#i'm a dragon age fan first and a human being second

[aprilmr]

No way

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Wakey, wakey. The latest hot, steaming garbage Dragon Age hot-takes have dropped.

Wow, Lily. That's a LOT of words to say "I've never played any of Dragon Age. I've only hate-skimmed the series because I decided it was all problematic garbage before going in because there's no sister character I can project my messed-up fantasies on to, so I'm just going to pretend to be oh-so "deep". and "woke" so I can earn progressive brownie points without any effort."

Oh yeah my fans were showing me this last night after I finished Veilguard. I finished Veilguard on stream by the way!

"Dragon Age itself is boring, a generic high fantasy series seasoned with racism it never really bothers to address and a massive host of worldbuilding that is always the least interesting version of a kind of fantasy that was already not interesting to begin with."

The thing I've always loved about Dragon Age, the thing that got me through the slog that is the gameplay of Origins in 2009, has always been the worldbuilding. It's fairly unique as far as fantasy worlds go. All of it takes place on a single continent called Thedas. No one knows what else lies beyond it.

Elves used to be powerful immortal beings until a cataclysm in pre-history that has been pretty unclear until this current game (though you could already figure it out before Veilguard with all the clues throughout the first three games), now they are small second-class citizens who were once enslaved. Their entire culture has been decimated and they have no land of their own. They can only live in ghettos in human cities or as wandering tribes people reinventing the few scraps of history they do have into their own unique cultures.

Dwarves have a stringent caste system and anyone who leaves for above ground is forbidden to come back. They lose all of their social status. Their kingdoms were also decimated when the Blights began, leaving Orzammar the sole Dwarven kingdom. Besides, of course, the elusive Kal-Sharok that is mostly closed off to the world. Dwarves rely on trading lyrium (a substance essential to mages and Templars alike) with the surface for their survival and so they are often traders and economists. The Merchant's Guild is a powerful surface institution that despite being full of Dwarves who left Orzammar or were born on the surface still ties itself up in stringent Dwarven tradition. Dwarves also invented the common tongue/trade language everyone uses.

Humans don't have a whole lot of known history on their origins. We know they're not native to Thedas but Veilguard tells us they were there before the Veil (what separates the real world from the Fade, the world of spirits and dreams). Which is very interesting cause the world was so different back then. After the Veil humans formed the Tevinter Imperium which was a Roman Empire-like civilization that spanned the entire continent. When Andraste lead armies against them the empire was broken up, Tevinter became a smaller country in the North and other countries formed all around the continent. Humans ended up bringing the Blight to the world when the Evanuris, the ancient elven gods sealed away behind the veil, used their dragon thralls to speak to high ranking Tevinter magisters and lure them into breaching the Veil to enter the Fade physically.

Qunari are a completely unique concept to Dragon Age. They're a nameless horned race the majority of which follow a religion/social structure/philosophy called the Qun. It was passed down to them by an ancestor in a long forgotten land they left centuries ago. They conquered Par Vollen, pretty much the furthest north of Thedas, and have been there ever since. Their goal is to submit all to the Qun because the Qun is certainty. Living is a choice and the Qun gives that choice purpose, giving you a role you need not ever question because it is a demand of the Qun and the Qun is certainty. There is some evidence they are people who mixed themselves with dragon blood to become what they are now.

And that is just an overview of what makes the worldbuilding unique. There is so much more to everything I just said.

"Half the characters you meet are related in some way to the Chantry"

Yeah almost like the Chantry has the political power and reach of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe. Almost like Andraste as a prophet is a mix of Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc. Almost like fictional stories take influence from real life history to easily communicate to an audience what they're doing with this concept.

"BioWare is averse to the idea of Elven companions who aren't either chronic backstabbers or insufferable."

Lily what did Fenris and Merrill ever do to you? Did you not actually do Zevran's companion quests and raise his approval? He won't go back to the Crows if you do that you know. Sure Velanna is annoying but I wouldn't call even her insufferable.

The only real backstabber is Solas and he is literally Fen'Harel the elven trickster god.

"Outside of that all encompassing issue, a lot of Dragon Age companions require you to go through a long quest chain before you get to learn anything interesting about them"

Yeah Lily. If you want to get to know your companions better you actually have to do things to get to know them better. That's part of the fun of the game. If you don't like that then these games are maybe not for you.

"The worst version of this is Leliana. If you do her quests and follow her story to completion, she's a somewhat interesting character. BUT... for 11 hours before that point she's just Imoen as a born again christian. How the fuck does a Triple A game fall into "Original Character Do Not Steal"?"

... okay legendary super ultra rare W from Lily.

I'm only half joking because Leliana is the character I coined the term "writer's pet" for.

""Okay I think the group mage will be Vivienne" and then I met Vivienne and spoke to her for ten minutes, and proceeded to leave her in the camp because she's the mage equivalent of Stella Kubler, sucking up to the Chantry and actively supporting Mage Auschwitz."

And it was immediately negated with a common major L.

Maybe if you'd actually hear Vivienne out on why she supports the Circles you could learn something from her Lily. She's very similar to Wynne in that regard. Vivienne feels mages need a place to commiserate with other mages and learn to control their power. And she is absolutely right about that.

Also she is a queen and if you actually had to talk to her for 10 minutes she'd probably leave you weeping on the floor with her verbal stinging barbs alone.

She also becomes the mom friend companion if you befriend her. She's the only one who really checks in on the Inquisitor and frets about how you're doing. In her own way.

"BioWare for a while kept operating under the assumption that there was a real ethical question behind Mage Auschwitz. There wasn't. There was edgy gamer bros roleplaying as fantasy nazis and EVERYONE ELSE siding with the Mages, and rather than give up BioWare kept forcing the issue."

Lily if you didn't spacebar hammer your way through cutscenes and dialog and actually paid attention to the fucking story you would know the Circles and Templars are way more complex than you're stating here. You don't even seem to realize that Templars are an arm of the Chantry. Despite the fact they're called Templars.

I doubt you even know that Templars are usually recruited as children or teens in a monastic-like tradition and orphans are often just handed to them.

"Dragon Age 2 gives you an escaped slave party member who is also a bigot.

By the end of Dragon Age 2 I was a Warrior and my part was "My Mage Sister, my Mage Girlfriend, and my Mage BFF."

Oh god she likes Anders. Of course she likes Anders. The same Anders that turns to said escaped slave and says "Hey mages in the South are PRETTY MUCH slaves, you should be supporting them!"

The escaped slave who has lyrium markings carved into his skin by his former mage master. His former master who may have also had a sexual relationship with him. The escaped slave from Tevinter, where mages are the upper class and rule over all of society. Where blood magic is nominally forbidden but constantly happening behind closed doors. Where slavery is legal.

That escaped slave. Fenris. My favorite character in the entire series and my favorite romance in the entire series.

You ain't winning this one Lily lol.

"Going into Veilguard, I just don't bother with companion quests, because I know I'm just going to hate them at the end of it because that's how this game works.

Compare this to Mass Effect"

Compare it specifically to Mass Effect 2 because you are going to get everyone killed by not completing their companion quests.

"You get Miranda and Jacob who are big simps for Cerberus, but their companion quests have nothing to do with that so you don't have to listen to any of it past the first time."

Ah the human supremacy group is fine though.

"Mass Effect does have its dud characters. Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, Ashley, Miranda"

Lily you get Thane and Kasumi out of there right now.

Really? You didn't list JACOB? The most lame nothing companion in any Bioware game ever?

That's the end I can't take any more.

[greypetrel]

Fan Work Friday Saturday

Rules: If you're tagged, MAKE A NEW POST and showcase one fanartist or fanfic you recommend (with links), and tag someone to give their recs next! Don't forget to reblog the rec you were tagged in!

Thank you so much for the tag @dreadfutures! Saving the second for later on in the week. Listen I have a hard time choosing and I'll do these on repeat if I must.

Fanartist: @salsedinepicta

Starting with her, purely because it's litterally 10 years of me being 👀 at her art, and I do love the way she mixes pictorical techniques with swirly, 2D lines. I am not a fan of pink+green combination, BUT when she does it. Add a lot of historical references and clothing and an expressive use of colour. I'm an absolute sucker for all artstyles that just looks like three paintstrokes thrown at a paper (digital or traditional) and she does that. And, she's a wonderful human being too, which really helps. <3 (she'd hate the attention but let me Will Smith meme her.)

Fanfic: To The Bone, by @shivunin

Rating: M Words: 48,373 Pairing: Cullen/Inquisitor Lavellan Summary: Depending on who you ask, either Sylaise or Andraste set a mark of fire on those who are destined to find each other. No matter how curious each of them is, neither Lavellan nor Cullen are especially eager to actually go looking for this person. Either luck or fate draws them both to the Inquisition anyway.

I debated high and low what of her fics to start from. I chose To The Bone because it's a soulmate AU. And I generally don't like Soulmates AU. But this one? Mo has a way to turn tropes and clichès around in a way that just makes them relatable, visceral and real. The way she renders human fragility and vulnerability is really heart-clenching. I know I always fangirl over her work but it bears repeating. To the Bone is played more than a Soulmate AU -it is important, but not the main focus, which tricks me into loving this- as a big story of two hurt people who needs to learn to trust someone with their own vulnerability. It's all about learning that you can trust other people, and exactly how scary a decision it is, how much it feels like a jump in the blue.

It's relatable, it's gritty, it's not the peak angst Mo can reach (for that, get a lot of tissues and click on Wander the Drifting Roads.), but it was the first of her works I read and it has a special place in my heart. For its themes, for its main character (can I hug her?) and also and particularly because it's a trope I generally don't like. And I do like to be stand corrected.

Tags under the cut!

You two whom I mentioned, if you want consider this a tag too! :)

Also: @melisusthewee @dreadfutures @inquisimer @blarrghe @blightbear @star--nymph @pinayelf @dungeons-and-dragon-age @ndostairlyrium @hollytree33 @theluckywizard and YOU

[wandringaesthetic]

Top 5 JRPGs

So in order to answer this question I had to have a few existential crises. First: what is a JRPG (we just don't know)? I'm going with the more purist answer here since we're narrowing it down to 5. So no action RPGs or tactical RPGs. Second: do I just put down my personal favorites here? because that's going to be 4 Final Fantasy games and idk Suikoden II, probably, and that's not very interesting. I don't really believe in objective quality, but at the moment I find it interesting to take a stab at it or at least name things I think are genuinely very good and polished and have relatively universal appeal. In the end, ugh, whatever, here's a list:

Final Fantasy VII - this is the one that made me fall in love with the genre. I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been said. I will say, while I mostly like Remake/Rebirth there's something about the original they're never going to catch, and there's a lot to be said about being (relatively) more succinct and focused and leaving some things to the imagination.

Dragon Quest V - This is as good as the UrJRPG series gets. Charming and funny and bright and occasionally tragic. It's about growing up and family and perseverance. It did the monster recruitment thing before Pokemon. I played the Super Famicom version via fan translation and emulation, so I don't know if the remake(s?) of this have quite the same charm. It's helpful for older games to look their age so you can put them in the context of their time, I think. I feel like relatively few people in the west have played this one, which is a shame because it's the missing piece in the influences of Lufia, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, possibly even Pokemon. Really fun, really solid game that was genuinely touching and made me feel childlike wonder.

Suikoden II - I first played this one when I was in college and Going Through It, and I've been meaning to replay it ever since. So, my memories are a little muddled but I'm going to do my best. Two boys take diverging paths to the same end. A war story that takes on a human scale by developing a huge cast of characters and by having your base grow around you. It takes one of the most interesting middle chapter twists I can think of in a video game. It's one of the best looking and sounding sprite based games to exist. It has an iron chef cooking mini game.

Shadow Hearts Covenant - balances between horror and quirkiness. Atypical setting (in the shadows of IRL World War I). Atypical protagonist with many demons, literal and metaphorical. Really good gameplay. Takes the FFX conditional turn based thing, where you can see the turn order and where some skills alter it, and runs with it. Timed hits, but it's customizable so you can make the system more or less forgiving and balance risk/reward with precise inputs versus guaranteed, but lower, accuracy. Adds up to a really fun game. Vibes are immaculate. Cast is great. But I cannot speak to how good the plot is because I don't remember most of it. It and the rest of the series have never been ported or remade and likely never will be. Keep circulating the tapes.

Chrono Trigger - I mean if you're only going to play one JRPG this is the one. The love child of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, with the bright, fun adventure qualities of DQ and the scifi/fantasy fusion and existential angst of FF. Did gameplay stuff it took other games decades to do and did it better. One of the best looking SNES games. The music makes me feel feelings I can't name. I paradoxically think it's overrated even though I'm putting it on the list, because it's not a personal favorite and I don't think anything in the world lives up to the hype around this game. It is very good, however, and a distillation of the genre.

[nightingaletrash]

Hey friend! I hope you're doing well. After admiring it from afar for a long time, I bought the Dragon Age games on mega sale. Do you have any suggestions for mods I should use to play? Thank you!

okay so, first off, welcome to hell I hope you enjoy your stay because there is no being normal about Dragon Age once you're in deep enough <3

second off

how much time and disk space do you have? because I use *a lot* of mods

First off, there is a learning curve to modding Dragon Age. DAO is deceptive in how easy it is to mod because for many mods, the installation is as simple as 'drop file in the override file' but there are some caveats based on how the engine works and it pays to understand what files are what, and what they do. DA2 is an almost identical process but tends to be much less finicky in practice, and DAI is infamous for being trickier by comparison due to the fact you have to use the Frosty Mod Manager, but you don't necessarily need to know the different types of files like you do with the other two.

If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask, I'm happy to share whatever I know ^^

So starting with DAO, here are some mods I'd recommend:

Unofficial Remaster - what it says on the tin, this mod includes higher resolution textures and introduces some updated models to create consistency with the later entries in the series. There used to be a lot more involved, including other mods that help increase cohesion between games but a lot of that was cut because people bugged the mod author too much about it.

Natural Lighting - makes the character creator less dark ^^

Female Proportion Fixes - there are three versions of this mod, one for humans, dwarves and elves respectively because the originals are pretty damn bad. Humans come with two variations, Sensual and Seductress - you only need to choose one.

Elf Update - this is entirely optional, as it essentially swaps the elven designs with the less-human elf designs used in DA2. Elf Update comes with its own version of the proportions fix, so if you chose to use this, you don't need Elf Proportion Fix.

Neutral Female Armours - does away with the atrocious boobplates that plague Origin's ladies. Luckily, a similar mod wasn't needed for DA2 and DAI because Bioware largely got their shit together. There is a compatibility patch for the proportion fix mods - those files need to overwrite the corresponding files in this mod. The Unofficial Remaster also includes some retextures for this mod as an optional file.

Extra Dog Slot - because the Dog is a very good boy and deserves to come along on quests without taking up a companion slot.

Dragon Age Redesigned - again this is optional, as I use this mod solely for non-companion NPCs, as bioware's originals sometimes look a bit odd. If used with Elf Update you'd need to delete all of the elf headmorphs included in this mod to avoid getting the wrong heads showing up. There's three options to choose between, Lore, Balanced, and Aesthetic.

Goblet De-Gobbler - tackles a pretty well-known bug with modded armours and rectifies some little inconsistencies with a particular sequence.

Thedosian Grey Wardens OR Grey Wardens of Ferelden - DA2 and DAI gave Wardens a uniform, yet there's none whatsoever in Origins. Which is odd because everyone seems to recognise you as a Warden on sight. Thedosian Wardens uses the Inquisition armour models while GWOF uses the DA2 model so it comes down to personal preference. Personally I'm a Thedosian fan and use it and it's related mods - searching Thedosian on the Origins nexus will bring them all up. It's pretty much everything you need for GWOF is pretty much included in the mod however. There are also some good retextures for both available by VagranDreamer.

Origin Unique Grey Warden Armour - adds some GWOF style armour with some unique flavour. These are included in Vagran Dreamer's retexture series.

Thedosian Wardens Arsenal - new Warden themed weapons. GWOF does include weaponry as well, but this stuff is my preference. It also contains scripts that allow it to replace all NPC Warden loadouts with this weaponry

Complete Bi Overhaul - because it could be gayer. Also includes some optional files to either stop certain male NPCs hitting on a female Warden or to get them to hit on a male Warden.

There really are so many more that I could like like character creation mods and NPC morphs I use, but I don't want to overwhelm you with info. I literally use too many mods XD

For DA2, here's my top hits:

Kirkwall Expanded - a really cool mod that adds new little quests to the game, a bounty board, and just livens up the city.

Automatic Chargen - opens the CC in the transitions between the acts (this game is divided into three acts with time skips between them), so if you want to mess with the idea of your character changing over the years, this mod is 10/10

NEW Import Vault Fixes and Editable Vault - essentially a bug fixer oriented around the content imported from your Origins save, and adds the ability to tweak the worldstate in game

Sapphim's Dialogue Mini Mods - a collection of little mods that alter some conversations to tone down some unnecessary sexism and to let the game be a lil bit gayer (and shut Gamlen's damn mouth)

Wardens of Weisshaupt - puts all Warden characters in Warden gear, and gives you a choice between shiny Inquisition ported armours like Thedosian Wardens or the original DA2 models ^^

Again there are dozens more mods I could recommend in regards to armour, headmoprhs, companion gear etc but those largely come down to preference so it's best to find what you like for yourself ^^

Then there's DAI. Keep in mind that for a long time, the go-to mod manager was DAIMM. Mods from that period are DAI.mod files; nowadays most people use Frosty Mod Manager and a lot of mods are made with Frosty, as its more powerful. Some dai.mods do work with Frosty, but it can be hit and miss.

Complete War Table Operations Without Waiting - For Frosty - DAI's war table operations take real time to complete, which is terribly impractical if you actually want to just clear them out and get them done. This mod changes the waiting time so the operations are completed automatically or have a very short wait time

Less Shards Please - An Oculara Rebalance - you might have heard of the tedious shard side quest; this mod makes it significantly less tedious.

Party Banter Tweaks - Inquisition's banter is unfortunately kinda buggy, so this mod gives you a better chance of hearing your companions talk to each other! There's a lot of great convos you don't wanna miss ^^

Enhanced Character Creator - adds even more sliders and options to CC, as well as a hair slot unique to the Inquisitor that some modders use so that Inky's hairstyle isn't shared with random NPCs. It can be a lot to take in, but once you have a grasp of it, you can really customise your character extensively

Dialogue Wheel Overhaul - completely changes the way the game’s dialogue wheel works to make it more cohesive, universal, and functional

Modded Hair in DLCs - what it says on the tin; the DAI DLCs are a bit finnicky with hair mods, and this is one of the ways around it

And as usual, there's loads more I could add but if I did, this post would need links for potentially hundreds of mods lmao

sorry this took me a while, I may have overwhelmed myself a bit because I literally use hundreds of mods in these games, and I didn't want to overload you with mods and information. If you need any help, let me know because there's a lot to know. Origins can be deceptively tricky thanks to the engine and its the one that has caused me the most headaches lol

[chronurgy]

For Dragon Age: The Veilguard HYPE Q&A - 1, 6, and 13!

What was the first dragon age game you played?

Inquisition was the first game I played, but it wasn't the first game I finished! I got about halfway through inquisition before a friend of mine found out I was playing it and went "oh shit you gotta play the first two games first, here you can borrow them from me!" So I stopped halfway through inquisition and played origins then da2 and then finally came back, started a new playthrough, and finished inquisition. So technically inquisition, but also sort of origins?

Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I'm trying not to plan out too too much before we get more confirmed details about the factions and the backgrounds so I don't end up getting too invested in something that the game won't support, but I've got some loose ideas -

I'm thinking a human Laetan mage involved with the shadow dragons, with two possible back stories. Either they're a first generation Laetan (the first mage in their family) and are struggling to make their way through this new world they've been thrust into and carry all their family's hopes or they're from an old and well established Laetan family, related to a former archon even, and are looking to disrupt the imperium's power structure for their own gain since they're tired of being a second class citizen compared to Altus mages. I think it could be interesting for them to have some common ground with Neve or possibly even know her! I've also kicked around the idea of a mournwatch mage but I just don't know enough about what our background for that faction will look like to commit (but that could change as we learn more). Same with the wardens.

What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're a fan of?

Minrathous looks fucking incredible. Genuinely fantastic. I saw that piece of concept art of a massive neon lit Minrathous with floating buildings that they put out like eighty million years ago and just instantly fell in love. I was so afraid that they wouldn't commit to the bit but they did!!! I really love the massive contrast it creates between Ferelden and Tevinter and how it changes the way we see the last three games! They all really were set in some provincial backwater! It's fucking crazy! And also I just love terrible horrible cities and the blood they're built on so much so this is genuinely like a dream come true to me. If the whole game had been set in Minrathous I think I would've died of joy on the spot lol

[over-the-time-flow]

Super Robot Rollcall: Gai Daigoji

Gai Daigoji

"A true ally of justice doesn't let himself get dragged down by the past! Muster your courage, and let's carry out justice together!!"

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 185 cm Hobbies: Biking, Karaoke Favorite foods: Curry, Steak Voice Actor: Tomokazu Seki Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

The TRUE main character of Nadesico, Gai Daigouji is a central character to the show, its plot, its themes, its sex appeal, its comedy, and most of all, its heart.

Characterized by his burning passion for mecha anime, Gai Daigoji is a man of the people. He'll share the tapes for episodes that were long thought to be gone, he'll educate you on the highs and lows of the classic Super Robot Anime, Hot-Blooded Robo Gekiganger (both 3 and V, though he's not as big of a fan of the V's design), the sort of trivia that only hardcore fans could divulge (such as the existence of the Dragon Ganger!)... If the topic is super robots, Gai's got your back.

Gai was the original pilot of Akito's Aestivalis, but had to relinquish it to the inexperienced cook due to a grievous injury he suffered during his training. As Gai was being wheeled away to safety, he asked Akito to retrieve his dearest treasure from the cockpit of the machine; just then, the enemies attacked, and being in the cockpit already, Akito had no choice but to deploy. Though no match for Gai's skill, he held his own decently enough to earn Gai's respect, and once his injuries healed some, they would fight side by side on multiple occasions.

Though after the first few episodes Gai seemingly loses relevance in the story, this is only the impression you get from a passing glance. By the time this shift occurs, you have already been trained to ask yourself where Gai is whenever he's not onscreen, and once you start asking yourself that, you start to notice that his presence and influence are directly driving the story forward, and this only becomes more apparent as the narrative unfolds. It's no exaggeration to say that Gai is quite possibly the most important character to both the greater narrative of Nadesico and to Akito himself.

if you've seen nadesico and you think i'm joking you might wanna rewatch it

Also, he's my second favorite character present in this game!

Gai's stats are all solidly alright. He's better at Melee than Akito and he's the most sturdy of the Nadesico crew, but these are both rather low bars, all things considered. His Defense specially is very strangely low for a Super pilot. But his Spirit Command learnset brings it all together; he gets absolutely EVERYTHING a Super pilot would like to have. Of note is Valor being here from the very start, making him a potent bosskiller.

He does suffer a bit from the Neo Getter Team issue of a lack of survivability Commands, but much like the Gekiganger trio, the Nadesico crew works best together, and with Akito at his side, he'll show the mettle any true Super pilot ought to be able to display. Couple that with the Gekiganger 3's versatility, and you'll find Gai able to both tank hits and dodge them effortlessly.

Fun Fact: Gai has a cameo in episode 23 of Dai-Guard, another banger mecha anime also made by Studio Xebec!

Gekiganger 3

Source Material: Hot-Blooded Robo Gekiganger 3 Material Constitution: Gekiganium Alloy

Built based on ancient cave inscriptions left by the Super-Ancient-Race, it was designed to protect the freedom and brilliance of humanity from the ambitions of the Kyoakkians. Utilizing the skies, the sea, the land and mankind's power, its three distinct forms allow it to adapt to different situations. The Gekiganger 3 is what gives humanity the strength to heed their dreams which call for tomorrow. Now muster your courage and shout with me:

LET'S GEKIGA IN!!

You'll have to forgive the strange adaptation of the design. The GBA must have not been able to handle the Gekiganger's more traditional look, so they had to make design changes.

Much like the Neo Getter, the Gekiganger has three forms; one for Air, one for Land, and one for... Space, strangely. the Umiganger IS traditionally meant to be the aquatic one, as the name implies, but perhaps for balancing reasons, it's adapted into a Space-use form here.

Also perhaps for balancing reasons, the Gekiganger can only change forms inbetween stages. It's a baffling decision, but it's likely in order to keep it standard with the other Nadesico pilots' Aestivalis units. This standardization is necessary because the Gekiganger (and the Umiganger, but NOT the Rikuganger) has a secret weapon, the Double Gekigan Flare, which can only be done alongside Akito's Aestivalis, a representation of Gai and Akito's unshakeable bond.

Though it has noticeably low Armor for a Super in all forms but Rikuganger, it makes up for it in all forms thanks to its signature Gekigan Field, which ends up allowing it to display far more hardiness than you'd expect it to, given proper investment. Coupled with Gai's high level of Potential, lategame it's rather common to see it at 25% health, dodging everything and deflecting what does hit it entirely without taking any damage. Do not underestimate the Gekigan spirit.

Fun Fact: In-universe in SRW R, Gekiganger 3 (the TV show) is over 100 years old, implying that the Getter Robo's design was either inspired by it or, strangely, predicted by it. A different SRW game (Impact, i believe?) goes further and outright acknowledges this by having it stated outright that when Gekiganger was made the technology seemed far off and unrealistic, but by the time the game takes place, technology had naturally advanced far enough that such a concept was doable. For a real world comparison, think of all the old cartoons that basically predicted smartphones and tablets.

[comshipbracket]

Antis DNI

Remember, you are voting for the ship you prefer, not the ship you find more problematic

Propaganda for both ships under the cut.

Yaeona Propaganda (Age Gap - Yae is over 2000 and Diona is 12 at most, MinorxAdult, AdultxChild, Species Difference - Yae is a Kitsune Youkai and Diona is a non-Youkai Cat-Human Hybrid, Power Imbalance)

"While the two haven't met in canon yet as far as I'm aware, Yae would be the type to take quick interest in Diona. Yae, in canon, already adores anyone with a cute set of fluffy ears and an adorable tail. She teases the character Gorou about such traits, and I can see her doing the same with Diona. Yae also has an interest in those who fall outside the norm of how the universe tends to work, and Diona was granted a blessing by a Spring Fairy so that any drink she mixes will be delightful to all who try it (despite wanting to make these drinks taste horrid). Yae would be able to pick up on such magic and be drawn to it."

"Diona herself is incredibly tsundere when it comes to accepting affection, but she's also quite capable of understanding her own boundaries. The issue comes when Diona's tsundere attitude and legitimate boundaries sound SO similar in tone and wording. Yae's the head of a Publishing Agency and huge fan of Light Novels with certain tropes, she'd fall head over heels for anyone expressing a tsundere attitude in this way. Even if Diona tried to put proper boundaries in place, Yae would likely chuckle away that it's cute to see a cat-person huffing and complaining with adorable pouts and puffed cheeks. Also, Kitsune have different rules for their bonding with mortals than two mortals may have together, so while not confirmed in canon it is possible that Yae sees no wrong with the age gap even if Diona does"

KuroWolf Propaganda (MinorxAdult, Power Imbalance)

"Sekiro is a game about Wolf, a shinobi whose been tasked with protecting Kuro, the Divine Heir, who is an immortal child with the ability to give the gift of immortality via his blood. Their country of Ashina is tearing itself apart as both factions from within and outside the country are attacking, all in the attempt to claim The Divine Heir, and Ashina for themself."

"Wolf not only lives, but dies for his Lord. There isn't any length he wouldn't go in order to protect Kuro. When a Ashina general named Genichiro cuts off Wolf's arm, kills him, and takes Lord Kuro, Wolf comes back to life and kills waves of Ashina soldiers to get back to his master. He doesn't give a shit about the country. He doesn't care about the lives he ends. He lives by the Shinobi Code, where only obeying his father is seen as more important than protecting his Lord."

"And in the neutral and good ending? Wolf breaks that one rule and defies his father, who had manipulated him into being Kuro's shinobi in order to get closer to Kuro and take his gift for himself too. Wolf kills his father to protect Kuro, and it makes me fucking INSANE. There isn't anything he wouldn't do for him!!"

"And on Kuro's part? You can see he tries to act calm and intelligent as it's expected of him, but you can get glimpses of his true feelings. How he stops himself from running into Wolf's arms at the very beginning of the game, when they first reunite. How, when you get to the second fight with Genichiro, he calmly states that Genichiro will never get his gift of the Dragon's Blood, because he KNOWS Wolf would come for him (and just like that, Wolf jumps up onto the balcony to protect him!!). How they have their own secret way to call each other with a Reed Whistle… how Kuro lies to Wolf about how to destroy his immortality, because he can't bare to have Wolf know he'd need to kill him for it to happen… How Wolf gifts him rice, and Kuro says he'll make something sweet for him in return"

"Wolf knows he shouldn't love his Lord the way he does. It's improper for any shinobi, let alone to consider Kuro's age… but in every action he takes, it's full of devotion and adoration. And who is he to deny his Lord, if Kuro ordered him to get on his knees, and kiss him?"

[platoniccereal]

What about you? What games had the biggest impacts on you?

i should note that i'm not a big gamer, actually, because i don't play games, i'm more used to watching someone else's playthroughs, for instance. that said...

to get this out of the way, dragon age franchise. fandoms that you've fallen into when you were thirteen really stay with you for the rest of your life, huh. it is connected to old online friends and different times, it sparked my creativity, i learned to, err, do fandoms through it, to interact with canon, i partially formed my views on systematic oppression through it (i would rather say in spite of it, lol) and many other things. i was young, and it was a playground. now i'm back, and it's a ruler for my growth. plus it's queer. i started with the second part. which. explains a lot.

detroit become human was pretty big. i won't say the material itself was impactful, but the fandom around it. again. it was about me finding my audience and new friends, creating rn9 and finding my reed900. it was about seeing what people are capable of when they're inspired enough to animate two cardboard cutouts. dbh raised my standards for fan made content to the skies, and i won't say i ate shit before that. it was about finding out which dynamics i liked the most. i still keep an eye on it.

speaking of dbh, what comes after by epsee. this. it's fan made, it's for dbh, and this is what i mean when i say dbh fandom has got some delicious fucking food. i can't put my finger on what did it impact. but it rearranged and altered my brain chemistry, i dunno. this lil guy right there was enough to make me cry for straight 15 minutes. i remember lines from it. i've got soundtrack from it on my sd card. it's so melancholic it sucks my soul out. i keep coming back to it in my thoughts from time to time. you are who you are, you hold grief, you hold kindness, you care for androids and humans alike, you want to be better, for their sakes- *throws up.*

probably we all have the game that showed us what games are capable of? yeah, what remains of edith finch showed little twat me this, i think undertale did the same for many people. again, it's subjective, but it was the first one to show it so clearly, juggling narratives and characters, being so good at every single one of them, writing such a touching story. lewis' story at the fish factory is still one of the most well put stories in videogames that narratively support themselves thorough being a game.

and you know what? happy tree friends flash games and people playground-esque stuff. i won't shy away, i know which fucked up games massively formed my tastes as a kid, lol.

thanks for your question!!

[suuho]

what are your top 10 bls? i need some to watch asap i'm so bored of straight ppl shows ;-;

mhmmm, let me think!

my absolute top bl is to my star 2: our untold stories, the continuation of the little jewel that is to my star. it’s way angstier than the first season and deals with my absolutely favorite trope, exes to lovers, and it was good enough to compel me to open a letterboxd account. like, that’s how good it is.

other than that, i absolutely love manner of death, starring bl royalty maxtul in their most sophisticated offering to date yet. it’s less classic bl and more of a romance/crime drama, and i loved every, even at times unhinged, second of it. if you enjoyed manner of death, you will enjoy bl staple kinnporsche, if you haven’t watched yet.

i love both seasons of we best love, available on weTV. one of the first bls i’ve ever watched and it just did everything so well, i revisit it every now and again. heaps of chemistry.

semantic error is probably the best kbl we have ever gotten and i can only whole heartedly recommend it, classic tsundere and sunshine set in a university, but it is truly just so much more than any trope could ever put into words. perfect casting and amazing chemistry make this the standout among kbls; i just love it so much. but i enjoyed oh! my assistant (despite the fact that i don’t think they stuck the landing that well), the new employee, where your eyes linger, once again (sad ending), tinted with you and long time no see. you make me dance is one of the most underrated picks in my favorites but i just love it; i always enjoy a well-done bit of age gap, and these two have so much chemistry. and it’s just so visually stunning.

i’m working through blueming right now, haven’t finished it yet tho, so i cannot say too much.

crowd favorites that i (mostly) enjoyed, or that are just beloved in general in case you haven’t gotten into it yet: cutie pie, tharntype (reserved rec), love in the air (reserved rec), why r u?, bad buddy, until we meet again, between us and big dragon (had a hard time getting into it but it has some standout episodes), bad buddy, not me, the eclipse. i have watched some of these, haven’t watched others. make of that what you will.

i also defo enjoyed be loved in house: i do. something about taiwan’s style really gets to me, i think it is a little more sophisticated than what we are used to from thai bl but maybe that’s just because i rarely do a trash or pulp watch, and my favorite overall style is probably korean bl; i wish we would get full drama treatments but there’s still a long way to go. anyways.

old fashion cupcake is the perfect bl, in my opinion, and just thinking about it makes me go absolutely crazy. most definite recommendation on this list; i actually think everyone should watch this show, whether you’re a bl fan or not. it’s a beautiful story about how there is no such thing as being too late for love, or for anything in life, really, and i enjoyed it so much.

anyways, long story short, let me try to compile a list of my top 10.

to my star 2: our untold stories (my all time favorite bl. watching season 1 is definitely needed but season 1 is also exceptionally good, so it’s no hardship. i cannot recommend it enough, especially if you enjoy angst. i know some people said this is too angsty, or the amount of angst is not worth the outcome but i disagree. it is real and messy and human, and that’s what i love so much about it. it made me cry way too many times. excellent on all fronts.)

semantic error

old fashion cupcake

manner of death

to my star

we best love (both seasons)

where your eyes linger

be loved in house: i do

long time no see

kinnporsche or you make me dance

honorary mention: beyond evil, strangers from hell, and the devil judge. the bls that should have been.

it’s like 4.30 am here and i’m about to go to sleep, so i hope this makes sense!! also, i might and definitely have forgotten things here, in case i remember i will come back to add on. thank you and have a good day, i hope this could be of some help!

[akariarda]

Hi, My name is Sophie I just joined under An account that leaves me anonymous Tumblr I've read aging and all of your other stories which are amazing And I want to share with you an idea for A multi part story that you can use if you want to, but if you don't want to then you don't have to 1.In the first partIt's revealed What Twisted Fate Wu and Garmadon's Age gap, parentage is true but sadly, they lost their human mother due to a terminal illness A mere 2 weeks before they met Aspheera But if she wasn't in the departed realm when Garmadon died It's because due to unfinished business, her spirit is unable to rest and Nineko First met the first Spinjitzu master. He hadn't met his son's human mother yet.   2.In the second part it's revealed that What Twisted Fate says wu's Relationship with Misako is true 3.In the third part  it's revealed that Thanks to a Ninjago: Dragons Rising bad guy going back in time and Temporarily changing the past  so Wu did get the letter to Misako  untampered To prevent Lloyd from ever being born but to his shock turns out that Misako loves Garmadon so much that "Even though thanks to him wu had gotten the letter to her untampered she still choose his brother in the end so with that he used to spell that changed everything back and 4.   In the last part Thanks to a magic mirror it's revealed that due to the fact that wu is a much more unreliable narrator than everyone who is a reliable narratorfrom Unreliable Narrator , UnreliableNarrator / Fan Works, UnreliableNarrator / Literature, UnreliableNarrator / Film , UnreliableNarrator / Live-Action TV , UnreliableNarrator / Interview with the Vampire (2022) andUnreliableNarrator / Western Animation  Not only during the whole Spinjitzu Brothers book series that Garmadon had a ridiculously high amount of redeeming qualities  But during the whole Spinjitzu Brothers book series the first Spinjitzu master is a much better person and parent than Nineko, the show and all other Ninjago fan made stuff make him out to be

Hi Sophie! Congratulations on your new account, but unfortunately I have to tell you something...

Since I will soon have to slow down writing until the 9th month (personal reasons), I will not be able to take all your requests. I already have one request for a multipart story..

Sorry I know it's not very fair, but I would definitely take your request under number 3, because it's really excellent! How come it never occurred to me because it's simply too good.

I'm certainly sorry for another one and I'll try to write that number 3 as soon as possible.. I hope to see you again in the 9th month when I will be open to more requests😊😊

[companion-of-the-dragonmark]

That's true. That being said, if the Kingdom had existed since before Rome's fall, then it would be slightly off. Just slightly. However, that being said, The Roman Empire split into 2 halves twice: once in 293 CE (AD) and in 395 CE, this time for good.

But, again, it's up to the fans as to when in Roman history Wodensfang was referring to.

As to the Sea-dragon growth rate, I kinda feel like a mutation would be a lazy way of explaining it. That being said, having it be influenced by environmental factors sounds plausible, if not possible. 👀

Also, you have a point with Toothless. Toothless, who doesn't need a reason to grow up quickly and is a little too lazy to want to fight unless it's for a good reason (or if he wants to do some mischief), so he doesn't grow at all like how Wodensfang and especially Furious grow.

Meanwhile, Furious, who idolized his nest-sibling, Hiccup the Second, grew up quickly so that he could always be by his side and join him in battles. And, after all, it's natural to want to grow up with and be like your big brother, right? So since he had a better life than Wodensfang, he grew up quickly.

While Wodensfang, who had a harsher life in the beginning, and probably had a hard time procuring food, remained the size of a "Saber-Toothed Driver Dragon" — big enough to ward off potential predators and enemies, yet small enough to not require as much food. It wasn't until AFTER he and Hiccup the First ended the war that he started growing at a rapid pace to be "as large as a mountain."

This, of course, begs the question: If Sea-Dragons can talk human language, and can control when they sleep or wake up, and can put themselves into a comatose sleep, then couldn't they also control how much food they can eat and how big and small they grow?

After all, it's rather strange to shrink from being a "large mountain" to a "large hunting dog" to "pocket-sized convenience", even if it's old age. It makes me think that Sea-Dragons can decide to grow smaller in order to make it easier for themselves when they aren't as hungry as they used to be and old age starts to creep up. Then, of course, there's the fact that he was the Guardian of the Crown. He'd need to be fairly small in order to fit. Could've also been hunger, as well, as I'm not sure if he was able or allowed to get food so he put himself into a half-comatose sleep in order to use up less calories.

(Crap, this makes me wanna do an article into this topic!)

When Was the First Kingdom of the Wilderwest Built? (HTTYD Books)

Hello, my fellow Dragonmarkers! It's been awhile! As promised, here's the article concerning the plausible timeline of the Kingdom of the Wilderwest. This article was actually a very old one of mine that I had written during this month in 2018. Why didn't I post it on here? Because I wasn't on Tumblr until 2020. And by then, I had forgotten to post this on here. Whoops. Teehee. 😜

When did Hiccup the First end the First Human-Dragon War and built the First Kingdom of the Wilderwest?

Many fans just go with what Wodensfang says in Book 11, supporting the 1000-Year Dynasty mentioned in Book 11 rather than the 500-700-Year Dynasty suggested in Book 9. In fact, it's everywhere in the HTTYD Wiki. I guess it's because fans view Book 11 to be more accurate because it's a later book? I don't know; maybe I'm thinking too hard about this.

But I want to talk through this and thoroughly go through the pros and cons of both sides of the argument and do this right. I'd love to know what you guys think about this.

Anyway, on to the topic!  

Possible Contradiction?:

In the First Book — the Book that we're all familiar with — in Chapter 6, Page 68, says that:

"The Dragon (speaking of the Green Death) had crawled down into the depths of the ocean and had gone into a Sleep Coma. Dragons can stay in this suspended state for eternity, half-dead, half-alive, buried under fathom after fathom of icy-cold seawater. Not a muscle of this particular Dragon had moved for six or seven centuries."

Wodensfang's account of Hiccup the First in Book 9 "How to Steal a Dragon's Sword", on Chapter 12, Page 203, seems to probably confirm this when he says: "Five or six centuries ago, when I was young, it was a very dark age, and the dragons and humans were at war."

He goes on further explanation in Page 208 concerning the Green Death: "...Merciless flew to the north, and to the Open Sea. He lived so long a loner that perhaps over the centuries he forgot his youth as leader of a dragon army and became quite an ordinary killer. Rumor was that several hundred years later, he was known only as the Green Death, one of the many monsters that terrorize the Deep Sea."

So you're probably saying, "Great! There it is! There's your answer! It was 600-700 years ago! Problem solved, right?"

Wrong.

In Book 11 "How to Betray a Dragon's Hero", on Chapter 6, Page 98, Wodensfang tells the story of how the Dragonmark came to be, as well as a more detailed history of the Kingdom of the Wilderwest and the story of Grimbeard the Ghastly as a boy, and how he changed the Mark. 

He says at the beginning of the story: "Once upon a time, Hiccup, a thousand or so years ago, when I was young and about the size of a Saber-Toothed Driver Dragon, I met your ancestor, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the First, and I gave him the Dragon Jewel and trusted him with the Jewel's Secret."

In Page 100, Wodensfang repeats this by saying: "For over a thousand years, it seemed like I had made the right decision to entrust the Secret of the Dragon Jewel to the humans."

I know right? I'm as confused as you are! Didn't he say in Book 9 that it was "five or six centuries ago"? Maybe even SEVEN centuries ago? Why the change? Did he suddenly get the Dragon equivalent of memory loss due to old age? Does he not know how to count?

Here's the confusing thing: if he was rounding, this might explain it. But the thing is that you can do it with small numbers, but as the number gets bigger, you can't round up in great jumps.

(Warning: Math Ahead!)

For example, say that the number is 8, you round it up to 10 (in certain circumstances) because 8 is closer to 10 than 5. However, if it's 6, then you have to round down to 5 because 6 is closer to 5. The only time that it doesn't is when you're rounding up in percentages (55.678594375 would be 56, for example).

You can't round up to 1000 years from 600, or even 700. That's too high of a jump. Especially when you're telling a historical account. For one thing, it's inaccurate, and for another, it's lazy. And it'll spread lots of confusion.

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A Roman Piece to a Nordic Puzzle | The Hint's in the Roman Numerals: 

So then, which is it? Was the Kingdom of the Wilderwest built 600-700 years ago or 1000-odd years ago? 

First off, allow me to redirect your attention once more to the references concerning the Green Death (also known as Merciless):

The Green Death Takes His Tea by Crownflame on DeviantArt

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"The Dragon (speaking of the Green Death) had crawled down into the depths of the ocean and had gone into a Sleep Coma. Dragons can stay in this suspended state for eternity, half-dead, half-alive, buried under fathom after fathom of icy-cold seawater. Not a muscle of this particular Dragon had moved for six or seven centuries." 

And this one:

  ". . .Merciless flew to the north, and to the Open Sea. He lived so long a loner that perhaps over the centuries he forgot his youth as leader of a dragon army and became quite an ordinary killer. Rumor was that several hundred years later, he was known only as the Green Death, one of the many monsters that terrorize the Deep Sea." 

According to these two quotes concerning the Dragon Merciless, it would appear that the events were about roughly 600 years ago. The problem is that the first quote says he had been in a Sleep Coma for six or seven centuries. I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like a lot of time to me for him to have forgotten his past and about his nemesis Hiccup. It sounds like in the latter quote, Merciless lived and journeyed alone for a long time — about 100-200 years or more — before he fell into a Sleep Coma.

What might help support this is the mention of what he had eaten in Book 1, Page 129: "He was awake now, and he had coughed up the last thing he had eaten, the Eagle Standard of the Eighth Legion, with its pathetic ribbons still flying bravely."

Now, yes, the HTTYD books are exaggeratory and any historical references are "purely coincidental," and that the Roman Dragonrustlers were about during Hiccup the Third's time (but after Book 3 was said to have fled back to Rome — which is inaccurate because Hiccup's time was during the Viking Age, over 300 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. However, I have a theory that'll explain that in the future). 

But what if we DID get historical here? According to history, the only 8th Legion in Roman history was the Legio VIII Augusta, one of the oldest Roman legions in Rome's history (along with the Legio VI Feratta, Legio VII Claudia, and the (in)famous Legio IX Hispana). They were stationed in Gaul (modern France) near the modern-day Strasbourg area (called Argentoratum in Roman times). It was founded in 65 BC by Julius Caesar during the Gaul Wars. It continued service presumedly until either before or until the Fall of Rome (400-500 AD). 

Of course, since it continued service until that time period, then it's impossible for the Green Death to have eaten the Legion, right?

As Old Wrinkly used to say: "It's not im-POSSIBLE, only im-PROBABLE. The only thing that limits us are the limits to our imaginations." 

So, taking this sagely advice, let's think about this carefully.

According to Roman history, the Eighth Legion was disbanded during the first of Rome's Civil Wars (called Caesar's Civil War and the conflict was between Caesar and Scipio) soon after the Battle and Siege of Thapsus (modern-day Tunisia) in 46 BC for unknown reasons. It was reconstituted in 44 BC by Caesar's adopted son Augustus for Caesar's veterans who had loyally served him and helped him defeat Mark Antony and gain power as Rome's first Emperor.

So basically, there's a two-year gap between the disbandment and the reinstation of the Eighth Legion, which means that Merciless could've easily have eaten the Legion during that time and nobody would've been the wiser, and when Augustus reinstated the Legion two years later, he filled the ranks with other veterans who had served Caesar and Augustus.

What do you think? Plausible?

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Possible Connection to Dragon-Aging and Dates in the Book of Dragons:

Now, in Book 1, in the back of the How to Train Your Dragon book that Hiccup reads (similar to the Book of Dragons in the film) in Chapter 4 on Page 53-58, it says that the last stamped due-date was on "16 May 866 AD". The first and second due-dates stamped on there before that were "10 June 789 AD" and "9 April 835 AD".

However, there's no mention of when that book was borrowed, or when it was returned, or the gap between the date and when Gobber the Belch had burgled it from the Meathead "Public" Library. The Hooligans seemed to have had the book for a while. So the current date of the time of Hiccup's first memoir could be anywhere from 866-900 AD — if not later! 

Suffering Scallops, it could even be in the 1000s AD!!! In Book 7, Hiccup writes in his epilogue that: "Now I am an old, old man, and the world that I created has no need for dragons. They have retreated from the civilization that I brought, along with the wolves, and the Berserks, and the monsters of my childhood."

In 1015 AD, Berserkers were outlawed, and the practice of "going berserk" as a profession and the rituals involving their cults were forbidden until by the turn of the 12th century, Berserkers had all but disappeared from human history. The end of the Viking Age was considered to be between 1066-1100 AD, so, scallops, Hiccup could very well have lived during this time.

(This could explain the crossbows in the TV series, as they were beginning to show up around this time, as well as Hiccup's quote in the first film: "300 years and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon!") 

And, in Book 12, Hiccup also explains in his epilogue that Sea-Dragons like Toothless can live for thousands of years, so maybe 1000-year period might be correct? There's no mention about the other sea dragons, apparently, so I guess they don't live nearly as long?

The problem is the period of growth in the Sea-Dragons. Wodensfang was probably of-age by the time he meets Hiccup the First, and he was "the size of a Saber-Toothed Driver Dragon" then. Then, as the decades and centuries went by and the Kingdom prospered, he grew to be "as large as a mountain". Then he says that hundreds of years ago, he began to "shrink in old age", as Sea-Dragons are small in young and old ages, but in adult stages they're colossal, until he shrunk to the "size of a large Viking hunting dog (probably a Norwegian Elkhound, which lived during this time and was used mainly as a guard and hunting dog)" during the time of Grimbeard the Ghastly. By Hiccup the Third's time a hundred years later, he shrunk to the size of Toothless.

Furious was still considered a baby during Hiccup the Second's time, but grew to be the size of a small elephant. Then 100 years later, he became the size of a mountain, when it doesn't seem that Wodensfang grew that big that quickly (though, to be fair, the Berserks had been feeding him well with human sacrifices for the past 100 years, among other foods, so he probably grew to be that big because of it.) He must've had an early growth spurt. lol 😂

That being said, the reason Furious and Wodensfang have different growing speeds may be likely due to Furious having been fed well since his hatchling days. Whereas it's hinted by Wodensfang himself that he's had a difficult life in his younger days, which is one of the reasons he joins Merciless' rebellion against the Vikings. So the struggle for food could've stunted his growth until he met Hiccup the First later on, at which point he grew faster as more food was available.

Meanwhile, there's Toothless, who's a baby, and has been the size of Wodensfang since the first book, and, according to Hiccup in his epilogue in Book 12, hasn't really grown up at all despite it being 62 years since the events of Book 12 (which if Hiccup was 10-11 when he got Toothless in Book 1, this would make Toothless 65-66 years old by Hiccup's death) and is still able to sleep on his chest. 

He must be a late bloomer. lol 😂

Then there's the Green Death — or Merciless — to consider. While he was Furious's size during Hiccup the First's time, and was considered to be a young dragon, then several centuries later, if not more, when he meets Hiccup the Third, he's still the same size! Do Sleep Comas delay aging and growth or something?

So basically we have FOUR Sea-Dragons who grow and age at various speeds! So I don't think we can glean anything from this.

So . . . 1000 years or 600-700 years? Honestly, I seem to get more confused the further I try to explain it! I hope you're having better luck keeping up than I am at the moment! lol 😂

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Time For a Little More Math! (cue the groans!):

Okay, I'm going to do a little more math. To be honest, graphs, charts, and basic math is the only math I love. If you don't like it, then skip if you'd like, though you'll miss out on the cool part. 😉🧐

I've done the calculations and I'll do my best with it. If there are any mistakes, please let me know and I'll correct them. 

I'll be using current time from 866-1100 AD and then add the date to when the Kingdom of the Wilderwest could've been established in Hiccup the First's time. 

I will be using the terms CTP (Current Time Period) and DFP (Dynasty Foundation Period) to avoid confusion.

Whew! Okay! Now that THAT'S done and over with, let's get to the average ages of the Kings of the Wilderwest to further prove (hopefully) which date it might've been. 

I've organized it into different sections. Before Hiccup the Third, there were 12 Kings of the Wilderwest. So I'll divide the number of years that the Dynasty could've lasted to the number of Kings to get the average lifespan that each of the Kings have to be in order for this to become plausible.

Now granted, some of these Kings could've died young (20s-30s), or very old, or in their middle-ages (pun not intended). This is the AVERAGE lifespan for each king -- not a literal statistic for each and every King. 

Unless, of course, if we were fanciful people, we might've theorized that there's some sort of magic spell in the Dragon Jewel that Wodensfang didn't mention that causes all of the Twelve Kings to die at the same age. 

In that case, if true, and if every King DOES INDEED die at the same age, then since Hiccup the Third dies at the age of 75/76, it would've been 900 years since the foundation of the Kingdom of the Wilderwest since every King would've died at the same age that Hiccup had died.

But we're not fanciful people . . . and that would be ridiculous. lol 😜

However, you're probably noticing that there are no 1000 Years among the statistics that I just showed above. That's because I had just remembered that the Kingdom of the Wilderwest collapsed a hundred years before Hiccup the Third's time. Meaning that if the Dynasty and Kingdom lasted for 1000 years, then only 900 years of that has passed as a kingdom.

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Conclusion:

So . . . WHEW! That took a long time to write (5-6 hours, though the time could've been cut in half had I not done the statistics, but then where'd be the fun in that? lol 😜)

I apologize if any of this went over your head or overwhelmed you with informational overload. If it did, then I sympathize because I'm feeling this as well — and I'm WRITING THIS! 

So my conclusion is that, basically speaking, regardless of the Kingdom being anywhere from 600-1000 years old, 100 of those years need to be subtracted since the Kingdom fell apart when Grimbeard dissolved it a hundred years prior to the current events of the Second Dragon War. So, realistically, the Kingdom — and the 12 Kings (including Grimbeard) — lasted around 500-900 years, and when Wodensfang tells Hiccup the Third about the history of the Wilderwest, he includes the 100 years into the timeframe when the Kingdom of the Wilderwest was first founded.

So I guess that, in the end, the actual date and timeline will be left up to the fans to headcanon for themselves.

If you could take anything from this, what would it be?

What current timeline do you think Hiccup the Third could be living in during the Viking Age? 900s? 1000s? 1100?

And how many years do you think that the Kingdom of the Wilderwest was established (including the 100-year gap)? 1000 years? 800? 700? 600? 

Please share your thoughts! I'd LOVE to hear from you!!! ^_^ 

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to read this and I am looking forward to reading any theories, corrections, suggestions, discussions, answers, and/or questions you may have. 

I hope this article finds you well, and I hope you have a splendid weekend! 

Long Live the Wilderwest!

— Companion of the Dragonmark

[bewilderedbunny]

Line cook Eddie part 3!

Hi friends! I was not expecting to write this so soon after part 2, but I'm rolling with it. Hope you enjoy it!! 💖 (the word counter I used says this is 666 words, thought that was cute) Flirty fluff, light sexual innuendo, cursing, sort of a bit of angst but not really. Eddie x fem!reader but feel free to switch the pronouns if you'd like ☺️ I had to include ABBA in this because I am a Mamma Mia! fan first and a human being second.

Credit to @delishlydelightfuldividers for the divider 💕

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

During a morning shift, a middle-aged man comes into the diner. He's a bit quiet but polite. He has his "please and thank yous" down pat. You check up on him during his meal and ask how everything is.

"Wonderful, my compliments to the chef." he says.

You smile and say, "He'll be so excited to hear that."

The older man looks up at you and says, "I would mention to him to cut back on the salt a bit. He has done a number on my blood pressure enough as it is." as he says that you feel an arm wrap around your shoulder.

"Hey pops. Was my girl good to you?"

You realize this must be Wayne, Eddie doesn't talk about him often but when he does it's with adoration.

"She was great. It's good to put a face to the name since you're always talkin' 'bout her."

Eddie laughs, a little too loud and you giggle at the pink on his cheeks.

One day during your break you step outside to get some fresh air. You can hear Eddie talking to someone near the dumpster.

"You like that, sweetheart? Look at you. You're just the cutest thing I've ever seen." Your heart aches, aren't you supposed to be the cutest thing he's ever seen? You know he's a big flirt with everyone, but you thought you were special. You quietly creep around the corner and when you finally see him you want to cry. He's squatted behind the dumpster feeding chicken to a scruffy little cat while rubbing its back. It's not even scraps from a customer's meal, this son of a bitch cooked a chicken breast for a kitten who, upon further inspection, reminds you of Wayne with its greyish fur and blue eyes.

He walks you to your car after your shift. He started doing it one night the two of you were working and hasn't stopped. Even when you're leaving before him, he walks you out and then goes back inside.

"I'm in a band, y'know?" He says, drying silverware. He's facing you and has his hip pressed against the counter.

"Oh yeah? An ABBA cover band?" You joke.

"How'd you guess? We do a cover of "Chiquitita" that'll knock your socks off."

You stop rinsing cutlery and look at him.

"I know you're kidding, but I love that song."

"Yeah?" He says, turning away from you. He's known it's your favorite for weeks. You were humming throughout your shift once and he spent the following day at the record store trying to figure out what song it was. He eventually went up to an employee and hummed it to them until they could help him find it. He bought the goddamn ABBA record.

You lightly flick him with water and he acts like you've just waterboarded him, stumbling around and gasping for breath. He reaches toward the faucet and flicks you back, he throws more water than you had and you gasp, "You're getting me wet!" His eyes get huge and he starts to giggle. When you realize why you giggle right along with him.

You come in for your dinner shift one day and notice a stack of papers at the register. You pick one up and see a sketch of a fire-breathing dragon. The dragon is guarding various food items like pancakes, milkshakes, burgers, and fries. All of the papers are copies of this drawing and next to the stack, there is an old box of crayons. You ask your coworker what this is, and she says Eddie brought them in this morning to give kids something to entertain themselves with while they wait for their food. You can't wait to hand them out and you save any colored in pages for the next time you have a shift together so you can show him what a hit they were.

Thanks for reading 🥞💖

[anekogia]

A few dark/sad headcanons I thought of about Twisted Wonderland characters

1. Riddle's parents are divorced

This is probably something a lot of fans thought, but the reasons I thought of were pretty sad.

As many of us know, Riddle's mother has been the one controlling everything in his life. However, where is his father.

Well, my headcanon is compared to his mother, Riddle's father is a lot tamer, and allowed his son to have a bit of freedom in his life. However, Riddle's mother disapproves of such lifestyle. As such, that let to a lot of arguments in the Rosehearts household.

Then, at a young age, Riddle's parents divorced, with his mother getting custody of him due to her being able to give Riddle a 'better' life. His father was allowed to see him, but was refused many times over the course of Riddle's life by his mother because she did not want her ex-husband to influence him into a 'frivolous' lifestyle. It went to the point where Riddle's father was cut of from their lives.

As a result, Riddle never had any paternal love growing up and also resented his father because he thought he never cared for him. However, deep down, he really misses him and hope that they would be able to have fun again.

2. Leona is repeating on purpose

As many of us know, if we exclude Malleus and Lilia, Leona is technically the oldest student in NRC. It has been stated by Ruggie during the Happy Bean Day even that Leona has repeated several times. However, it had also shown that the second prince is actually very intelligent (As seen in many SSR stories and said by his brother), and that his repeating may have been due to the fact he often skips classes.

However, what if he is doing all of this on purpose.

As shown after his overblot, Leona was treated unfairly and looked down upon in his homeland because he is the second-born. Though one may argue that the servants are speaking ill of him because he treats them harshly, that could be due to the fact the servants have been looking down on him even as a innocent child who did not understand anything. That could have lead to Leona growing up to having a cold attitude towards those who verbally abused him, and towards his older brother, Farena.

It was around that time Leona also started showing signs of depression, but he hides it cleverly.

It was not until he joined NRC where he started getting the recognition that he so craved his whole life. People praised and looked up to him, after years of getting looked down for his rank.

Not wanting to lose that, Leona purposefully skipped classes, knowing it will cause him to repeat grades. In turn, it will allow him to stay in NRC longer, allowing him to continue gaining the love and attention he so craved.

3. Ortho is Idia's older brother

As chapter 6 has not been released, I'm just putting this as a headcanon for now.

There has been speculation (and confirmation?) that Ortho his actually Idia's deceased biological brother who he brought back to life. However, what if instead of his younger brother, Ortho is his older brother.

Growing up, the Shroud siblings were very close to one another, despite the older being sickly most of the time. Being the shy one of the two, Idia was only comfortable with Ortho by his side.

However, one day, Ortho grew incredibly ill. Despite their parents best attempts to help him, he soon succumbed to his illness, and passed away while young Idia was looking into his room.

Instead of burying their deceased son, Idia's parents preserved Ortho's body, so they could continue seeing their son.

With Ortho gone, attentions has shifted towards Idia. As the healthy child, he was given immense pressure by his parents and the nobility to become a great and proper noble.

However, as he grew, Idia became even more closed of, turning to gaming and manga as a source of entertainment. It was also then he realized his parents are still grieving their loss.

As he was missing Ortho too, Idia studied hard and turned to technology to find a way to revive his brother. He also decided to build a new body for him, knowing his old one would be too weak to support him.

Then, years later, on his brother's birthday, Idia stole his body and hooked him up to a contraption his build specifically to revive him, much to his parents' dismay.

Though it worked, Idia's parents refused to accept the new Ortho, knowing that their son was nothing more than a machine now.

4. Silver is the heir of a Kingdom Malleus destroyed

There has been a lot of speculation that Silver is the descendant of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). However, there has been more speculation on why Malleus and Lilia took in orphaned baby Sliver. So, I have a theory.

Sliver is indeed the descendant of Aurora, though it is kept a secret from him. As Malleus is hundreds of years old and is said to have a grandmother who's magic surpasses his, it is safe to assume that his is in fact the grandson of the Witches of Thorns, Maleficent, herself.

So, years before, there was a war between the Valley of Thorns and Silver's kingdom. As humans had nothing against the faires, they were destroyed by Malleus army. However, an incident caused Malleus to lose control of his dragon form, causing him to rampage through the Kingdom, despite him never having the attention to harm it in any way.

It was around that time Silver was also born. After he was born, the royals were forced to evacuate the castle and seek shelter. However, before they could, Malleus came flying into the castle, destroying it.

As he was about to burn the Kingdom into a crisp, Malleus heard baby Sliver crying from the distance, causing him to snap out of his trance.

Unable to process what he has done, he and Lilia first seeked out the source of the crying. Upon coming across the palace rubbles, Malleus quick spotted a young woman holding a bundle tightly in her arms.

Upon walking towards her, the pair recognized the woman as the kingdom's princess and realized she was holding a baby.

Malleus, overcome with grief, tried to safe the child's mother, but after failing, she told him to stop. The princess assured him she does not blamed him and that her kingdom was bound to fall anything due to their pride and selfishness.

Her last wish was for Malleus and Lilia always to take her newborn son and raise him to be a good person. She knew the heir of the Valley of Thorns was the grandson of the witch who cursed her ancestor years ago, leading to a hostile rivalry between the Kingdom and the dark fae. However, she knew that her son would be in the right hands.

Malleus accepts her request, on the condition that he and Lilia would raise her son to one day kill him.

The princess simply smiled at him before saying "You are a good person".

With the war ended, Malleus and Lilia brought the baby back to the Valley of Thorns. They named him Silver on the account of his hair color, and also naming him after the weapon that almost killed his grandmother.

Damn, this was longer that I thought. This was just stuff I thought of after rewatching the Twisted Wonderland playthrough on YouTube. I didn't think it would delve into difficult topics like the ones mentioned about.

Anyway, this is probably the only headcanon list I would make (most because I'm out of ideas), but if there is any specific dark/sad headcanons of specific characters you would like to see, do type suggestions, and I would review them.

Anyway, that's it for now, sorry if I made you cry.

[poetickrogan]

OK spoilers so putting this under a read more

As a long time fan of Final Fantasy (I was playing FFVIII as a kid when it came out and I've completed every mainline game except XI and XIV as I'm allergic to online gaming) I consider XVI a great return to form after being somewhat disappointed by XV (by disappointed I mean hated with the fires of Ifrit).

I find it funny how some long time final fantasy fans have gone all #notmyfinalfantasy over XVI because first of all, grow up and second of all, the plot borrows quite a bit from XII (the clash of nations) and XIII (the Gods using humanity as a resource that nessicates the mass death of every human to enact their goals) with a bit of VII's peak oil environmentalism through the blight being spread by the use of a finite and polluting energy source (lifestream/mothercrystals). Also you get to kill God, how much more Final Fantasy can you get?

The characters were well written and plotted generally, with a great cast of sub characters to really fill the world and provide greater context on the political realities and plight of the oppressed class of bearers. Clive and Joshua's relationship was done very well and Dion was great, I never thought I'd see a canon gay character in a Final Fantasy let alone one written so well.

One point that let it down was how some of the most prominent female charactes were depicted. While I loved Benedikta and have no problem with a character having past trauma, she did mostly seem like a broken women quickly discarded by the narrative for little reason. Her death was inevitable but could have been treated better, given more sympathy and had more of an impact as a person rather than a plot point.

Jill fared better and her revenge against her captors in the Iron Kingdom was great, but she's just relegated to support after that. It never made sense she didn't go to Origin too and she should have had more to do in the latter part of the story other than be Clive's love.

For me one of the worst aspects of the game is not having any city hubs, I love a good fantasy city and they tease us with the beautiful depictions of Oriflamme and Twinside but never let us explore them. The world building is good and the villages and towns you do get to explore do a lot of heavy lifting in building the world but I'm getting flashbacks to Val Royeaux in Dragon Age Inquisition, do not show me a cool city and then not let me in!

I dont mean to rag on the game, I loved it, it's going to rank in my top five final fantasy's for certain, but there were a few missed opportunities here.

Unlike a lot of the other old school fans I'm not really fussed about losing the traditional ATB combat, the gameplay is so fun and shooting a hunch of magic eikonic abilities and chaining different skills together is so fun. I think they should have preserved an elemental system and found a way to incorporate status effects but still, I've never had this much fun with combat in a Final Fantasy.

The fights with the other Dominants literally had me screaming at the TV, it was literally my childhood dream of fantastical battles come to life.

Anyway it's great, I'm going to play it again and I want a Leviathan DLC.

finished final fantasy xvi. it's very very good, more thots to follow

[nyxetoile]

Can you give a quick summary of Dragon Age & what you like about it?

I don't know if there's such a thing as a "quick" summary of Dragon Age, but I'll try. I have only played the 2nd and 3rd games, so I'm skimming over the events of the first one.

The games take place in a world called Thedas (The Dragon Age Setting. No, I'm not kidding) that has several countries some of which get along with each other, others do not. The main ones that come into play are Fereldan, Orlais, Tevinter, and Qunari. The first three are all populated by humans, elves, and some dwarves (most dwarves live underground) and the Qunari are really tall humanoids with bull horns. (I am not getting into the Qunari retcon stuff, DA fans, don't at me). Elves are seen as lower class citizens, often used as servants or slaves in cities. Clans of Elves live outside the city, free but nomads. There is magic, and mages are seen as dangerous since they can be possessed by demons, so they are often hunted or kept locked in places called Circles so they can be monitored. A group called Templars control/hunt mages.

The first game deals with something called Blight effecting Ferelden. The Blight is both a disease that kills humans and a event that brings forth darkspawn and an archedemon (biiiig evil dragon). You play as a character that is part of a group charged with killing darkspawn and ending the blight.

In the second game you play as Hawke, who is a refugee from the Blight in Ferelden. You and your family end up in a coastal city called Kirkwall with a lot of crime and corruption. The game takes place over 7 years as you gain your fortune and reputation in Kirkwall. It ends when one of your companions sets into motion a mage rebellion and starts a war between Templars and mages.

The third game, called Inquisition, takes place not long after the second. A meeting is being held trying to attain peace in the mage/templar war, held by the Divine, who is like the Pope to the main human religion in Thedas. There is an explosion, everyone is killed except for your character. There is a hole in the sky and multiple rifts letting demons enter the world and you have a mark on you hand that allows you to close the rifts. This is where the game STARTS. It then follows you creating a group (The Inquisition) dedicated to closing the hole in the sky, sealing the breach, dealing with the mages and Templars, figuring out who blew up the Conclave and eventually saving the world from a guy who wants to tear open the barrier between the real world and the Fade, which is where demons and spirits come from.

I love the Dragon Age games for a lot of reasons. Obviously, there's a lot of history and lore to get lost in. Love me some world building. And all the games have interesting plots. But for me, it's mainly about the characters. In each game you recruit and befriend a rag tag group of misfits to help your quest. They usually have their own personal quests to complete, which gets you insight into their history and personality. There's always romance options, and most of them are well written and engaging. Your team becomes your found family, which is my favorite trope ever, and I have real affection for some of these characters. Your choices have far reaching consequences, and you can see those decisions play out over the three games. I have played Inquisition at least five or six times and I never get tired of it. It's my comfort game in the way so many of us have comfort movies or books.