#he's a character with interesting lore and backstory but he's also a silly little guy that will spin into a pot buster

[kostecko27]

I simply think Anji Mito guilty gear is the character of all time

[thatringboy]

A Body Built for an Undeserving Soul, A Boothill Theory

My definitely sober thoughts while grinding for the eventual Ruan Mei rerun and writing some robinhill have led me to a startling train of thought. I’ll do my best to sound sane as I say this, but the 18 minute discord voice memo I originally made is definitely anything but. Spoilers for Boothill’s backstory, character stories, and other lore, and no I’m not really gonna be citing things because it’s 3 in the morning and I’m high. If at any point I say something that isn’t really supported by canon, please be nice i’m a little silly boy

Anyways

I don’t think Boothill is a Pathstrider.

Let me cook, please. Here’s my reasons why:

The way he talks about Aeons and Paths

The way his body is designed

And 3.

Enjoy the madness below the cut

So, there’s not really a proper way to word any of this without it being an ADHD word vomit. Bear with me. Please.

Penacony has been a fantastic update for those of us waiting for worldbuilding. We’ve learned a LOT about the many factions in the cosmos, the true nature of the IPC, the powers of the Aeons, and that the Paths are tangible things in the universe. The Luofu arc opened up a bit about this, but since it was so focused on The Hunt and The Abundance and The Permanence, we sort of fell back into the same story beats as the Herta Station arc. Either way, Penacony has been amazing for little lore bugs like me.

So what does this have to do with the wild claim that Boothill somehow isn’t a Pathstrider?

Let’s touch some grass for a minute and consider our places in the irl universe. Hi, I’m Perseus, a young transmasculine white adult guy from South Texas who grew up reading too many Rick Riordan books and now has a complicated relationship with both the christian god and the greek gods. It’s an autism special interest of mine to learn about the greek pantheon and while I don’t know everything about it, I’m a silly little guy and can recite fun facts about dozens of gods. I can also recite fun facts about the christian bible and christian mythology because I was forced to study christianity when I was younger. Nice to meet y’all. Now, when I, Perseus, talk to people about the various religions I know a thing or two about, I infodump. A lot. I think I once ranted about Dionysus for 20 minutes before my sister told me to shut up. It happens.

Now focus back in on the important topic: the fictional cyborg with jiggle physics. I’m working purely on memory, but I’m pretty sure when he first meets Dan Heng and Pom-Pom, he does go on a spiel about the Aeons and Paths as he tries to prove his identity as a Galaxy Ranger and Acheron’s identity as Not a Galaxy Ranger. The way he describes The Hunt, The Nihility, Emanators, and Paths, it all just sounded… i don’t know, canned? It came across as very emotionally disconnected, even as he talked about The Hunt, but he was saying all the right words. Like someone who studied a religion but isn’t actually a part of the religion. 

On its own, this means absolutely nothing besides just reminding us of his home planet’s hostile takeover by Qlipoth-worshiping IPC workers. If you haven’t seen the post yet, I really recommend reading the So, Honkai: Star Rail made a cyborg cowboy... an INDIGENOUS cyborg cowboy. post by @ahworm I’ll link it here, please check it out because it recontextualized a lot of how I viewed Boothill’s actions and mannerisms

So the way Boothill talks about the Path he should be a Pathstrider of sounds more like an encyclopedia than a follower. Now, maybe this can be explained by the fact that Galaxy Rangers aren’t the most zealous bunch, especially when standing next to the Xianzhou Alliance who worship Lan as a deity more than The Hunt itself. The Galaxy rangers are the opposite, they are hunters first and last regardless of what Lan in THEIR “greatness” does.

But if Boothill is just a normal Galaxy ranger (whatever that means), then how does he recognize the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath instantaneously? Dan Heng’s barely put the damn thing on the table and Boothill’s already jaw on the floor amazed. One could make the argument that, well, Boothill’s a well-traveled guy, of course he’d know the most valuable artifact to his Path. To that, I say: there’s more to it.

Boothill’s main accusation against Acheron in the beginning is, what? “An Emanator that shouldn’t exist.” He talks about The Nihility and Device IX the same way he talks about The Hunt; learned and detached in an agnostic way. He’s aware these are real concepts and beings, he’s crossed paths with an Emanator of Elation before so he can’t deny the existence of literal gods in the universe

We also know that it’s canon in the star rail universe that there are planets who haven’t heard of the Aeons before, like Sigonia - Aventurine’s planet. Instead of Aeons, we know the Avgins worshiped the goddess Giathra Triclops. I’ve seen the argument that Giathra is just another name for Xipe since THEY have three faces, but Aventurine’s flashbacks are very clear in showing that the worship of Giathra was very different from the worship of Aeons. We don’t know much about Aeragan-Epharshel, but from how the IPC described the indigenous people as needing civilization and other disgusting things (not to mention how they forced a synesthesia beacon into boothill when he was maybe like a teenager? And then his brain nearly broke from the influx of information?), I think it’s safe to say that the tribes of Aeragan-Epharshel also didn’t follow any specific Aeon.

But Aventurine is now a Pathstrider of Preservation, so why can’t Boothill be a Hunter Pathstrider too? Well, dear reader, allow me to bash my head against the wall trying to form words. Aventurine doesn’t believe anything about the sovereignty of The Preservation, just like the rest of the Stonehearts. He has his agenda, and if he has to play Preservation to do so, then he will. I think Boothill is the same, which is also why I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming quests with the two of them in the same room. That being said, Aventurine’s Preservation powers only come from his Cornerstone, crafted by an Emanator of Preservation. It’s how he and Topaz and Jade can all be such different people but all be classified as Pathstriders of Preservation, the sheer proximity to an Emanator’s powers canonically give them powers equivalent to actual Pathstriders.

So… what about Boothil? This leads me into my next point: Boothill’s cyborg body. By looking at his Character Story Part 3, we learn that Boothill VOLUNTARILY became a cyborg to become stronger. He literally shed the skin and name from an ancient, dead tongue to become a real loaded gun. His voice lines in combat talk about death a lot, his name literally is in reference to a graveyard - this man cannot wait to finally die in some sort of blaze of glory and vengeance. I say that with a little bit of sarcasm, but Boothill designed his body to be a weapon. 

In a lot of parts of the USA, it’s illegal to even insinuate that you have a firearm as that constitutes as the crime of  “armed robbery”, even if you don’t even have a gun. The threat alone is enough to warrant a higher penalty. But Boothill is already a great shot with a gun, why does he also need augmented teeth and crosshair eyes and hips that can fold his body into any sinful shape he needs? Because the threat alone is enough to give him power over his prey. Almost as if he’s compensating for a lack of magic godly powers. He needs to be able to keep up with even the strongest IPC goons, to pierce their Preservation shields with his bullets so that he can get closer and closer to Oswaldo Schneider.

But how can I prove that Boothill doesn’t have any Path magic? Well, let’s take a spin around his character model. What’s that thing sitting snugly against his exposed asscheek? His pistol? But that’s not weird, Perseus, most cowboys hold their guns there!

But what other playable character has their weapon on their actual model like him?

There are so many in-game cutscenes showing that, canonically, the Pathstriders summon their weapon from some sort of unseen storage or hammerspace. I like the term hammerspace, let’s use that. The playable Pathstriders all use hammerspace to easily summon their weapons. None of them actually carry their weapons on their model. Even Welt Yang has scenes of him summoning his herrscher cane (I’ve never played hi3 please forgive me for using incorrect terms) from his hammerspace. But not Boothill. He has his arm gun and he has his trusty 9 millimeter pistol on his little slutty hip. His idle animations involve reloading his weapons and putting them back on his person. No particle effects, no vanishing tricks, just a man sticking his tongue out to catch a bullet for a snack.

So what have we learned?

Boothill doesn’t have an emotional connection to his Path, it most likely is just the Path he figured met his needs and decided the philosophy was good enough

Boothill’s body is designed to perform specifically to kill Pathstriders, especially sturdier Pathstriders of The Preservation

Boothill either can’t or won’t use the same hammerspace the other canonical Pathstriders use

Each point by themself means nothing, or can be chalked up to unique character designs. But together? My intoxicated mind theorizes that Boothill is not a Pathstrider, merely a broken man trying to play the game according to the rules of the oppressors that colonized his planet and bombed his tribe into reservations and the dirt. Thank you for your time.

[dawningwinds-s]

I'm a decentish way through Veilguard (just before Weisshaupt) so idk. Here's a summary of my compabions impressions so far:

- Neve: This woman has the sexiest voice I've ever heard, huge props to the VA. She's also a lot nicer to everyone than I'd've first guessed, I kinda expected similar vibes to Vivienne (who I'm pretty lukewarm on) and have been pleasantly surprised. The cutscene with her bonding with Assan is adorable and the fact that she just gave the skeleton a nickname makes me happy.

- Lace: Lace Harding, the scout of all time. She was fun in DAI and I've loved seeing her get a good of development here. The Stone Song powers are an interesting bit of lore and it's been fun seeing her grow accustomed to that. She's also just really sweet and I like her a lot.

- Bellara: Ngl I think she might be the funniest bitch of all time. "So it's safe?" "No, I just mean... worrying won't help. Whatever happens will be instanteous! :)" (her and Davrin in the crossroads) is probably the thing that stuck with me the most on that front. Her backstory with her brother makes me pretty sad, though, but makes a lot of sense for her character. Also, love a woman who builds stuff.

- Lucanis: Gods I feel so bad about Treviso. This man has had it so rough and I only made it worse. The Spite situation is really interesting and I look forward to seeing how it's resolved, and I've really enjoyed seeing his interactions with the other Crows. He's also surprisingly nice for an assassin, considering we went to the Treviso marketplace and he went out of his way to buy something for everyone else on the team. I also find it kinda funny that he seems to be primarily in charge of the grocery shopping.

- Davrin: He comes with an adorable griffon, what more can I say?

... a bit, actually. I genuinely enjoy his storyline with learning to take of and train Assan, he's understandably having a bit of a tough time considering he has no idea what he's doing but he's really pushing through it and finding his way. The wood-carving hobby is really interesting, I don't think I would've guessed it but I like seeing companions have things they do other than beating up bad guys. The way he connects it to the monster handbook is also interesting-- I do have a lot of respect for him seeing other handbooks and deciding he needed to do it right.

Emmrich - Honestly I would love to take one of his classes. Not only would it be really interesting from a perspective of someone who likes Lore, he genuinely seems like a really good teacher with a lot of patience of his students, and he puts in the effort to individualise the learning experience. Manfred as a teacher's assistant would also be really fun. He's really polite with everyone and seeing how much more formal he is is a really fun contrast. The absolute terror of death that can only be quelled by surrounding himself with the dead also works well with the idea of a necromancer.

Taash - I'll be using they/them for Taash since I'm at a point in the game where their gender isn't entirely clear. They're dealing with it. Taash has such a rough time with their mom, I've never had an overvearing parent like that but it's very believable how they respond. I also really love the "People who've only ever been one thing will never understand how big the world is" line that technically comes from Rook, but it's a really good line and it's a good early bonding moment for them. They're also a just little stupid I think (there's a couple Lighthouse interactions ypu can listen in on that exemplify this), but they've got big muscles and breathe fire so they'll be fine.

Bonus round

Assan - BABY. I love this little griffon. He's really clever and full of mischief and I can hug him whenever I want. Perfect character.

Manfred - For some reason my brain keeps thinking his name is Martin. That aside, he's such a silly little fella. He's a spirit of curiosity. He picked his own skull. He loves to make tea. He'll get in a fight with a griffon only to team up to beg for treats. I don't even know if he can eat. I doubt he knows if he can eat. He's got goofy glasses. You can play rock paper scissors with him. Icon.

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

hi for the ask thing: i dont really know much about kirby but what are your thoughts on meta knight?

omg and hi !!!

favorite thing about them:i think hals insistence on portraying him as the coolest guy ever while doing things like putting him on a bat floatie n saying he hides parfaits in his cape n releasing a plushie of him in a mini car of himself w a stupid hat is so silly n cool

least favorite thing about them:i dont think i got any hes a fun character!

favorite line:

(super star ver/super star ultra ver)

goddd this scene drives me insaneee.ik the super star version is a toned down translation but its still sweet n then the actual version?? guys forget the mecha knight stuff the true meta knight angst material is this godamn scene !!! the hidden bond he has w his crew their loyalty to him the struggle w communication !!! my god!!!

brOTP:the meta knights.points to the paragraph above.dies.

OTP:i think metadedede is fun bc of their portrayal in battle royale 2 Much Like Everyone Else.i also like his ships w galacta n morpho BUT only for aesthetic art.i dont see any appeal in them for personality or lore (specially since my takes on those two leave them w little identity lol) but angel n demon art ? demon n grim reaper art ? hi.

nOTP:none tbh

random headcanon:i like to think absolutely nothing interesting happened in his backstory, hes an only child who was mildly spoiled n had loving parents who were well off n it drives him insane he wants to be an edgy tragic knight SO bad but his parents send letters every week straight to the halberd n the meta knights awww outloud reading them.

unpopular opinion:i think ppl rly overhype the mecha knight accident from planet robobot for cheap angst tbh.hes.hes fine guys.the robot parts susie put on him literally fell off.tbh i think hes happy he can overhype the whole thing himself for his aesthetic.

song i associate with them:the ending song for revenge of meta knight is too damn iconic for me not to mention

favorite picture of them:

beep beep!

[jinhsiimain]

Character Impressions

My first impressions + later opinions on the characters

The Goddess she's so freaking pretty!! I actually squealed when I saw her, she's jaw dropping gorgeous. Pls come back miss and don't pull an unknown genshin god on me ☹

Rover - more had hopes for a short haired girl mc but she had to join the rat tail gang :/ amnesia is definitely kind of a boring plot device but I'll roll with it.

Yangyang love her voice, reminds me of Qiqi, cute design - don't really know what role she's playing in the story yet other than like our guide but if she's just that I wouldn't mind having a calm one. she acted a little sus about baizhi and us I guess?? and her role??

I love her connection to the wind via her aero affinity (?) and would love to find more about it as well! She's part of the Midnight rangers.

Chixia she's cute too, her design bugs me a bit cuz of the hair and the weird jacket I guess? she's definitely kind of paimon (sorry for the references but like yeah) food and stuff but she seems to take her job as a ranger(?) seriously!!

Baizhi miss elegant + mysterious. Definitely like her calm aura as well, she's from the academy which I'm really interested in. she knows something and I wanna be in on it too.

Jinhsi ♡ girl appeared out of nowhere and stole my heart, asked me out on a date and vanished for 3 days I'm super interested, miss magistrate looks majestic as fuck. (the reason I like her design so much might me cuz she reminds me a little of firefly)

Sanhua another majestic woman I'm in paradise. her eye thing is so fucking cool I want to know more about her as well. She's suspicious too, obviously, but that's just adding to the suspense. if big plot device why 4 star ☹ (could say the same about the rest of the cast so far 😭)

Jinhsi sent her to watch over us.

Mortefi bro has a funky name. at first I was like nahhh but he's kind and I wanna know what his deal is as well.

Jianxin Girl also appeared out of nowhere. the reason I knew her name is cuz i looked at the gacha beforehand. She looks super cool, love her ying/yang/monk theme. massive xianyun/shenhe vibes I think?

She's super kind and I want her to be more involved in the plot.

Scar Okay Scar seems to be the bad guy. He's a little insane and knows too much about our backstory?? And he's got long ass nails. I want to trust him with the lore dumps but he seems really dangerous. His Elysium ability is super cool.

Spiderlily themed girl Scar's companion of same (?) power level. Love her design and voice, hope to meet her again soon.

Jiyan The current general of the midnight rangers, he fought with us at the Norfall Barrens. At first I didn't really like his design but now I think it's neat. He is kind and looks out for us.

Encore ♡ A member of the Black Shores. If sweetness was a person, it would be encore. She is adorable and silly, I love her so much. Her design is adorable and I can't wait to see her again! She's so energetic and loud in the best way and her dynamic with Aalto makes me smile.

Calcharo ~ It appears we haven't met yet

Aalto A member of the Black Shores. This guy I swear to god. At first I thought he would be another Sampo to me because I could not see myself liking him at all, but he is genuinely such a sweet guy??? Like I said, the dynamic with Encore is everything to me and might be my favourite duo so far even. His design is also really cool and he's got such a pretty face, I adore his eyes.

Danjin ~ It appears we haven't met yet

Lingyang ~ It appears we haven't met yet

Taoqi A security overseer? I don't remember her title, sorry- Her design, like almost everyone is really pretty although her jiggle physics are somewhat concerning. We haven't seen much of her yet which is sad but I hope we see more in future updates. Her voice is gentle and I love her vibe although she doesn't stand out to me much (yet).

Verina A botanist. She loves plants and is friends with that one granny and seems to know Encore as well. She is a free spirit and eager to help. Her design might be one of my favorites yet - her dress with the hood, the twintails, flowers and legwarmers are just perfect.

Yinlin ~ It appears we haven't met yet

Yuanwu I don't have much to say about him other than that he's goofy and we've barely seen him ;-;

Camellya ♡ MISS ???? GIRL? ??? I am afraid I will like her more than Jinhsi - She's so ahhh HER DESIGN IS EVERYTHING LIKE SHE'S ADORABLE BUT ACTS SO IDK OKAY I love her already. GIVE ME MORE ♡

[featherglum]

Silly transformers ocs that came to me in a dream (except I heavily altered the designs and lore from the original vision)

In the dream, I was browsing a website similar to artfight and saw a transformers oc named Priest ( @sonia-aquamarineson 's oc Gusty was on there too, but he was called Herring. This has no bearing on the rest of the lore, it was just funny). Priest's original design was a bit different from the current one and looked more like this:

(Made with this picrew and edited a bit to be more accurate. I didn't draw him because I wanted to get his design down ASAP before forgetting everything + I wasn't very confident in drawing tf characters yet.)

His lore was very inconsistent. A picture on his page implied that his alt mode was a speaker, but the first line of his description said it was a set of silverware. But that was contradicted too at the end where it said he was "a book with pages as brittle as his trust". There was also a mention of how someone cursed him and since then he just stayed at home.

There were also these 3 pictures that were, (allegedly) related to his backstory:

(Some nun looking with disapproval, Priest's human version looking sad or scared and finally, a weird Christmas tree with a face [what])

So yeah. Priest's backstory was pretty nonsensical, but thankfully after sharing the dream with Sonia (because Gusty was there briefly) we were both so normal about the guy that we decided to make his lore make sense.

Basically:

Pine was a cringefail scientist fed up with having his lab at some abandoned, rusty old base next to a junkyard in the middle of nowhere and wanted the other cons to finally respect him. So when his inventions weren't impressive enough, he had a different plan

He was going to kidnap some autobot and then contact their friends with a typical "grr hand over the secret info or your friend will die >:-[" message. But here's the twist! Before that, he would put a bomb inside the bot's chassis, which would activate when they leave the base. So even if the friends showed up to heroically rescue their bestie, they would still die anyway! Yippee!!

He managed to catch an unsuspecting bot, which happened to be Priest, and all seemed to be going well...

.. Until it turned out Priest was about as respected by the autobots as Pine was by the decepticons. When contacted, Priest's acquaintances couldn't care less about him possibly dying. They didn't seem too keen on heroically rescuing him, but didn't hand over the information Pine wanted, either.

Pine wasn't sure what to do. Sure, the bomb was already there, just waiting to be detonated. But on the other hand... was it really worth it? What's the point of this kind of murder when no one is watching?! When there's no one the lament the loss of their loved one?! And as much as he hated to admit it, he felt some sympathy for Priest, who was as much of a loser as he was.

Pine was like "ok, kidnapping's over, your murder is cancelled. Lemme take that bomb out of your chassis real quick. Then you can go wherever you want and forget this ever happened. Sorry for wasting your time". And yeah he took that bomb out but there was another problem.

Priest didn't really have anywhere to go and didn't want to come back to the autobots, considering how little they cared about him.

And so, he ended up staying with Pine and joining the decepticons (which had little to do with the actual ideology and more with wanting their partnership to look less suspicious). Priest spends his days helping Pine with his inventions and digging through the junkyard for any interesting devices he could use as an alt mode (since there isn't much else to do there, really). As such, he changes his alt mode very often and it's a bit hard to keep up with sometimes. However, one form he often comes back to is an arcade machine (which is the design pictured in his ref!)

Also don't ask how an arcade machine ended up in space. This is a ridiculous little story about a pathetic pine tree robot and and a guy named Priest. And it was based on a dream. Weirdness is unavoidable here.

Oh that was long. If you're still reading say. Uh. Idk just say something.

And shoutout to @sonia-aquamarineson yet again for helping me figure out the lore and her contributions to Pine's design!!

If anyone has questions about them, my asks are always open

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Iron Squadron"

Unexpected Sato backstory??? And other fun things!

Oh hey, the rare Star Wars planet that is not one single biome!

My son looking cutely contemplative. :)

Hera's the first to mention that Sato has "connections" here, and my brain automatically assumed family even before the reveal.

This freighter the kids are using is a YT-2400, which apparently was kind of a big deal to Legends fans because of some dude named Dash Rendar. This is not my area of lore expertise so I won't comment on that, but I will observe that if fanbros had an expectation of seeing that guy in this episode then it makes more sense why they got pissy when it was revealed the crew was upstart plucky kids instead.

Still, adult Star Wars fans really have got to stop mindlessly hating on teen/kid characters.

"They're attacking the Empire head on!" I mean, y'all have a Corellian freighter too and you do that all the time. I guess the YT-2400 looks way more civilian grade to them, no obvious modifications.

Why is Kanan in the turret, guys? Yeah yeah I know he has the Force to help him "see" but this is just... silly.

Hera still operating under the impression that it's a civilian ship. I mean technically it is but also you're in the Rebellion Hera, we literally just had an Imperial ace talk about how y'all use whatever ship that flies a few episodes ago lol.

You know the trick with the cargo crates is actually pretty clever. The YT-2400 obviously has very little actual armament aside from the one top gun, very easy to lull your enemy into thinking you're harmless.

Lol Zeb accurately calling that Iron Squadron is "a ship-full of Ezras".

I haven't commented on it before but sometimes Ezra just sits like such a typical teenager, using the furniture in all the wrong ways.

Big fan of the slightly vulnerable note in Sato's voice here.

Lol Ezra and Sabine's faces here.

"If you like a junk pile." "Be nice." A+ adorable banter moment, love it.

There goes Chopper antagonizing other droids again.

Mart is surly and grumpy and looks like a shaggy kitten and I love him. <3

Gooti trying to diffuse the tension in the room by offering waffles. Relatable.

Mart honestly sounds just a bit like Dark Side Drunk Ezra, the undernotes of anger in his voice, insisting that they have things under control and don't need help. Honestly it was kind of an amazing and interesting idea to put Ezra alongside a bunch of (slightly) younger kids a few rungs back on the character development ladder to contrast how much more mature he's gotten.

Mart confusing different Imperial ships for a Star Destroyer is also a great running gag. Sabine gets so annoyed lol.

Lothal still looking relatively pretty.

I would really like to praise Lars Mikkelson for making me creeped out by the most innocuous of scenes with Thrawn, all the man has to do is comment on Iron Squadron being interesting and mildly insult Konstantine and my skin crawls, ggughhhh.

Thrawn setting up lesser officers for failure again.

Relating to deliberately casting Ezra as the more mature one, it even extends to how they keep posing him this episode. He's not more than a year or two older than the Iron Squadron kids and yet he feels so much older in his bearing and manner of speaking.

The shoulder nudge and the way Sabine goes, "Hmm?" makes me think they're improving this on the fly.

I've joked before about this looking like a cute family photo but it's still true.

Spaceparents be skeptical lol.

Chopper just whacking the panel with hammer. XD

"This might be just a planet to you, but it's our home!" Hoo boy, that's the heart of it isn't it? Ezra has been through this exact thing. So he understands the instinct to dig in and fight back. But like Mon Mothma would later remind him in Season Four, you can't save every planet right away. Sometimes you have to retreat and regroup, and come back stronger later.

Sometimes you have to leave home.

It doesn't mean you don't fight. It just means you don't let your fear of loss make you stupid.

Once again leaning on that message of "How we choose to fight."

This is purely in the realm of headcanon but Mart's obsession with suicidally charging a Star Destroyer makes me think that might be how his father died, or something similar to it at least.

Gooti and Jonner sharing a look like, "Uhhhhhh maybe they have a point about our ship being way too small to take on the Empire alone."

Yeah, no, I'm sticking with my idea that Mart has just a little bit of a death wish and wants to go out taking revenge against the Empire that killed his father.

Precious little rage bean. <3

Sabine reminding Ezra not to get in trouble with Hera for disobeying orders again.

It's okay Sabine, he's learned that lesson lol.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The sheer floof to Mart's hair. I can't believe how much volume it feels like has, just from the way it shifts around his head.

"I am all the family he has left." :((((

STILL SO MAD THAT WE NEVER GOT MART'S REACTION TO SATO'S SACRIFICE AT THE BATTLE OF ATOLLON.

Right, continuing with the Mart-is-literally-Ezra-from-a-couple-seasons-prior parallels, Mart's disbelief and delight at the Ghost coming back for him.

And Konstantine makes a really stupid decision in the effort to... idk, give himself more glory? He literally has enough ships and firepower to blow both freighters to bits and he insists on this showy mine trap move.

This is why Thrawn sent you by yourself, pal, he wanted to see if you'd croak.

Lol the Ghost took a potshot at the light cruiser as it was passing.

Chopper continuing in the grand habit of bullying other droids.

Ahhhhhhh Sato came! He was too far away to be able to get there on time and he came anyway!

HIS FACE.

Yeah uh, Konstantine? You should have known the mine plan would never have worked as soon as you lost signal contact with it. Also it's really stupid to let them get the ship that close to your cruiser before you try to detonate it.

Mart's little "...Oh." expression. <3 A+ running gag payoff, no complaints.

HNNNNNGGHHHHH YOU CAN'T JUST IMPLY THAT THRAWN AND SATO HAVE SOME KIND OF CONNECTION AND THEN NOT FOLLOW UP ON THAT. At least let us get some Sato backstory out of it, c'mon.

Thrawn calling Konstantine just to rub the embarrassment in.

THIS IS WHY HE DISOBEYED YOUR ORDERS AT ATOLLON DUDE. MAYBE NEXT TIME DON'T HUMILIATE YOUR UNDERLINGS BY DELIBERATELY SENDING THEM INTO SITUATIONS YOU KNOW THEY'LL BUNGLE.

Aw frick.

Don't think about the Kanan-Ezra parallels, don't think about the Kanan-Ezra parallels, don't think about the Kanan-Ezra parallels--

They're adorable.

And we couldn't let the episode close without getting one last gag in by way of Chopper rolling up to R3 and smacking him for no damn reason lololol.

I unironically love this episode and these kids. <3 Fandom was way too mean about this episode, why do y'all hate fun?

There are a few things introduced in this episode that really should have been picked back up and followed through on and yeah, a couple moments are a smidge cringe. But the humor is overall solid and sue me Mart Mattin is precious and I love the depth his existence adds to Sato. AND I WANTED SO MUCH MORE I DON'T CARE THAT I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVES THEM I NEEDED MORE IRON SQUADRON.

*ahem* I'm normal about this episode. Soooo normal.

[nebulouscoffee]

if you'd like a distraction of some kind: what's an episode of star trek that you think is great, but is often overlooked by fans and why?

(This was from earlier this week and I really appreciate it!! <3)

I was just talking about this with a friend but Voyager's 'Jetrel' is sooo under discussed in almost every corner of Trek fandom - I'd say I don't know why, but I don't think the fans can be solely blamed here, because the show barely ever builds on what this episode sets up either! Which is a shame imo, because it's one of the most impactful Neelix episodes of the series- it really sheds a lot of light on why he is the way he is, how much of his jovial "just a silly little guy who's here to make you smile!" persona is born of severe trauma and pain- how the way he latches onto community building and overprotects Kes are quite literally trauma responses. It also raises very relevant questions about the complicity of scientists in genocide (which is so important in a franchise that usually espouses the healing potential of science). I'm sure some would disagree with the "I forgive you" scene (and quite honestly there is a pattern in Trek where characters are made to forgive their abusers and/or people who committed war crimes against theirs, I won't deny that) - but I'm honestly quite fascinated by it? I spend a lot of time thinking about forgiveness on one's own terms and the power of it, and I genuinely do believe different approaches work for different people (like I love that Kira never had a scene where she had to forgive Dukat for example, that would've been so demeaning for her character! She's someone who would live a long happy life if she never saw him again at any point during the show. But Neelix... he can't even handle one of his colleagues finding him vaguely annoying, I just get the feeling that he'd forever be haunted by this if he didn't get closure). Of course, I would never, ever, ever expect someone in his position to forgive Jetrel- but it doesn't surprise me that he'd want to, and I think that conversation is what allowed him to move on (I'm definitely someone who can't be at peace without forgiving, personally- I'm not sure how I feel about this mentality being uniformly perceived as weak! It's just different. Forgiveness =/= tolerance or acceptance of being treated badly or permitting/endorsing bad behaviour imo). Anyway I really wish the events of this episode had impacted Neelix's writing down the line more, and I would've loved more lore on Rinax- but as a standalone it's one that always stuck with me (I have a lot of thoughts on how Neelix and his "weird" ("alien") social habits, skillsets, perceived lack of boundaries- and yes, his tragic and expertly-hidden backstory- were very deliberately written in a way that invokes immigrants and people from the third world generally, and how his position both in Voyager's social circle and the reception of him among fans becomes very Interesting in this light- but that's a whole different conversation lol)

[duckwithablog]

Hey duck! Little update! I’m feeling better. Thank you for the kind words! The good vibes were very much appreciated. <333

As a follow-up to your response, I also liked happy wheels back in the day! I never played it myself, but I loved watching happy wheels on YouTube. Furthermore, I too enjoy the Sonic franchise… despite how terrible I am at playing the games heh… I’m starting to realize that we have a lot of the same interests. 🙃😅

Anyways, I’ll leave you with a few questions as always. <33

What’s your favorite sonic character? As edgy as he is, Shadow is my favorite. (I’m sorry, but like- guy actually has a good backstory with Maria.)

Also, have you seen Sonic Prime, or Sonic X? 👀

-🍑 anon

Man, it's like we're the same person frfr,, Insert spiderman pointing meme here

Honestly, valid!! I can see why Shadow is such a fan favorite, he's such a silly and traumatized little blorbo. His backstory with Maria is so tragic, like.... Bro sees his sister figure get gunned down in front of him, and not only that, ever since waking up from the pod he is literally alone. Everyone on the ark that he knew, the only family he's ever had, they're all gone. RAHH HES SO TRAGIC!!! BUT HE ALSO OWNS A GUN IN HIS OWN GAME AND THATS FUCKING HILARIOUS

I can't believe u got me thinking about Shadow the Hedgehog at one in the morning LMAOOO

Anyways!! You are NOT ready for my fav sonic character. He is literally peak blorbo to me. I love him with all my heart.

Are you ready. Are you ready to be fucking blown away with how AMAZING my blorbo is. (/lh)

THATS HIM. THAT IS MY BOY. HIS NAME IS IAN JR AND BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING, HE IS AN OFFICIAL (YET VERY MINOR) SONIC CHARACTER AND I LOVE HIM HE IS SO FUCKING SILLY RAAHGHHG

His lore and how he became official is honestly very simple, but it's like 1am so I'll just link a video if you want to know more abt him!! (The Sonic OC That Became Official - YouTubewww.youtube.com › watch)

But aside from Ian Jr, my other favorites has GOT to be Knuckles (he is my babygirl) and Chaos Sonic from Sonic Prime (my fav beepo ever)!!!

Man.... Blorbo, Babygirl, and Beepo.... It's like the Holy Trinity of my brainrot

As you can tell, I've seen Sonic Prime! It's one of my favorite pieces of Sonic media, and one I'm looking forward to the most, bcs I think s3 is coming out somewhere around early 2024. I haven't finished Sonic X, but I've watched a majority of the first season and I loved it! I've been planning to go back to it and watch the sub version instead, because I wanna see any cut scenes the satan of censorship (4Kids) left out in the dub.

That's all from me!! Hope you continue to do well, 🍑 anon!! Until then, do you have a fav piece of sonic media? Are there any games youve played?

[loregoddess]

6,11,12,26 and 35? :D

6. Who's your favorite lord/protagonist? Hnngh, technically Alear bc I think they were handled really well as a protagonist character and I adore their characterization and personality, and also as an "avatar-esque" character they fix a lot of issues I personally have with "avatar" and "avatar-esque" characters and also offer the solution to a very specific bone I have to pick w/ an entirely unrelated series that I won't get into bc it's not FE. But mostly I just, adore Alear, what a kind and sweet character, despite all the horrors.

Also I don't talk about it ever, but I really like Ike as a protagonist bc he's. Just some guy. Not royalty, not nobility, not secretly anyone special or of some sort of crazy bloodline (and we all know Tellius has some weird stuff going on with bloodlines), he's just a guy who gets caught up in things, and does his damned best to keep his friends alive through it all.

11. A character that deserved better? Answered here!

But for some more characters, I've got so many thoughts about Subaki (there are a lot of interesting implications about his past, but lack of any proper characterization beyond his joke trait of being a snooty perfectionist means I am literally grasping at straws; fandom likewise ignores him which is wild bc he's our first canonical male pegasus knight, but I mean, large cast so I get it), and Izana having a paired ending with Corrin for Revelations (in both the Japanese and localized versions) despite dying will haunt me forever (also rip that localization, I swear my love for this character isn't as random as it seems, I just happened to follow all the Japanese-release stuff before the localization dropped a year later, and have a really confusing impression of all the Fates characters as a result).

For Echoes, despite my ignoring him every run bc Sonya pretty, I think Deen should have had more...just more everything, I guess. In the actual game, since all his backstory is hidden in the artbook/records book project. He's actually a really cool character overall, but Sonya feels like she has so much more narrative relevance bc of Jedah and Marla and Hestia.

For 3H bc I have a whole lot of thoughts about all sorts of characters, I actually really wanted Sothis to get more...I dunno, narrative relevance as well. I wanna know what her regained memories were, her thoughts about Fodlan as it is. About Rhea and Seteth and Flayn. Three Hopes doesn't count bc the writers kinda butchered Sothis's characterization to the point of hardly being recognizable, and she deserved better than that.

12. A game that deserved better? Hmmmmmmmm, Engage and Fates for sure, at least as far as fan reception goes. Engage's was at least a bit better, but I still see people recycling the old arguments over Fates even all these years later and it's like, listen it was Fine, it was a good game, leave it be. (Also wildly unpopular opinion, but I think 3H--both Houses and Hopes--deserved better writing. What we got was okay, but it could have been so much better. For all the complaints it gets, at least Fates has consistent and completed worldbuilding with little to no questions about lore things at the end of all the routes and DLC. Like I love 3H, I really do, which is why I wish I got More and also Higher Quality writing and worldbuilding and lore and everything).

26. Come up with a pitch for a new FE title, no matter how silly it is! Let's blend fantasy with horror bc it's spooky season. Two nations are fighting each other over [insert some stupid excuse for a war to get people to enlist, but it's actually a scheme to get the people in power more power], and each nation has access to various weapons and things that seem normal at first, but slowly become more sinister and horrific the more the protagonist learns about them (i.e. maybe one of the armies has access to seemingly humane homunculi soldiers as an alternate to sending citizens to war, but it's later revealed that they can only be manufactured with parts of the dead, and the nation using them harvested their own population to make the homunculi army).

I dunno who this protagonist is, but I want them to be just some random person who gets caught up in things bc I love random people who get caught up in things. Anyhow, eventually the protagonist and friends figure out that both nations are harvesting their "technologies" from some sort of eldritch horror buried deep beneath the earth (which is NOT an evil entity, I feel this is important to note, but like I think it should be how the nations are using the being that's malicious, and the being is just a thing that exists), and I dunno, instead of fighting god or the being (which can be a dragon of sorts for the purposes of this being FE, and also be we don't have enough weird dragons in fiction), the protagonist and friends have to find a way to root out the corruption in both nations' rulers or something, although how balancing taking out two different final bosses would work who are also very much trying to kill each other, without doing split routes (which I'd like to avoid if possible) would be a task. (Maybe have the protagonist start off as part of an uprising/rebellion in one nation and then after throwing out the corrupt rulers, have to turn around and somehow fend off invasion from the other nation? I dunno, I'd have to think on this plot point a bit).

Oh but, hm...I've written all this, and now I kinda like the idea. Might let it stew in the back of my head for an original project later on.........

35. What's something you wish IntSys would just stop doing? I will sound like a broken record, but I think gender-locked classes are stupid, I want them vanished. Fates had it right (although I think I should have been allowed to stick men in maid dresses and women in butler suits. As a treat). If I can have nothing else, I want the gender-locked classes removed forever.

I'm also not a fan of split-routes (although again, Fates handled them better than 3H, in my opinion, but they're still a lot of work to get through). I was so relieved Engage was just one route. It's not like they're bad per se, it's just that FE has been kinda messy with the narrative trying to span that many routes. I'd rather have solid, consistent characterization and worldbuilding in a single route, than a flimsy attempt to explore various "what ifs".

EXCEPT for whatever the fresh hell FE Heroes is doing--the multiverse can continue to exist in that with all its weird "characters from this alternate universe you didn't even know existed now exist and can be summoned to fight alongside you in this incomprehensible Norse-themed story". Whatever FEH is doing is hilarious, I will never play it ever in my life, but I love seeing all the character art and pretty animated cutscenes. (And sometimes we get tidbits of interesting characterization for wildly underdeveloped characters. Sometimes).

[technicalknockout]

PIGEON OC LORE DUMP PIGEON OC LORE DUMP ❗️❗️❗️❗️

*flaps excitedly* PIGEON OC LORE DUMP

warning long and incoherent with way too many elizabeths than required

Oh my god i realized there is no fricking way im explaining everything today theres so MUCH HDKKSJDKS i'll just explain the basic mythology and some of my favorite guys

Ok we need to start with the gods

Once upon a time there was nothing. One day Nothing decided it wanted to be something. It split itself into multiple parts and those parts became the first three gods. The part of Nothing that wanted to be something became Creator (cre) and the part that liked being Nothing became Red (ree. This is a placeholder name i really cant decide on a fitting name for red hdjsdkskd). Also there was this indecisive middle guy and their name is Astral (starry. Starry is important because they're the responsible sibling. They mostly do everything)

These are the Incompetent God Siblings. There are smaller gods who split from the siblings but theyre mostly irrelevant. Also the gods look like birds (actually it's the other way around, birds look like gods because the gods wanted to put something that looks like themselves in the mortal realm. Kind of like self insert ocs dhjskfkd) so i also call them Birbs

Anyway the thousands of new gods just hung around for some time in their newfound existance until cre decided this was boring. So the gods all decided to make some universes with stuff in it. Except ree who was against the whole 'existing' thing in the first place and was a grump about it, so the gods conpromised with ree and put a expiration date on the universe. Spoilers: this leads to some politic problems later on

So tada theres a universe now. Multiple universes. Parallel worlds are relevant later but that would make this post longer than an entire novel series so dropping that topic

Now onto the actual ocs dhjdkskfks

Domino aka Elizabeth the 3rd. (Some quick background lore, the elizabeths are guys who are trapped in an unending loop of reincarnation (courtesy of ree). They all have their own memories and personalities but share some core traits such as god obsession) Domino is part of the "villain squad" in the plot and a (pseudo)scientist who works at the shadow government. She's very cold and NOT interested in anything except for her (ethically questionable) experiments concerning angels and, unfortunately, the main characters. She was relatively fine until she got involved in some plot relevant scheme as a kid and almost died now shes Not Fine.. has two lab assistants Apel Pine (pineapple) and Stein Mango (mangosteen. Theyre 9 years old, twins and orphans, domino named them and yes she is canonically bad at names). Pineapple is traumatized and deprieved of affection, desperately seeking love from domino who is the only thing close to a parent figure he's ever had. Domino does not notice nor does she care.. which makes pineapple :(. He's aggressive to others and needs therapy. Unlike him though, mangosteen is very okay! Mostly because pineapple tried his very best to protect mango from the bad things in life. It worked and pineapple now has twice the trauma he was supposed to have, while mango has none. He turned out as a silly little guy who is oblivious to the horrors and he tries really really hard to make everyone get along. And he likes snow :D theres a short backstory behind pineapple and mango from before they were domino's assistants which explains why theyre Like That, which i will maybe perhaps talk about later

Also in a different universe theres a 12 year old menace called damo who wears a poncho thingie and claims to be the most evil villain in the whole universe (she isnt she has no idea what a villain is, she thinks theyre cool people who explode stuff). She likes bombs and doing disney villain laughs. She is the silly ever and nothing bad happens to her and i love her very very much

[lliwless]

tell me more about the sbi pokemon au? im interested if you planned out any teams or gave backstories for any of the people/their main partner pokemon

HELLO YES I'D LOVE TO!!! i'll put it under the cut because it's a LOT of rambling and i don't know how to make my thoughts concise LOL (seriously this is very long)

i originally made the AU when the DSMP was still at its height of popularity, i think right after hannah joined? the story was going to follow benchtrio going all around sinnoh, meeting EVERYONE from the dsmp who were living their silly little AU lives, and getting tangled in a bunch of Lore with the lake trio and creation trio, but a combination of burnout & lack of interest in a lot of the CCs after a while made me eventually downscale it to just being SBI-centric instead and cutting out a lot of characters. I still really like some of the ideas I came up with before dropping them though, regardless of how half-baked they are LOL.

in the original version, benchtrio were going to have the three starters - tommy with chimchar, ranboo with piplup and tubbo with turtwig. they'd eventually get other pokemon as the story progresses but I didn't really plan much before dropping the idea oTL

tommy was gonna catch a shinx who'd match his energy and eventually a buneary like in the comic (itd be a really cute story of enemies to "i would kill and die for you" bc i love buneary starting with 0 friendship in the game LOL), ranboo was gonna catch an abra bc "hes anxious just like me fr" and tubbo was gonna catch an onix. bc he would and i think the image of him looking innocent in front of a giant fuck-off snake creature of Rocks is funny as hell LOL

the story would follow all of them getting badges and working together to be the regional champion but along the way they'd realise they wanna do other stuff instead - mostly ranboo with pokemon contests and tubbo with breeding, aiding phil in research (he'd create a little garden/pokemon nature reserve around lake verity IT WAS GONNA BE CUTE!!!). i don't remember tommy LOL

here's art for ranboo doing pokemon contests (this is 2 years old im better at designing characters now i promise. i promise)

off the top of my head i also know that niki was gonna own a chain of bakeries with the main one she's usually at in eterna city, with food-themed pokemon from all types of regions gifted to her by wilbur (MORE ON HIM SOON). eterna city specifically because the bike mechanic guy would be jack fucking manifold the absolute legend AND THEYRE BEST FRIENDS IN THIS AU TOO!!!! jack would have electric & steel-type pokemon but his partner would be pachirisu who's basically co-owned by niki as well :3

SBI TIME philza was gonna be the professor and his partner is a specific murkrow called "chatterbox", shortened to "chat". no i don't care if it's too easy. he's seen as kinda quirky, kinda scary, because he's constantly followed by (and arguing with) flocks of murkrow wherever he goes - SPEAKING OF I DIDNT SHOW ART OF THEM. RAAAA

wilbur was phil's son and he honestly just wanted to fuck around and find out. his curiosity landed him a solid position at his father's side as a sort of apprentice as well as son, and while he contributed a lot of helpful work he also mostly just liked travelling around with his partner drifblim, almost becoming the charismatic face for sinnoh's research team instead of his more blunt, off-putting father. that's how he introduced niki to food-related pokemon :33 also he's evil and fucked up but i'll get back to that

TECHNOBLADE MY BELOVED!!!!! the regional champion, moved to sinnoh from unova when he was 18 after dropping out of college due to mental health reasons and wanted a complete fresh restart in a new region, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. he started physically training in the wild with pokemon, living essentially as a hermit and travelling all around sinnoh, learning to live peacefully and control his anxiety while befriending pokemon on the way. he met phil by chance when camping in a forest and phil was like wow ur strong why dont u try becoming champion and techno was like ??????? and phil challenged him to a battle and techno understandably sweeped him and his team off their feet. and phil was like Yeah Holy Fuck You're Strong. go do the thing. go challenge ppl. and techno was like yea sure why not. he has not lost a single battle :) also he kept meeting up with phil after gaining his first couple of badges, gaining a reputation for being unbeatable, and got gifted a cleffa by phil when venting about his stress and anxiety and stuff. cleffa became techno's emotional support partner and it makes me so so happy :33

this post is already so long i havent even properly scratched the surface of the story and this is only the original version... i'm sorry i'm not a very good storyteller especially when it's so hard for me to keep track of my thoughts :') lmk if anyone's interested in any more ajhaghja

[asystemerror]

Drop the blorbo list! Tell us why you like them!

Prompt from here!

I have a lot,,,,, Some I haven't even yapped about on here yet,,,,,, Imma break them up by fandom though to make reading easier haha

Identity V:

-Andrew Kreiss:

I like Andrew for a lot of reasons! His design, gameplay, overall theme, there's so much I could ramble on and on about. I remember what really cemented him on my fave list was parts of his personality and general character tidbits (one being sun sensitivity). Additionally, a lot of what I consider to be my "weirder" interests happen to align with him. Sometimes it's easier to delve into them and be my authentic cringe self with the guise of character deep dives haha.

All in all, I think he's an interesting character. Kinda my go to guy to say "Ah yes my son" when speaking about fictional characters.

-Emma Woods:

One of my faves from when I first started! She actually was one of the 3 that drew me in tbh (I called her the "cute gardener girl" back then). I remember being convinced I would main her, but alas.... only in duos. Despite this, she's stands strong as one of my top faves. I find her backstory/manor game to be really interesting - and weirdly entertaining considering the drama she causes in the game. I really enjoy her general "cutesy but dangerous" vibe. I've always been a sucker for that troupe.

Additionally, Lady Truth is one of my favorite spin off characters in the game! I love a good mystery with a female lead!! I honestly hope we see more of her outside of anniversary events.... She has so much good lore potential!

-Kurt Frank:

I didn't choose the Kurt life.... the Kurt like chose ME. No seriously I never would have guessed I'd end up mailing him. The percypocolypse does things to a man. I'm glad it did though. Kurt has honestly become one of my fave characters, I find him so silly and interesting. While his deductions are...interesting to read, I loved his manor game story! I wish there was more content of him (ex. translated twitter replies) I could look at for him :/ That aside, as a fellow daydreamer, I find Kurt's attitude contagious and his rambles fun. I wish he didn't die before sharing said story, but whatever. Maybe another event with him leading it will appear to fill the void with silly.

-Martha Behamfil:

Not only was she my first rescue main, but Martha helped me figure out my gender (real) (not clickbait). So uh, I do love her a lot for that. I also love her general themes of independence, while still keeping in touch with one's femininity in a way (ex. chasing her dreams to be a pilot while also indulging in a love life). I also just honestly love her outfits and gameplay as well. She's never not slayed in my eyes thus far. I have a very soft spot for her dskhafj -Ann

Annnn!!!! My lovely hunter main. She's sunk her cat claws into my heart and I do not wish for her to let go. I honestly love everything about her. Her backstory is hella engaging (NETEASE GIVE ME MORE FOOD), her abilities are fun, and honestly I find Apostle funny.

She was very quick to becoming one of my faves. I honestly could gush about her forever, but Im trying to keep these explanations semi fair!

-Michiko

I love Michi..... She brings me great calm and reminds me of my grandmother (she had a painting of geishas in her house when I was little). She's one of the few characters I've genuinely nearly cried after reading their backstory.

While I don't main her much anymore, I can't say I have ever stopped loving Michi as a character/looking at cool content of her. She's just gRAHHhh /POS

Fnaf:

-Mangle What's not to love about Mangle? They're like a silly dog. And I honestly fuck with that. I also just love there concept as like a robot nerd, but yk. My precious mungle fungle tungle bungle.

-Toy Bonnie

I honestly was very "meh" towards him for a good while. UNTIL I like essentially got kin assigned him by my old amino friends. He was basically my mascot for a bit so like I hold a lil bit of "hehe lil guy" to him.

-Ballora

I was OBSESSED with her as a kid. I cosplayed her, I drew her, I made fics, honestly I like was fully ready to see this crazy ballerina robot lady attack people. Alas, she only got scooped... LUCKILY THE FANDOM FILLED THE VOID THOUGH!! I love seeing neat content with her!

Don't Starve Together:

-Wendy My silly main! I mentally adopted her and Abagail a while ago hehe. I find them really fun to play, plus like... I think I just like semi morbid but cutesy characters so, HELL YEAH. I'm still learning the best way to play her, but I find it a fun relaxing experience to do. Overall I associate her with great calm and zen. She's a great gal.

MFMM: (Shortened list so I don't put the whole cast)

-Miss Fisher She is the moment, she is iconic, she IS Miss Fisher. No character has made me feel as empowered as she has. Like it's actually insane. She is another character that I associate with my grandma as well as they introduced me to the series itself. It truly wouldn't be Miss Fisher without me remembering the beautiful lady posed on the covers of the books on my grandmother's end table. Its been overall a very nice piece of media to sink my teeth into... NOT TO MENTION THERES SO MUCH OF IT!! I HAVENT EVEN FINISHED THE BOOKS!

-Dot

I love Dot. In both mediums of the series. Her character growth and overall attitude complements Miss Fisher's perfectly and is honestly such a delight to see. I also find her own moments of sleuthing to be really fun! I love when she has that strong confidence. TLDR: I wanna pinch her cheeks

[gatheryepower]

one piece liveblog - fishman island, punk hazard, and dressrosa

i should log some of my more recent thoughts on one piece over here because ive had a lot lately.

currently, my favourite characters are usopp, franky, law, and robin. since his return in punk hazard ive been really enjoying law, i see why he's so popular!

to be honest, i really didnt care for the fishman island saga like i thought i would. i was really excited to get to it, but i really didnt find it that engaging. i didnt care for the villains at all to be honest. even with their backstory. fisher tiger and jinbe are awesome, no doubt about it, but i honestly don't even remember the villain of fishman island's name. i just found them all kinda grating, except the cuttlefish guy, he was really funny.

punk hazard felt like a sort of return to what i enjoy most about one piece. i think my major issue with fishman island is that most of the crew barely felt like they did anything, or had much of importance to contribute to the arc. it was also lacking a kind of whimsy that i admire a lot about one piece, in a way that's hard to describe. i guess i find the whole fishman human conflict kind of contrived, or something about the set-up of the queen's backstory ticked me off in some way. it just didn't feel very compelling and i found it a little silly in a way that definitely wasn't intended by oda.

anyways, i was watching some old vods by RTVS and they mentioned onepace at some point, so i started using that at the end of fishman saga and have been sticking with it through dressrosa.

punk hazard and ESPECIALLY dressrosa have been great for like, character autonomy. they've all got their own motivations and are working together or separating based on them in really interesting ways. i've really enjoyed franky in this arc so far, with his conviction to the dwarves & helping the army to fight doflamingo. rebecca and the tin soldier are really compelling to me as well, although i really don't like rebecca's outfit.

some of the new characters that've been introduced i've really come around to as well! iwas a little dubious on bartolomeo and cavendish, but i've really turned aroudn on them -- especially bartolomeo. he's a really fun character with an awesome design, personality, and powers. the tin soldier is also a highlight, i love the way he fights and moves around. the lore with the toys on dressrosa is sooooo fucked up, especially what happened to the previous king... i was like. Jesus Christ lmao.

dressrosa's arc really captured my imagination so far, which is why i decided to have my first one piece OCs hail from there. love the spanish influence.

hell, i've even been enjoiying sanji again! i found him so deeply insufferable during fishman island and it was honestly really frustrating to watch him most of the time because of it. but it has been kind of getting better, or his love of women is being used in more constructive ways instead of driving the plot to a standstill and getting in the way. i actually find him and viola's dynamic pretty fun and interesting.

back to punk hazard, i want to say that i found the "fight" with zoro, monet, and tashigi a massive letdown and honestly frustrating. using zoro in this role of "i wont fight you because youre a girl" was aggravatingly OOC not just internally, but like, externally in oda's use of zoro in the past. that fight between monet and tashigi deserved to be much more compelling than it was, and i do think it's fine that zoro considered them beneath him internally, like thinking of him as a person, but oda is the one who put these women in these positions, made them react and interact with zoro in this way. it was pretty annoying.

anyways, i'm absolutely LOVING dressrosa so far. all the whimsy is back. the character-driven decisions & interactions are in full force and with all the charm i've come to love from one piece. it's a really deeply enjoyable arc and although i haven't finished it, it's definitely going to rank high among my favourites

[kirbee-hd]

what a cute little guy :] (I'm also not gonna lie and say I've also never given a sona too much lore and turned them into an OC)

so recently I've been kinda obsessed with some OCs from Beetle and Ant's universe (you remember them)

This is Spring Heeled Jack (or just Jack). He's based on a prominent figure from European folklore of the same name. He's also based on a fun fact I heard that stated all Jacks from folklore are believed to be derived from the same Jack, so I incorporated the Folktale of Stingy Jack.

his backstory is basically the same as Stingy Jack's (look it up, it's where jack o lanterns come from) with two main differences. First, when Hack cheats death with the devil for the first time he also asks for "cool super powers" and much like a monkey's paw the devil gives him a seemingly useless power, the power to jump really high. Of course Jack is very resourceful and used this power along with some other tricks to become "Spring Heeled Jack, The Terror of London". Second, unlike the Stingy Jack story Jack is not cursed to eternally rot guided by nothing but a will o wisp in a turnip, he's just got normal immortality. After years of being Spring Heeled Jack he decided to fake his death in order to make his big triumphant return when the time is right. He does eventually do that, much to the shock of everyone.

Jack is just the silliest little guy, he's obsessed with trickery and the path of mischief. He's just a silly little prankster. Also he's based on the Lemon Demon song Spring Heeled Jack

ok for the next OC TW for knives, some minor gore descriptions, and mentions of cannibalism (is it canabalism if he's not human?)

Next if F.B (also known as Fake Beetle or just Fake) who I have yet to come up with a good design for, so take this picrew

F.B's backstory is kinda complicated. Basically he is a shapeshifting Shoggoth (your garden variety eldritch horror with many eyes, mouths, and tentacles) who was part of the court of an eldritch God. Because of plot reasons this God needed F.B to impersonate Beetle for a bit while Beetle was off doing plot. F.B didn't actually do a hod job because after a few days Ant realized that Beetle wasn't wearing his trademarked funky ties anymore (also because this Beetle was eating people, which the old one didn't do). So after a standoff between F.B, Ant, and a third character Nichole, F.B was defeated. In actuality F.B escaped to take his revenge. F.B's plan was to kill Beetle and permanently take on Beetle's life. Unfortunately he kinda sucked at this, always getting thwarted by Beetle and his friends.

Eventually he ran into Jack who agreed to help him return to his old plain of existence so that he can get backup from his dark God. This worked but unfortunately F.B's god was mad at him for straying too far from the original plan, and doing a terrible job at said plan. So F.B was banished from his old life, stuck on earth.

After reconnecting with Jack F.B decided to help him reclaim his title as a famous cryptid and in return Jack will help him take down Beetle. While hanging out together F.B realizes that he's fallen in love with Jack. This of course causes an existential crisis for F.B, but he later decides to try and fix himself so that he can be someone worthy of dating Jack (that's right! Jack doesn't fix him, he fixes himself!!). After a while Jack admits that he always knew about F.B's crush and that the feelings were mutual. Now F.B no longer seeks revenge, he would much rather dedicate himself to mischief and tomfoolery much like Jack.

F.B is VERY passionate, if he has his kind set on something he will get it done no matter what. However he is also very short tempered and willing to put up a fight. These qualities still persist after his reformation, but he's no longer using them to murder people. Speaking of which, F.B is absolutely fascinated by knives, he finds them to be the most interesting tool humans have come up with. For years his kind used claws and teeth to attack their victims, but this device can do all the work with less of a mess, and it can even chop down bodies into manageable sizes. This fascination also exists after he is reformed, but again, he doesn't murder anymore. I also wanna talk briefly about his appearance, he looks almost identical to Beetle aside from his plain black tie and his heterochromia being the inverse of Beetle's. However, as mentioned before he is a shapeshifter and uses his powers quite liberally. His true form, as mentioned earlier, looks like a lovecraftian shoggoth, a being with many eyes, moths, and tentacles. F.B is also inspired by the Lemon Demon song Knife Fight

so yah these guys have been on my mind

Trade offer

I receive: letting me talk to you about my ocs

You receive: me asking you about your ocs

trade offer happily accepted >:DDDD

[cognitosclowns]

ALRIGHT I know part 2 just released, but any theories for part 3?

OHOHO HELL YEAH >:) these may be a bit sporadic and out of order, a catastrophic amount of sillies, perhaps some hooliganism, etc, etc, y'all know the drill by now <3

[IJ part 2 spoilers, ofc]

Same cold open as always (in front of the whitehouse, etc) except this time its RON >:)

he MENTIONED being a huge conspiracy nut in college - considering he's most likely gonna remember elements of Reagan's script, I 100% believe he's gonna slip back into that.

WE GET A GIGI BACKSTORY EPISODE!!! Otherwise I will just start biting people

ok this is just a plea to the IJ writers BUT STILL

JUST,,, PLEASE </3 I want Gigi lore. Her character is delightful, and there's so much potential for interesting backstory. They've set up all these little threads [her working her whole life to get where she is but still being unsatisfied, 'I could get used to being unremarkable', feeling ignored] now I just want them to elaborate on them.

I might be biased bc I love Gigi to death but COME ON, IT FEELS LIKE SHE'S GETTING SHELVED SO MUCH!! I'm so glad she got to do more this season, esp w/ Reagan, but I'm yearning for lore

tldr. Give me a Gigi episode or give me death.

Air Bud (AB) and Alpha-Beta (AB). Can you see where I'm going with this can you see the wires crossing

I'm sorry but I need the silly robot man to get jealous of the team paying more attention to Air Bud than him.

I can picture it so vividly like a vision from an angry god just

'Of course we're a team! we've even got loveable non-human sidekick who grew beyond his original purpose, gained human traits, and became all the better for it!'

-haha, well, I wouldn't exactly describe myself as a side-'

'Air Bud :D'

'I beg your fucking pardon, Mister Hand?'

in short I need smb to offhandedly refer to Air Bud as AB, and watch this man have a cyberstroke from pure jealousy.

speaking of my favorite man,

ALRIGHT,,,, I DO KINDA REALLY WANT TAMIKO DATE 2.0,,,,,,,

I don't really ship them but the potential here is too powerful. I need to experience more of Whatever The Fuck Happens To AB's Mind When He Sees A MILF

Tell me it wouldn't be delightful to see this clown try and ask Tamiko on a proper date. Tell me that wouldn't be magical to witness. It'll be an absolute car crash and I pray the writers give it to us.

also because if (lets be honest, when) he gets rejected, his dramatic, self-pitying crywank moment is going to be. so good. Teenager sulking in their bedroom watching rom-coms and crying about how 'that was just like me and Tamiko 🥺🥺🥺' levels of pathetic. I know it in my heart of hearts. I physically can't wait.

I think overall I just want this man in situations. bad situations. bad not good situations where he will act both bad and not good <3

THE ROBES,,, UH,,,, HRM,,

*GESTURES VAGUELY* THERE'S SO MANY OPTIONS IDK YET GIVE ME A FEW MONTHS TO STRATEGIZE

They could be anything from aliens, to time travelers, to 4th dimensional beings, robots, clones, ghosts, Just Some Guys (tm), to all of the above in some hodgepodge fruitcake situation.

I will however say that,, at least half of what the Robes told Reagan was probably bullshit. The stuff about all catastrophes having meaning? Not buying it, there's smth up here.

[ALSO,, I'm 90% sure that season 2/part 3 is gonna be the start to an actual Longterm Overarching Plot, which the Robes will no doubt be involved in. Please Please Please, this show is already delightful, and a broader plot would just. *italian hand kiss*]

MISC SHIT, MOSTLY JUST HOPES AND DREAMS:

JRand prison moments. homoerotic prison escape. two bisexual men pressed into a dirt tunnel, who knows what might occur in the heat of passion etc, etc

GLENN CHARACTER ARC!!! We're getting little hints at it,,,, he's tried shrooms,, he's growing closer to the team,,, the bisexual arc is right around the corner for this man I can FEEL IT.

I think we might see Atlantis? We've been getting more stuff about them, and since we've covered pretty much all other Already Mentioned Funky Locations, I think that's gonna be the Big Travel Episode next season!!

BEACH EPISODE!! PLEASE GOD!!! Either combined w/ the above, or separate

[Also, shamefully, I'll admit,,,, I kinda want a musical episode. I have no excuse I just think it'd be so delightful. Please Once-More-With-Feeling, Guy-Who-Didnt-Like-Musicals these bitches Shion, I know you have the power.]

A deep-dive into Andre's psyche. SO many things have been brought up, and I hope they really go in on them. He's coping in 1000 different ways and I don't think a single one of them is good for him.

HM. okie this is getting rambly - I'll probably add more within the next few months as these episodes congeal in my brain, but for now, tysm for the ask!!!