#he looks ashamed

[cosmic-walkers]

I might be the only one who doesn't think that Thomas hates being the son of a blacksmith/lowborn (and let's be real, he was a blacksmith himself.) Fandoms tends to think he hates it, and he's ashamed of it, but I just never saw it.

In the books, he is constantly calling back to his past as a blacksmith, soldier, whatever, lowborn man, and he credits his feats and survival skills he learned back then, to the man he is now. To me, a huge thing about Thomas is that he does lose himself, he does love the power that comes with climbing up in nobility like any man would. But there is never a time when he is ashamed of himself, there is never a time when he wants to hide his past and regrets it. He despises Walter -let's get that straight. He does in fact, hate Walter. But the majority of people tend to conflate that with him hating the fact that he is a lowborn man.

When in reality, he loves that about himself. He loves that he didn't have to have a governess, a sophisticated tutor, or learn at the best schools in order to sit at the king's table. In fact, he can afford all those people now (before he worked with henry tbh), to make sure the boys in his house are well-learned. He loves the fact that he climbed up social ranks without having to have a noble family or bloodline attached to him. He adores the fact that Henry has people like Norfolk and Suffolk and other natural born nobles working for him, but they still, with their god given right and power, cannot do half the stuff a lowborn man from Putney can do.

Even in the first wolf hall book, Henry and Wriothesely DO find noble Cromwells and attempts to push Thomas to claim them, and to look into the matter and he says no. Because he doesn't want to be noble by birth, he doesn't want to present as anything else than a lowborn man who rose to the top with his own merit.

There seems to be this idea in fandom that he is ashamed or embarrassed of being lowborn, but I never thought that. Like, he makes constant call backs to it in the books, and always credits his past, being a black smith, and being low born to survival.

Of course, he hates when people look down on him. That makes him upset, especially because he knows he is better than the nobles who are usually speaking down on him. But like, to be angry is natural. Insecurity when people speak down on you, is natural.

But, he does not hate his past. He never aspired to be noble by birth, he never wanted to hide who he was or his past. He began as a lowborn man, and is prideful in the fact that as a lowborn man, he could do so much more than the natural born nobles/royals.

now if you do wanna see people in wolf hall who hate the fact that they are low born or tied to low born people, thomas more and stephen gardiner are standing right there. thomas more, who is extremely self cautious about the fact that he and thomas knew each other from lambeth because he loathes the idea that a lowborn child could one day be his peer. and it has to make him acknowledge the fact that not to far off in his own lineage, he also has lowborn blood in his veins, as either his father or grandfather was a baker, and mistake, and t. more could've also been a baker. and for thomas more, someone so devout to the religious order, and nobility being ordained by god, can you imagine the fuckery that goes on in his mind? he knows that he is noble, but by his religion, should he even be here? was his life falling to shambles a part of divine punishment? perhaps, this is his thought process.

And then there is Stephen, who is not just a bastard but a bastard whom no one knows where he comes from. The theory that he is a tudor is very very, slippery at best, because there is no historical evidence to document that, and even if he was he was utterly abandoned. Historically, Stephen did not come from a family of note, and only got to where he was because of his own merit and skills, and proved himself to both Henry and Wolsey over and over again. The reason that Stephen *is* nobility now, is because he is a Bishop. That is quite literally the only reason, and he had to prove himself. Combining this with whomever we have in the books, it is very very evident that Stephen, hates the fact that he wasn't natural born nobility. He hates the fact he was a bastard, lowborn, and that he probably doesn't even know where he comes from.

So this idea that Thomas Cromwell hates being lowborn, makes no sense to me, and it doesn't hold up canonically. Especially, when we actually see characters in the show how absolutely despite the fact that they are lowborn, or related to people who *are* low born.

[tiger-grace]

The Dark Knight, Batman, Mr. “I am the night” maintaining his mystery even while revealing his identity in a justice league meeting:

The JL: Bruce Wayne?!

His wayward children, who have scheduled a “Brucie Wayne” funniest moments and scandals compilation to kick on in about 30 seconds on the monitor:

The JL: … bruce wayne

[magicpiano]

AU where the justice league finds out that Captain Marvel is homeless. Not Billy, they still have no idea about the captain's secret identity, but the Captain.

Maybe they were discussing a case or something, and he says something that is just a little too knowledgeable. Something only someone who has been there would know. He tries to backtrack when he realizes that he said too much, tries to explain that getting a job and an apartment is hard when you do hero work which doesn't pay (and hopes they don't find out the real reason he can't get a job is because no one will hire a kid).

The league comes to the conclusion the reason he is so secretive about his identity is because he is ashamed he is homeless. Naturally, everyone immediately feels super bad about this and tries to help him much to his dismay.

Identity shenanigans ensue.

[zu-is-here]

Selfish request of Dreammare pls ?

Pygmalion

idea by @clownyclowns

Dream & Nightmare by jokublog

+ the perfect finger sketch :'D

[babybirbb]

me when glen powell

[qprpbj]

shoutout to brent comer for locking into throwing in the towel so hard with that numb, distant, disassociated stare into nothingness for so much of the song. it is literally palpable. he is such an insanely good actor. love laugh brent comer.

[leafsei]

since its leona day and i havent had time to draw anything heres a bunch of doodles of him ive done in like,,, the span of a few months?? plus stupid chibis

theres actually soooo many more but these are the nicest ones lol IDK HOW TO DRAW HIS FACE THE WAY I IMAGINE IT HELP

[invinciblerodent]

!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

..... but on a coherent note, while the style of the visuals in this game is a bit different from Inquisition's (and therefore the returning characters also look and move different), I think this is a nice, and effective redesign. I like it.

Yes, it is different, but it's still undeniably Dorian.

He's just... no longer in his early thirties, but he's visibly a 40-year-old man, with the smile lines and forehead-creases that come with that.

There are deeper creases in the corners of his eye when he smiles now, he wears his hair and facial hair different (I'm not sure about those brows baby, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the same exact shape as his original brow, only darker), and he dresses according to different fashions now. But, I like how the elements of the design stayed: the asymmetric capelet-thing, the leather straps across his chest look straight up like they were lifted from Inquisition (I've been collecting some shots of assets that look like they're from Inquisition, they make me smile, I might post a little compilation later), and the snake-headed clasp also looks very familiar.

I originally clipped this shot because of the excellent stankface, but it's also showing the outfit pretty nicely:

I also grabbed this one really quickly, to show that his boots are also very similar to the ones he wore in Inquisition:

Overall, honestly, though the clothing feels a bit bulkier and more bottom-heavy in Veilguard than it does in Inquisition in general, this is not really that much different from his original design. It's an updated, slightly more modest version of his Inquisition look, with robes that are a bit less open, flare out less and have tighter sleeves that cover more skin, which is, yeah, more suitable for a respected Magister than the threads of the rebel Altus.

crying, welcome back baby boy I missed you these past years ya sweet sweet man, you've done so much growing i'm so proud of you, now let's introduce you to an iron because boy those robes are creased at the bottom

(the only unrealistic thing is that this man can shut up about his husband-in-all-but-the-legal-sense for more than two seconds, really)

[m0thwinged]

I had a vision. Lazily doodled but who cares.

[mequa]

Companion piece for the last one

[starry-bi-sky]

welcome back to another game of 'starry gets Emotions about her aus that SHE Made as if she were a viewer' aka im analyzing my own characters again. today im having spontaneous feelings over Danny's facial scar in Things in Threes and his perspective of it vs everyone else

danny got his facial scar when he was five, protecting damian's cribside from a spontaneous attack by a pair of intruders. It narrowly missed blinding him and cuts down diagonally across his face. At five, it was jarring and incredibly noticeable, stretching from his hairline to his jaw. At 15 its still painfully noticeable, but scars do not grow with age, they shrink as your body grows around it. Now it only goes from the middle of his brow to below the center of his eye.

Danny's facial scar is a point of pride for him. Despite horribly traumatizing him he refused treatment to get rid of it because it was a physical reminder that it was him who got hurt and not Damian, that he was able to protect his family. Not once does he ever feel shame or disgust towards his scar, because to feel that is to feel ashamed of protecting Damian, and he is not.

To him, his scar is a trophy. A physical reminder of his capabilities and a reminder to keep honing his skills so that he can never be hurt like that again, nor allow anyone to get close enough to him or Damian to be able to hurt him like that again.

To everyone else it is a point of tragedy. To Sam and Tucker, it is just one more physical reminder of their best friend's sad, terrible background that he refuses to share with them. All they know is that it came from him protecting his brother when he was five, something that deeply horrifies them.

To Bruce and the rest of the family, it is a reminder of what Danyal has gone through. The leeching horrors of the league that resulted in a five year old boy killing two grown men and being permanently scarred as a result, and seeing that scar as something to be proud of.

There is so much to think about about Danyal's scar.

[sinistersinita]

His wig. Snatched.

[pharawee]

"So it’s true..."

[nenoname]

I'm a broken record about this but after so many years of being left with the Axolotl poem about Bill, it'd be so lame if Bill never did reincarnate, and it'd be just as disappointing if it ended up being something minor like a cicada (although it'd be hilarious if he reincarnated, immediately died and then reincarnated into something else).

And to me, the wording of the original Axolotl poem really does make it seem like the reincarnation itself is the 'redemption' and the deal is that Bill is basically passing responsibility to someone else, after he's done with therapy and like.... doesn't pass down all of his many issues.

(Plus I dunno if it's my understanding of reincarnation that's wrong but it feels that when Bill is like 'yeah let me use the reset button!!!', he's forgetting that its way different from using a continue and he's just gonna end up with the equivalent of a shoddy new game plus made for a wrong character/setting at best)

Meanwhile, we're left with Bill poem about Stan that's the same in execution (a cryptic message between space and time and by that I mean hidden on the internet lol), with the same purpose (an opening/lingering mystery for Alex to use when he wants to return to the series) with the same elements (fire, lies, redemption, home) and numerous comparisons to Bill's own philosophy on lies that's repeated again in the same website.

(Also been thinking about how amnesiac!Stan could sorta be thought of as a reincarnation of himself in terms of mind only. The same soul being hit with that reset gun button, a chance of a new self unburdened by the past, but via the power of love and family they went nope!!! we want you back!!!)

Either way, with the poem and the book's ending there's the obvious Bill+Stan connection that we're supposed to acknowledge!!!

[lvlyyoonji]

just saw someone reading a devils minion quote and there is something to say about how the characters in iwtv/the vampire chronicles are able to look at the absolute worst most evil sides of each other and completely love each other anyways. not that things like abusively dropping someone from the sky should ever be justified, but with the loneliness they feel is this huge capacity to love that feels very human to me

[fresanita]

I LITERALLY ADORE YOUR PARENTAL ALASTOR SERIES,, IT'S SO GOOD!!! AAAAAAA, I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY, I JUST WANT IT TO BE KNOWN THAT IT IS SO GOOD AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MORE :)

IM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLYYY🙏🙏!! My classes have really been taking up my time💔

But anyways, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!♡♡ SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY LITTLE COMIC, I promise I'm working on the next part🫶🙂 when I first posted it, I didn't expect people to really like it! I'm so glad they admire parental alastor the same way I do, though☹️🩷!!

I've been gone for awhile and I had actually drafted a response for your submission BUT IT DIDNT SAVE FOR SOME REASON😧! It's fine though💔

Alastor as a parent was always such a charming concept to me - but that's mainly because I always admired a dynamic w a possessive/obsessive parent and their child; I love reading those type of fanfics🙂🫶! In Angel and Alastors dynamic, when they were both human and more familial w each other, I always love imagining how domestic they'd be: Alastor would cook the meals and pick out clothes for his little boy because his Antoní was always hesitant to dress up pretty☹️🩷 I have my own indulgence where Alastor would sew or purchase frilly/simple dresses merely because he catches Angel staring at them a lot.

(ANGEL DUST WAS ONCE A KID TOO, HE DESERVES A PARENT☹️)

Quick doodles I did of human kid angel dust w clothes Alastor would dress him in if he could🫶 the top left has his head a too big, but whatever💔