#he is not afraid to use this power

[demaparbat-hp]

YOOOO DEMA YOU LIKE ARCANE???!! omg who's your favorite character??? and favorite moment(s) from s1??? (and fav ship too 👀 👀) will you draw for Arcane in the future???? (peak show with peak art =perfection, just saying)

Anon, you have the. Best. Timing. Ever. I literally just finished an Arcane artstyle study with Katara of the Undercity as a subject!

My favorite Arcane character is and forever shall be Ekko (best boy). Other faves are Viktor (chronic illness baby) and Jinx (trauma gremlin).

As for the S1 scene... Besides the finale and that breathtaking Guns for Hire sequence? The Ekko/Jinx fight from ep 7. It broke me. (And turned me into a Timebomb shipper. Which was arguably worse.)

[mrmeepsmadmind]

i love when ppl draw bumblebee like the happy little creachure he is but also i love when people draw bumblebee like he's had 500 beers in the last 1 hour and still the pain won't even ebb

[shannonsketches]

I saw someone on reddit a while back say that Toriyama wasn't a very good storyteller because he's more interested in jokes and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

I can't imagine people who think like that practice critical analysis or creative endeavors, least of all creating comics, and I'm going to explain what I mean using one of my favorite panels from the manga:

Toriyama introduces two new villains who were only mentioned off-screen as being much stronger than Raditz. This one panel both introduces these characters and tells you right away:

The smaller of the two is the superior, based on his attire, the fact that he's in the foreground, and he's the one eating

The superior is callous, both because of his dialogue and the fact that he is the only one eating, despite his meal being larger than he is

The superior is monstrous based on what he is eating (my favorite set of details) -- at first glance some kind of insectoid creature, but upon closer inspection:

This is an intelligent, technologically advanced life-form that used both a gun and a ship

2. Neither Saiyan is damaged, telling us even advanced alien weaponry does not harm a Saiyan (but Vegeta's armor is scuffed while Nappa's isn't, implying there was a physical if not futile attempt to stop him)

3. The arm is still bleeding, implying this kill is relatively fresh

4. The gun is next to the body, implying that Vegeta sat down on this person and starting eating them right where they died

5. There is a second body in the background that is significantly smaller despite being very nearby, which may imply that Vegeta is eating the adult but did not spare the child -- and if you're really into parallels,

6. There is smoke in the background, Nappa is sitting on inorganic architecture, and the ship is on it's side, making the sixth most brutal detail that these two beings were fleeing from the saiyan attack on some kind of community, and not only did Vegeta not allow them to escape, he also punished them for trying to by EATING the one in charge.

Like what do you mean Toriyama isn't a good storyteller. This is a Debut Panel. He tells you how scary this new villain is without having to say anything at all.

[lizzybeeee]

The Lucanis vs Illario story would have had greater emotional depth/intrigue if the writers didn't water down how fucked up the Crows are as an organization.

Just some thoughts about how, out of all the side villains, Illario had some great potential to be a really interesting/tragic character in my opinion.

TL;DR: Zevran Aranai has a knife with Caterina's name on it for good reason and Lucanis/Illario need therapy...or whatever the Thedas equivalent is called...talking to Rook, I dunno

Going into DATV as a new player, or even as a returning one, the whitewashing of the Crows has a lot of the potential complexities of that life simply ignored or barely touched upon. The entire 'Illario vs Lucanis' boils down to: Illario seething in the shadows about Lucanis being the 'best boy'™ of the family while Illario is an after thought - which he is.

Let's be real, Illario is not subtle and immediately comes across as the Scar to Lucanis' 'Mufasa'. It's a questline with a very straightforward villain who has pretty lackluster motivations from what info we're provided - being 'I want power and to be the First Talon'. The game does very little explore what motivations he may have beyond being jealous of Lucanis/wanting more power.

However, if you play the quest line knowing what previous games have set up about the Crows - about how cutthroat and brutal the life is behind the glamour - then you can see that the entire Lucanis vs Illario conflict has amazing potential to be a dramatic tragedy.

We've seen how the life of Crow can affect Zevran - someone who was sold into the life through child-slavery. How interesting would it be to see how the life of a Crow can affect someone who was born into it? It's pretty clear in-game that Caterina intends for her grandchildren to carry on the family tradition - despite the fact that this 'family tradition' has likely led to the deaths of most of her grandchildren and however many children she had.

If there's banter about how Illario's/Lucanis' parents/cousins died specifically I haven't heard it, but the impression I got in-game was that it was likely linked to the Crows/politics in some way? Feel free to correct me! Still majorly fucked up that she pushes her grandsons into this life regardless!

Lucanis/Illario's situation was not like Zevran's - who was sold into the Crow's through slavery, with no one to speak up for him. Caterina was a woman who had power, who knew what the life of a Crow meant, and who still pushed those she 'loved' into it because is consolidated her place in the system. For all the Crows talk of 'family' Caterina doesn't seem to give a shit about them unless if they're contributing to the family business in some way - not to mention the whole 'you fail and we kill you' clause of being a Crow in the first place.

In the 'Wigmaker Job' from Tevinter Nights Lucanis talks about how Caterina hit him [also Illario] with her cane for mistakes and had him spend days without food/water. How he used to hate her but now 'realizes' that it was her way of ensuring he survived the life of being an Antivan Crow. Did it end up protecting them? It likely pushed them both to refine their skills out of fear. It's likely that simply by association with her they would be targets and thus needed to know how to take care of themselves and fight.

But why have him as a Crow in the first place? Why not simply train them well to defend themselves? You can't deny that she doesn't benefit from having her grandchildren in the family business - intentionally wanting Lucanis to take over her position as First Talon. The Antivan Crows are a force to be reckoned with and being one brings a whole lot of power in Antiva - being part of the elite of that group even more so.

If the game showed us the ugly reality of the Crows - the brutality of the lifestyle and how cutthroat the organization is, it could have really added some depth to Illario's betrayal - having it be more than "I want more power/respect" to "this is the result of what you taught me was valuable in life."

Warden: "Do you actually enjoy being an assassin?" Zevran: "And why not? There are many things to enjoy about being a Crow in Antiva. You are respected. You are feared. The authorities go out of their way to overlook your trespasses. Even the rewards are nothing to turn your nose up at."

Illario, bitter about Caterina favoring Lucanis - resentful of the fact that she has already decided that Lucanis will be her successor, being offered power by the Venatori (at the expense of the Crows) and accepting because why not? How different is it from what the Crows do? Isn't power and status the whole point of working yourself up in the Crows? Getting into a relationship with Zara because why not? Isn't sex part of the allure of being a Crow? Why can't he have this? Why shouldn't he have this?

Rook: "When we met, it didn't seem like Illario and Caterina were close." Lucanis: "It was hard to be close to her. Even for me. And...I was her favorite."

Why would he have connections to his family? Why should he? Caterina certainly never seemed to value 'family' beyond what they could do for her and their family legacy. Most of his family is already dead, and of those that remain the only parental figure he has obviously favors Lucanis. We don't have a lot of evidence in-game to show that Illario ever really cared for Lucanis, but the prequel story 'The Wake' and Lucanis' own banter imply that they were practically brothers, best friends. Perhaps he did care and then ceased to at some point, perhaps he didn't at all, or perhaps he accepted that an early death for them both was inevitable like everyone else in their family. Dead now or later - what was the difference? At least if Illario sells him out now to the Venatori then he'll get something from it instead of another dead family member to bury.

It's the tragic result of raising a child in an environment where he was taught and experienced the need for self-preservation at all costs. Constantly threatened, punished, and made well aware of that fact that his life was an expendable commodity. Then, when things in the world went to shit he picked the only option that made sense to him. To save himself.

The irony of the potential fall of the Crows, the fall of House Dellamorte, coming at the hands of one of their own - not because he had a change of heart but because he was taught too well by them. The Crows view those that fail them as disposable, someone to be discarded - if the Crows fail Illario, what is to stop him from applying that mindset to them?

But this would require the writers to acknowledge how messed up the Crows are and we can't do that to our 'Noble Freedom Fighters'™. They'll also need to address Zevran's existence and what lore was established in past games...and we can't have that either lmao.

[mohntilyet]

Personal headcanon about the "you picked the wrong dellamorte" line, I don't think illario actually likes rook outside the context of them being someone close to lucanis. Like rook on their own isn't much to him, but when they meet it's yet another person talking about his cousin (why isn't he good enough for whatever job they're hiring for?) and on top of that they somehow bring him back from the dead (another whole can of worms for illario). Now he starts turning on the charm, but whether he's actually interested or this is just one more thing his cousin has that he doesn't and it gets under his skin, who knows. Either way, rook ignores illario, the guy who lives off his charm, and is instead interested in the guy who's never even dated before and thinks giving someone a knife is how to flirt. Infuriating

NO THANK YOU !! i am genuinely sorry if i have ever implied illario is into rook like i see some takes about it and unless it like ties into your rook's personal backstory i don't seriously think he's romantically jealous. at all. my enjoyment of that line stems from illario's pathological need to make it about himself and not see his strengths but what lucanis has, and therefore what he doesn't. he's annoyed enough to try and goad you in the middle of a fight about the 'wrong' dellamorte and completely blind to the fact that the venatori are at best, a stupid fucking alliance, and at worst, a cult that will devour the crows from the inside out and illario would have been the one to give them the keys. he sees lucanis make allies, needs his own, and instead of charming the other talons/houses as he should, he (probably spitefully) picks the venatori. or maybe he just thought it would be easier. ugh he makes me want to telekenetically throw him around

[arttsuka]

Draw Banda (Bill Cipher possessing Wanda Maximoff (mcu, specifically the Multiverse of Madness 616 Wanda/Scarlet Witch not 838 Wanda)

And

Merman Deadpool and Human Wolverine

Based on the infamous blobfish

[fannyspammy]

They really baited us with the season 2 trailer tho like they made it seem like we’d be getting Elrond every episode & where is he 😭😭😭

[yume127]

Despite all his talks about not caring about not being chosen by the Keyblade, Sora seems to tie a lot of his worth into being a Keyblade wielder. 

The time when he lost the Keyblade in Hollow Bastion was devastating for Sora. Not only his best friend had turned against him, but Donald and Goofy briefly abandoned him.

Although he seems to get over it pretty quickly, there were hints implying that moment hurt him more deeply than he let on. In KH3, he says that when he lost the Keyblade, Donald and Goofy had to go on without him, which I don't think is true? What was stopping them from following Riku with Sora instead of leaving him there alone?

I think that moment might have affected Sora a lot, leading him to think that not only he is useless without the Keyblade, but his friends are going to leave him if he can’t use the Keyblade.

This comes up again in KH2, when Sora is completely lost when he learns that defeating Heartless with the Keyblade is exactly what the Organization wants. He says that he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do if he can’t use the Keyblade and once again he feels useless, albeit he’s able to overcome this fairly quickly.

Then he has to face the Mark of Mastery, and it’s the first time he’s on an adventure on his own. Although he doesn’t seem to care much about becoming a Keyblade Master, he’s confident that he’ll pass the exam as he sees it as a formality. Except, the Organization hijacked themselves into the exam, tricked him and he ended up having to be rescued and failing the Mark of Mastery, losing most of his power in the process.

He tries to brush it off, focusing on his excitement for Riku, but when Yen Sid talks to him after the exam, it’s obvious that Sora is devastated. That experience left him feeling very insecure in his strength, and the constant remarks from villains and allies alike only amplified this insecurity. 

What happened during the Mark of Mastery deeply affected him and he never truly recovered from it (at least not yet). He has lost all his confidence in himself.

The Keyblade didn't choose him, he failed the Mark of Mastery, he's not as reliable as the other wielders, so, to make up for it, he ties his worth uniquely in his connection with other people. His friends are his power, therefore if his friends are gone, he’s worthless. He doesn’t believe he’s able to make it on his own. Not anymore.

[ndostairlyrium]

"He's the most intelligent creature I've ever met"

I've given my baby a baby. Again << I swear I'm a cat person

Quick research under the cut <3

[mrmeepsmadmind]

starbee comic,,, if u get the reference then u understand a pivotal part of how i see their dynamic

Bee x scream is like if that one rlly bubbly & makes herself seem ditzy and cute girl to everyone to have friends who'll dump her the moment they get a bf & she's probably on the spectrum but no one notices or cares to delve deeper into her bcs she's so 'cute' & smiles & masks to be liked ( bcs she doesnt want anyone to delve deeper into her personality & realize shes actually Not perfect miss lil daddys girl purity ring ) was forced to be stuck with The Bitchtm intimidating weird girl who's also undiagnosed but everyone knows there's Something with her & treated her differently in a way they Think is discreet but She Knows & no matter how hard she tries, everyone's gonna have this Undertone with her so she's just given up on trying to seem pleasant to everyone but still desperately wants to be loved & has a slight clue as to why ppl keep hating her even when she tries for them not to for once but still can't get an answer bcs her life sucks and diagnosis is expensive and she has no time and she's - omg why is this bitch (bee) making her notes all cute with big colorful fonts & organized by alphabetical shade marker collection haha she's so weird (<- is Also weird bcs hes starscream). im gonna ask to borrow one of her favorite markers (the baby blue one) and dry it out while she stares at me with big wet eyes trying to find a polite way to put 'im gonna kill you' in a sentence

[crazylittlejester]

I don't know if you're still accepting requests but if you are: Warriors and Wind eating oranges, sharing a fondness for them because Warriors and food poison avoidance + Wind and scurvy prevention

If you're no longer accepting requests, then so sorry :(

- the oranges anon

HI ORANGES ANON!!!

I am!! I got a little thing in my pinned post saying if Mini Fic Requests are open or not, and they’re open rn!

Here you go!! (485 words):

A wave of dizziness slammed into him and Warriors crouched down with a groan, lifting one hand to his aching head and using the other to stabilize himself so he didn’t fall over. He had incorrectly guessed his head was aching due to exhaustion, but the rising nausea and heat in the back of his neck just confirmed his new theory. He needed to eat something.

“Cap’n?” Wind called, turning around and walking towards him. The two of them had headed off alone to explore the area around camp, scouting for enemies but also just giving the little sailor a chance to get his extra energy out.

Warriors was forced to sit down properly when his arm started shaking, and he hung his head with a sigh.

“Ye be needin’ sugar, right?” Wind asked him, digging through his bag with a determined look.

The captain nodded, grateful at least one of them had brought a bag. Warriors had stashed two red potions in his belt and brought everything else they possibly could’ve needed on a short walk bear camp, except any kind of food.

The pirate eventually found an orange and pulled it out with a laugh, handing it to Warriors before digging around for a second. As he peeled his fruit, he watched Wind curiously as the boy furiously picked at his.

His brother caught him staring and blinked up at him. “I know it’s hard for you to eat some times, I didn’t want you to feel like I was watching you, so I’m eating with you!”

Warriors couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in his eyes and he froze. Assassination attempts had made his relationship with food and eating very complicated, and many times he found himself starving because his anxiety got too bad. Oranges were a safe food for him, their peel making it hard for them to be tampered with, and eating with the others always made him feel more comfortable. He didn’t know how to feel that not only had Wind noticed something the captain tried to hide, but the little sailor had gone out of his way to help him and comfort him.

“I really like oranges,” his brother told him, popping a slice into his mouth. “They be good fer preventin’ scurvy. Ye don’t be wantin’ that, it sucks.”

Warriors let out a wet laugh, blinking away the spots in his vision and laying down while he ate his own fruit. He listened to Wind talk on and on about his great love for citrus, which eventually turned into a story about his adventures, until the captain felt he could sit upright again without being worried he’d faint.

“Good to go back?” Wind asked with a wide grin. “I be wantin’ to terrorize Wild.”

“Sounds good,” Warriors rolled his eyes fondly, ruffling the kid’s hair and holding him close as they walked back to camp together.

[tblsomedoodles]

Villain-Fearmonger (oc)

Every so often i redesign some ocs in this silly little farmer story.

this is Habots/Fearmonger. They're a big city villain that accidentally gets displaced (teleported?) onto the farm and now doesn't really want to leave.

IDK what to say about this other than it's an odd little story that takes place in a superhero/villain world but the whole thing takes place on a farm where everyone is trying to escape/avoid hero/villain stuff.

I'll probably post more. I've got some other characters for this, including Eric (who I have posted before) and is the owner of the farm.

[wilsonsmcgillsweatshirt]

I can't get over Wilson straight up dragging Cuddy and House to Cuddy's mom's place and forcing them to make peace with her. He's got House actually giving a decent apology even though he doesn't mean it, and Cuddy completely conceding and giving up control over the situation by telling her mom she was wrong and they could compromise. And then when they attempt to go off the script Wilson gave them, he's just standing there glaring at them threateningly, and suddenly they snap back in line. That's why he's so scary. He's got everybody on a fucking leash lmao.

[barefeet-only]

I don’t know how many people have watched Dead Boy Detective (go watch it now, it’s really good) but I just think that more fics should have Danny using ghosts to intimidate people he’s interrogating like they did in episode 5. I just think that he could really pull off fucking with people super well by convincing them he has magic or powers (besides being half ghost) super well.

[wikitpowers]

sometimes i just sit and think about how much chaotic energy kit has for just existing. not only his he the descendent of the lost herondale, he's also the descendent of the first heir. what's next?? since he's able to use james herondale's gun, he's probably also some secret 3rd thing.

and that’s on kit being the coolest mf in tsc! like that boy just never stops surprising us and he’s not even been the mc yet. like damn is he gonna be fucking awesome in twp. truly we ain’t ready for twp!kit and all the energy he will bring to that series i swear!!!

[wiretism]

this fandom is not big enough for me to go on about how aaron's relationship with justine was so much more complex than what we gather from the book but i kind of feel crazy about it and this line makes me feel insane and i hate it