#just wondering where on the scale of fanon to headcanon that is

[chompe-diem]

wait so does everyone picture albin as a little brown boy or is that mostly me??

[heartbinders]

Headcanon: What is Smash? Where is Smash? How is Smash?

( Note these are just personal headcanons that build on the already-established fanon of the Smash Mansion! No one has to fully agree with me on any of these obviously but it may help contextualize some of the things I write in Smash threads. )

In-universe, Smash is a fighting tournament which spans multiple different universes. It’s famous all across the multiverse, and only the best, brightest, and strongest get invited. You don’t apply to be in Smash. You wait for your invite.

Smash is situated at a hub of sorts within the multiverse, which all of the fighters’ different universes can connect to in order for everyone to convene. Cross-dimensional transportation is covered by the organizers. Don’t worry.

The guys running all of this are Master Hand and his slightly more chaotic relative Crazy Hand, who are beings disconnected from any particular universe. They know about the fighters in all of the different universes. They choose who gets invites. Does that make the hands gods? Or maybe Eldritch creatures detached from spacetime? We don’t know, but they give everyone free housing, so no one’s really complaining.

Despite how Classic boss fights make it seem, Master and Crazy Hand are actually benign outside of combat. ( It’s worth noting that in those Classic boss fights, which might make the Hands seem malicious without context, they’re simply the final challenge before a fighter claims victory. ) They put together each tournament and nominate the fighters — Master Hand the “heroes” of a given universe, and Crazy Hand the “villains.” Together, the Hands organize the events, created the whole Smash Mansion for everyone to live in, transport fighters to and from stages, and ensure that no one is actually mortally injured during the fights. Ever wonder why there’s never any blood in a Smash fight, even as people swing swords around and breathe fire? That’s the Hands’ technology at work. Fighters who get launched into oblivion, only to be safely returned back to the stage? The Hands’ technology. Shouldn’t all of this hurt like heck? Not with the Hands watching. Basically, you'll get knocked around and might come out busted up pretty good, but the Hands’ protection ensures that no one is actually gravely hurt.

Outside of fights, everyone is generally on friendly terms. It might be up to you to ask the hero and villain of any given universe how they feel about each other when separated from the chaos of their home universe ( ahem, Ridley ), but everyone is at least able to live under the same roof.

Speaking of that roof, the fighters all live together in a massive mansion that has gradually gotten bigger over the years. Every fighter gets a room, and they have every amenity they could possibly need or want. A huge kitchen and dining area to feed all the mouths there, a common area, a terrace, a beautiful garden, training facilities, and not to mention quarters for all of the Pokemon, assist trophies, and what have you. As the scale of Smash has expanded over time, the mansion has begun to look more like a gigantic estate. The mansion is also conveniently situated close to grocery stores, convenience stores, clothing stores, parks — pretty much anything you could think of.

This particular tournament ( Ultimate ) has expanded to such a wide scale that the mansion is multiple acres of land and has guest quarters for any friends or loved ones a fighter might want to bring to spectate. This is unique to Ultimate — spectators could previously only watch from their home universes. ( This is also how all their spirits ended up scattered around in World of Light — unfortunately, all these people from all over the multiverse being gathered in one pocket of it was the perfect scenario for Galeem. )

Anyone who isn’t staying in the guest quarters is able to watch matches on TV, livestreamed, or whatever their universe’s equivalent of that technology might be. They can also go in person if a match takes place on a stage in their universe.

Each tournament is one “year” apart ( in IC time; i.e., Brawl and 3DS/WiiU were one year of in-universe time apart despite the actual games being separated by six years of real time ). Though honestly, who really knows? Time might flow differently from one universe to another.

Lastly, it’s important to note that things like Subspace and World of Light are interruptions to the tournament which, thus far, have all come with the threat of the destruction of the multiverse. During these crises, Master and Crazy Hand are typically taken by whatever final boss is masterminding the whole operation ( Tabuu in Brawl, Galeem and Dharkon in SSBU — this is actually alluded to canonically in WoL ). Since these fights are not tournament sanctioned, the protective technology is not in place and there is real danger in these fights.

Once the Smash festivities end, transport back to one’s home universe is also covered. Contact is generally kept between fighters in between tournaments wherever possible — though cross-dimensional reception can get tricky.

[avinaccia]

hi, can you please expand what you meant with "! I've noticed there's been more of a shift towards fruk (or maybe that's just been in my circle), especially as England's characterization in the fandom has shifted" i haven't been around much, so i was wondering what has changed about england's characterization around the fandom? sorry to bother!!

[For reference, this comment was from a post about the prevalence of USUK in the Hetalia fandom]

Never a bother anon! I’m always happy to answer asks like these :)

I suppose I need to preface things by saying that, as far as the manga and anime are concerned, England’s character has not changed. What has changed is the fandom’s perception of his character, which has developed gradually over time. 

Back when Hetalia was first kicking off and gaining popularity (2008-13), representation of all the characters in fics and artwork and other posts was largely reflective of the characterization given to everyone in the anime, so think old Studio Deen animation and humour from Seasons 1-4. The English dub was EXTREMELY influential in this regard as well, as unlike most other anime, the Hetalia fandom was more knowledgeable about the English dub than the English sub, and quite frankly the dub is like a 100 on a scale of 1-5 in terms of craziness in comparison with the original Japanese version. 🙃

Putting it bluntly, the first few seasons of Hetalia were a raging stereotypical clusterfuck and OH BOY did the fandom latch on to this. This is where you get France saying ‘honhonhon~😏🌹🍑🍑🍆’ every second sentence, Prussia talking about his ‘awesome five meters’ and how he’s going to invade ‘invade everyone’s vital regions’, Hungary and Japan being huge yaoi fujioshis, Russia being a creepy sadist, sw’d’n n’t ‘s’ng v’w’ls - I could go on about this for weeks but I’ve already given myself whiplash so..

Now we get to England, who quickly became a paragon of the tsundere trope in which he yelled ‘I..it’s not like I like you b..baka’ every 30 seconds and was often pictured expressing himself with the characteristic ‘tch’ so beloved by fic writers. England was shipped with two people primarily: America and France, though usually any fic involving France involved France pouncing and attempting to ‘steal Iggy’s innocence’ until the heroic America jumped in to save the damsel in distress. So then England’s primary characterization was that of a more feminine, prickly little thing who was actually just really bad at expressing his feelings and totally had the hots for America (also he always bottomed...like almost exclusively).

Starting around 2016, when the World Stars manga was put on hiatus, a fandom made a major shift from canon content to fanon headcanons and the like (because we had to supplement ourselves with content somehow lol), which started to change the perceptions of many of the characters, and usually for the better as people starting creating complex character studies and delving into national history to make these really awesome narratives that far outstripped the canon.

England’s character shift was absolutely hilarious because, while he too became more complex, he also became an ABSOLUTE BASTARD™. Like we’re talking stinky rat bastard who sleeps in the trash; has 20 kids whose names he forgets, a drinking problem, and anger management issues; thinks that the puke-coloured sweater vest he bought in the 80s and tan corduroys are the pinnacle of fashion; old man jenkins dislocates his hip every Tuesday; and “just remember no-one can hate you more than you hate yourself” sorta guy. All in good fun of course, but his character did a COMPLETE 180 which is frankly the funniest thing I’ve seen.

It’s been a wild ride anon, I’m sure there’s many a person who would be more than willing to volunteer up more examples because lord knows there’s more 😭

[madeimpact]

Headcanon: What is Smash? Where is Smash? How is Smash?

( Note these are just personal headcanons that build on the already-established fanon of the Smash Mansion! No one has to fully agree with me on any of these obviously but it may help contextualize some of the things I write in Smash threads. )

In-universe, Smash is a fighting tournament which spans multiple different universes. It’s famous all across the multiverse, and only the best, brightest, and strongest get invited. You don’t apply to be in Smash. You wait for your invite.

Smash is situated at a hub of sorts within the multiverse, which all of the fighters’ different universes can connect to in order for everyone to convene. Cross-dimensional transportation is covered by the organizers. Don’t worry.

The guys running all of this are Master Hand and his slightly more chaotic relative Crazy Hand, who are beings disconnected from any particular universe. They know about the fighters in all of the different universes. They choose who gets invites. Does that make the hands gods? Or maybe Eldritch creatures detached from spacetime? We don’t know, but they give everyone free housing, so no one’s really complaining.

Despite how Classic boss fights make it seem, Master and Crazy Hand are actually benign outside of combat. ( It’s worth noting that in those Classic boss fights, which might make the Hands seem malicious without context, they’re simply the final challenge before a fighter claims victory. ) They put together each tournament and nominate the fighters — Master Hand the “heroes” of a given universe, and Crazy Hand the “villains.” Together, the Hands organize the events, created the whole Smash Mansion for everyone to live in, transport fighters to and from stages, and ensure that no one is actually mortally injured during the fights. Ever wonder why there’s never any blood in a Smash fight, even as people swing swords around and breathe fire? That’s the Hands’ technology at work. Fighters who get launched into oblivion, only to be safely returned back to the stage? The Hands’ technology. Shouldn’t all of this hurt like heck? Not with the Hands watching. Basically, you'll get knocked around and might come out busted up pretty good, but the Hands’ protection ensures that no one is actually gravely hurt.

Outside of fights, everyone is generally on friendly terms. It might be up to you to ask the hero and villain of any given universe how they feel about each other when separated from the chaos of their home universe ( ahem, Ridley ), but everyone is at least able to live under the same roof.

Speaking of that roof, the fighters all live together in a massive mansion that has gradually gotten bigger over the years. Every fighter gets a room, and they have every amenity they could possibly need or want. A huge kitchen and dining area to feed all the mouths there, a common area, a terrace, a beautiful garden, training facilities, and not to mention quarters for all of the Pokemon, assist trophies, and what have you. As the scale of Smash has expanded over time, the mansion has begun to look more like a gigantic estate. The mansion is also conveniently situated close to grocery stores, convenience stores, clothing stores, parks — pretty much anything you could think of.

This particular tournament ( Ultimate ) has expanded to such a wide scale that the mansion is multiple acres of land and has guest quarters for any friends or loved ones a fighter might want to bring to spectate. This is unique to Ultimate — spectators could previously only watch from their home universes. ( This is also how all their spirits ended up scattered around in World of Light — unfortunately, all these people from all over the multiverse being gathered in one pocket of it was the perfect scenario for Galeem. )

Anyone who isn’t staying in the guest quarters is able to watch matches on TV, livestreamed, or whatever their universe’s equivalent of that technology might be. They can also go in person if a match takes place on a stage in their universe.

Each tournament is one “year” apart ( in IC time; i.e., Brawl and 3DS/WiiU were one year of in-universe time apart despite the actual games being separated by six years of real time ). Though honestly, who really knows? Time might flow differently from one universe to another.

Lastly, it’s important to note that things like Subspace and World of Light are interruptions to the tournament which, thus far, have all come with the threat of the destruction of the multiverse. During these crises, Master and Crazy Hand are typically taken by whatever final boss is masterminding the whole operation ( Tabuu in Brawl, Galeem and Dharkon in SSBU — this is actually alluded to canonically in WoL ). Since these fights are not tournament sanctioned, the protective technology is not in place and there is real danger in these fights.

Once the Smash festivities end, transport back to one’s home universe is also covered. Contact is generally kept between fighters in between tournaments wherever possible — though cross-dimensional reception can get tricky.

[fishoutofcamelot]

I saw your r recent contribution to the post about hard vs soft magic systems and I agree wholeheartedly. You also mentioned having a bunch of worldbuilding and stuff about the magic system, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to share some?

(For reference, this is the post in question)

Certainly! While the worldbuilding/magicbuilding hellscape i was describing in the notes is actually in regards to an original-content wip I've been working on, i also have a LOT of headcanons regarding the BBCM magic system too! (Do not ask about my wip's magic system, because i won't be able to shut up about it)

WARNING: long post ahead and mobile won't let me include a cutoff/read-more line. If you're not interested, get ready to scroll down like your life depends on it (and it does).

So! First things first. Here's what we know about the BBCM magic system:

Magic requires spells, most of the time. This seems like a no-brainer, but still an important distinction. There are a lot of magic systems that don't require vocalized spells - Avatar: the Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Ninjago, to name a few. Spells are rather common for wizard/witch/medieval fantasies, and are typically used to control and channel the intent of the magic. This suggests that the magic of BBCM is some kind of force or energy that needs spoken commands to control.

Spells are repurposed words from Old English, aka the language of the Old Religion. (Let's ignore the obvious anachronistic nightmare of the fact that Old English is exactly the same language they would've been speaking in this time period.)

The use of a spell causes someone's eyes to flare gold, plus that fancy wooshing sound effect that Arthur miraculously never hears. This suggests that magic somehow changes your physiology, although it could be also just be a side effect of channeling.

However, magic doesn't always require a spell. Though never fully explained, it appears to be something only innate magic users are capable of - Merlin, Morgana, Mordred. It is something less controllable than spellwork, typically governed by moments of strong emotion rather than logical intent.

The show consistently flip-flops between the idea that magic is something you're born with, and that Merlin is rare for being born with magic. It's never clarified just how someone acquires magic. Gaius asks Merlin where he studied, suggesting that it's something you can learn, while Balinor claims that you either have it or you don't. Though not confirmed fact, i suspect it's similar to how it works in the show Supernatural. There, some witches are natural-born, while others are taught (and some get their powers from spooky demon deals).

It has a life-for-a-life policy. Basically like the Law of Equivalent Exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist, a life cannot be created without another one being sacrificed first. This rule only canonically applies to creating life/the Cup of Life, and any other possible applications aren't addressed.

This rule apparently doesn't apply to animals, as Merlin brought a dog statue to life without killing anyone (that we know of), and Valiant's shield had three live snakes in it. However, it's possible that lives were taken as payment in the process of animation without Merlin's knowledge, but it never happens on screen so we don't know. So either a) animals don't have souls to exchange in the life-for-a-life policy, b) they do but it happens off-screen, or c) those animated animals aren't actually alive.

The Cup of Life infuriates me from a magicbuilding perspective. Ignoring the obvious question of how it came into the druids' possession, its existence isn't clearly defined. Does it require the fancy rain ritual that Nimueh gave it, or was she just extra? Why does drinking from it give you life, while bleeding into it makes you undead and also mindlessly obedient to the sorcerer who made you as such? Were there life-for-a-life consequences for creating an immortal army? Wtf happened on the Isle of the Blessed to allow Merlin to "master life and death", and what does that even mean? All valid questions that never get answered.

Spells sometimes need need a 'source'. Think the staff from "The Tears of Uther Pendragon" and Morgana from "The Fires of Idirsholas." It is unclear what makes these spells different/special.

There is a power hierarchy. Some spells are too powerful for some practitioners to cast, although the reason for this is unclear. Does it drain you of energy/life force? Do you exhaust/overwork your magic muscles? Do you get a little pop-up that says 404 Magic Not Found? Unclear.

Magic is something that can be trained and improved. For example, Morgana gradually became more powerful over time. Merlin naturally had a lot of power straight off the jump and just had to discipline it, but he's a ~special~ case so he doesn't count.

There are some subsets of magic that are definitively born traits. Morgana is a Seer, possessing this capability even before her magic manifested. Likewise, Merlin is a dragonlord, which he inherited from Balinor. Although Balinor did mention that it wasn't a sure thing he would have the ability until he faced a dragon, so there may be some variation in whether or not someone lucks out in the Magic Gene Pool. This may suggest that natural-born magic is hereditary, as both Morgana and her sister Morgause had it. Vivienne and Gorlois both probably didn't have it, otherwise you'd hear Uther bellyaching about it, which raises the question of where they got it? A grandparent, perhaps? Maybe they both carried a recessive magic gene or something...

Unless you're Merlin, magic can be taken away by the Gean Canagh. It's not explained how this is possible, though, as it's never explained how you acquire magic in the first place. But Merlin never lost his magic because he's "magic itself" which if you ask me is just a deus ex machina wrapped inside a headache wrapped inside a heaping load of chosen one bullcrap. But it's canonical lore, so we have to consider it.

Despite my previous complaints, i actually find the idea of Merlin being "magic itself" rather intriguing. Is he a creature of magic, like a dragon or a questing beast? Is his body made of magic, like how a statue might be made of clay? Does it run through his veins like blood? If this is the case, then why didn't he suffer more severe ramifications for losing his magic? Why didn't it kill him? How did it restrict his magic in the first place? Placebo effect? The fanon explanation is that he's "the living embodiment of magic" but that makes my bullcrap richter scale shoot off the charts because that makes NO sense whatsoever. "Son of the earth, sea, and sky?" What does that MEAN?

There is a vivid link between magic and the Old Religion, which has its own beliefs and rituals and deities. Primarily, the Triple Goddess. The Triple Goddess is actually an existing deity in Neopaganism and Wicca. This also suggests the existence of the Horned God, another entity from neopagan lore and her masculine consort/counterpart, but that is never confirmed.

WHO. OR. WHAT. IS. THE. FREAKING. DOCHRAID. She's described as a creature of magic, which suggests that humans/humanoids can be creatures of magic, fueling my theory that 'Emrys' isn't human.

Destiny exists. It is unclear who creates/writes destiny, who controls it, who or what is privy to knowing about it, and what that means for the concept of free will.

The crystal cave is a thing, i guess. It's the heart of magic, is haunted by Taliesin, and is filled with prophetic crystals. I actually skipped the episodes that involve this stuff because i disliked them, so i don't know much about the Crystal Cave. Apparently ghosts can manifest there tho???

The veil is a thing too. It is unclear how some spirits can retain their human figure and mentality, like Balinor and Uther, but others become dorocha. I imagine its also like Supernatural - being a ghost for long enough will drive you insane, and though it takes a while all spirits eventually turn into dorocha.

Creatures of magic exist. These are normal creatures who have magic imbued into them somehow.

Okay, i think that's everything we know. It seems like a lot, but keep in mind that all of those rules are VERY nebulous. But that at least gives us a jumping-off point!

So here's my working theory/headcanon.

Magic comes from a connection to the spiritual energies of the Triple Goddess. Kinda like a third eye, and for the sake of simplicity that's what we'll call it. The druids have adapted a way of life that revolves around faith and magic, likely in an attempt to cultivate and one day attain this Third Eye. Like Gaius, who trained with the High Priestesses, you can study and practice and discipline yourself into acquiring it.

Magic is a cosmic force owned by the Triple Goddess, accessible to anyone with the Third Eye link. Imagine the Triple Goddess as a milkshake and the so-called Third Eye as a straw. The studying and training that people dedicate their whole lives to is basically just looking for/building a straw.

However, some people are just naturally born with a straw in hand, but require practice and study to be able to properly use it. Or like Morgana, it takes a few years for them to even find it/activate it.

Spellcasting is essentially just sucking through the straw, and the vocalized spells gives that Magic Milkshake some purpose/intent/shape.

The bigger the spell, the more Magic Milkshake is required. Some people have bigger/wider straws than others, so magic comes easier for them. But with enough training and practice anyone can widen their straw/strengthen their straw-sucking muscles to cast with the big leagues.

The Gean Canagh devours your straw/Third Eye. Perhaps you have to rebuild a new spiritual connection from scratch, or perhaps it permanently severs any and all connection to the Triple Goddess. Like getting excommunicated from the Church, only worse.

The Crystal Cave was/is the Triple Goddess's home, but she's out of town on a business trip atm so she left the spirit of her most loyal follower, Taliesin, to look after the place. It's super powerful and has all those cool crystals because it's hella steeped in her magic juices.

While most magic users get a standard-issue straw, others get Fancy Premium Membership Straws. Normal joe shmoes like Gilli have plastic straws, while a Seer like Morgana has a metal one or something (can you tell this metaphor is starting to get out of hand?). Those Premium Straws are only hereditary in nature. So there's a Seer Straw, or a Dragonlord Straw, or a Disir Straw, but it's also not a sure thing you'll even inherit it at all. It's all luck of the straw draw.

Creatures of magic aren't just animals that possess straws, though. They've been made/produced using magic rituals and processes and spells. Like Nimueh's afanc, nathairs, wraiths, shades, etc. So probably like a thousand years ago, some especially powerful shmuck came by and invented dragons. Which leads me to an important question: WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THE DOCHRAID WAS A GOOD IDEA.

Im reluctant to say these creatures were invented by the Triple Goddess, though, for reasons I'll get to in a moment.

So this still leaves the whole Cup of Life, life-for-a-life policy thing to be explained. I do believe that the policy is universally applicable to the creation of souls, and i do believe that animals have souls too. But individuals get their souls exchanged for those of equal value. So every soul has a certain weight to it, and you need to exchange souls of equal weight to create one. So when Merlin brought the dog to life, some random dog somewhere dropped dead against his knowledge.

Creating undead armies involves killing them and then resurrecting them. That's what 'undead' means. Zombies. So yes, to raise an immortal zombie army, Morgause's spell probably caused a bunch of people around the world to mysteriously drop dead.

Which leaves two last things to explain: destiny and Merlin.

Destiny is, i think, a combined effort between human choice and supernatural predeterminism. That is, for the most part humans make their own choices, but there are occasions where the Triple Goddess has to step in and do some course correction. Uther starting the Purge was free will, but Arthur and Merlin's destiny was an act of divine damage control. The Triple Goddess sets destiny into motion and informs a chosen few about it.

Okay SO. That leaves Merlin. And this is the bit im kinda excited about.

The Triple Goddess is a reservoir of power, a cosmic force of spiritual energy intrinsicallu linked to the fabric of the universe. People can spiritually reach out and tune into/channel her supernatural frequencies. But as a milkshake cannot suck itself through a straw, the Triple Goddess likewise cannot cast a spell. She can influence destiny, but she can't physically cast any magic on her own. That's why she didn't create the creatures of magic.

So a few years ago, Uther hecked up big time. And people of magic, the Triple Goddess's followers and acolytes and straw connections, were dying in droves. I can imagine that all those Third Eye tethers snapping en masse was painful for her to go through. She relies on the tethers to remain connected to the real world, and if all the tethers snap then she will be cut off from Earth altogether. And Earth requires magic to continue existing/thriving, so that's kind of a no-no.

So, the Triple Goddess knew that the only way to save the world was through divine intervention. Thus began the destiny of the Once and Future King and Emrys. She knew humanity is bigoted so there was bound to eventually be a repeat of Uther, so she made OaFK resurrectable, so they could keep him on the bench in case anyone ever needs him again.

Where does Merlin/Emrys fall into things?

Well. The Triple Goddess knew that saving her people and the world would require an immense magical undertaking, something no ordinary magic user would be able to pull off. But she has the power, if only she could use it. But a human can. So the Triple Goddess decided to be reborn into the body of a dragonlord's son. Merlin. Emrys. Magic itself.

Of course, this whole Being Born As A Human Thing is tricky, and as anyone familiar with reincarnation knows, you don't usually recall your past lives. So she became Merlin, unaware that he was ever the Triple Goddess. (Although she did add a clause saying she'd be destined to remember her past life eventually, which got hecked up for reasons ill explain later)

That's why so many creatures of magic/magic users recognize Merlin by his presence, why thr druids carry such reverence for him. Whereas the sidhe and other individuals don't recognize him, because they are blinded by heresy. They may have a spiritual connection to the Triple Goddess, but do not use her magic as she intended, and she's too busy wearing jaunty scarves to excommunicate them herself.

Why get the Once and Future King involved when she could just save everyone herself? Well, the Triple Goddess prefers to let the humans keep their agency and save themselves, and would rather remain in the role of protector/helper. Its just her nature.

But if that's the case, then why did Arthur's destiny fail? It's simple: Kilgharrah.

Remember what i said about the Horned God, counterpart to the Triple Goddess? Yeah, that's Kilgharrah. Like the Triple Goddess, he's another power reservoir, but he's jealous because people worship her and not him. He is against everything she does and actively seeks the destruction of the Triple Goddess's magic/influence for Jealous Evil Reasons. To stop him, the Triple Goddess enlisted some of her followers to bind him into the body of a dragon (perhaps this is how dragons were created) so he would never be able to do that. Years later, the Purge happened and "Kilgharrah" got locked away, further cut off from his power.

When Merlin walked in, unaware that he used to be the Triple Goddess, Kilgharrah seized his chance at revenge and manipulated Merlin into setting him free. Then, once free, he decided to lay claim to the power vacuum left by the Triple Goddess's quasi-absence. He began controlling destiny in whatever limited capacities he could, using magic of his own to permanently bury Merlin's knowledge of his past life. Then he ensured that Arthur would die and the Triple Goddess's magic would never return. But since he doesn't have FULL control over destiny (his powers are still limited by his dragon form, after all), he couldn't rewrite the bit where Arthur gets benched in Avalon. He's probably conspiring with the sidhe to ensure Arthur stays trapped there forever, or else he would've come back a long time ago.

As for how the Gean Canagh took Merlin's magic...well, yes, it devoured his Third Eye straw, but those are created by a strong spiritual connection to the Triple Goddess. And since he's literally the big TG himself, all he had to do was find himself again (by returning to his old home, the Crystal Cave) to recreate a new one.

Over the last 1500 years, Kilgharrah/the Horned God has been steadily accruing followers and worshippers in the hopes that one will become strong enough to release TG's bonds on him. Then he can kill her once and for all and claim full dominion over the universe, with the sidhe to support him.

I imagine that's how Arthur's resurrection would happen - Arthur and the rest of the dead Round Table are in Avalon when they learn about the treachery and plot to kill Merlin/take over the world, and spend the next few hundred years fighting their way out of Avalon.

Okay, I think that just about covers it. God, that was long. Any questions?

[jimmyandthegiraffes]

“Oh. Very well”: Alexander Waverly in Exploitation and Backstories

Waverly... bothers me. I think he’s a fascinating character and wonderfully portrayed and he’s a very intrinsic element of The Man From UNCLE that makes the show what it is, but he’s deeply and fascinatingly flawed and Damn do I want to talk about that!

Disclaimer: This is all based on my headcanons, not on concrete evidence from the show; I’m just speculating.

Disclaimer 2: I’m going to briefly reference real historical events. I do not intend to go into great detail because the last thing I want to do is to turn these into fuel for fanfiction without at least due respect to the victims of these events and their families. The 1930s and the 1950s were not really that long ago. How and if fandom should treat these kinds of tragedies is another debate, but for now: some events are still with us and I am conscious that while what I’m doing here is having fun with character analysis, not all of this is fiction. I’ve done my best to do what research I can, but if something I’ve said sounds off or disrespectful, please tell me and I will do my best to correct myself.

Waverly gives me the heebiejeebies. Whether it’s his matter-of-fact statement that his agents are expendable, his deceptions and manipulation of them, the fact that he regularly keeps them in the dark in ways that endanger them, or the fact that despite all of this they show him ultimate and unflinching loyalty - something about him throws me off.

Now the things I’m about to say about Napoleon and Illya’s pasts prior to joining UNCLE are headcanon, sometimes with basis in canon, sometimes just pulled out of nowhere for the fun of it or because I thought it fit. They might not, probably don’t, fit everyone’s headcanons. Napoleon and Illya are always shady about their pasts and I’m glad of it - it means we get So Much variety in transformative fandom. There is also a point to me getting into Napoleon and Illya’s backstories in order to talk about Waverly, and I will get to it.

I headcanon Napoleon as the only child of a fairly well off family. We know his grandfathers may have been an admiral and an ambassador respectively, although of course taking Napoleon’s word on anything is risky business. For the sake of argument, though, I’m going to say that’s canon. Napoleon is likeable and has a lot of friends. He does okay in school, but not well enough, I don’t think. He’s sporty and popular but not overly academic. He doesn’t go to college (this is arguably disputable; he states in Cherry Blossom that he threw the javelin in college - but I think that’s just him talking nonsense to get attention from girls. Pretty standard for Napoleon really!), or if he does go to college, he drops out and joins the army. I think Napoleon lying about his age in order to join up is so believably something he would do. He’s young, overconfident and desperate for a cause. We see in Secret Sceptre how he’s clung to Morgan’s ideals and assurance that the cause they’re fighting for is just, and how distraught he is to learn that his old mentor is not the moral safe ground he thought. How this must lead Napoleon to revisit his time in Korea with a new perspective - one of corruption and greed and futility! He wants reassurance that he’s doing, has done, the right thing. It’s an insecurity he masks well, but it’s there. I’d argue you can see it again in Seven Wonders of the World, for example, and even throughout season 4: war is never over, good never triumphs fully, good and evil are not black and white, how do we know that our ideals are the right ones?

I headcanon that Napoleon met his wife before he left for Korea, although I don’t think they were married until after he returned. They were both too young to get married; Napoleon in particular is immature and impulsive. Napoleon’s family did not approve. Still, I think that for what time they had together they were very poor and very happy. Whether this would have lasted, who knows? I headcanon that she died in a car crash, and that Napoleon wasn’t there when it happened. He’s home from a war he never understood, he’s full of grief and guilt, and his life is not what he thought it was going to be. What a time for Waverly to appear, to tell him that there is a concrete Good and Evil and that there are Good Guys and Bad Guys, that there’s a simple cause and Napoleon can find a career in joining it. Napoleon’s not stupid - but it’s not going to be hard at this stage in his life for Waverly to make UNCLE sound like a godsend. 

How Waverly gets hold of Illya in my headcanon is if anything more unsettling. He’s born into genocide and famine, and I headcanon that he was 8 when his parents died. That he lived with a Romani family is also firmly set in fanon for many and has some good canon basis and I very much subscribe to that. What his childhood was like is frequently speculated and I haven’t come to too many conclusions myself but it’s safe to say that Illya’s childhood has taught him to be resourceful, self-reliant and wary of close connections. So he goes to Cambridge, does his Masters, does his PhD., goes back to the USSR and joins the Navy, then somehow goes from the Navy to UNCLE (in an implausibly short space of time). That’s not my concern here - what I am interested in is how his transfer from the Soviet branch of UNCLE to the New York HQ is effected. 

To me, Illya is a gay character. I’d go so far as to say he’s coded as such, even if not deliberately. I won’t go into detail about that because I could write a whole post about it I think. Somehow, I think he is outed during his time with the Soviet UNCLE branch; this puts him in danger. He’s a good agent - one of their best - Waverly will have heard of him. Where Beldon fits into all this I’m not quite sure, because I got so carried away with making these headcanons that I forgot about him! But I’m sure he fits in somewhere. But I digress. UNCLE in the USSR are at a loss what to do with Illya: they can’t keep him, but he’s too valuable an asset to lose. It’s like Christmas has come early for Waverly! I’m sure he can’t get in there fast enough, to say oh well I can take him off your hands, there’s an opening in Research here in New York, or something along those lines. Maybe Illya is sent to Beldon first; but I do think Beldon and Waverly are in cahoots about getting Illya over to the USA. They probably fight over him a bit; he’s highly qualified, has excellent Survival School records, can pull the Weirdest stunts, speaks God knows how many languages.

Illya is undoubtedly in a terrifying situation; not only is his career on the line, but potentially his life as well. I don’t think anyone at the New York UNCLE branch knows he’s An Homosexual, barring Waverly (and Napoleon, eventually, of course) - but this places Waverly in a position of extreme power over Illya - and yet how can Illya be anything but loyal to this benefactor? Illya knows he is in Waverly’s debt, and that his entire position depends on Waverly’s discretion. Illya had been in danger; communications were made from East to West and back again, strings were pulled, and Illya has been quickly and quietly removed from the USSR and joined the ranks of Waverly’s remarkably devoted base of agents. It’s a win-win-win situation: Illya is saved from awkwardness at best and physical danger at worst and has a chance to put his talents as an Enforcement Agent to better use; the Soviet UNCLE folks have got rid of their outed gay agent without a scandal; Waverly has a shiny new agent. And sure, then Illya is partnered with Napoleon, everyone lives happily ever after.

But it’s Waverly’s motives that bother me; I can only speak about Illya and Napoleon because we don’t know much about any other agents, but he’s taken them both at times of great vulnerability and placed them undeniably in his debt. He’s indoctrinated Napoleon with his own ideals at a time when Napoleon was desperate for ideals, and he’s placed himself in a position of power over Illya by being his sole rescuer. He’s effectively secured both their loyalties. On a scale of Albus Dumbledore to Harold Dobey, Alexander Waverly is firmly up there with Dumbledore.

I don’t believe UNCLE is an ideologically pure organisation. I’m sure it was started with the best of intentions, but its entire motive runs on one perspective of right vs. wrong. World peace is a worthy goal - I’m sure it’s what Napoleon signed up for when he joined. But Waverly is a hard-moulded spy left over from the war. Espionage to him is uncompromising; he’ll do anything, and sacrifice anything, for the cause. For what he sees as right. He sees no need to bother his agents with trivial details: all they need to know, as is frequently demonstrated in the show (I’m thinking very much of Foxes and Hounds and Deep Six here but there are many many other examples), is what their orders are. Any superfluous information is unnecessary. He keeps them in the dark, hides, lies, deflects.

When Napoleon comes to Waverly in Concrete Overcoat, he almost has to beg for his partner’s life; Illya is collateral damage in Waverly’s plan, and Napoleon’s faith in the man is, in my opinion, irreparably damaged. When Napoleon is reported dead, by his partner of four years, in The Maze Affair, Waverly’s response is first one of shock, and then one of mild inconvenience. 

“Oh. Very well,” he says. 

[gentletwin]

Headcanon: What is Smash? Where is Smash? How is Smash?

( Note these are just personal headcanons that build on the already-established fanon of the Smash Mansion! No one has to fully agree with me on any of these obviously but it may help contextualize some of the things I write in Smash-verse threads. )

In-universe, Smash is a fighting tournament which spans multiple different universes. It’s famous all across the multiverse, and only the best, brightest, and strongest get invited. You don’t apply to be in Smash. You wait for your invite.

Smash is situated at a hub of sorts within the multiverse, which all of the fighters’ different universes can connect to in order for everyone to convene. Cross-dimensional transportation is covered by the organizers. Don’t worry.

The guys running all of this are Master Hand and his slightly more chaotic relative Crazy Hand, who are beings disconnected from any particular universe. They know about the fighters in all of the different universes. They choose who gets invites. Does that make the hands gods? Or maybe Eldritch creatures detached from spacetime? We don’t know, but they give everyone free housing, so no one’s really complaining.

Despite how Classic boss fights make it seem, Master and Crazy Hand are actually benign outside of combat. ( It’s worth noting that in those Classic boss fights, which might make the Hands seem malicious without context, they’re simply the final challenge before a fighter claims victory. ) They put together each tournament and nominate the fighters — Master Hand the “heroes” of a given universe, and Crazy Hand the “villains.” Together, the Hands organize the events, created the whole Smash Mansion for everyone to live in, transport fighters to and from stages, and ensure that no one is actually mortally injured during the fights. Ever wonder why there’s never any blood in a Smash fight, even as people swing swords around and breathe fire? That’s the Hands’ technology at work. Fighters who get launched into oblivion, only to be safely returned back to the stage? The Hands’ technology. Shouldn’t all of this hurt like heck? Not with the Hands watching. Basically, you'll get knocked around and might come out busted up pretty good, but the Hands’ protection ensures that no one is actually gravely hurt.

Outside of fights, everyone is generally on friendly terms. It might be up to you to ask the hero and villain of any given universe how they feel about each other when separated from the chaos of their home universe ( ahem, Ridley ), but everyone is at least able to live under the same roof.

Speaking of that roof, the fighters all live together in a massive mansion that has gradually gotten bigger over the years. Every fighter gets a room, and they have every amenity they could possibly need or want. A huge kitchen and dining area to feed all the mouths there, a common area, a terrace, a beautiful garden, training facilities, and not to mention quarters for all of the Pokemon, assist trophies, and what have you. As the scale of Smash has expanded over time, the mansion has begun to look more like a gigantic estate. The mansion is also conveniently situated close to grocery stores, convenience stores, clothing stores, parks — pretty much anything you could think of.

This particular tournament ( Ultimate ) has expanded to such a wide scale that the mansion is multiple acres of land and has guest quarters for any friends or loved ones a fighter might want to bring to spectate. This is unique to Ultimate — spectators could previously only watch from their home universes. ( This is also how all their spirits ended up scattered around in World of Light — unfortunately, all these people from all over the multiverse being gathered in one pocket of it was the perfect scenario for Galeem. )

Anyone who isn’t staying in the guest quarters is able to watch matches on TV, livestreamed, or whatever their universe’s equivalent of that technology might be. They can also go in person if a match takes place on a stage in their universe.

Each tournament is one “year” apart ( in IC time; i.e., Brawl and 3DS/WiiU were one year of in-universe time apart despite the actual games being separated by six years of real time ). Though honestly, who really knows? Time might flow differently from one universe to another.

Lastly, it’s important to note that things like Subspace and World of Light are interruptions to the tournament which, thus far, have all come with the threat of the destruction of the multiverse. During these crises, Master and Crazy Hand are typically taken by whatever final boss is masterminding the whole operation ( Tabuu in Brawl, Galeem and Dharkon in SSBU — this is actually alluded to canonically in WoL ). Since these fights are not tournament sanctioned, the protective technology is not in place and there is real danger in these fights.

Once the Smash festivities end, transport back to one’s home universe is also covered. Contact is generally kept between fighters in between tournaments wherever possible — though cross-dimensional reception can get tricky.

[homespork-review]

Spork Introduction

CHEL: Hi! I go by Chel, they or she pronouns, and I’m the one spearheading this project. I still like at least a fair percentage of Homestuck, but after the ending disappointed me a great deal, I got bitter, and when Hussie pissed me off further by Godwinning himself, I decided to do something about it. I’m no longer angry about it, but I felt I’d benefit from picking out what I hate from what I love so I can focus on the latter without annoyance getting in the way, and also to benefit my own writing efforts.

BRIGHT: Howdy! I’m Bright, and I got into Homestuck fairly recently. After ploughing through the archive and digesting for a while, I realised that I was thoroughly annoyed by how something enjoyable had fallen apart so comprehensively. I am looking forward to the time-honoured practice of ripping the story apart to identify its weak points and shout at them.

FAILURE ARTIST: Hello, I’m Failure Artist (call me FA for short), she/her/herself pronouns, and I’m so old-school they burned the school down. I was introduced to Homestuck via Something Awful’s Webcomic thread. I checked the old mspadventures.com site and the latest update was [S] John: Bite Apple. After watching that bizarre piece of animation, I had to know what the hell happened before then. I found I enjoyed the wit of the comic though I didn’t really care much about the plot. It was only when Act 5 came around that I became a serious fan. I currently have 122 Homestuck works on Archive of Our Own. I have a lot of free time, you see. I am very disappointed in how Homestuck ended. Possibly there was no completely satisfactory way it could end but it still could have been better. I feel like Hussie was a juggler who threw a lot of balls into the air and ignored them as they fell to the ground and some fans think not catching them was a master move since you’d expect he’d try to catch at least one. Sadly, lots of the problems with the ending are embedded deep within the canon.

TIER: Hi hi. I am Tier, a very late newcomer to the wonderful world of Homestuck (2018 reader!) and average fan overall. I love this webcomic to bits, but the low points are deep and I enjoy seeking out what the heck went wrong. Not particularly analytical myself, hope that's cool!

CHEL: Cool by us! We’ve already done plenty of analysing before we started, as you may realise from my Tumblr’s “homestuck ending hate” tag (at @chelonianmobile).

FAILURE ARTIST: But let’s put that aside for a moment and talk about the good stuff. 

Homestuck is incredibly innovative. It is the first true webcomic. It’s not just a print comic posted online. It uses not just still images and words but also animation, music, and interactive games.

Homestuck is the latest adventure in the series MS Paint Adventures. MS Paint Adventures started as a forum adventure. In forum adventures, the OP acts as a sort of Dungeon Master and other forum members give them prompts. Andrew Hussie’s previous works under MS Paint Adventures were Jailbreak (which is little more than Hussie dicking with the prompters in scatological ways), Bard’s Quest (Choose-your-own-adventure), and the actually-completed Problem Sleuth. Problem Sleuth lacks the music and animation and despite the weird physics shenanigans is a simpler story than Homestuck. The characters aren’t even two dimensional.

Homestuck (and the previous MS Paint Adventures minus Bard’s Quest) are set up like adventure games. Adventure games are where the player is a protagonist in a story and are usually focused on puzzle-solving though sometimes there’s combat. In the beginning, these games were purely text. The player would type what they wanted to do and the game would spout back text describing it - assuming the computer parser understood you.

CHEL: Oh god, I HATED that. I wasn’t around for the heyday but I’ve played a couple and

Pale Luna

was barely an exaggeration (horror warning).

FAILURE ARTIST: As graphics improved, adventure games started using them, but the commands were still in text. Only later was the point-and-click interface created and players didn’t have to guess what exact sentence the computer wanted them to type. Homestuck and the other MS Paint Adventures play with that frustration while paying tribute to the genre. The game within the comic uses RPG elements but the comic itself is set up like those good ol’ adventure games. In the beginning, Homestuck was guided by commands from forum members. Even after he closed the suggestion box, he used memes and fanon created by readers.

CHEL: How good an idea this was varies, as we’ll be showing.

We probably don’t need to describe Homestuck much more. Everyone here who hasn’t read it will doubtless have heard of it. Almost everyone with a Tumblr will have seen fanart, almost anyone at a convention will have seen cosplay. Shoutouts have been made to it in professional works such as the cartoon Steven Universe, and the Avengers fandom latched onto “caw caw motherfuckers” as a catchphrase for Hawkeye to the point that it’s now often forgotten it didn’t originate from there.

FAILURE ARTIST: The Homestuck fandom term “sadstuck” for depressing stories/headcanons somehow leaked into other fandoms. Using second-person is actually cool now and not just for awkward reader fics. Astrology will never be the same again.

CHEL: Now, in the interests of fairness, we will say that when Homestuck is good, it’s amazing, and it’s good often. The characters at least start out appealing and are all immediately distinguishable; even with the typing quirks stripped, it’s easy to tell who said what. The magic system is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen, who doesn’t love classpecting themselves and their faves? Hussie also shows a lot of talent for the complex meta and time travel weirdness, and it is fascinating to watch a timeline thread unfurl. And whatever else one says, it’s a fascinating story that’s captivated millions. I think it is deserving of its title as a modern classic.

However, as the years have passed, we have ended up noticing problems, big and small, and they nagged at us until we decided it had to be dissected. Our intention here isn’t to tear apart something we loathe entirely. It’s to take a complex work and pick out what works from what doesn’t. As I said, when Homestuck is good, it’s very very good. But when it’s bad, we get problems of every scale from various offensive comments to dragging pace to characters ignoring problems and solutions right under their noses to an absolute collapse of every theme and statement the comic stood for before.

The comic is ludicrously long; eight thousand pages, or thereabouts, to be specific. Officially one of the longest works of fiction in the English language, in fact. Naturally, we can’t riff that word by word in any timeframe short of decades, and we can’t include every picture, even if that was permitted under copyright law. Instead, as comics have been done here before, we’ll recap most of the time, and include sections of dialogue and pictures when particularly relevant to a point.

Here are the counts we’ll be using, possibly to be added to later if we find we forgot anything. Most of these counts will only start to climb post-Act 5, but we’ll be keeping track of them from the beginning. Most of them could have been fixed with a decent editor, which is sadly a hazard of webcomics, but still frustrating to read.

TIER: Note: we started this endeavor months before the thought of a "technically not but still we'll count it" set of canon epilogues were a twinkle in the eyes of the fandom. That is, by the way, a whole 'nother can of worms that will be dealt with at a later date if that ever comes around. We're judging Homestuck the Webcomic as a whole, so no after the credits stuff is to be noted for whatever reason.

ALL THE LUCK - Vriska Serket constantly gets a pass or gets favored over every other character. This count is added to every time she pulls some shenanigans with which others wouldn’t get away. ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY? - Sometimes it’s not entirely clear whether a thing is supposed to be taken seriously or not. We don’t require hand-holding through every joke, but when, for example, we’re supposed to take one instance of violence seriously while a similar case is supposed to be funny, this count goes up. CALL CPA PLEASE - Instances of creepy sexual behaviour (and perhaps particularly gratuitous acts of violence) from the thirteen-year-old cast. Now, mileage may vary on this one. We won’t pretend that thirteen-year-olds are perfect pure angels, especially thirteen-year-olds growing up in what is openly supposed to be a nightmarish dystopia. However, when full pages focus on said behaviour, there comes a point of it being very uncomfortable to read. Clarification: does not refer to cases where the adults do something heinous, this is strictly when the kids do. CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS - When an offensive joke or comment is made, particularly when not justified by the personality of the character involved, or presented in the narration as being okay. GET ON WITH IT! - When the pace drags. ‘Nuff said. Hazard of the format, but it makes archive bingeing very annoying. GORE GALORE - For unnecessary and/or excessive torture porn which is treated less seriously because it features troll characters, and therefore less “realistic” blood colours. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC - When the comic does something mentioned in How Not To Write A Novel, and it isn’t justified by the webcomic format. HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING - Characters repeatedly neglect to do something about or even react to terrible happenings, either because they don’t care even if they should or they forget they have the capacity. Not necessarily anything to do with their magical powers, either - characters ignore personal problems that are right under their noses, too. IN HATE WITH MY CREATION - For reasons that are unclear, Hussie chose to create characters he apparently hated writing, or at least ignored in favour of others. Every time he’s clearly disrespecting one of his own characters, this goes up, whether it’s by nerfing their powers or changing their personalities. RELATIONSHIP GOALS? - Romantic relationships in particular get fumbled quite often. Ship Teasing is used with skill, but that skill tends to be lost when the characters actually hook up. Fumbled friendships and family relations can also come under this heading. SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER - When characters other than Vriska get away with something morally questionable. Covers everything from sexual harassment to not trying to save people from the apocalypse. SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS - Later on in Homestuck’s run, Hussie tried to make up for the offensive humour and casual -isms counted by Clockwork Problematykks above. How successful he was at this varied. This count goes up whenever an attempt at progressivism is waved in front of the reader but doesn’t stand up under scrutiny. WHAT IS HAPPENING?? - When the already confusing plot kicks it up a notch. Admittedly this is as much a selling point of the comic as it is an issue, but either way, we’re going to keep track. Points will be added to when it gets confusing, and taken away when a previous confusing thing is explained adequately. WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM - What is shown about Alternia repeatedly contradicts what we’re told about how different it is from Earth. For example, trolls still use heteronormative terms even after it’s established they reproduce bisexually, and the demonstration of the class structure doesn’t always add up. This count goes up every time that happens. It also goes up every time something happens which strongly implies Hussie was envisioning the human kids as white, despite his later claims that they were always supposed to be “aracial”, and every time their economic statuses don’t add up either.

[sparatus]

I did a quick search/skim over your blog and didn’t see anything (feel free to point me to a post if I missed something!) and I was wondering if you have any thoughts/headcanons on turian heights? I was trying to search and sort out my own OCs height and saw “~*canon*~” saying they’re only about 6’ and idk.. that felt small to me, am I crazy? Thanks in advance!

honestly yeah i think bioware saying turians average at 6′ doesn’t add up

like, i can see what they were going for, the human average iirc is arouuuuund 5′7″ i think?? so it’s like, oh, turians are bigger than us, but not krogan fuck-off huge. and it’s def supported by the in-game models and comics art, turians are big kids!! for example, here’s udina vs sparatus and tevos:

even accounting for the angle of the shot, sparatus is towering over both him and tevos; if we use our brains’ fancy special ability to manipulate 3d objects to put everyone’s heads back to base resting position, he’s eye-level with the tops of their heads!

so, similar to some of my complaints about canon ages, i see what bioware was aiming for, but i think their math doesn’t crunch out quite right, and in my experience, most of fanon agrees. personally, i headcanon turians average around 7 feet / 2,13 meters tall, partially stemming from just personal preference and partially from the official statue of garrus where the scaling puts him at around 7 feet.

obviously there’s some range, humans have a very wide range of heights so so will turians; the general range is about half a foot in either direction (6′6″ to 7′6″) for “normal” and extending out to a foot on either side (6 feet to 8 feet) for your more egregious differences. those of course aren’t hard limits, you’ll also find turians less than 6 or more than 8, but the odds are pretty slim compared to the “normal” range.

[minderrific]

I love this song, which plays only a few times over the course of EarthBound—it’s commonly called Paula’s Theme in the soundtrack because it plays only during moments when your fate crosses hers by way of Paula needing you to rescue her, first from the Happy Happyists and then Monotoli.

It’s a beautiful arrangement, but what I truly both love and obsess about about in this Paula-specific theme is that it’s a straight remix of the Easter (Youngtown, in the English localization) theme music from the first MOTHER:

For some background: Easter is a town that, as Ninten and his party, you visit only to find the entire place bereft of adults, who have been taken by Giegue’s (Giygas’s) forces up to Holy Loly Mountain / Mt. Itoi for purposes unknown. The children left behind are in various states of fear, confusion, bravado, and feigning one while betraying the other. And the song of their wintry town is one of few truly standout tracks in the original MOTHER, for I think a good reason in that it both managed to be such a good 8-bit tune full of emotional resonance and that it was placed in the one area of the game where the helplessness of the Earth’s situation is at the forefront of the player’s mind, in a town full of kids even younger than the protagonists that are trying to survive in a world that’s stopped making sense without their parents.

Since I finished MOTHER, and started playing Earthbound and Twoson for the first time, I’ll confess I’ve been wondering near-obsessively what reason there is that Paula’s most or second-most iconic track in the game is based on that particular track from the previous game. What connection does she have either thematically or canonically to Easter (or Youngtown, again, if you’ve played the localized translation).

The easy answer is that it’s just a good song and the remix makes it softer and more full of hope to reflect Paula’s melancholy faith that you will come and save her despite her dire situation, as opposed to the more panicked staccato in the 8-bit version from MOTHER where you visit the town of Easter in the middle of your journey and have nothing to provide in the way of relief or assistance to the children there except by moving forward to the end. (This is unlike every other town you’ve visited prior to that point in MOTHER, where your actions have a direct positive impact on the town(s) you were directed to along your journey. In Easter, all you can do is take stock of the situation, take what plot tokens and resources you need, and move on, leaving the children again to fend for themselves so that you can go on to hopefully save their parents among the remainder of Earth.)

Now…if you want to delve a bit deeper than the convenience of a nice tune, or even the thematic connection between lost children that ties Paula to the prequel town of Easter, and into some headcanon territory with me for a moment. Suspend disbelief and suppose, for a moment, that as I’ve suspected since finishing MOTHER and have solidified into fanon theory after Mother 3, that America of 1980s MOTHER and Eagleland in 1990s EarthBound are indeed the same country under a different name. And different leadership, naturally; speaking to some unknown but important upheaval within the last decade that the player doesn’t and wouldn’t know the details of, yet doesn’t feel impossible considering the tells of how different both games are in the societal sense to the versions of “America” they represented along with some rather worrying tells of instability all-around.

If that’s too much of a reach, then scale it back and imagine that America and Eagleland at least exist in the same world, perhaps on the same continent.

If Eagleland, the setting of EarthBound isn’t so far removed from the setting of the first MOTHER, could it be possible that young Paula Jones herself was born or raised in the town of Easter? …I mean, probably not, realistically, but I have to say: the immediacy with which the idea hit me and then stuck with me somehow gives me a sense that there’s a meaningful resonance to the idea of tying EarthBound in this small, but significant way back to its prequel.

Especially since one understated bit of canon lore from MOTHER is that often, it is the children, or even grandchildren or great-grandchildren, of the miscellaneous adults abducted by Giegue’s / Giygas’s people for unknown purposes, who are the ultimate inheritors of PSI in a new generation. It’s true of Ninten, and Ana, and at least one other baby from the town of Easter. Hell, perhaps one or two of the preschoolers in Polestar preschool are among the same category for that matter, like that one with the mind of an adult whose eerie personality is not explained. PSI apparently occurs in children this way for reasons that canon still hasn’t explained.

If nothing else, it’s a fun theory to toy around with that Paula hasn’t lived in Twoson all her life, even if she’d be certainly too young to remember an incident some ten-odd years ago where her mother and father disappeared and came back to find their little girl perfectly safe and sound (perhaps their first clue to the family mantra that ‘God is with her’).

[overwatch-does-stuff]

Hey, I really love this blog! I think your characterisation of everyone is spot-on. I was thinking about this a while ago, and I think you would have a pretty cool take on it so- what does everyone think of Hanzo and Genji's dragons? like, do they trust them, think they're cool or just think "eff them, they don't science"?

Thank you so much for the request, anon! However, I'm going to use this to bring up some of my ideas and headcanons regarding the Shimada Dragons before I get into the character list.I have some very different headcanons than most of the fandom regarding the Dragons. I personally don't see the Dragons as animals, as cute as some of the fanon interpretations are. Rather, I think the Dragons are very representative of both the brothers' souls.First and foremost, in the short "Dragons", Hanzo is heard telling the story of the two dragons of the north and south winds. However, it is revealed later on that the story is a metaphor for his relationship with Genji. Hanzo is personifying himself as the dragon, which makes it hard for me to believe that the Dragons are some sort of separate, animal-like entity from the brothers.Plus, their dragons and how the brothers use them are very representative of their current emotional states. Hanzo, when using his ult., says "Let the dragon consume you", then expels the dragons from his body through the tattoo. Anyone who plays Overwatch knows that walking into the dragons is incredibly harmful to your health. This implies a negative connotation around the dragon, and this reflects Hanzo's view of himself. When visiting Illios, Hanzo says "Such beauty. . . wasted on the soul of a killer". This is Hanzo still regretting killing Genji, and being unable to forgive himself. Hanzo has a very negative view of himself. Contrast this with Genji's dragon. Instead of it exiting his body and causing harm, Genji's dragon stays near him, encircles him, and makes him more powerful. When activating this power, Genji says "The dragon becomes me". This gives the dragon a very positive connotation, in direct contrast with Hanzo's. This reflects Genji's newfound inner peace and acceptance of himself.To summarize:- Hanzo's dragon kills you with the power of self-loathing and depression.- Genji's dragon kills you with the power of confidence. This doesn't mean that the character interactions for this list won't interesting! These boys are still summoning some weird magic-type stuff. This is going to be fun.On to the list! What Overwatch thinks of the Shimada Dragons:    Tank:D.va just wants to know how it works! She's asking Genji all sorts of questions (as she's still a little intimidated by Hanzo,) and she's determined to get answers. When Genji starts getting annoyed though, she backs off. She'd just like to see it more often. It's so cool!Orisa is wracking her databases, trying to come up with some sort of explanation. At first she thought the dragons were some sort of technological illusion put on by Genji's armor, but when she found out Hanzo could do it to the idea was a bust. She's still deep in thought about it. She'll probably go ask Zenyatta about it later.Reinhardt is in awe of it, but he's not too surprised. He's always believed in a little bit of magic and the supernatural; he just didn't expect to be proven right. He's a little hesitant to ask Genji about it now, as the ninja was not up to talk about it during Blackwatch.Roadhog tries to avoid working on a team with them. He's half convinced he's seeing things, and half convinced that the brothers are conning the whole thing. Nothing like a big spirit dragon to intimidate your enemies. He's seen just about everything in his life, and he's not about to add something like magic to the list.Winston is intensely curious, but tries to avoid asking questions, as Hanzo is, and Genji used to be, very stand-offish about talking about them. Instead, Winston tries to gather data whenever the dragons come out. Whether it be by measuring the air when a dragon passes by, or making observations of Hanzo's tattoo, he'll find out some amount of truth one way or another.Wrecking Ball thinks the entire thing is some very impressive pyrotechnics. He asks Hanzo how to "make dragons". Hanzo now refuses to speak to him. Hammond is now coming up with a plan to break into Genji's room and find out what their secret is.Zarya at first dismissed the dragons as fake, mocking Genji endlessly about it and making snide remarks to Hanzo once in a while. That is, until she saw them in combat. She then apologized to Hanzo, at least. She's been rather quiet to Genji lately. She doesn't seem to ask any questions about them, perhaps out of respect.    Damage:Bastion in fascinated with the Dragons, and tends to get distracted when either of the brothers summon theirs. This can cause problems during battle whenever Bastion is expected to provide covering fire. Outside of battle though, it has asked Genji about the dragons. Genji explained them as best as he could.Doomfist is baffled on how such powerful a force could exist, yet have no records or evidence. He's seen the dragons first hand in battle, in an encounter with Hanzo, but he has yet to come up with a rational explanation for them. Moira couldn't provide answers, and Sombra was unable to come up with any prior history of spirit dragons. He hopes to recruit Hanzo, not just as an asset, but to get an answer on the Dragons as well.Genji isn't quite sure how he and his family have access to the Dragons. All he knows is that it is some sort of ancient power. It thrums constantly within him, and only in moments of true feeling can it be summoned. He used to summon it out of anger, in an almost uncontrollable force. Now he is able to summon it when he needs it most, and it greatly aids him in battle. He has Zenyatta to thank for that.Hanzo isn't nearly so trusting of his Dragons. They are linked to his negative emotions, and he can only summon them when he is overwhelmed by anger, fear, or sadness. He is shocked that Genji can summon his so easily. However, Hanzo also uses his dragon much more as a tool; he purposely brings up bad emotions (especially over Genji's death) during battle and sometimes even hurts himself in order to summon them. This horrifies Genji.Junkrat totally thinks that the Dragons are fireworks. He keeps asking the brothers where they buy them. When he finds out they can't be bought, he spends days experimenting with his own explosives. He can't quite get the same results.McCree knows better than to ask about the Dragons. He's been on a team with Genji before, and back then, he was not in a place to talk about it. Because the Dragons aren't quite so surprising to him anymore, McCree is rather casual when it comes to talking about them, though. He'll explain them to the newbies if questions are asked.Mei is absolutely fascinated with the Dragons! She wants to know what they are- animals? Spirits? Magic? Either way, she's come up with cute names for them (Genji's is Wasabi, Hanzo's are Soba and Ginsing). She sometimes helps Winston try and study them, but she usually lets the brothers know if they're taking readings. Hanzo hates it. Genji doesn't mind.Pharah didn't believe her mother's tales of Genji, and thought the whole "Dragons" thing might just be a metaphor for a battle stance or something like that. When she actually saw the Dragons for the first time, she couldn't believe her eyes. She asks McCree about it later, but doesn't bring it up to anyone else.Reaper knows a lot more than he lets on. During Blackwatch, he had Moira gather information on Genji's Dragon. He took this information and used it to plan tactics to utilize it. Nowadays, he uses what he knows to avoid it. He knows what a powerful weapon it is. He has yet to tell anyone else in Talon the extent of what he knows.Soldier 76 doesn't know nearly as much about the Dragons. Though also a strategist, he hasn't asked Genji or Hanzo about it. He figures that the brothers know when and where to use their abilities. Genji usually communicates and coordinates with his team before using it. Hanzo does not. This can lead to some mishaps during battle, which annoys Soldier to no end.Sombra has searched the web inside and out, but has found no information on anything like the Dragons. Heck, she can barely find records of the Shimada clan. She figures that the family has a closed internet system. She would love to get into it sometime, but that would require an on-site hack, and as of current plans involving the heir, Talon does not want to make the clan mad.Symmetra thinks that the Dragons are nothing more than hard-light structures. She can create similar illusions, but not on the scale of either of the brothers. She wonders if they secretly are masters of hard light, or if they have some sort of technology that allows them to create such constructions on the fly. However, she sees that the Dragons are of spiritual importance to the brothers, so she does not ask. Torbjorn hates, hates, hates even acknowledging the Dragons' existence. He pretends that they don't exist most of the time. However, back in the day, he helped to build Genji's cyborg armor, and he had to build an entirely separate cooling system to deal with the energy surge that the Dragon creates, so he knows that it's real; the logical part of his brain just refuses to admit it. (Basically, "eff them, they don't science", lol.)Tracer thinks that the Dragons are wicked cool. She asks a lot of harmless questions, mostly to Hanzo (for some reason), such as "What makes them go through walls?" or "Why do you have two, but your brother only has one?". Hanzo usually refuses to respond, but she has gotten an answer or two. She usually tells the answers to Winston, as to help him with his study.Widowmaker doesn't have time to dwell on the nature of the Dragons. All she cares about is that they're inconvenient to deal with, often forcing her to move positions and interrupting her usual sniper dual with Hanzo.    Support:Ana doesn't ask many questions, as she sees it as a breach of privacy. She only knows what information the brothers openly say and what she has seen in battle. She does, however, ask the brothers if they would like to be nanoboosted when they summon their Dragons. Genji accepts. Hanzo refuses.Brigitte didn't believe Reinhardt's tales of Genji's Dragon, chalking it up to her mentor's active imagination. All that changed when she saw them in battle for the first time. She's especially fascinated with how Genji's cyborg parts handle the energy surge. She tried to ask her father about it, but all he would give her is the blueprints. Since then, she's come up with several upgrades for the system. Genji, however, politely declines them every time she brings them up.Lucio thinks they're super cool, but he doesn't ask questions, and often is the one to stop others (read: Tracer and D.va) from asking them as well. He understand that the spirit dragons may be a personal thing, so he only knows what information is volunteered. However, this doesn't stop him from creating sick remixes inspired by the Dragons. Mercy knew about the Dragons from the very beginning- it was a medical miracle that Genji survived, and she attributes a small part of that to the dragon spirit inside of him. She's always been intensely curious about it, but she can never bring herself to ask questions. Instead, she focuses on getting to know Genji as a person more. Perhaps with time she may learn more.Moira is also intensely curious. Back in Blackwatch, she was able to study Genji in her laboratory whenever he was injured. She had many theories about the Dragons, but none of them turned out to be true. Regardless, she was able to get many useful data readings as to how they function. Nowadays, she would love to get her hands on Hanzo to further her study, and that is one of the driving forces in the plan of recruiting him to Talon.Zenyatta sees the Dragons as spiritual entities that reflect the brother's relationships with their inner selves. He knows more about the Dragons than anyone else, as he is Genji's closest confidant when it comes to such things. He was able to see how the Dragon changed throughout Genji's spiritual enlightenment. Zenyatta wishes he could help Hanzo with his troubles, but the bowman always refuses.