#his design is like.. those character design trope where the only thing you see of them is just their legs/arms/body

[mooneggtarts]

(Basic lore abt this AU further below, it's.. a bit long though I gotta warn you‼️)

Some slice of life family AU (call it Animation VS Life AU), I won't be posting much abt this AU, unless I'm feeling like it. It could be a one time thing, or not, who knows?

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[micia-posts-stuff]

Some ramblings about chapter 113 of Spy x Family

I know I'm one week too late and all of this stuff has probably already been said by other people, but I have been too busy and tired to write down my thoughts earlier and I still wanted to do it, so here they are anyway :D

Spoilers under the cut

This will never not be funny part 1

This will never not be funny part 2

All jokes aside, I love how Endo uses manga as a medium for visual gags. Having Damian fight the sfx of his feelings and changing style for dramatic shoujo scenes, it seems like he's having a lot of fun coming up with these. Also Damian seems to be an expert when it comes to breaking the fourth wall ahah. Franky may be the one interacting with the readers outside of the story, but within the story itself, Damian's tsundere tendencies are too strong even for the fabric of their reality ahahah.

Also Becky being an absolute menace as usual, we love her for that. She's having way too much fun messing with Damian, who needs Berlint in Love when you can watch those two interact every day?

First of all "If you got problems, talk to us!" They are such good friends to him, I'm so glad! I'm so glad for every person Damian has on his side! He needs all the support system he can get. They are so precious!!!

Second, no it's not about language studies, if fact, that is a rare occasion for him to interact with Anya ahah.

Third, him clenching his heart in agony and literally fighting demons in his sleep, it's so cute, his crush is the cutest thing in the world I can't-

And lastly HE REALLY WENT FOR THE "IT'S NOT FOR ME, IT'S FOR A FRIEND OF MINE" EXCUSE. It's too funny T.T

AND OF COURSE THEY BELIEVED HIM T.T

These two I swear!

They know they are Damian's only friends, but no, he can't be lying! So instead of questioning him they assume there must be someone else! Comedy gold T.T

And it works because they are kids! I love how every miscommunication trope becomes more realistic and less annoying because they are kids and so it makes sense.

This whole chapter was a big win for Mr. Green, absolute MVP. Great advice for the characters and the readers. This chapter really resembled one of those kids cartoons ment to teach how to deal with different aspects of life, it was very nice.

I hope we get to see him more often, every time we see his mentoring skills they're an absolute treat!

Oh my heart!!! "You guys are my only true friends" T.T and their happy faces all sparky T.T

These three and their friendship are so precious to me!!! I really want to see a little chapter about how they met and how Ewen and Emile have come to respect Damian so much.

I really like how Damian tells them they're his friends here. Their dynamic was a bit stereotypical of the bully with his goons at the beginning, but I'm soooo happy that after that Endo has been constantly showing that no, actually, they really are friends. Tbh sometimes this friendship was a bit missing from Damian's side (Ewen and Emile jumping in the river for Damian and Emile not running away from the terrorist because Damian had "a bomb" on his neck, whereas Damian wanted to ask Ewen for his handkerchief to avoid getting a tonitrus < although this was also because of the panic about his father, but still) so for a long time I wanted to see him showing his affection for them somehow and in this chapter we finally got just that! For someone that has such a hard time dealing with his feelings, telling them "You guys are my only true friends" I'm sure means a lot. And you can see he's a bit embarrassed saying it, but he does it anyway because they're important to him!

First of all, very cool design for the Paradise Fist and Damian's dream sequences in general, but also veeery interesting lore drop about Donovan (dropping important lore like that in the middle of a silly chapter, classic Endo).

So Donovan was most likely in power when the war ended and that's probably where the idea that he stopped the war came from, at least from Damian's perspective. We know that Donovan is (likely) trying to start a new war, so it's very interesting that Damian considers him a man of peace. Is this his personal belief because he puts him on a pedestal or is it somewhat of a common idea amongst citizens? Did Donovan contribute to the birth of this image of himself or was it just a natural consequence? Does he want to be seen as a man of peace? Why did he even stop the war? A lot of interesting questions.

Regardless, I think this is also very important for Damian' character, that he admires his father because he thinks he stopped a war. First of all now it makes even more sense why he looks up to him so much. I mean it already made sense, but if we add the fact that, in Damian's pov, his father is responsible for the current peace, it's obvious that he'll keep admiring him, regardless of how cold he may be. Second it is very important to establish Damian's morals. Ever since he talked about his father during the war, in the bus hijacking arc, I wanted to know what he actually knew about his father's role in the previous conflict, if he aligned with his views and if he was indoctrinated somehow. But if he's convinced that his father stopped a war and he admires him for that, then it shows Damian is actually a pacifist, which will also make it all the more tragic when he'll eventually discover what Donovan is currently plotting.

Also it's interesting how Damian even ended up with these morals. Is Jeeves teaching him that? Does he do it following Donovan's orders or does he go against him? Or maybe it's just Damian's own personal values, it's not that weird that he naturally came to appreciate peace, I guess I just find it kinda weird that he wasn't taught the opposite. It's s very interesting.

Anyway, moving on

Yeah I think you really broke him Becky, he was fighting a Buzz demon in his sleep! The poor boy can't take any more! (The fiscal manifestation of the Paradise Fist is adorable!!!)

I love love loooove this part. The truth is that both Anya and Damian are geeky kids that have a lot of interests in common and they would have so much fun playing pretend together, if one of them wasn't so mean 👀

Anya likes the real Damian, the kid that likes action stories and has a big imagination. I really like that, because it shows she is not after him just because of Strix, it's obviously just his attitude that is throwing her off and that she actually appreciates his true self. I hope he'll start to realise that and embrace it. Like look at him! All the happy sparkles, he's so glad to have her attention. And the buzz going away. C'mon Damian don't you want to feel like this more often? Just a happy silly kid!

Also side note, he made the same face he made when he said Ewen and Emile were his only true friends! Adorable!

It seems like Damian has acknowledged and accepted his feelings of jealousy and that means that he has or he will acknowledge and accept the reason why they're there, the progression may be slow but it's definitely there and I really like how it's done.

Perfect way to end this chapter ahah, not only because it's funny, but also because it showcases yet another type of jealousy/envy. Showing that jealousy can come from different sources like friendships, crushes and parenting/mentoring and that both kids and adults are subject to it, once again helps with the message of the chapter about embracing these feelings and making peace with them.

All in all I loved this chapter. We finally explored Damian's feeling of jealousy, learned some interesting stuff and it had a very good moral message. Although I'm very biased because Eden chapters are always my favourites eheh. If Eden chapters have a million fans, then I am one of them. If Eden chapters have ten fans, then I am one of them. If Eden chapters have only one fan, that's me. If Eden chapters have no fans, then I'm dead.

(Btw I'm going to add 3 more pictures in a reblog of this post, because I reached the image limit. I don't have too much too say about them, but I really liked them and I wanted to highlight them. So you can't check them out in the notes of this post if you want.)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hopefully this doesn't come off as snarky, but I find it genuinely hilarious that every "big-name" Leona fan that I've seen seems to like him against their will lol. I've always had Leona as my favorite, so it's fun to see the journey other people go through to liking/appreciating him!

Look 💦 I can’t speak for other L*ona likers (regardless of size, honestly; I'm a firm believer that one's level of internet fame isn't a factor in the devotion for a character) but for me—to quote Scar—“my words are a matter of pride.” And by confessing to (ick 🤢) LIKING LION… it’s throwing all that pride out of a window. It seriously does feel like these feelings exist against my will.

I have a summary of my story to explain my relationship with the lion lore 💀 I call it a summary, but it’s still kind of long— It's below the cut for those who are interested!

To begin with, the promotional materials didn’t sell me on him. Everything about how he initially presents—from his arrogance to his “tough/bad boy” design (seriously, that biker-cowboy combo of his dorm uniform is SO ugly and shows way too much skin for my liking…)—was so unappealing to me. He seemed exactly like the kind of character and tropes I tend to dislike. The only “good” thing I saw in him was his face (which, ironically, is what Vil says about him) and maybe his UM chant particularly the line where he demands you kneel before him. Then comes along book 2, which is easily the weakest of the main story and does a HUGE disservice to him, making L*ona seem a lot stupider than he actually is. At that point, I had basically written his entire character off. I claimed to all my Twst friends that there was nothing that would ever make me like him.

Around 2022, I decided to get involved in a round of EBG (Epic Bias Game) which is basically like a test of your will?? You’re supposed to compete with your friends to see who can go for the longest without talking about or acknowledging their oshi (which includes not being able to react to fan works of them). As part of EBG, each participant was randomly assigned a “new oshi” to replace the usual one AND GUESS WHAT, I GOT HANDED L*ONA BY THE WHEEL OF FATE 💀

One of my friends (who knew I hardcore hated him at the time) assured me that this would get me to change my mind. They even went out of their way to write a little story explaining how my OC was forced to spend more time with L*ona, which led me into writing interactions between them to build more of the lore. I managed to outlast the friend in EBG, but didn’t win the entire game. I came out of it not really feeling super different about L*ona, but I think forcing myself to write about him extensively helped me gain a little more perspective on his character. I still didn’t like him, but I at least appreciated his presence in the cast a little more.

AND THEN TWST HAD TO COME AND BASH ME OVER THE HEAD WITH L*ONA CONTENT… All the little vignettes and voice lines where other characters would talk about what a good leader he is (*glares at Epel, Jack, Ruggie, Savanaclaw mobs, etc.*), when he sarcastically claims to be a “delicate prince” or a “lost child”, those moments where he sasses others, times when he’s able to use his charisma and/or intelligence to pull ahead, rare instances when he whips out his royal manners, him respecting women… But I think the turning point for me had to have been book 6 OTL GOOD LORD, BOOK 6 FUCKED ME UP 😭 Him using his UM in a creative way to turn falling glass shards into harmless sand? And strategically turning himself in?? Willingly ceding control of the dorm to Ruggie??? Telling everyone about Styx’s lore???? AND THE BEEF HE HAD WITH JAMIL BUT STILL GIVING HIM WISDOM AND ADVICE… Sometimes I still tear up thinking about how L*ona says “You’re not like me,” to Jamil 😔 implying that part of the reason why L*ona guides others is because he has hope in their futures but not his own… (I’m still salty that EN messed up this line by changing it to “I’m not like you,” which makes him come off as way more arrogant 💦) Anyway, I blame book 6 for being the tipping point in my downward spiral 🌀 IT GOT WORSE IN BOOK 7 WHEN HE STARTED SHOWING HE'S MOTIVATED TO ACTUALLY GRADUATE AND TAKES ON AN INTERNSHIP THAT COULD BENEFIT HIS COUNTRY... Special shoutout to the Club Wear card for being especially hot-- I did my best to hold out against the steady drip of content that called attention to his… positive traits… (Not that I’m saying he doesn’t have any; I mean this in that whenever his strengths as a character are brought up, they really get to me as someone who loves intelligent, mature/responsible types and “big brother” figures OTL) BUT IT'S SO HARD WHEN TWST KEEPS PULLING STUFF LIKE THAT???

Then in 2024 came the stupid Lost in the Book with Nightmare Before Christmas event 💀 which finally introduced us to L*ona in full formal attire (MY WEAKNESS) and gave him the opportunity to be in the role of the "hero" and leader... and those Nightmare Suit vignettes 😭 Leona thinking about what it actually means to be "king"... Ugh, it was another strong showing of his character. I'm pretty sure it was this event that started the snowball of my friends (lovingly) bullying me about him and calling me a tsundere about it. Weirdly enough, a BUNCH of things started happening irl to push L*ona at me too. For example, my pet (who usually actively avoids or attacks Twst stuff) was actually eager to pose for a picture with a L*ona standee. In a group fan merch order, I had asked for the bonus Grim sticker but the artist (who had no idea about my complicated thoughts on L*ona) said they were out of the Grim sticker but they had L*ona stickers they could include instead. Most recently, I had just finished this last-minute artwork of Miss Raven eating pocky by herself to celebrate Pocky Day (11/11). Typically the fan art you'd see on this day would involve two characters playing the "Pocky Game" (in which the players try to eat a stick of pocky from either end; usually it's framed as romantic since meeting in the middle results in a kiss). However, I had chosen to do a solo Miss Raven art because I thought this suited her "I want to be taken seriously!" personality better. Well, guess what? I GOT A PACKAGE DELIVERY NOTIFICATION FOR THE TWST MERCH ORDER... WITH L*ONA IN IT 💀 Almost like he heard there was food meant for sharing and he came to claim it for himself... Like I literally did NOT choose for these things to happen to me, THEY HAPPENED ON THEIR OWN. I DON'T BELIEVE IN PREORDAINED EVENTS BUT THE UNIVERSE SURE IS WORKING IN STRANGE WAYS.

So now that the tables have turned, it’s really embarrassing. Everything is coming back to bite me in the butt… It truly feels like L*ona plotted this all along and was on the prowl, patiently waiting for me to get worn down before he pounces and delivers the final blow to my ego OTL Like, it's gotten to the point where many of my long-time friends in the Twst community are now joking that "It's over" for J word... ONE OF THEM EVEN TOLD ME IT FEELS LIKE I'M GETTING DIVORCED AND L*ONA IS THEIR NEW STEPDAD, HOW AM I SUPPSOED TO FEEL ABOUT HTHAT ??????????? ? ? ????? ? ??? ? ?? ?? ? ???? ?

But by the far the worst, the WORST part about everything here is that if L*ona were fully sentient, he would be so smug about recent developments 😡 It makes me SO mad thinking about how he'd look down on me with that hot smug rage-inducing smirk of his and make fun of me for eating my words so badly.

“What was that you said about hating my guts, herbivore? … Hah, it's written all over your face--you're terrible at hiding your true feelings. You can just give in, you know. Tell me how much you worship me. How much you want me. You'll give in eventually one way or another--so why not make this easier for the both of us and save us the time of playing the wait game? I don't bite, promise." (<- a liar)

(Disclaimer: NOT MY MERCH; this is a L*ona Liker friend’s picture that they’re letting me use as a reaction image 😅)

THIS IS FR MY OVERBLOT ORIGIN STORY…

[randomperson0k]

serpentine rising au designs of the early ninja [first few years of being ninja id say? these are their 'early days' designs in my timeline]

oh also the serpentine rising name is a inside joke . its not serpentine focused its just my ninjago rewrite au

you can read all the info belowww if you wanttt toooo swiggly face smiley face.

its still early development so theyre not set in stone and i will change things

ive had this art ready for awhile but ive spent like a week writing the stuff below

general setting info -

im a huge sucker for sloppy overused hollywood tropes and ruining things with my personal preferences in media so ! the ninjas identitys arent known. they keep them secret. and they all go to highschool in the beginning [except lloyd hes too young to be in highschool ] like the ninjago movie. i suck. but also like give those ninja a proper education i do NOT trust wu with doing that he is not reliable

serpentine and oni and all other species that are villains just because they are that species [example - the oni and the serpentine in the early seasons] are no longer villains just because they are born from that species. yay! making an entire species all villains just because theyre apart of that species is super boring so its getting eradicated now. 'theyre all evil unless they learn how to not be evil like mystake did with her being a oni and learning how to be good' booooooo BOOOOOOOOOOOOO TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO 🍅🍅🍅 why does that tomato look so weird what

garmadon isnt the pilot villain [hes only referenced by his skeleton army but he never actually appears or is heavily brought up] and hes a very built up villain and is referenced a lot by others to build up a big image for him before hes revealed and he only appears much later on. ninjago drags his dead corpse around too much let than old man REST. also im tired of season 97 about garmadon and lloyds relationship SNOREEEE .also i find it so funny that lloyd is more upset at misako than garmadon when they reunite like hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby type situation garmadon has probably killed thousands and put mass genocide and ruling the world infront of his priority list instead of putting lloyd at the front whilst misako got flashbanged by her sons radioactive eyes and cried herself to sleep . there is a huge difference here

most species + other established places have different languages. theres no way they all speak the same language i know its just because its a kids show and it needs to be dumbed down but cmon it would be more fun . so yeah most have different languages and they all have more built upon cultures which are explored in episodes like the ninjago mail episodes where you get to see a look into civilian life whilst the story still plays out. its like that but with other places and characters we've seen from them

also im just calling ninjagos language common because i forgot the actual language name

pythor is released first and he releases the rest of the serpentine and sticks with lloyd until all of them are released and then betrays him . and the final battle with the great devourer is the serpentine with the war + great devourer vs the ninja + the serpentine against the war .

im still working on it but i have most of my ideas sorted for the pilot , morro and the serpentine

oh yeah speaking of morro uhhh the ghost realm i forgot the name is MUCH more eldritchy. ive been given a living physical embodiment of a realm of the dead to play around with . what else am i supposed to do with that. not make it creepy and a hivemind like creature that affects every soul it can get its tentacles on ??? cmon. so yeah morro and all the ghosts are corrupted by the preeminent and i want to explore morro and lloyds dynamic more because it has so much potential . imagine seeing your mentor replace you with somebody else and they get to be the thing you dreamed every day to be but theyre just a kid and they dont know and theyre so happy but youre so angry and they took everything from you but they dont know they did but you cant control yourself because theres a Thing in your head and its also Very Angry. ya. so i want to explore that more yes. morro had interesting motivations and i like his character . so when the preeminent is defeated morro comes back as a regular uncorrupted ghost and he gets therapy good on him

since garmadon doesnt come around until much later + im trying to limit down on repeat villains like the overlord and stuff a lot of the season villains are either going to be swapped around and switched or heavily changed. and so far im not considering any to be but if i have to i might completely remove certain villains if i truely cant find a spot for them. basically im just blowing up the entire ninjago timeline

elemental powers work in the way that base level elemental power is being able to manipulate existing material and like final form elemental power is being able to create that elemental power from nothing [something something 'most elemental powers branch from dragons who are the element of creation' etc etc]. depending on the power the stages can be more difficult to reach. like for jay with his element he can make his own electricity without outside assistance [such as elemental weapons, being a conduit or just. fusing with your element like nya did] really easily but the side effect is his control of it is somewhat more unstable because his power is just that strong. whilst for somebody like nya or lloyd creating their element from nothing is extremely hard and would take decades of training to master so they have the weakness of just having to stick to stick to manipulating existing forms of their element instead of creating them from nothing.

~~~~~

lloyd - you annoy me but i love you equally as much

considering making him woke idk i just want to piss off those ninjago fans with theythem lloyd . shoves pipebomb up ur butt night night chat!!! . ]

uhh i actually dont have his age set down yet im kinda unsure about it but hes younger than 10 years old yes. but he looks a lot younger than he is because he ages slower than a normal human

basics we all know hes a oni/dragon/human yah. master of energy yadaaa yadaaa. big changes is the great devourers venom partially passed over to him from garmy dont ask how it woooorks so basically just sometimes goes and maul peoples arms off but then crys about it later

known languages - common [isnt too good at writing common though due to not having a great education from darkleys, hes better at speaking it. ]

lloyd subconsciously shapeshifts to look like his father to be scary and intimidating so people dont hurt him [so his current design isnt what he actually looks like] hes like a pathetic hairball demon demanding you to be afraid of him. he truely thinks this is his true form

lloyd does not know of his actual species despite. not looking human unlike canon. look lloyd doesnt know a thing about his parents or his heritage his parents basically booted him out of the house as soon as he was born and he grew up inbetween houses being raised by people from favours his mom could cash in before he was eventually booted into darkleys

fighting style is much of a mix between what wu has taught him , random angry squabbling with his claws and most important of all. random shank he owns that the ninja have tried so hard to take off him but fail everytime to. hes a rogue style build and is the most sneaky out of all the ninja. short and puntable , knife in hand.

ok . biggest change in this rewrite. HE DOESNT BECOME THE GREEN NINJA UNTIL HES 15-16 AND THE TOMORROWS TEA NEVER HAPPENS TO HIM. dude i swear canon wu has got to be the final twist villain of the series because WHY did he drag that 10 year old toddler onto the battlefield as the green ninja GET HIM OFF ???? THERE????? anyways so yeah wu does try to get him to be the green ninja early on but he gets severely injured in a fight and misako beats wu's ass and he stops being the green ninja really early on and just continues being a student until hes old enough to be on the field

ok edit i might make it so the tomorrows tea does exist because i like it in concept but its only a temporary effect

his elemental power is changed because his power at the moment is just straight up 'green' the movie is right he really is just the green element. anyways so his power functions as it takes energy from something [either himself or his surroundings] and can apply the energy to something else or convert it into a different type of energy and apply it like that. energy cannot be created or destroyed yadayda [he could train to create energy from nothing but that would take like decades to accomplish on his own without outside help cough cough becoming a conduit cough cough ] GOODNIGHT ninjago and HELLO sleep paralysis! anyways he specialises in plants [he LOVES plants] and he carrys a terrarium around with him 24/7 its in a jar hidden under his black hoodie. this is how hes discovered as the green ninja he saves the ninja using the plants and stuff from his jar not whatever that golden weapon glowing stuff is booooorrring

since hes constantly taking energy from himself his body kind of adapted to have an insanely fast metabolism to make up for it

elemental power side effects - either goes in a tired state and sleeps for like a week straight or he jumps around and bounces off the walls for a week and struggles heavily to sleep. also if he takes in too much energy since hes really young and his body isnt strong enough for it he makes a huge explosion of raw unfiltered energy and it blows up everything around him including himself

wu adopts him and he is homeschooled by wu for a little bit before being brought into school

when misako returns i say he moves in with misako and lives there but he spends weekends at wus and goes there every afternoon

clings to kai like a leech . kind of in denial about it and if its brought up he throws a tantrum and does x2 the pranks on that person who brought it up. but yeah hes much more attached to kai and follows him around the most.

in terms of most powerful between each ninja his most powerful aspect is he has the most adaptability and ways of using his element [since his power is really uh... open? in how it can be used? like. theres a TON of things that energy can be applied to. energy is extremely broad] but he restricts himself by only specialising in using raw energy [aka 'power: green'] and flora growth and manipulation . so hes not as strong as he could be if he stopped chaining himself down with just those two useages of energy.

he can see others energy in like a weird way. he could have a blindfold over his eyes and still 'see' others energy and be able to tell whos who and be able to identify things around him.

loves heavy metal music. felt like sharing. he loves cartoons and will hoard the tv remote and defend it with his life

umm note for future me their oni features are gold colors and their dragon features are black. sprinkle some green in there too

all the ninja take turns at babysitting him and training with him. he picks up skills from all of the ninja.

in dragon rising hes still a teacher because i love that for him goodjob lloyd go on and continue the family tradition of turning children into blinded child soldiers who dont know what theyre getting into . but his reunion with the ninja takes a lot longer and the monastery was thrown underground and hidden during the merge . because like. no way the monastrey is out in the open on a mountain and people are saying in the crossroads 'oh we miss the ninja' DUDE THEYRE RIGHT THERE ??? so yeah the ninja monastery is actually hidden and unable to be found properly by anybody else because its in like some random cave stuck half torn apart. lloyd stays there and just mopes and is a big loser in there for awhile

~~~~~

zane - BABYT GIRL!!!! ok general infoooo 😋

any pronouns . doesnt care about pronouns . heh.... the ninja are woke now.... watch out liberals wait hold on no what are they called again whats the opposite one.

basics yeah . nindroid/robot species duuuh. elemental power is ice yadyada we all know this. has very enhanced senses and intelligence but is kind of not self aware of why. they have all the sensor stuff and can see things differently like a robot but they dont really register that theyre seeing things in a robot way. its like shoved to the back of their brain [+ you cant really tell what you experience is not normal if youre a social recluse who doesnt hang around other people]

robot reveal takes some building up to get to since i think crowding it all into one episode is kinda boring nah i wanna drag this on make it hurt yayddaaaa

languages: cant name them all he knows too many.

elemental power - he can just summon ice. but its not normal ice its his ice. when it melts it doesnt create water and it just. stops existing. its magic ice. he can also freeze water and manipulate the frozen water. when he does that then it can melt into water ya

elemental power side effects - makes a horrible squeaking noise from the ice being in contact with his metal body. not much of a side effect to him more so an annoyance to everybody elses eardrums. he also struggles to move his body when hes overusing his ice . it like gets inside his bolts and metal junk so he moves more slowly. he has to like sit it out and 'defrost' if he overuses his power since he wont be able to move or anything

hes very cold constantly . he doesnt feel it but everybody around him certainly does

i genuinely do not know how to approach the ice emperor season why did they just ignore him committing genocide haha guys guys please why did we just ignore that why is everybnody okay with that why did we just brush past that. i still want to include the ice emperor season but it needs to have more impact and consequences than it did and i dont know how to include that

the only ninja that knows how to cook anything properly. do not trust the others with a kitchen. ever.

his fighting build is kind of what i would consider a magic fighter ? hes skilled and follows his teachings very well but also works with his element quite frequently and doesnt rely too heavily on neither his element or fighting and uses them both when needed in combat.

when hes in school / before graduation he was a straight a student who asks if the class can have more homework to do for fun. biggest snitch ever in school [wont snitch if its his friends tho. well he wont purposely snitch. he might accidently though] he always carrys medical supplys and general life stuff with him at school incase anybody else needs them. hangs around the halls of the school the most and just roams them checking on people and breaking up any fights. sometimes gives himself a rest in the library as a treat

lives on his own in the centre of ninjago city

when he reunites with his father he takes him in to his house and they start living together

taught lloyd how to cook and do general chores like cleaning your clothing properly and doing the dishes [since darkleys never taught him how to and he never had a proper parental figure for most of his life to teach him the basics of life]

in terms of power stuff hes the most skilled in combat compared to all the other ninja.

he appears as human for a long time even after learning hes a robot hes still getting over it a little give him some time. when hes older during the whole downloaded to head stuff he gets convinced to stop hiding it though

likes classical music and sloppy tv dramas that are badly made. he will point out how bad the show is with the writing but he'll still watch until hes on season 26 and have his eyes glued to the screen and start mimicking the speaking mannerisms of the characters

kind of big change. him and pixal swap places with the whole downloading to head thing. it just makes more sense for me for the guy who died to be. the one in pieces and needing to be uploaded to survive. also my babygirl pixal deserves it as a treat

i kinda forgot how zane was revealed in dragon rising . but uh while he was stuck unactivated or whatever his body kind of just continued 'fixing' itself and upgrading itself on its own so hes like super advanced and a lot different looking in dragon rising

~~~~~

nya - they did you so dirty in the early seasons nya i love you you deserved so much better

she her they them . Yeah. licks your foot

languages uhh - merlopian, common and has the ability to send general 'vibes' towards sea animals that know no intelligent language. like canon :p

human for now 😋 after recovering from being one with the sea she kinda becomes not fully human and can breathe underwater and she zones out a lot and gets weird visions of stuff that happens in the sea Yay

still loves jay yes i couldnt erase that it would be a crime . im a jay x nya truther its one of my favourite relationships in all media theyre such a 'he makes me laugh :]' type relationship i love them

her being samurai x actually does something and after her identity being revealed she isnt immediately useless . why they do that

also she doesnt use a trident she uses weapons from her old samurai x stuff . all that time fighting as samurai x using a sword only to change to a trident? no way it was that easy of a switch and why would she switch to a weapon she doesnt know how to use as efficiently as a sword which she does know how to use . 'but it looks cool' ok . stab. stab. stab.

she works the hardest out of all the ninja. to the point its very unhealthy. shes constantly out fighting

elemental power - can take water from the air, any surrounding source or from herself and manipulate it. in general she can just manipulate water. thats her power. she can also cause changes in the weather and stuff it but that only happens later on because thats a big step up from 'i move water and change it to be as hard as a knife to be my weapon' to 'water in the clouds is MINE!!!'. she could only summon brand new water and not just manipulate existing water when she was bound to the sea. if she trained hard enough she could probably unlock it again.

elemental power side effects - dehydration [ shes taking water from her body. a tad bit obvious it would remove. the water. and make her dehydrated], overuse of power makes her zone out real bad and her body goes numb and she cant feel anything and sort of just runs on autopilot. her body is also always nagging her for water even if she doesnt need it because it knows that extra water is going to probably be used up on her powers

after seabound she has patches of blue tinted skin on her torso and she gains swirly sea like markings on it too. smiles

also her being apart of the sea takes longer to undo . can you tell i like seabound. have you picked up on that yet. its my favourite season of the og ninjago / before dragon rising

she gets random nosebleeds sometimes

she helps create mechs and gadgets for the ninja alongside jay . stealing this headcanon from my friend . you know who you are .

fighting style is tricky. id say she became really reliant on her powers after retiring samurai x but after seabound she started using her actual weapons a lot more frequently for both her health and because she went a long period of time without using them and kind of grew used to not. using them again. so shes more of a equal usage of power user like zane is but def not as skilled as zane is when figuring out when is a good time to use them and not. she gives me sorcerer / fighter vibes .

she lives with kai in the outskirts of ninjago city . they live in a apartment building where the owners probably slipped a 20 bill to whoever checked for the safety of that place . they also run a shop together

does NOT clean her room and neither does kai. their house is a genuine abomination

taught lloyd some basic tech stuff and would occasionally show him some of the fighting rings she used to go to so they could just observe how the people fight in there and stuff so lloyd could learn a little from that.

when she was in her samurai x arc she used to participate in fighting rings to build up her skills more

she gets into a lot of fights at school . very confident and sticks up for the little guy . likes to hang around the gym at lunch

she cuts her hair short a bit after becoming a ninja

tongue is bioluminescent and so is her blood. also her blood and tongue is blue. why not

she has a lot of scars all over her body, primarily from her samurai x years. she didnt get personal training from wu until later when she became a ninja so she was just fighting with her own fighting style she built up over the years from scuffles and fights in school and fighting rings so she played really dirty in her fighting. she did get a little bit of training from wu but because she wasnt considered a ninja by him until later she didnt get personal training and that training was more to pass the time and do something.

she has a lot of scars and some chunks of flesh missing from her fingers due to not handling equipment properly when doing repairs to her samurai x mech + the others mechs

she doesnt wear any jewerly [doesnt have any piercings either] except for a necklace which has her half of the yin-yang medallion

~~~~~

cole - i like you. ill give you a potato as a gift

oni/human hybrid [oni is distant & from a few generations ago. its from his mothers side] the only oni physical features he has is thick skin and very small nub horns.

his build is much more of a physical hands on tough fighter type build. out of all the ninja he uses his elemental power the least [due to living in a city where tearing up the ground to fight somebody isnt considered acceptable] and he relys the most on his physical strength to handle the job. he uses his power more when they handle work outside of the city and more in the middle of nowhere

languages: common and very small amounts of munce's language which he learnt from geo when they were just passing time and bored. i really need a name for these languages

elemental power - its like nyas in the way it cant just be used to make the element and the element has to be sourced from around him. he manipulates earth from the world around him but he cant summon it. later in dragon rising he learns to create his own elemental earth because manipulating the earth from the merged lands gave him really bad headaches due to the Screaming

side effects - gets very stiff limbs and has really bad muscle pain. his skin is very tough both from his oni genes and his elemental power causing his skin to be 'hard like rock' so its really hard to stick needles in his skin or anything like that so medical assistance that requires a needle has to be handled differently when it comes to him.

doesnt listen to much music at first due to disliking it because of his father but later on learns to love it just to be himself and not follow his fathers influence and connect music with his father. he likes really intense and strong music

plays the drums at school and takes lessons purely because of his father. he skips very regularly and wastes his fathers money a lot lol.

kind of a quiet kid and keeps to himself.

~~~~~

kai - i could put him inbetween my fingers like a worm and squish until he pops

he / him and SWAG

languages: some ancient forms of common that he learnt in class [he liked history class so he actually payed attention and listened] + common . he also knows a bit of serpentine

human ya. resident human of a group full of either non-humans or previously-human-but-no-longer-human-humans

has a little mini arc of feeling like hes not strong enough and cant contribute much to the team etc etc boo

elemental power - can summon fire and it can come from any part of the body [never does it to his hair though. cant ruin that style] he can also manipulate existing fire as long as its not being controlled by somebody else . if it is its a fight for power and whoever is stronger gets control of the fire . his elemental power is a bit of a reverse of how they usually work, he finds creating is own element to be much easier than manipulating existing forms of it

side effects - gets peeled skin and overheats sometimes. he gets a fever too

his bodys internal temperature is much warmer than your average humans

glows at night [his veins and chest are the brightest] hes very warm and acts like a heater to any room hes in when its nighttime.

also resident jock of the group totally. popular in school and used to be on the sports team before he dropped out of it due to not having time for sports anymore because Ninja Stuff.

picked up his parents work in their shop purely for money, he doesnt have much passion for his work. hes good at his work but he doesnt actually enjoy it

his mind wanders a lot and he can kind of spiral really easily sometimes . not that he will ever tell anybody that tho lol . a lot of his fights get to him and he takes them very personally to his character and thinks about them a ton . even if its the smallest fight . he picks apart at each of his flaws in the fight for hours.

all the ninja participate in helping lloyd learn to fight but he out of all of them works the hardest to teach lloyd everything. because of this lloyds fighting style somewhat mimics kais a bit more than all the others [all the ninja have similiar fighting styles even if they dont work too well with their builds or fighting type because they all trained together and learnt off eachother]

~~~~~

jay - YEAAAAAA BABYYYY

might wokeify him and give him blue hair and pronouns [she her privledges]. we'll see. edit ok scratch it yes jay she/her and he/him pronouns woke minions woke me woke woke all ninja woke. only uses she/her after the merge tho

serpentine infected human !!! from the bite in rise of the snakes i think it was called . he just has scales and fangs and a small nub tail and his eyes are slit like a snakes

elemental power - can create electricity and manipulate existing electricity. works best summoned from his hands or a weapon any other surface being used to summon his power isnt too stable .

side effects - severe damage to body if overused or used in too much force. also he like always has that little static shock thing. whenever he touches somebody he gives them a little zap. also her hair is usually always really messy because of her power. she tries really hard to keep it down though because he thinks he looks silly with it all poofed out from electricity

out of all the elemental powers hers is the most unstable so a lot of her personal training is put into controlling it. he had to put the most work out of all the ninja into elemental control training.

his fighting style is much more of a mage build. he doesnt use physical fighting as much and relys more heavily on his elemental power

in terms of power her element is the strongest in raw untrained strength. she trained really hard to slowly perfect her control of it

she has a lot of scars primarily on her hands due to his work. he has chunks of the skin and flesh of her fingers missing and he has a few electricity scars running up his skin [from his left side primarily]

has more of a build made for agility rather than physical fighting due to his fighting style relying less on physical strength. he still has a ton of muscle though. all the ninja do. just he probably has the least amount because out of all the ninja he fights the least with physical strength . still can beat people up without his element though of course

she lives in a junkyard outside of the main city and bike rides to school everyday

works with nya on the mechs

idk how to handle dragon rising jay . i think im just gonna keep him as being apart of the administration rather than joining raz or all of that . ninjago teasing me with the beauty that is admin jay and then just throwing the concept in the trash smh. bring him back . i love admin jay . why did they literally do nothing with that concept dude bring him back. he can be a villain just not for raz instead for the admin

oh but yeah im gonna just completely blow up skybound and tournament of elements characterisation of jay that doesnt exist in here. useless love triangle? incel jay? what are you talking about? never heard of it

she occasionally wears jewerly . her most prized possession on herself is a necklace like nyas that contains his side of the yin-yang medallion

electricity sometimes changes color depending on points in the story . why ? idk i just want admin jay to have red lightning thats why. bites your pinkie finger off your hand.

wears skirts. hit post.

still worrys a lot but doesnt mean she isnt confident in battle. once he has a game plan set up for battle he barges through the door with full force and charges at the enemy . he just likes to analyse the situation and get a handle on it first before barging straight in [unless hes emotional, he might skip a few steps if hes emotional enough]. out of all the ninja theyre the most perceptive

teaches lloyd basic mech stuff alongside nya + brings him to comic stores and buys him stuff

sells her creations at market stalls and gets a ton of money through that.

can you tell that i was throwing beer at the screen when they revealed jay wasnt apart of the administration anymore. have you noticed i dont like raz sided jay yet. im fine with her being a villain but LET HER BE A OFFICE VILLAIN LET HER THROW PAPERWORK AT THE ENEMY!!!!!!!!!

~~~~~

no designs for them yet but still important for story

misako . they did you so dirty i somewhat forgot you existed for a few seasons because they NEVER SHOW YOU . anyways her fake name is koko she uses it when shes in hiding. her battle name is the lady iron dragon

human

she / her

trans because why not 'then who gave birth to lloyd' lord garmadon. next question.

no elemental power just a sword and a dream

ex-warrior. im smashing koko and misako together . yes . i like them both [misako still my fav though] misako met the garmadon brothers when she was fighting on the opposite of a battle [she wasnt really very aligned to them, she just owed some people a favour and fought for them because of that] . she won the battle and kept them hostage before talking a little with them and letting them go . they hit off ever since and became friends .

she was one of garmadons biggest opponents after he went really into the evil side. they sort of became offical enemies a few months before lloyd was born . they had a huge custody battle after lloyds birth [aka a literal battle . its a oni tradition lol] garmy lost but also garmy is like evil as hell and does not care about breaking laws or tradition anymore and only proposed the option because his ego is big and he thought he'd win . next thing after that garmy tried stealing lloyd away despite losing the battle so misako had to give up lloyd for his safety .

she eventually went into hiding going under a different name [koko] and dyed her hair orange so she couldnt be as easily recognised. she still has wrinkles though ninjago movie writers are weak they should of made her old. shes spent a long time looking for lloyd but lost him since she was so distracted fighting garmy

now she just works as a emergency services doctor. her dream job was to be a archaeologist but she did it for awhile and it brought way too much attention to her name so she had to drop it [even though she goes by a fake name and appearance she still doesnt want her fake identity getting any large publicity] . maybe one day when she gets garmadon off her back she can finally live out her dream job.

she reunites with lloyd after he gets severely injured trying to be the green ninja too early. the ninja bring him to the hospital because they cant treat his injurys on their own due to them being too severe and they all meet misako. misako joins the ninja force and semi takes on her mantle as the iron dragon again. not as much anymore, only when her son needs protection and she has to jump in

shes still a very experienced warrior and knows how to kick butt. just she doesnt do it much anymore because it wouldnt work well for people to recognise she has the exact same fighting style as the long missing warrior lady iron dragon.

~~~~~

garmadon [i call him garmy]

oni/dragon 50/50. same as before. his dad the fsm just did mitosis or something to make him and wu idk. they just zapped into existence. if he can make whole realms out of existence im sure he can do asexual reproduction and make two children

he/him

as i said before hes a much longer built up villain . he doesnt get brought back 24/7 because that hurts my brain and it just makes him a less terrifying villain and more like a occasional nuance. throwing beer at the tv when i see the 5th ninjago season centered around lloyd and garmadons relationship SNOREEEEEEEE. give it more of a build up

has red markings on skin due to venom

crys fire because i love that feature in the movie its so cool

so yeah . he only gets referenced more and more and hes built up a lot in image before hes actually finally revealed. hes a lot more intimidating and much more affected by the venom than canon garmy and hes killed a ton of people . hes like a really really bad guy whos fully infected by the venom

he has more dragon features than canon but majority of them are oni centered features.

his human form isnt what he actually looks like 'cured' or whatever its just a human disguise he uses to be accepted by others and seem more friendly and not a bad guy . this happens after the venom is mostly purged from his body ya

non human features aka stuff from being a oni are black and purple with some whites.

~~~~~

wu

oni/dragon . hides his true form unlike his brother garmy who does not give a fauk who sees his true form.

has primarily dragon features not too many oni compared to garmy who has a couple dragon features alongside his more dominant oni ones

non human features aka dragon stuff are gold and white with some small purples.

lowkey kind of a horrible teacher who teaches literal children how to be soldiers but thats just because hes ancient old and not used to new ways + his father wasnt that good . of a father . and didnt teach him very well either. he cares about his students greatly but hes inexperienced and was taught by a bad teacher [aka. his father]

still has a crush on misako lowkey such a loser for her . im a wu / misako truther . she deserves better than that FREAK garmy and im not letting him break her heart

~~~~~

ok im still working on the other characters come back later. also still workin on the ninja

[be-it-so]

Opinion on Epic musical?

Thanks for the ask!

Well, when i only started to listen to Epic, I liked it very much. I loved the songs, i loved the way Greek mythology was treated, the characters, and even epic Odysseus's arc with this monster stuff.

I was pretty okay with the changes in the story I guess it was because I've first read the odyssey just a couples of weeks before I found epic so I didn't have this much attachment to the story of the Odyssey and Odysseus himself as I do now, so changes in it didn't bother me this much. Like, yeah, I would prefer if they didn't whitewash Circe like this and if they made lore accurate sirens and other things like this, but overall, I liked the way the whole setting was made.

My first big problems began with the wisdom saga when suddenly gods started to act not only like humans but also like clear heroes or villains. I really didn't like Athena in this saga, the way she was presented as very human and also i really didn't like all of this "I've no respect for bullies/ Those who impose their will", it was just too much of a "good guy" speech, if you understand what i mean and very not Athena-like.

And, yeah, of course the way Zeus was treated in this saga made me so sad, because he again was simply reduced to "bad arrogant and vile tyrant" and I'm so tired of this trope. Zeus is so much more than this, like, yeah, he can be vile, he can be arrogant, but he is never so pointlessly bad. He can threaten other gods (and make this threatens true in some cases), but he is not doing it just because he can nor just because something did not please him, he is keeping an order this way, he shows others that he is the king of the gods (who he is) and nobody should challenge his authority and etc. It is not about pleasing his ego. it's about ruling and keeping everyone under his control.

There are a lot things to say about Zeus and his depictions in modern media, but for now let me just say, that he would never smite his favorite daughter, who he forgave so many things and let her do so many things that it almost funny compared to his attitude towards some other gods Ares, just because she followed his orders and did exactly what he told her to.

So i was disappointed, especially considering that I loved how Athena and Zeus were presented in previous sagas. Zeus in "Horse and the infant" was wonderful, Athena in "warrior of the mind" and "my goodbye" was fabulous, exactly due to the fact that she was presented as goddess, the fact that while she was still good, she wasn't human. The lines "i see you changing from how I've designed you" and "I don't know where i went wrong," implying that Odysseus was more of a failed project than anything else, were my favorite. Yeah, i had some problems (the whole conflict between Athena and Odysseus was pretty strange, because Athena knows humans long enough to understand their emotions and to understand that these emotions can be useful and can't be suppressed while Odysseus should understand that killing your enemy is pretty useful thing to do) but as I said, I wasn't too upset with them, as I didn't have this much affection towards Odyssey and Odysseus as I do now, so it was okay for me.

But, you know, even after wisdom saga, I still had some of my expectations because even with all of the problems with that saga, it still didn't cross some line. Like, making Zeus a simple asshole, while making Athena noble hero is not something new, it was done before epic it will definitely be done after.

(I even loved "Thunderbringer ", this level of jerkiness for Zeus was something I expected in a modern adaptation at some point, so I wasn't surprised with him acting like this, it stayed in my tolerance boarders so again, i loved it)

While in vengeance saga... well, I've already expressed my emotions on this in some of my previous posts, but if I were to sum up them, I would simply say that I was deeply disappointed again.

My main problem with this saga and therefore with whole musical is the way Poseidon was treated. He wasn't only turned into "final villain" for Odysseus but also in someone who can't even stand up for his words. It is just so disrespectful. Poseidon is one of the main three, he is the god of the sea, the earthshaker, his powers shape the landscape, he rules over the domain equal to the ones of Hades and Zeus, and you telling me a mortal with a bag of winds from a minor god was able to beat him?

At least in the wisdom saga, it made sense power wise. Like, yeah, it makes sense that Zeus can easily smite Athena, he is the king of the gods, and she is his daughter, so, yeah, if he would want this, he could have done this (again he would never do this, but he definitely had all the power to do so).

While here, even with help from some other Olympians, like Athena and/or Hermes, a mortal had no chances to overpower Poseidon.

And then Poseidon begging for mercy? One of the big three begging mortal for mercy? Calling him a monster? Are we still in Greek mythology?

I mean, gods are the most important part all of the myths are based on.

I know that there is a very popular take on Greek gods, that they seem so realistic because they are "just what humans would be with the power of gods" but it seems for me, that onse you get into greek mythology deeper then Wikipedia, you understand pretty fast that this is not the case. Gods are not simply humans with superpowers. They are the forces of nature, the embodiments of powerful concepts such as love, death, wisdom and etc. They were never seen as villains to fight against, if only because you can't be able to defeat them.

Look, I'm not religious, I'm probably as far from the religious as a person can be and I'm definitely not the one to tell you that you can't discuss certain religions to not offend people or that you can't even dare to change a thing in them to fit a story.

And I probably wouldn't have any problems with Epic if it all was like the vengeance saga from the very beginning. But it wasn't. First, sagas were great they really were a good example of how you can adapt something both staying loyal and respectful to the source material while also bringing up something new and adding some modern views in the story.

If Epic started on the same note, vengeance saga ended. I would simply say, "Oh, another strange modern adaptation of the Odyssey," and moved on.

Amd that's the reason why i was so angry when the last saga only came out and why I am so sad about Epic now. I feel like I was fooled into believing that we're finally getting good modern adaptation faightful to the source material, which, even considering that this is my own problem, since no one promised me this, and I just came up with these expectations on my own, still feels shitty.

So, my main opinion on epic, that i thought it had the potential to be this wonderful adaptation of greek myths, we waited so long for. I wanted it to be a good example of what a modern retelling needs to be to both introduce new modern topics and be respectful to the source material. Well, it seems the creator wanted it to be something else.

[androdetective]

Jefferson is one of my favorite characters. Whenever I think about his fumbled potential, I experience agony. He gets set up with a simple backstory. At age ten, he saw his mom get killed by vampires, it's later revealed she was also assaulted by the same group. I'm assuming this is to reference the 80s horror trope of women being randomly assaulted for shock. Ironically enough, even the scene where that was revealed felt like it was there for shock humor. They didn't even try to subvert the trope like they do with other tropes, but that's asking too much for the show.

Because of that that's why he's dedicated his life to being a vampire hunter. Specifically, a "Blacula hunter." For whatever reason, but I guess they're doing that since Blacula was one of his character inspirations.

That's all pretty fucked up. We do see him direct that trauma to killing (all shown as aggressive) vampires. That seems like a good thing. And he does it because of his love for his mom. The closest we have to a black female character on the show. Black women are almost non-existent in the show, and the shows closest connection to one being through a man is. Rough. But it's the closest there is.

At the very least it's not a woman who's existence hinges on her romantic relationship to a man. Rather, a mother/son relationship. For vbros, that's progressive. We've barely seen that in the show, compared to father/child relationships. And it's shown in a positive way. Her impact has shown to have made him a better person compared to other characters. Especially compared to other characters who don't have positive relationships with women.

The show has a theme of mom/son relationships. Particularly, of course, with the boys looking for their bio mom through the course of the whole series. There's the moment of kid Rusty and Bobbi meeting and it being this important thing. It was a moment when Rusty had a caring adult, the closest he had to a good maternal figure. Those are just the main guys, though.

The few times a mom/son relationship is important to a side character is with Jefferson. We know a lot of his drive is because of her. He was permanently affected by her death. So much so that he mentions it a lot. However, that leads to the question. Why does he only mention her death and not any other memories with her?

I get the trauma memories being neverending, but how come we never hear about how she was? I find that really unbelievable. The fact we never hear about how she was or any stories from a loved one. The only thing we know is that she was a good mom who got killed. It feels like they barely gave thought to her. She's just a tragic figure who's barely relevant. She's the woman in the fridge trope, and that's all she was to the writers. We never got a design for her. We never even got a name for her. It feels like each time he mentions her dying its the writers trying to remind themselves what his character backstory was.

Other (white) characters get more character exploration, and it is so jarring when you see how underdeveloped Jefferson and his story actually are. We didn't even get more backstory to him until the movie. He used to live with this vigilante group in the 90s, and even then, he still hunted vampires. Which I guess shows his determination, but what else has he done? What else does he do even?

This specific scene always comes to mind when I try to analyze his character. I'm pretty sure it was the episode with the monarch wedding. Orpheus and Jefferson were talking and Jefferson says something like "there's a lot of things you don't know about me". He then says that he takes care of baby pigeons, then follows it up by saying he used to be in the military. This is the closest thing to more stuff for his character and they made him a former military guy. His whole thing is hating blood suckers why would he join a different group of them!! My only guess as to why they added that was to reference Jefferson's va, Charles Parnell. Who seems to have done military acting roles before. Even then, I'm still not a big fan of that character fact.

We don't know shit about his hobbies or anything else. Like, sure, you can add fun facts like he's diabetic and likes Nik-L-Nips, but they feel so hollow when his character doesn't get explored to his full potential. We know he loves his mom but it feels almost laughable when you realize the show unintentionally makes it seem like he doesn't give a fuck about his other family for no reason. He loves his mom, but what about the rest of his family?? Literally what about his dad?? Was he raised by him after his mom's death? Did his family console him with the trauma/grief? Has he gone to therapy? We don't know because the show never said shit. He's never even mentioned family other than his mom. And as sad as this is, a part of me is glad they didn't mention his dad because they would have easily done an absent father joke.

It's like, Jefferson is a fun character, but he would've been better if the show started caring about him before the movie. Many people like his character and want to see more of him. They want to know more about him. That really shows his potential for greater things. He's got the character setup and one of the show's coolest designs. I'm still glad he got his time to shine in the movie. I just can't help but crave more of that.

[runningheadless]

I cannot even begin to express how fucking excited ive been abt this manga ive followed for like 8 years has such a fun studio adapting it into an anime and how its been so faithful to the spirit of the story so far and how psyched i am to make everyone around me learn about all the truly unhinged characters ive been obsessed with for so long. Please talk w me abt how fallin and laios are the same but bc laios is a man and louder everyone only sees his strange obsession with monsters and not his kindness and how bc fallin is a woman and quieter everyone only sees her kindness not her strange obsession with monsters. Please discuss with me the themes of this story and the difference between living and surviving and what it means to be alive and why playing god is so dangerous and how the natural order of things has nothing to do with imposed rules and everything to do with how the order of nature comes from the chaos of nature and such things are inextricably intertwined. Please come yell with me about perceptions and first impressions of those you meet and how people can follow your expectations and surprise you in the same breath and depth of character and how different tropes can be played with in so many ways. Please look at the artists sketch pages at the end of each chapter or arc or volume where she showed how skilled she is as a character designer and artist and how she plays with her own characters in those charts where she swaps their races and yet keeps them recognizable and holy shit i cant wait for the fairy rings. None of my current friends care to watch this show or were ever interested in reading the manga i need to talk to someone.

[shadowlinktheshadow]

ok fuck it im finally gonna write down ramble about the similarities between castle in the sky and spirit tracks rhghghrr

case #1: the characters

in my very private and running around inside my mind headcanons, I see a lot of close things between pazu and link

pazu is a sweet boy (maybe even naive) who helps those in need (like every protagonist) hes a very dedicated worker in the mines, and loves machinery

same could be said for link, who never talks in game but shows his shyness and and also sweet nature. (perhaps this is only around zelda,) you could take the fact that he doesnt even want to get up at the beginning of the game to take his exam because he dislikes the job, but this is where my headcanons come in. in short, hes a child genius and a perfectionist and works himself a little too much, and gets really eepy. so yes he loves machines (trains) as well

oh, and they are both orphans. (link is a bit difficult because hes usually always some type of parentless/guardianless child but anyways-)

and even other than personality and hobbies, their looks have similar parts too

of course, theyre not carbon copies of each other (such as colors being different) but the gloves and, especially to me, the cap is the one that sticks out. like. no other zelda game has him wearing a hat like that

(I just realized the gloves r the same color holy shit 💀) ((bruh and the posture lmao💀💀))

now I dont have much to say about sheeta and zeldas similarities (sorry) but they are both royals (well 1 of royal descent)

case #2: character relationships

spirit tracks zelink is what is keeping me alive so heres some similarities

I love love love the "hopeless romantic commoner falls in love with literal princess (she loves him back)" trope. which, pazu and sheetas relationship is a little different, but the vibes are the same

both couples? pairs? are so innocently in love with each other (maybe link shows it more) but just look:

they are so rhghghrhHRHFHFJJ HISS HISS HISS 💜💜💜💜💜😭😭🔥🔥💜

and finally the catching part in the movie

now you may ask "oh totk link caught zelda something something skyward sword falling blah blah blah" (im joking pls dont hate 💀) but this catch is different than those

they arent both falling, bro is already on the ground

you know who else is on the ground?

THIS BITCH

pazu may seem more.. graceful in catching sheeta compared to link, but (according to my dad) the whole joke of link dropping zelda comes from this movie (I havent finished it so idk) but I do know pazu struggles under the weight of sheeta after all the magic stuff goes away 😂

case #3: minor stuff

so I havent watched the entire movie yet, but heres some other things I saw

birds

they r both doves...... interesting....

though different, they also both play an instrument (link plays a panflute and pazu a trumpet)

also the design similarities in the robots and the phantoms, but ive run out of photos and time so that's kt

thanks for coming to my tedtalk (to the 3 people that will see this 💀)

[sinimake]

Big agree with what you said about Johnshi. I've been in fandoms for a fuckton long time and this isn't new but damn does it bother me that in the year 2023 we still have to go through this.

It isn't only how the story goes for both Kenshi and Johnny (they meet at their lowest, go through hell together and come out of it as better people). It's also the banter in the intros (not only between them but also the fact that Kenshi and Johnny talk about each other to the others). And don't get me started with how their designs work : the blindfold is now forever tied to Johnny and the whole red/blue design going on.

But no. We can't have what would be the most organic relationship in the whole MK1 story. Instead we have Syzoth and Ashrah (which, don't take me wrong I LOVE them both) who happen to breath in the same room and possibly bond outside of the mainstory?

Agh sorry for the rant but sometimes I get bitter bc we couuuld have it aaaaaall >:(

EXACTLY 😤😤 I AM SO MAD!!!

Let me rant some more about this.

NRS was the first to introduce the first ever gay character in the fighter style video games. Love them for it, love that Taleena is canon. However, they're still pussayh for not making johnshi canon.

So i have been fangirl for more than a decade and IT IS ALWAYS THE SAME DAMN PROBLEM WITH BIG PRODUCTION COMPANIES they're so afraid of public backlash.

Let me tell you why not making Johnshi canon situation is different from Taleena and Kung Jin by opening big ass can of worms.

1. MK is dominated by cis hetero males. Yes, many people from various bg play the game, but it is undeniably true that the majority of fan base is men.

2. There's a phenomenon called the fetishization of lesbian and bisexual women. I am aware that I'm being controversial by saying this, but this fetishization makes the general public be more "accepting" of lesbain couple than the rest of the queer community, and it resonates mostly in straight men where they see queer women as objects that are simply putting on a show for the enjoyment of those watching.

This leads to my next point that it is a high probability that Taleena is allowed to be canon because the backlash from the cis hetero male fan base will be less than having gay relationship in the game. And let me tell you, Taleena interaction is bare minimum in the story mode!! I mean, yeah, they're trying to hide their relationship from others and the story is not exactly focused on them but they can be so much more! I can gloss over the lack of taleena content but was hoping for more in the future installment. But guess fucking what? Alternate universe Tanya and Mileena are rumored to be married to men in the upcoming mk1 side story.

Like imagine the vast possibility of having alternate universes where you can notch up the teased Forbidden Lovers trope but instead of having Taleena being happily united, NRS makes their only queer relationship straight???? *maniacal laugh* Honestly i will fight NRS on SIGHT. In my eyes, this only proves that they don't really care about queer representation, they're just filling the diversity qouta.

3. With what i said, NRS is a fucking coward for not making their popular male characters gay. You might bring up my boy Kung Jin but listen to me, debuting new queer character and making existing fan favorite character queer are completely different things. Kung Jin is first introduced in MK X and his sexual orientation is subtly suggested in the game. While Johnny Cage has been rated among the top Mortal Kombat characters by various gaming media publications.

If NRS made Johnny gay and in a relationship with Kenshi, imagine how fucking big the media coverage of them would have been. Literally, the second coming of that beer company queer backlash would have happened. Every gaming news outlet would be making articles on it. Johnshi would be trending on twitter.

I understand that it would be quite a risk to that to your business but guess what? They gave the most organic, the most heartfelt, the most tender story arc (ok i could be lil baised but you cant deny the chemistry) then slapped good ol' guys being pals and best friends forever crap on them 🙃

If Johnny and Kenshi were opposite gender, no cap, NO FUCKING CAP THAT THEY WOULD HAVE A FUCKING COUPLE.

4. I think Johnshi arc takes almost half of the story mode because we go through Johnny, Raiden, Kenshi, Baraka, Ashrah, Syzoth POVs till they come back from Outworld mission and in every chapter, Johnny and Kenshi get significant moments. And those moments are exclusive to only two of them, specifically tailored to them.

People say they're just friends, but i think the difference really shines if you consider that Kung Lao and Raiden are equally friends with them too. During outworld mission, Kung Lao has minimal dailogues and screen time when Johnny and Kenshi have interaction. If Kenshi and Johnny were just friends, they should have shown Kung Lao's reaction to Kenshi's blinding, Kung Lao's worry for Kenshi in the Shang Tsung's real laboratory, Kung Lao's line for Kenshi's regained sight RIGHT ALONG SIDE WITH JOHNNY.

What Kenshi and Johnny have exclusively belongs to them. That sets the difference between platonic friendship and the connection of those two.

Straight couples have less fucking interaction than one fucking scene and they are magically together. So tell me why the fuck Johnshi is not real

They SHOULD BE REAL and I'm so DONE with NRS

[tyrantisterror]

Top ten favorite Orcs? Either specific characters or a given setting’s take on the species as a whole.

I'm not sure I have enough strong feelings about Orcs to really make an interesting list of ten, but what the hell I'll try.

Tolkien's orcs - not just LOTR orcs, but specifically orcs as written by J.R.R. Tolkien - are pretty high up there for me. I've probably mentioned this more than enough on this blog, but I'm still moved by the moment in The Lord of the Rings where we get this conversation between two orcs when their bosses aren't around, where both of them commiserate with each other about how shitty being drafted into Sauron's war is, how they long to go back to their simpler life as mountain bandits, and how, maybe, if they could find a way to escape being caught by their superiors, they could run off and find someplace far from the war to settle down together. Their names are Shagrat and Gorbag, and later in the book one of the heroes finds them among a pile of dead orcs, their dream of a simpler life tragically unfulfilled. I bring this up because, for all the flak Tolkien's cosmology gets for codifying the fantasy trope of "Always Chaotic Evil" races, there's a lot more moral complexity to his "evil" races than most people think. The orcs we meet in his stories are universally pretty nasty people - even Gorbag and Shagrat can't conceive of a simple life that doesn't involve killing people for their valuables - but it's very clear this is a result of the culture they are living in, which, if you get nerdy and read up on the Lore (TM), is one that has been specifically designed by the Middle Earth equivalent of Satan to turn all living things in it into tools of warfare - a world that exists solely to serve as a vast machine of industrialized conquest and mass murder. And it makes them miserable. Orcs don't like living this way, even though it's the only way they know how to live. They are at once victim and villain, and that's explicitly the canon way to look at them in the text. So it kind of sucks that their reputation in pop culture - and how they're presented in most adaptations, including good ol' PJ's film trilogy - is as one-dimensional evil henchmen, because they do have more going on than that in the books themselves, and it enriches the themes of the story when those dimensions are included.

The orcs in Rune Factory are probably my favorite from a design standpoint. I'm kind of neutral at best with the standard "green skinned humans with optional tusks" look of most orcs. There's nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't thrill me either, existing in the same nebulous space as, like, traditional fantasy elves, dwarves, and hobbit expies - I understand why they're classics, but they feel kind of boring when you've got other options on the table. So seeing these guys when I booted up my first Rune Factory game was a revelation - finally, orcs that look INTERESTING! And they're so cute, these gnarly little Jim Hensen/Brian Froud style pig people. And they'll help you water your plants! A+ Tier orcs as far as I'm concerned.

Dungeon Meshi found a good middle ground between "gnarly boar people" and "humans with tusks" that I really like, and while the orcs aren't given a whole lot of focus, what world building we do get about them is pretty great, taking a lot of the classic orc tropes and giving them that Ryoko Kui caliber thought and detail that makes them so wonderful.

What else... well, ok, my brain still categorizes these guys as "goblins" rather than "orcs," but since the two are more or less synonymized in both Tolkien and the Rankin Bass adaptations of his work, I guess I can include them. They're one of my favorite designs for goblins of all time, and since I generally like goblins more than orcs, I guess this makes them my favorite orc design by default? I just love them, nasty little toad people.

The 1980 Return of the King movie in particular is one of the few adaptations that keeps Tolkien's sympathy for the orcs in tact, with Frodo even having a dream sequence about living in a world where his run in with orcs is fully pleasant, each of them waving at each other as they cross paths, content to share a beautiful world together.

And while it adapts the parts of the text that take place after the deaths of poor Shagrat and Gorbag, it still manages to work in a moment where the orcs lament their lot in life by way of the infamous "Where There's a Whip There's a Way" song written just for the film. I know this song is generally viewed as "bad" and corny and whatever, fuck that, I unironically love it. It's my wakeup alarm for workdays. I am these orcs five days out of the week.

What else...

So, like, kind of a cheat I suppose, but the Darkspawn in Dragon Age take a lot of cues from Tolkien's take on orcs, right down to seeming like they're just always chaotic evil at first glance, and also being the product of Supernatural Crimes Against Nature by semi-divine powers. And indeed, in Dragon Age Origins you're basically given no reason to view them as anything but evil obstacles to destroy, especially when you learn the body-horror involved in how they reproduce (it's more in the vein of Slither than Goblin Slayer, for those unaware - grotesque but, thankfully, not in that way).

But the big ol' DLC for the same game, called Dragon Age Awakening, throws a big monkey wrench in that view of them. We meet Darkspawn who are capable of speech - ones that have been broken free of the evil hivemind their species is ruled by, and, like freed borg drones, are now at a loss of what to do with themselves. They are, like Tolkien's orcs before them, a people who were made for war and violence, and yet still crave something more than that when given the chance to think about it. It's something that hasn't been followed up on much since, sadly, but it's a damn cool take.

What else...

I'm probably the only person who still remembers this movie, especially with any fondness, but I liked the orcs in the Warcraft movie directed by David Bowie's son. They were given a lot of nuance and I honestly think their parts of the film were by the far the best. Actually I remember liking that movie a lot despite some of its pacing issues, I should revisit it.

Ok that's not ten takes but I feel like there are at least 10 designs on display here so I'm calling this done.

[alovelyburn]

Why do you ship Griffith and Guts, considering they will never be canon?

The glib answer would be "because I read the series." But let me not be glib.

Okay there are different definitions of "canon" when it comes to pairings.

If the question is "why do you ship them when they're never going to ride off into the sunset together," the answer is "because it's a fascinating dynamic and I don't have any investment in relationships I enjoy working out or characters that I like being happy."

If the question is "why do you ship them when they have no canonical romantic interest in each other," the answer is "because I disagree with that statement."

And like I said yesterday, I always back my perspective up, so here we go:

In the Beast of Darkness scene where the Beast in question suggests that Guts only keeps Casca with him as an excuse to keep longing for Griffith, the use of furigana over the kanji on "yearning" or "longing" is specifically chosen to modify the meaning to reflect romantic love. [Link 1] [Link 2]

Miura had stated that in manga androgynous characters typically favor their feminine side and fall in love with men, and he felt that he couldn't write an androgynous character without being committed to portraying that. He was talking about Duranki, but it's interesting in light of Griffith's design and how much more andrognyous he became even at the same time as Miura started talking more about having been heavily influenced by Shounen-Ai. [Link 1]

Also he stated that Griffith was inspired by people he knew who could not love women and instead focused their affection or friendship on men. Then, on another occasion, he referred to Griffith as having fallen in love with Guts, which is the reason for his extremely unGriffithlike behavior. [ Link ]

Miura once said that Griffith provides the fuel that Guts needs to continue living. Before someone says that's because Guts is so mad at him, I agree with that, but also bear in mind that his feelings about Griffith are specifically lampshaded described as complicated and conflicted and not just hate. [ Link ]

The writer of the OVA also stated that Guts and Griffith's feelings for one another are complicated and involve many different feelings, including romantic love. [Link 1] [Link 2]

Now mind you I did genuinely think the story itself, the staging of panels, the tropes evoked, the narrative choices, the visual cues and the language used already implied all of this. Compare some of the Golden Age scenes with them to pages in a romance manga, for example. But for people who don't see it that way, perhaps these things will contextualize the perspective of those who do.

Anyway, long story short, I do think they canonically have romantic feelings for each other mixed in with all their other complicated positive and negative feelings, and I don't care about couples getting together or being happy, I just want interesting stories and relationships.

[musubiki]

So obviously team limochi but, do you have any au stuff about if mochi actually Did choose to marry sullivan? Like have you ever entertained the idea privately just for fun ?

sort of!! honestly, at least to me, its one of those things thats like...its nice having sulluvan there so we can see lime Jealous(tm) and hes a GREAT independent/NPC character, but i dont think they would work that well as a couple (at least not as well as mochi and lime do) for a couple reasons

its probably just the way the story is designed at this point, but im a big fan of "give the couple lots and lots of time together to develop a friendship/relationship," which is hard to do with sulluvan and mochi because hes constantly busy with other shit in his undertaker/spirit realm and shes always doing her witch thing....,,i would prefer it if he was more closely linked to the guild, but by his nature he cant really pick favorites business-wise, so his appearances are somewhat sparse and only show up once every few weeks to bug her for a date/debt repayment.,..my kind of ship is the one where they see each other daily..,i would need to reinvent a whole adventure/story where they would be near-constantly interacting to see how it would actually be...

(as a side note i HATE the trope thats like... couple spends like 2 seconds together on screen and then married next time you see them..like give us some fucking DEVELOPMENT please)

[conflictofthemind]

what are ur thoughts on gnc will?

This will be a long winded one.

Short of it: yes he is gender non conforming. I don’t think he’s particularly “girly”, but it’s this nice touch of the feminine he carries. There’s other users on this platform that have probably discussed this in a more proper manner than I have, and certainly more than I will writing this ask. I’m just going to give my own flavour of take and personal anecdotes about the topic under the read more 🙃⬇️

Honestly I find it a very underrated topic of discussion in this fandom that otherwise likes to discuss the same things over and over again (all love because I do it too with the added bonus of being new so often I don’t realize).

I do think it’s because the fandom isn’t very conducive towards it. There is a small but sometimes loud portion that likes to assume you have some secret nefarious reason behind any ‘gnc will’ posting (i.e. stereotyping). Or say by pointing out certain things as feminine, I’m being regressive and misogynist. Whereas I have another profile where I almost exclusively discuss female characters and often gender in those media. This is not a new topic to me (which I’m sure you’ll see).

In the first season he is absolutely a damsel-in-distress. He’s kidnapped by a monster and is hiding away in a ‘castle’ while his friends must come to rescue him. This continues from then on, but is the most obvious in S1.

We see the two characters that tend to chase him down when he is upset or in danger being Mike (duh) and Lucas, who are the two most masculine members of the party and play corresponding roles in DnD as Paladin and Knight. Even in the painting Will makes of the party, it features the party (Mike highlighted) facing off against a dragon. In that game the boys play in the arcade, the goal is defeating the dragon to save the princess —

— which is also such an iconic image of particularly Sleeping Beauty, who is a princess trapped in a castle. I have a whole idea centered around this one for later.

So in terms of role he has definitely been given a traditional female one. Even within the Byler relationship, Will stays in that passive ‘yearning maiden’ type position who is waiting for her true love to confess his feelings first. As Mike should.

All of that might have been very controversial because quote unquote ‘boxing Byler into gender roles’ is regressive (even if the characters intentionally fit these princess/knight archetypes, oops!). Personally I don’t find it regressive at all, I find it interesting to look at things from this perspective. Part of this labelling is the deconstruction of the tropes as well. Will can’t and is not going to remain passive in Season 5, so how will this be dealt with and how will it affect specifically the Byler storyline?

I’m especially interested in whether he completes the transformation from Princess to Witch 👀 but my fairytale posting might get some entries of its own.

Now what you provably mean irt clothing and gender presentation:

The answer is still yes. I think a lot of the reason people deny Will as being gnc is because he doesn’t look the part. But instead of thinking about why that might be, the conclusion is made right then and there.

Will wears clothes that are mostly hand me downs from Jonathan. Their family is poor and if he does get ‘new’ (read: personal choice) clothes they are almost certainly from the thrift store. He has no option to even try and experiment with.

In the original pilot the Duffs actually wanted him to be identifiable by ‘colourful’ (read: girly) clothing, and did keep a bit of that in his Will the Wise outfit that is customized and only worn when he’s comfortable and in his element. The original conversation around the table was Dustin poking at him for wearing a wig and purple gown:

My personal headcanons are that he would keep the natural colours because they are pleasing to the eye, but would experiment and branch out with slightly cuter designs once he is out of Hawkins’ claws. I think the femininity in his style would be kept fairly lowkey apart from certain DnD reunions with the party where he might pull out a costume with some experimental and colorful makeup.

Like, I own an 80s vintage sweater that I think he would wear:

I hope the theoretical reader enjoyed a look into my closet lol. But yes, I see Will as gnc (very broad term there btw) and it is a part of my enjoyment of the character. I am mostly a fan of female characters, and the few male characters I do really stand behind usually have at the very least a few gender non conforming traits.

<- All of this is said as a lesbian who doesn’t necessarily consider herself gender non conforming, but also doesn’t fit a lot of major feminine ideals. I’m butcher than the average twenty year old woman solely off of not wearing makeup, not shaving, and being gay which I do consider as particularly gender nonconforming for women.

[tarn-ati0n]

What is the first ever horror movie?

Oh Buddy, you just triggered an unskippable cutscene.

So, obviously, Horror in film already existed prior to 1920, but those were only short 5 minutes clips that couldn’t be really called „Horror“

No, the first actual Horror Movie released on the 26th February 1920. And it’s a German one.

„Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari - Ein Filmschauspiel in 6 Akten“

„The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - A film spectacle in 6 acts“ Was a Silent Movie directed by Robert Wiene and tells the tale of a sleepwalker (A Somnambulist) who is paraded around as a Circus attraction by the Ringmaster Dr. Caligari during the day, and commits gruesome murders in his name by night. It was a gigantic milestone for the History of cinema and an important part of german expressionism.

It was one of, if not the first Movie to have flashbacks, multiple Plot-Twists and many other things that we would consider a staple of today’s Cinema. But most importantly, this is the movie where so many horror movie tropes originated. It was technically the first Slasher. The whole „The Monster/Killer falls in love with the woman��� thing first appeared here. Honestly as a semi Horror fan myself it was really neat seeing this Movie for the first time and going „Hey, I know that Trope!“

Speaking of seeing, HOLY SHIT I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THE SET DESIGN BECAUSE OH MY GOD.

OHHHHHH MY FUCKING GOD.

When I say that this Movie is an important part of German Expressionism, this is what I’m talking about. LOOK AT THAT SHIT!

The Geomatry is so off, everything fells like chalk, Nothing is ever actually rectangular, the sets look so fantastical I want to inject this set design into my Veins. And this design isn’t just for the set, all the Characters look so unique as well! I especially love how the set sometimes works like an Actor itself. Windows are shaped so that they point towards certain parts of a scene. Light falls in weird places so that it highlights important aspect. Scenes that are supposed to take place at day and Scenes that are supposed to take Place at night have a different hue. It’s fucking awesome man.

The shadows on their faces, the weird and rigid movements, OUGH i am biting on this.

You can see that so many other Directors, namely Tim Burton, took so much inspiration from this film.

Genuinely, If you have even the slightest bit of interest in the History of Horror and Cinema, do yourself a favor and watch this Movie. It’s a treat. Personally, I’ve already seen it like 5 times, and it always manages to pull me into this sort of trance. Everything about the movie is so unique and special, I can’t explain it. I’ve purposefully avoided most Spoilers, so again, if you’re interested watch it.

Personally, I recommend this restored version from 1980. The music had to be replaced, but tbh I don’t think it does this movie any injustice. Also it has english subtitles, but since it’s a silent movie, you won’t need to read much.

[msfcatlover]

@alycat76: What’s the platonic a/b/o one about?

Okay, this is immediately going under a readmore, because I know plenty of people hate the very concept of A/B/O, and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable.

.

SO! I have recently discovered that purely platonic A/B/O stories are actually something I kinda love. It’s about what it does to the setting, and the inter-character dynamics, and the incredibly intense hurt-comfort sickfics you can get out of it, and also I’m a sucker for empathetic bonds in fiction (people really don’t do enough with them.)

But there were some tropes that got repeated over & over again, while others I’d be interested in seeing just… never came up at all? And in the process of me spitballing what those fics would look like, I accidentally tripped and made a whole cohesive AU. Oops.

(Also, I saw like one person say, “What if betas could cancel out other smells as well as control their own,” in an ask somewhere, and proceeded to come up with a whole… thing that lets betas get in on all the sickfic & presentation fun that comes with this AU. It may or may not take up a full page of my notes. If anyone wants the specifics, just ask and I’ll post them.)

Anyway, the main pillars that this AU is built on are:

1. There are several fics where baby!Jay finds Robin in heat, knows full well how incredibly dangerous that is, and risks his own skin to hide Robin until either the heat passes or (most often) until Batman shows up. I love all of these. You know what I haven’t seen even once? Baby!Jason saving Dick Grayson in basically that same situation.

2. There are not enough fics where Bruce is a beta who uses his scent-control abilities to further separate his identities! *shoves my “Batman is just as much a public performance as Brucie Wayne” agenda into the very meta of this AU*

3. I am very fond of the “Jason’s big comeback plan goes completely off the rails” trope, especially when it comes in the form of needing to save a member of his family. I’ve seen a couple A/B/O fics with this premise with Tim. I have not seen any with Dick.

(Oh look, mirroring!)

4. It is here I realized why rut/heat-sickfics immediately became my drug of choice, and hey, if I’m gonna be projecting I might as well go all the way with it. *hands Dick a small mountain of medical complications on top of everything else*

5. My love of deceptive appearances (and the fact I have only found one (1) alpha!RH!Jason fic where I actually liked his part of it) means I am always going to default to omega!Jason.

6. So have you considered: Pack Alpha (by default) Tim? Oh, Bruce is still the Head of the pack, Tim doesn’t get to be automatically in charge or anything. But being the Pack Alpha comes with a whole host of extra instincts, which is only complicated further by the fact that as far as the rest of Gotham is concerned, when Tim first took on that role he wasn’t connected to the Wayne pack at all.

7. Hey, what do you think this particular arrangement does to Damian’s relationships with the family? Especially if we assume that, say, Talia refused to tell Damian their designations because it would be incredibly foolish to get a bunch of preconceived notions about the Bats just because of their secondary genders.

Things spiraled from there. I have, like, 10 drafts of both of those “Jason rescues Dick” fics, a whole bunch of fallout from Dick finding out Jason’s the Red Hood (some humorous, some not very much not,) Damian having a real rough time of it at the manor…

Here are my favorite story beats.

.

Dick actually initially rescued himself from the kidnappers, but then he was barefoot in Crime Alley with a chemical heat coming on fast while they looked for him. Dick yanks Jason down into his hiding space behind a dumpster before the kidnappers see Jason. Once the kidnappers leave, Jason offers to let Dick hide with him until the heat passes. Jason’s squat even has running water, even though it’s cloudy & cold.

Jason at some point says something about wishing he could make the nest better for Dick (who is obviously used to nicer things, but trying to make the best out of it,) which is when Dick remembers the emergency cash sewn into his clothes (Bruce is paranoid enough and you know it,) and gives it to Jason to go get whatever he thinks would be best.

While Jason is at the store, he sees the news about Dick Grayson being missing, an obviously distraught Bruce Wayne pleading for anyone to call with information. Jason remembers how Dick kept saying that his dad would be so worried. Jason remembers what it was like to sit up at night, wondering when or if his mom was coming home. Jason takes a few coins of his change to a pay phone to call the number, just to reassure Bruce that Dick’s safe.

Jason definitely panics when Batman kicks the door in that night, because as far as Jason’s concerned a very large, angry alpha just barged in on the omega Jason was trying to help (Dick even used the stupid Batman print towel Jason bought for him as the base of the nest, how is this fair?) Bruce sees a frightened, packless child ready to throw hands with the fucking Batman in order to keep Dick safe. Dick refuses to leave without Jason, because Dick’s already adopted him.

-

All of Gotham knows Jason was more Dick’s puppy than Bruce’s. Bruce is still the one who legally adopts Jason, since Dick is like, 16 at this point (Jason’s 10-11).

There’s a lot of whispering about why Dick completely disappeared from the public eye after Jason died. Dick so obviously adored the kid, and the few pictures people do get look so miserable, that most Gothamites get aggressively offended on Dick’s behalf if you try to suggest he had anything to do with it. He’s not even 20 and he’s grieving. Cut the boy some slack.

-

At some point after Tim becomes Robin, Dick needs to make a scene so he has an excuse to leave a party. After a quick check in to make sure Tim’s okay with it, a very drunk Richard Grayson proceeded to get on Janet Drake’s case about not appreciating the wonderful puppy she had waiting for her at home.

After helping him out of the room, Alfred came back to apologize for Master Grayson. “You’ll have to forgive him. It’s almost Jason’s birthday.”

In the greatest social blunder Janet ever made in her life (partially distracted by the wine stain on her new silver dress) she snapped out, “He’s still upset about that?”

(Fortunately for her, the room was loud enough that her voice didn’t carry far. But every conversation in a 20ft radius stopped dead. She did realize immediately and start to apologize, that came out wrong, oh god, she didn’t mean it like that!)

(Tim suggests Dick not antagonize Tim’s parents in the future after all.)

-

This is actually the verse that first made me realize I wanted Tim to ask Steph to be Robin in his place, because in this verse they’re not just losing Robin, they’re losing their Pack Alpha with nobody to replace him. That is so much compounding trauma just from one member leaving the pack, but if Steph takes Tim’s place as Pack Alpha before Tim’s dad makes Tim cut himself out of the pack…

-

(Cass & Alfred are both betas, for the record.)

-

Dick has a bad reaction to the inducers the second time Jason has to save him. By the time Jason hauls Dick back to the nearest safehouse, Dick’s such an emotional mess that the only way Jason could ever calm Dick down is for Jason to reveal his identity and repair their pack bond.

Dick knows it’s Jason, because you can’t lie through the bond.

(Tim shows up at some point in the night, and refuses to leave.  “He said no alphas,” Jason snarls.  “I wouldn’t be much of one if I left him alone like this with a stranger,” Tim snaps back.) (Dick drags Tim into the nest too as soon as he realizes Tim is there.)

-

Neither Dick nor Tim tell Bruce about Jason, because Jason made it clear he didn’t want Bruce to know. They do both proceed to hound Jason, trying to coax him back into the pack. Bruce is very uncomfortable with both of his sons being so determined to apparently befriend their newest rogue.

(I just have this delightful mental image of Nightwing dropping in on one of Red Hood’s meetings, saying he’s not there for trouble, framing it as an “I owe you for saving my skin” sort of thing. Before he leaves, Nightwing flashes his brightest smile at Hood. “By the way, Robin thinks you’re cool.”

Half of Jason’s goons die laughing as soon as they get over the shock.)

-

Damian picks a fight with Tim because (despite Talia’s best efforts,) Damian did pick up several assumptions about the different designations. Tim was the next-newest, so Damian could cement his place in the pack by beating the lowest alpha, surely.

Damian realized his mistake as soon as Bruce arrived. The pack Head is a beta. The Second is an omega. Which means Damian just picked a fight with the Wayne Pack Alpha.

And—since Tim is still breathing, speaking, and glaring daggers at Damian—Damian lost.

(Tim meets Damian’s gaze for 10 agonizing seconds before turning away with a lift of his chin; dismissive, just like Ra’s would do. Damian’s just like, “I am so dead.”)

-

(I have a bunch of other stuff that’s pretty much Hurt No Comfort of Dick dealing with his medical problems & also how this particular set up would probably affect his various assaults, and how the trauma from those would then compound back into those medical problems. It’s… it’s not good. It’s not fun. I don’t think anyone wants to hear about that.)

(It does give Jason the chance to hunt down Catalina Flores, and gave me the chance to type the line, “I don’t think you understand. I’m not his friend. I’m not his boyfriend. I’m not even a hero. I’m his son.”)