#idk whose been keeping up with my lore

[violettierre]

The last few days of Ramadan are often the most difficult of the whole month for me, but hey! in the bright side i managed to convince my new boss to give me an entire week off for Eid (my former boss usually give me 3-4 days maximum), at least i can enjoy my holiday and the rest of the week quietly :D

[project-sekai-facts]

Prskfacts 2nd anniversary!

Today (March 13th) is the second anniversary of when I started posting trivia! Thank you so much for the support over the last two years, it means a lot and I'm glad people continue to enjoy the blog!

As of today there will be some changes to how this blog is run. Posts will continue to be daily, but most days will be reblogs of old facts instead of new ones (new ones will still be posted sometimes). It has been incredibly hard for me to keep posting daily over the last year and a half and I feel like the quality of trivia has been declining recently as I've been running out of things to post. I don't want that to continue, so I'll be focusing on quality over quantity from now on. Plus, it's been a long time and a lot of people weren't here for the older posts, so they'll be fun to revisit.

I will still be answering asks, but don't expect me to be as regular with this. It will probably continue at the rate it has for the past few months. This is just to give me time to focus on uni and personal life over this blog, which was getting to the point of being like a job for me. I will also be emptying my inbox today because it's got like 800 unanswered asks in it and I need it to be more manageable. Sorry to anyone whose questions I didn't answer, but feel free to send them again (submissions have been put on the queue).

Sorry this is a bit of a downer anniversary post. To reiterate, I'm not fully moving away from prsk or this blog, just reducing my activity. I hope you continue to enjoy prskfacts for the next year!

So in January 2024 I explained what 4kids was to an anon and said this:

and someone said this in the tags:

i decided explaining shadow the hedgehog lore in depth was the funniest way to semi-retire from this blog that wasn't posting "sayonara you weeaboo shits" or posting my shitpost drafts and going radio silent afterwards. so thank you to the person who said that you gave this blog a slightly less unceremonious death. also if ur a new sth fan who got in bc of the movie this might be useful idk i mainly just wanted an excuse to talk about shadow the hedgehog

So 50+ years before the events of peak fiction Sonic Adventure 2, we have Gerald and Maria Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather and cousin respectively. Gerald was a revolutionary scientist/roboticist (and archaeologist, this will be relevant later) and one of the greatest minds of his time, making huge scientific developments with the goal of bringing hope and happiness to humanity. One of his greatest inventions was a space station for scientific research, the Space Colony ARK, which served as his main lab from then on. The construction and operations of the ARK were partially funded by the United Federation (in-universe USA), but primarily funded by GUN (Guardian Units of Nations, the in-universe US military).

So SA2 is an extremely anti-military game. That's going to become apparent from here on out. So, GUN wants weapons in exchange for funding, and they're starting to get annoying about it. Obviously this is not what Gerald wants, so he asks the President of the UF if he can intervene, since the govt is the other source of funding. So the president says he'll do that, but he also sucks and decides to ask Gerald to invent immortality. Gerald hates the idea of this just as much, and shoots it down immediately, not to mention it being an impossible task.

However, back on Earth, Maria gets sick, and is diagnosed with NIDS (neuro-immuno deficiency syndrome (EN) or native immunodeficieny syndrome (JP), either way it's clearly based on AIDS), a terminal illness. Gerald manages to get Maria brought up to the ARK when treatments on Earth are failing so the team up there can do assessments and research treatments. The low gravity on the ARK also helps to keep the illness' effects at a low, for the most part. Maria's family back at Earth isn't exactly happy about all this though (the Robotnik family drama isn't actually too important here I just wanted to talk about it).

So the president keeps pushing for the immortality thing, and Gerald figures he can use this to find a cure for Maria, so decides to go forward with Project: Shadow, named as such because "the concept [of immortality] is as intangible as a shadow". GUN still wants weapons as well, which is where the archaeology thing starts coming into play. So to tie SA2 into its predecessor, there's these robots that look like the god Chaos from SA1. Gerald had researched Chaos in the past, and builds robots based on it to give to GUN.

Okay now we're finally getting closer to actual Shadow stuff. The scientists are using a Chaos Emerald in their research into immortality, and develop Chaos Drives using the Chaos Energy from the emerald. Gerald also supplies GUN with these drives so they can use them as a power source to try and appease them (they still use them 50 years later to power their mechs, GUN robots drop them when destroyed in SA2). The staff test out these drives on a salamander when they feel they're developed enough to be used on living tissue. Some time later, the salamander being used in testing has such rapid cellular growth that it can't survive on its own, and it becomes violent and uncontrollable, prompting Gerald to build it a life support pack and seal it away in the ARK's basement (functionally). This is the Biolizard, the prototype Ultimate Life Form and the final regular boss of SA2 (also one of two characters with a confirmed birthday, that being January 27th).

More Robotnik family drama stuff just bc I feel like mentioning it, you can skip this paragraph. So Maria's been up on the ARK for a while now, enough years that some scientists on the ARK think she was born there, and Gerald isn't making any progress with creating a cure. Some of the scientists are even starting to doubt that Maria is even ill, since her symptoms are invisible most of the time. Also, the rest of the Robotnik family is losing faith in Gerald and it's getting to a point where they want either a cure or for her to be sent home to be with her family. Gerald cannot yet provide a cure, but he also does not want to send Maria home because she will die. See now Gerald has a pretty big ego. He constantly talks about how much of a genius is and has boundless confidence in himself, which only now is being put to the test. He keeps biting off more than he can chew, and it's starting to cost his family.

Here we fucking go. Exactly 50 years prior to the game Shadow the Hegdehog, the Black Comet passes by Earth. This comet it the home of an alien race called the Black Arms, led by this demonic looking alien guy called Black Doom. Gerald makes contact with the comet, and strikes a deal with Doom, who was interested in Gerald's work with the Chaos Emeralds. Black Doom lends his DNA to be used with Project Shadow, and it reacts well with the Chaos energy. See now Doom has this plan to invade Earth next time his comet comes by, and he wants the thing Gerald is making to be able to do that for him essentially. An Ultimate Life Form is pretty appealing when you want to conquer the Earth.

Also fun thing that originates from a 4koma but was brought up for the first time in English in Shadow Generations: Maria is the one who named Shadow. He originally called the project "Project Shadow" out of mockery as mentioned earlier, and also thought the name sounded too dark for the project he was using to help develop a cure to Maria's illness. However Maria said that he should name the hedgehog he created "Shadow", because a shadow shows the way to the light. Maria also designed Shadow's shoes and inhibitor rings to try and reduce the strain his body will be under from the alien DNA and Chaos energy (Gerald's Journal specifically refers to them as mobility and focus aids). Fun fact 3 if you hack the camera during the lab cutscene in Shadow 05 there's multiple failed Shadow prototypes in the room.

So why is Shadow a hedgehog? It's not ever been confirmed, but it is heavily implied that Shadow was based on the Hidden Palace mural from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. This is an ancient prophetic mural that depicts a blue creature glowing gold fighting a robot that has the Master Emerald. It's depicting the true final boss of the game. We know Gerald visited Angel Island and, while it's never mentioned, it's likely that he saw this mural and made Shadow in the blue/gold figure's likeness (which is why Shadow looks like the Adventure-era Super Sonic design specifically).

We're gonna have to go back to the archaeology stuff for a bit. Years before Project Shadow one of Gerald's sons (presumably Maria's dad, since it's stated that the other son is a roboticist and it makes sense for him to be Eggman's dad) discovers this robot built by an ancient civilization while doing some archaeology shit. Gerald finds it in a warehouse some time later while on the ARK. After researching into it more he discovers that this robot is a weapon capable of mimicking the combat and abilities of other people and weapons as well as being reactive to the chaos emeralds. Presumably Gerald puts the robot back into storage because his Journal (the shadow gens one) doesn't mention him again for ages.

So fast forward to Shadow being in-progress. Gerald is researching the robot again and discovers that it is called a Gizoid (he is later given the name Emerl in Sonic Battle). Emerl can establish a "Link" to a person, becoming completely loyal to them, provided they have some sort of power (Gerald shows Emerl a gun). As mentioned, Emerl is a weapon programmed to be very destructive, but currently Gerald has him under his control.

Although, GUN gets demanding again due to still not having results for the immortal super soldiers they wanted. So Gerald hands over Emerl, knowing full well the risk of GUN just giving him something more powerful than the gun Gerald had and developing a Link with them instead. GUN doesn't really give a shit about Emerl though and asks for something else. Gerald uses this as an opportunity to give them a massive, planet-destroying, Death Star-esque laser cannon, called the Eclipse Cannon. Obviously, GUN can never use it, but it's a big powerful weapon and they're the US military so they're happy with it. Its true function is actually for Shadow to use it to blow up the Black Comet when it comes back past Earth in 50 years, because of that whole deal about Shadow being used by Black Doom to conquer Earth. (Gerald does apologise in his journal for kind of actively ruining Shadow's life before he's even been born, but y'know he's kinda on a streak of making bad decisions at this point).

Shadow is finally awakened and quickly becomes incredibly close with Maria, developing a sibling relationship. She tells him about her love for Earth and he takes care of her and looks out for her when she's struggling. Dialogue in Shadow 05 and Shadow Generations suggests that aside from testing and combat training, Shadow was treated like a fairly normal kid. Maria mentions running around the ARK and playing with him, as well as going to school with him (fun fact: Maria says in Shadow Gens that he never handed in any of his homework).

(To get Shadow age discourse out the way: he's physically 15. This is stated in his character bio in the leaked Sonic 06 script, which admittedly is not entirely accurate, but there's also other information to suggest this, such as him having the same height and weight as Sonic (15) and Silver (14) while Knuckles and Espio (both 16) are taller and heavier. And yeah there's some sources that put him as ageless and that script is the only thing to ever give him an actual age and all the character ages were removed from the official bios anyway due to a timeskip between Forces and Frontiers but you get the idea he's physically the same age as Sonic. Also no he did not age while frozen. Go win internet arguments or something)

Gerald also comes to think of Shadow like a son, which is funny because at this point in the Journal he stops referring to Maria's dad as his son. Likely because he and his wife had another child, which reads like they've lost hope in Maria being saved and are starting over. I mean yeah that's very clearly what's going on.

Unfortunately shit starts to go downhill from here. Emerl absorbs enough weapons to make him go out of control and he goes on a destructive rampage across the ARK. He's shut down and Gerald reprograms him with a 'soul' to prevent this from happening again, and a self-destruct function just in case it does. However, the rampage causes those Artifical Chaos robots I mentioned earlier to go out of control as well. Those are taken down as well but an SOS has been sent out to Earth by this point (there were also other general safety concerns bc of the evil demon aliens and. the military blaming other people for things they asked for)

So GUN and the government kinda go "fuck we need to pretend like this isn't out fault" so GUN goes up to space and shuts down the colony. By raiding it and killing almost everyone on board, covering it up by saying there was an accident. Only three ARK residents are known to have survived: Gerald, Shadow, and a kid called Abe (who is the GUN commander in present day). Considering that they spared the only other kid on the ARK, Maria was probably shot because she was with Shadow and was helping him into an escape pod.

Shadow is found and put in cryo and Gerald is arrested by GUN and made to finish his research under supervision. Gerald learns Maria died and goes insane with grief. He becomes immensely hateful towards humanity as a whole and secretly reprograms Shadow's memories to make him think that Maria's final wish was for him to avenge her (by literally destroying the Earth) instead of what it really was, which was to protect the people of Earth. Gerald is then executed by firing squad.

(Additional Robotnik family lore: Takashi Iizuka confirmed not too long ago that Eggman was born after Maria died. Eggman also mentions that he didn't know Maria in one of his unlockable memos in Frontiers, but reveals that her death was felt throughout his childhood. Apparently the attention was never really on him due to everyone always focusing on how great Maria was. Knowing Eggman this may be a slight exaggeration but yeah there's speculation that the Robotnik Family Drama will be relevant at some point since they keep bringing it up in recent materials)

Fast forward 50ish years to SA2. Eggman finds his grandfather's journal from his supervised work while he was being held by GUN and learns about his work on the "Ultimate Life Form" who can destroy things. Eggman wants to conquer the world and he's like yeah I want that so he breaks into the GUN base where Shadow is in cryo. Eggman is also the first person in 50 years to try the password "Maria" to free Shadow (Gerald got to set the password for whatever reason they've rewritten the lore a couple times don't worry about it).

Also Shadow being freed is so funny like you gotta remember he's 15 and an emo bordering on theatre kid and also the last thing he remembers is his sister getting shot and he sees Eggman, probably didn't even clock that it wasn't Gerald for 30 seconds, and is like "I'll grant your wishes bring me the chaos emeralds and meet me on the ARK lol bye" and what he means is "we're gonna blow up the Earth bc the military killed my sister like 3 hours ago as far as i'm concerned" but like he doesn't tell Eggman this so Eggman's just like "fuck yeah let's take over the world". Eggman goes to meet Shadow on the ARK and Shadow explains the Eclipse Cannon and Eggman's like "cool I can use this to threaten Earth until everyone has to submit to me".

Also Rouge is here because she works for GUN as an agent and they want her to investigate Eggman and Shadow. Also GUN is stupid and keeps trying to arrest Sonic because he looks like Shadow and Shadow robbed a museum bc it had an Emerald. They literally have newsreel footage of Shadow and everyone's like "no this is Sonic" (this makes way more sense if you consider that Shadow's original design as when he was being developed as "Terios" was way closer to Sonic's). GUN arrest Sonic twice in this game, and attempt a third time. Sonic escapes police custody twice and evades arrest on the third one. He also says he doesn't like cops this is important. Anyway he and Shadow keep trying to kill each other. Sonic wants to know what the deal is but that doesn't stop him from trying to fight Shadow constantly. Shadow wants to blow up Earth but this also doesn't stop him from fighting Sonic constantly.

Eggman, Rouge and Shadow go to GUN's Prison Island where they send everyone they arrest and then steal the Chaos Emeralds that GUN has and blow up the island. Using the six Emeralds they have, Eggman powers up the Eclipse Cannon and livestreams himself blowing up the moon with it. The Heroes go to the ARK as well and there's some whole drama there but this ain't about them. Eggman gets the seventh Chaos Emerald and puts it into the cannon, which activates Gerald's doomsday plan that Shadow did not tell Eggman about. The ARK sets off on a crash course for Earth so now the Heroes and Eggman and Rouge are trying to turn it off.

Also there was a whole thing where Rouge looks into Project Shadow and all she can find is stuff about the Biolizard so she thinks Shadow is lying or delusional. I mean we know he's telling the truth but back then this was like adding to the mystery. Not that relevant in retrospect. Moving on.

Back to Shadow. His goal is fulfilled and he's kinda just standing there looking out the window as the ARK falls. Amy got left behind when everyone went to go shut down the ARK and she happens to find Shadow and asks what his deal is. She talks about the good of humanity and manages to partially say the exact same thing as Maria said when she put Shadow in the escape pod when she was dying. Shadow remembers Maria's wish for him to give everyone a chance to live and be happy, cries very briefly, and then runs off because he has his real memories back now and needs to fix this shit.

Sonic and Shadow go Super and use Chaos Control to warp the ARK back into orbit and stop the doomsday program. However Shadow isn't accustomed to using a Super form and is weakened (there's this whole thing about Shadow realising that Sonic might be the true Ultimate Life Form if you take long enough on the final boss). Sonic warns him to return back to the ARK but he doesn't, and ends up losing his super form and falling to Earth, presumably dying (Twitter Takeovers are noncanon but #5 says that Sonic tried to save Shadow but Shadow let himself die because otherwise Sonic would've fallen with him and as far as he knew then, died with him. This isn't shown or mentioned in the games but is likely what happened given that Sonic comes back to the ARK afterwards with one of Shadow's inhibitor rings).

Shadow was actually meant to stay dead and SA2 itself was actually pretty vague about what really happened 50 years ago. Pretty much everything I mentioned prior to the SA2 summary was lore introduced in later media (this will be relevant later). But, Shadow ended up becoming the most popular character in the franchise so Sonic Team decided to bring him back for Heroes and write more solid lore for him.

In Heroes, Rouge is stealing some shit from Eggman and finds Shadow in A Tube so she lets him out. He's being guarded by a robot called E-123 Omega, who decides to fight them because he's angry and loves violence and killing things (not a joke). Rouge manages to stop the boys from fighting each other and is like "let's go find Eggman" so they do and also they're called Team Dark now. She wants his treasure, Shadow has amnesia and wants to know who he is and why he's here, and Omega wants to prove to Eggman he's the best robot ever and also kill and destroy things. I dunno why Rouge doesn't think to tell Shadow anything. I assume it's because this was the first third party mainline title and they wanted to keep things simple for new players who hadn't played SA2 which was only available on Dreamcast or Gamecube, neither of which sold well compared to the PS2 or Xbox.

During the story Team Dark finds a Shadow Android, and later, shitloads of them in Eggman's warehouse. Shadow and the others aren't really sure if he's the real Shadow from SA2 or if he's another android who's just gained sentience. At least now Rouge is somewhat justified in not telling him anything since she's not sure if he's real now. Cue Shadow having an identity crisis. This plot carries over to the next game.

Shadow 05 takes place exactly 50 years after Gerald's deal with Black Doom. The Black Comet comes back to Earth and Doom and the rest of the Black Arms start invading and fucking shit up. So Doom wants Shadow to work for him and conquer Earth so he finds his son and asks him to go get the Chaos Emeralds. He also does not tell Shadow that he's his dad he just tells him what to do and leaves him to work it out and Shadow just does this without question because BD clearly knows who he is so he might be able to tell him who he is.

Shadow 05 is infamous for its choose-your-own-adventure story so to quickly list off the noncanon endings he can:

Destroy Earth (Pure Dark/Dark)

Conquer the universe (Pure Dark/Hero)

Side with his dad (Semi Dark/Dark)

Kill Eggman (Semi Dark/Hero)

Decide he's an android and kill Eggman (Neutral/Dark)

Decide he's an android and kill Eggman BUT take over the Eggman Empire and lead and android uprising this time (Neutral/Hero)

Stay on the ARK and become its protector (Semi Hero/Dark)

Have implied suicidal depression (Semi Hero/Hero)

Go insane with power?? idk what's going on (Pure Hero/Dark)

Say he's gonna kill his dad and presumably does it offscreen (Pure Hero/Hero)

The true ending (that doesn't actually lead from any of the previous so who knows how we got here) has Shadow obtain all the Chaos Emeralds and then BD uses them to bring his Comet into Earth's atmosphere so he can start destroying things. BD then loredrops that Shadow was made to help him conquer Earth and he processes this for like a minute then decides to kill BD. BD then loredrops that he's Shadow's dad and Shadow gets really close to crashing out over this one but the Chaotix manage to find an old tape from Gerald just in time and play it for him that helps calm him down a bit and tells him how to kill BD. Also it reminds him of the promise he made to Maria again.

So he goes Super, kills his dad and blows up the Black Comet destroying the entire Black Arms race. Also if you take really really long on this boss fight then Eggman mentions that he found Shadow after he fell to Earth, confirming this is the real Shadow from SA2 and not one of the androids. After BD is killed Shadow seems to have mostly remembered everything and decides to move on from his past and become his own person.

I'm assuming Sonic Battle takes place after Shadow 05 because he knows he was made by Gerald in this game. So Sonic finds Emerl, that Gizoid robot from earlier, and everyone befriends him but is also trying to work out who/what Emerl is. Sonic says that although Emerl is a weapon of mass destruction, he has a heart and he trusts him to not destroy things, just like Shadow. Shadow has a mini crisis over this and is wondering why he has a soul and feelings if he was created as a weapon and Rouge sits him down and tells him that Gerald didn't want him to be a weapon. Shadow still has Feelings about this but that's kinda it here.

06 isn't canon and also barely makes sense but it had good Shadow characterisation. So we're gonna cover this as quickly as possible. So Shadow works for GUN now (for some reason?? it's only in this game whatever) and he and Rouge go to get The Time God of Italy. or half of it. this half of it is Mephiles, who takes the form of Shadow's shadow. Mephiles and Shadow keep fighting during the game and Mephiles taunts him that hundreds of years in the future, humans blame Shadow for the apocalypse (caused by Mephiles. who looks like Shadow. so) and put him in cryo again (oh yeah Shadow's immortal I don't think I ever clarified that but you probably worked it out). Anyway at the end of Shadow's story he says this raw ass line "if the world chooses to become my enemy i will fight like i always have" and then he takes off his inhibitors and blows up Mephiles. But Mephiles doesn't die and then kills Sonic and then fuses with the other half of the Italian Sun slash Time god and then there's the bit where a human girl kisses a dead Sonic and now he's alive again and triple S go super and blow up the Italian Time slash Sun god. Sonic then erases the god from existence and bam 06 isn't canon anymore praise be.

Is anyone still reading this. Why? I'm not even taking this seriously anymore I'm enjoying this way too much.

So allegedly Sonic Prime is canon and it probably takes place somewhere vaguely around here. Sonic Prime actually doesn't fit on the timeline due to ooc and also Cubot and Orbot but it's "after Sonic Advance 3" so it's either before or after 06. Anyway Sonic accidentally breaks spacetime and is now hopping around the multiverse. Shadow is here too so that he has someone to play off of. They're like. Really gay here like there had to be at least one sonadow fan on the writing team why did they do the SA2 falling thing again that's evil. Also there's one line at the end of season 2 iirc that got translated into. actual romantic language in some dubs kinda like the destiel confession adding in the line for Dean in the Spanish dub. does this mean sonadow is destiel 2. i need to start calling buddie destiel 3. Shadow breaks the sound barrier 3 times in the finale to save Sonic's life while bridal carrying him. love wins. Sonic Prime is pretty mid but bonus points for good yaoi 7/10

In terms of the next big Shadow lore game we have Shadow Generations. The Time Eater sends Shadow to the void but manages to send Maria and Gerald there too from a point in time not too long before shit went down on the ARK. Shadow kinda has the worst day of his life in this one. Also Black Doom managed to regrow himself but he's not at full power. He wants to use Shadow as a vessel due to him being the Ultimate Life Form and so activates all of Shadow's alien biology, making him "perfect" so BD can take over his body. In some ways this acts as closure for Shadow since yknow. He's had amnesia TWICE since he knew them and also the Gerald here gets to tell Shadow all the stuff that he'd only heard previously in recordings about the Black Arms. Gerald also finally Apologises to Shadow directly. Shadow gets like really angry at BD but Maria comforts him and tells him to not give into BD and his anger, since he exists to show the way to the light. Shadow kills his dad for a second time. Gerald and Maria are sent back to their time and Shadow tries to stop it and almost has a panic attack (for the second time this game he has one in the prequel) but Maria comforts him again. Shadow cries again and that's the end of the game.

So by the time we get to Sonic Forces he's kinda just doing his own antihero thing and sometimes works with Team Dark. He kills (? at least beats the shit out of) Jackal Squad, a mercenary team that was working for Eggman at the time. He spares the leader and calls him weak and pathetic and leaves. And this GROWN ASS MAN throws a fit over this and decides he has to prove he isn't weak. So he agrees to be a test subject in Eggman's latest experiement with this rock called the Phantom Ruby that has incredibly inconsistent properties but the big one is Virtual Reality (this in itself is presented inconsistently). So Infinite is infused with the power of the Ruby and wears a mask now because his previous weakling face was unsightly or something. He then decides to shut down Omega and torment Shadow (who doesn't remember him) for calling him weak. He then tells Shadow he's gonna go kill Sonic for some reason. And then does (or at least everyone thinks he does). This is all in the prequel DLC. Shadow shows up halfway through the main game to help the heroes and that's about it.

And that's kinda it. There's the IDW comics in terms of what I'd consider major appearances but I'm like 2 years behind on those so idk what Shadow's up to in those now. There was also the July 2021 Sonic Channel story with him that kinda altered my brain chemistry. Not entirely sure when it takes place. Pre-Forces maybe? You can read a TL of it here.

Oh yeah I should clarify on what was said in the 4kids post. So in that I talked about how the dub in avoiding an onscreen character death actually caused Shadow MCD. Sonic X is interesting because it was developed at around the same time as the "Shadow arc" of games in the early 2000s and ends up taking a different approach to the truth of 50 years ago. I haven't watched X fully yet but from what I know about it Maria never knew Shadow. All of that stuff was made up by Gerald and put in Shadow's brain. Like Maria did exist and there's a whole episode where they meet the soldier who shot her but she didn't know Shadow. Iirc it was something to do with the escape pods she sent down being empty thereby implying Shadow was created entirely on Earth post-GUN raid.

Following the game's SA2 adaptation and his later return, Shadow meets a girl called Molly in season 3. She's a fighter on her planet that's at war and mostly destroyed. Iirc she wants to keep fighting, but her friends are growing hopeless and think they're all just gonna die in battle and never get to live. Long story short, at the end of the episode, she sacrifices herself and charges her fighter ship straight at the enemy and is killed when it crashed into the enemy ship. In the series finale, Shadow helps Sonic fight Dark Oak, the main antagonist of the season, and isn't seen again afterwards, presumably having died. However, he shows up during the credits, visiting Molly's grave, confirming he's still alive.

4kids obviously didn't like the child death, so at the end of Molly's episode she ends up just flying away and says she'll come back someday. The scene of her grave is cut from the series finale for obvious reasons, but in turn makes it seems like Shadow died in the previous episode. Good shit.

If you made it here. Good lord. Uh. I love my son he has every disease. He's so cute here I want to throw him at a wall.

Watch Love Live it's really good please just watch it. And then watch LL Sunshine because it's even better.

AND READ PROJECT SEKAI STORIES.

(Also yes this is the longest post on my blog)

[lafaiette]

Gods I feel you I'm only 10 hours in after having received the game as a gift and I REALLY try to like it but it just ... doesn't feel like Dragon Age. Characters know stuff they shouldn't know about, the game keeps talking down to me, nothing I did in the previous games mattered, the tone is completely different, the mature storytelling of the previous games seems to be missing so far & what I heard so far of how the lore and the characters from previous games have been handled is honestly the worst part and breaks my heart. idk even if i wanna finish the game at this point anymore, I'm just kinda ... sad.

I'm so sad and disappointed, too, I remember our conversations, fics, and headcanons about DA! We were so excited and happy, because Inquisition, DA2, and DAO were genuinely well-made and aimed at pleasing the fans, despite their faults.

DATV is a good action game, no doubt about that. The combat is fun, there is a lot to explore and discover, and many locations are beautiful, even though some are terrible to navigate (Dock Town's structure makes no sense). But that's it - it's a good action game with the name "Dragon Age" pasted on it. It doesn't feel like it's part of the series, it constantly treats the player like an idiot, some references to past games and characters are literally hidden in the brief descriptions of the mementos, and there is even a Glossary to make sure the new players don't get frustrated.

Everything is safe and aseptic, cleaned of every deep piece of lore that could have scared new fans into buying or continuing the game. Even the banters lack the depth of the previous games.

A good game company should lure new players in not by rejecting their past entries, but by making them look even more interesting with their sequels.

Bioware wasn't afraid of offering piece of lore after piece of lore in Inquisition - it was a game set in a precise moment, whose prologue was directly tied to the events of the previous game, and new players had to accept this if they decided to buy it and play it. If they liked that premise, all that information and those details, then they were more than welcome - they were encouraged! - to go back, try the older games, and see how it had all started. It was a game made for the fans the company had already managed to win over, not for possible fans who may or may not bring new money in.

In DATV the new players can jump right in after quickly learning who Solas is and what he's trying to do, and old fans are left with an empty shell, with minor references that are supposed to make us feel happy and accomplished peppered here and there, while all our past choices and our favorite characters are forgotten or brought back with a terrible case of amnesia. It's lazy, infuriating, and very sad, and it smells of reboot, because the new devs probably realized they couldn't keep up with the amount of lore and choices the series contain, and they needed to start anew.

[blu3-ja3]

Monsters Au O'Connor specifically THIS au by @bluegiragi ! It's so tasty yummy! Idk what Roach's monster would be... I'm thinking maybe a witch that has the Black Hellhound (Ripley) as a familiar or shifter whose form is very similar to the black hound...I could make him a ghost of sorts... idk

ANYWAYS!

Banshee O'Connor! She just kinda popped into my head and has been simmering quietly in the background.

So a bit of folk lore on banshees before we get into O'Connor's origins and such. So in Irish and some Scottish folklore banshees are an omen of death, hearing a banshee's kneeing or wailing means a family member has died. But they're also omens of misfortune and strife, often being spotted in the country sides or on roads. They ARE fae creatures and they're always depicted as crying women. They can on occasion be spirits or ghosts as well.

So! O'Connor's origins as a banshee. She's a human, still a doctor and combat medic. She's specialized in monster medical (dragons beings her personal favorites) so shes been paired with Price for a very long time, she's a part of his hoard. After Williams death O'Connor went back out onto the field and was redeployed with Price again. On a mission O'Connor is burned to death... She is dead. Price attended her funeral and in O'Conner's will he received Will's 4 leaf clover necklace as well as a small container with her ashes. Price grants her final wish and has her ashes incorporated into a pendant similar to Will's. O'Connor's ashes are made into a pink clover flower. Price keeps both Will's and O'Connor's pendants on a small chain.

The first time Price hears the wailing he's confused, he's out in the field and once it stops Price is informed a soldier was shot and killed. It happens multiple times after that and every time a soldier dies. Price is concerned because the wailing sounds more and more like O'Connor until Price is certain it's her. The first time Price spots her, he convinces himself it's his imagination. The next few times Price sees the figure, she gets closer and Price can make out more details.

It definitely looks like O'Connor but she's a twisted version of herself. Her eyes are black with little embers in it and tears falling softly from them. Her skin is pale and there are long cracks throughout, Price can see what looks like smoldering wood under the skin. O'Connor's hair floats like she's in water, it looks like fire with the wisps of smoke rising from it. Her fingers are blackened and her body is a little translucent.

Price is almost entirely convinced he's gone insane but he hears Soap talking about the wailing and how he's almost certain someone is haunted by a banshee but he doesn't know who. Price tells the team about O'Connor and the thing he's been seeing. Ghost is the one to suggest trying to talk to her the next time she appears.

It's not for a long time but when she appears again she's standing next to Price. He heard the soft cries and hollow wails before he saw her. But before Price could say anything O'Connor began moving towards Gaz. She reaches out for him and moves him towards Price as another soldier dashes towards them. As soon as the man gets to where Gaz was the soldier is killed in a volley of bullets that would have absolutely caught Gaz if he was still there. By the time Price turned to talk to O'Connor after the fighting she was gone again.

Price finally gets his chance when he's on base, they'd just return from a particularly rough mission and several soldiers were injured. Price was in his office when he heard soft mournful singing through the halls. Price followed it finding Soap and Ghost already up. Gaz and Roach were following behind Price. They all stood outside the medical bay as the singing spilled through.

Price walked in alone and saw O'Connor, she was slightly different then before. She wasn't smoking, her eyes weren't just embers; they were her usual green no black anywhere. Her skin was still cracked but there wasn't any smoldering underneath. She was still crying but it wasn't as constant, only a few tears every so often.

O'Connor's figure was hovering next to a sleeping soldier, the boy was severely burned and started to cry in pain. She reached down gently caressing his cheek and that seemed to calm him down. She was singing a lullaby Price recognize, she'd often sing it to William when he was a baby.

"Maevis?" Price watched as the figure drifted over to another soldier who started crying in pain, again she lightly caressed him. Price stood and watched quietly as O'Connor continued to drift around the room, singing and comforting the injured. He shivers as she moves closer, as he exhales he can see his breath. As soon as the cold is there it passes, moving with O'Connor as she drifts.

She continued to hum before drifting towards the exit, gesturing for Price to follow her. She phased through and Price opened it and followed. The rest of his team was still standing around waiting for Price. He looked around and spotted O'Connor's figure down the hall.

"That's creepy..." Price heard Gaz mumble as they followed behind him.

She guides them towards Price's office, stopping and waiting for them before continuing on. Once inside the office they looked around for the woman. She appeared in the corner furthest from everyone, her figure still the same.

"John..."

"Maevis what are you doing... How are you here?"

"I don't know how I'm here... I think I'm here to warn or protect you... I don't entirely understand what is happening..."

" Protect me from what?" A kind and gentle smile appears on her face.

" Loss... Maybe not death itself but death coming too soon. The first few times I could only stray so far, I wasn't able to protect your men, your horde... I didn't even know what I was doing..."

"We saw you save Gaz, why not save the other soldier?"

"Because some deaths are inescapable... That was one such death... I'm sorry, I did try."

"How are you here now? What's changed?"

"Something is coming, a wave of deaths that should be avoided... I don't know when or where they'll happen but I know they're coming... I'm here to help you John."

They all watch as O'Connor's eyes begin to cloud over black encompassing everything, a single blue ember igniting in each eye. Tears begin streaming down her cheeks as the cinders and smoke begin to ignite and plume. She lets out a quiet baleful wail.

"Maevis? What's wrong? What happened?"

"That young man didn't make it... Poor child... I must go, I must help the lad crossover..." She drifts past them before disappearing through the walls.

After sometime O'Connor became part of their little team, regaining her rank as Captain. It took a bit of time but eventually O'Connor learned how to properly interact with physical items and objects, allowing her to be placed back into the fields with the team.

She's mostly for infiltration and recon, occasionally using her abilities to see other spirits to gain information. O'Connor is a bit of an uncommon monster because she's an undead/ghost. She's rare because she's fully conscious and not vengeful. O'Connor's ability to be aware and cooperative is rare amongst Spirit Classed entities. She's not just a shell of memories nor hell bent on revenge against the living.

Powers

Can go incorporeal/corporeal with ease

Slight emotional manipulation (Calming effect but also Fear effects)

Invisibility

Slight Premonitions (Can kinda see people's deaths if they're in the right scenario ie Gaz)

Control over flames (is very slight but could easily be trained to be more powerful)

Slight Flight (More hovering)

General ghost shit

Can see other spirits and occasionally helps them cross over.

Weaknesses

Salt

Holy water/crucifix

Exorcism type shit... She's a ghost lol

Silver (fae)

COD Master List

[alacants]

the juanki/rafa lore is fascinating omg

ISN'T IT WILD. today felt like. scripted. backstory episode dropped just in time for the narrative climax.

but their relationship is really SO fascinating. there's all these little tidbits the round-up didn't have space for, stuff like--juanki's asked about their relationship at a cincy presser and is like haha it's fine we're meeting for golf today. and then the next day he's back on message like, stop talking about rafa. rafa is speaking up in juanki's defense when he's left out of the madrid main draw, and then they're barely talking next time they're both at davis cup. even nowadays they are so clearly on the same page cheering for carlitos! …as long AS they are cheering for carlitos. i want a timer to know how long they can hold a conversation before one of them says something that breaks the get-along spell.

idk i just keep thinking that--i mean what IF that hideous run of bad luck (chicken pox, broken rib, maybe some poor decision-making) hadn't destroyed juanki at his peak. i would be so curious to know if rafa's approach would have been different if juanki had been more of a threat on the court in those first formative years on tour--more like he felt about moya or roger. instead he just leapfrogged right over him and i think that's what got under juanki's skin so bad, not just that this kid usurped his place but that he didn't even like. notice him there.

(i was just talking with my friend whose take on rafa's side of this is that the obvious bad feeling probably bothered him a lot more coming from a spaniard than it would have otherwise. like if it was… i can't think of a good example. marat safin? a former world no. 1 who was never much of a threat to him on court. --if it was marat safin who got snippy in the media and cold-shouldered him in person then lol whatever. but at home he wanted to be loved. and juan carlos did not love him.)

[wolf-feathers12]

An idea

Angron as sanguinius's bodyguard/protector!au

( I have very limited knowledge of the books/am still slowing making my way though the warhammer lore and most of my understanding comes from fandom interactions and this is very crackish indulgent idea that probs doesn't make too much sense if you apply some logic to it but hush ಥ_ಥ)

Angron but they find a way to get rid of his nails but he's still very angry ect >:O

Him and sanguinius interact and sang suggests therapy ala blood angel style. Cue a montage of him slowing being shown how to paint, draw and appreciate the fine arts ect. Plus he starts to really bond with sang. (Aparently depending on who u ask sanguinius might have started out as a slave?? So even more sorta bonding over trama type thing? Also i love sanguinius whump/hurt/comfort so yeah boi)

Angron starts spending more and more time with the angel and consequently finds himself near sanguinius when he wakes up screaming and sang comforts him. Maybe sanguinius expirenceing his own nightmares becaue of his visions and angron becoming less and less awkward when he pets his hair and tells him its ok that it was just a dream.

Regardless they both become really close (maybe even ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) close if that's what Ur into hehehe). sanguinius is one of the first people to show him any sort of kindness or understanding appart from his brothers and sisters. He still hates the emperor but he'll endure it if it means he gets to be with his brother.

Cue the horus heresy.

Everything is more or less the sameish with angron hesitating a little to join horus but his hatred for the emperor wins.

(I know that sanguinius and angron fight but er maybe they don't in this au?? Idk just skip to the fight on the vengeful spirit)

Sanguinius is completely exhausted and can barely keep himself upright when he confronts horus but confront him he does .

This is it. This is where he dies.

But just before horus deals the killing blow angron bursts into the room.

Seeing the person who has helped him become something more then a monster, more then his nails, who showed him how to correctly load paint onto a brush, how to read music, who's been there for him in the middle of the night, whose held him when the cries of his fellow slaves grew too loud being literally tortured to death, body broken (flashback to one of his gladiator friends being beaten to death maybe?) Angron realises where his true loyalties lie.

Horus is confused.

"You would protect him even though he is loyal to the same man who let your people die? You serve him even now by keeping the angel alive."

"The only emperor I serve is at my feet now."

"You would defend and obey a broken shell of a man?"

With determination in his eyes, clutching his weapon he looks horus straight in the eyes.

"To my last breath."

Shout out to @heuldoch7b for their post

https://www.tumblr.com/heuldoch7b/762780929429323776/would-your-no-nails-au-angron-look-any-different?source=share

That inspired this au :O

[loztotk-fourfutures]

LEGEND OF ZELDA TEARS OF THE KINGDOM: FOUR FUTURES AU

OVERVIEW

An oc-centric TLoZ TotK AU of my own creation featuring my character Judias Skylark and the four primary/potential outcomes of his entanglement with Ganondorf and how his presence effects Link’s adventures and the fate of Hyrule (although perhaps not by much). If you care about spoilers, maybe don’t linger around this blog too much because there will likely be some sorta major ones.

My special little tag for this au is

#totk four futures au !

welcome to Four Futures!! i hope you find my silly mind stories interesting :)

MORE INFO BELOW

MINOR GENERAL LORE CHANGES

- The monsters around Hyrule that were summoned when Ganondorf turned into the Demon King in the original lore already existed beforehand here — just not as prominently as after the Demon King’s rise to power.

- Rauru appointed the Sages before Ganondorf’s betrayal, just shortly after his pledge of fealty. They were appointed to assist in watching over Hyrule, helping it grow, and fending off the occasional monster attacks.

- I’m not sure how long it actually was between Ganon’s pledge of fealty to Rauru and the night he killed Queen Sonia, but I’m gonna say in this AU probably was a bit longer than it was in the game. I don’t know if we even get how long the time frame between those two events was in the game but… idk in this AU I’m gonna say it was probably at least a few months or so. i dont have EEEVERYTHING figured out leave me alone

JUDIAS’ BACKSTORY

The story more or less begins back during Hyrule’s founding era! Judias was a Hylian born into the Shiekah tribe, and for a long time, he was a traveller and spice trader as well as a monster researcher before meeting and soon after getting romantically involved with Ganondorf, whose plans for Hyrule’s Downfall were either still just barely brewing or more or less completely secret at that point in time. Eventually, Judias started working with Rauru and the Sages for his monster research, because he believed that there was potential for good in all beings and wanted to find a way to tame the monsters, or at least get them to become less hostile.

For as long as they’d been together, Judias loved Ganondorf genuinely and believed (hoped) that he felt the same way (whether he truly did or not is sort of on the fence, but at the very least he seemed to. My current thought is that he at least had a soft spot and felt a certain sense of protectiveness and loyalty for him and liked his company, even if nothing else.)

After making significant progress in monster taming and even learning how to communicate with some of the monsters of Hyrule, Judias was appointed by Rauru as the Sage of Change, and he got his own secret stone!! (which on his design I placed in the small headpiece on his forehead, notably in the same spot that Ganon’s ends up being when he steals Sonia’s stone except in the opposite orientation. theyre matching. they fit together like the yin yang. marvel at my genius.)

And of course, as the name of the AU suggests, there are four different possible futures in store for Judias. i love timeline stuff sm teehee

THE FOUR FUTURES

FUTURE 1: In the very first face-off while Judias is torn between helping the other Sages fight the Demon King or staying with his partner, Ganon takes the initiative and steals him away, and in the process he falls ill because of the Gloom. Ganon ends up, against his own better judgement, carrying Judias around in a fabric bundle on his back (trying to convince himself it’s just to keep him from helping the other Sages and to keep him weakened and totally not bc he looves him and wants to protect him) while wreaking havoc across Hyrule — and a majority of this time Judias is just sort of struggling af and periodically drifting in and out of consciousness — until he gets sealed away by Rauru, and Judias ends up getting sealed with him. Until the Upheaval, of course, where Judias wakes up, crawls out of a chasm or whatever, and befriends Link, intent on trying to give Ganon some sort of redemption, and, if that ends up not being possible, reluctantly agreeing to help Link seal Ganon back away for the sake of the rest of Hyrule.

FUTURE 2: Judias was torn briefly between helping Ganon or the Sages, but ended up joining the Sages in trying to seal him away — had to look away while Rauru was sealing Ganon away in the imprisoning chamber (☹️), and in the far future he assists Link a little bit as a spirit (maybe somewhat similarly to Mineru since he was also a sage?), not quite having the heart to pass on to the other side completely yet, and maybe gives everyone’s favorite blond swordsman a cool new power or something…… ✨

FUTURE 3: Judias was torn again but ran away instead of making himself pick a side, and after he’d heard of Ganon’s sealing/imprisonment, he was blinded by heartbreak and got a little upset (just a little bit) and went on to become the founder and first leader of the Yiga Clan (k maybe he was a bit more than a “little” upset)

FUTURE 4: Another result of his heartbreak due to Ganon’s imprisonment, but also not wanting to outright harm the innocent people of Hyrule, Judias consumes his secret stone and becomes an immortal dragon in the hopes of someday seeing his partner again in the distant future, even if he won’t be himself anymore. (crying and sobbing loudly)

I HOPE THIS INTERESTS SOME PEOPLE <3

Have fun watching me post art, maybe some comic pieces, and perhaps developing this AU some more! and let it be known i love answering questions and comments <333

[browneyedartist01]

My thoughts during the final hour of acomaf:

(Bare in mind that I notched up the speed to 1.5 then 1.75, and these thoughts are not in order)

-"You don't need proof that it works, I'm proof that it works-"

Weren't you made by high lords?

-"I will destroy your court."

And I will hate you. More so than I already do

-"He held out his hand like I was some pet."

"Come home."

My thoughts:

"Come home with me."

"Who are you?"

"The man whose gonna marry you, I'm Orpheus."

"Who am I?"

"Eurydice, *laughs* the girl who makes me wanna sing, the women I'm marrying."

-Why dose the evil man sounds like a radio announcer?

-Lucian really setting the bar higher already in how to care for your mate, as expected. (Go little Rock star)

-He broke through the bounds that a high lord couldn't break through just to go to her?!?!

-And he gave her his coat to cover her??

-"There were different kinds of torture I realized, there was ones I went through, what Rhys went through and then this."

Yeah, now you know how Tamlin felt utm.

- Did Nesta just give the evil king the middle finger? Ew, sarah cringe stop it.

-Cassian just keep dying sweetie, don't touch Nesta.

-Nesta be nice to your future brother in law.

- Freye unlocked a new power, somehow.

-Cheesy, this is all so cheesy.

- "his green eyes met mine, the sorrow and tenderness in them was the most hideous thing I've ever seen."

Wow, ok...

-Tamlin acting like Ryhsand though with Tamlin it's justified/understandable

- *me counting down the final 22 minutes while freye is dying*

-"I nerely gagged on his scent."

Freye darling, I get your upset about his deal with evil king. But he literally tried to save your sisters, stop being so dramatic.

- "my family."

It's been 3 months girly.

- "Tamlin ignored Lucian, so I did too."

Sums up Freye and Lucain's friendship

-Of course all the queens' want is eternal youth,

- Lucian naturally being the smartest one in the room.

-Noooo, not Ryhsand pov. 😭 this better not be the last 17 minutes.

-Holy crap, I just realized how similar this ending is to season 2 of lore olympus ending.

-Don't worry, the bat boys plot armor is thick. Sarah loves you monsters too much.

-Mor don't rip out the arrow it will only make it worse.

-Ryhsand please think, do you really think Tamlin would actually partner with evil king? He didn't even trust evil fae women when she first appeared, what makes you think he would actually help him beyond getting freye back?

-"she is my mate, my wife, the high lady of the night court."

BANG, CRASH A LIGHTING BLAST! (no joke there was thunder after he said this in the dramatized version)

I have 2 thoughts on this one:

1. There was a fan theory during the court trial in lore olympus (persephone was on trail for mass murder, long story) where hades and persephone got married before the trail started because at one point he called her his wife. This wasn't the case because she was 20 and he was in his 2000 (aka 40's) Idk if Rachel was a fan of acotar and wanted to steal from it (since acomaf was released in 2016 and the trial was released in 2020) but because people guessed it she dropped it. Idk that's just a my own theory.

2. How can she be the high lady when the mother is the one to give out titles? Do you realize what you just start Ryhsand? This could lead to more war against the more religious courts, this could lead to the end of the night court if the mother finds out... oh wait, this is acotar. Not real high fantasy, there's no real religious world building.

-"I've forgotten how quiet it was here, how small, how empty"

You do this every time freye, anytime your some where "better" you always just stick your noise up at your old home.

-Freye acting high and mighty towards Tamlin as if she wouldn't had praised Ryhsand for doing the same thing.

- Lucian, you are truly the best character.

-"My sister mate, the mother did indeed seem to have a sense of humor."

What do you mean? He would be a great mate. But then again you're suffering because of it...which makes it so much better.

- "as if he could do that to anyone."

But- but he did freye. And tbh I think he would have done worse to you if he deemed it necessary.

-Freye is really giving evil queen vibes. I wish I could enjoy it, but I know sarah is going to make her the "hero"

And that's it, Thank Saints.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

hii i recently started reading your work, cyanide narwhal, and am honestly really hooked! i love your characterization so much and find the story you built around the lore really, really interesting!

i’m not deeply familiar with the intricacies of the lore in genshin impact, but i’ve been fascinated by it for a while—and reading your story made me realize how much depth i was missing out on…is there any sources or ways you can reccomend as a primer/introductory to genshin lore? i really want to learn more and understand the theories better! thank youuu

aaa thank you! and this is actually a really interesting question

obviously my first thought was just play the world quests and pay attention, but not only is the info in the world quests sometimes incomplete, but i understand perfectly that some people just skimmed the dialogue at best and now cannot replay them but the fact of the matter is that the best way to get into some parts of the lore is via the world quests

still, there's plenty of people on youtube who do timeline and lore recaps without theories - as in, just telling you the lore that one can learn from the quests in a more streamlined manner. they're always a great choice!

there's also the artifact and material lore, which does usually contain a lot of info, but is usually kinda cryptic. the good thing about those is that you're not locked out of reading them, so as long as you have the necesary pieces, you can just go into the in-game archives and read up there. as with the world quests, though, there's also plenty of people on youtube doing full analyses on the lore of those

i think once you have a rough idea of some of the relevant names and lorebits, that while daunting at first, the wiki's timeline page is rather helpful when it comes to trying to get the bigger picture of when exactly everything happened in relation to other things. reading the little annotations and notes they put on where they got their info and when they've had to make extra calculations for some things' placements also goes a long way.

once you've started to understand more of the out-of-the-way lore, going to theorists is also a great way to catch the more interesting ways this game is built. as in- real-world references and inspirations.

because telling you 'oh you can find it on youtube' still sort of leaves you having to figure out how to even look for it, here's a little list of the youtubers whose videos i've watched at least once for these things. not a comprehensive list of course, but from there some of them shout each other out and you can navigate the recommended section for more videos, so!

as with all things lore-related in this game, keep in mind when the videos were made in relation to the game's patch version. the ones that are more just strict lore read-throughs are less vulnerable to later patches sort of- changing some of the context? (looking at you remuria) but still. and obviously theory videos are even more dependant on that. so:

for lore analysis (most of these are strictly just the lore with little speculation, but there's probably some extrapolation here anyway): - Ashikai has a great beginner's guide series on region lore, but it only covers up to sumeru so far. still, might be a great place to start! there's also some quest recaps and lore details here and here - Francis Lee Arthur has a great series of very concise videos of world quest recaps, though they sadly don't have mondstadt and liyue quests, and only a handful of inazuma quests. still, they're great videos, and there's a ton of sumeru and fontaine quests (and one chenyu vale quest i think) - SiliconOneFour has a bunch of videos on artifact and weapon lore, and some recent ones on stuff like the remuria timeline, mondstadt's aristocracy, the history of the temple of silence, etc - KlemenTime has a bunch of videos on pieces of lore that aren't really laid out explicitly on world quests, but that you sort of learn through exploration? idk how to describe it. they also have artifact lore, and while not in the playlist, if you go to their profile they also have some more borad sumeru and natlan timeline videos - Minsleif has archon quest and world quest recaps, along with other lorebits. there's also their massive 1-min reel lorebit video collection on much shorter things

for theories (some of these have a mix of lore+theory videos so i'm putting them here bc i wanted ot keep the 'just the facts' videos to the section above): - Ashikai is my favorite theory nerd in the community so forgive the bias, but there's the incredible project:teyvat series and the world structure series, which are two massive theories about the way teyvat as a world functions. i think you might want to save these ones for after you've familiarized yourself with the lore. other than that, there's plenty of other theories to sift through (though bear in mind these are ALL the theories, so there's project:teyvat and world structure stuff here? but the titles will help you know which they are if you want to save them for later) - The Laughing Man has a ton of videos on lore and theory/speculation on like- a ton of stuff, along with character analyses - roozevelt has a bunch of videos on lore and theories, mostly revolving around the traveler and khaenri'ah, but there's plenty of other stuff there also - My Name For Now has a very interesting massive khaenri'ah theory, theories on the descenders, on the elemental system, and a bunch of other lore theory videos - Minsleif does have theories also (but i personally can't remeber if i've ever watched one. still, they're there if you want to check them out!) - Wei has theory videos that look like shitposts and sometimes feel like shitposts, but god, there's some interesting stuff there. i wouldn't know how to even describe it though, most of it is traveler related but still (also this is a general theories playlist, but like all their theories are from genshin with the exception of one jjk theory so like- i mean yeah, just letting you know why that's there lmao)

And here's the wiki's timeline page

so uhhhh yeah! hope you have fun if you decide to watch any of the videos from anyone there. of course there's probably a lot of other theorists and recap channels, but these are the ones i've watched at least once, so, pick and choose which ones you like best. have fun!

TL;DR: you can still access a bunch of lore in-game via the artifacts, weapons, and weapon materials, and any world quests you might not have played yet. but since i recognize that's a daunting task and the info is scattered and incomplete and confusing, watching video recaps might be the way to go. Ashikai's beginners guides are great introductions and refreshers, and there's plenty of videos to catch up on world quests or to have someone explain artifact and weapon lore to you

[d4ught3r-0f-n0n3]

Okay lore drop based on my starter. (Zip this is your fault.(kinda))

Uhhh body parts getting crushed, sexual relations (specifically between three people.) and uhh blood and possibly more actual under the cut so.. don’t look if you don’t like that stuff.

This is gonna talk about her missing leg and why she bleeds ichor.

Burnice is a child or Aphrodite and Ares (shocker I know) but she wasn’t made just by them. Ares and Aphrodite had a threes0me with Skylar (the human dad of Burnice.) Now ares I feel might’ve been much more ecstatic than Aphrodite to have this child, but of course something has to always go wrong with gods and small babies.

Burnice was a very small child, born around 6 and a half months (so around 2 and 1/2 to 3 months early) and due to her being so small she was around the size of the gods hands when they where their usually sizes and Aphrodite (idk if it was an accident or not) crushed her left leg under the knee of course, Apollo was a great help making sure her body was okay but.. she unfortunately lost her leg.

Ares, went to his mother, asking her what he and Aphrodite should do, Hera holding the newborn baby glance it over and saw the missing leg.. it reminded her of her son.. her hatred for the son she made all on her own.. she walked to the edge of Olympus’ gates and went to drop the small crying baby but Aphrodite quickly snatched Burnice away. Screaming at the goddess about how she was crazy and what was wrong with her.

Ares though.. being his mother’s favorite wanted to try and listen to her.. to keep her happy.. so.. Aphrodite and ares came up with an idea.. give it to the human man whose sperm mixed with ares inside of Aphrodite to raise it. Saying they would come and be protective over their daughter.

Skylar happily took her and raised her. But she was mainly godly (33.3% human and 66.6% godly.) so that why her blood is ichor and why she’s missing a leg.

@cloak-of-ares @hera-of-peacocks @notesbyaphrodite @people who wanna read it lol

[bernardellinewsagency]

back with even more trigun x honkai star rail crossover thoughts, this time inspired by @jiinglespurs's veritas the punisher fanart :D though i'm not sure if i can call this just "thoughts" when it's turned into uh... several paragraphs of rambling and then a 2k word ratiorine fanfic about it. it's mostly unedited because i think i wrote most of it in some sort of possessed/fugue state where i was solely consumed by the need to have aventurine as vash, veritas as wolfwood, and for them to hurt my own feelings, but yeah in total this is around three thousand words in one post. i'm gonna hide it under a cut for everyone's sake :)

to start, no man's land is now penacony, of course. instead of seven cities, it's twelve, based on the twelve dreamscapes. now, most of these cities are just there to exist in the background and/or be destroyed. the lore important ones are midnight, sol, and morning dew (idk if the names should be changed to sound more like locations but trigun has cities named after months, names like morning dew aren't entirely out of the question).

midnight is where ships first crashed onto the planet, dooming humanity to a lonesome existence in this new world. however, despite being the vash and nai representative characters, this wasn't because of kakavasha and sunday. no, it was mikhail and gopher wood, the watchmaker and the dreammaster whose actions helped shape the penacony storyline in canon. these days, it's mostly a ghost town, the remnants of the first human civilizations on the planet. and morning dew is the july of this world, the location where shit will be going down, since it's where the dewlight pavilion is in canon so it'd be wherever sunday hosts his currently unnamed religious fanaticism organization.

in canon, sol is the dreamscape known for museums, libraries, and academies. thus, this becomes where veritas is from. to take more from wolfwood's backstory, he would've been an orphan there, brought up in an orphanage and not really able to get a proper education. luckily for him, i feel like he'd be a pretty self sufficient learner- he could've stolen books and snuck into buildings to help teach himself math, science, philosophy, etc. seeing his potential, the orphanage probably would've wanted to help send him to school, but he would insist that if they sent anyone, it would be the other kids who'd need it more than him, or that they save their money for food and supplies. a pity, perhaps if he did go away to school then he wouldn't have been taken and made into a killer rather than a scholar.

remember how i said that things would've been caused by gopher wood and mikhail? well, both of them are dead now. mikhail would've died first, which is rather unfortunate because then gopher wood would've been able to make a power grab and form the currently unnamed organization (though it'll probably be named after smth to do with the harmony or the order) incredibly powerful and influential within penacony. he would've had grand plans, and i think sunday should coup him before he could do much with them. kill his father, take his power, be more ambitious that he ever could.

speaking of this unnamed organization, its members are this au's versions of the gung-ho guns and can really be any character who shows up in the penacony quests. there's veritas the punisher, of course, and it's now led by dominicus, the name sunday goes just like how nai goes by millions knives. very transgender of both of them. then there's gallagher the hound, sparkle the fool, and while i don't have any ideas for robin, those three would be in the upper echelons of this group; both because sunday wants to keep his friends close and his enemies (of which gallagher and sparkle are certainly both possibilities) closer, and because the four remind me of the four harmonic strings, and sunday would definitely love the symbolism of that. i've also got two other ideas for its members: acheron the blade, an accomplished swordswoman known for never unsheathing her sword in a fight, and samuel the cavalry, an unknown young woman cloaked in both brutality and a fearsome armor made from lost tech.

why is kakavasha on the run from sunday and his organization? he's the vash adjacent character in this au, but he's not actually related to sunday, the two don't have any original closeness to utilize. but the glory of an au is that you can put canon into a paper shredder and say things like "maybe the avgins were there before anyone crash landed onto the planet. maybe kakavasha is still the last of his kind. and because i can, maybe he's got some fun powers that i can use to make him get homoerotic with veritas but can also serve as a reason why sunday is hunting him down." really i just need to be able to make him suffer more than jesus for my own entertainment.

and finally, i love the thought of eve being jade's real name, so it's jelena and eve who end up traveling with kakavasha across the world. they're meant to be like the insurance girls, financial sector employees who have ended up sticking with him because of the monetary disasters he keeps causing everywhere he goes.

ONTO THE GOOD STUFF. IT'S FANFIC TIME.

"what the hell were you thinking, blondie?" veritas yells, crouching beneath a half destroyed wall as the top of it gets riddled with bullets, spinning the punisher around and firing backwards without looking. he doesn't have to; they drilled him on trajectories and distances and angles so much he doesn't even need to run the numbers, his hearing helping to pick up on where the bandits are and his hands naturally guiding his aim. it's not a guarantee that he hit where he wanted every time, but he hears the first three bodies drop like apples from a tree, while the fourth cries out in terror and moves in time to flee.

"i had a plan, veritas! no one was going to get hurt!" he's a damn good liar, that kakavasha, because veritas can smell the blood coming from his arm, enhanced senses tuned in to everything around him more than he would ever like to be. now is not the time to be overwhelmed by all that. covering his ears, veritas remains crouched as another explosion sounds off behind the two of them, and then he takes off. keeping the punisher close to his chest, he counts the footsteps he can hear as he runs, the way kakavasha's catch up to him.

he's taller, but kakavasha is faster. veritas has shorter strides despite having longer legs, it's just because of the way he runs while burdened with such a heavy weight. kakavasha barely touches the ground as he sprints though, especially when they aren't yet back to the sand that surrounds the sprawling metropolitan city of blue hour. an ever-growing town situated with a monopoly of the largest body of water in penacony means the people here certainly wouldn't struggle with shitty roads, and it also means it's a shitty place for them to have run into the fool.

ten more steps. five more. two- kakavasha overtakes him, and veritas finishes counting down the beats in his head. keeping perfect time with the fool's rhythm, he spins, firing a single shot at the explosive doll that's launched towards them. it hits perfectly, and even though whatever charge sparkle put in this one is stronger than the rest, it's still within the parameters veritas had set. kakavasha is out of the blast radius, and the punisher absorbs most of the force of the shockwave and the shrapnel from it, leaving veritas to deal with just a piece that nicks his side and the searing heat.

no time to waste after that; he turns right back around and keeps running, easily falling into step with kakavasha as they both time their steps with each others’. "you think you could have a plan to deal with this? you've heard about the fool before, right? you can't predict what's going to happen next, there isn't any game theory about the best course of action you can apply to this!"

"you predicted that bomb!" kakavasha points out, both yelling to be heard.

"yes, as a one time thing, not a broad overview of this entire scenario! there's no strategy to minimize harm!" he tugs kakavasha into a tight left turn, hearing footsteps from the direction they had been headed. "sparkle doesn't play by any games' rules, only her own. the only way we might be able to deal with her is to get rid of her stage and her audience, and that's this whole damn town!"

he'd have to be more of a fool than dominicus' latest assassin to miss the way that kakavasha looks at him, unnatural eyes wide and staring through those obnoxious pink glasses of him. "you sure know a lot about her," he says once they manage to stop for a moment to catch their breath.

veritas very nearly doesn't resist the urge to go and snap those glasses in half. "well, you heard what miss eve has said before. i'm quite well learned, for someone like me. i'm more worried that you don't seem to know anything at all about the people hunting you down!"

laughing nervously, the way kakavasha checks the ammo of his revolver is one of the most obvious tells veritas has ever seen, second only to the way his fist is always held behind his back as he talks monsters out of mayhem to spare others' lives. it's a tell that reminds him entirely too much of this martyr's opposite, and he forces the thought from his mind. "i'd really prefer it if they didn't have to do so, you know, it'd make this whole journey much more pleasant. after all, i've already got you here with me, right? no need for anyone else."

for all that veritas is well versed in practical manners, his body and mind honed to perfection, the heart and feelings continue to elude his grasp. he has no idea what emotion it is that overtakes him- rage? confusion? fear? something else entirely? all he knows is that he looks over at kakavasha, and that idiot is just grinning at him, just smiling as if he isn't hinting at everything that's been threatening to tear down veritas' entire world.

moving without thinking, dust fills the air as he slams kakavasha against the nearest wall, a hand gripped around his neck and not letting go. "what the fuck do you think you know about?" he yells, tightening his hold. "you- you fucking bastard, how long have you known?"

in the split second attack, kakavasha's glasses must have fallen to the ground, because he's met with the full force of that multicolored gaze that always cuts quick to his very core. "since we met," he wheezes, "i've known all along."

veritas drops him, watching kakavasha fall to sit on the ground as something unfamiliar writhes within his gut. "you knew? and you- you didn't do anything about it? how in the world could anyone, even you, make a gamble with such high stakes? just because you think you know me? were you just going to let me get close to you- no, not even you, were you going to play with jelena and eve's lives like that? just bet that i won't kill them, that they won't end up as more innocent casualties because of you, stampede?"

"hear what you're saying?" kakavasha sounds too smug, too fucking sure of himself, like he's already won this argument, and veritas turns around so he won't have to see the same expression on the bastard's face. "you care about them. you wouldn't let them get harmed in a fight, you're not about to go and hurt them yourself. you're a good person, veritas, and i trust you-"

"no," he spits, seething with vitriol bubbling up to the surface. "you're naive, stampede, you're a gambler and a fool-"

"funny," comes another voice, lilting and feminine, "i thought that i was the fool here."

the argument seems to be unanimously paused as both whip their heads around to stare at the newcomer, guns drawn and at the ready. she just laughs at that, raising her hands to show that she's not carrying any of the dolls she's been using to wreak havoc across blue hour. "easy, boys, no need for such hostility!"

veritas makes sure he's aiming right between her eyes. "what the fuck do you want?"

more giggles. "entertainment, of course! and this little lover's spat is more entertaining than what the rest of the town has become. those girls you mentioned spoiled most of the fun for me, taking away my grand audience and actors, so i had to look for something else!"

jelena and eve got the citizens away. veritas sighs with relief at the realization. there will still be piles of bodies and rubble to clean up, but the girls must've come up with some type of evacuation plan after the four got separated. his grip on the punisher loosens slightly, but not enough to not aim to kill. "so, did you get the entertainment you wanted?"

"of course! and even though you're entertaining, i know that you won't kill me, punisher, and your little blond puppy over there definitely won't, no matter how thrilling that would be to see! so, i'll see myself out, as i'm getting rather bored here. toodle-oo!"

even he can't see where she got the last doll from, considering he hadn't seen any with her, but maybe there is something to how lucky kakavasha seems to be when it only explodes into a cloud of colorful dust and bright lights. by the time he turns back, sparkle the fool is long gone. "damn it," he curses, lowering the punisher as reality sinks in. "damn it, damn it!"

kakavasha's touch is what snaps him out of it, a palm placed right over where he got hit earlier. he hisses at the sting, already reaching for one of the vials he keeps within the punisher. no more need to hide it if blondie's known all this time. "wait," he hears, and he pauses despite himself, unable to stop himself from indulging kakavasha's gentle request.

a warm sensation spreads from where kakavasha touches him, soothing his aches as it spreads through his nerves and veins, through to where blood has already started to clot now that he's no longer prolonging the healing by moving around. the pain was already negligible and nothing compared to what he's faced in the past, yet suddenly it's gone entirely. if he were to look, veritas is sure that he would be faced with the familiar sight of his flesh stitching itself back together until there's not even a single hint that he had been injured remaining. he doesn't look though, keeps his eyes trained away from the man next to him. "i- you-"

"we should meet back up with the girls," kakavasha says. he draws back after a few more seconds, his work apparently done. he picks something up from the ground; his sunglasses, veritas realizes, and it's only once he's got those back on that veritas can face him again.

grabbing onto his wrist as soon as he can get an opportunity to, veritas takes a few seconds to wait for words to start working for him again before speaking. "what the fuck did you just do?"

"oh, that? that's nothing! think of it as just a token of my appreciation, mkay?"

however fast kakavasha can run is not going to help him run away from this. "that's- you know that's not what i wanted to hear, blondie. you just healed me with nothing but a single touch. the only thing i know of that can do anything like that is the healing serum that asshole has been able to cook up for people like me. even someone like you could understand how suspicious that is, and i know i've got no leg to stand on for this, but you-"

"veritas." kakavasha doesn't want to leave him any room to disagree with him on this. "i said, we should meet up with the girls."

"they're safe, they can wait- wait." pieces click into place within his thoughts. they're still hasty and disorganized, but they show him the steps to take through the right method. "heal yourself first, you damn gambler."

"who, me? i'm not hurt, veritas!" he snatches his arm away the moment that veritas makes a move to yank his sleeve up, as if the two of them can't see the blood staining the outside of his jacket anyways.

it's a reaction he had been expecting. "you infuriate me, do you know that? i was going to ask you what you are, considering your little special ability, but i already know the most important answer to that. you're a martyr, and you won't heal yourself even though you can."

"it's just not effective on myself?" kakavasha tries to counter.

"you and i both know that isn't true, but if that's the way you want to play this, fine. let's go back to the girls, and i'll make sure that jelena guilts you into letting me bandage you up properly."

a faux gasp. he's brought them back to more familiar territory. playful sounding bickering that still holds its edge, conceding to his wants while using them against him. half casual conversation, half the strategy of a hostage negotiation. "you wouldn't dare!" kakavasha exaggerates. "i'm her favorite, you know."

he grabs ahold of the unsaid conversation. "no, you're eve's favorite. jelena likes me more than you, she says that i'm more reasonable." in bickering about the two of them, it's what goes unsaid that means the most. they can talk like this because nothing is going to change between the four of them. kakavasha isn't going to tell them anything, for better or for worse. "listen, gambler-"

"no need to say anything, veritas." his eyes don't look as odd when they're accompanied by a genuine smile. "we've all got our secrets, right?"

he looks away first, hauling the punisher back over his shoulder and letting the weight dig in uncomfortably against his back. "yes" he whispers, knowing kakavasha would still hear him, "yes we do."

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

idk if this is the type of question u wanted but how do u see the individual relationships between zan and flamberge vs zan and francisca? what is the sister lore according to u

YIPPEE TYSM FOR ASKING I WAS THINKING ABT THEM EARLIER

from canon we have that implication theyve drifted apart from what they used to be, theyre supposed to be a glued together trio but in game we hear all abt francisca n flamberge being close but no dialogue or screens regarding them n zan, meanwhile zan herself does show a lot of affection w the diabetes inducing "my darling franny and berge"

so going off of that, in general, i think zans enthusiasm for hyness no matter what hes doing started causing a drift between them, francisca does still hold some care for him n their faith but knows smth has been wrong for a long while n flamberge is getting spiteful abt it bc she has what r called standards, but zan is.a lot.its v hard to keep a positive opinion off someone whose standards r "he can hurt me if he wants i just dont want to be forgotten by him" n defends someone hurting you like its breathing no matter what hes doing, i dont think they dislike her tbh? but started just leaving her to her thing bc shed easily become upsetting to talk to, be it abt how hes treating them or how hes treating her, zan on the other hand is mostly unaware of this drift bc she spends sm time on work n thinks theyll accept his right to do anything to them since he saved them someday+shes the kinda person who after a fight just.acts like it didnt happen.she picked this up from hyness n again they just need to learn to accept it ! she believes theyre fine n clings into pretending nothing is changing they just need little reminders from her

but you didnt ask for general info so lets go into more detail !

zan n flamberge naturally butt heads even in a good day, zans the loyal devoted worker while flamberge can n will slack on the job bc its boring, zan follows rules while flamberge breaks them, lots of petty fights the jammerjabs cover their ears while walking nearby, but already prior for a long while n during KSA its.bad.very verrry bad.nearly all of the time they talk they start fighting abt smth regarding hyness, hes overworking them, hes being violent, hes clearly unsafe to be around, flamberge doesnt think any of his sad excuses work for hurting them (frankly her biggest concern is how its affecting francisca) n that drives zan absolutely insane.they WILL start screaming at each other over it n then solve nothing bc zan wont take anything for an answer.and part of their fights start bc berge is actually.v concerned abt her.like yeah shes RLY pissing her off w her apologism specially when frans safety is involved but they grew up together n zans just sad to watch.she cant help but bring up hes hurting her bc god why does she just accept it? so ultimately.zan thinks shes kind of stupid and is being stubborn, but still thinks of her as being close to shes just in denial, while berge ultimately focus her hatred on hyness instead of zan, who she just pities.bc zan says all that hes allowed to hurt them if he wants to yet when hes mad she pushes her sisters behind her to protect them.so odd.

francisca on the other hand, again, seems to have some passive acceptance of the situation, she wont defend hyness like zan, but she stays devoted n attached to their past together, so zans.fine w her.i think shes actually quite soft, reminding her the Dark Lord Will Reward Them With Paradise For Their Efforts ! while patting her on the head, fran on the other hand.is also uncomfortable around her, like yeah hyness used to be kind but god the stuff she excuses and justifies is just.a lot.but she hates seeing her and berge fight as well someone just give this girl the version of her family she has in her head back

tl dr fucked up in here ! youd assume theyre latina or smth from all the abuse apologism n issues caused by irresponsible parenting

(also its late if this doesnt make sense sorry </3)

[somecallmejohn]

would you prefer a wish 2 or a wish series?

Honestly, I’d love a Wish series that focuses on Asha helping the people of Rosas make their wishes come true. Like… just a simple episodic show where Asha has to figure out how to help with an overly complicated and specific wish or she grants a wish and it goes wrong or sumn and she and the teens have to solve the issue somehow. A pretty basic show about the wacky adventures of Rosa’s very own fairy godmother.

Idk if anyone remembers or has even seen it, but there was this show on Disney XD called 7D, that focused on the 7 dwarves before or after the Snow White story (it’s never clarified when I think) and each episode was about the 7D helping the Queen with some wacky situation she’s in, usually because of the show’s villainous couple (a witch and a wizard whose names I don’t remember cuz it’s been like 5+ years since I last watched it). So my ideal Wish series would be pretty much like 7D, but maybe with a little more.

Other stuff I’d add would be more focus on the Seven teens, like maybe each one could have one or two episodes focused on them, definitely some world building, some more info on Asha’s backstory(Rosas is relatively new so maybe she and her family moved there when her father first got sick in hopes of the sickness getting cured at the kingdom where wishes come true), some Amaya lore as well, I’d also personally add a romance subplot focused on Asha and Simon and maybe a subplot on Simon making his wish, becoming a noble knight, come true the right way and maybe him dealing with the guilt and trauma that he might have from betraying his friends and also being possessed/brainwashed, but honestly that’s just me being biased.

Despite the show being episodic for the most part, I wouldn’t mind if it evolved the characters more and even had like a continuous storyline in the background about Magnifico trying to escape the mirror which could either end up in his complete demise or even redemption, maybe they could flesh him out more and show more of his backstory. In the novelization it’s implied that he’s bitter towards Star because it showed up for Asha when she needed it about Saba’s wish, but not for him probably when he lost his family, I think it’d be interesting if they explored that too.

For the animation style I would have liked either something similar to the classic 2D Disney style or something like the Tangled the Series style(although not as stylized). Actually I would want this style for the show (Art by Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay)

And if they are to keep the movie’s musical aspect they better ditch whoever did the movie’s soundtrack(even if I liked it) and bring those who worked on the Tangled the Series soundtrack.

[new-tella-us]

We got outfits! I call these the “Kiss outfits” as they would appear the day of the kiss scene.

Now I could look you in the PFP and tell you that there was a super important, lore reason why each run has a different outfit. And I would be LYING to you. The main reason I did this was that I realized that my drawings of the Matthew and James kiss scenes had different outfits and I just went “Fuck it, why not?”

But this wouldn’t be a Tella drawing without some form of logic so here we go!

James- Now I made this outfit before I came up with a reason however the plaid skirt was kinda giving academic so I threw in some stockings for a semi-mature but still stylish vibe and now she looks like she could be going to the library to study then going out with some friends. I also put strategy into the placement of her iconic blue bow. For James (and Sam cause I ran out of ideas) the idea was that it’s on the neck because he would take the bow off to get to the neck. Also I made the top half of the outfit easy to just slide (or in the case of the shirt, zip) off to keep in line with the canon of James being so horny that he takes off your entire shirt. Idk, the idea of keeping that bit of canon sounds funny to me.

Erik- The outfit I gave Mika in the Erik is a cute, flowy but also kinda short and sexy outfit. Again, they are playing a vicious flirting game but Mika’s actual flirting is piss poor in comparison to a literal sex demon whose mother has been training him in the art of seduction. The only ammunition this woman has are the clothes she has in her closet so she is going all out. The top is easily removable by simply undoing the rope around her neck from the back and pulling the top down once again to keep in line with the canon that Erik is the second brother so horny as to take off your entire top. The blue bow was placed in her hair (Same with Damien but serving a slightly different style purpose) so when he’s trying to run his fingers through Mika’s hair, he takes the bow, keeping it in line with canon.

Sam- I went with the custom character trait that I gave Sam, that he appreciates when someone can pull off a simple look rather than having to rely on heavier makeup or fancy clothes to look pretty. As for why Mika chose to wear this; after she made food for the boys, instead of directly looking for one, she decided to go work out and took a plate of food since she saw Sam going in a similar direction. Unlike the other two, the top is not easily removable, I didn’t have to make it that way because Sam really only sticks to the neck and chest. For the bow placement, it is exactly like James’s Route once again because I ran out of ideas.

Matthew- This is outfit number two that I technically made before thinking of this stuff. And it’s extra old because that outfit was an alt outfit I made for Mika back when I first designed her. Matthew just happened to be the person who got it as I drew his kiss scene first and used the alt outfit. But it still fits when you think about it. Matthew likes cute things but his whole arc is being cute and optimistic but not childish. That outfit is similar, it’s a cute outfit but a child wouldn’t wear it. As for the bow placement, it’s a two in one! Cause that bow is keeping the top together. Untie it and b o o m, the top gets a little undone, making to true to canon.

Damien- Now my boy Damien probably got the sweetest looking dress. I imagine that Damien would be a fan of the “simple but cute” style so long, flowy dresses and light makeup. It also is giving “cinnamon roll” dress so very fitting for the cinnamon roll route. The other reason is that, as I’ve said before, my version of Damien likes to copy his brothers and this outfit got a little bit of everyone, it’s simple like how Sam likes outfits, it’s cute like how Matthew likes outfits, the bow is in the hair like the Erik Route and the color is yellow which is James’ color. So it just seemed like the perfect outfit.

[phightingaus]

I got an epic the musical x phighting au. This all started from when I wanted to animate windforce and the lost temple trio (scythe, broker and medkit) to ruthless from the ocean saga. Okay context out of the way

Am gonna yap now

So obviously scythe, broker and medkit are all repsent odys different aspects of how he grows through the musical, medkits focused song would have to be the monster (rawr, rawr, rawr) and keep your friends close. Brokers focused songs would be the underworld and he also opens the wind bag in windforces face =3, scythe gets the most focus, with suffering, Odysseus, no longer you and 600 strike

All three would share different beast and get in the water

Vine staff is penelope (and yes a scythestaff au) she pretty much acts the same as Penelope in the musical expect she's in the church idk why yet

We also have the SWOF

Windforce as posiden and yes this does mean, BANHAMMER GETS STABBED IN THE EYES or eye idk

Darkheart as Aries

Lumina as Hepheastus

Ice dagger as both Aolis and Apollo so you can blame ice dagger for having the windbag

Aphrodite as Aphrodite

Venom shank as Hera, only reason is I can see him acting out Heras part in God games

Fire brand as Zeus

Flipside as Athena, only for God games

Banhammer as Polythemis

Thersis as Thersis (the profet)

Lore wise am not sure how the trio ended up getting into the wakey higkis but I do know that they end up banished and obviously piss off windforce after blinding her son, most likely to get the broker out of jail, they end up in black Rock and come across ice dagger whose all like y'all wanna play a game koolio take this bag with the strom inside and he watches as someone opens the wind bag alerting windforce to their location she obviously goes to get revenge and ends up oofing alot of the churches crew? Maybe, but they summon ghost walker and he allows them to talk to the soul of the profit who tells medkit your a monster like subspace and oh yeah Scythe your gonna get a lot worse, after fleeing they end up on a boat and come across serins who try and trick Scythe but she relies that it isn't vine staff and pulls a ahaha uno reverse card on the serins, they end up following the thunder saga expect they don't go through Syclia and Munty so it's straight to thunder bringer and valk and dom find out firebrand is back and so they go to find out that all three of them have been banished from the crossroads, so Valk and dom go welp how can we get them back and firebrand brings God games, so it still goes the same and am still end up releasing the 3 of them. By this time Scythe, broker and medkit are floating at sea and run into Charybdis and they also make it back with windforce waiting in the Horizon, get in the water and 600 strike insuse, with scythe stabing windforce, don't ask. Anyways so we finally see the real vine staff with the last saga going the same skipping over hold em down and I can't help but wonder. Ending the au with no more church. Blame scythe

I am open to more ideas

Next Post (looks like it was posted before this one. Oops-)

I remember briefly discussing an AU like this in Bogcom. It's cool seeing it here, too!

Reusing characters/discarding certain role is based as heck, especially when you're combining inphernals with a modernized take on human greek mythology. And so is Windforce/Banhammer's roles. They fit really well!

Heck- maybe Ghostwalker could be the prophet. Considering how quiet and mysterious he is in canon, it could work.

No Scylla? Aw...understandable lol. Though if the skins were canon, then I still stand by my choice of Sunkenhammer for that.

The mental image of Flipside having to desperately convince their fellow inphernals to let the main trio back after just meeting their grandfather again is crazy, but in a good way.

No son lol. Just Vine 👍

[storyofmychoices]

Blades 2 Inside Choices Blog: Blades of Light and Shadow 2

We’re so happy to be back in action with the gang we know and love! Where does Blades of Light and Shadow 2 pick up after the first book’s ending?

Emi: I will say that we don't pick up where you're expecting. 

Kathleen: Unless you were expecting to get hucked out the back of the plot truck and onto the action highway at 80mph. (Fury Road theme plays)

Lil: (is overtaken by the Two Towers theme)

Emi: But rest assured, our original four love interests are back and dealing with their own challenges. 

Lil: And they’re definitely going to need help with those challenges whether you’re romancing them or not. Though we support all variations of ‘mancers here. Mono-, multi-, and necro- . 

Emi: Also they get some new looks that can best be described as "sleeves are B.S."

Jay: Don’t forget “badass pirate coat important”.

What kind of new main characters will we meet in the sequel? Or perhaps, any new love interests?

Jay: There is a strange but familiar hooded figure…whose hotness level was of great discussion.

Lil: He’s very constructive with his feedback. And a monster from Book 1 returns, but not in a way you expect. 

Emi: I think we all know I'm obsessed with Valax. I mean, she's a badass purple lady who only has one sleeve. Obviously that makes her my wife.

Tom: EMI YOU HAVE TOO MANY WIVES!!!

Kathleen: Idk I'm still mad that hot scorpion lady didn't win the monster contest.

Lil: Sky whale supremacy how dare. 

Kathleen: Okay I am excited about the dwarves and goblins though. New dwarf friend is just A+ chaos babe and I love her.

Emi: Honestly though, my fave character is the one who's "head empty, no thoughts, falls over a lot."

Making this sequel has been a labor of love. Does the book team have any must-tell stories/bloopers during production?

Jay: There was an accidental floating dwarf? And too many battles with code. Writers, please don’t do it to me again. I cannot take it. The while loop will win.

Kathleen: During one of my editorial passes I had to give Emi a note like "Okay when we first meet the Big Bad maybe we should use that moment to establish that she's really imposing/scary instead of just going off about how hot she is."

Emi: I may have made too many Aerin memes that are now weekly traditions for our team.

Danielle: I was instructed to design a character with “Vision as a hotness bar” as a guide, I ignored them and used Jeff Bridges instead 😏. 

Jay: Danielle also came up with some incredible filenames, my favorite being “tentacle_monster_buff”.

Danielle: It’s accurate, is it not?

Are there any elements that you are particularly proud of?

Tom: The Shadow Realm was fun to make! Think the Upside Down, but more purple. And to make all the awesome new weapons and armor work with the outfits took 150 unique assets! You’re welcome.

Danielle: My first full book!

Lil: The lore guide for Blades was 60 single-spaced pages before we started adding things that came up during active production. I’m really pleased with how much actually ended up being discoverable in the book itself, so be sure to explore every nook and cranny of Morella and beyond! Because they are filled with beauty and chaos. 

Emi: I cannot tell you how many spreadsheets we made to keep track of things. I mean, the outline alone was 100 pages!

Jay: My code built 😭. And that my production planning got it to you a little earlier than y’all had anticipated hehe.

At the end of the first book, we seemed to have wiped out the forces of evil for at least a day or so. What kind of dangers will we face in the second edition?

Lil: Evil never sleeps y’all. It gets its coffee from Aerin. 

Kathleen: (Aerin, walking up to the counter): "I have a large non-fat birthday cake latte with caramel drizzle and four shots of espresso for (squints at label) ...Emile?"

Lil: In all seriousness, you’re really getting it from all sides in this book. There’s rival factions, shifting leadership, societal upheaval, and monsters. So. Many. Monsters. (Thank you for giving us the Shadestalker, by the way. Can’t wait for you to meet the beefy boy.) 

Kathleen: One cool scary thing about book 2 is that THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL (like instead of you and your buds racing against bad guys to collect the magic things, you've now got a villain single-mindedly hunting you down so she can steal your <REDACTED> for use in her evil plans).

Emi: Kathleen may have called me out for it but our Big Bad is hot! Both literally and figuratively!

How much do you love QA?

Lil: SO MUCH.

Emi: Pour one out for our poor QA folks who have had to test what is the most complex book we have ever done! You are the real heroes!

Jay: QA peeps are my saviors!! Their work alone cures my anxiety.

Kathleen: Gawd I would be lost without QA my grammar is a disaster

Erin: Everyone on the Blades team is so wonderful to work with. I also tested Book 1, and to be able to contribute to Book 2 means everything to me. It’s absolutely a labor of love.

We know that years of hard work and passion went into this book. What would the Blades team like the readers to take away from this sequel?

Emi: So Kathleen and I actually helped to brainstorm the entire Blades world back when it first came into being, so it felt like coming full circle to be back and expanding it in new and fun ways. I was already in love with all of these characters and they're even closer to my heart now. I can't wait for you all to see what we've come up with!

Jay: Y’all better like it! This book has taken years off my life. *lies down on floor* (But seriously, we’re as excited about Blades 2 as all of you and hope that it brings as much joy to you as it did for us to make. I think the best word to describe the team as we wait for September 1st is giddy.)

Danielle: I hope you like our art :).

Tom: If you don’t, please keep it to yourself, artists are fragile :’} 

Lil: I was one of the few people who was new at Choices when I began working on this book, and it was truly an honor to see this thing come together. These are the minds that brought you The Crown & the Flame, The Cursed Heart, Wake the Dead, and the first Blades. It was amazing to go from watching them work as a fan to taking this epic journey together. 

Kathleen: THE REAL VILLAIN WAS THE IMPERIALISM WE MADE ALONG THE WAY

Lastly, how much does the team love Aerin?

Kathleen: I DON'T love Aerin he KIDNAPPED my WIFE.

Danielle: Which one…

Emi: Aerin is my sweet baby boi with a little dose of evil. He should be protected at all costs but also really needs to go to therapy. I live for the angst of him and Raine though. It's so juicy.

Danielle: Aerin has caused me, personally, a lot of pain.

Lil: Really, one of the fun things about the book is you can decide how much pain Aerin causes you. Unlike us.

Jay: He haunts my dreams and my Wednesdays.

Danielle: Livid and sad and livid and sad

Thank you team for taking us through the fantastical production journey of the Blades of Light and Shadow 2! We can’t wait to dive in and meet up with the gang. Launch day is so close!! 

Thank you, readers, for supporting us and our book teams!

<3 The Choices Community Team