when deciding what to do about that- Kankri became a joke that targeted things that fundamentally upheld the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”/“not only are all SJWs actually bad and damaging, but the reason they’re bad and damaging is because they were too soft and sheltered in their safe spaces” mentality.

And I am trying to be fair to Homestuck. More than I have tried to give benefit of the doubt, in the past. If you left Openbound with that impression, it could have been to play along with your those preexisting statements just to pull the rug from under you- like how you thought for a while (I admit to the fact that I did) that Bro training Dave sucked, but was just cartoon logic, and then the rug was pulled from under you and it was actually just abuse because abuse is real in this universe because these are people.

Kankri could have been set up to surface level enforce the idea that soft places generate what actual flaws he has (inconsistent ideology, weaponizing the language of progressive ideology against people he has personal grudges against, expending more care on looking right and sounding right than how you’re actually impacting people, playing oppression olympics) and then subverted with a jump back to look at Beforus properly- oho, no, look at all these little seeds I’ve planted, it is actually a complex web of oppressive forces, emotional safeguards built against them, poor resources and influences, and propaganda that did this. This is actually what happens when you build a planet that tries to softly coddle someone to sleep every time a hint of non-logic-based emotion slips into their argument. This is actually what happens when you beat down someone’s ability to emotionally connect with the people who need them most. This is actually what happens when you take someone who is primed to be The Signless and make them more terrified of being wrong than of the fallout their actions have on their friends. (And more. I don’t want to make this way longer than it is but please please know I know I know it’s more.)

But it didn’t.

So I can stand here and know that the seeds were planted, but they didn’t even- it doesn’t even clarify at any point to me whether they were planted intentionally, and at the end of the day, in terms of which messages I would ever hold Homestuck responsible for- whether the seeds for this argument were planted intentionally or not doesn’t matter to me. Right now, if they were, it would just be plausible deniability, in a joke that punches down and laughs not only at the places Kankri was wrong but several of the ones in which he was right or trying in the right way.

So anyway, I hold canon responsible for laughing at trigger warnings and MOGAI/“unusual” LGBTQ+ identities and (arguably, I need to fact check this) activism that isn’t (White) Feminism First, Everything Else After, etc.

Whether it’s saying that Beforus’s softness made the Signless into Kankri is I guess not the same as that, so I got off topic for a second.

But that last long paragraph, “the seeds were planted but-,” is what explains why I feel like I’m arguing with the text instead of explaining its authorial intent. The lens you were talking about turns out to be the fact that Kankri is satire, in a world that already has one extremely common way to satirize this thing, which Kankri wound up matching- despite any other content about him, because that content hasn’t been used to subvert this or twist against this- beat for beat.

[violethowler]

Got tagged by @gavillain

Last song: "God Games" from EPIC the Musical (the entire Wisdom Saga, really, been listening to the album on a constant loop since the live-stream ended Thursday night)

Favorite color(s): Blue and Purple

Currently reading: 3/4s of the way through re-reading Light Bringer by Pierce Brown (and finding myself new details to appreciate in the latest Red Rising novel that went over my head during the all-nighter I pulled when I read the book for the first time).

Currently watching: Doing a weekly nostalgia re-watch of Lilo & Stitch: The Series with at least one of my roommates. We're most of the way through season 1.

Last movie: Rewatched Deadpool and Deadpool 2 when I visited my parents at the beginning of the month.

Sweet, spicy, or savoury: Sweet.

Relationship status: Been single since late 2015.

Current obsessions: Kingdom Hearts (and Soriku), Red Rising, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Marvel's X-Men Krakoa saga, A Thing of Vikings,

Tea or coffee: Neither.

Last thing I googled: Needed to look up the definition of survivor's guilt this afternoon to double check if i was using the right term for how I understood MoM's motivations in my latest video. (I was not, and had to do some last-minute re-recording of a few lines 😂)

Tagging: @dragonofyang @tharkflark1 @pixel-creates @sunguardian524 @raidergamerspice

[mrmidnight]

Last month kept me busy with a fun little secret satan fic exchange! Please enjoy my first time writing eldritch, fluff, and wing grooming, and thank you to @dragonofyang for the inspiration. I really, really enjoyed writing this one shot. 💖

Human-ish

[violethowler]

I'm 5 months late but I was in the mood. Going to to the last 5 songs I listened to as well:

The Star Conquering Traveler (ᴠᴏɪᴅ ᴛᴇʀᴍɪɴᴀ) -ʀᴇᴀʀʀᴀɴɢᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ- from Kirby Star Allies

Storm from Epic: The Musical

The Beginning of the End from Final Fantasy Type-0

Wishes from Final Fantasy XIII-2

Fabula Nova Crystallis from Final Fantasy XIII

#1 was for fun. #2 was playing on a loop all last night as the battle music for the boss fight of my roommates' DnD one-shot that we were doing. And 3-5 were the most recent songs I listened to while researching potential tracks to use as bgm for my next youtube video.

I'll tag @dragonofyang @hyena-frog @tharkflark1 @pixel-creates @darrowsrising @crystal-rebellion and @leakinghate if any of you guys want to do this too.

Was tagged by @gordhanx to post 5 songs I actually listen to, then tag other people to do the same

So I'm just gonna do the literal last five songs I listened to because that's easiest. Been in an alt rock mood lately:

"Animal I've Become" by Three Days Grace (can't beat the classics, man)

"Permanent" by Acceptance

"Neurotic" by Three Days Grace

"Play the Game Tonight" by KANSAS

"Devastate (Acoustic)" by Saint Asonia

And I'll tag @marciabrady, @corvidreavenart, @violetrose-art, @two-black-leviathans, @violethowler, @eelfuneral, @tampire, and @heddagab

Do this if you feel like it, if not, no worries

[remadra]

Happy birthday sweetie!! 🎂💚

Thank you mom !!!! 💚💚💚

[garbage-dono]

95 Lotura? :3c

“Are you smiling or is that a grimace? I can’t tell the difference.”

Lotor’s strained expression never wavered, even as Allura pulled herself close to him and whispered that in his ear. She watched as her father busied himself pouring her fiance a drink. Perhaps that would be enough to calm his nerves.

When Alfor’s back was turned, Lotor allowed himself a sigh. “Can’t it be both?” His hand tightened around hers. “Give me some credit, love...it’s not every day the king of Altea invites me for a man-to-man talk.”

Allura couldn’t help but groan. “Is that really what he called it? Please...” She tugged him down for a kiss. “This isn’t the dark ages, Lotor. You hardly need to duel for my hand.”

“Tell him that.”

“I don’t have to. Because there’s nothing he can say to you or me to make me question my answer to your proposal.” She offered him a disarming smile. “He’ll offer you some ghastly hundred deca-phoeb aged juniberry wine. Sip it slowly and don’t let him see how much it burns.” 

“Wha-”

But he didn’t have time to answer further before Alfor was pressing a glass into his waiting hands. “Lotor, my boy,” he said with a wide smile. “Give this a try, hm? Aged a hundred deca-phoebs below the castle. Nothing like it in all of Altea.” 

Allura grinned at him, knowingly. And she was right - it did burn. He didn’t let it show. 

He could handle it. He could handle anything for her. 

[vergess]

dragonofyang replied to your post “There are invader zim antishippers and it’s just blowing my mind,...”

Holy shit TWENTY THOUSAND?

The blocklist limit is 50k, and I intend to get there one day.