#it is also a lot to process

[inconmess]

So... definitely spoilers under this cut cuz holy shit the episode went all ways fucked today! But...

First things first, loved the ruthlessness of the Spider Queen and the gods kinda opening a channel of communication as to why they are insisting so much about champions and the urgency (especially the Matron and SQ)

That was a whole lot of physical, mental and emotional damage thrown all the fuck around so I go character by character

Morrighan, known the Crown Keepers for the shortest time and yet, the way she goes to preserve Opal's memories and her hesitation to leave but still knowing that she needs to go and giving Opal a promise to save her memories

Fy'ra accepting the Wildmother's call, jumping in on the Spider meeting because she cannot lose another sister, no matter what and just also watches as Dorian, Dariax and Morrighan leave, probably not knowing what motivated them to.

Cyrus was just in the sidelines. He didn't have to die 😭😭😭😭

Opal. Poor Opal. She didn't really know what was really at stake and now she has a corrupted memory or two, lost her Original name, her childhood and TED! And important info about her mother too, all due to the lack of communication between the SQ and her regarding the stakes.

And my god, Dorian and Dariax! I don't even know who to start with because they both took damage in a different yet equal level here?

I mean, I guess I will start with Dorian cuz... well, he lost his fucking brother and the way he couldn't even approach him one last time due to Opal's suggestion to find Orym? Not even allowed to process what happened, grieve and one of the last fucking things he did was not to talk to Cyrus but hit him in an attempt to save him and hear his screams and howls of pain? Wondering how much you ever knew your brother and now the responsibility that was upon his shoulders fall onto you? The Spider Queen taunting at your helplessness and just the cold ass way of just turning her own against her in some sort of a revenge? (a badass move by the way, "Kill your Mother") Going on a revenge spree. being lost and without purpose only to reunite with Bells Hells, another group of fucked up people after you leave Dariax. WHO SPECIFICALLY WAS FOLLOWING YOU??? BECAUSE HE WAS ALSO LOST ON HIS OWN??

And Dariax man. He was just asked by Opal to find Orym and so he goes, not understanding why they weren't going with him, not really understanding what happened to Cyrus initially and later on it just... hits him when the compulsion wears off and the betrayal he doesn't focus on because he follows Dorian and is worried about Dorian only for Dorian to leave him with his fucking lute in a, technically, unknown area? Now that's like two betrayals to process unless Dorian makes a fucking attempt to meet back up with Dariax again real soon cuz I swear to god you are just putting the sweetest person who just wants to support everyone down the deep end real quick cuz his sole purpose was to support Opal and she doesn't want him and now he follows Dorian and he also leaves him and I DON'T WANT THIS MUCH EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE ON DARIAX! I LOVED THE HIMBO THAT HE IS! OBSERVER LEAD HIM BACK TO DORIAN AND MAKE HIM WHACK HIM OVER HIS HEAD WITH THE LUTE! KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO THE GENASI FOR ME! I want Dariax to meet Orym and the Hells and the meeting should be in the most unbelievable way and- (starts an idea for a fic)

(I mean, narratively I get it, Matt can't DM and play a PC character but really, leaving him cold shouldered like that? Come on man! I understand the motivation characterwise too but really??)

And don't get me started with the reunion. I am glad Dorian asked Keyleth for some support, man I really do. But the way the reunion was going on, I think they are really skipping over some of the serious stuff in an attempt to catch up (which, realistically is going to be a mess because it is a lot to catch up tbh) but the way some of the stuff which could've been talked a little bit more about but bottled up is like... a lot. And I want those conversations so bad. I want Dorian to sit down and tell Orym and Fearne about what exactly went down. I want the Hells to properly talk about Thull. I want them to lay everything out in the open. The Deals. The risks.

I said it once and I say it again. I want the fucking Bells Hells to play a game of What the Fuck is Up with That under a Zone of Truth and talk about every single fucking thing for a really long time and I need proper conversations. I really do. And I want them to stop avoiding stuff.

And my man Dorian. Get Dariax back. You can't give me a joking "bonus action, Double Ds kiss" and immediately abandon him in Zephrah. You cannot do it to my poor heart. Not after all the elder sibling feels I am going through. I am sorry but you cannot.

I am going to miss the Crown Keepers a lot man. I am going to miss them a lot. They were my intro to CR and it is so fucking emotional to see them disband like this in a heartbreaking manner.

Thank you @quidde for this lovely story you gave us with all the silliness and all the heartbreak 🥺🥺🥺

I think I am going to catch some sleep rn even tho it is the afternoon. After a conversation with my teacher which I totally forgot about shit.

[stil-lindigo]

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

[ruporas]

dragon meat, you, and me

[inkskinned]

having good & true friends will literally save and protect you in a million unfathomable ways. like okay we have written so many times about lovers. but the way a platonic friend laughs and cries with you. the way they hold your hand at 14 years old and at 34. the way they keep a little silver tie to you, touching base over and over and over. how you can go years without talking, only to re-meet and discover: oh shit! you're still cool!

there are people who have been in my life for more than half of it, and i have loved every version of them. do you know how fucking beautiful that is. yeah love will save the world. but the way friends love you is gonna save the you.

[hinamie]

unconditionally

[erebus0dora]

something something a chat i am in discussing the loneliness of Armand who needs someone to define him and see him, so

"...it was ghastly and awful and loathsome, and beautiful all at the same time."

and yeah i kinda just want to give ppl hugs with anything i do and talk to them in hushed tones, so there you go

[deathricedrawn]

i'm ready to try

[puppyeared]

horrible truth bomb dropped on my head 20 min ago

[remxedmoon]

see?

everything’s fine.

(greyscale + extras below!!)

so! this was SUPPOSED to be a bonnie drawing. but for some reason i just Can’t draw bonnie to save my life today. and i needed to draw something simple to make myself less frustrated!! and by simple i mean this took me almost 3 hours and i had to redraw it because i didn’t like how the lineart turned out the first time!! oops!! at least it turned out cute🩶. and i got to play around with my textured brush!

also as a bonus, my terrible first attempt + the sketch!! that i apparently accidentally deleted at some point? so this is a screenshot from the timelapse. i dont know what happened to it…

[kathaynesart]

REPLICA'S PATREON IS FINALLY HERE!

You’ve asked for it and now that I am back I can finally put some wonderful treats up on my brand new Patreon including a sneak peek to the next Replica update, some sketches, and Part 1 of a short story focused on Replica Donnie:

"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Data"

It centers around Donnie's journey towards becoming the powerhouse we know in Replica as well as the drastic steps he takes in the early months of the Krang invasion to achieve his lofty goals.

NOTE: I highly recommend signing up on a browser or desktop (not on an iPhone) due to extra fees that were recently applied.

2ND NOTE: while some things such as the Replica page WIP will eventually make their way onto my Tumblr, the sketches and these short stories will stay exclusive to Patreon for the time being. This is because most of the content on my Patreon will be focusing on sensitive themes of war, a deeper look into the characters, and maybe even a bit of romance. All things I doubt would have been touched on in the Rise canon. So think of it as just extra fluff for readers who want more secret lore from this universe. If any of these themes DO interest you then please consider checking it out HERE! (I might bring it onto Kofi, in the future if people have trouble accessing it.)

[xixovart]

yes. my friends have all seen this drawing, now it’s your turn. it is the greatest drawing i have ever made (so far) and i will never shut up about it. or valgrace. thank you fro your time.

[lunar-years]

I want to talk about Jamie's wholeass depressive episode and the fascinating way he (fails to) process and cope with stuff and things because like? That press conference??? His sudden refusal to accept he's an important teammate who contributes a heck of a lot, saying his goal shouldn't have even counted?? Not wanting to take pictures with fans??? Saying "I hadn't even thought about that" when Keeley says his Dad is going to be at the game, even though it was clearly all he'd been thinking about??? THE SAD SUITCASE THING? god it was SO much I need 100 fanfics that are going to tackle this in a way even angstier than the show. immediately.

[elderwisp]

𝔗𝔞𝔨𝔢, 𝔭𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔠𝔯𝔶 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔰 𝔏𝔞𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔫𝔢𝔯𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔦𝔫 𝔭𝔢𝔞𝔠𝔢

[ann7av]

Spoilers for act 2

Isha is Jinx's inner child just as Warrick is Vi's inner monster and their mutual destruction is actually a pivotal event so they can both evolve as individuals, in this essay I will--

*start yapping*

No, I mean it, the hyper fixation kicked in and it kicked me hard. This is just about Vi's perspective in ep.5 btw but in my defense, she looks so tired

In the first arc, Vi starts to separate Powder from Jinx as a way of coping, she feels guilty about the destruction Jix caused and, as we know, Vi would never intentionally hurt her sister so the only way for her to try and stop her is to separate the two.

She can't kill her sister but she can kill Jinx (at least she thinks she can)

In ep.5 we see her spiraling into self-destruction, her entire character thus far has been taking care of others and now she has no one, and as such she doesn't think she has value simply as an individual.

Vi cannot accept change, that's her biggest flaw, she can't accept her sister's change or the change in the underground, and she begs Cait not to change in arc one. She somewhat recreated what her life in prison must've been like (she has a tiny apartment where she keeps herself enclosed, she's fighting on a daily basis, she's angry) so Vi's seeking familiarity in whatever she can find.

Now, she wakes up to Jinx in her little "protected" new reality, and her first instinct is to attack. She chokes Jinx (not her sister) and tells her off when she tells her about Vander, but THEN what happens?

Jinx starts to cry, and for a millisecond the illusion of Powder X Jinx is broken and Vi lets go of her, allowing her to say that "Vander is alive" and that "He needs OUR help".

Just like that, Vi's forced to face the possibility of change, she's not trusting that any of this is actually real and not one of Jix's "delusions" but it doesn't matter, the chance that someone NEEDS her help is enough for her to finally look at her own reflection on the mirror she broke in anger and denial, she has a choice to stay in the illusion or to take a risk.

Now, Vi follows her out and sees the mural. Not only does the mural depict Jinx (the person Vi is convincing herself killed her sister) as a hero but it also has Vander in it.

Jinx became Silco's daughter, the man who killed Vander and tore their family apart but for Zaun, she's also Vander's legacy of revolution. Vi is having to face that both things can be true at the same time.

They walk the tunnels and they start bickering, throwing things at each other's face and it's clear she's trying to avoid thinking too hard about what Jix is telling her.

Vi drops her gauntlets to make a point she doesn't need them, but her gauntlets are a physical symbol of her own emotional barriers, she takes them out when she's comfortable enough to let her guard down.

In this scenario, she's using her anger as a shield against Jinx, and anger is a safe emotion so she assumes there's not much risk, she doesn't expect Jinx to hit her, and when she does she hits back.

The thing is, that fight does not seem serious, they're not actually trying to hurt the other but rather just trying to prove their own points.

Now, Isha is serving as Jinx's inner child here and, as one would expect, she jumps in to help. But Vi's not expecting that and (as she does) she reacts.

She hits Isha (the embodiment of Powder) while fighting Jinx, she didn't mean to hurt the kid just like she never meant to her her sister all those years ago, but by fighting with Jinx (the sister she cannot accept) she does.

That's a visual representation of her inner turmoil, there's Jinx and there's Powder and she cannot see them as one, but she can't fight one without hurting the other, where one goes the other follows, they are one and the same.

Jinx goes to comfort Isha, and THAT'S when she puts her gauntlets back on, that's when she builds her defenses again, she can't allow herself to humanize Jinx or else she'll have to admit she's her sister and that she's changed.

Then we have Singed talking about Warrick (not Vander) something like:

"The beast was once a man victim of a great tragedy, but he had an incredible will to live, tolerance to pain, and was very resilient but it got lost in the bowels of the beast" - Yeah, sounds familiar?

We see in Warrick's pov, and he remembers wiping Powder's tears the same way Vi wiped Caits but Vi is blurred, her memory is still lost to him just like she's lost to herself

They find an office that belonged to Vander and Silco, and Violet takes one of her gauntlets off after she enters but keeps the other, her defenses are faltering but she's not willing to lower them yet.

They find a letter from Vander apologizing for what he did after the riot (the thing that broke them apart and later on separated Vi and Jinx)

Warrick came back to where Vander's apology to Silco was never read, he's roaming a familiar place with no purpose, desperately trying to find something he doesn't even know what means anymore.

And what guides him to the sisters is Isha's blood, the blood that was shed when Vi struck her in her fight with Jinx.

Jinx says everything might have been different if Silco had found the letter, and that same thought could apply to them.

If Marcus hadn't taken Vi away before she could come back to her sister, if Jinx had known what happened, if they had talked sooner after reuniting

Vi's defenses are crumbling here, they're both thinking the same thing and for a moment Jinx and Powder are the same, she almost comforts her with her uncovered hand, Jinx is being vulnerable, but Vi hesitates to trust her, so instead of reaching for her she reaches for the gauntlet again, putting her defenses up.

They leave back to the tunnels when Warrick finally catches on, and Vi sees this "beast" running towards them

It doesn't matter Jinx is telling her it's Vander, because Vi is still not trusting her, all she can see is Warrick and he himself is not stopping either, he can't recognize his daughters.

The only person who trusts the beast is Jinx, but she's not the person who can stop him at this moment, Vi is, and she does. Just like she has always done she gets in the way to protect the people she cares about.

Now, now, something very interesting about how this show deals with details is that Warrick was following the scent of Isha's blood so when he jumps to attack the camera focuses on the two.

As I commented, these two characters are being used to show Jinx and Vi's inner turmoil, and the fact Vi's inner monster (Warrick) is specifically aiming to hurt Jinx's inner child (Isha) is very telling.

But what is even more telling is that Vi is the one to stop him from hurting her, and by extension, she's protecting Jinx.

Just like before we see that Vi cannot attack Jinx without hurting Powder here we see that she can't protect Powder without protecting Jinx as well.

And THAT'S when we have the Jinx X Powder separation cracking

She says he's going to kill YOU, she's not worried about herself here, and the way she tries to protect them is to fight.

Vi always tries to fight her problem away by either violence or avoidance and now is no difference, she tries to fight him but here she's metaphorically fighting her own anger, the same anger that hurt her family and herself

The problem is that you can't fight fire with fire in these situations. Anger will not beat anger, punching will not stop the fight it will only make it worse.

They fight and he throws her against a wall before turning to focus on Isha but Jinx gets in the way and for a moment he recognizes Powder again

Jinx has been trying to protect Isha while making them stop and she tries again, but this time Vi is willing to hear her out,

She doesn't see Vander inside Warrick yet, and as this ginormous thing is barreling towards her she makes a decision, and for the first time, she trusts Jinx again, lowers her gauntlets and stops fighting. Vi's accepting the beast

There's a sequence where the image goes from Vi to Warrick repeatedly and they have similar expressions but then her eyes change and she calls for her father again.

Everything goes dark then, and we see Jinx completely terrified holding a lighter and looking for them. She doesn't know what she's going to find, she doesn't know if she was right in blindly believing Vander was still there.

The lights were bright during the fight but now everything is dark, and the dark is often used as a space of uncertainty and vulnerability Jinx couldn't save her sister from the beast and all she could do was try to guide her into saving herself.

Violet tried everything she knew, she tried fighting Jinx but in the process, she hurt the child, she tried avoiding the connection with her sister and by extension avoiding the family history but Warrick caught up with them again nonetheless, and when he did she tried to fight him off but the beast can't be killed by the same violence that created it.

In the end, it was the act of trusting Jinx that brought Vander back, Vi hugged him with the same gauntlets she used to hurt Warrick, she recognizes Jinx is also his daughter and by doing so she opens a door to seeing her as her sister again, even Isha got pulled into the hug.

Important to add that I do see Vander and Isha as more than just inner versions of Vi and Jinx but this show makes so many connections that everyone is everyone's inner something at one point tbh

Also, wdym both Cait and Jinx go to Stillwater and yet there was not ONE little detail of them thinking about Vi while my girl is literally hallucinating and only thinking about them? ONE MENTION

[hinamie]

"I'll show you every day that choosing to live was worth it"

some of my favourite scenes from @hijinks-n-lowjinks' fic things i would miss from the other side . this fic tore my heart out fr but like in a good way and i wanted to pay it homage the only way i know how <3

[annabellebuns]

And their pet cat…