#i told her some of my lore tm and she said at the end that everything id shared with her today was very upsetting

[ratgingi]

i went to the therapist earlier and she was like so why are you seeking treatment with us today and my brain blanked and i was like i dunno. ive never needed therapy everythings all good (<- has been in therapy services for varying reasons since age 6)

[loominggaia]

darkwingphoenix  Luckily Cyana stops putting on makeup basically 0.69 nanoseconds after she's on Shadow's gondola in my fic. I personally believe once she leaves Evangeline she usually has her hair in a Tactical Braid(TM) most of the time, and starts growing it out a lot. Also, can I just say this? Cerulea looks kinda fine without makeup (Like a middle aged teacher, sorta), and Rodrig is just an older math teacher. Lazuline looks basically how I imagined Saphirra looks oddly weird yet attractive? IDK Teal looks like she has Down Syndrome. Not dunking on those with it, but I can definitely see it. I will also note that Down Syndrome affects intelligence. Maybe that's why she's kinda dumb? And Cyana looks like a fucking 12 year old, wtf? Like a tired asf 12 year old. I fully acknowledge she's 16 but she looks 12 and depressed.

-----

Cyana can wear her hair a lot of ways! A tactical braid would look cute on her.

I agree, Cerulea is quite pretty in my opinion. Her traditional Evangelite clown-makeup really does her a disservice...I laughed when you said she and Rodrig look like teachers because you're SO RIGHT! They look like mean, strict teachers in particular. Rodrig looks like he'll give you detention if you so much as fart in his class.

Teal having Down syndrome is an interesting thought I never considered! Unfortunately I don't think it would fit in to the existing lore, because Evangelite culture is not very friendly to those with obvious disabilities. Since her family has money, they would likely send her to live in a nursing facility and she would not be permitted to marry, as they would fear a man "taking advantage" of her condition.

If anyone has an intellectual disability, I would say it's most likely Danus. It may not be obvious enough to get him institutionalized, but his peers definitely suspect something is slightly "off" about him upstairs. I imagine he has some kind of mild, unspecified developmental delay. Teal doesn't have a delay, she's just intellectually lazy. She doesn't like to think too hard about anything, she'd rather be told exactly what to think and do. I think her face just looks odd here because 1) I drew it very quickly, and 2) her face is at a slightly downward angle, so her features look more "squashed" than they would if she was looking straight-on.

Cyana does look a lot younger without her makeup! She has a baby face, but she'll probably grow out of it as she gets older. We'll say she's a late-bloomer. She looks sad and tired here because she IS sad and tired, her life in Evangeline Kingdom sucks! But one day she will find happiness, one way or another. I'm determined to give her story a happy ending!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[jaspertjunk]

More fun facts about The Story because it's currently living rent free in my mind:

I came across the word Sidus by accident while doing homework

Sidus is the only one of the Not Humans(TM) who is the same age as the human cast. The others are all close in age but you get as much as two years of swing in either direction. For variety

Deimos and Phobos actually are inspired by the Greek gods Deimos and Phobos to an extent

I fear this may become my new all consuming focus but I wasn't finished being mentally ill about the last one :(

I picked Deimos and Phobos because there are a lot of paired characters and paired character tropes that people use, including FROM Greek mythology (Castor and Pollux) but Deimos and Phobos are NEVER among them

They literally get called Dread and Panic as a joke because one I think it's funny two I don't want their inspiration to get forgotten if I end up changing their names and three these kids cause problems

One last thing about Deimos and Phobos, the names of their A sides were meant completely seriously as a nod to their weird fucked up roles but also I can't stop giggling about it

Sidus is probably so fucking funny

The humans definitely played at least a couple of sessions of D&D together when they were younger

You want to send me asks about this oooooooooo you want to send me asks about this soooooo bad ooooooooooooo

The humans take really good care of each other and are good friends to each other but they are also so unhealthily codependent like you put those kids in different houses for a couple days and they start clawing at the walls

Kind of the whole inspiration for this was me looking at how fans and fandoms interact with media and going wouldn't it be cool if a writer were to use their own fandom's engagement as a story element

For example the whole sentient rift thing was inspired by something I find really fascinating where something that happens in canon is sort of a self fulfilling prophecy like when a character puts up a facade and large swathes of the fandom fall for it

This is also why the characters are forced into common archetypes and tropes and why I said that people that go in the rift have aspects of their personalities enlarged or reduced to make them better fit those tropes because that's exactly what fandom does. Hell, I'm guilty of it. A lot, actually.

EDIT I LITERALLY FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE so obviously the nonhuman roles work different and one of the things about them is that there are certain conditions you invariably either enter the adventure filling or end up filling based on your role. And the main thing about brains (which is the only one I've thought through very much tbh which is why I have so much lore about Deimos and Phobos as a collective but not much about them as individuals) is that they're bound to feel incomplete as individuals. They are not themselves without some external element that they've attached themselves to, usually a person. Some people say it's a soulmate thing, brains aren't whole without their other half. Smart people say they've just tied their identity too strongly to external factors. But I digress.

Sidus teaches the humans about her people but a lot of what she says is either something she misinterpreted, wrong, or straight up a lie she told them cuz she thought it was funny.

[henriiiii-1001old]

can you talk abt the alt swap au :3 ?

ooooohohoho alt swap au </////3

here's my first post talking abt it just for reference :3

most of this that im gonna talk abt is from discord and it just gonna be a bunch of different stuff so cut me some slack xddd

and this is. a lot more than i thought so uuhhh enjoy another masterpost??? kinda??? CFVGBHNJ

"cain can travel through tvs and mabel can travel through mirrors, but cain cant travel through mirrors and mabel cant travel through tvs (at least on their own).

seth can travel through both, but they didnt know that until uh. until adam told him"

"i have an idea to how the end of vol 1 in this au would go so cain has been locked in his room for 3 days by this point, and basically the "uh oh, bad decision!" part would turn into more of a "cain killed abel" situation. the alt outside cain's door would mock cain and fake his sister's death to maybe make him succumb to M.A.D. finally, and it almost worked.

until mabel came in and dragged cain out of the house...

...based in the message i replied to," (which are the lil blurbs i pasted above lmao), "i think that when mabel was trying to help cain escape, she realized she also just trapped herself in cain’s room. but then cain realized somehow that he can travel through tvs. he took mabel’s hand, took them to trust him, and they went through. they end up in the static world and theyre like “tf is this” they do end up getting out though, and after they figure out where they were, they go back to mandela, grab seth, and fucking leave

also here's some toonbriel lore! bc hell yeah he deserves to be in this au B)))

"and he actually takes the place of dave in the au. i originally didnt have a technical spot for him and decided that putting toonbriel there would be cool.

his name is terry o'brien but he goes by "toony" around family bc he was super obsessed with cartoons when he was younger, whether it be on tv, comic books, etc

he's a pastor at st. gabriel's and is lt gabe's younger twin brother and theyve been two peas in a pod since they were super young. they did end up fighting on their different methods of trying to help the county, and terry argues that while gabe is literally doing nothing, terry has been giving people hope and shelter and food and so many things. this ends up causing them to split, and terry goes to dave for advice. turns out, dave has been using him as his prophet and ends up killing him because he's no longer of use to dave.

im still working out the details of how he helped dave tho, but gabe is devastated after losing terry. he was already stressed enough and was basically blamed for sgt maria's death (she's preacher who took ruth's place) back at the murray house, and losing one of the only things he lived for was heartbreaking. finding seth dealing with the horrors^tm helped a little bit bc he's actually helping someone he tried protecting in the past...

...im thinking gabe was the more protective one of the two as well as the more sociable twin. terry was super clingy and liked sticking around gabe bc he was the only person he knew.

not a childhood story, but i do imagine that gabe does know dave, and they probably met through terry! not sure abt how terry and dave met just yet, but gabe doesnt actually like dave all that much.

gabe immediately knew who to suspect when terry died, and the fact that he heard his voice after said death only made him more sure"

some lilith and seth lore

"lilith and seth were both troubled kids in school and they just. fought so much. and lilith had to deal with shitbag dave at mandelatech and was even forced to stay working for him once he revealed to her and he led the alternates. she has a LOT of pent up anger and just needs to get it out.

like i imagine that one time after seth found out he was an alt, he called lilith over for a fight, and she'd been itching for one since dave killed terry. she literally beat him to a pulp during that fight, but she stopped once she saw him look up at her. he looked hopeless and his eyes looked somewhat glazed over. he took slow, deep breaths even after he got the wind knocked out of him several times.

lilith new something was wrong. she ended up helping him recover and even asked what was wrong. he didnt really reveal the whole alt thing, but he mentioned having holes in his identity and how its been beating him up, especially since someone claiming to be his father wants to suddenly come (back) into his life.

since then, theyve worked towards trying to support each other and just trying to maybe be friends {:)"

ALSO I CANT BELIEVE IVE NEVER MENTIONED THIS!!!!!

yknow how in unholy gift sarah and tiffany are kinda rivals?? like tiffany likes to fuck w sarah bc she's bored? and she's usually v snarky and cocky?

lilith and eve are the exact same way except tat eve is like GENUINELY malicious and very manipulative. she takes advantage of lilith's dislike of mandelatech to make her do a bunch of shit for the alts, and it's asically a big old scheme to use lilith to advance the alts' plans.

i also think that thatcher is the one who told davis to go back and get seth. davis did go to cain and mabel first though, and they were VERY rightfully pissed. but they did eventually get seth and shit. seth was super avoidant of everyone after the whole thing though {:(

[dictionaryl4]

I wanted to do a big post with all my headcanons that came from the Big Lore Friday (tm) but I think I'll do a few "shorter" ones.

Anyhow: The Ancient Elven Library, it's discovery and the implication for World building.

So, we all know that Gem was informed of the existence of the Library by the Ancient Wizards of the Crystal Cliffs. We also know that for Scott, the Library was more of a story, a tale he had been told as a kid. But Scott mentioned that the Overgrown might know if (and where) it exists, impling that it might even be as old as Aeor and Exor.

But what does that imply for the World and it's Gods, Deities? If the Overgrown (or is it Overgrowth??) is as old as the the Stag Gods, how old is the Empires world? How long have the societies existed? Is it the first world the Gods settled on or did they chose another one after the last fight between the Champions of the Stag Gods? Are the Overgrown and Rivendell connected or did the citizens of Rivendell settle in the original world occupied by the Overgrown?

How is the history of the empires connected? With the Big Lore Drop (tm) (I will continue calling it that, because, holy fork, there was a lot of information on Friday), we learned that the Crystal Cliffs are much older than they seem to be. I mean, ancient Wizards? in a land that doesn't even have a complete Village??? I don't think so. But we also learned that they knew about the ancient library, so they must have known about Rivendell. Or maybe, as Scholars, they worked with the Elven Scholars and that's why they know of it's existence? Gem also said at the end of her episode that she is but a young Wizard, who still has a lot to learn. She wants to build up her empire, create a magic school, prove her worth as a Wizard. I want to believe that a young Gem (or maybe a young Gem and her brother fWhip ????) were send to the Empires World from their Original World (wherever it might be) because the Ancient Wizards knew they would be needed to fight off one and fight with the other of the new champion of the Stag Gods. It would even be that far fetched to believe that there are other worlds out there, considering how Shrub joined the Empires World. Maybe the Wizards knew about the Overgrown. Maybe they sensed that it was a powerful force, a good one, a power of growth and prosperity, providing a good environment for Gem to become the best Wizard she could be.

I think, maybe, that the elves coming from Rivendell also came from their world to the world the Overgrown had settled in, but a long while before Gem was sent there. That's why it knows of the library. That's why Katherine was chosen as the new gardian, because the Overgrown sensed that a new protector was needed. (or maybe she woke up from a century long slumber, who knows how the guardian is chosen. Also the reason she had to rebuild her empire).

We now why the Crystal Cliffs have to be rebuild, we know that Katherine's empire needs to be rebuild, but what about the rest? Why does no one have an empire to live in, no place to stay? (we are just going to blatantly disregard the fact that this is a Minecraft world and that these are CCs creating mainly building content).

The ten original rulers woke up and gathered in the jungle, around a campfire. They then all went to seek out a place to settle and lay down their roots. A part of me wants to believe that they were all sent to the Empires World, where the Overgrown already existed, to help rid their world (or maybe even the universe ????) of all evil. Or maybe, apart from a few exceptions, they all already existed in this world and were hit by some kind of memory spell, making them forget their history, only leaving them with their identity and a wage memory of their history and customs? Regardless of how it went, I believe that all of them were called to build were they did.

All of them are connected somehow. Gem, Katherine and Scott, Lizzie and Jimmy, Gem, fWhip and Sausage, Pearl and Sausage, Sausage, Joey and Xornoth, Joey and Shrub, Scott and Xornoth, Pix and Death... The world is much older than we believe, and I don't think they are all native to that world. They might have all had the same staring point, but that was caused by something.

Now, the library itself was buried in the mountain. We also know that the Heart if the Sea thingy that Lizzie needed was buried in Scott's mountain. Have they risen to cover those things? is it more if a coincidence? Why always Rivendell? The fact that the book of Prophecies was inside the ancient library reinforces my belief that they (the rulers) are all there (the Empires world) for a reason.

Maybe the sea creature that birthed the Seablings is as old as the Overgrown, maybe even older. Maybe it's younger that the Overgrown but older than Rivendell. Maybe the prophecies are more ancient that any of them could ever be.

Who knows? I believe the world and it's inhabitants are all older than we believe and all interconnected somehow. But the rulers themselves are all just youngins (whatever is considered young in their culture) that try to build a better world than the one they left behind.

[thenightling]

Maleficent is underrated

  My favorite Disney, live-action, movie guilty pleasure (besides Hocus Pocus) is Maleficent.  A lot of people think of Maleficent as a remake. It's not.  Much like Wicked it's an alternate perspective story or even alternate universe version of the events.   It's so deliciously cheesy such as with King Stefan's mysterious adult-form's heavy accent and it has some obvious flaws, like how in the opening narration we're told there are "two kingdoms" but one has "No King or Queen for they relied on each other." Then... that's not a kingdom.  You should have said "two lands."   But I still love it.  And I think Linda Woolverton did an excellent and underrated job of making Maleficent feel like a real character.  Not just a "Strong woman TM" but an actual character.  And Angelina Jolie's acting is so good that when she wakes up mutilated I find that scene very difficult to watch. I also love the dynamic with Maleficent and Diaval. I know he's a bird that was turned into a man (or turned into a shapeshifting servant / slave) but I still ship it.  I don't care that it's "problematic."  They're faeries.   Faeries ARE problematic by their very nature.  It's why, for centuries, Gaelic people found them terrifying.

It's also the first mainstream movie I know of to remember that faeries are vulnerable to iron.  The only other time I saw that on TV or film was Disney's Gargoyles, such as when iron chains held Puck.     So many people don't know that weakness today that a review for Maleficent: MIstress of Evil in Variety went on a paragraph long tangent about the "arbitrary weakness" of iron "invented" by Disney.   I love the respect to actual faery lore.  And I love that many of the fae folk look almost like Brian Froud illustrations.  

I certainly think it’s far better and more creative than Cruella.    Okay, so maybe it's not that much of a guilty pleasure.  I think I'm proud of my love for Maleficent.  And I think because so many dismissed it out-of-hand as a remake or just hate the idea of Maleficent being sympathetic, that they end up missing out on something they might otherwise like.  But she's a powerful, bad-ass, dark fae. with a raven-slave who apparently is crushing on her. And who doesn't want to be that? In the 90s I used to role play in the AOL RP community as Jareth from Labyrinth but if this version of Maleficent existed back then I might have wanted to play her too and that's saying something since (even though I'm a woman) I usually prefer male characters.

[welcometotheocverse]

What do your Gilmore Girls oc’s - as in, the ones related to the Gilmore’s, (Hope, Kit, etc), think of Jason and Lorelei’s relationship to him?

Um okay  lesse. 

Starting off with Amelia  she’s not super keen on him. Unlike Max he doesn’t bother trying to get to know Lorelai’s kids and that rubs her the wrong way. She’s also already dealing with Luke impulse-marrying/haphazardly dating Nicole ( iirc? I gotta look up the timeline but I believe so) and is kinda “can you two just be single for one entire year??” She doesn’t know much about him but her impression of him is that he’s cut from the same Hartford cloth as her grandparents and she very much wonders what her mom sees in him ( and asks Rory as much when they’re hanging out just the two of them) Also the insistence of “date me. Please date me.” prior to his relationship with Lorelai absolutely spooks her  and she’s constantly squinting like “do I Need to use the right hook dad taught me or nah?” and she might get some guys from the SHH football team to kick him out of the Firefly  when he pulls the whole “im not leaving until you agree to get back with me” because being the Gilmore Danes Baby comes with perks.

El likewise is sorta...put off by how insistent he is? He also isn’t sure it’s a good idea to date him since he knows it was Emily and Richard’s horrible behavior that sent her to call him. ( “and like I don’t Do dating/romance but dating someone because your parents  abuse you seems....like...like....not a good plan?” not that he says this to his mother of course but he does say it to Brad. It should also be noted that out of all my  Rory sibling ocs Elliot is one of the fastest to Actively call Emily and Richard abusive in re to their behavior to Lorelai. So he understands a bit of how that interplays with Lorelai’s behavior and dating Jason but all the same...he’s not thrilled. ) Elliot also actually liked Max and was pretty upset by how that all ended so he’s not open to his mom dating another guy that might or might not keep around. And again, Jason canonically doesn’t really  make an effort to get to know Rory so El doesn’t know him from a hole on the ground and sorta mistrusts him tbh. Everything from the fact that he works for Richard to the whole “your mother hates me so you should date me” ( which El’s just...he kinda sees it as Jason using Emily and Lorelai’s history in his favor and he’s...not a fan.) just puts him on edge tbh and he’s sad for his mom when it doesn’t work out but also lowkey relieved.

Hope is super protective of Lorelai like to the nth degree ( understandably so tbh)  and understands on a personal level how parental abuse can leave you wanting to date people who really aren’t worth your time and energy and the why of it all. That being said both in spite of that and because of  that she’s so  so not here for his insistence and has considered pulling Lorelai aside and being “I love you but from one Gilmore Girl to another, anyone who you date after one of mom’s flagellations should be considered the same as someone you chose to date while drunk.” ( but  is also afraid that will push Lorelai away from her and she...Lorelai and Rory  are the only family that haven’t hurt her so it’s messy yknow)  She very much gives him a shovel talk and lowkey thinks his only redeeming quality is he wanted to tell Emily and Richard about them ( she understands more than anything not wanting to tell their parents...anything tbh because like Lorelai says “ When something good happens to me, I'm just afraid you're gonna make me feel bad about it nd when something bad happens to me, I’m always afraid you’ll say “I told you so.“  but she’s also “Lore...you can’t just keep hiding this from them it’ll come out and badly”) She’s overall pretty unimpressed by him and is very concerned by the fact that Lorelai  chose  to date him. She pretty much warms him upfront that if he’s trying to mess with Lorelai or take advantage of the fact that Emily  messes with Lore’s head they’ll never f-ing find his body. 

Sofia likewise is incredibly  protective of Lorelai and like on instinct distrusts anyone that her parents ( Richard and Emily) like so she’s pretty much “nope don’t trust him” from the get go. She’s mostly just glad Emily has someone to be a b-tch to that isn’t her and/or Lorelai (”she’s giving him the tripple freeze, makes it a lot warmer where we’re sitting”) She thinks the fact that he thinks Richard and Emily won’t ruin his relationship with Lorelai is sorta naive?(  like “of course they will. We’re seasoned Gilmore Daughters. We know this”)  But  also that pursuing it is sorta dumb. She’s pretty  cold towards him when they start dating but is also incredibly incredibly disgusted by his parents tbh and jesus she just hates that entire family and the fact that her father will associate with them. About the only good thing that comes from that arch from her is she gets a bit of a softer view of her mother since she actually knows the separation happened because of Emily asking Richard not to sue Jason after Lorelai begged him not to.

But also she ( this very soft spoken and quiet little girl who  in s1 would cry if someone glared at her) basically  tells him to get out of her sister’s inn before she grabs a gardening shovel from the tool shed when he pulls the thing at the inn.

Kit is probably  the one who has the least unfavorable opinion about him? Like he doesn’t really  know him that well and because of how badly Richard treats him ( and Emily sometimes) he’s really not that bothered by his mom dating someone in the merits of “it’ll piss the Harford Gilmores off” like tbh he sorta gets it. He does  get “lmao nope” when he pursues Lorelai  at the  inn  and is actually  the one to tell Luke Jason and Lore aren’t together and might be the one to make the call that his condo was on fire and considers getting a baseball bat tbh. But until then he’s pretty indifferent towards him. 

But also he’s absolutely disgusted with how Richard treated him like “that was his partner?? And he sold him down the river?? For people that screwed him ( Richard) over?? He tanked this guys business to keep all the money with that other rich asshole??” ( keeping in mind Kit is the one with the worst relationship with Richard and the one who gets treated the worst by Richard. And also that growing up with mostly blue collared people rich assholes ( tm) screwing over a new business is really something about the Hartford Elite/upper circles that he really abhors.) So mostly he’s just focused on how horrible everyone involved  in that lawsuit is and is like “anyways  im so glad im not involved with y’all because I’m The Dumb Gilmore and didn’t need a college fund” and pretty much just rants/talks to Tristan about it like “anyways babe you won’t believe what The Jackwagon Allegiance did this time-”

So like tbh none of them like Jason much and they absolutely  are “yeah but how bout no tho” when he gets uber pushy and their opinion absolutely plumets when the stuff goes down in Raincoats And Recipes.

But a lot of them ( Kit and  Hope in particular) also incredibly disgusted with how Richard treated him and how the  whole thing was handled ( Floyd calling PIs on his son? Asshole Move. Floyd suing Richard over petty  shit? Asshole Move. Basically everything that followed? Asshole Moves.) and all of them are also pretty critical of  how Richard told Lorelai she only cared about her boyfriend when she in fact broke up with Jason over him not droping the lawsuit ( Elliot who in Tristan’s words is “a bit of a paragon( affectionate)” might actually tell him about it and remind him that maybe he should say sorry in his very soft but not unsure Elliot way which might mean that Richard apologizes to Lorelai  bc honestly i need it) so they also don’t give him much thought past “why did Lorelai date him again?” and don't pay him much mind until the events of the s4 finale.

Honorary mention: Lily St James who grew up with abusive parents ( and thereforeis never here for Any toxic bullshit from Anyone), sees Lorelai as a second mom,  and has zero chill punches him in the face when he shows up at the inn and pretty much was “nah” from the start so...there’s that. 

[fatetimebomb]

I get it, Fate Stay Night started as a erotic visual novel.

and yes, majority of the fans are men, but to say or even think that “because it started this way, it needs to remain this way (i.e. catering predominantly to male fans at the expense of good story telling or good characterization)” is incredibly narrow-minded and sad but also goes against some of the best story telling we’ve seen from the Fate series.

Shirou is no longer limited to the character insert for a male player. He’s now a complex character with his own backstory, wants and needs. And yes, his wants and needs are shaped by his acts of implied selflessness, born from survivors guilt, and being saved and raised by a man he basically to be considered to be an untouchable hero (but as we know now, was not only his own deeply flawed character, but part of the reason Shirou suffers so badly now, even after he rescued Shiro and brought him in). He’s a character whose ideals will change depending on who he decides matters the most.

... Don’t get me wrong, he’s still an idiot at the beginning of it all, but knowing how and why he’s that way now, I honestly can’t stay mad at the poor boy. I just want to bundle him up and give him some hot cocoa. Archer too.

Arturia is no longer limited to being “cute genderbend Arthur”. She’s a character who was shaped by her experiences of having to grow up feeling like she constantly had to prove herself, of hiding who she was, both because she had to hide her gender, but also because she was a king, who carried so much weight and responsibility under her and ultimately had to deal with betrayal by people close to her.

Rin is not just a tsundere. She’s a woman who was also shaped by the last Grail War, who is forced to pay the price for the hubris and mistakes of her parents and other adults. She is a woman who has to grow up mostly alone, in a culture of magi that value bloodlines and wealth and rules and a lot of her personality can be summed up by her trying to keep her head above water. An attitude of “Fake it till’ you make it”, basically.

Sakura is not just the “sweet baby sister of a friend”. Sakura is... I don’t even know HOW to describe her in a way the encompasses how much I love her and how happy I am she’s finally getting her ‘route’ in an animation. She’s a daughter cast off because of how magi culture works, abandoned and later abused by the very people who should’ve been protecting her.

All of these characters have... evolved. The framework for who they are now was there in the damn original eroge game, sure, but it sure as shit wasn’t getting polished under that framework. Maybe because polishing the characters personalities wasn’t the focus of those games.

Someone looked at F/SN and said “hey, there’s actually a really good story that could be told here”.

Hence how and why we even ended up with a “clean” version of the VN and the later, an anime (both of which still didn’t do an overly great job in telling the potential story that was there, but maybe that’s just me).

Fate/Zero was a surprise and drew in a lot of new and different fans (ironically not myself, I’ve been here since the 2006 anime). And the kicker is, there’s like 0% fan service (if you don’t count that like... one scene of naked Gil at the end and some... questionable relationships). There was also no “main male character” for fans to just insert themselves into, each character was given time and energy into telling their own stories and sharing their own ideologies. All of them are their own unique person (except Assassin I guess, but... well you know).

Kiritsugu is (arguably?) the main male character, but he’s definitely not meant to be a stand in character for a male fan or viewer. As a result, Fate/Zero had to rely on the characters themselves, the lore of the Fate Universe and the story it was telling.

This, at least in my opinion, put down a new ground work for future Fate works and it’s evident in UBW and Heaven’s Feel.

UBW isn’t telling the story of how Shirou gets to fuck Rin or whatever, it’s a story of him fighting... essentially, himself, and his ideals and confronting a trauma that he buried very deeply inside of him. On Rin’s part, she’s confronting ideals she’s had since childhood too, also ingrained into her by the trauma of the last Holy Grail War but also the grim realities set in by Magus society and her father. She’s ... learning to let people in again, to be vulnerable, and to have others there beside her or even saving her.

Yes, these are all elements in the original VN... but like I said before, they weren’t necessarily being told in the best way. We had to have this story be told to us a few times by different people in different ways before it started to really shine.

all these other characters that TM/Nasu have created also have the ability to show different facets and shades of themselves, as do the stories they create for those characters, to evolve or be polished into something greater then what they originally started out as.

We’ve seen that ESPECIALLY with Gilgamesh because he was a villain in the original VN and his character has to HAD to change and adapt depending on the new role he has to take up.

It’s beautiful and fascinating with so much potential.

So yeah, I get angry when I feel they’re trying too hard to appeal to male fans. or “to make it like the origin material”. Sieg and HAKUNO were, by no means, the only problems that Apocrypha and Last Encore had, but they sure as shit did not help.

[janiedean]

What's your opinion on Rodrik and Maron Greyjoy? I'm trying to expand upon them for a fic idea, and I was just wondering what you thought. You're like the resident Greyjoy expert on my dash!

haha omg what an honor ;)

uhm okay so count that I’m probably the best resident expert on theon and asha greyjoy and that for other people in their house idk how objective I am because I tend to go from mild I don’t care (aeron) to I really fucking hate you (balon) to you creep me out (euron) to I can’t believe people like your povs more than brienne’s (victarion) and like I love the younger generation more than the old one but re the other two.

thing is, the only thing we canonically know about them is that they fit whatever ideal of balon greyjoy’s True Ironborn TM had to be and what we know from theon’s POV about the two is... well, he remembers rodrik from the *drunken cuffs* and maron for the *cruel japes* so I mean what the text suggests me is that they were assholes to him at best and abusive at worst so my opinion isn’t really... the best there could be, I mean, sounds to me like theon and tyrion could have more than a conversation about those two and cersei’s treatment of them. I mean, he told patrek mallister - the son of the dude who killed rodrik - that he doesn’t hold him any ill will for that so. we also know they died in the rebellion so they obviously had to be at least halfway good at fighting but like the most sympathetic thing I can think of is that given who was their father and the culture they were raised in it’s kind of normal that they’d turn out to be generally violent people I guess? I mean, theon was an *anomaly* and while asha’s like the only sane person in the room she sure as hell has no problem with standing up in violent situations and throwing axes around XD like, the deepest I can go is ‘these guy were the two firstborn sons and grew up exactly like their father hoped for them to be which kind of makes me feel sorry for them up to that point’, but my sympathies for people who hit their younger brothers while being drunk or taint them to the point that the guy remembers them as cruel later end there lol.

(I mean, offside, but if you think about theon’s infamous I should have died with him quote, it starts with ‘robb was more of a brother to him than any son born of balon’s loins’ or something like that. now that is a very weird way to put it because it’s extremely detached - it feels like they are balon’s sons and he is but he’s... really... talking as if they aren’t related? I mean, he could have said ‘robb was more like a brother to him than his flesh and blood ones’ but it’s not and I don’t think martin goes pick words at random or that he doesn’t think how he builds a sentence especially when it’s obvious he’s choosing the words and not using common ways of saying things. the thing is that robb was the person he was closest to, but the people who should have been are talked in very detached and impersonal terms so... like, he doesn’t consider them his brothers period or if he does it’s an inconveniency? maybe I read too much into it but anyway, he doesn’t mention asha in that and after he openly recognizes her as his sister so he obviously doesn’t have a problem with HER.)

so like... tldr I think they probably weren’t great people to hang out with unless you enjoy hanging out with a typical ironborn and they sound fairly terrible from theon’s pov, and I can understand why they’d be like that because of their upbringing and their father but like.. I don’t really have more flattering opinions, sorry. XD (which is why in fic I either kill them off before things start as per canon or they’re assholes lol.) some other people who are more interested in the family lore would probably find better things to say but again I like theon and asha/am interested in them more than in any other greyjoy house members put together so /o\ (I mean tbh I find the harlaws a lot more interesting than the other greyjoy house members and most of the ironborn who aren’t named greyjoy a lot more interesting as well but XD) 

[dictionaryl4]

L's thoughts: Empires SMP Lore

Hello and welcome, to my (L) thoughts. I just watch Gem and Sausage's new videos, as well as Lizzie's and Scott's videos yesterday, and I have some thoughts. Also, Pix's video. Basically, just dumping out all the thoughts about the empires episodes from the last little while. (pls beware, spoilers ahead)

Gem's behaviour in her recent video seems a little on the erratic/crazy side. Wanting to assemble all of the unloved creatures of the realms seems to be an honourable cause. I don't know if it was triggered by the dragon fight?? Maybe that's when the need to protect all creatures came from. It might also be from the fact that she had to kill Sausage to save him. Does she still harbour guilt over that? That she couldn't protect one of her bestest friends ? coupled with the fact that Sausage's decent to madness only went faster after the death of the dragon... who knows...

anyhow, back to gem's behaviour. it made me think about the fact that she was abducted by Xornoth a whole while back. Like the time she woke up in his weird nether prison thingy? and woke up in her bed afterwards without remembering anything? I don't remember if they talked about that again, plotwise. If they did, and I don't remember, that's on me. But I'm pretty sure they didn't. Adding onto that, weren't fWhip and Katherine also abducted in the same way? Do you think, that maybe, they will be the next targets of Xornoth's Corruption? iirc it also happens to Sausage, and we all know how that ended....

if fWhip and Gem still have corruption inside of them from that time, maybe it'll be use MD to advance the Roseblings plot? Because, fWhip's also been a little more mad as of late.... I'm unsure if that is their natural chaotic nature shining through a little more than usual or something else....

Talking about madness... I'm worried about Pearl. We are lacking a bunch of context, as we haven't seen her perspective in a while, but still. She got the scythe from Sausage to get rid of the corruption around her empire. And Gem said in her episode, that it doesn't do anything, it's just a hoe. But there must be something special about it, if it can just tear through the corruption like it's nothing? What will it be capable of in the hands of our Farming Queen?

Add to that the fact that she's been distilling the Corruption in her brewery????? And making potions of tranquility out of it??? I mean, fighting fire with fire I guess... But I'm not sure that's the best idea. Slightly worried about that, especially since sausage was the first to drink it. Like, dude, you just got un-corrupted. Are you really willing to risk it for some experimental motion of tranquility? What effect will it have on pearl, who, afawk, isn't corrupted?? Especially since she was so keen on fighting Xornoth, for fun. I'm kind of worried what'll happen on that end. She talked about banishing Xorxor with Sausage, but I don't know if she really ment it or if she is secretly trying to find another opportunity to battle him. I couldn't really figure it out based on her tone this time. We'll have to see when her episode comes out .

Next up, that little part in Sausages video, when he and Gem walk around mythland. Part of it wasn't included in Gem's video, which leads me to believe, there where no important aspects for her storyline. But Sausage leaving in the part where he told her, that he gave Jimmy (or as he called him, a fish -which he is-) a platonic kiss on the cheek? and Gem asking if sausage had a crush on him? and Sausage being flustered??? Really not hoping for a love triangle here, but it would explain Sausage's need to best Jimmy at everything. Kind of that headcanon I saw a while back talking about playfighting and pranking being considered courting in some empires. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here. What's gonna happen here? will we have a rivendel and Mythland rivalry around the Codfather? was Gem just being a teasing Big Sister (TM)?

Talking about Cod-boy. Seablings confirmed !!!!!! (ahhhh, still screaming about that one). Can't wait to see the whole thing from Jimmy's perspective. I can't imagine what it's like to discover that you have long lost family. And that, essentially, you are the last two survivors of your species. (add to that the fact that you helped your brother in law diss the one guy that stole your Head from you... Family bonding time! whoo!)

Lizzie being the blue Axolotl kind of surprised me. But at the same time, I'm not? I'm curious to discover what kind of consequences this will have for her. She said it herself in the reprise of "deal with Destiny". Will she be bound to the water more than before? will she discover some powers that were bound due to her not knowing her true nature? will she find ways to banish Xornoth?

also, what is the ocean orb? why did Scott of all people find it on his land? Was it just pure coincidence (which I don't believe at all)? Was the ocean once so big that it covered the whole of empires, including Rivendel and it got buried there? Does Aor have anything to do with it? some of the text surrounding the Orb resembled the words Aor and Exor. there was also another one that I don't remember. Maybe the gods are involved in Lizzie's awakening.

Talking about Gods, our favourite Champion, Scott wants frostwalker boots to "fulfill His Elsa fantasies". (sidenote: Forzen and therefore Disney canon on Empires???) I don't believe it one bit. I want to believe that the ice powers will help in defeating Xornoth. (the whole fire and ice deal, warped netherwart Vs. normal netherwart, red vs blue, etc...) Who knows?

Now, onto the more miscellaneous thoughts:

Pix deciding to destroy everything Sausage loves by going to Mezelean Records? unexpected, but welcomed.

The war Joel likely started by going to Scott and thus pointing him towards Joey? And Scott involving fWhip by stealing the Raptor? *chef's kiss* can't wait to see how that plays out. (don't have any ideas yet, regarding the lore it might imply, that's why I'm leaving it here)

also, fWhip casually canonising Roseblings? excited to see how that plays out. those two are always up to something these days.

Lizzie's prophecies!! I haven't taken the time to look into those, but I'm extremely curious how those'll play out.

Shrub and the Wolf Spirit. No thoughts, head empty on that one. once again, extremely curious to see how that goes.

Part of me wants to rewatch ever single episode from every perspective to get all the pieces of lore I missed over the last few months and make a masterpost with every bit of lore ever mentioned, but who's got time for that kind of stuff (cries)