#like he’s not evil just has issues keeping control of his nature really

[candyheartedchy]

Is rhyme kinda mean?

In a way. He’s a very chaotic being who has a hard time controlling how he expresses himself emotionally. More of a trickster than anything else who is just very unhinged.

[fixated-dark-king]

Sooo, I had the amazing experience of attending a panel C.S. Pacat was part of during the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 25th May 2024. The panel was called “Creating a Monster” (with two other YA authors).

And finally a week later (because adult-ing is hard), I had time to actually go through my notes and write up some of the fascccccinating things Pacat had to say about: monsterous heroes, and villains, and enemies-to-lovers deliciousness, and queer identity!

I didn’t want to forget some of the interesting things said in this panel and thought others might be interested in hearing about them too? Please indulge the splurge. :)

(Please note that all bold headers are just my thematic summary of each section for people to jump to, not the actual question asked.)

WHAT APPEALS ABOUT ‘THE MONSTROUS’ TO PACAT:

From a technical writing standpoint, the ‘Monstrous’ is appealing because a villain will often do an act and the hero reacts to that. It gives unconscious clues to the reader that when the villain turns up, something exciting is going to happen. In that sense, villainous characters have a special sort of ever-present attention given to them (possibly because human nature is to always keep one eye on the dangerous thing that could harm you).

On a personal level: A) When queer characters are awesome but also ‘Monstrous’, Pacat says it can feel really ‘electric’ and empowering to reclaim/allow yourself to embrace the monster role that you’ve been told you fit into by society. Like in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles where queer people are allowed to be beautiful/glittering & powerful & witty & have existential conversations about good and evil while fitting under the Monstrous label. Like heck yeh, that’s cool. And B) as an author, you can feel a ‘minority pressure’ to have characters be Good all the time and be the perfect ambassador for that minority, but sometimes you just want to be a vampire and take over the world, you know?

THE EXISTENCE OF ‘PROTAGONIST-CENTRED MORALITY’ WITHIN THE DARK RISE BOOKS:

When pondering whether it is hard as a writer to convince readers that a Monstrous protagonist is a likeable character, Pacat pointed out that the funny thing is that the question ‘How am I going to make readers like this monster?’ never really ends up being an issue because people actually really like monsters! The thing you might not expect is that the struggle is actually: ‘How am I going to make these readers who are barracking for the protagonist feel that this ‘monster’ is actually monstrous?’

Pacat explained that when a protagonist is also a monster, it brings into play something called ‘Protagonist-Centric Morality’ -- where you bond with that protagonist and want the best for them etc, so much that it can obscure when the protagonist is actually doing something bad. Pacat mentioned that he has found the Protag-Centric Morality fairly striking in the case of the Dark Rise books because people have said to him things like: ‘The Dark King Did Nothing Wrong Ever In His Whole Life’ and Pacat questioned whether the moral centre of the story was landing somewhere different than intended. He was curious whether the other authors had experienced that with their ‘monstrous’ protagonists too.

IF A HERO IS ALSO MONSTROUS, HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE THAT FROM THE VILLIAN? When pondering over the distinction between a Monstrous Hero and a Villain, Pacat shared some thoughts from his lived experience. He said the times when he has felt most threatened by the ‘Monstrous’ is when that person isn’t clearly identifiable to others around you; where there isn’t a shared understanding between everyone that ‘yes, that person is a monster’. Extending from that, the Truly Monstrous is when that person has some kind of control over you and control over the narrative as well; if the monster is the one telling the story but casting you as the monster. Essentially gaslighting via ‘narrative control’.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS TROPE:

This is Pacat’s absolute favourite romantic trope. And he elaborated that he doesn’t mean that in the sense of ‘these characters sort of don’t like each other’, but rather to the point where two characters really hate each other and for a very good reason. He likes when a path between two characters feels IMPOSSIBLE to overcome.

This trope was first explored in the Captive Prince trilogy and Pacat loved it so much he just had to use it again for the Dark Rise trilogy. The planning behind it for CaPri was brainstorming: ‘What is the worst thing I could think to use?’ (Answer: Killing a character’s brother, which lands the bereaved character into a set of hellish circumstances.) But that meant when Pacat decided to use it again for DR, he had to extend that to: ‘Now I need to think of something EVEN WORSE THAN THAT (CaPri)’ in order to separate the main characters. So Pacat had to spend ages thinking about what could be the absolute worst thing to use this time -- and he hopes that he came up with something that is ‘truly, truly way worse.’ Which essentially had everyone, including the moderator, laughing loudly in fear. XD

WILL KEMPEN: FOUND FAMILY & THE LONELINESS OF INAUTHENTICITY:

Pacat spent a lot of time trying to develop a really meaningful platonic friendship between Will and Violet. It meant a lot to see a friendship like that reflected on page for Pacat because some of the most important friendships of his life were across gender lines. The reception to Will and Violet has been so pleasantly surprising, so Pacat supposed he wasn’t the only one with a hunger for that kind of friendship within the romantasy genre.

Pacat also reflected on Will’s complex relationship with his Found Family -- that having the support of a Found Family can be so essential, but in Will’s case that lifeline is undermined by secrecy, turning that Found Family into a different kind of loneliness. Because the thing is: if something so immense happens to you that you feel you can’t talk about, or you feel some way about yourself but think you can’t share that with others, it means you can’t really be your authentic self. But if you’re not being you’re authentic self, who are your friends friends with? They can’t be friends with the true You; they can only be friends with a facade/with a performance. So as long as Will is scared to show his true self and remains hiding himself away from even his friends, he will be alone. It’s a hard step to take. (Note from me: so heavvvvy but poignant.)

NOT DR-RELATED, BUT PACAT’S FAV MONSTERS FROM POPULAR FICTION: Pacat was so excited to namedrop his favourite monsters from popular fiction, he volunteered to go first LOL. The answers: 'The Brat Prince' Lestat (Lestat has been on his mind a lot recently because the AMC TV portrayal captures Lestat so well & has completely rejuvenated Pacat’s 12 year-old love of vampires. Total mood); serial killers such as in the Ripley series; and simply: American Psycho.

Great panel, right? Now it’s Europe’s turn!

[cheemscakecat]

If Emesis Blue really is a Dream, I love the fact that BLU Medic sees RED the way he does.

Think about it, BLU Medic is a Catholic who knows he’s mentally ill and is trying his best to keep it under control. RED Medic is a megalomaniac who likes the challenge of playing god and made a deal with the devil.

And beyond that, BLU has other personalities that he doesn’t understand [who freak him out] and hallucinates them from time to time.

That’s the actual reason he didn’t attack RED immediately, he thought it was one of them from afar. It has to be trippy and difficult to deal with that guy IRL in battle with the personality issue.

And even if BLU doesn’t know it, if he thinks his other personalities are demons or something, they still act like people. Angry, revengeful people, but not monsters. This picture is such a good representation of the difference between the two. RED is feral and messing with powers he shouldn’t…. For fun. Fixing respawn failures is not “for fun” it’s meant to save mercenary lives. So RED would be Monstrous.

He’s still red hued even in this blue room, skin and hair too, like a demon. And given he joined Classic team in hunting his own crew and BLU mercs, it makes sense that he’s literally two-faced.

Something else that’s interesting is that BLU Medic’s eyes are only ever black/brown as the funeral version, and he has hallucinations that make that personality look demonic.

But again, funeral Medic acts like a human person that’s 100% done with BLU Corp and their lies, not a cryptid. He’s not actually evil like Ludwig thinks.

But RED Medic is criminally insane in ways that transcend other Gravel War mercs, and that’s disturbing to someone like BLU.

O no he crumchy

He just put Scout’s body in a coffin as respectfully as he could given the circumstances. RED Medic brought their team’s sniper back to life and there’s no way BLU hasn’t heard about it post-comics. He didn’t want RED touching Scout, even if it could bring him back. He doesn’t trust that maniac, and that’s 100% valid. Why?

BLU team doesn’t know RED personally. What they’re like at their base, living with each other. They don’t know that RED Medic was infiltrating Classic, not truly joining them. They don’t know what he was doing in the early 40s or how close he is with RED Heavy. And here’s the proof:

BLU Medic doesn’t know that this is BLU Heavy; he knows that he’s at RED base, and wouldn’t have a reason to believe that this isn’t RED Heavy. Especially after what happened to Scout. So from his perspective, RED finally pushed nature too far and it blew up in his face. Resulting in RED Heavy loosing his mind and attacking.

That’s also why he hesitates to run away from the big Hoovy; he might be in hearty agreement with defeating RED Medic and leave BLU alone. But that’s not the case, and so the context changes from “this guy no longer serves RED” to “this guy has lost the plot altogether, he’s just attacking anybody’.

We, the tf2 fans know that this isn’t how RED Heavy acts; he actually didn’t question Medic’s loyalty in comic 6 and was ride or die, so if anything he’d still be docile to RED. But nobody on BLU team knows that.

And BLU’s doctor believes that something terrible will happen to RED if he doesn’t stop messing with the powers that be, even though he has no idea about the demonic deal.

[princess-of-the-corner]

So I've been having thoughts on developing a proper Rogues Gallery for miraculous. This is going to be long and a little convoluted, I apologize in advance.

The first thing I was thinking about was how there is something of a civilian rogues gallery that already exists. As in, threats Marinette and Adrien regularly has to deal with, but not Ladybug and Chat Noir. These people include Bob Roth, Roger, Andre/Audrey, pre-redemption Chloe, Lila, Felix depending on the day, and occasionally less maligned but incompetent adults like the principal or Bustier. Due to the nature of ML, these are also some of the more frequent targets of akumatization. Gabe and Nathalie can actually also fall on this list, since they manage to be plenty problematic even when it's not part of an evil scheme.

So the issue lies in creating a separate superpowered Rogues Gallery that threatens LB and CN as heroes but not so much as civilians. Like, there's going to be overlap, but a lot of what, Bob Roth for example, does pre-akumatization had little to no bearing on the superhero shenanigans. So there needs to be some villains that do the reverse.

To use a Spider-Man analogy, they have their Flash Thompsons and their JJJs and even their Eddie Brocks/Venoms in the form of Lila, but they don't have, like, a Doc Ock or a Vulture or the rest of the Sinister 6, who don't really give a shit about Peter Parker.

So my next thought was, "what's the path of least resistance to creating a group of consistently present superpowered villains that don't really care about Marinette or Adrien?" And my answer to that was just take some existing akumas and revamp the butterfly powers a bit to make them stick around.

There's already Mr. Pigeon as a non-serious silly threat. I think keeping Stormy Weather, who's a pretty badass akuma and who's akumatization has literally nothing to do with Team Miraculous is a good one, but I'm unsure why Auroré would keep working with HM. Rogercop could be good. He tends to get akumatized because of Team Miraculous, but Roger is also kinda just an asshole, so I feel like there could be other reasons for it. I like the idea of keeping Simon Says too, as a villain that Gabe doesn't have a whole lot of control over, although why Gabe would repeatedly give him powers is a big question, and he's also a bit too sweet to just be villainous on his own. Darkblade could work for another silly one that's somewhat more threatening than Mr. Pigeon, and is also enough of an asshole/weirdo to regularly justify repeated akumatization. I also kinda want Copycat or a variant thereof, as someone who specifically has issues with LB or CN and isn't named Lila. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on who you'd add to the list. Like, I know they smoothed things over with him in canon and in HC, but I'm having trouble thinking of anyone else who has LB or CN related beef.

The main thing I haven't really worked out is how to revamp the butterly powers to make this feasible. My tenuous idea is that instead of like, directly empowering and lowkey mind controlling the akumatized villain in a weird kind of contract situation, the butterfly user just gives them a store of power they can draw on periodically with the power of their emotions. So like, if canon gives you a power that you can use infinitely, but only while being directly controlled by the Butterfly user, this version would give you, like 10 shots before you ran out of power and the Butterfly would have to empower you again. But the stronger your emotions, the more shots you get, or something like that. But that would require an emotionally charged villain to have the foresight to save their shots up for a later date, so IDK if this would actually work.

Thoughts?

Yeah I think my main thought is on the how/why they stay Villains and hm.

I think my thought on it would be the idea of something going 'wrong' in a way?

Maybe this could replace the thing of what happens when Ladybug doesn't Purify the Butterfly. Instead of Hawkmoth being able to make copies, the person just stays in their Akumatized state but is no longer controlled by Hawkmoth.

[dapper-lil-arts]

Random musing s on your Princess Celestia ask, IE about how she gets bodied all the time die to lazy writing. I have one of 3 explanations I use for it myself:

1:Celestia is clamping down hard on some Blood Knight tendencies.

She is scared if she opted to fight she might not be able to stop herself. Not that commonly used but fun in a "God Princess of Ponykind" way.

2: Celestia has partitioned her own divine power for safety.

I got this idea from a great fic, but the basic premise is there are a metric ton of cosmic functions and divine prisons all kept working by Celestia's divine power and set up so that she can't easily just pull it all back to herself on a whim. This is to both make it harder for her to go evil and ensure if she dies the universe keeps spinning. It didn't used to be so bad, but with Luna gone she took on more of the brunt.

3: Its power related but not the way you think.

Basically, we know Celestia "can" overpower Discord because she warded the Elements against him effectively. However, I assume this took a length ritual not to gather the power but to manage this power in a safe manner.

IE, Discord spreads his magic around wildly, even he doesn't have total control over his magic at 100% inherent to being Discord. Similarly, if Celestia tried to do something similar, it doesn't matter how fine her control is, her nature and magic is at a core level the atomic heart burning at the center of creation.

If she did as Discord did, everything would just be ash. Unless, she is slow and methodical with it, but slow and methodical doesn't work great for battles, hence being able to bind Discord but fighting him would be apocalyptic even if he would be dead at the end of it.

I apreciate what you're trying to do, but I'm not really fond of it, tbh. I don't want to find excuses or justifications for the writer's crappy choices that they did with little thought. Hell even the excuse that she's 1000 years old and that makes her weaker seems lame to me. My solution to these kinds of writing problems is never to find a way to justify them, but to just ignore them altogether and write my own version of Celestia that doesn't suffer from these blatant issues Again, like, when I see "Cozy Glow belongs in Tartarus and/or should be turned to stone!" in canon, my solution isnt to find ways to justify why she DOES belong in Tartarus and as stone, my solution is to ignore what canon says altogether and just write it better.

Canon says everyone is annoyed by Pinkie all the time, and that Rainbow Dash is an cocky asshole that constantly lets her friends down. I'm not listening to canon.

[dangermousie]

Farscape rewatch 2x04: Crackers Don’t Matter

One of my favorite eps and the most quoted one in the Mousie household.

You know what I am struck by, this time? How crazily Farscape works. I am faced with the next to last scenes of this ep: John with green face-make-up, shiny cover, attacking a bug-looking alien with a sword as it gibbers, screaming 'humans are superior' and marvelling at the fact that somehow, it all works. How crazy is it? It works, works brilliantly. Farscape took some odd risks, some strange choices, but IMO, they almost always worked out.

 And the way the humor (and this episode is bona fide hilarious) can coexist with cruelty and darkness because the ways the Moyans turn on each other is just vicious and what makes it horrible is that it’s their darkest ids, worst selves exposed - so it is them, even if the worst version of them.

And they have to live with it, with all the stuff they said and did, no easy solutions...

This is long and cap-heavy so behind read more...

I am also struck by how tight the writing is. It's obviously an organic show: it didn't have every plot detail worked out years in advance. But when things come up, they get so incorporated for later, they get brought up again, it all just fits. Just think of the little throw-away comment by Maldis in S1 that John lost his virginity to Karen Shaw, and how it comes to play in Kansas in S4. Why am I thinking of this for this ep? It's the fact that here is Harvey (his very first appearance), telling John that revenge is a dish best served cold, his whole attitude, his whole statement is so in line with the whole late S3 ep 'Revenging Angel' which echoes it so well. In RA Harvey fails to understand what makes John tick, what makes him stay alive: he is limited by his creator Scorpius. He fails to realize that what keeps John alive is hope and that for John, Aeryn is hope. (That is why chip!John in Scorpy's head in Incubator is so intractable, so final: he is post-loss-of-Aeryn, he really has nothing). What Scorpy fails in (and by extension Harvey) is to understand John on a very basic level: they don't really fit, like two odd pieces of a puzzle. Grayza of course makes the same mistake on Arnessk. It's going to sound corny, but Scorpy fails to understand goodness (not surprising considering his upbringing) while John has one-up on his opponent because he understands evil, because his face has been rubbed into it until it's raw.

I kept thinking, why is John the least affected by Traltixx in this ep? I am sure the eyesight has something to do with it (I love how Farscape turns on its head the old trope of humans being saviors because they are better. Crichton is 'better' because he is handicapped, because he doesn't see so well). But I think there are other issues here: for one thing, Crichton is a researcher, someone who must be analytical by nature. More importantly, he is attuned to oddness not just because of his post-Scorpy paranoia but because he is a stranger in a strange land, sensitized. And the thing is, just as with the chip later - knowing something is off is different from being able to put breaks on it. He periodically, alone among the rest of them, realizes something is wrong with his behavior but he is unable to truly stop it - the ugliness and the violence just come pouring out; the only concession to control is that he doesn’t kill anyone. The crew is horrifically ugly to each other in this one, but the ep is also mind-blowingly hilarious. Not like Out of their Minds, which is just plain funny. This one is funny with a hell of a sting. Some pretty bad things are said. I am struck not even as much by the Aeryn-John showdown (they know each other the best, so they really know where to hurt. Though I am still wondering how you can be both frigid and a skank :)) but I think it's because Aeryn and John cause each other such universes of pain, exactly when they are not trying to, but only trying to protect themselves or even do what is best for the other, that this is small fry. What is a little exchange of gunfire and a hit at Aeryn's being a traitor or John not measuring up to his father in comparison with Die Me Dichotomy or the coin toss or so much of late S3 or S4? Still, ouch ouch ouch.

What I am really struck by are other interactions: D'Argo with Rygel, flopping the little guy around like...well, a puppet, force-feeding him crackers. It's ugly. We haven't seen D'Argo attack a helpless being since DNA Mad Scientist, and we've forgotten, and it hurts. Though it does show a difference: here it's Traltixx doing an equivalent of drugging him. The inner savage is much further from the surface. The crew from early S1 would have succumbed to Traltixx in ten minutes flat.

 And keeping with the fact that actions always have consequences, there is no magic forgiveness at the end (though also like Farscape, there is hope of one later.)

And Crichton with Chiana. It's an unnerving scene, horrible to watch, precisely because normally John is so protective of her, because for Chiana, John is in many ways her safe harbor, her surrogate big brother, someone who she would always feel safe in the area of sex with (i.e. he won't, with her). But he turns that protection on its head, something ugly (though luckily, a bunch of the horrible stuff comes from Harvey, not John, so she doesn't hear it). 

 Yikes.

Pretty telling tho that even messed with by Traltixx, any sexual threat is not from John but is suggestion of the chip, which is doing whatever to get Crichton to kill his shipmates so he’d be easier to capture. John himself is horrifyingly cruel but does not see Chiana this way at all.

The idea he ends up liking is tying her up next to the rest of them so he could try to talk without everyone shooting each other, not anything else and thank GOD.

This is such a reversal of his attitude in Taking the Stone so I think it's interesting that the attitudes in here and TtS are juxtaposed (in TtS Crichton is losing it a bit, slowly, but it makes him more protective, not less. That is the natural 'insane' Crichton, not the one where someone took over and brought out the darkest id; when he is himself, however utterly mad and irrational, he is never wantonly cruel to his loved ones.) And then of course, later, when he is back to sanity and tries to apologize, she blows it off, acts impressed. Chiana is queen of repression in some ways, however open she is in others.

 You know, there is another reason why Crichton was the one to pull it together. (And no, I am not just referring to stubborness). He already has that edge of insanity to him and it's growing slowly larger. So has he figured out how to cope under weirdness while maintaining some control? He's had to persevere through some horrid stuff and had his head messed up with, so he can temporarily put aside distractions. But the thing is - this is only the start of Scorpius messing with his head. He can fight it on the margins for now (Harvey the Chip clearly wants him to kill everyone so he can be captured easier) but he can fight it even under the stress but we all know how it ends...

Oh yes!

He tries to tell Aeryn about seeing Scorpius but she’s also affected by the light and pays no attention and even John himself assumes it was some of the stuff Traltixx did (and I believe when they first had Scorpy show it was supposed to be a one off, not a chip) and oh boy, the misery that is going to eventually follow.

(the little correction she makes, heeeee...)

Oh boy, and eventually he will make you do that and this will be one of the worst moments of your life.

The thing is - having your mind hijacked is horrible but long before that happens to any significant degree, the layers of horror of it all are there because it’s not just John thinking he’s losing his mind and having his mind sorted through and controlled; it’s the fact that he now lives with the constant presence of his chief torturer in his head - it’s a somewhat literal metaphor for aftereffects of torture yes but also there is the sheer body horror of it which is incredible.

Yikes...

Side note - the ugliness with John and D’Argo bothers me least because they are evenly matched but also it’s pure physical violence, no emotional cruelty involved. 

Also, cool bit of foreshadowing, Chiana aligning with D'Argo here but also, the way Aeryn and John still want to jump each other in this little scene tho they were shooting at each other and have not too much rationality. Heh.

God, those two must have some truly spectacular sex once they finally get to it.

Oh, and the sheer unhinged anything goes vibe of this is so perfect. I don’t know how they manage.

And of course Zhaan just spending the whole episode orgasming and show making no bones about it - I love how just genuinely out there the show was.

Just wild...

Crichton barreling through insanity to save the day but everyone emerging a little or a lot worse for wear is a lot of the modus operandi of this show and this episode really distills it down so concisely in the most gloriously insane way.

[faerunfaggot]

What happened with stitches? How’d he go from a scarecrow to A Man

Also how did everyone feel about it? (Including stitches) Especially Farimor, how did he feel about it?

ALRIGHT sorry about the delay in answering this. this is the big one. one of my favorite arcs. so i had to take the time to answer it properly LOL. for the sake of brevity i won't be going into CRAZY detail so feel free to ask followup questions on anything if you'd like! (my evil plan)

SO. somewhat of a tldr of the events leading up to this. aylith, the deity inside stitches, starts kind of slowly corrupting/influencing the members of his adventuring party. he has no control over this obviously, and is worried about his friends since her influence seems to be pretty negative.

worried that aylith will hurt his friends further, particularly farimor (though he's concerned about everyone, he's a good noodle) stitches tries to trick her by pretending to cede to her will. he then overloads himself with magic power, and knowingly destroys himself, hoping it will kill her as well. this is in the middle of battle, and in the confusion no one realizes what he's doing fast enough to try to stop him (though it may not have worked anyway). 

obviously, this is very traumatic for farimor. for most of his life he's made a point to keep his distance from others, for fear of getting close with someone and losing them or being betrayed. he finally let his guard down with stitches, perhaps a little unintentionally, but it was going well enough before this, so he's almost blindsided by the exact thing he feared this entire time finally happening the MOMENT it has the opportunity to. i won't get into it too much, but he's severely impacted by this and spirals. doubles down on his (already pretty bad) alcoholism, pushes away any other connections… just completely reclusive and depressed. he still takes work, kind of falling back in his old habit of surviving just for the sake of surviving with no real goals.

MEANWHILE stitches is kind of in a weird limbo death state. he can see what's happening still, and he's somewhat like a ghost, but because of the nature of his soul he can't really go anywhere. he stays like this for a while, unsure of how to solve this issue for himself. sadder still, he CAN see what fari's up to, so unfortunately he has to watch his decline.

after a while, aylith returns in her true form, to try to kill the remaining members of stitches' party. stitches obviously realizes that his sacrifice didn't work, and is reasonably freaking out. despite his distrust for deities, he ends up taking a deal with another different god in order to save his friends, WITH the exception that he owes the god nothing. all that is asked of him is that he kills aylith for good.

he's given a new form when he is returned to life to save his party, since the scarecrow form he took before was destroyed. he's an aasimar thanks to the the intervention of the god he's dealt with. his appearance is made in the image of his "ideal" self– an almost entirely stereotypical "hero" type. a handsome, golden god looking paladin with shining armor, that type of thing. this is how he always visualized himself in his mind LOL

obviously this is a huge change for stitches. he can't remember a lot of his past as a scarecow (though he retains memory in the form of his feelings- just his memory of specific events is hazy). it's scary at first, since he can actually feel pain now, and he's also capable of feeling a full human range of emotions, which is very overwhelming. like if your brain emotionally developed all at once LOL. he DOES get used to it eventually, though he IS still pretty naive and trusting and QUITE socially inept (and maybe kinda pretty dumb. but in his defense he just grew a brain 2 days ago).

farimor is initially just completely overwhelmed by the idea that stitches is back, since he thought he had lost him forever. he's already emotionally stunted as hell to begin with, so it's A LOT for him as you can imagine. his first reaction is to be angry with stitches for everything, but he quickly comes to his senses and realizes that it really wasn't his fault. they make up easily, stitches isn't the type to get angry, especially with farimor, and forgives him a lot faster than fari thinks he deserves. 

their relationship gets back to normal pretty quickly after this. obviously fari is glad to have him back more than anything, and kind of gets a better grasp on identifying and managing his own emotions in the process of trying to help stitches understand HIS newly formed nuanced emotions. they also get back to their usual lifestyle/adventuring work, stitches is eager to get back to hero-ing as you can imagine LOL. they travel a lot to work, but they're based in willowdale when they aren't. an actual house, rather than staying at the inn.

i fear i am yapping for too long about this so i will end off on this. trust it gets gay. LOL

stitches' newly unlocked emotions got him realizing he's in love with fari romantically, and of course fari has been feeling the same and burying/denying it much longer (in typical fashion for him). anyway i could elaborate on much of this but this writeup is already nearly two whole google doc pages long so i have to restrain myself, for this post at least. HOPE U ENJOY !!

[sleepiestslooth]

List of lloyd headcanons i thought of randomly under the cut

will reblog this whenever i think of and add new ones 💚

lloyd is heavier than he looks because of muscle. he looks a bit scrawny in comparison to all the others but he weighs like a sack of bricks if you try lifting him

lloyd taught himself not to cry, even as a child in darkley’s back when he wanted to follow in garms footsteps he thought of crying as a show of weakness. now he’s older and can’t cry properly when he does become emotional, just silent stray tears and shaky sobs

lloyd’s right shoulder/arm is messed up after he was flung across the beach by the overlord during the beginning of the final battle, that’s why he typically has coverings with his uniform that act as a muscle compressor

whenever his powers are very weak/taken away lloyd's natural brown roots begin to grow in as an indicator

lloyd is the only other ninja who is capable of cooking besides zane and they take turns making dinner for the group

adding to the previous hc lloyd began helping zane with dinner prep not long after he was brought into the group in s1 and did so because he was interested in the process of making food (and also he got to cut things with a knife which was really cool in his eyes)

lloyd has genuinely attempted dying his hair to its original natural color and keep it that way but gave up when he realized the blond roots grew back too fast and it just wasn't worth it

he has insomnia

he knows how to play guitar and sometimes copes with tragic/stressing events by secluding and recording himself play songs that he relates to. all of these recordings are hidden away and will never see the light of day

adding on to the last one garmadon was the one to teach lloyd how to play acoustic during the years he was uncorrupted, now playing guitar is one of the few connections lloyd has to his father after his death

the more stressed he is the longer/bigger his horns grow

lloyd is the same height as nya making them the second shortest ninja before jay, he use to be shorter than jay even post tomorrows tea but over time slowly grew a few inches taller than him— it still annoys jay to this day

post s5 lloyd has a lot of dissociative issues due to being possessed by morro for so long. there’s times he doesn’t feel he has control of his body and other times hes straight up gone and the ninja can’t do anything besides wait for him to come to again, which varied in length of time. it’s gotten better over time but he still struggles with it every now and again because of how traumatic it was

though lloyd inherited a lot of garmadon's more obscure genetics like red eyes, horns, and sharp canine teeth, lloyd wholly inherited misako's softer and kinder face which makes his fathers features negate him from looking dangerous/evil

he cut his own hair as a child while staying at darkley’s so it was always messy and uneven

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #4

On time for once!

Let's do this.

Hmm. Not quite sure how I feel about this? Admittedly, Illyana is a character about whom I know relatively little in the grand scheme of things, but given that she's been fighting for control of Limbo for a while, been a protege of Scott Summers, and was a War Captain on Krakoa, I would think her tactical skills would be up to snuff enough that she could be half decent at chess?

That being said, the trope that tactical ability can be measured by chess ability isn't one that I think has to be followed. It's as much a test of logic as it is of tactical planning and forethought, and between Illyana's more chaotic nature and her lack of formal schooling, maybe it's just the case that she would rather show you how good she is in the field than go on about chess ability. And I can think of a good reason why she would choose to play chess with the person she has blocked, rather than any other game.

Anyway!

Trevor Fitzroy isn't allowed his weird little gremlin bro-pal possible love interest guy Bantam anymore, because of woke. (I know fuckin' nothing about Fitzroy, incidentally, this is based off of their weird relationship in that one X-Men: TAS episode I watched.)

And yeah, what WAS Krakoa all about, huh? Where DID all those babies that got abandoned go?

. . . Well, anyway!

Hank, chairs are for sitting on, not perching on . . .

It's interesting that we're doing split team issues - clearly, this run is taking cues from New X-Men not just in terms of some of its plot points, but also some of its structure; there were multiple arcs that focused exclusively on Charles and Jean, or Logan, Scott and Fantomex, with the rest of the team in the ether. It's not a bad way to tackle a team of this size, and given the news that both Magik and Psylocke are getting ongoing solo series, I'm less worried about them getting focus in a team book now.

Where is the Marauder, incidentally? I can't imagine you need that for a psychic rescue? Unless Max is using it, I suppose. Something that'll come up in #5, I imagine.

It's a sign of just how poisoned the discourse about Hank McCoy is that I saw multiple comments on Reddit saying that this scene heralded a return to evil Beast, because he also didn't like to go out on field missions and would regard his work as more important.

That being said, this reaction was weird to me, given that this Hank comes from an era where he was at his most pro-active, heroic, and willing to fight for people he didn't know - until I read the Infinity Comics, which made it all make a good degree more sense.

Hank isn't being cowardly or showing a case of poor priorities; no, instead, he appears not to trust himself, and he'd rather not place what he perceives to be a volatile, potentially morally untrustworthy element (himself) into a live situation. Working on Magneto's illness is a cut and dry net good with no downsides, so it makes sense he'd want to keep working on that, especially if Hank has reason to believe a similar condition could affect any one of them at any time.

Not sure I love Illyana's antagonism towards Rogue here? Feels kinda like it came out of nowhere and is just being done to foreshadow the upcoming 4 part crossover where these two teams come to a head. Scott's frustration with Rogue's attack on Graymalkin in #3 felt a bit more naturalistic than this.

Idie icesliding like that really does make me wonder if MacKay also wanted Iceman for this team but he was earmarked for Eve Ewing's Exceptional book. I doubt it, just because MacKay's done some really good, pointed work with Idie, which continues in this issue, but the visual parallel is just hard to get out of my brain.

I missed this Hank, a lot.

Also, good time to note that we do have a different artist here! Netho Diaz's style isn't a million miles away from Ryan Stegman's, so it's not a very jarring shift, and I do like how Diaz renders a lot of these characters - less heavily stylised, but heavily styilised isn't always to everyone's taste, so I feel like this was a good pick of fill-in artist.

Man. Have I mentioned I missed this Hank, a LOT? That happy little smile on his face in the bottom right panel really does delight me.

Still not quite the bouncing effervescence of Defenders Hank, but this is still very solidly 90s Hank, who I do rather enjoy, especially when he's in the hands of a writer who knows when to really let his loquacious qualities out to play, and when to let brevity be the soul of wit.

Idie's really come a long way since Wolverine & the X-Men, and I'm really, honestly, very happy to see it. She's coming from a place of real experience and wisdom and the struggle of loving yourself in what can feel like a loveless world, and I hope MacKay continues to showcase her maturation and development. Considering how worried I was that she'd be wallpaper in this series, this is encouraging stuff.

If you had asked me which member of this team of X-Men I expected to give what amounts to a really popping Batman speech, I would not have picked Cain Marko, but this feels real and earned in light of his genuine Krakoan redemption. The elevation from avatar of destruction to protector, to bodyguard, to living target, is fucking awesome.

Yeah, work that pole, Hank.

That being said, this dialogue does still sound kinda weird for Hank. This feels a little more like X-Force Beast than anything else, so I'm wondering if this is a seed of something, or if Hank is just kinda frustrated that what feels like a side quest popped up just as he was about to progress the main quest and enter act 2. God knows that if I woke up in the morning and found out I had to tangle with Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts, I would also be a little annoyed - this feels a little bottom of the barrel for the X-Men.

The X-Men fandom at large just heaved a great sigh and said, in unison, "Oh, this fucker."

Not the AoA geneticist I would have wanted to see in this book, but I'll take it, I suppose. Hopefully we get an explanation about where this guy came from, because I was fairly certain he was dead? Not that that's ever stopped anyone before, but just, you know, so we can put it on the Wiki and all.

Laksa! Apparently a spicy noodle dish, usually made with thick rice noodles, with toppings such as chicken, straw, or fish - that being said, given we were told that Glob is a vegetarian and that he therefore only cooks vegetarian, I have to imagine this might be a coconut soup laksa that might include eggs, deep-fried tofu, beansprouts, and herbs, or some variation thereof.

Hank definitely seems to approve. :)

God, please tell me that Colossus is going to join the team, I would absolutely love for Jed MacKay to get to work on our beefy Russian lad, he deserves some TLC after the trauma conga line that was Krakoa and the years before that.

Interesting that he's a blocked number and yet they're still interacting, but then again, I have a browser extension that blocks Reddit on my computer, and I still go on Reddit, so maybe that rings truer than I'd like to admit.

This leads me to my guess as to the reason of why chess - it's playable long distance, and doesn't require any elaboration on moves. You just say the piece and where you're moving them to. Something easy to play with someone who doesn't feel communicative. A way of talking without really talking.

All in all, a decent issue, but it definitely feels more in line with #2 than #1 or #3 - I almost have to wonder if the edict to double ship issues came down, and MacKay felt more able to decompress things and spread them out across multiple issues as a result, especially since I think that, if this were paced more tightly, we'd be progressing through the plot fairly quickly.

If we're taking New X-Men as the blueprint, Morrison would absolutely have squished the last four issues into two - but they weren't double shipping, so.

If we're looking at odd numbers being the plot heavy, characterisation heavy issues, and the evens being action and a bit more 'filler' issues, then I don't think that's an awful structure - I just think that, in a world where single issues cost $3-4 a pop, people might start skipping the even numbered issues in an effort to save money. This might read better in trades, which feels A) bad to say, and also B) increasingly common about modern comics. Not sure how I feel about it.

[lizzyscribbles]

Today’s MHA thought is brought to you as I watch the livestream of the Wisdom Saga from Epic the Musical. Go take a listen, I’m sure it’s gonna be great.

Honestly I have no transition into today’s thought so we’re just gonna move along here we go.

Lizzy’s MHA thought of the night: Yoichi and All for One’s relationship and why I think it’s brilliant.

Let it be said, All for One is a fantastic villain. I think he’s well written in the sense that I absolutely, positively, HATE him. He is an absolute asshole and he has very little reason to be. Does he have a tragic past? Ehhh, kind of? But I would argue that he started screwing people over in the womb, so I have a hard time feeling bad for him when it kinda seems like a lot of his issues were his own doing. But that’s why I like him, because he doesn’t have that super sympathetic backstory and he doesn’t have much of a reason to be an asshole other than “I want to win and see people suffer :D”. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a sympathetic villain (see my posts on Touya and Toga) but I also love to see a villain that is just evil for the sake of being evil.

However, I don’t doubt that he probably has some kind of personality disorder, plus he did have to entirely raise himself, and if we pile the theory that quirks influence personality on top of it, you don’t get a pretty picture. It’s an interesting look at the nature vs. nurture debate in a world like this. It was a perfect storm of genetics and circumstances that made All for One, a terrible turn of events to be sure.

And yet, despite being twins, Yoichi doesn’t turn into a psychopathic maniac. It’s honestly wild, and a kind of psychological circumstance that fascinates me. And, let's be honest, it's not out of the realm of possibility that AFO is partially to thank for that. After all, he took care of Yoichi like, straight out of the womb. However, what gets me more is their relationship.

It’s messy, it’s toxic, and it’s a little weird, but it’s so unique because we rarely see it done like this. It’s codependency at its worst, more so on All for One’s side, though he’d never admit that.

It really begs the question, why? Why was All for One SO obsessed with his brother? By all accounts, his brother only ever stood in his way and screwed with his plans. He was a hindrance, even when they were kids, so why keep him around?

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. I think a part of it is Psychological Reactance (which I talk a bit about in my post on Toga), basically, it’s a common reaction in humans when you tell them they can’t do or have something. It’s often rooted in control, we don’t like to loose control of anything, and so we automatically act out to make sure our control is preserved. It’s emotional and behavioral, and we know All for One LOVES his control just as much as he loves his quirks.

And you know what else he loved? He loved Yoichi, and in a way he could never love anyone else. And maybe Yoichi loved him too, I think he did, but he loved him enough to tell him he was utterly wrong even when his brother wouldn’t listen. So, here’s this one thing he genuinely doesn’t want to loose because it’s the one thing he can never replace and it wants to leave?? Excuse???

Here’s what I think, I think Yoichi was the only thing he ever really lost control of.

Yes, I think his twisted sense of love had a part in him chasing his brother across generations, but I also think All for One could not handle the idea that he lost control of something he actually cared about.

We see in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that our most basic needs above physical are relational. Family, friends, safety, belonging, those aren’t things that are plentiful when you’re a dictator. Yoichi was there with him from the beginning, he fulfilled that need in some capacity.

We’re all afraid of losing things, especially those we love the most, it’s human nature. No matter how powerful you are, you can’t substantiate real human connection.

The day All for One lost Yoichi was the day he lost the only genuine relationship he had, it’s not surprising he spent the next few centuries trying to get it back.

…

I had fun with that one! Imma do one one Yoichi one of these days, because I love him and he deserves it, but for now I’m gonna go enjoy the Wisdom Saga and plan out a little Yoichi one shot I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while.

[tea-with-cinnamontoast]

it's kinda sad really but based on the poll, not a lot of people know about luna snow, white fox, aero, wave, etc! which is a shame because, genuinely, they’re really interesting characters!

sure, some of them has only appeared in one series or doesn’t even have a solo run, but here’s a quick rundown of a couple of asian supes that i think you all should know and love because its aapi and im a proud asian <3

before i start, do read new agents of atlas!! there are a lot of east asian heroes there :)

Let's start...!

Luna Snow

Seol Hee is a K-pop star who gains ice powers after a rather disastrous debut. In 4L1T, the group she’s in, she was dubbed as Luna (aka her idol name) which became her official hero name! Interestingly, she does occasionally save the world while juggling her idol life. Truly an icon. Also, fun fact! She has an official spotify and released songs so go stream!

See her in:

Marvel’s Future Fight - yes, she’s actually an original character for the game. a few of them are!

Future Fight Firsts - a marvel comic about a few future fight original characters! this comic is going to appear a lot lol

New Agents of Atlas

Tiger Division

White Fox

As the last descendant of the Kumiho, an ancient Korean yokai, she was first forced to hide her true nature to the world. After her mother’s death, Ami went to live with her uncle and aunt and enrolled into a human high school. This causes her to find out about the evils that killed her mother and, while saving her friend, she defeated them. Afterwards, Ami was invited by a National Intelligence Service agent to join the agency.

See her in:

Marvel’s Future Fight (game)

Future Fight Firsts

Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox

New Agents of Atlas

Tiger Division

White Fox Infinity Comics

Lei Ling

Lei Ling, aka Aero, was a Shanghai agent who also worked as an architect! She had her powers since childhood and she also founded her own architecture firm.

See her in:

New Agents of Atlas

Aero

Lin Lie

Lin Lie was a young man from Shanghai when his father gave him the sword of Fu Xi. The mystical sword dispels demons and its goal is to stop Chiyou from re-emerging. After several fuck ups in DODS: White Fox, the sword shattered and Lie was tossed into a cliff. We learn after a while that he did not die, in fact he got revived by the chi of Shou-Lao which grants him the Iron Fist.

See him in:

Warriors of Three Sovereigns (or just Sword Master in some sites)

New Agents of Atlas

Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox

Iron Fist (2020)

A.X.E: Iron Fist

Pearl Pangan

Pearl Pangan grew up by the beach on Mactan Island in Cebu, Philippines. She loved the sea and became a really good swimmer, having the potential to win the Olympics. However, obstacles in life turned her aside from that path. She was approached by AlonTech who used Pearl’s swimming abilities to conduct experiments on her. AlonTech was eventually attacked by the Triumph Division and during this attack, Pearl was exposed to several unknown energies which granted her the ability to control water.

See her in:

Aero

New Agents of Atlas

Marvel Voices Infinity Comics issue 50

Dan Bi

(ive reached the photo max whopsie)

Dan Bi is the daughter of an antique shop owner. One day after Tae Kwon Do class, she returned home to see her father's shop in ruins, her father nowhere to be found. Bounty hunters entered the building and hearing them, she hid under a bed, finding the mask that contained Io. On the quest to search for her father, Dan Bi went after the buyer of an artefact, leading her to Jimmy Woo, who recruited her into the New Agents of Atlas. Keep in mind she’s like 11 or something.

See her in:

Future Fight Firsts

New Agents of Atlas

And that’s some of them! Obviously I didn’t add some like Taegukgi, or else this would've gotten too long, but please check them out and give them some love <3

[doctorstrangereview]

0059: Strange Tales #164

Cover Date: January 1968 On-Sale Date: October 3, 1967

We're in the Strange Tales home stretch as Doc enters his final arc before the magazine splits into two titles. There are a couple of firsts. Doc stories expand to 11 pages with this issue. This is also the first time Doc's story appears first, relegating the S.H.I.E.L.D. story to second place. The cast for this arc is small, mostly Doc, Vicky and our villain a la mode, Yandroth. Vicky mainly fills the role of damsel in distress. Well, this is pre-Barbarella.

Doc is on his way to the next hellhole, courtesy of The Living Tribunal, to rescue Victoria Bentley. Doc's reward for rescuing the universe from untold evil is to thrown into more extreme danger. I guess Trib-y was too lazy to send Vicky to Doc; or maybe he realized that he needs to keep Doc in danger to keep the kiddies spending their spare change. It gives Adkins the opportunity to draw an nice collage of images on the splash page where Doc sees Vicky and some technology. The extra page give Adkins more opportunities to draw BIG panels and stretch out that story.

Doc's vision of Vicky and The Machines fades and he lands on the planet. It seems suitably weird to keep Doc busy as he goes about his rescue business. There's no record of who colored this story, but they limited themselves to pastels and earth tones. We've got decent weirdness going on, but it doesn't pop like the Ditko days.

Even the giant slug is pale gray and pink.

This, naturally, is his first challenge and he spends a couple of pages flying out of its range and zapping it unconscious. Considering the superhero propensity to fry anything that isn't human this is a good thing!

Doc spends the next page and a half walking around and feeling sad. Why? He misses Clea. He wanders onto the next beast which Adkins draws as a full page with just enough distortion to be really menacing. Another bonus, it's pink! It's not quite day-glo, but it stands out more than most things in this issue. Doc's reaction isn't 'I'm the awesome sorcerer who just went toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful beings in the know multiverse' but rather 'I'm gonna run away.'

The pink ain't having none o' that! It starts flying after Doc, who dives into a nearby cave. It turns out this is a plot device to get Doc together with his antagonist. Clever Jim Lawrence! In the cave he stumbles across a big gun looking thing with a fractured lens in front. I have a feeling it's not meant to be fractured, but futuristic. But, as someone who occasionally works with big camera lenses, this looks like one that's been hard bumped into a door knob. As soon as he notices it, it starts being all evil.

Doc attempts to resist the machine's mind control efforts and our villain, Yandroth, uses the opportunity to introduce himself.

Yandroth goes on to explain how awesome he is, how useless it is to try to stop him, and how he intends to marry the woman who just appeared on his doorstep moments ago and make her his queen. Next, the rest of the universe will fall before him. How original. Adkins gives us a nice big and impressive image to drive the point home.

Of course, Yandroth now invites Doc to challenge him. Doc ponders what the science vs. sorcery battle will be like.

While we may never know what was going on in the heads of the creative team who conjured these stories, I think Yandroth was meant to be Doc if he stuck with science and got even more selfish. They are both extremely arrogant, although Doc has been tempered from early days. They are both masters of their fields. They are both supremely confident.

Also, we are being led into unique territory. Until now, all his foes have been mystical ones. Now he'll be confronting a scientist. While Doc is an actual (non-practicing) medical doctor, he isn't a physicist. This is unfamiliar territory for him. What happens should be original at least.

These stories still feel padded. The extra page really doesn't help. Is Jim Lawrence deliberately indulging Adkins habit of giant panels and repetitive action as writing shortcuts? We may never know. At least next time we'll get a battle that isn't against zoo creatures.

[astrababyy]

re: mating bond like, the concept could be interesting. but s/jm just uses it as a pseudo soulmates thing, and it's supposed to show "true love" but clearly it doesn't work because she never thought it through. it's just really bad writing and a cop out to show that two characters are "meant to be".

the concept of the mating bond is SO interesting. a love chosen by magic and fate itself could mean the importance romance people together has in this world. it could mean that the union of two people together often influences the world in great ways. it could be a promise that, in the end, there will always be a happy ending for you, a reason to keep going.

and then there’s the people fighting against it, who don’t want this despite everything and choose free will over a promise of comfort and safety and bliss. the soulmates trope always has so much potential, but it was done so dirty in acotar. the biggest crime about it is pretty much the way males react to it in comparison to the females. it is almost always the males who have the stronger reaction to it, and it’s often them whose lives and minds are controlled by this thing.

there’s this contradiction in the worldbuilding of how it works — is it about true love? equals? or is it about who produces the best offspring? is it about fitness (as in who produces the best offspring)? why are some people given the chance of love when others are bonded due to the powerful offspring? is love just a side effect of the two having the best offspring?

on another note, the mating bonds could be interesting in other ways too — like how reliance on them too much can cause toxic relationships. if so, that would make sense because kallias and vivienne built up their relationship before (?) finding out they were mates. meanwhile, feysand, nessian, and rhysand’s parents all got into relationships because they were mates. and that could show the differences between bonds that are toxic and bonds that aren’t. though i do believe this derails the whole fate thing; because if the love of written in the stars then the relationship never should’ve become so forced due to the mating bonds.

you’re very right about how little thought seemed to go into the mating bonds overall. i think for me and a lot of other people in this fandom, the reason they found so much issue with it all stems from rhysand’s comment that essentially means mating bonds can stem down to, at their very core, eugenics.

overall, i think the concept turned out very shallow due to the inherently forced nature of how many of the mated relationships came to be. I also think this is why so many people like elriel as a ship.

were it not for the mating bond, rhysand never would’ve done any of the things he did for feyre. their relationship isn’t natural because his motivations stem from a vital piece of information that completely alters the dynamic we’re seeing. i think if we’d known from the start why rhysand behaved the way he did towards feyre in acomaf, a lot more people would be turned off by him.

it’s a bit like how good characters whose morality is a major part of their personality will be seen in a much more critical light when they do something immoral/bad because the bar is higher for them. in comparison, a morally grey/outright evil that does something good will be hailed for it despite all the bad things they’ve done due to the bar just being that low for them. i think there’s actually a term for this theory (i think it’s psychological or something?), but i haven’t found it since i last read about it lol.

there’s also the example of nessian, which in general is a very icky relationship. cassian seems very predatory and possessive of nesta while also verbally abusing her and playing mind games with her. there’s this way he narrates her that makes it really obvious that cassian would never have been interested in her were it not for the fact that the two of them are mates.

it’s just really bad writing and a cop out to show that two characters are “meant to be”

this is THE most important part of what you said, anon. the mating bonds are used as a cop out, and there’s no chemistry or buildup without it. this is especially true for nessian, because there’s this underlying knowledge from the reader that we all pretty much know that nesta and cassian are mates. there’s this lack of suspense or tension in how the relationships are built up, so a lot of readers look at these relationships through rose-colored glasses because mated relationships are simply “perfect” (ugh).

[carnivoured]

IDK if some canon story or background for the characters mentioned here has ever been released but here’s me talking about the sentients and what happened to the hanged man (sorry if there’s grammar or spelling issues)

the sentients recalling memories of their creators. maybe even their fellow sentients (specifically the main four rather than the random robotic enemies scattered across the map) if they had seen each other before for purposes related to a restriction on ‘friendly fire’.

maybe they do know each other, but they seem a lot more irrational than other fellow sentient machines. theres the automaton in the central town praying (it should be. the response it gives you is the same as when you interact with the hovering drones in the south). either the four boss sentients are underdeveloped or hostility is completely natural and intentional after their development. to be honest I doubt that though… I feel it’s an error and they’re underdeveloped when it comes to how to distinguish enemies from others… they were still in those liquid(?) tanks after all

it might just be for the game but the sentiments attack you immediately after seeing altie/drifter (like every other boss in the game) but I don’t known how it would benefit/would make sense to them like it did the other bosses. to the hierophant, drifter/altie is there to eliminate them because they're murderous frauds… the hermit (or big toad) is crazy. that thing is also controlled by whatever fungus has taken over his body… and then there’s the hanged man or the last general. the drifter is a blu, the people who he has been at war with all those years ago. hanged also has to be going through something… he’s just been through war and looks to have no idea what to do with his life… I mean his people are still encased in crystal and it seems that for whatever reason he’s also able to will the soldiers out of them but he hasn’t for the rest. so of course he’d attack any other non-tanu that enters his arena which is another reason why he’d fight the drifter but likely the primary reason he would attack altie. like the other three, I don’t think hanged is really evil. he’s broken by the tragedy of his land and people

aaaaanyways. now that I think about it, maybe they’re not underdeveloped (well they still could be but) and just haven’t had the right commands given to them before the fall of their creators. but going back to the underdeveloped thing,the sentients are war machines and it’s illogical for them to just destroy the first thing that approaches them right? even if they have enough power to overwhelm the enemy they’re facing the sentients were made to be weapons by their creators (maybe. or maybe they exist to… coexist with them. but I doubt that too)

thinking back to hanged man…. the poor guy,,, i really don’t think he’s evil. there are so many of his people still stuck in crystal but he hasn’t went on to release them. has he just broken out from his own crystal prison?? i think maybe he’s been out for a while, but maybe the time spent in there or just the thought of what happened to his people and him has broken him. or a mix of both. this isn’t the immortality they’ve been searching for. sure, their bodies can be immortalized in crystal for a certain time but of course that’s not the most ideal.

there are so many still trapped. while some soldiers may have the will to break free, so many others can’t or haven’t found out how yet. i don’t think the hanged man would be so selfish and keep his people there, the man has lost himself. that’s probably why he’s so blinded by rage at the sight of the player. he can’t let it happen again. also I feel like it just makes sense. the hermit is controlled, the hierophant is completely aware of what they’re doing, and the hanged man has lost himself.

+little headcanon here… I like to think he had a wife. maybe a child or children idkkk. but i like to think that maybe he lost them either before or after the war with the blu and it plays a huge part alongside the loss of his land and people in how much the guy has suffered

i might rewrite this in the future nd focus on the hanged man but oh well

[mangora]

I feel like my Disventure Camp tier list that I posted recently didn’t properly represent my feelings about the characters so here’s my full list of character opinions:

Gen 1:

Miriam: AUGH I love Miriam so much. Watching her learn to open up and love life again was fantastic, she deserved to win so much. I love how lively and sassy she still is, best written old lady character ever I’m so serious.

Fiore: Evil child, iconic as fuck. Her gimmick is so unique and weirdly genius, like I haven’t really seen a character like her before. I also love how she clearly has a bit of a soft side but doesn’t want to, like the episode where she voted out Alec and so clearly felt regret but just pushed it down? Aughh she cares abt him so much he’s literally her dad. I can’t wait to see the writers explore her more sympathetic character traits.

Ellie: ELLIE!! Hot take I love Ellie, she’s such a realistic antagonist. Great representation of how capitalism causes people to betray their morals. Ik she got mean but honestly I get it, she was under a lot of stress and now feels like she can’t back down again or else things will go back to how they were.

Alec: He’s sooo awesome, great addition from the S1 beta, he’s so funny and I just love smart characters and his relationship with his son & ex-wife makes me so sad. Like he’s a villain but his motive in S1 at least was good-natured even if it shows how much knowledge he lacks when it comes to relationships and how underprepared he was to have a family.

Jake: Ik everyone finds him annoying but Jake is my favorite, no contest. He’s just so tragic to me, he’s clearly trying to control his impulses but it’s so hard, he just loves so deeply and keeps losing because of it. He’s like trapped in a cycle of love and loss it’s awesome. Also pathetic men on top. Can’t wait for him to get worse.

Tom: S1 Tom was so awesome, he was so like sweet. He was just trying his best to come out of his shell and kept losing things because of it. It’s about the ever-present theme of loss pervading Disventure Camp season one. In S3 though he’s kinda…eh so far. Idk I don’t like how avoidant and snippy he’s being with Jake, even though Jake did kind of screw him over. Feel like all he’s done is be annoyed. Also WHY IS HE A COP that was so tragic I can’t believe they did that to him.

Grett: I like Grett in theory but in canon her arc felt weirdly rushed? I wish we’d seen her more human traits earlier in there season and I wish she’d come to terms with her family’s lack of love for her more gradually. She’s not bad I just feel like her arc played out oddly. Can’t wait to see more of her in S3 though.

Gabby: Gabby’s fun but I feel like she’s kind of just there to work into other characters’ stories, like Ellie’s and Tom’s. I hope we get to see her being more independent and that we learn more about her past. Also the portrayal of her mental health issues in S1 was kinda iffy imo? But I’m not psychotic or bipolar so I don’t think my opinion on it is super relevant. I did like her standing up to Grett and her brief friendship with Dan though.

Dan: Dan’s okay, I don’t think he has much going on but he was a good straight-man for the group. I’m still sad about his and Gabby’s falling out. Also asexual realness.

Ashley: Ashley’s a bit goofy but she’s fun and she’s cute and her friendship with Jake is really awesome. I love how much she cares for her friends and family.

Lill: LILL omg she deserved so much better. Idk what it is about her I just love her a lot, she’s so patient and kind and I’m a sucker for characters who care about children. She just wanted to keep the peace but peace was not an option. Wish she’d gone feral.

Nick: I don’t get the appeal of Nick. Annoying rich white boy, I know like 100 of those, you’re not special. He’s such an asshole and not in an endearing way. Idk there’s just nothing I really like about him, boring and rude without a cause, he sucks.

Drew: He’s okay, cute little fella, I felt bad for him when he went home. He’s not that intriguing to me but I like him.

Will: Basically the same as Drew. He was sweet and I felt bad for him but didn’t care much for him. Maybe it would be fun if he came back and we saw him overcome his fears a bit and make friends, I think he had potential but overall wasn’t very important to the story.

Trevor: He’s so silly dude I can’t with him. Poor little meow meow

Derek: Idgaf he’s like kinda funny I guess. Watching him with Trevor makes me feel like I’m hanging out with a friend and their annoying boyfriend came along and I have to tolerate him.

Jensen: Not much of a character tbh. He’s okay. Never really think about him.

Gen 2:

James: JAMES James James James I love James dude he’s so awesome. His arc was so fun to watch, I love characters who start selfish and learn over time to care for others. Perfectly paced, also he’s kinda funny. Perfect morally gray character; he wasn’t malicious like Yul but did what he did to get by. Also his arc paralleled with Riya’s corruption arc? Perfect. Easy one of my faves from Gen 2. Also hot take but I really like his voice it fits him so well.

Riya: Riya is such a good villain, I never expected her to be an antagonist but I loved it. Watching her desperately trying to hold on to friendships but ultimately losing everything in her pursuit of fame and adoration? Augh. Tragedy. And she’s not evil deep down it’s just, yk, girlhood, she needs to feel appreciated and loved after being ignored her whole life. She’s so awesome.

Aiden: Aiden’s okay, he’s nice, but honestly I don’t think he has much of a character by himself. He was kind of just an accessory to James imo and people like him because his design is cool. Is that too mean. Idk but I hope they do more with him in S3, if his arc is becoming more independent then I guess they set up his dependence issues well in S2? I like that he’s trans, that’s neat. I just find him a bit boring.

Hunter: Hunter’s also kind of boring imo, his interactions with Tess in S2 made me mildly uncomfortable and I think he floated a lot and the way he acts in S3 lowkey pisses me off a lot like why are you so mean for no reason. But I think he could be good. His love of games and strategy could’ve been expressed better but it’s a cool concept. He’s honestly a mid character in canon but something about him draws me in and I don’t even know what. Secret version of him in my brain that I can’t even describe.

Rosa María: ROSA she’s so cute and sweet and I love how much she loves her daughter and her friends, she even helps Riya after she got her out. Usually I gravitate towards more flawed or tragic characters but she’s just so awesome, she’s someone who’s overcome a lot of hardship with a good attitude and that’s just so lovely and refreshing. I wish she’d been in All Stars, miss that woman.

Ally: Ally’s another character who’s just kind of okay. She’s like packet ramen to me: has a lot of good elements (sad backstory, anger/jealousy issues, close gal pal, chicken bullion packet) and overall delightful but you’d probably pick something else to eat if you could afford it or if you had the energy/time. I hope they do more with her in later S3 episodes because rn she’d kinda just Hunter’s girlfriend who deserves better. I miss her and Tess’ friendship/relationship.

Karol: I adore Karol she’s so good. Ik she was bitchy but honestly I get her. She trusted someone for once and was betrayed by them and all she wants is to get revenge and hang out with her animals. I wish we got to see more of her and see her actually form a friendship with someone. I think about the potential of Karolill every day guys; Karol gets better and Lill gets worse and they live in somewhat-gray nature-loving 40-year-old lesbian bliss.

Lake: Watching Lake break away from her parents was so comforting and fantastic, seeing her gain confidence and make friends was wonderful. Another great arc, she was wonderful and deserved to make the final three imo.

Tess: Tess started kind of rough but I grew to like her a lot, I’m glad she found happiness and started recovering and pursuing her dreams. She’s just pleasant, her friendship with Ally especially was awesome. Watching her realize that she wasn’t unwanted or a burden was heartwarming as fuck. She just wants friends guys. Buddies even.

Yul: I’m sorry, ik Yul is very popular, but I cannot stand him. The racism is bad first of all, ik it’s meant to show how much of an asshole he is but I just think it was unnecessary and not treated with enough brevity. He has no interesting relationships. His motive being pure selfishness is boring and infuriating. He’s ridiculously cruel and unfunny while doing it, there’s nothing about him that I find interesting or entertaining. I usually love villain characters but he’s just so lacking. Imo the best villain characters don’t need to be redeemable, but they need to either have some understandable human qualities or need to be fun to watch, and Yul’s neither to me. He just doesn’t fit with the rest of the antagonists either, who do bad things but are shades of gray. You can like him and I’m glad he’s at least being portrayed as a villain rather than a redeemed-without-redemption-arc character (ex: Snape from the transphobic wizard books) but I just do not enjoy him whatsoever and if I were to rewrite him to my own tastes I’d be essentially overhauling his entire character. Some villains should be hatable as people but he’s hatable as a character to me.

Maggy: Maggy standing up for herself was awesome and I’m glad she found happiness but I don’t think about her much. She’s okay.

Connor: Connor’s another delightful person, his arc was succinct but well-executed, and I love seeing him be so optimistic with people even when they don’t deserve it. Truly a saint. Lovely man.

Kai: Kaiii I wish they’d done more with him. He’s so chill and funny, and even though him snapping at Yul was goofy and could’ve had better lead-up I think it’s good that it happened eventually. I wish we’d seen him stay slightly longer and become more assertive. Awesome little man.

Oliver: Oliver’s…okay. His “ah, natives!!” comment still pisses me off and idk why the writers did that since he’s not meant to be a shitty person like Yul is? Aside from that though I think it was nice seeing him learn to stand up for himself and sort of befriend Kristal.

Kristal: Kristal’s so interesting to me, she’s really funny too. Seeing her become crueler and crueler and then desperately trying to change herself to not be like her father was pretty fun. I think it’s pretty realistic, you don’t see many redemption(?) arcs where the character struggles this hard to combat their negative qualities and I like that about her.

Marcus: He’s…fine. Not much to him. I like his design.

Nina: She’s kinda annoying ngl but she’s a little funny, her playing Jigsaw in that one episode was great. She and Fiore should start a podcast.

Other:

Emily: Not many thoughts about her yet. She’s slaying. Kinda Blaineley adjacent.

Jared (S1 Beta): Fuck ass haircut.

[binxdoesgaming]

Man oh man do I have a Fortnitemares concept idea well into fucking February. :') Also heads up, some spoilers for STW's main story and seasonal questlines down below

Y'all remember Dark Ray? From the Long Way Home Questline? And how she was from an alternate reality where she became """evil""" because she failed to save Homebase? What if there were also bad timeline versions of the other 3 Homebots (Kevin, Pop, and Lok) and ended up reforming into a bad end version of the group.

Pop I'd feel would be based off his little evil arc from early-mid Plankerton. Never quite got off it and maybe went off the deep end and eventually somehow got the commander killed through his "pranks" and just kinda throw Homebase off kilter. After all is said and done, he'd probably have the realization that "shit, I really don't have anyone from home left". Not quite to the extent of Dark Ray's, but he'd have the Epiphany. Whilst he wouldn't exactly be helpful, he'd also maybe not try to get anyone killed— instead just taking it out on wild husks and in turn become a well versed fighter.

Lok would most definitely be based off the Tales of Beyond Questline where he encounters the cube. Instead of the cube just up and leaving after it ends, he'd probably have some form of cube corruption seen in characters from BR (Dark Bomber, Dark Red Knight, etc.)— but would have gained some powers in return. Mostly 1. Being able to see into the future like Dark Jonesy in Ch2S8; 2. The ability to control a little cube magic (think Glyph Master Raz boss from ch2s6); and 3. Lightning. Little man is a toaster and a robot so that would probably just come natural to him.

Kevin... Kevin is a weird case because he barely shows up in the game at all. Only things we know about him is that he's the local technologist/engineer, a bit of a neat freak, may or may not have anger issues, almost nobody at homebase likes him aside from Kyle, Ned, and most likely Lok because he doesn't have a single hateful bone in his body, and can possibly even run Homebase in the case Ray isn't there. Legitimately the most this gay lil robot has spoken was in the Clip's Nightmare Questline which hasn't returned, in which it seems he actually has a little friendship going on with Carter since she doesn't instantly hate him. So yeah, not much to work with on him. I was thinking maybe a version of him where he somehow gets involved with ghosts and the Door to Darkness? Another where he gets involved with the cube (because know, Kevin and Kevin). It was hard, but recent events just gave me an idea for him. In the recent update, we got a leak of ch4s2's STW pack which contains Ned. More specifically the time traveling one from The Long Road Home. And with him he has Kevin. Like actual Kevin. Not only is he cute as fuck, but it gave me an idea. Maybe sometime after the events of Canny, this version of Kevin wanted to continue Desiree's work on rifts to see how it would help stop the storm. And whist doing this research ends up getting stuck in a rift that went through multiple realities, some of them from the same world he was from— but something was different. He couldn't find the one that was his own and kept traveling from rift to rift. In turn, it would affect him by having different parts of him from different realities merge and himself constan stabilizing and destabilizing. It would be like he simultaneously would exist in multiple realities and none. Think of what happened with Eternal Voyager in Batman: Zero Point— but he was able to keep himself together somehow.

As for how'd they'd find each other, I would say it would be in part thanks to Rift Kevin and he'd find the different versions of his siblings and take them along with him so they wouldn't have to be in these realities that had ended this way.