#it is fun to play with myth backstory

[damienkarras73]

An essay on Furiosa, the politics of the Wasteland, Arthurian literature and realistic vs. formalistic CGI

Mad Max: Fury Road absolutely enraptured me when it came out nearly a decade ago, and I will cop to seeing it four times at the theatre. For me (and many others who saw the light of George Miller) it set new standards for action filmmaking, storytelling and worldbuilding, and I could pop in its Blu Ray at any time and never get tired of it. Perhaps not surprisingly, I was deeply apprehensive about the announced prequel for Fury Road's actual main character, Furiosa, even if Miller was still writing and directing. We didn't need backstory for Furiosa—hell, Fury Road is told in such a way that NOTHING in it requires explicit backstory. And since it focuses on the Yung Furiosa, it meant Charlize Theron couldn't return with another career-defining performance. Plus, look at all that CGI in the trailer, it can't be as good as Fury Road.

Turns out I was silly to doubt George Miller, M.D., A.O., writer and director of Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet One & Two.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is excellent, and I needn't have worried about it not being as good as Fury Road because it is not remotely trying to be Fury Road. Fury Road is a lean, mean machine with no fat on it, nothing extraneous, operating with constant forward momentum and only occasionally letting up to let you breathe a little; Furiosa is a classical epic, sprawling in scope, scale and structure, and more than happy to let the audience simmer in a quiet, almost painfully still moment. If its opening spoken word sequence by that Gandalf of the Wastes himself, the First History Man, didn't already clue you in, it unfolds like something out of myth, a tale told over and over again and whose possible embellishments are called attention to in the dialogue itself. Where Fury Road scratched the action nerd itch in my head like you wouldn't believe, Furiosa was the equivalent of Miller giving the undulating folds of my English major brain a deep tissue massage. That's great! I, for one, love when sequels/prequels endeavour to be fundamentally different movies from what they're succeeding/preceding, operating in different modes, formats and even genres, and more filmmakers should aim for it when building on an existing series.

This movie has been on my mind so much in the past week that I've ended up dedicating several cognitive processes to keeping track of all of the different ponderings it's spawned. Thankfully, Furiosa is divided into chapters (fun fact: putting chapter cards in your movie is a quick way to my heart), so it only seems fitting that I break up all of these cascading thoughts accordingly.

1. The Pole of Inaccessibility

Furiosa herself actually isn't the protagonist for the first chapter of her own movie, instead occupying the role of a (very crafty and resourceful) damsel in distress for those initial 30-40 minutes. The real hero of the opening act, which plays out like a game of cat and mouse, is Furiosa's mother Mary Jabassa, who rides out into the wasteland first on horseback and then astride a motorcycle to track down the band of raiders that has stolen away her daughter. Mary's brought to life by Miller and Nico Lathouris' economical writing and a magnetic performance by newcomer Charlee Fraser, who radiates so much screen presence in such relatively little time and with one of those instant "who is SHE??" faces. She doesn't have many lines, but who needs them when Fraser can convey volumes about Mary with just a flash of her eyes or the effortless way she swaps out one of her motorcycle's wheels for another. To be quite candid, I'm not sure of the last time I fell in love with a character so quickly.

You notice a neat aesthetic contrast between mother and daughter in retrospect: Mary Jabassa darts into the desert barefoot, clad in a simple yet elegant dress, her wolf cut immaculate, only briefly disguising herself with the ugly armour of a raider she just sniped, and when she attacks it's almost with grace, like some Greek goddess set loose in the post-apocalyptic Aussie outback with just her wits and a bolt-action rifle; we track Furiosa's growth over the years by how much of her initially conventional beauty she has shed, quite literally in one case (hair buzzed, severed arm augmented with a chunky mechanical prosthesis, smeared in grease and dirt from head to toe, growling her lines at a lower octave), and by how she loses her mother's graceful approach to movement and violence, eventually carrying herself like a blunt instrument. Yet I have zero doubt the former raised the latter, both angels of different feathers but with the same steel and resolve. Of fucking course this woman is Furiosa's mother, and in the short time we know her we quickly understand exactly why Furiosa has the drive and morals she does without needing to resort to didactic exposition.

Anyway, I was tearing up by the end of the first chapter. Great start!

2. Lessons from the Wasteland

Most movies—most stories, really—don't actually tell the entire narrative from A to Z. Perhaps the real meat of the thing is found from H to T, and A-G or U-Z are unnecessary for conveying the key narrative and themes. So many prequels fail by insisting on telling the A-G part of the story, explaining how the hero earned a certain nickname or met their memorable sidekick—but if that stuff was actually interesting, they likely would have included it in the original work. The greatest thing a prequel can actually do is recontextualize, putting iconic characters or moments in a new light, allowing you to appreciate them from a different angle. All of season 2 of Fargo serves to explain why Molly Solverson's dad is appropriately wary when Lorne Malvo enters his diner for a SINGLE SCENE in the show's first season. David's arc from the Alien prequels Prometheus and Covenant—polarizing as those entries are—adds another layer to why Ash is so protective of the creature in the first movie. Andor gives you a sense of what it's like for a normal, non-Jedi person to live under the boot of the Empire and why so many of them would join up with the Rebel Alliance—or why they would desire to wear that boot, or even just crave the chance to lick it.

Furiosa is one of those rare great prequels because it makes us take a step back and consider the established world with a little more nuance, even if it's still all so absurd. In Fury Road, Immortan Joe is an awesome, endlessly quotable villain, completely irredeemable, and basically a cartoon. He works perfectly as the antagonist of that breakneck, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote-ass movie, but if you step outside of its adrenaline-pumping narrative for even a moment you risk questioning why nobody in the Citadel or its surrounding settlements has risen up against him before. Hell, why would Furiosa even work for him to begin with? But then you see Dementus and company tear-assing around the wasteland, seizing settlements and running them into the ground, and you realize Joe and his consortium offer something that Dementus reasonably can't: stability—granted, an unwavering, unchangeable stability weighted in favour of Joe's own brutal caste system, but stability nonetheless. It really makes you wonder, how badly does a guy have to suck to make IMMORTAN JOE of all people look like a sane, competent and reasonable ruler by comparison?!?

…and then they open the door to the vault where he keeps his wives, and in a flash you're reminded just how awful Joe is and why Furiosa will risk her life to help some of these women flee from him years later. This new context enriches Joe and makes it more believable that he could maintain power for so long, but it doesn't make him any less of a monster, and it says a lot about Furiosa's hate for Dementus that she could grit her teeth and work for this sick old tyrant.

3. The Stowaway

Here's another wild bit of trivia about this movie: you don't actually see top-billed actress Anya Taylor-Joy pop up on screen until roughly halfway through, once Furiosa is in her late teens/early twenties. Up until this point she's been played by Alyla Browne, who through the use of some seamless and honestly really impressive CGI has been given Anya's distinctive bug eyes [complimentary]. It's one of those bold choices that really works because Miller commits to it so hard, though it does make me wish Browne's name was up on the poster next to Taylor-Joy's.

Speaking of CGI, I should talk about what seems to be a sticking point for quite a few people: if there's been one consistent criticism of Furiosa so far, it's that it doesn't look nearly as practical or grounded as Fury Road, with more obvious greenscreen and compositing, and what previously would've been physical stunt performers and pyrotechnics have been replaced with their digital equivalents for many shots. Simply put, it doesn't look as real! For a lot of people, that practicality was one of Fury Road's primary draws, so I won't try to quibble if they're let down by Furiosa's overt artificiality, but to be honest I'm actually quite fine with it. It helps that this visual discrepancy doesn't sneak up on you but is incredibly apparent right from the aerial zoom-down into Australia in the very first scene, so I didn't feel misled or duped.

Fury Road never asks you to suspend your disbelief because it all looks so believable; Furiosa jovially prods you to suspend that disbelief from the get-go and tune into it on a different wavelength. It's a classical epic, and like the classical epics of the 1950s and 60s it has a lot of actors standing in front of what clearly are matte paintings. It feels right! We're not watching fact, we're watching myth. I'm willing to concede there might be a little bit of post-hoc rationalization on my part because I simply love this movie so much, but I'm not holding the effects in Furiosa to the same standard as those in Fury Road because I simply don't believe Miller and his crew are attempting to replicate that approach. Without the extensive CGI, we don't get that impressive long, panning take where a stranded Furiosa scans the empty, dust-and-sun-scoured wasteland (75% Sergio Leone, 25% Andrei Tarkovsky), or the Octoboss and his parasailing goons. For the sake of intellectual exercise I did try imagining them filming the Octoboss/war rig sequence with the same immersive practical approach they used for Fury Road's stunts, however I just kept picturing dead stunt performers, so perhaps the tradeoff was worth it!

4. Homeward

Around the same time we meet the Taylor-Joy-pilled Furiosa in Chapter 3, we're introduced to Praetorian Jack, the chief driver for the convoys running between the Citadel and its allied settlements. Jack's played by Tom Burke, who pulled off a very good Orson Welles in Mank! and who I should really check out in The Souvenir one of these days. He's also a cool dude! Here are some facts about Praetorian Jack:

He's decked out in road leathers with a pauldron stitched to one shoulder

He's stoic and wary, but still more or less personable and can carry on a conversation

Professes to a certain cynicism, to quote Special Agent Albert Rosenfield, but ultimately has a capacity for kindness and will do the right thing

Shoots a gun real good

Can drive like nobody's business

So in other words, Jack is Mad Max. But also, no, he clearly isn't! He looks and dresses like Mad Max (particularly Mel Gibson's) and does a lot of the same things "Mad" Max Rockatansky does, but he's also very explicitly a distinct character. It's a choice that seems inexplicable and perhaps even lazy on its face, except this is a George Miller movie, so of course this parallel is extremely purposeful. Miller has gone on record saying he avoids any kind of strict chronology or continuity for his Mad Max movies, compared to the rigid canons for Star Trek and Star Wars, and bless him for doing so. It's more fun viewing each Mad Max entry as a new revision or elaboration on a story being told again and again generations after the fall, mutating in style, structure and focus with every iteration, becoming less grounded as its core narrative is passed from elder to youth, community to community, genre to genre, until it becomes myth. (At least, my English major brain thinks it's more fun.) In fact there's actually something Arthurian to it, where at first King Arthur was mentioned in several Welsh legends before Geoffrey of Monmouth crafted an actual narrative around him, then Chrétien de Troyes added elements like Lancelot and infused the stories with more romance, and then with Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory whipped the whole cycle together into one volume, which T.H. White would chop and screw and deconstruct with The Once and Future King centuries later.

All this to say: maybe Praetorian Jack looks and sounds and acts like Max because he sorta kinda basically is, being just one of many men driving back and forth across the wasteland, lending a hand on occasion, who'll be conflated into a single, legendary "Mad Max" at some point down the line in a different History Man's retelling of Furiosa's odyssey. Sometimes that Max rips across the desert in his V8 Interceptor, other times driving a big rig. Perhaps there's a dog tagging along and/or a scraggly and at first aggravating ally played by Bruce Spence or Nicholas Hoult. Usually he has a shotgun. But so long as you aren't trying to kill him, he'll help you out.

5. Beyond Vengeance

The Mad Max movies have incredibly iconic villains—Immortan Joe! Toecutter! the Lord Humongous!—but they are exactly that, capital V Villains devoid of humanizing qualities who you can't wait to watch bad things happen to. Furiosa appears to continue this trend by giving us a villain who in fact has a mustache long enough that he could reasonably twirl it if he so wanted, but ironically Dementus ends up being the most layered antagonist in the entire series, even moreso than the late Tina Turner's comparatively benevolent Aunty Entity from Beyond Thunderdome. And because he's played by Chris Hemsworth, whose comedic delivery rivals his stupidly handsome looks, you lock in every time he's on screen.

Something so fascinating about Dementus is that, for a main antagonist, he's NOT all-powerful, and in fact quite the opposite: he's more conman than warlord, looking for the next hustle, the next gullible crowd he can preach to and dupe—though never for long. For all his bluster, at every turn he finds himself in way over his head and writing cheques he can't cash, and this self-induced Sisyphean torment makes him riveting to watch. You're tempted to pity Dementus but it's also quite difficult to spare sympathy for someone who's so quick to channel their rage and hurt and ego into thoughtless, burn-it-all-down destruction. When you're not laughing at him, you're hating his guts, and it's indisputably the best work of Chris Hemsworth's career.

It's in this final chapter that everything naturally comes to a head: Furiosa's final evolution into the character we meet at the start of Fury Road, the predictable toppling of Dementus' precariously built house of cards, and the mythmaking that has been teased since the very first scene becoming diagetic text, the last of which allows the movie to thoroughly explore the themes of vengeance it's been building to. A brief war begins, is summarized and is over in the span of roughly a minute, and on its face it's a baffling narrative choice that most other filmmakers would have botched. But our man Miller's smart enough to recognize that the result of this war is the most foregone of conclusions if you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention, so he effectively brushes past it to get to the emotional heart of the climax and an incredible "Oh shit!" payoff that cements Miller as one of mainstream cinema's greatest sickos.

Fury Road remains the greatest Mad Max film, but Furiosa might be the best thing George Miller has ever made. If not his magnum opus, it does at least feel like his dissertation, and it makes me wish Warner Bros. puts enough trust in him despite Furiosa's poor box office performance that he's able to make The Wasteland. Absolutely ridiculous that a man just short of his 80th birthday was able to pull this off, and with it I feel confident calling him one of my favourite directors.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Thoughts on Bonney and her situation? I feel so bad for her… :[

oda has always been really good at introducing information about characters through their backstories that recontextualizes a lot of their behavior in hindsight, and i think bonney is maybe one of the most skillfully done examples of this in the whole comic.

i started suspecting some time before reaching her backstory that she might be younger than she generally appears, because it struck me as consistently odd how everyone on egghead seemed to mention knowing her as a child and how fast she’d grown up, but having that information confirmed in her flashback completely changes her as a character in a way i find really compelling and fun.

like, throughout egghead i have been mentally comparing bonney a lot to law. from the start she’s playing a similar role as he does in the dressrosa saga, as the arc’s supernova ally-of-circumstance, and the similarities between them only grow deeper as we learn more about her history and motivations. bonney is really similar to law in a lot of ways; she aligns herself with the strawhats while on a revenge quest for the death of her adoptive father, who sacrificed himself in order to cure her of her childhood terminal illness.

the main difference, of course, is that bonney is twelve.

she’s twelve! and she was ten before the timeskip. which means she’s about as old in the present of the story (10-12) as law was in his flashback (10-13), or as ace and sabo were in the post-marineford flashback (10); that’s the age and maturity level she’s at. she’s twelve years old and she misses her dad. her tragedy is fresh and recent and she hasn’t quite grown around it yet, and she still has her whole future ahead of her.

i really liked the reveal that her devil fruit basically relies on her being a kid with a big imagination full of infinite possibilities. it’s very thematically resonant with her role as the emotional and narrative core of the arc set on egghead, the island of the future. any future she envisions for herself she can make real!

related to this, she also relates to religion and myth like a child does, where it all may as well be real because anything still could be. when kuma tells her about nika, she envisions someone who’s really somewhere out there in the world who she could find. the sun’s in the sky- maybe they’ll find him up on the sky islands?

and the thing is that she’s right!

bonney is a kid and the futures she dreams become real, because her ability to imagine the impossible hasn’t yet been beaten into submission by the horrible weight of reality. saturn tries to break her spirit and depower her before he kills her by crushing her ability to picture any future for herself, and it almost works.

and then there’s nika, and everything becomes possible again.

[rookthorne]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕 — 𝑵𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑶𝑵𝑬

》 𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐁𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝

Rumours and tales had been spread of a character at the local Halloween Park that painted them in such a haunting light — they were a predator that even the bravest spook and adrenaline seekers feared, always alluding that he was far too ‘hardcore’ to trifle with.  Luckily for you, a target had been painted on your back, and you were about to experience one of the hardest escapes of your life.

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 》 Scare Actor!Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 》 3.6k

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 》 Fluff, consensual stalking, primal, knife play

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 》 I had way too much fun writing this, and I can't believe that I just typed that warning.

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒂 》 @smutconnoisseur

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻ 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 》 @rookthorne's Fright Night — Masterlist

》 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

》 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

After weeks of research and scouring through social media for the best spooks of the season, you were led here. At the gates of the new Halloween park and attraction. The park was lively, loud with screams and cheers and the bass of music. It thrummed through your body like a current of electricity. 

A building decked out in stereo-typical Halloween decorations was situated to the left of the entrance. The sign above the larger window read ‘Administration’, and with a shuddered gasp of anticipation, you gripped the bag strap over your shoulder and walked towards it to wait in line. 

It was a shock at just how small the line was, however. No more than a handful of people, all adults, stood and trembled in place – whether from anxiety or excitement, you couldn’t tell. 

The lack of people standing in line wasn’t so much of a surprise when you took into account that during your research you found out you had to sign a multitude of waivers to even set foot in the park bounds. 

The waiver, you learned from the park’s website, had every possible scenario covered – by signing the documents, you understood and consented to having the metaphorical life scared out of you, whether that be by props, actors, or environments. There were even medical forms to fill out, they were that thorough.  

During your research, you had also seen all of the actors on the park’s Instagram — each as intimidating at the last, but there was one that intrigued you the most. It was a given that each character had a backstory, a plot behind the madness, but this one seemed the most exhilarating. 

Known only as the Soldat, his costume consisted entirely of black; leather and kevlar-esque clothes paired with holsters for weaponry everywhere. A mask covered the lower half of his face, leaving only piercing grey eyes streaked with khol visible. 

If you were honest with yourself, you were most excited for an encounter with him. He stalked the shadows and only revealed himself to very few — a walking and breathing myth that carried the same sense of lethality and mystery that his character afforded. 

What interested you within the fine print for one of the waivers you eagerly signed was that the Soldat had his own warnings: stalking, use of Russian, and, unsurprisingly, use of knives. They were props, the document assured you as such, but if the thought didn’t make your heart race a little… 

“Next,” a voice called, breaking you out of your reverie. You blinked and shook your head before stepping forward. The sign in process was like any other, and you passed through the entry gates only a few moments later. 

Screams echoed through the night while the clashes and bangs of metal on metal sounded – the rides were in full swing. The entryway of the park was full of groups of young adults and couples, travelling in packs of two to even ten. It was only then you slightly regretted coming to the park alone, but there was less of a chance to make a fool of yourself, this way. 

There were no children running amok, either, and for that, you were grateful, not only would there be no hysterical children, but that was the first sign that rules were enforced: no one under the age of twenty-one could step foot within the park. 

A thick blanket of fog carpeted the ground as you stepped into a makeshift tunnel, the barely lit space had a lone flickering light bulb that gave very little visibility. You could still hear people walking around behind you, deep in the shadows. 

Loud, deep music played as you considered what to do next while you walked towards the main area of the park. The bass rattled your chest and echoed in your bones, disorientating you in a way that made the adrenaline burn through your veins. 

It was a general consensus that there would be no scaring until you reached the rides, or within the food court, but it didn’t soothe that prickle of apprehension that someone was there, just waiting for the opportunity. 

“Alright,” you muttered to yourself, looking left to right. To the left was a giant archway that led to a food court, and to the right, a looming tunnel in the shape of a mouth that led to rides. Hunger wasn’t an issue at that point, so you shrugged and turned towards the tunnel. “Here we go.”

The shadows seemed to warp and move as you walked, giving the illusion of figures stalking behind you. Blood curdling screams and shrieks bounced off the walls and through the night’s air, and you couldn’t tell whether they were the ambient recordings or if the actor’s were already working their craft. 

It added a sense of urgency to your step; a sharp, keen sense of awareness for every flicker in your peripheral vision. 

Lights beamed from the carnival-esque rides as you walked through the crowds – oranges, purples, and greens glowed over your skin and flickered over the pavement, painting an eerie picture in the darkness. People were flocking back and forth in groups while lone stragglers were singled out by the roaming actors. 

You watched, amused, as one of the actors in a clown costume ran full pelt at a huddled group of young women. They screamed with fright and scattered before they converged again, huddling next to one another like that would be their saving grace. 

You knew better. 

The harrowing sense of being watched cascaded over you, the silent rise of the hair on your nape and your mind screamed danger, danger, danger. You looked around, subtly as you could, until you found the source: a straggler, dressed in a suit splattered with fake blood, was watching you with his head tilted to the side.  

You narrowed your eyes suspiciously, staring straight back, when he winked. Inwardly, you grumbled over the fact that a simple wink should not have been that attractive; outwardly, you stuck your tongue out at the actor in retaliation. 

He advanced and in the blink of an eye, he had skidded across the pavement on his knees, sending sparks from his knee pads as he stood up right in front of you. His height was an advantage, you guessed, because you couldn’t suppress the shiver of a personified murderer looming over you. 

“Careful, darling,” he said, voice gravelly. You could see a set of prop vampire fangs fitted over his canines when he bared his teeth. “Don’t wanna lose that now, do you?”

“Nope,” you said nervously, taking a step back and shaking your head. “I need it to eat pizza.”

The actor, whether in or out of character, snorted derisively and wiggled his fingers, and you took the dismissal. 

Fog still covered the ground as you walked through the rides, content to feel the spirit of Halloween in the air and watch everyone else have the life scared out of them. There was a chime of different music to your right, and you glanced over to find a claw machine – full to the brim with stuffies in different states of zombie decay, to skeletons with goofy faces. 

You walked over, humming to the music playing over the loudspeakers. “I have to have one.” 

The line to get to the front was just as short as the line to the administrative building, and you waited patiently, watching as men dressed in top hats or rags stalk past; looking for their next victim. 

Laughter sounded from right behind you and you started, spinning around to find a woman wearing a mask and holding some sort of blade integrated with an aluminium bat. Dark red hair cascaded down her shoulders, contrasting against the black leather of her jacket. 

She stared into your face, searching it with her green eyes, when she smirked – a wicked thing that sent a shiver down your spine; some people were just too good at their jobs, you thought privately. 

“Aren’t you just a sweet little thing? Cute–innocent, even,” she drawled, tapping the end of her bat with a clawed nail. Her voice sounded smooth and velvety – not unlike that of a siren’s. 

“You got me good,” you confessed, hand held over your pounding heart. She giggled and smiled at you. A flash of orange light passed over her and you pointed at her hair. “I love your hair–sets off your menacing vibe perfectly.”

“Why, thank you, lamb.” She stepped closer, narrowing her eyes. The proximity made your heart race – even if you were well versed in the etiquette, having a stranger in costume so close made you nervous. “I think you’re one the Soldat would love…”

The hammering beat of your heart froze for a second with her words. Never had you imagined that you would hear a threat so enticing. You blinked and shook your head before you looked at her through narrowed eyes. “What?”

“Oh, you heard me,” she teased, winking slyly. It didn’t ease your nerves. “Don’t worry that sweet head of yours.” The weapon she brandished swayed in her grip as she stepped back and out of your space. “He’ll find you, and there won’t be anything left when he’s done with you.”

The encounter left you rattled; scared beyond wits. “What did she mean–?” 

Bright lights filled your peripheral vision and you realised you were at the front of the line for the claw machine. The worker, who leaned heavily onto the glass and flipped a small knife in his hand, looked up at you as you stepped up to the controls. 

“Huh,” he huffed, tilting his head. “Widow wasn’t wrong. You better watch your back, lamb.” 

You blinked at him. “Excuse me?” His sandy blond hair was matted and streaked with congealed blood, stemming from a fake arrow through the side of his head and you had to fight the urge to wretch at the hyper-realistic, brutal costume.

The worker shrugged a shoulder and tapped his temple with the point of the knife. “The Soldat is on the hunt tonight, prowling the shadows–wouldn’t wanna cross him. Keep your wits about you.”

“You guys really know how to make a gal feel welcome,” you said slowly, looking around you. “It works–building Soldat up.”

The wink he sent you made your skin break out in goosebumps – there was something in his eyes, a glint of knowing that put you off and unsettled your senses. Loud screams and echoed maniacal laughter did not help the nerves that had begun to fray the longer you stood out in the open. 

Shaking your head once, you deposited the money in the machine and grabbed the joystick, determined to win a stuffie for your trouble. 

And if you gripped the soft toy tightly when you left, it was no one’s business. 

Your venture through the park led you to a dark zone within the rides – people were interspersed in their little groups, but not a single person lingered. The shadows seemed to extend and grow as you walked, and that same feeling of being watched from someone unseen settled heavily in your stomach, a lead weight that made your leisurely pace increase. 

The alleyway to your left gaped in size. With no other sounds except for the occasional yell or scream of fear from the other park patrons, you couldn’t hear footsteps nor the breathing of someone lurking there. But the inescapable instinct of fight or flight screamed at you to get out of there – to run, and to not look back. 

You shuffled your feet and looked around as you muttered a quiet curse, thinking of where to go next, and the alleyway passed you by with little incident. “Well, that’s a relief,” you mumbled, adjusting your bag on your shoulder. 

As you walked, just a few feet from the unnerving alleyway, people walking towards you stopped and stared – mouths and eyes wide, and when you opened your mouth to ask what was wrong, a presence behind you, dark and shadowed from your peripheral vision, made your jaw click shut. 

You tried to whirl around to see who it was, but a cold hand covered your mouth and chin. Whoever it was forced you to stumble backwards and you landed with a muffled huff against their chest – a solid mass of a person, and you could scent the leather of their costume. 

A tutting sound emanated from where the person's mouth was, and cold plastic pressed against your ear – their hand still covered your mouth and every sound you made came out muffled. The ability to make noise or call for help being torn from you so easily made white static fill your mind in a panicked haze, while the sound of your pounding heart filled your ears.

“There you are,” a deep voice rasped – it was accented with the lilt of Russian. You froze in place and your eyes widened with terror; Soldat had found you. “A little bird told me that I would find the perfect prey tonight. They were not wrong.” 

His voice was muffled and quiet behind the mask, but it filled you with an unparalleled need to flee, though you didn’t dare mov – not even when you felt something sharp dig into the side of your neck. “Such a pretty prize, little kotenok. And all for me.”

For a split second, you forgot you were in a park full of people. Not even the pounding bass of the music that never ceased or the screams of fear pulled you out of the reverie – it was just you, back to chest with a stranger who had a hand over your mouth, and what felt like a knife at your neck. You whimpered and shuddered in his hold. 

“Do not fear, little one.” There was a deep chuckle, and the same smooth, cold plastic brushed against the shell of your ear, as though he was turning his head to look at your profile. “I could never hurt my trophies. Especially ones that are so pretty.”

The cold bite of metal left your mouth and the sharp tip of the knife vanished from your throat. “Oh-”

The hands that had held you captive then shoved you forward, and you yelped in shock before you spun around to face the Soldat, only, no one was there. “What the hell!”

“I told you, little lamb,” a familiar voice sang. You looked to the right and you were faced with the same red hair of Widow, not to mention the Cheshire's smile on blood red lips. “Soldat is on the hunt, and he’s prowling after you now.” She turned away and waved at you from over her shoulder. “Good luck, little one!”

You gulped and straightened up, watching the mouth of the alleyway with mounting fear. There was no glint of metal nor any sign of a person in waiting. 

“I would run, if I were you,” a new voice cautioned. It was one of the stragglers that had spooked that group of women earlier, and he looked smug – a wide smirk pulled his lips up and contorted his makeup. “You’re in his sights now. Good fucking luck.” And he ran off, sparks flying from the pads on his knees as he skidded across the floor again. 

“Shit,” you hissed. That waiver was not kidding – and with all the actors warning you to hightail it, you were inclined to believe them. You got your wish, you thought nervously as you looked around. The Soldat was paying attention to you, and you alone, it seemed. “Fuck it.”

Your shoes slapped over the pavement as you briskly walked towards the archway on the other side of the ride section of the park. People kept glancing at you and staring wide-eyed behind you, but every time you looked over your shoulder, you saw no one tailing behind you. 

It was starting to mess with your bravado, and you couldn’t help but pant for air as you moved faster and faster, desperate to at least get to somewhere where there was light. 

“Oh my god!” a woman cried, pointing behind you with wide eyes. You yelped on instinct and jumped, spinning on your heel. 

This time there was someone there. 

Clad in all black, his eyes intently stared at your face. Kohl covered the skin above his black mask and long, dark hair swayed as he walked, strutted towards you; flipping a knife with a shining, metal hand as though putting on a show for all to see. 

Fear froze you in place for a split second, but adrenaline roared and pulsed like a wildfire through every fibre of your being. With little intervention, you turned back around and bolted from the scene, pushing past people to put distance between you and the Soldat. 

Boots thumped behind you and you screamed as you felt a hand brush your shoulder. You turned sharply to the left and the hand disappeared, but you heard a rough voice yell, “Run, little kotenok, I will catch you–one way or another,” at your back. 

Heavy metal music matched the pace of your frantic running as you dashed between crowds of people and other actors. You took a chance and glanced over your shoulder, searching for your tail, but he was gone once again. “Oh my god,” you gasped, heaving for air. “That was scary–holy shit.” 

A plainly dressed worker walked up to you then, their expression taut and worried. “Are you alright, ma’am?”

“Yeah, yeah,” you rushed, waving a hand. “I’m good. Had the shit scared out of me, but I’m good.” 

They grinned and nodded. “Good luck then.”

You were left alone once again. 

Music and the occasional scream filled the long silence and lack of terror-driven fleeing. There was another alleyway to your side, and there wasn’t much room for a person to appear behind you without you knowing, so you took a chance and leaned against the rough brick of the building as you took deep pulls of air to fill your constricting lungs. A stitch had formed in your side and you winced on every inhale. “Fuck–that was-” 

A hand, cold and strong, covered your mouth and pulled you back against a chest. The shriek of fear was cut off by the pressure of his grip. 

Soldat clicked his tongue and growled as a flash of metal danced across your vision. The same knife that had been against your throat before dug into your neck and dragged down to your collarbones, then back up to your jugular. “Should have never run from me,” he said lowly. “I am a ghost, kotenok. I see and hear it all. You’re in my world now, little one.”

“Please,” you whimpered, and it came out muffled behind his hand. “I- Oh my god, don’t-”

A deep, demonic laugh shook his chest and you felt him breathe in, the brush of leather on your back just as frightening as before. “You beg so pretty, kotenok.” He clicked his tongue again and pulled away the knife, but he held you fast to his chest. “Those same little birds told me you signed a waiver. The very same one that will allow me to do as I please with you.”

You recognised the consent check immediately; the pressure on your mouth didn’t tighten nor did he pull you back. He was giving you the chance to back out. “Yeah,” you rasped, lips brushing against the cold palm of his hand. “I did.”

“Mm,” he hummed. The knife returned to your throat, and you gasped as you were suddenly moved over to and pinned to the wall by your neck with his hand. His face was mere inches from yours, and you could see the dark kohl that framed his clear, calculating eyes as they darted between yours. “Umnaya devushka. You will be my trophy, then. And by the fall of the final night, you will know your place.”

“Oh,” you gasped, and you squirmed to gain some room, but he did not relent. Soldat narrowed his eyes and he tilted his head, considering you. 

“You also will be a guest until the end of Halloween, da?”

Unable to speak, you just nodded. 

The corner of his eyes crinkled slightly, as though he was smiling behind the mask. He leaned in close again, his breath hot over your lips as his hand tightened on the sides of your throat. You let out an undignified squeak that didn’t even seem to phase him, nor make him break character – if anything, he delved deeper. “Very good. I will find you, kotenok. You will not escape so easily next time.”

He pulled back and you stumbled forward – it felt like whiplash, losing his proximity so fast and without warning.

“Wait!” Slowly, he narrowed his eyes and took a knife from his holster, absentmindedly flipping it as he walked backwards towards the mouth of the alleyway. “Why me?”

His movements halted. The air from the alleyway was sucked from the space and you struggled to rein in the thought of him staring so thoughtfully at you – the need to know what he was thinking was almost overwhelming. 

“You intrigue me,” he said simply. 

Then, he turned and stalked out of the alleyway, leaving you in the shadows and considering just how insane this all was. You were alone, in a park full of the Halloween spirit, and here you were, wondering just how it would feel if you were chased by the Soldat again. 

The thought alone convinced you to indeed come back the next night, and this time, you would wear trainers. You would outrun him, one way or another.

kotenok = kitten umnaya devushka = clever girl da = yes

⠈⠂⠄ 𝐢𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐱 | 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 | 𝐚𝐨𝟑  ⠄⠂⠁

⠈⠂⠄𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 ⠄⠂⠁

[precambrian-sea-pancake]

Gonna infodump about my D&D character

(Sadly forced to keep things confidential because my party members follow me on tumblr…you know who you are 👁️👁️)

I’ve only had Gawain for a short time but OH MY GOODNESS I FUCKING ADORE THIS SILLY GUY!!

Also kinda shocked that the moodboard I made for him got that many notes. That’s a first…

Also please enjoy the drawing @hootbon made for me. I will never shut up about their art.

So…for what CAN post publicly…

Gawain is your token Lawful Good Paladin TM. Bonus points for being a protector aasimar I guess. (Though I might multiclass into a bard depending on how things go. It would fit him well. They’re my favorite spell caster.)

His personality is gonna be SO fun to play. Before I explain that, I should mention that he’s actually the youngest of the group at 24. The second youngest is the Kobold (Maran) who’s 37. So he’s a lot more naive and still understanding himself and the world around him. People often dismiss him due to that unfortunately. But, you know, imagine a dumb collage age boy and you get somewhat of an idea.

He’s a very sweet and compassionate guy, extremely extroverted and fun loving…maybe a bit flirty at times. Definitely cracks witty comments and one liners in battles ranging from something clever to “suck my dick” or something dumb like that. That doesn’t mean he can’t be serious, he absolutely knows when he should. Ironically he’s the most “normal” of the group, often being the straight man. Overall heart of gold and just wants to help people.

He has a bit of a rebellious and impulsiveness to him. As clever as he is, he’s mostly driven by his emotions. It’s always a “do what feels right in the moment” rather than logic. In general he’s just very emotional and struggles with hyper empathy. This also causes him to question a lot of the authority around him.

I’d also say he has that Disney Princess syndrome. Gawain is convinced that he has some grand destiny and is meant for more. He’s always wanted to explore and learn more about the world, meet new people and cultures, live a life of glory and adventure. Maybe he’s in over his head or maybe he’s not…we’ll see.

However, another big reason for doing all this is that he wants to understand who he is…more accurately WHAT he is. He was born to humans, raised by humans, and grew up in a mostly all human kingdom. So he grew up thinking he was one despite some strong differences between him and the others. Aasimar are VERY rare, and more like myths to most people, and others don’t even know they exist. So people either assumed he was blessed or cursed, some treated him like the messiah, and others thought he was a freak and dangerous. So yeah, he never felt like he belonged and wants to learn about himself.

Somewhere in his life he ended up becoming a squire and completed his training just before the start of the campaign…

And that’s all the backstory information I can post because my friends will see this.

I guess I can do a bit of trivia:

It’s still D&D lore, but the world itself is homebrew. Humans are actually not the majority race, far from it. Most humans live in a large archipelago with various human nations. I remember the DM said the estimated population of humans was 20,000 to 30,000. The two mainland continents are one dominated by dwarves and the other by elves, along with other races being far more common on the mainland. Not really about my character but I LOVE that detail. It’s somewhat relevant I guess since I said Gawain grew up in a human society.

The god he venerates most is Ilmatar.

His eyes reflect his emotions and power. When using any of his abilities or when under intense emotions (both positive and negative), his eyes will turn a solid gold color.

Prior to his training, he was a courier. His parents ran his town’s postal service and that’s one of the things that got him into the idea of adventuring.

He’s more of a cat person than a dog person. He likes both, but I feel like he’d go for the cat.

The first weapon he ever used was a bow rather than a sword. The specific sword he uses is an arming sword.

He is a wonderful singer, his voice is almost ethereal in when he sings (little aasimar headcanon of mine).

His favorite study is anthropology, but also really likes history and geography. He’s always collecting little souvenirs and trinkets from everywhere he visits.

He keeps a diary and loves to write stories and sketch things. A lot of story inspiration comes from his dreams, which are often very vivid…and he remembers them super well.

Neither of his parents have blonde hair, nor is it a recessive trait they had. It’s actually part of his aasimar traits.

He talks in his sleep because I think it’s funny.

If this wasn’t a medieval fantasy world, he’d definitely use Gen Z slang. Maybe even tell someone “L + Ratio” or “Skill issue” after besting them in battle. In that same hypothetical reality, his favorite band would be Starset and The Score.

He takes good care of his appearance and health, so he does enjoy certain beauty products. A spa day is his ideal day off.

He hates salmon. He thinks it tastes bad and prefers catfish. I don’t know why I even thought of that fact but it’s there.

[sardonic-the-writer]

rant about Gabriel to me I need to understand him

im going to format this like you've never seen the show, just in case you haven't, so if you have just bare with me

gabriel is a bit of an enigma. for the first two and a half episodes he shows up in, he's not even known as gabriel. he's on screen as 'the trickster' and is masquerading as one. (tricksters in spn canon are powerful demigod creatures of myth that can alter reality how they want, normally using their powers to play deadly pranks on malicious humans in ironic ways. i.e mauling someone who tests products on animals via a sewer alligator)

the reason he's doing this as a self proclaimed "witness protection" method is because he's in hiding, pretending to be a trickster to hide from his family; which is heaven since he's the archangel gabriel. surprise surprise. this is revealed in the episode 'changing channels', (season four) which is i believe the best ranked episode on the entire show by the audience and one of my favorites. 'mystery spot' (season three) is another one he stars in (as rhe trickster, not gabriel. we still dont know that), and i think it's the second highest ranked. and 'tall tales' (season two) is the first one he shows up in which is also very highly ranked.

gabriel has a habit of faking his death a lot to escape responsibility, which he does in the episode 'hammer of the gods' (season five [?] i think) after being "stabbed" by lucifer so he doesn't have to really stick around and watch his family (lucifer and michael) fight. but we don't know that it was a fake out for nearly eight seasons. (there is an instance where he shows up again in season nine but that was a fake out and not the real him). in 'hammer of the gods' we also find out that gabriel really had gone all in with his so called witness protection while pretending to be a trickster; so much so that most of the mythological world/pretty much anyone but cas sam and dean knows him as the actual god of tricksters, loki, and not by his true name. later on when he comes back in season thirteen we find out that's because the real loki offered to share the same face with gabriel back when he first came to earth wayyyyyyy long ago to help him out. and when we meet loki later when gabriels trying to kill him for selling him off to one of the princes of hell asmodeus (i'll get into that) it's basically just the actor richard speight jr playing two roles at once. if that makes any sense. one of my favorite episodes, although i think that's just because i hadn't really seen gabriel in months and was over excited. i'll have to see if the hype holds up on my rewatch

but okay, for some backstory on the whole being sold thing, after gabriel faked his death in 'hammer of the gods', he ran off to some island to get in contact with loki and his kids (think fenrir. spn uses real mythological names and bloodlines as side plots sometimes) to go dark again. loki pretends to entertain the idea and let's gabriel play poker with hookers for a few days (gabe has also stared in a porno before and enjoys eating candy even though angels never get hungry. he's fun that way) before betraying him and basically selling him off as a slave to a prince of hell, who locks him away for hundered (thousands maybe?) of years, constantly draining his archangel grace just enough to not leave gabe powerless, but also enough to torture him horribly. it's awful, and all explained in the episode 'unfinished buisness' (season thirteen) which is all about him enacting revenge on loki and the tricksters kids. but the takeaway is that the first time we see gabe after season five, he's a completely different person. almost like a scared animal. if the animal has had its mouth sewn shut by a demon, that is.

anyways, sam and dean and cas help revert him back to his usual self, and he runs away from his problems for a few episodes, before finally confronting them and dying for real this time at the hands of an alertnate world version of his brother michael a few episodes later. the later seasons writing was so fucked up in my opinion, and the way gabriel died was done so wrong, but i think that's because im biased. frowns

my explination of him does no justice. he's a smug, silly, tricky, multi layered, funny son of a bitch that has fuck ass smile where his eyes crinkled at the corner and i. oughhh. i love him. urgh. yeah

[nyaacatboy]

i love the new pjo tv show don't get me wrong but i feel like it's missing the like, campiness of the original? that got translated pretty well into the musical but honestly 2-3 lines of witty dialogue per episode isn't really getting the original Ridiculousness of the book across.

like it's been pointed out that they seem to immediately know & recognize every myth they encounter, which is part of it, but like...episode 7 in particular made me sigh a lot because they cut so much of the humor! things like annabeth just immediately training cerberus to stay put and them bald-face lying to Charon that they are all dead, actually, they drowned in a bathtub. Together. it was such a nice like, breather before they get into the Very Serious Underworld Scenes and instead...nope, just more ACTION.

and they took out stuff in other episodes that made the tone lighter-things like percy and annabeth getting grossed out by the mirrors in the tunnel of love ride, the dam snack bar jokes, grover eating cans, them playing around in the lotus hotel, etc. i feel like half the fun of the original books was that, at any given conflict, the main characters were either going to sword fight their way out or completely bullshit their way out in the most convoluted ridiculous way possible. which was hilarious and also suspenseful-is percy going to pick up riptide, or is he going to start talking baseball? and them giving impassioned dialogue all the time instead of goofing around a bit just weighs down the whole tone of the show.

i feel like the show is very action-adventure whereas the original book was more of an adventure romp. i also feel like with the new heaviness that's come with multiple POVs (like seeing percy and sally's backstory) the show would really benefit from like, sad shot of sally and poseidon talking then BOOM cut to percy complaining about getting sand on his favorite pair of jeans while on the beach with ares. or something else.

[fadeawaywithyou]

inspired by the new minecraft movie trailer and how it reminds me of a shit jumanji, here is my take on the minecraft plot. this took me like 5-10 minutes, so it's not super serious.

I actually want to try spitballing a better plot in about five minutes-

Unnamed Man in Blue and Unnamed Woman in Green wake up in a forest and meet each other while exploring. Anyway, the Plot is killing the ender dragon. Why? It's the most basic thing about minecraft. The achievement is literally called "free the end" so maybe flesh out why. So, the plot is Gather Materials, Find Stronghold, Defeat Ender Dragon, and the end scene is them looking out into the world and talking about going on other adventures. In the movie they come across a variety of monsters, but specifically a Warden and Wither. The Warden could be a genuinely scary chase scene where they don't kill it. Maybe they have to summon the wither as part of a beacon fetch quest.

The movie has lots of references to minecraft community things. minecraft youtubers and developers act as cameos in people they meet. "don't dig straight down" is on a sign near a cave/town's quarry. Maybe they find books similar to those survival guides i saw in all the scholastic book fairs. Have someone hum Don't Mine At Night or go "awww man" when a creeper explodes. Have a reclusive but friendly town of "hermits" (hermitcraft). maybe you pass by someone saying "the aether is just a conspiracy/myth!" just, things the community of all ages will recognize and go "hey! the thing!"

other:

They decide on the names Steve and Alex themselves, idk when though. The nicknames of Green and Blue between them can stick around. Also while i'm here, idc about romance. have them be friends, or partners by the end, or implied whatever.

I want Steve and Alex to have a personality but also have a generic backstory for the "blank slate" appeal and function of their in-game selves. I have a couple ideas- amnesia or being an everyday person, for example. maybe they are orphans, idk. Waking up in a forest is all i'm set on because that could be the equivalent of "spawning in."

I also have a fun idea where it could be an entirely implied Isekai. ("implied" is the keyword because it's never admitted and the only canonical dimensions are the nether, overworld, and end.) Not like the movie, where you aparently watch them get Isekai-ed, but with how they react to Tree Physics, magic, monsters, etc. and people going "you're not from around here, are you" and/or "how do you not know what X is? have you been living under a rock?" (which would then introduce the audience to minecraft concepts and exposition.)

they live in a "post-age of heres" world where it could be implied that the Old People who build all the strongholds and shit are long dead and they disappeared going after the dragon. this immediately puts an added sense of danger to the quest. also an underdog story.

i also would like a reason WHY Blue and Green can defeat the dragon while the others can't beyond "they are the main characters." this could be the new thing the movie brings in, like a new enchantment or making netherite something the Old People didn't have but necessary? idk, this could go into "movie-verse" logic and doesn't necessarily have to be in-direct canon to the game.

you know those characters that minecraft made a while ago? like the different races and genders? those skins could be characters in the movies.

the soundtrack does have the most popular minecraft sounds, in-game sound effects are used, but maybe some "movie remixes" or maybe they pay and jump through hoops to have Revenge playing for the end Credits.

also this is all animated. embrace animation.

[joshisodd]

I may not look it but i used to watch ft!!

I've been rewatching some of the episodes and im still wishy washy on whether or not I want to redesign all the characters but here's some recent and old character sketches!! I've been playing around with their designs but trying not to deviate too far so that the characters still look like who they're supposed to be

Idk if anyone would wanna see me redesign/rework every character but I'd post em if there were people who wanted to see that.

Here's the rundown for those who are interested:

My basic ideas for fairy tail are to make every character a fantasy trope/creature/class/myth. Some of the characters will change into a different thing over time as they gain experience. I feel like fairy tail has a lot of potential to write a more modern fairy tale type story because of the whole wizards and magic thing. With dragons and princesses n everything. This is obviously present in the story, but i really want to reinforce that idea. there are some characters who I think really fit this, like Erza (obvi main knight of the story but also has the title of titania queen of the fairies) and natsu (obviously dragon as an mc, sort of a role reversal of the evil dragon. and maybe a fun demonic plot twist haha). But with other characters i may need to make more changes. Lucy is a loose version of the princess (with a fun runaway backstory), but I want her to evolve into a priestess. Grey kinda has nothing going on for him imo, the ice wizard thing keeps throwing me off every time i try to project something onto him. I think i'll go with a hunter -> demon slayer thing. He just happens to use ice magic. i don't wanna go with regular wizard because thats a bit boring lmao. It would also make the elemental thing between natsu and grey funnier bcuz he's a spooky demon and that guys a hunter so you guys REALLY shouldnt get along. They do anyway because the power of friendship lol Anyways that's the basic plan? even if i dont post it on tumblr just know its cooking in the back of my head. thx for reading all this haha

[starsmuse]

neverafter premiere night so here are some thoughts!

emily axford is truly godsent. the relationship she and ally have already crafted between ylfa and timothy, the way she plays this congested prepubescent girl, her backstory scene; god, the entirety of her backstory scene was SO good, though, i don’t know why i’m surprised. emily axford has never been anything shy of perfection and she won’t start now in a season where her ability to act really needs to shine through. also the fact that she’s playing a barbarian, i am so glad i guessed correctly because it’s going to be so fun to watch her play one especially with how they’ve set it up.

lou fucking wilson. i love everything about his character, his backstory which i LOVE that they left for last. this season seems to be one for double intros and he and zac are going to be incredible together i KNOW it. i made a few guesses as to who would be what class and NOTHING could have prepared me for him being a warlock to his stepmother, the way they’re interweaving the fairytales is brilliant i am truly so excited.

zac oyama… i love him with the entirety of my being but i couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed with his backstory scene, like no way he’s just some random little cat that can speak? surely there’s more to him! i love the almost-brotherly relationship pib and pinocchio seem to have but i do have a theory i’ll run by you all: we all know in the disney retelling of cinderella, stepmother has a black cat named lucifer, i wonder if pib is another patron of pinocchio’s stepmother or maybe a familiar of hers sent to watch over pinocchio and ensure he isn’t messing things up. JUST A THOUGHT! if not, i’m genuinely very excited to get more backstory out of this character.

opening the show on siobhan’s introduction was obviously the way to go considering how beautifully she executed her scene. the briars… god, the briars. i have no issue with reading and listening to body horror and brennan painted a vivid word picture with his narration for her, it was all so good. i constantly complain about the intrepid heroes never having a ranger and they’ve finally got one and it’s the damsel princess, i absolutely adore that. i also love that rosamund still has that bit of naivety to her considering in her mind she’s still eighteen and she probably lived a pretty sheltered life all things considered. her simply knowing that there’s a prince out there looking for her and that he is her true love, i can’t wait to see what kind of spin brennan is going to put on this curse and inevitably what kind of curveball he’s going to throw siobhan/rosamund.

murph is playing this vapid and vain prince so well, but i cannot wait to see when he actually gets into this fighting that prince gerard seems to turn his nose up at. the scenes with princess elody were bordering on heartbreaking but still fully leaning into embarrassing on the prince’s part, i have an inkling as to why he’s regressing back into his frog form, as should most, but all in all i think this is going to be a pretty silly character, very cody-esque, one that i’m very excited to see and watch grow nonetheless. also, the whole exchange between prince gerard and princess rosamund, i hadn’t realized how little i’d seen murph and siobhan’s characters interact in previous seasons until i got a full and uninterrupted conversation between the two of them when their characters met and now it’s truly all i want to have them be silly little cousins fighting to protect each other.

finally, the person, the myth, the legend: ally beardsley. i hadn’t really though about how important mother goose would be to the plot as a whole until about a week before today because i know that mother goose is not only a writer of fairytales but the writer of the fairytales, so i really, really enjoyed a lot of timothy’s exposition and how much he cares for children—like ylfa—now that he’s lost his own. like i said before i am thoroughly endeared by the relationship ally and emily have already built between the two of them, and i cannot wait to watch it grow and i’m really excited to see what ally does with this character and where they go.

brennan hasn’t answered any of the questions that were asked about if this season is going to be similar to acoc in terms of lethality or if the pcs have created secondary characters, so i think it’s safe to say we should definitely be cautious considering there are no clerics in this party, but all in all i’m shaking with excitement and the thought of the rest of this season we’ve got like seventeen episodes to go and i think they’re going to be SO much fun.

[cordycepswitch]

My big art project this weekend was to create a design for my other current DnD character - so here’s my first crack at her design! Please forgive my dreadful handwriting

Character lore below the cut

Meet Kismet, my tiefling bladesinger wizard! I made her for a (sadly now defunct) wizard-only Strixhaven campaign. Now I use her as my designated one shot character because she is fun to roleplay, and it’s less stressful to have a wizard that (mostly) won’t die if the bad guy looks at them funny.

Long story short, her parents were both renowned adventurers but disappeared under mysterious circumstances when she was young. She inherited her mother’s magical sword, and is on a quest to find out what happened to her parents. She is a very cheerful bubbly person, but also far too brave and impulsive for her own good. She’s also very obsessed with archaeology and ancient myths. She will always info dump about ancient history. Or wizard gossip. Do not get her started about the latest wizard goss. She has a tiny little snake familiar and is obsessed with murder spagurters. But yeah I hope to play her in a campaign where I actually get to explore her backstory more!

[ringsandwings]

A completely unnecessary analysis of the flowers surrounding Bag End: sunflowers, snapdragons, and asters.

I got this idea after reading a ton of adorable Sam and Frodo fanfic involving the language of flowers and getting a little obsessed with floriculture. I went on a hunt to find any flowers that were actually mentioned in the books and found this very small passage in chapter 1 of Fotr, describing the flowers surrounding the outside walls and windows of Bilbo and Frodo’s home. so I took the different meanings and symbolisms of the three flowers mentioned, and found fun ways to relate them to either the story or the characters. Please enjoy this unhinged interpretation that absolutely nobody asked for!!

Starting off with the sunflower! These mean, undying loyalty and adoration. This symbolism originates from the Greek myth of the nymph Clytie, and her unrequited love for the sun god Apollo. When she realized her feelings would never be reciprocated she spent several days not eating or drinking, following the path of Apollo’s sun chariot across the sky, until she eventually turned herself into a sunflower, perpetually facing the direction of the sun and waiting patiently for Apollo to return to her. Alternatively sunflowers can also mean everlasting, specifically everlasting friendship, and obviously joy and happiness. Their symbolism at Bag End is particularly precious with the theory that Sam planted these flowers. I love the idea of him using these to declare his undying devotion to Frodo even if Frodo doesn’t notice it! It’s giving you want me and you just don’t know it yet. But if that’s not your cup of tea, then these could also symbolize devotion to the Baggins’s, Sam’s lasting friendship for both Bilbo and Frodo, or just good vibes. 💖

Next are snapdragons, which I think have the coolest symbolism! They can mean two things, either grace or deception, but the exact meanings are very specific. Snaps can thrive under really harsh conditions, they can grow in cramped rocky areas and survive in subfreezing temperatures, so they specifically symbolize grace under pressure or in difficult situations. And while they do mean deception in the language of flowers, they’re mostly used as an apology flower for deceptive behavior, or used as protections against it. During the medieval period which is roughly the timeline Lotr was set in, these flowers were seen as guardians against evil forces and were typically planted by gates and around wealthy residences like Bag End. I freaking love the idea of these flowers being symbolic of the bravery and perseverance of the Baggins’s, but it might be more likely that either Bilbo or one of the Gamgees knew about their protective qualities and either the gardeners planted them out of reverence, or Bilbo sweetly chose these for Frodo’s protection.

And lastly Asters! These were my personal favorite to research and play around with because they mean so many different things and literally have the perfect backstory. Asters got their name from the Greek word Astrea, which was also the name of the Greek goddess of innocence and justice who created them in myth. The most popular version of this myth is that Astrea was so distraught over the lack of stars in the sky, when her tears fell to earth they created the star shaped aster flowers. Shortly afterwards, she herself fled into the sky and became the constellation of Virgo. Virgo is, of course, Bilbo and Frodo’s star signs, and the Astor is an official September flower. These flowers symbolize faith and valor, but in the language of flowers they symbolize innocent love and undying affection. I am choosing to believe these were planted by Sam on purpose, purely because of their meaning, but there’s one more piece of backstory that literally connects these flowers straight back to him. Asters were also an emblem of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and her planet is the ruling planet of taurus, which just so happens to be Sam’s star sign! *loses shit*

This was a little longer than I thought it would be, but I hope someone finds this as adorable as I did :-) PS, I don’t actually think Tolkien meant anything buy these super random flowers and same goes for the character of Sam, this was one sentence in the beginning of the book that I took way too far lol! It’s not true and I know I’m reaching, but just let me be delulu 😘😘

[zero-rabbit]

Pirated the percy jackson series and oh my god it is not that good.

Like I get that Rick doesn't like the movies but does he also not like fun?

There are multiple funny and realistic scenes that are cut. It makes Percy and the gang feel perfect and not like 14 year olds on their first quest.

And the casino scene. Is. Bad.

Because Percy immediately notices that something is up and they leave. Which means the Lotus Casino just sucks at its job. If the kid that's been a demigod for a week immediately knows some things up.

And it's not through a bunch of kids wearing outdated fashion (because that requires a character to not look modern in the mystical hotel that traps you) he just knows immediately (and Luke's backstory is given in this episode. Instead of later when Luke is the traitor. Because putting it there makes too much sense)

It is a running theme that Percy knows everything about every threat immediately. Which is stupid. If there is no unknown threat there is no point.

Myths are built on a threat that you do not understand. Especially Greek myths. And to have every character that encounters a threat to figure it out instantly is bad.

Because there is no tension.

There is no how will they get out? How will they win? Because they already know the exact threat they're facing. They already know what exactly to do to win. It feels cheap.

Now the movies are not the best (I don't think they're like the worst thing to come out of the franchise. I actually enjoy them) but at least they were fun.

The Lotus Casino was fun. Sure our characters were being drugged but at least it was fun. Poker face was playing and you could understand wanting to stay there forever.

But by trying to erase the movies completely and not learn what did and didn't work in them the show suffers.

You know how everyone says those that erase history are doomed to repeat it. Well that's not entirely true. By erasing everything from your failure you may have erased the failures shortcomings but you also erased it's strengths.

I have more fun watching the inaccurate movies than the accurate tv show.

Because the movies weren't trying to be the complete opposite of a perceived failure. They were just being some inaccurate fun.

And I think the tv show could learn from the movies. Instead of pretending the movies never ever mattered.

[compressedrage]

*cracks knuckles* It's King time baby– Episode 30

This will be in two parts because I have much to cover. One part will be the backstory segment, and then the other will be the rest of the video.

OKAY PART 1

The opening to this video sets up the later tragedy so well. It introduces Gold, King's son, but we know something is going to happen. it hangs over every little wholesome thing we see.

And in terms of wholesome things, they chose amazing ones to show! We have King reminiscing over a younger Gold, before the Gold of the present gives him a corn dog. They share a cute bonding moment (can you hear my heart cracking) before going to the festival.

(I love the concept of the festival from a world-building perspective. is there a reason there's a festival? is it even a festival? it looks very fun)

Gold is drawn in by a booth advertising a virtual realty experience in the world of Minecraft. He excitedly brings King over, and King signs a waiver. King's body language during this scene is hesitant, and the tone is almost a little eery; there's no one else in the section for the Minecraft experience. They are more-or-less alone.

(I wonder if King thought something felt off. I wonder that made him blame himself even more since he did nothing to stop Gold from entering the experience)

Gold is so excited. The workers at the experience let Gold go in, and he enters. The door locks behind him, and he is integrated into the game. King watches as he happily runs around the game, collecting resources and making tools.

Suddenly an alarm sounds. Something is wrong. On the screen King can see a black void open up in the sky. It rapidly expands and spreads, threatening to swallow Gold whole. Gold runs, before opening the menu and exiting the game.

He bursts from the entrance, but he isn't safe. The void is emerging through the opening, and Gold begins to disintegrate. King bangs on the door; it's locked tight. Not even the workers who run over to help him can get it open.

Gold reaches for his dad, but collapses and is sucked back into the game. A "fatal error" show on the screen. Gold is gone.

King drops to his knees. The workers approach him nervously, and one reaches out to touch his shoulder. King whirls around and grabs them by the throat, slamming them onto the ground. He does the same to the other workers who try to stop him before stopping and staring into the Minecraft experience. (In one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen, the red glow is so ominous)

Back at his house King is in shambles. He lashes out at a poster he took of the experience, punching the wall as if it were the glass doors separating him from his son. He wilts against the wall for a moment, before getting up with new resolve. He will find a way to destroy Minecraft and avenge his son.

He is obsessed with this goal for an unknown amount of time; it could be months, could stretch into a few years, who knows. he researches everything he could ever find about Minecraft. He learns about its mechanics, its blocks. He learns of the command block, and acquires one from a shady figure in an alley. (such a smart move my dude)

The staff doesn't work. He tries several different versions, but even when he does manage to get it to work he still doesn't quite understand its mechanics. Maybe there was another way.

He delves into Minecraft's myths and mysteries. There he finds a description of the Minecraft Game Icon: "The most powerful item in Minecraft". The location is unknown. He tears the page from the book and walks around town, showing it to people. I honestly don't know what he expected but props to him for showing initiative I guess.

He stops outside a tech store. There, showing on one of the televisions, is a group of young sticks playing with an icon. Playing with it. King now as proof such an item exists, even if he has no idea how to get it. But he has a goal now.

Find those sticks.

He hangs up wanted posters all over town. And by a crazy stoke of fate a purple stick finds them and takes one.

Purple shows up at King's house with the poster and appears to explain the he knows the CG and how to find them. King doesn't seem to respond, or at least respond positively. (King's vibe in that scene was one of "I just woke up and I don't want to talk to people", which... mood, I guess that comes with the depression)

Purple jumps to prove himself, displaying how he is agile and can fight. When that doesn't get a reaction he pulls out his elytra and show off his flight skills instead. Lots of flips. King gestures for him to come inside.

King's house is a mess. Purple looks around a bit, finding a picture of King and Gold. King takes it out of Purple's hands and Purple backs away. They make their way down to the basement, where it is clear King has been working on the parkour trap idea for a very long time. And he has a Nether portal. He lights it up with his staff (which he now knows how to wield) and they enter Minecraft.

In the Nether they find a bastion. They defeat its inhabitants, and King offers them gold in exchange for their allegiance. (I'm pretty sure they might think he's a god of some kind because he can technically create gold from nothing, and remember how he disabled the AI of that one Piglin? Dude's terrifying)

With the Piglins now under his command, King builds himself a throne of quartz and gold. Purple kneels and hands him a golden crown. King takes it and gives Purple a head rub. I'm pretty sure that head rub won him Purple's undying loyalty tbh.

_._._

This section of the episode is so good. It sets up everything we need to know, and portals King perfectly. We can see and understand how he got to this place of extreme grief and obsessive vengeance.

We also see Purple, whose motivations we now understand from the last episode. He seems so upbeat here, so happy to help. It's devastating that he was so willing to betray his new friends for the validation of a father figure. My poor boy.

[dorothygale123]

Since I've made a lot of mythology sh*tposts, I decided to make a masterlist for anyone who wants to skip around quickly.

The 5 Emperors

Red Son and the Red Emperor

Xing Tian, the headless giant

Red Emperor 2, the Reddening

Chiyou causes problems

Yellow Emperor makes a corpse drum (yes, really)

My fellow nerd and I have a lot to say about weeds

Dragons

The dragon princess and the dumbest in laws ever

The Dragon Kings who don't do anything

Ao Qin shows us why we shouldn't give in to peer pressure

Moving branches on the dragon family tree

China has a dragon problem

The Sun and Moon

The very similar stories of Hou Yi and Shen I

Erlang Shen killed the suns too

Why the 10 Suns were being jerks

The 12 Moons

Ancient Chinese Alice in Wonderland

More fun stuff about the 10 suns

Does Hou Yi have a backstory?

A dramatic retelling of the 10 suns myth

Earth and Sky

Eggs come up a lot, actually

Nuwa cleans up a big mess-

-But there was still more for Yu to clean later

Why is the sky all the way up there?

Sun Wukong

The 4 Spiritual Primates + 4 Elements

The Old Mother of Waters gets some bad takeout

Sun Wukong's first crime (they grow up so fast)

A more dramatic telling of how Monkey became Monkey King

The Underworld

The Chinese underworld is very judgy

But it also has a wholesome grandma who feeds you

Kuan Yin

Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

Kuan Yin 2, Electric Boogaloo

Kuan Yin 3, This Time It's Personal

Rulers of the Cosmos

Xiwangmu, the Jade Emperor, and Nuwa

The Jade Emperor is someone's OC

Possible line of succession for the rulers of the cosmos

Was the Jade Emperor in charge for Wukong's entire life?

Shangdi and the void where his characterization used to be

How the Jade Emperor got his badass wife

Miscellaneous

Si-Men Bau is a genius

The very heterosexual fox and his 'drinking buddy'

This fox had one job and he decided to create footbinding instead

Seriously, what are the 8 trigrams?

Erlang Shen plays Sidekick while th 4 kings get their asses whooped

The 5 members of the 4 Guardian Beasts

The 5th Element isn't just an old movie

The cow can jump over the moon, but not the Milky Way

Cute figures I don't need got my research blood pumping

And I needed 2 posts to geek out appropriately

Dragon Ball Parallels

More info on some cool critters that happen to have adorable minis

Oops, is that Plato in my Chinese Mythology?

Bulma Briefs, Great Tang Monk

Tien Shinhan, Lord of Sichuan

Yamcha, River Spirit of the Desert and Puar the Dragon Horse

[yinyuedijun]

mao i'm tryign to be very Normal about how much joy talking about your youkai AU brings me but for accessibility's sake i'm not going to write this all in caps lock LOOL (thank you for your essay of tags!!! i'm sending an essay back!!!)

I didn't really have a backstory for Sakura's clothes beyond him getting them after being brought back into human society by Nirei because they saved an old lady and she lovingly made it for him as thanks

i like to think that sakura pulls an inuyasha and only refers to her as 'old hag' ASDFLKJG but he visits her as often as he can, and always with an armful of vegetables because he knows meat is too tough for her teeth :sob: <- this came to me as i was writing this ask alsdkfjg

BUT HIM CHOOSING TO WEAR STUFF LIKE WHAT HIS MOM DRESSED HIM IN? mao i choked back a SOB when i read that holy moly ravioli i love that..... :sob:

i didn't know that nirei has kitsune blood.... this is VERY interesting and i am turning that fact around in my mind òwó

LOVE the idea of suo playing a trick on him to turn it blond, maybe that's the first time it turns blond and the next time it happens bc of all the jujutsu training? nirei's all "alright suo can you turn it back now?" before he realizes that it wasn't suo's trickery this time!!!

anyway...... this is so much fun mao........ i'm looking forward to that knotting fic......... see you around space cowboy (ᕑᗢᓫ∗)

about this

WAHHHH thank you for this essay bitti <333 it was such a delight to read and I've been looking forward to replying to it all day!!! hehe

I LOVE THE OUTFIT BACKSTORY ???? HELP it's so fitting for sakura, esp when I think about how he's so prickly (yet helpful) toward all the elderly residents in canon 😭😭😭 like it's so in character of him, of course he'd pull an Inuyasha. and WAAAAGHHLDDJKD THE VEGGIES FOR HER ....please he's such a Good Boy I will cry. wanting my own reader character to give him a chance now because you just made me love him so much LOLLLL

and yes!!!! this was a "plot twist" in the fic I was never gonna write LMFAO but in real life, legend has it that abe no seimei had a kitsune mother. in the fic, abe no seimei is nirei's matrilineal ancestor. everyone in the current clan thinks the whole kitsune mother thing was just a myth because they feel and appear completely human - but this is only because they never had anyone training them to use their demonic abilities. however, suo trains nirei in such a way without even telling him about his ancestry 💀

SCREAMM I love that setup with nirei going blond 😭 he'd probably be so genuinely distressed at the weird hair colour too AGLDHSKS my man can never return to the imperial court now 😔

thank you for sharing all your ideas (they are SOOOOO good) and ESPECIALLY your art <333 I've started working on the knotting fic, hopefully it won't disappoint! 🫡

[bugsinthebayou]

okay how do i get into the mechs ... i would like to know about these robots now i think

GRINS. HI. HELLO.

The Mechanisms are a steampunk space pirate storytelling band!! they are compromised of 9 members (up until one of them left). they retell myths n legends in space, tragic, and queer

they have four main story albums, a single, and two extra albums for extra stories

for the four main albums, you have to listen to all the tracks in order so i recommend listening on youtube

Once Upon A Time (In Space) is their first album. its fairy tales retold as an intergalactic war

Ulysses Dies At Dawn is their second one. this one is greek mythology

High Noon Over Camelot. oh boy high noon over camelot. my favorite mechs album and my favorite album just in general. arthurian legend retold as a space western

The Bifrost Incident. norse myth but eldritch horror

their single is Frankenstein (frankenstein except the monster is an AI), and their other two albums are Tales To Be Told volumes I and II. theyre both collections of extra songs that either work as standalone stories or fit into the same setting as one of the main albums but doesnt follow along the main plotline

they also have Death to the Mechanisms, which was a performance of some of their songs live plus a song of the same name as the album that describes how they died a final time. this was because they split up. no more mechs music </3

out of all of them i recommend hnoc the most. cuz its my favorite <3

i apologize for not explaining the albums further, but you asked about the mechs themselves so im gonna put more focus into explaining those guys

the mechanisms themselves are 9 immortal space pirates. they are immortal due to their mechanisms, mechanical replacements of certain body parts. they travel the galaxy on the starship known as Aurora, who is infact sentient and also dating the ship's engineer. they like to "have fun, violence, adventure, violence. violence." according to jonny

Jonny d'Ville - he/him. he's claims he's the ships captain. hes the first mate. he is the narrator to all of the albums and plays a number of characters. King Cole (ouat(is)), Ulysses (udad), Lancelot (hnoc), Galahad (hnoc), and the void (tbi) are a few. there's more, but theyre more minor. hes pretty shooty and has canonically committed every crime (that existed on a planet) except the sexual ones. his mechanism is his heart!

Gunpowder Tim - he/him. master at arms! hes another one that sings often. he also plays the guitar. a few characters hes been are Oedipus (udad), Gawain (hnoc), and Loki (tbi). his mechanism is his eyes. hes also on the violent side. he blew up the moon, as detailed in the song Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser from the ttbt vol 1

Ashes o'Reilly - they/them. quartermaster. they sing often and their voice is beautiful <3 they play bass aswell. some characters theyve played are Hades/themself (udad), Mordred (hnoc), and Sigyn (tbi). their mechanism is their lungs. theyre also a mob boss and arsonist and have been since they were 12 years old, described in their backstory song Lucky Sevens

Drumbot Brian - he/him. pilot. he doesnt sing as often but its great when he does! he plays a few different instruments. a couple of his characters are Merlin/himself (hnoc) and the robot spouse in Stranger (ttbt vol 2). everything except his heart is mechanical. he was thrown into space because he brought someone back to life

The Toy Soldier - it/its. its just there!! it sings often and plays the mandolin. some characters are Cinders (ouat(is)), Orpheus (udad), and Guinevere (hnoc). its a toy soldier. it was never human it just started walking one day

Raphaella la Cognizi - she/her. science officer. she is another singer!! and pianist!! her voice is heavenly tbh. notable roles are Ariadne (udad), Ygraine (hnoc (one song but it Slaps)), and Odin (tbi). her mechanism is a pair of wings!

Marius von Raum - he/him. doctor (not even a doctor). he sings and plays violin. and mandolin the wiki says. Heracles (udad), Arthur (hnoc), Thor (tbi). his mechanism is his right arm

Ivy Alexandria - she/her. archivist. she plays a few wind instruments, no singing. her mechanism is her brain

Nastya Rasputina - she/her. engineer. she is in gay love with the sentient starship <3. she plays violin, no singing. her mechanism is her blood, which is mercury. she decided to go Out (she believed that aurora was no longer the same starship she fell in love with because of all the repairs over the centuries theyve been alive, so she takes the final piece of the original aurora and exits out of the airlock, never to be seen again) sometime after hnoc

and there you are!! them!!

despite me giving some examples to who they play in the albums, thats not all the characters they play. theres also extra characters in narration i didnt mention (ivy and nastya both have been in narration tracks before) and theres also characters they play in the extra songs in the tales to be told volumes

i hope you end up liking them <333 heres a photo of them all together for u

[ID: A group shot of the Mechanisms. End ID]