#magic of the heart spoilers

[imagonista]

My entry for the MOTH contest; a comic based on what happened at the end of the latest episode. Don't know if a comic is allowed, but whether it qualifies or not, it is still something I wanted to post!

[wizard-loving-wizard]

i'm so obsessed with brennan's interpretation of charisma for an extremely autistic-coded character being that evan gives up the anxiety about fitting in, he stops masking, and instead he leans into his blunt, matter-of-fact nature, and that serves him SO MUCH BETTER in social situations than constantly apologizing for being different

edit: going back to the previous AP, aabria pitched basically this exact idea to brennan so she should get credit too

[jq37]

Love Erika carrying on the proud D20 tradition of impromptu major surgery with no training or prep whatsoever. Unfortunately, results are bound to vary when you're playing with notorious Your Actions Have Consequences Even When They're Bits or Flavor GM Aabria Iyengar.

[jadeinretrogrde]

[ghostlyeris]

hey do you think part of the reason evan respects that about jammer is because he trusts jammer to know who's safe to be around and bring into the fold

[voidpacifist]

we got the family reunion but at what cost

we got caitvi collaboration but at what cost

we got the briefest jinx and viktor interaction but at what cost

we even got cait and jinx on the same side BUT AT. WHAT COST.

someone tell me what the fresh FUCK i just watched

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

D'Arce S Ending: "As soon as I can revive him from the dead, the wedding is BACK ON!"

[goblin-king-jay]

"I missed you so much. Everyone did the right thing. If I had your family, I'd be there too. And I think that going back to Chicago and playing basketball can see you serving everybody, and I get that, and I'm just trying to find somebody to serve. And it's really hard because sometimes I feel really stupid because... I think about 'family on six' a lot. And I wish that I had known to take that as it was meant, which was as a profound kindness, and not something that was literally gonna be true... (sighs) It doesn't make sense to have a treehouse with a sports room and a demon room. That's not part of the same... there's no category that has those, that has 'demons' and 'sports' as the two instances in the category. So maybe we were never going to have a life -- or maybe I just missed my shot. Maybe, you know -- I thought for a second, I was like, maybe Jammer's family's going to adopt me... for three months until I'm 18. Maybe you can squeeze a whole childhood into three months, and this family that has no idea who I am... (sighs) I--I just had a lot of dreams that didn't make sense. And I--I was talking to Sam about it, but it's just that life, and the shape of life is so fucking strong, and if there's not a space for you -- if there's not a little taped off place for you to go, then it doesn't matter how anyone feels 'cause you need a place, not just... kindness."

[possamble]

Do you have any headcanons or thoughts about Falin having a crush on Marcille pre-canon? Especially during her later years at the school/the years she was with Laios.

Just full on "awkward and slightly gnc teenage lesbian has a massive crush on the touchy-feely girly girl straight best friend" tropes everywhere. Even better bc it's the "best friend is also the popular girl while lesbian is the slightly ostracized quiet one" dynamic in school. Falin gets so so so good at not having a heart attack every time Marcille gets in her personal space. But she's so resigned to never saying anything bc why would a girl as blinding as Marcille ever like her back. She also doesn't make an effort to get over it either, she's just content to be trapped in that stable dynamic of silently being in love with Marcille while getting to enjoy CLEARLY being Marcille's favourite person. She gets so used to it that it's almost just background noise most of the time-- it would have to be, unless she wanted to be freaking out 24/7 bc Marcille is so goddamn affectionate.

Her feelings also definitely change throughout the time that they're in school together-- at first it was this "whooaaah pretty older girl" puppy crush that you can clearly see developing in the flashbacks we get (I think she doesn't even like... realize her fixation on Marcille is romantic at all until years after it starts, when she's 12-14 ish and all the other girls around her are talking about crushes). But then they get closer, over the years Marcille starts getting really attached and letting down her guard, and Falin gets to see the ridiculous side of her. She gets to calm her down from her tantrums when experiments don't work out, or help her clean up when something explodes in her face. I feel like the progression of her feelings from "schoolgirl infatuation" to "unrequited love" probably almost exactly corresponds to how slowly Marcille goes from trying to keep Falin at a polite but friendly distance (like she does with everyone else) to her facade completely eroding as she becomes her cheerful and ridiculous self again for the first time since her father died.

That's probably the saddest part: Falin knows that she's clearly Marcille's favourite person on the surface level, but she doesn't quite fully grasp the enormity of what that means to Marcille. She doesn't get that she's the person who made the world colorful again for Marcille, that she is the first person outside of Marcille's family to really and truly make her laugh. She just thinks she's the beloved but dinky little short-lived sidekick, one of many that Marcille has had and will have.

Part of it is that, despite Marcille becoming such a clingy and affectionate best friend, I think her initial demeanour already did its damage. You see Falin being super adventurous and weird at first, bringing Marcille berries and other stuff, only to be rebuffed by Marcille exasperatedly saying she's working or looking kind of put off by it. And by the time you see her a little older, shes already quieter and better at masking -- and I'm not saying that that's entirely Marcille's fault (being the weird girl at an all girls academy for almost the entirety of her teenhood must have been brutal, my god) but she definitely learned that she's a potential nuisance to Marcille if she doesn't tone herself down. She learned that Marcille most likely sees her as a weird little kid following her around bc she has no other friends. And for the most part, she was never given any reason to unlearn any of that.

And that all very very smoothly transitions into Marcille being her "first love that was never meant to be anyway" when she leaves the academy. Chapter closed in her mind: she loved and pined from a distance and that was that. Every now and then she'll see another woman with Marcille's build or her shade of hair and be like ":( I miss her..." But then just kinda move on with her day. Same with when she's going through her own spellbook and finds a note that Marcille left her/correction that she made-- she'll smile fondly and reminisce about how much Marcille doted on her, and then move on.

Sometimes she thinks about contacting Marcille but convinces herself that it's too late (she spent too many months focusing on getting Laios healthy again and didn't mean to go no contact, but ah well). It's only when she has a practical reason to be reaching out that would also benefit Marcille ("Marcille is studying dungeons and we need a trustworthy mage to go with us to the dungeons") that she feels like she's allowed/that it wouldn't just be 100% a nuisance.

I almost think she didn't expect Marcille to reply at all, only to get a telegraph (or some in-universe equivalent of express mail, maybe magical pigeon carrier) that's like. EN ROUTE TO ISLAND. LETTER TO FOLLOW. and she freaks out like AAAA LAIOS SHE SAID YES WE HAVE TO CLEAN UP NOW.

I do think getting a response accidentally sparks a little hope in her, judging by the way she acts in the chp 57 flashback-- she's pouty that Marcille sees her as a kid, gets really worked up about being presentable, and then tries to play it cool when she actually meets Marcille (as if she didn't freak out and force Laios to shave while rambling a mile a minute about Marcille). She's an adult now, really and truly, and she's seen and survived things that her 18 yr old self would have never even imagined-- then all of a sudden, the person she was in love with since she was ten years old appears, and she's so desperate to be seen as mature and competent. She's trying soooo hard to impress Marcille with her newfound combat and dungeoneering experience...

Only to fall right back into their old dynamic. RIP. At least she gets the girl eventually, even if it takes dying twice and being the core catalyst behind an almost-apocalypse.

[flickering-nightfall]

[imagonista]

MOTH finale rambling: warning, this is long, and basically a brain dump. Proceed with caution

Oh gosh. I'm may not be physically crying, but mentally, I'm kind of numb. Not in a bad way, I want to be clear, this is just how I process certain types of emotional stories, and it may take some time for me to recover from the finale. Also the fact this is probably the first time my emotions have made me feel like I'm going to throw up, which is good in the sense that it means the storytelling was effective, but bad in the sense that I have emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, sooooo XP

If there was a word to describe the ending, it would be catharsis. Every character, both the speakers and the listeners, experience some form of catharsis, and get closure after all their trauma. Amazing storytelling.

I have so many thoughts, so many emotions, but I don't have the words to describe them (and I don't think *unholy bird screeches* count). There's so much to talk about...

The realization, adding from the previous episode, that Makkaro and Zed aren't that different. Both of their arcs revolve around them putting their respective listener on a pedestal, and all the harm that caused.

That the Guardian is GONE gone, and the effects that will have on the world. On one hand, the Guardian didn't do their job in the first place, mostly just staying alone in their arch angel until Zed showed up. But in the AU where the Guardian dies, it was stated how while magic doesn't go away, things start to feel less...magical, if the Guardian were to die. Does the Guardian leaving from the world in general mean the same thing? I'll guess we'll find out with Nosferatu (which took until actually spelling out the name to realize the importance of that name and its association with the original Dracula book. And since he was turned into a vampire... very clever!)

As much as I was hoping for Zed and the Guardian to end up together, it wasn't much of a shock when they didn't. Neither of them were ready for a relationship, and the Guardian just has too much emotional baggage to ever love again. And I'm glad it was Zed who did it; it really shows his character growth, his realization that it wouldn't be a fair or healthy relationship.

But my emotional juxtaposition:

*Darlings POV switching to Guardians POV*

Me: YES!!!!!

*Section titled "Shy Wizard let's you go")

Me: NO!!!!!!!

The title of the series being the title of (probably) Y'narri's favorite romance novel?!?! Genius! I'm also honestly glad that the meaning of Magic of the Heart wasn't the whole "you had the power inside yourself all along" type of story. Basically, that Zed would find the magic inside himself and then not be weak anymore, yada yada. I think it was only recently (probably within the last few years) I discovered how ableist that narrative can be. So having "Magic of the Heart" be about love, not "magic" magic, works a lot better.

Makkaro and Darlings ending was just beautiful! On one hand, it does kind of feel like Makkaro is getting off a bit too easily for murdering thousands (or had it gotten to millions?) of innocents. On the other hand, he did lose his necromancy, and had severe emotional trauma from the entire experience. But either way, I love how he and Darling are just gonna live happily together, and while they may be secluded/hidden from society, they finally get the peace they deserve.

Mini musical theater thoughts because of course my brain thinks about musicals; "That Would Be Enough" from Hamilton, Eliza's lines are so Darling coded

"I don't pretend to know, the challenges your facing,

The world's you keep erasing and creating in your mind.

But I'm not afraid,

I know who I married,

So long as you come home at the end of the day,

That would be enough."

And

"If I could grant you peace of mind,

If you could let me inside your heart.

...

Let this be the first chapter,

Where you decide to stay,

And I could be enough,

And we could be enough,

That would be enough."

I could probably write an essay about how Makkaro is both Hamilton and Burr, but nobody needs that.

The animation walk cycle at the end with the fanart?! It's basically an anime ending credits sequence, and I loved it! Magic of the Heart anime when?

On a lighter note, Zed calming himself down after going off about how the heck he was still alive, I couldn't relate more to him. That shock, the surprise, then mini celebration (and then realizing he was celebrating a bit too much); so relatable.

Now thoughts on the future: I am both nervous and excited to see what happens to Zed. I know if that he's gonna be more grown up in the future, he may lose being "shy," and "smol," which I selfishly don't want him to lose. To sum things up, my favorite male archetype is the nervous, shy, bumbling type; ever since my brain was able to accept that even as a female, I was allowed to have male favorite characters, that's always what I drifted to. Why? I don't know; probably something about vulnerability and having men not being jerks. It seems silly, but I struggle with characters changing (which is probably why my two favorite shows, The 7D and The Cuphead Show are my favorites; since they aren't crazy plot heavy and focus more on comedy, the characters are consistent). That's not to say I'm against character growth; I love character growth! And I want Zed to realize his own personal strengths and worth (which as we can see, the process has at the very least started). I don't know. While I hope Zed grows, I hope he's still, himself, for lack of a better term.

All in all, congrats GBA for an amazing series finale!!!!! And Im very excited for Gen 3!!!Apologies for this long ramble, for those who lasted this long

[slymanner]

this was smart <'3

[wanderingsoftly]

The pilot program discussing what color island Sam would be and maybe transmutation being it immediately reminded me of what her first bit of magic was: the lint to ice cream.

I'm torn between her not being an island avatar because she doesn't want to be a powerful wizard, just Sam, which I think is absolutely beautiful. Versus her being the transmutation avatar given her constant attempts to make the extraordinary out of the ordinary in a non-flashy way. Lint to ice cream. Gas station phone to a phone with a screen. Person or monster to potential friend. Sam improves everything around her without amplification or creation. It isn't even like Jammer's "see a need, fill a need" mentality. She takes what is and improves. She sees potential in everything. So I agree she doesn't need to become a major magic wizard, she is one already whether she steps into that or not. (But if she did I vote purple island lol)

[tattooedlane]

This is the second time Dimension 20 has made me tear up.

Something about this end to their very heartfelt and heart-opening conversation hit something in me.

[magicisrealandsoismyally]

I know I'm an aromantic Adaine defender and also have been rebloging every adaine x kipperlily post i see

but i am a arospec wlw, this should be expected, i believe in both, don't ask me how or why

[raayllum]

Solving mysteries