#if only to justify elements of her design

[stil-lindigo]

ashes to ashes.

a short comic about the day Ash was born.

Ash's story

Red and Wolf's story

notes:

--

all my other comics

store

[youtube-fucker]

Yeah I think I'll just make a separate blog for this stuff now... but in the meantime!

Look! It's a kid! They're having fun! They have their tongue out! They're winking! They're being silly!

Surely nothing bad would happen to them, right?

...

You wouldn't hurt them, would you?

...

Would you?

Would you hurt them?

Are you sure you wouldn't?

W O U L D Y O U ?

W H Y ' D . . . Y O U . . . D O . . . I T . . . ?

Anyways! Credit to @howlonomy once again! I hope you enjoyed... whatever the fuck this is!

[loz-furbies]

Zelda ages based on when their games came out. Welcome to the team EoW Zelda!

Characters and design thoughts under cut:

For starters, I did a similar Zelda piece a few years ago and ran into the problem that I can't really draw anything else than anime teen girls, which is kind of a problem in a drawing where half the characters are above 20 and their age differences are the whole point. And in addition almost everyone is supposed to be royalty with very similar clothes too. But in my defense, in general it can be pretty hard to tell the ages of 25 to 40 year old anime women anyway.

I needed a reference for the body proportions in order to even get started, so I quickly thought "who is an anime woman who doesn't look like a teenager", and used Yor's character sheet for assistance. The younger characters' proportions are a little inconsistent, since I couldn't choose if I would look at realistic growth chart or go with the anime look (where teens and children are often shorter than they would be in real life) so the result is this weird hybrid.

Four Swords (December 2, 2022) & Four Swords Adventures (March 18, 2004) - Chronologically they are different Zeldas even though they use the same promo art/character design, so I used the promo art design for the original FS Zelda and drew the FSA Zelda based on her sprite. There's not much to these designs, they have very little going on in terms of story or personality to use as inspiration and their character design doesn't offer much anything original when compared to the other more well known Zeldas either. Their only distinct element is the big red hair bow, but I thought it would look too childish when they're supposed to be in their twenties here.

Minish Cap (November 4, 2004) - There's not a lot MC Zelda that I could use for inspiration. But then I remembered that a while ago I wrote about how the pointy hat Queen Ambi wears should be used more often, so I thought I should put my money where my mouth is and draw it here, since Zelda does wear a red cap for a couple seconds in MC. In general the MC Zelda and both FS Zeldas are at a little awkward age for this picture, since they're too old for youthful child designs but not really old enough for more mature queenly designs either.

Skyward Sword (November 18, 2011) - Her design is based on her concept design, which I assume is meant to be her casual look and not the ceremonial costume she wears in the game.

Ocarina of Time (November 21, 1998) - I decided that age-wise she makes the cut of when I start using updos. Why do the Zeldas have such similar canon hairstyles anyway, it was surprisingly boring to work with them. Still not sure about the curls though, my fancy dress design artbook that I used for inspiration had so many cute curly hairstyles but I couldn't really use any here because I worried the characters would become unrecognisable. But since OoT Zelda had some curls in her "sideburns" she fell victim here.

Hyrule Warriors (August 14, 2014) - HW Zelda has a distinct enough design from the other Zeldas that it gives a lot of elements to work with, though her age here limits it a little since she's too young for bikini armour. Also because HW is a spin off, I also considered including the Cadence of Hyrule Zelda, but that led to the realisation that it would have opened the doors to CDI Zelda as well. Which I guess would have been fine, but this is already a pretty wide drawing full of adults, so while a Cadence of Hyrule Zelda would have been easy to fit on the front row, I couldn't justify adding even more adults just for the CDI games. So only HW is included because I've played it and actually like it.

Zelda 1 (February 21, 1986) - The original Zelda is at an age where it's a little awkward how there's little difference between her (38 years old) and OoT Zelda (25). But I couldn't think of any anime that would help me as reference here, and I don't think she's old enough to have that "this character is getting old" wrinkle under her eye (you know the one).

Echoes of Wisdom (September 26, 2024) - I think she looks a bit too old here to be a zero-days-old newborn but work with me here.

Breath of the Wild (March 3, 2017) - She's actually at the age where her mum died, poor girl. She's very refreshing to work with since her look is so different from the other Zeldas.

A Link to the Past (November 21, 1991) & A Link between Worlds (November 22, 2013) - Originally I also had the Oracles Zelda in this since she does have a unique design, but then again I consider the Oracles Link to be the same as in aLttP which ought to apply to Zelda as well, plus the design isn't unique in any interesting way and is just a combination of the OoT & aLttP designs, so in the end I just gave the Oracles Zelda sprite's hair buns to aLbW Zelda. Overall having to use the essentially same design for both aLttP and aLbW Zelda wasn't much fun, especially when neither really offers anything notable in terms of story or personality, but at least they're pretty far apart when it comes to age.

Twilight Princess (November 19, 2006) - I haven't played her game so I don't know a lot about her (other than reading the manga which didn't give me anything to work with either) and she's also close to her canon age (?) here so she ended up looking pretty similar to her canon design.

Spirit Tracks (December 7, 2009) - This was a tough one because technically ST Zelda does have a lot of elements to her story and character that could work for a redesign, but not really for the purposes of this picture. Anything train related is more of Link's thing, and anything ghost related doesn't really fit either since she's not supposed to be a ghost at this age. And as for the Phantom, I got the impression that while she learned to appreciate it, she didn't exactly like using it, and that personality-wise she would prefer not to go on another similar adventure. So In the end I just replaced the regular armour parts many Zeldas have in their designs with the Phantom armour and used the ghost palette for the rest of her look, and I kind of like the result. Her personality looks a little out of character though but I couldn't resist the opportunity to draw this with Grandma Tetra.

Wind Waker (December 13, 2002) - I haven't played WW so I'm not sure how accurate this is, but drawing her with the pirate design definitely added some much needed variety to this picture. I really like her twirly hairstyle in canon, but I also really wanted to draw her with short hair, so it had to go. Maybe ST Zelda can style her hair in a twirl when she gets older to compensate?

The Adventure of Link (January 14, 1987) - Really don't know what happened here, not particularly happy with the end result. I prefer to draw the Zelda 2 Zelda with her sprite design because just reusing the OG Zelda design is boring, but I really should have kept it closer to that since now she's practically unrecognisable.

[dollgxtz]

Why’d you write Sylus so crazy? You’re turning him into one of those booktok men and he’s anything BUT that. I just don’t get it :/

Hi anon! I know my yandere!Sylus story is disturbing. And while yes, I do take great pleasure in writing such topics such as kidnapping n such, I genuinely just wanted to write a dark Sylus fic exploring a different version of him where his desires and upbringing lead him to hurt even the people he loves. I love tragic characters and stories!

Think about if you watch a horror movie. You know murdering and killing is bad and yet you still watch it for entertainment, to see what happens!

By the way, this isn’t to argue or call you out anon, just hoping to shed some light on my perspective as the author. I love when people ask about my work, and I’m happy to answer regardless of the context! My ask box is always open if any of you have questions!

Below is a breakdown of some of the complexities I wanted to portray!

Yandere!Sylus Breakdown

I envisioned him as a deeply complex character—not necessarily in his emotions, because yandere!Sylus always knows exactly what he wants—but in the way he rationalizes his actions and interprets his “wrongdoings.”

On the surface, his actions are undeniably wrong. Kidnapping a girl, forcing her into a life of isolation, and desiring to have children with her while keeping her away from everyone she’s ever loved is, by all moral standards, reprehensible. However, Yandere!Sylus doesn’t see it that way. To him, these actions are justifiable as long as they fulfill a purpose in his grand design.

He operates with a calculated mindset, never doing anything unless he believes it will ultimately benefit him, even if it means causing immense suffering. The fact that the reader might hate him only reinforces his resolve; he views it as a challenge, something to be overcome or “fixed” rather than a deterrent.

This doesn’t mean he doesn’t love reader, he does. But he is inherently selfish at his core since that was what was needed to survive. I intend to break this down further!

In yandere!Sylus’s twisted logic, he genuinely believes that if he can get the reader pregnant, she will inevitably develop a bond with the child. He sees this as a means to an end—a way to “tame” her, to anchor her to him emotionally.

He is convinced that motherhood will soften her resistance, leading her to accept the life he has meticulously crafted for them. To him, this is not just a strategy but a deeply held belief that love, however twisted, can be cultivated through shared ties, like the birth of a child.

This version of Sylus is driven by a yearning for the idealized version of happiness that society often romanticizes—the “big happy family” with “children running around” and a “loving wife.” It’s a vision that he clings to desperately, not because he understands it in the way most people do, but because he was denied such love and stability as a child.

Sylus grew up in a world where love was scarce and survival was paramount, as depicted in the original story. This lack of nurturing has warped his understanding of love and family, leading him to believe that these things can be engineered or forced into existence.

In blending elements of the original story into this version of Sylus and the reader, I wanted to show the core aspects of his character while exploring new dimensions of his psyche. However, I didn’t want it to be an exact replication, as the reader in this version isn’t the canonical main character from the original universe. Instead, she represents an alternative narrative where Sylus’s obsessions and desires manifest differently, yet still retain the disturbing intensity that defines his character! ^o^

All in all, if this story isn’t for you. Don’t read it please. I write for a certain demographic of people who enjoy twisted media. It’s fiction after all! No one is truly getting hurt. I hope this helps with your confusion anon!

[knight-a3]

Heavenbound AU

Hazbin Masterpost

Lucifer the Fallen Angel; the King of Demons; the Scapegoat

There is a lot of lore and history to go over with this one. Let me teach you a thing or two about the bible!

Notes under the cut.

--Design notes--

Between dolls, snakes, apples, circuses, ducks, etc, there were just too many motifs/thematic elements to shove onto just Lucifer. So, I streamlined and distributed. Lucifer is goat themed, Lilith is snake themed. Charlie is a mix of the two. I also use this to partly to imply that "the Devil" is not solely Lucifer. But humans mistake various different demons as one character. Lucifer is just the one who gets blamed for everything. That's part of why he's a goat; he's a scapegoat.

Goats: There was a Jewish practice during Yom Kippur to place sin onto "scapegoats" and release them into the wilderness to basically rid the people of their sin. Specifically, they were sent to "Azazel", meaning "remove from or separate from god", which refers to a desolate place.

Goats as a demonic symbol comes primarily from pagan influences rather than the Bible. I had a couple goats before settling on sheep instead, and they're just silly guys. They're not evil.

Apples- I reduced this because I think it would be more fitting for Adam and Eve. Both ate the fruit, and it didn't make them evil or anything. Also, the fruit is never stated to specifically be an apple. That only happened due to how language evolved. But I still like how his coat kinda resembles an apple core...so it can stay.

Doll- I know Charlie is meant to resemble a porcelain doll. And in canon gets it from her dad. But I don't really understand why, so I took it away from him and gave it to Lilith, since she was created and placed on earth like a doll.

King- He does not have any real authority beyond his power as a fallen seraphim. It's basically a prison, and even Lucifer is caged. Nobody bothers to respect him. So the "crown" on his hat resembles a gate or cell bars.

Ducks- I never understood the choice to associate Lucifer with ducks. And thematically, I can't really justify it. He can still like ducks, I guess. But it won't be a design motif.

Full demon: Since I'm committing to his goat theme, I figured he could have multiple horns instead of wings. He lost his wings when he fell. As an angel, his symbol was a star. As a demon, it got flipped upside down to represent a falling star. That's the pentagram. In images of the satanic goat, it often had the pentagram on its forehead, so I included that.

Angel: I want angels to look more human, so that's that.

--Wings: Seraphim are described as having 3 sets of wings. Rather than deal with all that or even try to figure out the anatomy of that, I just gave them three sets of primary feathers, which sort of imitates the 6-winged look but is easier for me to wrap my head around and draw. Also, "biblically accurate angels" aren't as biblically accurate as you think.

--Halos: I have a specific idea for how angel halos work, but I plan to get to that in a different post. For now, just know that seraphim have two halos for a reason.

--Star: A pentagram is an upside down star. It represents the fall of the morning star. So his angel symbol is a star.

Name: Helel, Lucifer, Samael

As an angel, his name was Helel, then the elder seraphim renamed him Samael after he fell, so they could pretend they're different people. He took on the name Lucifer himself after his fall.

Helel: Helel is the Hebrew word that was translated as the latin word lucifer. Helel means "shining one", while lucifer means "light bringer" or "morning star"; lucifer can also be a verb that basically means to light a match.

Lucifer: Instead of translating the word into an English equivalent, Helel was translated as the latin term, lucifer. The word lucifer is used only once in some translations of the Bible, found in the book of Isaiah, but not as a name. Lucifer was often used as an epithet for the "star" Venus, and was used to represent pride because it rose and fell before the sun. Hence why lucifer also means "morning star". In Isaiah 14:12, The king of Babylon is being called the morning star as it falls from heaven. The capitalization of lucifer was possibly a misinterpretation by the translators.

Samael is, in some Jewish stories, the husband of Lilith. So I found a way to use all three names(Helel, Lucifer, and Samael). It means something along the lines of "severity of god" or "poison or venom of god". It is also not in the Bible.

Backstory

(Feb 21, 2025- changed the flame color to blue instead of red for lore reasons. Updated title lines.)

[vyoleya]

hihi here's some more stuff of my complicated DR au!! here's a big ramble + a doodle of their designs

annd here's a more detailed + more dramatic version of them :)

okay.. huge ramble/lore dump under the cut. you have been warned.

in a desperate attempt to find his parents, arin ended up joining ras and becoming shattered. arin justified everything that he (and ras by extension) was doing all in service to reverse the merge. his last mission was supposed to be killing lloyd that way ras could become the new conduit, only for arin to discover what ras's true intentions were with his master. (which was nothing short of a celestial takeover.) arin never wanted to kill anyone, especially not lloyd, and feeling very ashamed of his actions, he purposefully attempted to rile lloyd up and give him clear openings for lloyd to kill him instead.

lloyd, not really wanting to kill arin & not taking the bait, kept trying to get him to come home. arin's whole plan backfired as arin got more and more desperate and riled up for lloyd to kill him, and ended up doing object shatterspin which killed lloyd .

in his last moments of consciousness, lloyd clung to the fleeting life inside of himself and (somewhat) merged with his element . due to being a conduit and having carried divine energy by not only the source dragons, but also the FSM, lloyd was able to sort of become a divine guardian . (ill talk more about him later but this is just a summary lol)

lloyd then used his power of life to protect arin, essentially making arin (very reluctantly) immortal. (the drawing of arin is what he looks like when he's close to death, as lloyd expends a lot of energy to keep him alive, and his 'guardian angel' wings become visible, and everyone can kinda feel lloyd's presence watching everything. hence the eye)

sora, after finding out that arin was responsible for killing lloyd, who she saw as a father, she began to believe that the arin she knew died once he became shattered. eventually, after many encounters where she'd beg for him to be 'good' again, she began to search for ways to kill him and free lloyd's spirit.

they both started wearing these wooden masks with painted moons on them, very much inspired by the whole 'the fool who let the moon go' post. arin started wearing his first after he first started getting serious injuries that weren't being healed very quickly. arin found that sora preferred him wearing it, bc then she didn't have to see her best friend's face in her enemy.

arin goes by the name 'z' whenever he can, based on the scar on his cheek that actually looks like the letter z in ninjargan! (he also does because he believes that going by arin is an insult to who he used to be.)

sora, with the help of jordana, ended up tracking down the reversal blade. because if she can reverse lloyd ever dying and arin becoming immortal, then with lloyd's conduit powers, they can stop ras's plans and Everything Will Be Okay Again!

she was planning on taking both herself and jordana to the past, but due to the merge being reversed sooner than planned, sora didn't have time to take jordana with her, leaving her behind.

after… a lot of nonsense on z's end (like the world ending, but him being the sole survival due to lloyd's energy… yikes) (oh and also him recreating the merge despite everything thanks to lloyds conduit-ness + the oni and dragon in him) and he also ends up in the past. now both sora and z are wandering around in the past trying to stop the world from ending :)

(to make it more dramatic, neither of them knows that the other survived. it's a very big jumpscare when they run into eachother.)

anyway. i may draw them more + post drabbles about them on ao3! so .... consider this your backstory guide to my overly complicated au . if you read this far then congrats !! (because yes, this is just the backstory)

(also if anyone has any questions feel free to ask .. . it'd be fun to answer them)

doodles and jokes here !

[dicenete]

I repainted his face more times than probably necessary but something always caught my eye and still does, but it is done. is done. It's fine. xD IkePri Tagteam:

@scummy-writes @goustmilk @solacedeer @m-mmiy @mxrmaid-poet

@pawnkyyy @ludivineikewolf @violettduchess @floydsteeth @wistfulwanderingone

@sh0jun @lorei-writes

A little bit of rambling of him below the break, spoilers (Keith's route, and little bit of Nokto's route) and such :0 so you have been warned.

TL;DR: I enjoyed the route despite its questionable elements. MC is too forgiving at times, but other than that, romanctic route was cute. Licht, the third wheel, was funny but sad.

Okay first about Keith's visual design: I really love how his design is the most asymmetrical from the suitors. Like the jacket and the vest he has. The jacket is very interestingly layered, almost like you aren't sure which part is the main thing and what is the accent. The green or the gold? The host or the alter? : D Same with his vest. His duality is battling in his clothing too hahaha

Keith's route was interesting. I had heard lots of differing opinions about it and I had my own reservations.

One mainly about the portrayal of DID and how the route does it. First things first: I'm not an expert at all. I won't even humor the idea that I had any say in anything regarding it. But overall, it could have been worse? Of course it might be very extreme in the way Alter Keith is hostile towards Host Keith. And of course you shouldn't take this as the only way the alter systems work. But as I said: I'm not an expert.

I had heard that the dramatic route follows Alter Keith and romantic route host Keith. I picked the romantic one. I had my personal reasons for that tho. But aside from that, it was nice to be with Keith that who struggled with self-worth. It was nice to see him grow as a character and find that strength to stand up for himself. (The fact that the host Keith seems to think that he is inferior to Alter Keith and that people would prefer the alter over him. The amount of stress that will bring. )

Keith's uncle was your very generic villain/antagonist without any real depth. He was a spoiled noble and so on. But since this was more about Keith inner journey I thought it was fine that it was like that.

The drugging scene… Well. That's a… a topic. Hmm… Host Keith himself felt very guilty about it and was full of remorse. Not that it was his choice to do it. Alter Keith well… He might justify it because he was gathering information about a rumor that might endanger his home country and people if it were true. I kinda can see where he is coming from, but also...IT CERTAINLY WAS DESTROYING OF TRUST. Like that time when Nokto "accidently" gets MC drunk. but hey ho. Since there is limited time frame for the chapters, I do understand they can't really jam all the things there, but I wanted Belle be more angry with him with Alter Keith for longer.

Maybe that's what bugs me sometimes. That Belle/Emma/MC is sometimes too forgiving and too much of a doormat. It works in routes like Yves and Licht (from the routes I have played, Leon seems like the most respectable gentleman too), because they are not being insulting towards her. I would even think that she works with Clavis, tho I would love to see him with someone who shares his chaotic gremlin energy. But with characters like Chev, Silvio or Alter Keith the their "power" doesn't feel balanced. MC seems to be completely on their mercy even if they stand up to them in some way. (Gilbert is another can of nasty things.)(With Chev's route, well, that is also a rambling for another time. But I haven't finished his route yet. so I will keep my ramblings to myself for now.)

Is Keith's route more about acceptance then? Accepting the good and the bad of a person? Possibly. I would think that is a good way to put it. Both Keiths have good and bad sides. And it seems that they are working on them.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Last post you talked about your ideal version of canon, I was wondering could you share it with us? If not, that's ok

Oh man, I could go on about my dream version of canon for ages! I've talked about various aspects of it on here with stuff like my "sugar" posts on Nino and Alya, but the broad strokes are:

Serialized story where it's basically one large narrative told in chunks

A true teams setup where Adrien, Marinette, Alya, and Nino feel like this amazing, tight friend group who grows into a found family as they get older, giving platonic and romantic love more equal billing

No guardian order, just have it be a single-person role that gets passed on from person to person

Kagami and Luka in supporting roles that have nothing to do with being love interests

Sympathetic Gabriel who feels like a truly tragic figure, but who does NOT get redeemed

Emilie gets an actual character

No sentinonsense

Revised miracle box that is way smaller and that has strong lore

The Agreste's aquiring the miraculous is far more morally complex, makes sense, and was not done for explicitly selfish reasons

Reverse the love square right from the start and never have the crushes flip

I've talked about all of these things on here, but the one thing that I've only briefly touched on is my love of a reverse square setup. I am passionate about that one, so let's take a moment to talk about why since it's probably going to be the most interesting to read.

I don't hate the canon setup for the crushes, but also I don't think that they're the ideal crushes. When it comes to romance stories, you want to design your love interests around each other. You want them to feel special and like they bring something unique to the table. Canon doesn't really give us that. There's nothing all that special about Adrien that makes him feel like the person that Marinette would be drawn to above all others. Same goes for Chat Noir and Ladybug, but we'll get to them in a second.

What is Marinette's biggest struggle? Her role as Ladybug.

Who is her main support in that role for most of the show? Chat Noir.

Who is her main support on the civilian side even before the reveal? Alya.

So why is Marinette's crush on Adrien and not Chat Noir? I don't know. It's the lesser setup by far and that goes beyond just the logic elements of who it makes the most sense for her to fall in love with. A lot of Marinette's worst behavior actually feels justified in a reverse crush setup, allowing you to write her without major changes to her character.

For example, Marinette keeping a chest of gifts for Adrien is kind of pathetic. She's friends with Adrien and she gives her friends gifts all the time, why can't she give him gifts, too? Reverse the crushes and suddenly this behavior makes perfect sense. Marinette isn't storing up gifts because of overblown fears of rejection. She's storing up gifts for legitimate fears about how her partner will explain these random gifts, thereby risking his identity, meaning that she has a sold argument for waiting until the time is right (post reveal) to give them to him.

There's also the legitimate fear that confessing her love could ruin their dynamic and put Paris at risk. Keeping her feelings to herself is now an act of self-sacrifice and not just an act of nerves. Basically everything about Marinette's hesitance just makes so much more sense if it's on the hero side.

But what about Adrien? How does this fix him?

I love the idea of our male romantic lead falling for our female lead because she's bold and brave, but it honestly doesn't fit Adrien's character. He is surrounded by powerful, confrontational women. Nathalie, Chloe, Kagami, Amilie, Audrey, and Tomoe are all no-nonsense women who get what they want. This means that Ladybug doesn't bring something unique to his life. She fits the standard mold. Adrien falling in love with her after she talks down Hawkmoth doesn't feel like the right choice for his character because it doesn't feel like something he'd be wildly impressed by.

Meanwhile, Marinette is shown to be a generally wonderful friend. She cares about others and will do what she can to make them feel welcome and accepted. That's a much more unique thing for Adrien to experience. Think about the umbrella scenes and imagine if it was Marinette apologizing. Marinette owning that she treated him poorly and asking his forgiveness. How often do you think Adrien gets moments like that? Doesn't it make more sense for something like that to make his heart flutter?

We see Marinette doing things like making banners to celebrate her friends (Timebreaker) and making sure everyone feels included (Reflekta). Imagine her giving Adrien that kind of treatment because it's just who Marinette is. She shows up to his fencing matches to cheer him on. Brings him his favorite snacks as a treat just because, surrounding this poor boy in honest, genuine love and support. Add in respect, too, and he'd be a goner because those are the things that he's not getting anywhere else! The things that make Marinette unique.

This brings us to our new civilian dynamic. In canon, it's Marinette failing to confess in ever more spectacular ways as Alya tries and fails to help. In a reverse crush setup where everyone is friends without gender barriers, it's things like Adrien coming up with his canon confessions and then watching Alya and Nino react with genuine horror because, dude, you're going to give her a panic attack! No! Bad kitty! Stop that! No confessions until you come up with a plan that we approve of and read at least five books of dating advice because holy shit did homeschooling do you dirty in this area!

Then, while Adrien is working to learn how dating works, he learns that Marinette is in love with Chat Noir and, oh no! He thinks she's into his public persona, totally unaware that she knows the real Chat Noir and loves his dorky self. So he tries to emulate his sexy alter ego while Nino and Alya suffer and Marinette is just generally confused because she doesn't think of Chat Noir like that, so she doesn't even notice what Adrien is doing.

This also adds a nice mitigating factor to Adrien's unwillingness to give up even though it's pretty clear that Marinette isn't interested in his civilian self. If he knows that she loves him, then his persistence is less concerning and more comedic. It's not that he can't take a no, it's that he honestly knows with 100% certainty that the answer is NOT no because she's told him that to his face. He just needs her to realize that the guy she's in love with is right here, ready and willing!

The potential for comedy is just so much more broad and so much less mean spirited because Marinette has none of Adrien's reserved nature, so her friends would totally know about her massive "celebrity crush". Adrien comes over for school projects and just stares longingly at her Chat Noir posters, wishing he could tell her his secret, but knowing that he can't.

In my world, that is so much more fun than canon's setup where Marinette has no reason to hope. I also wouldn't draw the crushes out anywhere near as long as canon did. I like getting couples together in the mid-game. It's a nice early plot to hook you in, but defeating the villain is the end game, so we don't need to draw the romance out that long. Romance isn't that special. It's not all that different from an arc about two characters becoming friends.

That's far from the only major change I'd make to shape canon into my ideal version, but it is the probably the change that I love the most. It's also the change that requires the least context to explain, so there you go!

[mllenugget]

Hello I mcyt fandom-ified la Team du Lundi members and wrote a shit ton of text about it

After exhausting myself on trying to catch up on the current QSMP lore I got a sudden craving for a more familiar and fast paced kind of minecraft content and ended up rewatching all the Team du Lundi's SMP best of's I could find

And while doing so with my brain still hazed in fandom brainrot, I started picking up on minor details or info the players casually dropped, and drew parallels to the French speakers' QSMP counterparts This is going to be a long wordy post I don't even know what I am rambling about and for. Three things you need to be aware of about la Team du Lundi before reading :

Baghera, Antoine and Etoiles are the only QSMP players that are part of la Team du Lundi

As far as I remember the only two elements that suggest that la Team du Lundi's SMP could be canon to QSMP are Antoine being pressured into building another Tower of Shit, and Baghera's infamous fountain being mentioned when she was asked if her character remembers anything from her past before the island

La Team du Lundi's SMP was NOT a roleplaying server, it was just a private survival server for a small circle of friends casually playing together. So whenever I quote someone in this specific post, it is the streamer : there is no character other than the persona the streamer is usually showing on stream, but I just thought it would be fun to interpret certain situations while keeping in mind the QSMP lore. And here goes :

Baghera claims that when she was a kid she strongly believed that she could breathe underwater. The others joke about her having fins

Antoine jokingly tells Baghera he doesn’t need oxygen at all

Antoine claims he will still be alive thousands of years forwards

Antoine’s voice shifts when he wants to appear creepy

Baghera built an aquarium at her place, then helped Antoine build one at his tower, then built a giant swimming pool, then a fountain, then a waterslide- do you see a theme ?

Baghera knows that her skin is actually that of a chick and not a duckling, and calls it so here

Chat said that Baghera has a middle child syndrome, justifying that she bullies Angle Droit because Etoiles bullies her in the first place (Etoiles has also called her « little sister » in a derogatory way)

Etoiles has repeatedly asked people to play Valorant with him at least once

Here's a clip of Etoiles getting languaged in french and owing "a gifted sub in the swear jar"

Unrelated random clip of Etoiles because it creates happy hormones in me brain

Etoiles is regularly refered to as "the warrior"

Etoiles guided the whole group during an expedition to the End and he was literally glowing doing so (enchanted arrows effect) Everyone called him "the guide"

Baghera was the one who gave the final blow to the Enderdragon (and died from magic right after)

Etoiles spent most of his time adventuring in order to bring stuff and gear back to everyone for their builds

Etoiles asked Aypierre for help in order to design a redstone door for his cave which could only open upon solving a puzzle (which was egg & arrow related) (Aypierre was not a member of the server)

Etoiles built a nightclub with the walls and ceiling covered in wardenblocks making it look like a starry sky. He also rehomed Allays holding golden apples inside claiming them to be the souls working for him and that they lived there peacefuly

Etoiles jokingly talks about Antoine acting jealous and violent towards him because Etoiles told him he wanted to go and visit Kameto (who also was not a member of the server)

Baghera (along with Horty) had a rivalry with Joueur du Grenier (host of the server with admin powers) after he decided to build a massive parking lot right next to their house. They countered by covering the whole thing with dirt, followed by JDG building a factory and the two parties went back and forth. Baghera argued that it was stupid because they didnt even have cars to begin with (which is a sentence she reused when talking about Forever's roads) Also she tells JDG that he could've built a seaport instead, which makes JDG contemplate the thought of building an airport (and though he ended up never building it, I am side eyeing the French's plane crash)

At some point JDG wonders about what a roleplaying minecraft server would look like (RPZ 2), to which Baghera replies that she has a hard time picturing the thing "We'd all just build things you see ? I don't think we'd create stories, we would all just be like "I'm a builder, ah you too ? Well awesome, builders, cool"" and I find this to be hilariously ironic (fun fact : Baghera had no idea that QSMP was a roleplaying server when she first joined and often claims she would've taken a different approach with her character had she known right off the gate)

As I was finishing to write this down, these fuckers (/lh) decided to host a closure night for the server as they've never really officially did it, everyone just sort of deserted the server after a while. Baghera, Etoiles and Antoine kept referring to QSMP throughout the night, mostly talking about how weird it felt without mods. Among other meta commentary things

They mentionned Cellbit and Bad multiple times as the group was trying to solve enigmas. Antoine talked about "the cultural sharing" between communities as he taught insults to each others with Mike, Roier and Maximus in their respective languages Multiple more players were namedropped (including eggs) while Antoine was talking about how the server functions

Yes, Baghera and Etoiles kept their QSMP skins. Etoiles with his code corrupted purgatory one, and Baghera with her fading pink disheveled hair (with the addition of her cubito wearing Horty's merch)

Baghera admits that going back to this small familiar vanilla server feels like coming back home to your family during the holidays

Team du Lundi's cameos in QSMP :

Though Pomme has never canonically met JDG (even though most of her parents have talked about him to her at least once), she occasionaly breaks the 4th wall to refer to him. She once compared one of BBH's "vacation" flower shirts with his, and when Foolish and Bad asked her to elaborate (obviously not getting the reference) she proceeded to play JDG's music theme with the flute instead (Also I really feel the need to once more point out how mindblowing it is for your average french speaking viewer to have JDG's intro theme being added to the mod they use in the QSMP because of how anchored it is within french internet pop culture. Like this shit has been existing for 14 fucking years, it's part of the childhood of a lot of us, so to find a clip of British hardcore player Philza peacefuly listening to Mexican egg admin Tallulah play this theme on her flute feels like a multiverse fever dream)

Horty has been on Quesadilla Island through cc!Baghera's account, but neither of them really wanted to justify it RP wise. Baghera just wanted to give her best friend a tour of the island. Horty only got to meet Richarlyson who gave her a tour of Cellbit's castle and made her pick a room (she chose Chaos). She also chatted with Etoiles who tagged along for a bit and (this is obviously justified by it being a one-shot out of roleplay filler episode kind of night) they both already knew each other and were on friendly enough terms to bicker with one another Also she was part of the French speakers Quackity reached out to to invite on the server, but she had to decline because she was very busy at that time (and also not interested) Also also she was Baghera's teammate for that Formula 4 event, and Baghera has discussed it and showed pictures to a couple of islanders, including Richas who was very hyped about it

Another player the viewers were hoping to see on Quackity's server is Mynthos. He exists within the server with the picture of him that hangs in Pomme's art gallery, the cursed animation video that used to play in La France, as well as with Aypierre's health potion factory that bears his name

Angle Droit and Zerator are sometimes namedropped when the French speakers talk with their chat. Angle Droit frequently raids Baghera's and Antoine's streams, and though it has never been confirmed, a lot of viewers theorized that she was the +1 player Baghera and Etoiles wanted to invite on the server had they won the elections.

As for Zera, Etoiles went AFK on QSMP a couple of times in order to test some of Zerator's TrackMania maps (which he later discussed with Pac). I also remember a very trivial conversation Etoiles had with Mouse and Aypierre where he laughed about hurting his back very badly after carrying a fellow streamer during a caritative event, said event was hosted by Zerator (he's also the one judging them with concern from his desk)

I'm done.

Bonus alternative design for Angle Droit because at first I thought she was a fox then it turned out she was a corgi but then she changed it again to a fox and woop

[kiraridertime03]

We need to free the Weasel

A brief discussion about the way that Creature Commandos uses politics in its narratives.

Spoilers for it and everything else James Gun DC up to this point though, below the cut.

Also, it is a busy post, content warnings for discussions of white supremacists and cops, as it is necessary.

With the release of the trailer of James Gunn's Superman film, hype for his grand DC Universe has kicked into high gear, and for good reason. That trailer, no matter the quality of the final film, is a goddamn work of art. A piece of film that understands Superman better over the course of 2 minutes and 20 seconds than Zack Snyder did over the course of 3 overlong movies. That mixed with his solid back catalogue of Superhero films. However, slightly more obscurely, this universe has already started with the animated series Creature Commandos, and especially with the fourth episode, which released hours before Superman's trailer, shows the kind of skill and thought Gunn and co. are putting into this new universe.

At its front, Creature Commandos feels very... blunt, in a lot of ways. It's like The Suicide Squad but with Creatures! It's big and raunchy, being an animated series with blood and swearing and sex and whatnot. And, when it comes with its politics, some of the early villain's mooks are a bunch of weird incels, and one of the main characters constantly advocates for killing Nazis. It is a work that immediately shows its hand, making the type who would decry the wokeness of modern movies and games or whatever. However, with these early examples, it can feel like a bit too much, maybe. I love it, don't get me wrong, I'm the type to really enjoy blunt earnestness. Though, given the more comedic approach that many of these elements take in the early episodes, it can feel a bit like it's only there for the bit.

Where the series really starts to excel, though, is when it starts integrating its flashback segments. As a whole, even outside the point of this post, the flashbacks feel like a wonderful decision. A way of fleshing out our characters while giving each episode a distinct feel, justifying the series as, well, a series rather than just one long movie. However, here, I want to discuss some of its political ideas, and how they integrate. Because, for these, they integrate more thematically, being an undertone to each character's own story.

For the bride, her story is centered around this idea of the objectification of women. I mean, it makes sense. She was literally made to simply be the bride of Frankenstein, an object of his affection. However, as she gained her own independence, the masculine figure who feels he is owed her hand in marriage breaks out into a rage, harming her and the person she actually loves. This story is what gives her the cynical edge she gains in the series proper, giving her an interesting, sympathetic story while using the elements of said story to say something about how many men perceive woman. A strong enough parable that acts as an undercurrent for her character.

Then, we get to G.I. Robot's episode, a real tear-jerker of a thing about a silly robot character, the exact thing to set my brain off in all sorts of ways. Much of this story is designed to set up his tragic past, so that we can feel catharsis once he gets his big moment, then feel the tragedy when he gets brutally murdered. However, it again is saying a lot of complex things. Many have discussed the PTSD angle for GI, which I do see, however, in GI's story specifically, I see the way that the American state treats veterans. Like, think about it. This being who was forged and created for the purpose of making war, goes to war, then once the war is over, they are, best, used for spectacle on live TV (Where they are unable to properly adjust to the tone of peacetime, accusing the audience of being Nazis themselves), studied not to help them, but to make the next generation of soldiers even more efficient at their goal of warcraft, then thrown to the side when they are no longer useful. The man selling GI to the collector literally says he slipped through the cracks. It, again, is a wonderful metaphor that takes advantage of what GI is, and uses it to emphasize these issues in a more literal way. It is a lot easier to show a robot who was programmed in a specific way weird the room out than the rocky adjustments a veteran may have to go through. It then, also, shows the kinds of people who really benefit from this warcraft, those it appeals to. The collector who buys GI turns out to be a part of a White Supremacist group in America, a group of people who gladly use Nazi iconography, identify with it, and gladly push it. Those also happen to be the types who want to buy old war memorabilia. Obviously, not all war collectors are Nazis. But these are people who see this kind of might makes right ideology that America so often employs with its military, and latch onto it. GI, rightfully, finds this appaling, and kills them on sight. It is this wonderful moment from this delightfully twisted series.

However, even that could be seen as a tad blunt. Again, GI is very clear with his words, he doesn't hide much. So, where I see this series going from good to great is with Weasel's flashback segments. This begins when a lawyer, a member of a nonprofit, demands she see Weasel, as she is putting on a case for him. In essence, she states that, at least to her and her organization, he was unjustly prosecuted. To both Rick Flag and us, this seems absurd, as we have a lot of predisposed biases towards Weasel. You see, he is one of the few pre-existing characters in this cast. Weasel was previously seen in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, though only briefly. There, as a member of the Decoy Team, he makes weird, gross noises, they make a joke about him having killed 27 kids, then have him promptly drown before the mission even starts (Though, in the post credit, it turns out he survived, because that's even funnier). Even if you hadn't seen that film (Which you should if you haven't), they reestablish all that in this series in the first few episodes, portraying him as a stupid, vulgar, violent creature who isn't worthy of rights. However, expertly, this is all a front.

In the flashbacks, we learn that Weasel only interacted with about 8 kids, a bunch of students left at an after school program. Contrary to what we had been told, he really just played around with the kids, chasing around a ball. They eventually get inside the school and, while messing with stuff they shouldn't have, start a small fire. However, some antics are afoot. While he is playing around, an old senile man sees this and, rather than asking about what's going on, decides to run back to his home, call the cops about what is a clear, if odd, misunderstanding, then grab his gun to try to take things into his own hands. And, as he does, shakily trying to shoot Weasel, he makes the problem of the small fire worse, shooting a gas canister behind them, turning the small fire into a school-destroying explosion and fire. Then, the cops show up. Many of the kids are already dead, seemingly, but one survived. So, as he pulls her out of the wreckage, what do the cops do? They start shooting. Throughout this whole sequence, the cops do nothing but shoot and get in the way of things. It all culminates in the final shots, where Weasel has dropped the kid after being shot. And, instead of either of them going to get the kid, they both pin Weasel down, try to pull him out. This leaves the young girl to be crushed.

This is a massive tragedy, a game of tragic misudnerstandings that gets kids killed. However, again, it does this by hiding its politics into a genuinely moving character based story to make them more effective. It is a story, in part, about our predisposed biases. I mean, the narrative literally sets this up. Characters around Weasel say things about him without him being able to have a say. Because he's a Weasel. Then, our characters make judgments based on what they believe and what they've heard from secondhand sources over what they actually see. Even when Weasel is his most violent (taking down Circe in episode 3), he does it to protect his teammates, and he doesn't actually kill her. In his backstory, characters make rash decisions based on their misinformed judgments in hopes of "protecting the kids," when all they are actually doing is harming them. They get 8 kids killed all because Weasel is a little freaky.

Then there's the cops themselves. It so masterfully uses showing rather than telling. The most it tells us is of the trail at the start, and again, this is moreso used as setup, playing into our dispositions. However, when it is time to actually depict the injustices, it shuts the fuck up. It doesn't just say that cops are bad with a couple of clear shitheads and moves on. It shows how cops are bad. Their only answer to this situation is violence. They don't actually serve their community, in this instance the children stuck in the fire, their only answer is to start shooting things. Because they have no other answer than state sanctioned violence. And they did this all with an episode about FUCKING WEASEL!

Now, imagine what they can do with Superman. It doesn't even have to be political, like these previous examples. However, to me, this shows that he can do what, to me, some of the best storytellers do. They weave every element of their story together with deliberate choices that strengthen each other. If anything, more than any well edited trailer, it is that that excites me about everything James is working on. Of course, he is doing this with a team, but James is the type to surround himself with smart people who understand these things inside and out. That one David Corenswet quote about the shorts proves that to me in shades. That's what gives me hope about these works. That they will be movies and shows that mean things. Which seems like a low bar, but hey, so many fail at it that it's kind of impressive.

[campcampkirbykirbykirby]

Camp Camp Commentary Notes - Season 1, Episode 2: Mascot

Writer's Commentary

Kerry doesn't remember anything about writing this episode

Except that he does because he wrote the Rube Goldberg scene to mess with the crew because it would be hard to animate and they did it anyway

Miles worked with Al McClelland, Jr (storyboard artist) to come up with the different parts of the machine, including the inhaler, another reused element from the scrapped pilot

Kerry helped to establish the levels of weird the series could go which had not been properly foreshadowed in the first episode, likely due to time

Kerry, as well as Rooster Teeth pariah Gray Haddock, had the most involvement in making the Quartermaster who he is

Kerry took this being the second episode very seriously, trying to figure out what a normal episode after the pilot is, but then decided making it "normal" was a bad idea so they made it weird instead

At this point, the only three episodes that were in progress were this, the pilot, and Scout's Dishonor.

Lots of little details that come up because the crew thought it would be funny

David has very red elbows

Yet another repurposing from the scrapped pilot is Neil's line about the camp being a future Walmart parking lot

In fact, it was part of a much bigger blowup Neil had in that pilot, compared to the one we got

Quartermaster has a lot of his own sound design, like changing his hook hands, which they deliberated on for a moment

Bear ears don't have bones, likely added for clarity

Lots of jokes added by Al, not all make it in

Kerry will sometimes write entire episodes around single lines he comes up with, such as Quartermaster's "grumble grumble jews" bit (which does come off as anti-semetic but could really mean anything, according to Kerry)

Said line being uncomfortable is the point, in that way it's no different from anything else about the Quartermaster

Before Harrison's backstory was his brother was pinned down, his initial shtick was just being bad at magic

The "bad idea in hindsight" line was added to justify them running to the dock

Point of the episode was to give the camp the worst mascot imaginable

All the other animals, the crew made as cute as possible, meanwhile the platypus "eats the shit out of Larry" per the script

MYSTERIOUS BLACK HAIRED GIRL (it's really more of a dark blue)

Cast and Crew Commentary

Jordan, Maggie, (Sick) Elizabeth, (Healthy) Cole

Larry's screams were done by Maggie

Platypus has 3 voices: Alena Lecorchick on snarls and growls, Miles doing the "Donald Duck talk", Jordan did all the muacks

This was the first episode to be really worked on start-to-finish, the pilot didn't get too far before being reworked

Quartermaster's bag might have dead goose or whale carcass

The nose-wiping bit is highlighted in both commentaries, it was part of the crew trying to understand the characters, as was the whole sub-plot with Max and Quartermaster

Elizabeth makes her friends watch Camp Camp, something she doesn't do with most of her filmography, help get some of them hooked

Some backgrounds here were reused in Season 2

Some consideration was put into perfecting the creepy atmosphere of certain scenes, like the centipede

Okay, so the bear skeleton in the cave was changed specifically to look more bear-like

Plug for the out-of-print Platypus plush (have fun searching eBay!)

No one is quite sure where the "King of the Forest" bit came from

Matt Hullum lost it when he saw it, which is a sign they've done something right

The stab was initially way more gruesome, it was toned down for the final episode

Everything Nerris sees is magic, established with the tin can/"wizard's amulet"

Docks give the crew trouble, they can't remember if there's supposed to be one or two

Mysterious camper again, this was part of the initial concept of the camp being bigger than just what we see, with extra camps and campers strewn about, but this was eventually phased out

[spectra-bear]

To all the fma fans here who have been following me for a while now, I'd like to bring a few chapters to light in consideration to the recent tragic palestinian apartheid

FMA has made sure to speak out about these reoccuring events, and whoever hasn't noticed from reading yet needs a critical thinking class.

Let's start with chapter 90:

Chapter 90 of the series, although censored heavily in the anime (but we'll get to that later), played a HUGE role in establishing what kind of message arakawa was building up to deliver to her audience as a plot B (ishvalan genocide) sided with plot A (the search of the philosopher stones, eventually turned plot A (overthrowing the military), a message meant to awaken her readers to the truth, and one that serves as a warning

Does this not all ring familiarity?

One of the reasons arakawa wrote this story was to bring this side of history into light,

the oppression, the abuse of military power, the imbalanace in arms between two parties at "war", the perfect guise of "protecting the people from radicalized terrorists", and using it to justify the murder of countless lives, committing war crime after war crime, massacring the land and lathering it with the spilled blood of countless innocents and people fighting back for their freedom, for their home. Those that die have their lives tragically cut short, too soon.

A total extermination

And to those that remain alive,

Forcefully immigrated from their own homeland

Or exploited for their bodies, harvested for their organs, abused, tortured and humiliated

Not only that, but the emphasis on making the reason behind starting the war in the first place, being the first bullet shot at a young child by a soldier, and intentionally making it seem "trivial" for the ishvalans to retaliate because of that, and painting them as animalistic

Writing off roy mustang and maes hughes as heroes for doing whats best for their country, glorifying their relationship as war buddies, and believing theyre in the right for putting down the people of the holy land, when they couldve backed down from contributing to this one-sided war,

and when they do step back from the field, theyre labelled as cowards. When they inevitably realize the abnormality and inhumanity of their actions, that theyve been solely used as tools and weapons of destruction, that impact is softened with rewards, of medals and cheers of accomplishment from the population-wide brainwashed by lies spread by the people in power, and if theyre lucky, accomodations for the negative mental effects of being part of a war

(arakawa interview source)

What do I conclude from this?

That the author of your favorite manga does not support genocide and in fact, condemns those who partake in it

If it isnt obvious, She included these stories because they have happened before

She is telling these stories, while not 100% protrayed correctly, to fill the empty gaps in the western perspective that have been contaminated with propaganda and demonization of these indigenous people

The designs of ishvalans and cultural clothing are intentionally influenced by japanese ethnic groups, middle eastern and south asian cultures, and the military intentionally european/western looking as an example for their expansion and dominance in mind

And now we are watching all this happen in reality, again, witnessed live, in much worse conditions, throughout history

Where the heroes arent kids who can sway elements at their command with the flick of a hand, but the people who stand against it in mass, marching in the streets to break the suffocating silence, and spread the voices of those seeking help and demanding their freedom back

Does everyone realize how fucked up that is? That the lines drawn between fantasy and reality blur so much that they become indistinguishable from each other? That is true horror, when the monsters and tyrants in your stories no longer stay on ink and paper, but are on your screens broadcasting their crimes, beyond humanity

You must understand that if these stories are included for you, the reader, they are not written just for the plot, but to bring awareness to you, and avoid history from repeating itself, and work against committing the same irredeemable mistakes as before

(thanks to @borkthemork for the help in outlining this and proofreading)

[sapphicrow]

Re8 Characters as Crane Wives Songs!

Karl Heisenberg- Take Me To War

I think he would be this song because it’s very violent and argumentative, as he is. Also. The man literally is jam packed with the desire for a revolution and his design is heavily influenced by WWII elements. It’s a very simple connection, but suiting.

Donna Beneviento - Unraveling

I think this song reminds me of her not because I imagine her exactly as the serial romantic that the narrator of this tragic tale is, but because of the fact that she has dealt with a lot of loss in her life. Between the death of her family, then anyone she may have had in the village when Miranda ordered them to be massacred, as well as earlier her humanity. The idea of unraveling, or losing it per se, alludes to her characteristic mental illness. Shes off the rails, we love that for her, and so does this song. One of the main lyrics in the song is “But now my love is gone / and I am left unraveling” and I just feel that encompasses how she’s been abandoned to her dolls to wither out of sight. Also the song goes tailor, gardener, then carpenter and she is all of those things which I find to be a rather seemly match.

Salvatore Moreau - Nobody

Now, the artists themselves describe this as a queer tragedy, but I think I can yank it out of context a bit to fit the silly. Now, this song states over and over again how “nobody ever loved me like she tells me she does” and I feel that is a very manipulative statement. Moreau does not have much of a back story, but one of the original concepts for his character was that he was to have the woman he loved melded to his back in a somewhat perverse fashion where she would be forced to stay with him. This idea is encapsulated by the obsessive and toxic nature of the relationship this song portrays. If you really want to have a think about it, you could imagine it was the woman herself trying to justify Moreau’s actions to herself. However, I was thinking more along the route of how Miranda surely had to lead this poor fish on for him to be so devoted. I don’t mean romantically, but she most definitely was more involved to begin. Nobody ever loved him like she told him she does. That doesn’t mean she does, but it does illustrate how she taunted him with the idea of a mom, leading him to create this familial illusion in his twisted mind.

Alcina Dimitrescu- Tongues & Teeth

Now this one was a little tricky, I was torn between this one and The Wolf but I feel this one gives more of that cruel seductiveness we have come to associate with Lady Dimitrescu. This song is very blatant. “And when you come in quick to steal a kiss / my teeth will only cut your lips, my dear” I love to imagine our lady as a woman who relishes in her power, not one who is insecure in it. She will not shy away from her own strength, nor will she temper it for anybody. Tongues & Teeth tells it like it is- should you wish to be hers, you are going to get hurt. End of story. She’s going to hurt you. This is no accident, this is no fluke. She is violent in her very nature. But on the contrary to that, this is a warning. This gives you the courtesy to flee. I think she would want you to at least be willing to be broken by her in some capacity, which is why she would even say anything in the first place. Also. I think the song is a banger and I’d like to bang her.

Cassandra Dimitrescu- Show Your Fangs

Cassie is a huntress, a conclusion made among fans due to her final fight being fought within the Dimitrescu castle’s armory. She is strong and has a fierce playful energy to her, going as far as toying with Ethan with her lil “RAH!”s that admittedly did scare me a few times. I view this song as a sort of feminine war song. “I’m not your highness, a damsel left helpless by fright / I am a lioness, fierce as I walk through the night” Out of the three sisters, she is certainly the most combative. In addition to the obvious associations, I believe that the line stating that she is not your highness is a sort of jab at the title of countess. She wants nothing to do with that power. She is wild and bitey and feral. She is in no way a ‘proper’ lady. She refuses that idea outright and I mclove that for her.

Bela Dimitrescu- Steady, Steady

We all imagine Bela as the perfect, shining golden child of the Dimitrescus. She’s responsible, respectful, and just overall a polite little lady. But I think she’s more wild than that. The duality of this song orchestrates this view wonderfully. Sang in a slow, deep melody; “Steady, steady, you know when you’re ready.” This shows her prim side, I also like to imagine this as her mantra muttered between deep breaths as she goes to present her work to her mom. (She’s always well received, but she over thinks it a lot.)

And then the other side of this song goes in a more frantic, rambunctious tune; “I’m swimming in this dress like a child in her mothers clothes/ This ring around my fingers like a chain around my throat” and while I suppose the original intent was to allude to an unhappy marriage, I think we can point it towards the subtle resentment Bela holds towards her responsibilities and how she feels as though she’s not the right person for the job. Bela deals with a lot of impostor syndrome on this matter. I just think this song gives both sides of our dynamic blondie. (Alternatively for Bela, Hard Sell)

Daniela Dimitrescu- Icarus

Originally, Icarus was a tale of a young fool who got too close to the sun. It is also the tale of a boy who wanted Apollo BAD bad. Daniela feels very youthful and naive to me, she was locked up after all. I think that her mother acknowledged that she was desperate for outside interaction and that this was a threat to her, thus her seclusion in the library. However, in the end, her delusions of romance had her get just a bit too close to Ethan. “My love will fall with grace,” says the song. And so she did. She flew too close to the sun. Plus this song is super spunky and that gives Dani vibes.

Mother Miranda- Never Love An Anchor

Okay so. This song speaks of a shitty shitty relationship, one that’s maternal evidently. I believe this is symbolic of Mother Miranda’s connection with the lords. Heisenberg, who wound up in her control against his own will, shown respect solely for his success as a subject. Donna, demented and alone, was taken under her wing only for her to be defenseless when Ethan attacked. Alcina, mighty and beautiful, but weak and insecure in her own mind, left to yearn for her favor. Moreau, grotesque and ruined by Miranda’s hand, then allowed to spoil further as his desperate need for her love went unfed.

“Do you ever think of me and my two hands? And wonder why they never soothed your fevers? And wonder why they never tied your shoes? And wonder why they never held you gently? And wonder why they never had the chance to lose you?” On a separate note, I think this could be something Miranda thinks to herself as she fights for Eva. If her consciousness is trapped in the megamycete, it stands to reason that she is conscious in there. I wonder if Miranda ever worried if Eva could overhear the carnage she was causing for her. I wonder if she spoke to her, apologizing for not being a good enough mom. I wonder if the guilt would overwhelm her to the point she was crumpled on her lab’s floor, weeping against bare earth and mold, begging her to forgive her. Hm. Food for thought.

Bonus! Mirancina- The Moon Will Sing

[mystxmomo]

Given how little we have on Ellaniath, I am forced to raise my own hand (Decide design elements about it on my own.) (I'm really bad at this, so I have to dissect everything Canon has given us to draw up some ideas.)

Under the cut is things off the wiki I want to consider while choosing design elements. Take it or leave it as you will, this is for my own use in my writing and art.

Nobody outside of Ellaniath, save the ruling god, had an idea, where the realm was located, apart from the very general knowledge "somewhere on Colothys", and how it looked like. Vhaeraun wiped the memories of those who stumbled on his realm, which was considered a demonstration of his abilities as a thief.[0.1]

[0.1] So this is an immediate aside, and a far less important note when it comes to trying to decide the aesthetic sensibilities of his realm, but I kind of loving the Homestuck God-teir ass logic of Vhaeraun as a thief not just being a thief in the physical sense of a word, but also being able to steal things from the mind and sense of self. It actually kind of interests me how much of Vhaeraun's portfolio deals with the mind alongside more explicit dealings of stealth.

But that's not why we're here today. I will have some self control, we can talk about that a different day.

While we don't get a physical description of Ellaniath while Vhaeraun is strictly in control of it, what we do get is a very brief description of it while Eilistraee is combined with him.

During the realm’s time on Arvandor, Ellaniath merged with Eilistraee's realm, the drow goddess of moonlight. It looked like a forest under perpetual night with the half moon being the only source of light. The forest had shining moonstones as decoration, half among them gradually lost their light after Ellaniath's incorporation until they became pitch black.

And I think, given that we have that and not one but two of the realms Eilistraee likes to spend her time in, I would say it's entirely possible to reverse engineer the effects she had on his realm and he had on hers.

Svartalfheim

Like all realms in Nidavellir, Svartalfheim was a system of underground caverns. Unlike the rest of the layer, however, the realm's stone walls emitted a silvery glow, while natural springs and geysers warmed up the rivers and kept the caves at a comfortable warm temperature. The entire realm emanated a feeling of peace and love that was atypical for Ysgard. The realm had wild regions covered in dark forests that thrived on the earth's warmth and required no sunlight. Some of the caverns displayed abundant deposits of quartz, mica, and pyrite, of which the drow were overly fond and employed them abundantly as decoration and jewellery.

Arvandor

Eilistraee had her home in Arvandor, a plane of natural beauty, with the elven gods of the Seldarine. Within its borders, the night was perpetual, with the moon ever-shining in the deep blue sky. Faith was more potent here than in the rest of Arvandor, and all followers of the other drow gods of the Dark Seldarine suffered minor impediments.

Getting the most obvious point out of the way, the moon going from full to half in the masked ladies era is interesting. I think the conclusion I would come to that is that if you could see a sky in Vhaeraun's realm, it would be eternally new-moon. However, I would personally want to put emphasis on the stars as a result of that. In fact, I think it would be interesting for there to be no emphasis on stars in Eilistraee's realm to play into the parallel of that. It's just a blue sky, with a brilliant moon. Compared to Vhaeraun, who could have a starry sky, with no moon....

To bring in a source from a third wiki page to justify this choice, I want to grab the depictions of his temples for a moment. Because I think while temples and things directly involving the religion are just as likely to be influenced by the type of people worshiping him, it's also easy to short hand the core design elements as the gods personal preference.

Temples to Vhaeraun were built both on and under the surface. On the surface, shrines were built in shallow woodland caves, usually where little light shone through the trees. As a general rule, it was inside a Vhaeraunite settlement or in the vicinity of one. In the Underdark, deep natural amphitheater were the site for temples. They were hidden through multiple darkness spells, which looked like patch of black stone to darkvision. Interestingly, the Underdark temples were usually built with a "starry sky", actually beljurils placed into high ceilings to look like stars.

While the forests and stone came from Eilistraee, I think it's worth looking at that it's still nature and forest. The change that he has on Eilistraee's realm isn't about the biome itself, but the way the biome manifests itself.

I think there are two directions I would want to take that. The first, and easiest conclusion, is that his realm could have the first description of his temples. If there are caves, they are shallow (I think he's so very tired of caves) and it has forests so thick that it creates perpetual darkness on it's own. However, I think playing into the opposite could also be interesting? Something about the emptiness of sweeping grassy fields under an endless night, perpetually in the state of a new moon tickles the mind. ( I think these aren't mutually exclusive either.)

A follow up thought, however. I think that this is all Ellaniath at it's most natural state. There's another point to consider with all of this. As follows:

Vhaeraun, as a lesser deity, could not only alter his realm in some fashion like setting temperatures as he liked or fill it with special sensory information [1], like light, sound and smell, when it came down to sound, he could also make intelligible speech as background sounds in his realm [2].

As part of the Demonweb Pits, Ellaniath was divinely morphic, meaning Vhaeraun had an easy causing physical changes in his realm. While there, Ellaniath was mildly chaotic and strongly evil aligned, meaning that the plane itself worked against individuals who followed lawful philosophies by weakening their power of personality [3], and limiting in general the mental capacities of those who weren't evil. The realm had also a strong faith factor, meaning that those, who didn't follow the Dark Seldarine suffered even more limitations, with followers of the Seldarine suffering a drop in mental capacity more severe than others. [4] Once the realm was in Carceri, Ellaniath was mildly evil aligned and still divinely morphic.

[1/2/3] So, resident fucking edgelord Vhaeraun. I know he's already pulling away the memories of people who intrude into his realm, but I think that if someone slipped in that wasn't supposed to, they probably wouldn't get Ellaniath at it's base and most natural. I think that Vhaeraun is best, at his core, at defense through psychological horror. While I don't think making the realm look evil because it's in an evil aligned god's domain/in the demon webpits is very interesting, I DO think Vhaeraun has the tendency to be a bit. Theatrical. A Drama queen? And part of those theatrics are in the aesthetics of evil.

My point being. I think if you're not supposed to be there, the environment responds to you as such. The tree's suddenly loom too tall over you, whispers come from the environment around you. There's an ever-present feeling of being watched, or or something breathing down your spine. Shadows reaching out to grab at you from behind the trees. I don't think he's beneath playing into the decay of the forest for the horror of it as well. I think it would be easy to get lost in his realm. Forests can be confusing, and dizzying places, especially if you're unused to navigating them. Especially those dark corners of the forests, where tree's blackout the sun.

I think he's good at causing anxiety to those that don't belong, and the world he exists in reflects that.

[4] Short personal opinion, but if I were to change anything about the actual environment and effects of his realm, I would also MAYBE include Lolth worshipers in the "followers of the Seldarine suffering a drop in mental capacity more severe than others."

[oblivionbladetd]

Lily saying she bases her character’s orientation on their stance on relationships sounds fine on paper, but the way she thinks about it is completely backward. People’s sexuality tends to influence their stance on relationships. I think it’s okay when developing characters to think about their beliefs and personality before giving them a sexuality — that way their identity doesn’t become their personality. And people can discover things based on their growing understanding of relationships. But the way Lily describes it doesn’t sound like any of those. It seems like Niva made the conscious choice to be Aro/ace because of her relationship with her sister. She can realize she’s Aro/ace because she meets a lot of people and finds she’s simply not attracted to them in that way, and it’s entirely valid to not want to label oneself but this reads like she’s plugging her ears and closing her eyes to any other form of relationship outside that with her sister. Idk. It’s Lily. Obviously there’s some weird subtext here.

It’s also contradictory considering she says “people need to define themselves” when the way she describes Niva makes it seem like she’s defining herself based on her relationship with her sister. People can define themselves by any sort of relationship, not strictly romantic ones. People tend to define themselves based on their relationships, it’s not really possible to separate the two, it’s just how humans work.

On that note, I hate how Niva completely dismisses the romances of the previous Avatars. Like it or not romance is a part of their history and calling those relationships inferior is completely wrong. Katara, Rangi, Ta Min, Asami (Admittedly debatable), etc. are just as important to their Avatar’s stories as the Avatar themselves and you cannot simply write them off as “unimportant” or “inferior.”

Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Lorch’s OC dismisses important elements of Lore history that she personally doesn’t like.

Absolutely, the way she described the process just seems... off. Though you really nailed it with the bit about Niva having her fingers in her ears. Even outside her relationships or lack thereof, she seems so sheltered and ignorant, which I know is not because Lily meant to write her like that.

I've pointed out before that Lily seems more interested in dodging tropes than thinking about why the tropes are there, and this is just more proof on it. Niva actually doesn't function without Lavi, up to and including the fact that even as a fragment of the Avatars Soul, she still NEEDS Lavi. She doesn't care about the world at large but still seeks mastery over the elements to frankly bizarre degrees. She's considered gentle but has super moves that are designed to maximize suffering. She is very deliberately just ducking tropes without thinking wider, Niva needs to be extremely worldly and adaptable to be as realized of a bender as she is and in this, meet a lot of people and on some level be forced to internalize their culture and values as its literally part of bending. She has techniques custom brewed to prolong suffering on her enemies, but is the gentle avatar? Nah.

The less mentioned about the implications of how important Lavi is to her, the better. Out of every Avatar that has loved and lost, apparently only LAVI is the only one that was loved enough to get a place in the spirit of the Avatar... where there is text, there is subtext, and the subtext says either extreme codependency or incest! Take your pick it doesn't make it any better...

The thought that she's doing it by accident just because she wants to avoid the very justified tropes of AtlA... just...

[tallbluelady]

Are there any motifs or symbols associated with the character? How are they represented, in their design, personality or in some other way?

I'm going to cheat and do Minthe's shards in aggregate because they tend to share design elements with each other! All of Minthe's shards have at least one of the following, if not more: max height, silver eyes, green hair, or a feather in their hair. 

Only height was deliberate at the start, and Aoife cheats that because the minimum Highlander height is just taller than the maximum Midlander height. The only reason she's not a Midlander is that I like Highlander animations better.

Silver eyes is also more consistent with only Moth Orchid having green eyes (so far). I designed him first without intending him to be a Minthe shard, but he fit in with my friends' ideas of Ronkan characters so I just moved him over. I'm justifying it by saying that shards from the reflections are going to vary more than shards from the Source. Otherwise, Minthe's shards have silver eyes (Miranda's heterochromia is a result of Allagan magicks).

The green hair is because we're playing an anime game and I like green hair. Usually I try to get a dark green like Rowan and Minthe, but you can't get that shade of green on every race. In those cases, it's usually black with green highlights or ashy green/black like Aoife. Lucky Apple has a lighter green because I designed her after my favorite Flight Rising Dragon, Sylvestris (Minthe's 13th shard) is just a purple catte and I felt like it would clash more than it wouldn't, and Miranda is from the same group of Miqo'te that would become the G tribe, so red hair.

The feathers in the hair was almost completely on accident - I just like them because it's a head piece that wouldn't hide Rowan's ponytail. Aoife's headpiece is from the Yafaemi Striking set, Moth Orchid and Lamiales just happen to have feathers in their hairstyles, but by the time I got to Lucky Apple I decided to make it deliberate. Miranda lacks it because she lacks whimsy, alas.

Thanks for the ask!

...Oh yeah and they all have plant names other than Miranda.