#i couldn't color this scene to save my life tho

[paceyjoeydaily]

one paceyjoey gifset per episode:

1x02 (dance) - pacey resting his arm on joey’s chair

[cookii-moon]

FULL Dragons Rising thoughts and opinions!

PLEASE BE AWARE SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-10 OF DRAGONS RISING LIES AHEAD!!! If you have not watched it PLEASE be aware that the following contains both massive and minor spoilers for the entire plot of part 1, if you haven’t seen the full thing and wish to go in without spoilers I HEAVILY recommend you save this for later. I put this message here for those who do not have the spoiler tags filtered.

so… new ninjago show! So far? Absolutely love it. It’s shaping up to be interesting and… …well written??! I really enjoyed It, especially the characterization. Sooo good. No concrete opinions on the overarching plot yet, since.. it isn’t out… BUT I do think it’s shaping up to be pretty great.

Now without further ado-

1: Characters

1.1: Arin

I’d say I enjoy him! I do like how he’s portrayed as giddy and all ready to learn, his dream basically just came true and it’s great. Man hyper fixated so much that he taught himself an ancient art style and like yeah that tracks.

I like his design - you can tell he’s had a rough life by the dirt on his shirt and the scratch marks on his face, but he tries not to give up hope or let it get to him too much. I also like how he has a haircut commonly associated with black people and they kept the theme by also having that one line about a haircut he tried to get reference Zane’s, since Zane also has a haircut commonly used by black people. Nice lil way of alluding to a potentially POC character while still using the Lego skin tones.

His little moments where he lets his struggles get the best of him and showcases how his life these past few years have also impacted him for not just the better but also worse - they’re great. Nice way of balancing his character and personality with his experiences while not losing the charm. Things like him being all self deprecating sometimes, or how he felt seen when people looked up to him - they’re great. Not as much as I’d like, but i get the feeling that while this part was more focused on Sora and her backstory, the next might be more centered around Arin.

On a more personal note - while I think he’s great and has potential, I dunno if he’s really my thing. I don’t hate him, I actually like him, just not as much as some other characters right now. I think he needs some time to grow on me, or it’s just not my thing. Either way, he’s cool. Also I love how he just slaps his medallion on his face when he gets second place… it’s so dramatic-

1.2: Sora

aaaa trans kitty cat girl my beloveddd she’s just ugghhhh I love her so much. Probably one of my favorite new characters. I liked her but was scared they’d go too far with the generic big sister trope and she’d never get any deeper than that but boy I’m glad I was wrong.

I love her design. The whites and blues a pinks? Really glad they didn’t just go for a full color again, it makes her more distinct! I also love the prosthetic arm SO MUCH. Rare to see any sort of disability rep in media. Even rarer to see prosthetics. (Also yes ik it’s possible it’s just like armor or smthn but given the way it moves I’m like 99% sure it’s a prosthetic, plus I could be wrong but It looks a lot like she has it off during the scene where Lloyd wakes them up, since you can’t see her gold/prosthetic arm where it would usually be. Only going based off of pictures and memory here tho so.) < — haaaahaaaa yeah so uh future Cookie here, wrote that part before the statement came out..yeah that aged poorly. Look maybe they said it’s armor but I REFUSE to accept it that is a prosthetic to me. My mind has engrained it as a prosthetic meaning I couldn't change my mind even if I tried. Leaving that part in tho for histories sake. - Also, the Japanese cat girl is such a vibe. I love how I was right with the blue scrunchie in my art of her.,The power of character design.

I loved her story so much. She was just a kid with a love for technology and making the world a better place, she got offered what she thought was her dream job only to realize the cruel truth she’d likely been ignoring, in such a traumatizing way by the person she looked up to. She got shunned not only socially but by her own parents, being told she was a horrible person for prioritizing the dragons life over her cities energy and questioning the dictatorship. She grew to hate her home and fled and made a life for herself. I love her lil deadname tease, I love how she feels towards her powers and how she feels like she isn’t all that Lloyd thinks she is, how she clearly has issues and also her personality. Her siblings energy with Arin is so good. I love when Lloyd and Arin doubt who’s side they’re on too. I like how she doesn’t learn to control her powers like some ex machina when it’s needed on her own. She tries her hardest but fails and instead of constantly letting that get her down she still tries to fight without them, even if it doesn’t always go well. Dhdhfjdjs I could rant all day.

So uhh yeah i love her. Kitty cat girl. I really like the duality between her and Arin but also the stuff they have in common like sndhdhsben. I mean it should be obvious I like her. She’s in my title thingymajig and I made art for her. But still. Hdjdjdhdh I LOVB HER.

Also this isn’t part of my analysis but when she gets fake IDs if you translate the ninjagan on her card it reads “Sora Surname” as a placeholder and I think it’d be hilarious if we just started using that as her last name tag since this community is obsessed with them. Sora Surname. It’d be so funny. Please tag your posts Sora Surname.

1.3: Euphrasia

So like when dragons rising first released I saw quite a few peoples hating on this girl and imo I actually really like her. I feel like the hate is sort of unfounded but I’ll get into that later.

I like her!! I like the idea of her being a cloud kingdom monk, i like the new cloud kingdom designs, I like that FINALLY girls seem to exist there, and her wanting to ignore and hide her powers because she’s happy where she is and she doesn’t want to lose it. Side note, I do prefer this cloud kingdom, I feel like it leaves more room. Like if someone doesn’t like the idea that they write destiny at all they can just.. chose to see them as a sort of religious group who doesn’t actually write fate, and then if you like the idea that they can control some amount of destiny you can say that they do have control over some parts of it, but that they simply can’t control everything and in the end it’s not only up to them but also the people of the world if the prophecies come true or not (personally I like to think that’s how it is/is implied) or that they COULD control destiny but can’t anymore after the merge. Idk you can stretch it more and I like that. So much better than the old cloud kingdom imo.

Back to Euphrasia, I do like her story and the little we see of her. I’m not actually bothered by the fact that she only appears in one episode. I’ve seen people complaining about it but come on guys, we literally only have ten episodes, would you have preferred that she randomly pops into imperium when she has no logical way of getting there and that’s where like every single other episode takes place?? There physically wasn’t anywhere else she would have appeared after episode 5 unless you made her join Sora and Arin, which not only would you need to lengthen the plot to develop her as a character with interactions since they JUST met, but also it’s refreshing to have a new EM who isn’t one of the new MCs.

the OTHER reason I see people hate her is because of Morro. Obviously, she’s the new master of wind, meaning Morro is dead, and his element went back to the cycle and found a new host. So people are upset.

guys. Guys we literally knew this. We’ve known he was dead since like 2015. We’ve known he moved on to the departed realm since 2016. We’ve known that the wind element has gone back to the cycle and found a new host for YEARS. That doesn’t mean Morro suddenly doesn’t exist. He just doesn’t have his element anymore. He could still appear in the new series, and even if he doesn’t I’m honestly ok with that. His arc is done and i get the feeling he’d go out of his way to avoid the ninja after the merge anyway. It isn’t Euphrasia fault, stop hating on her D:

I don’t have much else to say about her yet. I loved her story and moments and design and vibe and everything but there isn’t much else to talk about bc of the smol screen time amount, so yeah.

1.4: Wyldfyre

Silly wolf-raised-girl-trope-with-a-dragon-twist. I love her so much. Not sure I’d call her one of my favs yet (uuugh they’re all my favs… sobs..) only bc we didn’t see much of her character interactions n stuff.

Her design is so pretty. The colors make her look like a Qilin to me which I love so much.

I do like how she’s knowledgeable enough with humans to be able to interact with the rest of the cast while still keeping her draconic behaviors or knowledge that she gained by being raised around them. I think it’s a nice little limbo and I feel like we’re gonna see at least one identity crisis from her now that she’s in the group.

I’m usually not much of a fan of these types of characters but I actually really like her and I’m excited to see where they go with her. Plus, her powers and the lighting they give off are so pretty.

1.5: Lobbo

I had to include him. Look at him. I CALLED IT. I TOLD YOU ALL, ALL THE WAY BACK IN THE TRAILER DAYS I POINTED OUT LOBBOS MECH. I SAID I LOVED HIM ALREADY AND I WAS RIGHT. TAKE THAT INTERNET!! I unironically love him he’s so funny nobody understands him he’s just THERE with parental and relationship struggles and it’s just so funny to me. Little silly orb man. Now onto the villains!

1.6: Empress Beatrix

So I like… love her design, it’s so menacing and I think she’s so awesome looking. Super gender too. I find her weird rules funny but also sometimes I want to punch her in the face. Like.. why did she get so mad about Rapton being incompetent, but then.. fire Ras… who didn’t really do anything wrong except for fail that ONE time.. instead of Rapton.. who physically isn’t competent whatsoever?? Like I don’t get it?? It felt so random. Maybe it’s some form of her wanting to feel superior and in control so she got rid of Ras as a statement. But then… why not also fire Rapton, who thinks highly of himself bc of the position you gave him?.. I dunno I don’t get it maybe they’ll tell us in part 2.

1.7: Lord Ras

Ah yes, the guy people seem to really like. I’ll be honest, I don’t get the appeal?? Like his design feels out of place, which I guess is intentional but I just.. don’t really like the look of the awkward head mold. It’s a personal thing ig. His personality is just kind of boring to me and we don’t know anything else about him because he’s that scary bad guy general except oh wait he screwed up once and got thrown in prison!! Like I don’t get it?? Look guys he’s not even that attractive. I might be aroace but even I can tell that much. It’s the voice isn’t it. Y’all are simping for the voice smh /lh

I guess his whole “plan” thing is a bit interesting but even that isn’t something I’m too interested. I kinda just found him pretty boring and I felt disinterested whenever he showed up.

like in the last few episodes it felt like they were trying to make us feel bad for him with the way the empress treated him but like, they don’t give us anything to feel bad for?? I dunno the whole thing felt awkward and clunky.

Maybe my opinions will change in part 2 where we’re probably gonna find out more about him, but until then, meh.

also I want to punch him in the face sometimes. I dunno he’s just being all th e r e and boring and so I want to punch him and get him off of the screen because it’s like an annoying type of boring. Yk like an annoying torturous silence. But boring. Yeah that. No offense I don’t hate him I just want to punch him off of my screen.

1.8: Rapton

Silly goofy guy. I’ll be honest I found his incompetence a bit.. annoying? Like I get he’s supposed to be comic relief but like it doesn’t feel right sometimes?? It’s just a personal thing ig. I feel like having some comic relief villains is ok but imperium just has too much comic relief in their villain roster?? Like Ras and Beatrix are pretty much the only capable ones in a fight. Ras got chucked in prison and barely shows up or does much, and Beatrix still has comic relief elements in her ridiculous laws and such. LaRow could count but shes not really a competent fighter since she cowers and nopes out the second Arin tries to fight her. I feel like it just.doesn’t work with imperiums vibe having rapton as a general, and honestly i didn’t find his jokes funny (but ofc humor is subjective). I don’t dislike him, I just don’t really care about him. I want to punch him in the face whenever he shows up but out of annoyance.

1.9: Dr. LaRow

She shows up and I want to punch her but this time out of malice and hatred. She’s a good villain and I like how they handled her but I physically can not feel anything but spite for this woman and I love that. Great villain. Hate her with every fiber of my being which is how it should be.

1.10: Dorama

I don’t have much to say about him asides from that the magician vibes are fun and that I want to punch him in the face for his attitude towards living beings.

… apparently I really feel like punching all of them. Huh. I swear I’m not like this usually I dunno something about all these villains is just punchable.

2: Interactions

Honestly? I’d say the interactions in this show were great. Sora and Arin are great foils to each other and best buds. My only thing is I hope the show doesn’t try to push a ship (I’ve seen people complain about shipping them and while I see their dynamic in a platonic familial sense I have nothing against people shipping them romantically atm since we don’t know of anything that’d make it problematic, I just don’t think it should be forced in canon) but I choose to be hopeful and say it probably won’t. Lloyds interactions with his new students are amazing and so funny srfvjrtfjer Lloyds really gone from the guy who didn’t know what a VCR was to the guy who probably still doesn’t know what a VCR is (somehow) but has now adopted two strays and needs to pretend to know what a VCR is. It’s so funny. The sibling bicker between Lloyd, Kai and Nya was ok, I guess? Never cared much for the RGB sibling idea… Iknowww shame on me but uh was it just me or did the interactions feel a bit… forced? I dunno, something about it just felt off. Was it just me or did anyone else feel like that?? Also Soras interactions with Dr. LaRow and Rapton… so good… Overall I like the interactions even if the ones between the ninja felt a bit forced.

3: Writing & plot

So I enjoyed the writing.. specifically the characters dialogue and such. I think this season has some really good balance between dialogue and characters. I liked the pacing a lot up until the imperium episodes. I don’t have a problem with them on their own - I liked the conflict it sparked and the stakes and seeing Sora’s backstory, but I also felt like it dragged on too much?? Like Sora kept escaping and then getting captured and then escaping and then going back like it felt really backtracky and it kind of messed with the consistency and the pacing, yk?? Also the battle with the protacs definitely felt like the writers were trying to stall or smthn. Idk.

Also, did Zane popping up feel.. unnecessary and rushed to anybody else?? Like the IDEA was awesome and cool, things were great up until they opened the pod.. then Zane pops up and he doesn't really do anything except for immediately become a generic background exposition tool, he barely even interacts with Kai and Nya. Having him there felt so… unnecessary? He doesn’t DO anything. You could get rid of him and just give them another way of activating the monastery and it’d change nothing. Plus it’s NOT explained and he’s just so… unemotional and “whatever” about it that it just… feels so unnatural?? Idk I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s just me not liking how they seem to be reverting to making Zane more of a robotic exposition tool like after s4. I don’t like it. You could’ve just left him to part 2 though.

I’ve seen ppl complain about the “retcons” with Lloyd saying he trained under Master Wu for years and being shown as a child, but like, they’re not really retcons…? From what I remember they never give us any sort of specifics towards the timeframe in which S1-S2 takes place outside of S2 taking place only a few weeks after the S1 finale, but that doesn’t really apply to the ENTIRE season. It’s not Impossible that the events we see all take place over the course of a few years, since most of the episodes aren’t connected to each other beyond the overarching plot. And nothing ever said that Wu didn’t train Lloyd. What we see isn’t the only training that took place. Maybe I forgot something important that says otherwise, but the idea that S1-2 took place in only a few weeks/months is completely fan made, meaning it wasn’t a retcon. Sure, maybe it seems weird, but it’s never been stated otherwise. Now, if it IS a retcon, I’m not complaining for one. Why, you might ask? Because them using child Lloyd and saying he trained under Master Wu for years might mean we can FINALLY be rid of the Tomorrows tea confusion!! We could have him grow up naturally, or age him up and clarify and elaborate on how it works, we could FIX the entire stupid argument that has been going on for YEARS. I for one am ecstatic at that possibility. Also, it means we might get additional context and stuff for S1-S2, which sounds fun ,so honestly I have no problem with it. There have been worse plot holes/retcons *glares at Nyad from across the room*

I can’t say much about the overarching plot yet, since obviously it isn’t out, but it’s shaping up to be pretty exciting!

4: Worldbuilding

I feel like I can’t judge this TOO much considering the nature of part 1. I absolutely loved the crossroads and the mix of different cultures, real splatsville vibes, but I do feel like we should get to see more of how the other realms are doing. Imperium felt a bit.. strange? Like it’s just a massive city of humans right?? I don’t really get why it had to be an entire separate realm, I think it should’ve been more unique on like a larger scale. I dunno though. Honestly there wasn’t much worldbuilding in this part, so I hope we get more soon.

5: Visual design & animation

Okay so this new series is BEAUTIFUL. The colors and the backgrounds are so much more vibrant, the lighting is so pretty, the environments are amazing, they kept the wild brain clothing textures and just uuuugh I love it so muchychxhazjchcjdiwhthfs the animation felt very expressive and ueuahahehfhdsj I have no words props to wildbrain and the animators/artists. It’s so pretty.

Overall this part was great and I’m really excited to see what comes next!!

also uh on a side note this post took me *checks date* uhh 2… 2 weeks.. y e a h. So uh. Enjoy.

[anthros-vanitas-archive]

1, 3, 7, 10 & 13 for the Fan-tastic asks tag game!

Thanks @verba-writing for the ask, sorry for the wait I was busy at work but I did try my best to answer some of the questions when I got some breathing rooms.

1. What kind of readers would be fans of your WIP?

I would say mostly fans of medieval fantasy, probably D&D fans who are seeking something with low magic aswell, and possibly (but this one I'm not quite sure)  those who like stories more like slice of life, "The Eternal Throne" even tho it has some actions scenes is not a novel involving high stakes, is more like a chill and emotional adventure.

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3. Assign your WIP a color.

Not a specific color but here's a color palette.

7. You’ve published or shared your WIP and it develops rabid fandom. What’s the fandom known for?

Probably in first contact, for discussing about which ship with the MC is canon (there's a lot of room for interpretation on that front), and also for discussing what is the true ending (because I'm gonna put a really big cliffhanger in the end and NOBODY CAN STOP ME NOW), but in general I hope is a welcoming and supportive fandom cause the message of the novel is how difficult sometimes being yourself can be but how important that decision is.

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10. Which scene from your WIP would make good fanart fodder?

Probably the eulogy scene from Chapter 9: "The Widow", which is a heartbreaking scene. Also the last goodbye in Chapter 10: "The Maid", another emotional and hearthbreaking scene. And hopefully, if everything goes right, the final confrontation from Chapter 5: "The Smuggler", and I say hopefully because I don't know if I'm gonna be able to portrait how badass and threatening the antagonist in that story is.

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13. What line from your WIP would your fandom constantly quote?

I'm not sure which but I would take some just in case.

"...this world is all about power, the weak dies, the strong prevails... So explain to me, how the hell is a dead man like you still walking?" Chapter 5: "The Smuggler".

"- I'm sorry, I couldn't kept my promise, old friend." Chapter 9: "The Widow".

"SAVE ME ELLE" Chapter 8: "The Messenger".

"- You can't convince me, I saw your trueself and even with that, we're together. We're friends now.

- I'm not gonna say it back.

- I don't care, that's how friendship works." Chapter 4: "The Merchant".

"...Hard to believe you could be that perfect.-

-That perfect, you say?- She emphasized the "that" and smirked immediately after, knowing fully well how his mind was gonna start rambling after that terrible mistake." Chapter 10: "The Maid".

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 5

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be lots of Viren deets, Best Boy Soren deets, some writing/continuity stuff, worldbuilding appreciation and half of a theory, Detective Rayla, Moon Temple geeking, Claudium and dark magic, and more!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

(I know for darn sure that I wrote up a post for chapter 4, but I can't find it anywhere so I guess Tumblr ate it and I'll have to redo it at some point, but today is not that day)

Viren, my evil dude, my bad guy, coming in clutch with the worldbuilding and backstory again! If you want to know decades of information, you gotta talk to Viren. Or read his scenes, at least. Here, he seems to not sleep much when he has a big problem to analyze his way through. Solutions trump pretty much everything else in this guy's life, and he's had a really hard week with a lot of new and complicated problems. Of course he's getting sleep-deprived trying to find his way through them all.

Harrow put so much trust in Viren when he made him High Mage! He just threw himself extra hard at that Lady Justice blindfold, didn't he? Didn't really want to see what Viren was doing in his magic study, so he left Viren to his devices. And Viren has a lot of devices.

Also, this is fascinating: Viren made the secret passage to his "less official study" in Katolis Castle! And he was inspired to do so by the way his own mentor kept the Puzzle House. What else could a Puzzle House be, except a place with secret passages? Yay! secret headcanon that "the Puzzle House" is just "Katolis Castle" from Kid Viren's perspective tho

So either Viren built all of those passageways, or at least the ones to his dungeon. Which means he has to have, or know where to get, a stash of those glowing blue Moonshadow crystals. Hmmm.

I can't wait to learn more about Kpp'Ar and young Viren, btw. From this description of Viren and all his literal secret ways, it feels like another parallel between Viren and Runaan, with the whole "secretive paths, members only, insider knowledge" type stuff. Only the really cool members of this cult club get to know the secrets, and guess what, kid, you're cool now but you can never tell anyone, okay? Our secret.

Yeahhh, that'll never backfire in any way for either of them.

Kpp'Ar calling puzzles and secrets "man-made magic," though. Yes sir, knowledge is indeed power.

This chapter mentions Runaan by name, from Viren's perspective. Generally that would imply that Viren knows his name, even though assassins do not share their names, and Runaan didn't seem to give his to Viren in the first book. However, there was a scene in book one where the last paragraph switched perspective from Viren to Runaan - a technique that's very common in visual media like movies and shows and gives you that "ohoho they left the room and didn't notice this, but you do!" vibe. Using Runaan's name there in book one, where Viren couldn't see it but readers could, helps them keep track of the assassin's story arc while maintaining Viren's racism.

So in book two, in which Runaan has no onscreen scenes (alas), using his name in a scene that calls back to the events in book one helps us remember what happened in that dungeon cell. It would be a bit muddier to recall the specifics if Viren kept thinking about Runaan as "Elf." So I'm cool with the perspective nudge because it serves a narrative purpose: clarity. But I'm also enjoying the angst of considering that, somehow, Viren learned Runaan's name either during or after the coining spell. Mwa ha ha haaa. (Obligatory "Keep my pretty name outta your mouth" goes here)

Okay, back to Viren's scheming! He took the mirror because it was human-sized in a dragon lair. He knew it didn't really fit there, and that made it interesting, so he stole it. But he realized it was really powerful when Runaan wouldn't tell him squat about it - the assassin's instinct to protect Xadian secrets from human hands meant that Viren was holding a very powerful Xadian secret. And that just made him want it all the more. Ah, Runaan, if only your relationship with lying was, like, the exact opposite of what it is. Nyx could've spun Viren a believable tale in 2 minutes flat.

Also of interest: Viren considers his cursed coins to be a final fate. He expects Runaan to remain in his coin forever. With the Chekhov's coins still extant in the storyline, we can assume that they'll come up again eventually, but Viren has no current plans to do anything with his elf money except carry it around.

It's worth noting that Viren admits that he got impatient when he trapped Runaan in the coin. Runaan's first fate in Katolis was supposed to be death at Soren's hands, but Claudia "saved" him from that. His next fate was to become spell components, but Viren's frustration with his stubbornness "saved" him from that fate, too. So now he's in a coin, where no one can chop him up at all. Yay? No, boo!

We get one last line about Runaan before Viren shifts gears: he makes a point of noting for us that Runaan's shackles are still locked shut. However much of Runaan made it into that coin - body, soul, hair care products - he was magicked there, pulled right out of his restraints.

The creepy black liquid that Viren pours right into his eyes is the last of a powerful potion he got from Kpp'Ar, and its recipe is ancient! Humans used it back in the age of Elarion to see through the illusions of the world. And we get a delightfully creepy bit of description about the preparation of this serum, which makes it abundantly clear that it's a Moon magic-based concoction, harvested from eyeless vipers on a moonless night, with the threat of irrevocable madness ("madness" by whose definition, though) if it's done wrong-

Hang on. Hold up. This is a Plato's Cave reference. OH MY GOD.

No no I'm fine, this is brilliant. Sorry, sorry, I couldn't figure why there was so much description for a potion prep that Viren didn't even have to perform himself. But now I get it. I see the light. HA. I should make a separate post for this, it's amazing.

Anyway, for reference, the humans who used this serum were called the Oracles of Ophidia, and Ophidia is a taxonomy group that includes all modern snakes. Can you say "creepy ancient snake rites"? I can! Woo!

Viren activates the serum with a spell, but apparently he's never done it before. He's not sure if it's supposed to be hot and bubbly, and he worries that it's been tainted by moonlight.

Oh, I do hope so.

The magic potion hurts, a lot. Viren will do just about anything, to himself or anyone, to do what he believes is necessary. He just risked madness and blindness to find out what this mirror does! Viren. Can you just. Take a nap or something. Have a Snickers.

This chapter gives us a fun clue that I don't remember from the show: when Viren's vision clears and he can see, his reflection has white pupils and the room reflected in the mirror has inverted colors. You know where else has inverted colors?

You know who else got white pupils for a hot second?

Okay, now it makes sense! Viren and Lujanne were both seeing into the realm beyond life and death. Him with his moon magic potion, and her with her moon powers on a full moon night at the Moon Nexus. Which is Very Interesting! Is it a direct hint about Aaravos's location, or just a separate cool detail? Orrr, does it look like a direct hint because Aaravos is actually trapped in the world beyond life and death, but it's actually separate and we'll see something about white pupils again later on?

Viren really does have self-esteem issues, we all picked up on it with his rant at his reflection. He throws a fit when he catches himself wondering if he's actually worthless. In the book version of his tantrum, he shoves the mirror and hurls a candelabra instead of flipping a table. He didn't need to shove the mirror to set the fire, but it's in here. Foreshadowing that perhaps, if push comes to shove, Viren will choose himself over Aaravos? Giving Aaravos time to peek through and see that the coast is clear?

Soren, my boyyyyy. He has a rough night at the Moon Nexus because two sides of him are fighting with each other. He struggles to understand Callum's friendship with Rayla, and he also fantasizes about chopping off Rayla's head. One of these is a pretty ordinary thing to do. The other is Soren's internalization of what he needs to do to gain his father's approval. If he brought his dad a chopped off elf head every week, he'd probably feel a lot more confident because Viren would praise him a lot more.

Okay, okay, omg, is it just me, or does the "Moonshadow Madness" story, as it's told in the book, seem like Soren just doesn't know what a monsterfucker is? He thinks an elf bite puts humans under a spell. But vampires are sexy, and some people want them to do more to them than just bite them. A passionate kiss under the moonlight could look very bitey, especially if one of the participants has horns and you're already culturally trained to hate them. No yeah, I'm already headcanoning an actual human-elf kiss that got misunderstood by an observer long ago.

it's Lujanne isn't it, we all know, because what is a love spell but a sweet soft illusion, I mean how else does she get supplies for her Caldera, I ask you, and also Corvus was totally sent to investigate once and he told Soren at camp what he saw

And then back to magefam angst: Soren pretending that his sister's nose-tapping is stupid, even though he actually thinks it's cool, just because their dad thinks it's stupid. Viren, istg. Let your kids like harmless things. It's so cute that Soren taps his nose back at her, though! Like they have their own sibling code. I hope we get to see the nose tap again, especially now that they've chosen different sides. It could mean so much, that they're not too far apart yet.

Rayla knows what buttery pancakes smell like. I love this. Do Moonshadow elves have butter and pancakes, does Rayla eat a stack of eight giant pancakes in the morning? Orrrr it is just illusion food? I don't care, let Rayla have pancakes! Everyone loves pancakes. Pancakes will save the world. this message brought to you by the fact that I can't eat pancakes rn, send help

I love that Rayla is both sus of the pancakes and hungry, and that combines into a very motivated "I will get to the bottom of this" attitude. She kind of goes into Poirot Mode when she inserts herself into Soren and Ellis's conversation about Ava, explaining about the wolf's illusion leg and segueing into her claim that the pancakes taste sus. Claudia confirms she used dark magic, and Rayla is furious. It's different than the show's version in that it puts Rayla in detective mode, as the only Moonshadow elf in the scene, and boy does she take that role seriously. Also, she doesn't actually swallow the dark magic pancake bite. It ends up on the ground just like Lujanne's grubs from that earlier meal. These poor kids are so nutrient-starved. You guys gotta eat!!

Rayla's determination and prejudices and the fact that she super knows Harrow is dead all dovetail to make her try repeatedly to persuade Callum that Soren and Claudia are Not To Be Trusted. It's nice that the book keeps taking the time to point out that Rayla is Well Intentioned But Flawed, just like Callum and pretty much every other character in the show. No one is Right All The Time, no one Knows More Than Everyone Else.

Callum loving the sound of Claudia's unique voice is so wholesome. When you like someone, it only makes sense that you like all the things about them that they can't change - like the sound of Claudia's voice. Her choices with dark magic, not so much!

Claudia seems to have the same concerns Soren does about Callum's relationship with Rayla, but she comes out and asks him. The inherent possession implied in "your elf" is interesting, though. Elves are not people to Claudia. They're enemies who can be disassembled for the magic inside them. So maybe more like robots than living beings, if she knew what a robot was. Maybe she heard Soren's "Moonshadow Madness" story and realized he totally missed the kissing implications - but she didn't, and now she's genuinely worried that Rayla could kiss Callum under a full moon and enchant him to do her will. Good thing it's only a half moon, then!

Okay, Callum nervously making a puppet hand and then not knowing what to do with his hands and freaking out about itching and moving and pointy elbows is such a ND mood. The sudden stress of knowing that someone else is noticing your existence and maybe you're Not Existing Right, amirite? Ugh, poor Callum.

The Moon Temple! Omg it's so pretty in the description! Made to be beautiful and useful, full of knowledge but also allowing light and life inside (butterflies and vines). Lujanne, when can I move in, please? Also, it's all the more angsty because Lujanne is the only one who gets to see this beautiful place, but it has lots of chairs and shelves and tables, and it was meant to be used by lots of people. :(((

Claudia knows some of the runes on the walls. She isn't in a hurry to copy the rest of them down or anything, either. Her spellwriting is very precise, and she's a skilled mage. Her father would have made sure she was aware of the dangers of drawing sloppy runes, as much as he made her aware of the dangers of doing dark magic wrong. And the whole point of dark magic is that it's easier to learn than primal magic. Claudia supports her dad and their shared knowledge and life path. She's not gonna go nuts over an elf library she can't translate.

Side note: Between Claudia knowing some Moon runes and Viren building a secret passageway and a dungeon and lighting it with the same blue crystals that Lujanne and Ethari use for light--and Claudia exclaiming that she loves ruins--I wonder once more if there are really Moonshadow ruins somewhere in Katolis, which Viren has found and looted. Father-daughter relic hunting trip, maybe while Soren is away at camp? Omgsh that would be so wild!

Callum out here having a Viren moment with his "I feel powerless unless I've got magic that lets me help" vibes. God. I love their complicated mirroring. One of the hard differences between them is that Callum is very sure dark magic is bad because you have to kill stuff and take its power to cast spells, and he doesn't want to be a person who kills and takes like that. The line he walks to be nice to Claudia on their tour of the Cursed Caldera because he likes her, while telling her that he doesn't want to do her magic, like, ever, is so fine that it might as well be a shifting shadow on the ground. It's a very fitting conversation to be having during the half moon, with its tricks and little white lies.

Callum being out of the castle and his comfort zone, having to deal with the fact that the Claudia he loves is not quite the Claudia who's chasing him down across the kingdom, but of the two of them, he's the only one with a problem with this.

They say that if you really want to get to know someone, you should spend time with them outside their comfort zone - in heavy traffic, with a small baby, taking care of a new pet, trying a new skill, following unfamiliar directions, etc. While the castle is familiar territory for them both, Callum's never really found his comfort zone yet, while Claudia is pretty comfortable with her growing skill set. The creepy part starts to kick in when Callum begins to realize that Claudia's comfort zone encompasses a whole bunch of stuff that seems like it should make her uncomfortable... but it doesn't. But that'll be for a future chapter!

[littleturtlefish]

Stuff I drew/thought of while playing Omori (Part 1) [SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME!!!!]

*sees that Omori, a game I've heard of 3 years ago, came out* "oh cool. ill just watch a walkthrough video since-" *immediately gets interested 20 mins in and dusts off my old-ass laptop to play it*

When I started the game, first thought was "Is that kid wearing a skirt? Wait, is Omori even a boy??? Did I get everything wrong????" The only Omori-related stuff I saw was a 2017 trailer + a video showing the original comics with "Pure Imagination" playing in the background (this one) but even that was years ago. Also am blind and keep thinking his shorts = skirts til this day

Thought Kel and Aubrey were siblings cuz they sure acted like it lmao [idk if it's original source but this person inspired me. also holy cow i never thought about how much time these things took. 1 hour of my life spent making a shitpost]

bASIL CALLED OMORI CUTE AND I WILL KEEP REMEMBERING THAT AWWWW [before you go "wtf is that shading," lemme just say that I really like that style of shading ok give me a breaK-]

Happy Omori is cute, never saw him smile before :,D (I've seen so many ppl say it's obviously a forced smile ((and you guys are likely right lol)) but I just...can't see it???? he just looks cute to me :<)

Furious Omori is...uh...

Me, seeing that scary scene in Basil's house and Omori stabbing himself: oh right this is a horror game haha

Me, during the entire dark house section: man was this steak drugged— STOP FUCKING KNOCKING ITS SCARING ME, CALM DOWN— WAIT MARI IS THAT SCREAM GUY?!?!??!? [i put so much effort into the robe's line art yet i still chose to color it black]

Seriously, I despised the constant knocking because knocks in real life makes me flinch and want to run away. Also, after that impressingly silent and non-moving Mari jumpscare, I got chills and decided to go straight to my bed (in game). Absolutely hated the cutscene of Sunny just staring at random places in his room because I totally thought I was gonna see Hellmari again

In my sleep-deprived mind, the sounds you hear when you get a key reminded me so much of the Markiplier E meme and I couldn't wait to get an E, L, and an F just to make jokes

Me, seeing a sunflower has wilted: basil's dead isn't he. my favs always die smh

I get way too involved in RPGs and spent the entire time murdering bunnies and sprout moles (was probably worth it since I rarely died in boss fights or maybe the main bosses were just easy. i dont talk about the earth fight.)

I hate the spelling bee.

Fun fact: At this point, I lost all my save files (probably due to stupid windows computer updating) and had to restart the entire game. I was a lot less grindy this time around :,)

"Do you think you're going to be okay, OMORI?" No.

facing your fear of heights is really that easy, huh

haha, what's this big guy doing behind this tree? What does it mean by "disturb"— AAAAAAAAAAA IM NOT PREPARED HOLD O— (I ran away from this fight immediately lol)

why is the life jam guy's theme actually really good tho (question: is it possible to kill that guy? Can someone, like, give themselves the highest speed + attack possible and just absolutely destroy that being?)

[since the life jam guy has violins in his theme, sunny wouldve had no problem fighting omori if life jam guy was there. just saying. man will i look so stupid if life jam guy doesnt actually have violins in his theme]

I heard an air horn during the "torturing that scarecrow" part of the game and that gave me the personal quest of finding wherever that was used (pretty sure it's from one of Kel's skills but never tried it :p)

Space Boy's theme is 👌👌👌👌

Ah...right...back to horror...

It was at this moment that every time I sensed some of that psychological horror coming back, I would immediately turn on my lights (was playing this game at 2 AM with lights off because it's for the 🌺✨experience✨🌺 but gave up on that pretty soon lmao)

For the jump scare in this part, I legit had to look it up beforehand because I HATE jump scares that actually move + use audio and I had to know if the game had stuff like that. Honestly, I do not regret looking that up. Still was creepy but it was worth it to finally say "Press F to pay respects"

[wavebiders]

F(h)atewatch Part 2:

How Is Not One of These Girls Likable?

The only thing I will give this show points for is glowy eyes when magic. The cartoon should have had more of that

Oh hey, starting with a sleeping Bloom. Should have done that in the pilot tho. Now that would have been a nice nod to the og

Plus this is only driving home how freaking boring this Bloom is. Where is my girl freaking out trying to get dressed as fast as possible?

Ok but seriously why is the only bit of backstory for Aisha we do have that she was on the swim team, when that just goes against the most vital point of Aisha's story in the cartoon? Are they actively trying to butcher these girls?

Wait, if Stella couldn't afford to lose that ring why did she give it to Bloom? This isn't even about her potentially losing it. She meant for Bloom to just not come back. How exactly was she planning on collecting it before?

Also this is still a bad plot! I know it all sucks but that moment where Bloom gives up that ring to save Stella's life is one of my favorites in the cartoon

It just sucks that instead of a storyline that shows how much they've come to care for each other, they're just using the ring for more catiness between them

If they had to center Terra's storyline around her insecurities couldn't they have at least found a way to do it without making it seem like she's never dressed herself before?

Man, fuck this knock-off Avatar stuff. Where's my cool hair color changing classes?

You know Bloom feeling betrayed by not-Faragonda would hit a lot harder if they had had more scenes together and it was established that she was someone Bloom trusted deeply

...I will never complain about the specialist scenes in the cartoon being boring ever again

Jesus, I knew I was gonna hate Stella. I knew I wasn't gonna vibe with white Musa and Flora. But for all I knew I would not care for this Bloom, I was not expecting to hate her this much

he is so fucking rude to and about everyone. It's a little hard to feel for her being an outcast when she clearly doesn't like anybody anyway. I miss the girl who was so happy to finally have friends she made them a group logo after one (1) hang-out

At this point I have to believe they're trying to make these people as unlikable as possible

Stella and Bloom are still sorta gay? The wrong kind. I don't care for the whole "she's mean to her bc she secretly likes her" trope even with good writing, and this ain't that. But it's good to know their gay energy is strong enough to transer even to the shittiest most ooc adaptation imaginable

Plus this show is 200% gonna pretend they're friends next season, so it's good the actresses have some amount of chemistry to make thsir scenes enjoyable without context if nothing else

This scene is still awful tho. Literally just let girls support each other jesus christ it's not that hard. Also Stella would be all about otters holding hands. Stella and Bloom basically are a couple of otters holding hands smh

White Musa has a point. Why is Aisha so commited to being friends with asshole Bloom?

I've never seen a piece of "lgbt rep" so obviously written by queerphobic people

The concept of white Musa and Sam(who the FUCK is Sam)'s dynamic is actually kinda interesting. Too bad every scene with this girl pisses me off on principle

I can see now why even my mother picked up on how bad the black best friend trope in this show is, when she normally doesn't notice that stuff as much as I do(not that she doesn't care, she's very vocal about it for a middle aged mostly white woman. But with online fandom I just have more oppurtunities to learn). Like this is just excessive

Actually since I mentioned my mom. She's as Asian as I've heard people say Elisha is and she straight up laughed at the implication that that would somehow qualify her to play a character like Musa. So that sums up how I feel about that defense

Is that a voice calling Bloom? No fucking way did they keep Daphne. She's one of best, most emotional parts of the cartoon. She's so vital to Bloom's story. There's no way they wouldn't get rid of her

"Thank you" Come on asshole Bloom say it with me. This girl just saved your life, you can handle a simple "thank you"

Good to see this version of Sky is also the type to get emotionally invested in a new girl while still dating someone else. I mean don't get me wrong I despise mean girl Stella, but he is being a fucking tool about this

I mean he wasn't flirting with Bloom in front of Stella earlier but that shit was not innocent. And you can't have a guy seeing his distressed girlfriend, ask about her dormmate that he likes before asking how she is, and expect me to see him as a good guy

And of course that's exactly what they're going to do. Sky is the swell guy caught dating the bitch, but is secretely in love with the girl next door(who is also a jerk but whatever)

Lane markings do tell you what to do tho? Isn't that kinda the point?

Ooooh scary blank eyes Im shaking in my boots