#i didn't even save it as a draft

[theosirianischosen]

A few different things it could be (though do note I don't agree with every item I list here):

The Tears of Gold cliffhanger at the end of season 2 is never brought up again. Like, the closest we get in season 3 is right before Victor becomes a sinner when he tries to plan with Robert on how to become immortal and re-create the elixir. Other than that one-off, it doesn't really connect, and it is never brought up again.

Nina not returning in season 3. I know that couldn't be helped and was not the fault of Nickelodeon; Nathalia just wanted to leave to focus on her schooling. I detest how they wrote her out of the show, but again, not the fault of Nickelodeon.

The switch from proper Nickelodeon to TeenNick. I'm not 100% sure it was done solely for mature themes. But for a lot of people, Nickelodeon and TeenNick were not in the same cable package. If they wanted to watch the show live, some people would have to upgrade their cable package. Plus, it also changed the way the show was formatted. Instead of one hour every week, it was 4 half-hour time slots. That may seem like a good thing on paper, but it also meant that the finale became finale week. I truly believe that had it stayed on Nickelodeon, the last four episodes would have been combined into a 2-hour finale episode. There's no way to know for sure, but I'd like to think this was the case, especially when the previous finales were action-packed with at least one plot twist (Season 1: Sibuna didn't bring the Ankh pieces to the school, Rufus gave Patricia the note, the tipping of the scales isn't symbolic and requires a sacrifice, and Joy isn't the chosen one; Nina is. Season 2: Rufus wants to become a god with the Mask, Senkhara wants the same thing, the mask at the end of the tunnels isn't real, and the reveal that Eddie is the Osirian.). But for a lot of people, the finale could simply be boiled down to a race to put the key in the keyhole. However, all of the finale week better fits the twists and turns of a finale episode.

House of Anubis deviated too far from Het Huis Anubis. I don't know how many of those complaining about Nickelodeon treating HOA poorly are people who originally saw HHA. But even us hardcore fans tend to think that HHA>HOA. Combined with the fact that the show was commissioned out of Nickelodeon US (even though it was produced in the UK), and it becomes clear that even the "British" elements have become Americanized. Alfie jokes about Santa in Season 3, not Father Christmas. The Touchstone of Ra features a high school graduation, which is something that doesn't happen in the UK equivalent to high school education. Also, in TOR, Trudy says "The middle school has bedbugs", but I'm pretty sure "middle school" is another American school term. (Does anyone in the UK want to confirm for me or correct me on that?) But even in season 1, which is the closest to HHA, the deviations from the source material can leave some things to be desired. In HHA, Nienke moves into Anubis House while her Gran moves into an old folks home. It's there, while Nienke is visiting her Gran, that she first bumps into Sarah. But in HOA, with Nina being from America, the writers needed to find another way for Nina to first run into Sarah. So, they come up with the brilliant idea of... having Sarah willingly leave the old folks home and walk up to Anubis House, but refuse to go inside because "He's always waiting". Or the fact that they combined Rufus and Zeno into one character (presumably for time, as the first season of HHA had nearly twice as many episodes, and Nickelodeon only commissioned 60 episodes for the first season), and changed up many storylines because of it. Rufus was looking for Joy in the original, while Zeno was looking for the cup. So, the writers moved the chosen one storyline to season 1, and have the plot twist that Nina was the chosen one, not Joy. In HHA, the plot twist is actually that Nienke (Nina) was NOT the chosen one; it was Noa. I've heard many people who grew up on HHA were fond of the plot twist being the character that would be obvious to make the chosen one is actually not the chosen one. This was undone in HOA. I think the writers tried to remedy this by making everyone think Fabian was going to be the Osirian, but then it turned out to be Eddie. Except, once you dive into the character further, it's a bit more obvious than the Noa reveal. Nina is American. So is Eddie. Nina's female. Eddie is male. Nina is sweet and kind. Eddie has a bad-boy persona. Nina can be reluctant to take action, preferring to think things through before doing them. Eddie is quick to take action with no regard for the consequences of doing so. Seeing as the Chosen One/Osirian dynamic is supposed to be like yin and yang, Nina and Eddie are polar opposite Americans. So, all this to say, while the writers are to "blame" for a lot of these changes, some of it could also be due to American executives meddling in the show's storyline.

Nickelodeon canceled the show, despite there being at least some demand in the fanbase for a season 4 in 2013/2014. I'd still wish they'd do a reunion movie for Paramount+ (and I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing for that), but that's unlikely to happen. Nowadays, most people who think of live-action Nickelodeon nostalgia think of the Dan Schnieder creations, and with Quiet on Set airing recently, people are "out to cancel" Nickelodeon. Now, I know the accusations in the documentary (which I have yet to see) are serious, but because many slept on the show when it first aired, I could see this becoming a causality in terms of people not looking fond on this era of Nickelodeon. Another reason why it could have been slept on is because of it's serialized nature. Generally speaking, once you know what Drake & Josh, iCarly, or Victorious are about, you can just watch any episode from that show in any order without getting lost. You can't do that with HOA. For those that don't know and/or remember, when HOA first aired season 1 in 2011, the first 9 episodes were billed as a "premiere movie" in two parts. The first part is the pilot, comprising of the first full episode and editing the next four to fit in a regular 1-hour time slot with commercials. The second part was the next 4 episodes in an hour time slot. (Remember, the first two seasons of HOA comprise of two 11-minute episodes in a half-hour time slot with commercials.) On streaming, the first part is episode 1, and the second part is billed as episodes 2 and 3 (at least here in the States). And because of how the movie ended, my younger self was under the impression that this was like iCarly and more episodic in nature. It wasn't until the cliffhanger at the end of the very next episode that I realized it was serialized. Its serialized nature also made reruns harder. You had to run a whole season regularly as a batch for it to work, but iCarly could have a season 2 episode followed by a season 5 episode and then two season 1 episodes in one two-hour marathon, and it wouldn't be confusing.

All of this to say, Nickelodeon could have handled some parts better. It didn't handle the show perfectly, but Nickelodeon didn't fully fumble it either. That's just my very rambly thoughts on the matter.

I am once again asking for everyone to actually get real here and realize that for a show whose formula was entirely different than anything else on the network at the time (barring the literal other versions of the same show), HOA had it pretty damn good. Most shows just got flat out canceled with no resolution.

[utilitycaster]

I was writing up a whole long stream of consciousness rant for the drafts, as I am wont to do, and without rewriting the whole thing here's something I realized.

There's like, three main flattened archetypes I see fandoms (FANDOMS. NOT NECESSARILY ORIGINAL CREATORS. FREQUENTLY NOT ORIGINAL CREATORS. I CANNOT MAKE THIS MORE CLEAR) place on white male characters:

Tough and Masculine (or Brilliant) Man Who Is Always Correct (often coming from cis straight white men; whether he is Tough or Brilliant depends on if they're a Military Bro or a Tech Bro)

Sad Boy Poor Little Meow Meow Whose Trauma Means He Cannot Be Wrong (rather more popular than the former with the Tumblr crowd)

Brooding Dom With Dark Past (if you've ever gone into the Percival de Rolo tags and used the block button like a machete on a swath of x reader fics, this one is immediately familar)

and to be clear the same character can be the recipient of all three of these from different groups; the latter two often even overlap among the same fans. Anyway it is extremely funny to me that of the men of the Veilguard companions, Emmrich doesn't really fall into this at all given he's way too polite and pleasant for the former and lacking in sufficient trauma for the latter two; and a lot of people are throwing various fits that Lucanis ABSOLUTELY isn't the third category and frankly isn't even the second, since if you exacerbate his trauma he just becomes cold and if you work on healing it his true self (a fucking dork) emerges AND because his entire situation is "I have limited expertise, let's leave the planning to someone else, I'm the dagger guy." On the other hand Davrin is an OBVIOUS candidate for the first one, but even if the story hadn't been like "nice infallible stronghold you got there, Warden, would be a shame if something were to happen to it" as the act one finale, he is also, crucially, a black man, so really all three of these irritating archetypes are impossible to place and while I do not think creators should necessarily try to avoid them since people will, as stated before, do this even if it's entirely unsupported by the text, it is very fun for me that it's actually fucking impossible to twist the text to do this without abandoning it altogether.

[toastedclownery]

"I don't miss twice"

Uh oh?

[limeartichoke]

purgatory fanart of that one scene where phil loses his wings for the second time

[swan2swan]

The biggest problem with Dominion is the dichotomy of Maisie's plotline with regards to motherhood, and the way both plots revolve around it from wholly opposite perspectives while never actually clashing.

Her plot starts off simply enough: she's angsting about not being a real person, Claire's trying to protect her, and Maisie spits at her with the "You're not my mother!" line right before she's kidnapped.

This is a classic Finding Nemo setup, which Claire takes to with gusto: she calls on favors, slips into seedy markets, fights a crime boss, eludes raptors, jumps out of a plane, and crawls through a forest to get the girl she calls her daughter back. Most stories would show this as a trial: ye olde "GASP! My parents love me!" story.

But the fact that Claire has no obligation to bring Maisie back is never challenged. Soyona doesn't bother with asking or playing the role of the tempting serpent instilling doubt; the closest the movie comes to that is Franklin giving her the "I told you this would happen" speech. It's all taken for granted, which is...okay, because we have already established who Claire is, but that's not the problem.

The problem comes with the other half of the story: Maisie mopes to Wu about how she's just a close, and Wu immediately points out how no, she was conceived and carried in a human womb just like everyone else! And he calls Charlotte "your mother".

And Maisie goes "Is that my mother?"

And when she meets Ellie, Dr. Sattler is somehow fully aware of who Maisie's REAL MOTHER, the one who created her and who she looks like, is, and gushes about how great of a eugen--person she was. Every single time Maisie talks about "her mother" with the people around her, the word is referring to Charlotte Lockwood, the woman who birthed her.

Meanwhile, that Claire woman is crawling into a slimy pond to get away from a twenty-foot-tall Kreugersaurus because she wants to get Maisie away from kidnappers.

Of course, Maisie runs back to her and yells "Those are my parents!", but there's still something missing there. Claire's side of the story is all about her powering through, risking her life time and time again to track down her daughter...but there's never really a moment between them later. Maisie even posits the "So I was just an experiment to her..." plotline that has been seen before, but even that's immediately refuted.

The movie's not wrong for avoiding the cliches and the oft-used tropes of foster motherhood, but it doesn't really break any new ground, either. Obviously, people can have more than one mom, but there's something of an imbalanced focus on Charlotte as Maisie's mother in the Maisie and Jurassic Park plotline, while Claire in the Jurassic World plotline is doing all the expected Mom Stuff.

I can't wholly express what's bothering me about it, maybe I'm overthinking it, but it...doesn't quite sit right with me.

[genshin-impact-updates]

Okay! Apparently that last post published four times without my permission! Let's fix that real quick!

[kaiserouo]

Fine Dining

[tarczar]

objectum queen? taking this opportunity to tell you guys there's an audio drama story focused entirely on her and paracelsus ((slayer is also there <3)) also here's the english translation pdf

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 20 thoughts

oh man! i really loved this episode. no aliens, no overarching plot, just some silly shenanigans and yeah, some murder, but in a far more lighthearted fashion than in other cases. filler episodes i love you soooo much <3

from the beginning, i thought the prompt sounded really good... shoutout to people who work in sideshows and other touring entertainment industries, y’all are real for that 

we open with some kids laughing under a full moon… nothing could be scarier… except SOMEONE WATCHING THEM!

and whoever it is, they are approaching the pool with feet out. where are their parents to safeguard them from stranger danger, i ask into my screen!

OH he is the dad!! what was once scary has now turned heartwarming. he splashes about in the pool with them and says they need to get ready for bed. aww. 

BUT NOW SOMEONE IS WATCHING HIM IN THE POOL!! NOOO the heartwarming session HAS BEEN CANCELLED... is he being EATEN???

(as he is killed, the camera shows a van with the words “alligator man” on it... at first i'm thinking that the alligator man was the creature who just Ate this guy, but turns out the father WAS alligator man, so named for his skin condition. rest in peace mister alligator, the world is a worse place for ur loss)

and now the agents are looking into his murder :(

(also, in the opening credits, we see that one of the guest stars is named “the enigma”... I’ll have to look into their work)

mulder says there have been a lot of murders in this fashion over the last 28 years, and they have been going all over the country!!! it seems to involve some sort of round bite mark. must be time to go investigate.

they roll up the the alligator man's funeral. honestly it is sad! and we see that the widow slash mother of the kids is a bearded lady and she is absolutely serving but this is a very sorrow-filled moment for them all

and interrupting the moment in which his community remembers the warmth he brought to their town, his casket starts moving… and someone emerges from the ground… and stabs himself in the chest with a spike???? HUH???

so the deceased was an escape artist but was forced into the sideshow circuit because of his skin condition… scully says she didn’t know sideshows were still a thing… which is honestly fair because it is a very vintage sort of entertainment. and they have a Not So Great history.

BUT if the people who live in this town in the summer are all traveling performers.. and if they have been touring for years... and the murders go on for years… hmm, it seems things are starting to add up

mulder notices a drawing of a creature on the menu of the restaurant they are sitting in, and he asks who drew it. why, the sheriff says, it's the artist named hepcat, of course! cut to him tending to his freaky mermaid. he describes his scary maze business as “a tabernacle of terror” 

mulder asks what the drawing on the menu was, and i was thinking, hmm, looks like the fiji mermaid, and hepcat says it is the fiji mermaid, and mulder doesn't seem to recognize it?? i assume this is one of those situations where he acts like he doesn't know what is going on to get more information because i feel like that is Exactly the sort of thing he has read about at length. like i had him pegged as a guy who could write a dissertation on the subject at the drop of a hat. so i think he's lying but narrative wise it isn't fully revealed. 

scully: “what’s the fiji mermaid?” hepcat: “it’s the fiji mermaid!” <- thanks this clears up a lot <3

mulder is acting surprised to hear that the top half of the fiji mermaid was a monkey, which i again assume to be an act? but he says that the tracks at the murder look monkey-ish. so perhaps there is a correlation...? between the very active murder case and that time PT barnum sewed a monkey and a fish together? hey, the dots aren't connecting for me, but i don't work for the fbi so what do i know

they go to get a place to stay and the guy operating the rental place, a kind and verbose fellow with dwarfism named mr. nutt, gives them their keys. and mulder asks if had worked in the circus, (and since everyone they have met so far has in fact done so, i feel that this was a fair question, but maybe i also deserved what follows), and mr. nutt really lays into him about making judgements, and maybe some people with dwarfism want to manage hotels...

and as all of this goes down scully just observes. wow. she let him flounder. lmao.

the man carrying their bags is named lanny, and he has a conjoined twin sort of situation, it's not entirely clear- but he says mr. nutt got him to work there because he believed it was undignified to work in the circus. hmm.

back to hepcat at his studio… listening to some groovy music... and something crawls in his window… looking like the fiji mermaid. and it BITES him.

next morning. mulder going for a jog. in a sweatshirt and sweatpants in florida heat. what in the hell was he thinking??? let’s analyze that while a man chomping a fish emerges from the river. we receive no real clarification on what is going on in either of their minds.

scully in bed. alerted to a murder by lanny. still in a robe. we get a shot of her chest and also lanny's brother that felt mutually uncomfortable. SMH no rest for her!

okay, examining the scene of the murder. mulder notices some blood on a little window and WHY DID HE TOUCH THE BLOOD NASTY!!!! NASTY!!!

they deduce that to fit in the window, the suspect would have to be a contortionist…. and they walk out to see a contortionist. it’s the spike guy that so disrespectfully ruined the funeral!!

he puts a nail up his nose in front them. and mulder pulls the nail out. probably to get some blood. not an easy watch still.

we learn here that the guy with the puzzle tattoos who was eating the fish in the river earlier is called “The Conundrum”, and the spike guy slash contortionist is dr. blockhead

dr. blockhead gives the conundrum a bunch of crickets and he gulps them up; then he offers crickets to the agents and scully TAKES one, says thanks, eats it, and leaves LMAOOO????? never let them guess your next move....

mulder is staring at her trying to figure out if he is in love with a woman that just ate a cricket and if this is something she does regularly and JUST KIDDING!!! she didn't eat it silly!!! she "reveals" the lil cricket behind mulder’s ear awww... her uncle was a magician <3

(he also does a lil slight of hand trick and pulls out the bloody nail, saying "everyone's uncle was an amateur magician", which i am sure they can bond over at a later date)

scully goes to a museum that says "freaks free, everyone else leave a donation" and she puts in some money… publicly declared non-freak 

this guy at the museum is touching her. don’t care for that. but I like that he knows lots of random information. and he won’t show his whole face, we as the audience only see him through mirrors. very cool framing device.

he says he will take her back and show her something of barnum’s for another $5 and sworn secrecy. good luck bucko; last time she was told to keep a secret (affair baby) the SECOND she was reunited with mulder the tea had been spilled LMAOOO. he hands her a paper featuring jim jim the dog faced boy, who, dare i say it, seems to be a king.

he leads her into the back rooms… scary. but her trench coat is serving though

okay, deep in the back is a trunk. and it’s empty and opens an exit door. NOOO she was scammed! it’s all part of the hustle. 

(well, that is what i THOUGHT, at least, until she realizes it leads to the sheriff's house, and things are adding up...)

mulder sees something crawling about. it’s the guy who owns the rental space, mr. nutt, under scully's trailer! he asks why he is under there and mr. nutt says he is NOT being creepy. mulder flirts with the man and he runs away LMAO... weaponized bisexuality 

agents are in the trailer having a nerd off and it’s not clear who is winning and there is romantic tension. sheriff hamilton used to be jim jim the dog faced boy???? what a reveal!!!

we are watching them watch the sheriff dig a hole during a full moon. average agent bonding activities. he buried something in the ground and goes inside. 

they are in his yard digging up what he was just digging and mulder has taken his earlier roasting to heart and says “we’re being highly discriminatory here” and clarifies that’s no reason to suspect him of being a werewolf and it’s like well. i don’t know that we both thought he was a werewolf. they pause to consider the moral weight of their actions then keep going.

uh oh! sheriff catches them!!! not a good look being caught digging something up. “We’re exhuming… your potato” is the best line that usually quick-tongued mulder could come up with, which had me losing my MIND and i proceeded to write a very long keysmash to express my amusement

“may I ask why?” (she starts monologing about serial killers taking positions in law enforcement and needing to monitor him as as suspect, and it’s convincing) (he cuts in: “we found out you used to be a dog-faced boy” STOP THIS IS SOOOO FUNNY) and she looks soooooo guilty!!

he doesn’t deny it and says he started balding on his head which put him out of a job. fair enough, gotta pay the bills.

next genius dialogue exchange: “that doesn’t explain the potato” “I got some warts on my hand” “...that doesn’t quite explain the potato” 

(i kept having to pause in rapid succession to write these lines down because i was laughing SO hard)

has anyone thought that maybe a man wants to bury a potato in his yard in peace…. like that’s how we get more potatoes…

“to get rid of warts you rub a sliced potato on your hand and bury it under a full moon” <- new life hack just dropped!!

nooooooo the conundrum is chasing the dog… dog escaped. everyone is pleased. he brings a check to mr. nutt and it’s rent!! king of paying his bills on time. but dog is still barking... NOOOOO MERMAID ATTACK ON MR. NUTT!!!

someone with bloody hands bursts into scully’s room and she must have her gun right by her pillow, and she gets it so fast, but it’s just lanny, saying he found mr. nutt dead... they truly hate to see a hard working entrepreneur in the field of hospitality winning 

the pin at the scene looked like something from dr. blockhead, so they go to his house to investigate and he is full of hooks. i made a noise like whAUUUWAUUHWAUH and mulder is looking intensely at what's going on there. blockhead goes on some cultural appropriation bs. um sir this is weird timing bur you are under arrest.

he gets out of the handcuffs- contortionist and escape artist! but the sheriff catches him by the hooks. what a KING! shoutout to this sheriff, formerly jim jim the dog faced boy, can we add him to the team? skinner are you hiring?  

just as our agents apprehend their suspect, we see that the mermaid creature is in the room with lanny!!! but... he isn't hurt?

OMG the twin inside him IS THE MERMAID??

lanny confesses to this when he asks how it would be possible to turn his "brother" in without turning himself in...and he thinks the mermaid fellow hates him and is looking for another brother which is so SAD but he says he’ll come back

is anyone concerned about the twin crawling out of lanny? well, mulder knows he isn't the man in charge here: “scully, you’re the medical expert… I believe you” yessir it's good to remember that!

the mermaid brother appears to have run off into the "tabernacle of terror" and mulder trying to hold a little evil mermaid at gunpoint is SO comical

their asses are lost in the maze!!! scully pulls a gun on a rubber skeleton that fell from the ceiling!

she's trapped in a mirror room to serve infinite looks in all directions, and it looks like mermaid baby is caught... she fires.. but it hits the mirror!! baby mermaid brother escaped!!!

at this moment, mulder slides through a trapdoor... and it was SO funny pls tell me there's a gif set of that somewhere because i need it...

baby on the loose... bad news!!! conundrum is being eaten by the baby twin…. but what if he eats him FIRST, i ask myself, and received an answer in the form of baby being gone and conundrum rubbing his stomach!!!! yassss!!! diva down!!!

the next morning, while everyone is searching for mermaid brother, we learn lanny died that evening of a condition related to alcoholism. we learn this while dr. blockhead and the conundrum are getting ready to leave.

and dr. blockhead's going on about the future, and how nature needs freaks, and in the 21st century everyone will look perfect… "just like him" (points to Mulder majestically posing by a trailer) LMAOOOOOO “imagine going through your whole life looking like that!!!” <- yeah it must be really hard....... /s

at last, conundrum and blockhead are taking off into the great unknown... scully points out he doesn't look too good…. CONUNDRUM TALKS???? “probably something I ate", he says. LMAOOO his voice is sooo normal 😭😭😭

this episode had me laughing. we really had it all: exhuming a potato, scully's valiant attempts at lying, mulder hitting on a guy, lessons in ableism and judgement, a man who eats crickets and fish, flirting over case details, a dog, scully doing magic, mulder running in the florida heat dressed like it was a new england winter. truly i have nothing that could be added.

and did i have a secret evil mermaid twin on my list of probably monsters of the week? no, i cannot say that i did! was it the most compelling or scary of creatures? not really! but i was filled with whimsy. cannibalism saved the day. an excellent episode, and a perfect contrast to earlier in the season when scully was literally About To Die and i was crying a lot over the whole thing. ah, the duality of TV shows!

[moongothic]

Crocodile's inability to truly get people to follow him is so interesting though, because in that way he's like the polar opposite of Luffy, who has the ability to draw people in and get them to follow him instead

And like it's not surprising Crocodile can't get anyone to be truly loyal to him (Daz Bones aside), since his primary method to get people to do as they're told is through (threats of) violence and money (if he has any). Like yes, that will get people to do as they're told, but you can't buy loyalty, you can't beat people into trusting you. And so, when shit hits the fan, who the fuck would stay for you, when you're like that

Of course, Crocodile is like that due to his trust issues, and god only knows what caused those trust issues. It's possible he was always like that, or past trauma caused him to become like that-- if it's the latter though, even if he was like more trusting of others once in the past, people still didn't stick with him in the end. The trust was one-sided

I think this also reflects in a really interesting way in Cross Guild actually, 'cause like. Despite being scared shitless, not even Buggy is willing to keep on taking Crocodile's shit. Even that clown has his limits before he starts a mutiny against Crocodile

And while Buggy hasn't really done anything to "earn" his current position in the world (like he hasn't Proven Himself in Combat, he's just Faked It Until He Made It), because he has treaten his underlings with basic kindness and respect, even if he's been lying through his teeth the whole time, that has been enough for Buggy to gain his followers' trust. And that's why Buggy's able to rile up people to follow him. While Crocodile can't.

Unironically makes me wonder what Daz sees in Crocodile that makes him want to follow Croc to literal hell and back

And I wonder what it really would take for Croc to be able to inspire people to follow him and be loyal to him, if it's even possible

[threadmonster]

Concept:

It's May 4th and Shinra has been talking about his plans to marathon Star Wars with Celty. He isn't particularly interested in the series but Celty is intrigued by aliens and all. Izaya is annoyed. Of course Shinra, as usual, only cares about Celty. It still makes him feel gloomy though, it's not like Shinra ever forgot his birthday before.

He gets even more annoyed when Shinra calls him for a favor. Why should he care if Shinra forgot a few things at the store? But it's fine, whatever, it's not like he has anything better to do. Even his own sisters didn't bother to send him his birthday death threat.

Shinra told him to let himself in. He doesn't know why all the lights are off. He huffs and turns them on all just to be bombarded by a chaotic mess of "Happy Birthday" wishes and a camera flash in his face.

He doesn't know what to say or how to react. He sees Shinra, Celty, his sisters, Kyohei and the van gang, Simon was there. He wants to get mad, how dare he be fooled like this. In truth, he doesn't even know how to feel about it.

You see, his self-worth is so low that he can't understand, people do care about him.

[playbiteband]

i updated thomas' design last year but never got around to posting his new look lol. important updates include: - spotty skin! his fur is very thin, so the spots on his skin show through on his tummy, feet, and hands. it's pink by his muzzle too :3c - mullet, hell yeah - spiky ear piercings on left ear - changed up his gray marking pattern - personality-wise he's got kind of that, messy-heavy-rock-jack-black-kinda vibe. looks a lil intimidating but is a huge sweetie. i had him as sort of an uwu soft boy before, but he's a little edgier now. still probably the nicest one in the band, and still loves to bake :3 here's what his old design(s) looked like, i know it's been a while since i've drawn him ToT

[cedarw00div]

I should start posting my discord rambles here in coherent form

anyways I think Gortash and Cazador knew each other, but Gortash hated Cazador for one: assuming he was born into nobility and that he didn't claim it from his time as a vampire, and two: because Cazador is a whiny little bitch

[eruditegeek]

I feel so disconnected all the time.

[muninnhuginn]

Gah, the way the characters in white cat legend think that pushing those they love away will protect them. Qiu Qingzhi with Li Bing. Li Bing with Chen Shi and the rest. Alibaba with Vice President Shangguan. "It's for your own good" they say and they truly believe it. Even Chen Jiu with Chen Shi ("don't come to Shendu").

The way that the only way to break this cycle was for those being pushed away to push back. How, when even Chen Shi (the most openly caring of all the characters) had given up, his previous actions meant that Wang Qi and co. were still willing to keep trying. They were the four who had been deliberately coasting along prior to the start of the series, doing only enough in their jobs to not entirely lose their paychecks (and not even doing a particularly good job at that). And yet, because of the impact Li Bing and Chen Shi had had on them, *they're* the ones to say "stop pushing us away" and go out of their way to bridge the gap to Li Bing. Li Bing, who time and again, pushed others away, certain he had to keep others out of danger, and yet also terrified of what letting people close would do to *him* if they discovered him as he "truly" was.

It wasn't too late for Li Bing. He had people in his corner willing to push past his attempts to keep them out and he was (eventually) able to accept them. Accept that they accepted him.

Not everyone is so lucky.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Baby boy brother birthday photos from last year that I just realized I never uploaded!