#meta-morph

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I've always wondered if anything would come of morphers being able to acquire a morph FROM a morphed person. So if one animorph had a morph, they could hand it out to the rest of the team, instead of trying to get the team to that original animal. I am just imagining the team trying to get close to Visser 3's alien morphs and get in on that. It's just a comical image to me.

That would be amazing. Tobias and Ax would probably do most of the acquiring since they can touch Visser Three out of morph, but even just those two stealing his look could be a huge game changer. And you're right that it'd induce some hilarious games of keep-away with them repeatedly trying to grab him as he repeatedly dodges.

It'd also probably result in a lot more morph sharing. The tiger is a super useful morph (Rachel mentions being jealous in #48) but the biggest reason no one else acquires one is that it wouldn't be safe - Jake only touches one by accident, and he and Marco only don't get killed doing so by sheer dumb luck. Same goes for grizzly bear, howler, and a bunch of others. If the kids can just have one person (probably Tobias) land on any given animal while everyone else holds it still, then that's an easy route to all kinds of morph sharing.

[alethianightsong]

Rogue: "Morph was barely on the team 30 minutes before we tossed them to the wolves!"

Me who watched the original '92 series: "That's funny cuz they're a non-canon character literally invented to die in the pilot."

[lavenderfieldsforvr]

more evo morph for the road

[miquellah]

[gripping miquella] this is my fucking blorbo and has been for a long while and EYE choose how much i get to blab

anyway i think its a super neat direction they went where he really, truly, does not believe he’s wrong, and that his intentions ARE good and for the betterment of everyone. im honestly not sure if he’s even spiteful to people— it feels as if he sees everyone as lost, and he wants to BE the savior everyone sees him as. it’s others’ naivety, truly, that gets in the way of him achieving this

and even then he generally doesn’t want to kill people first. he will bewitch if he can. idk its less like hes a tortured meow meow (he is tortured, he is aggrieved, he just refuses to feel or realize it), and more his innocence IS so pure that it circles around to cruelty. it is… kind of really incredible character work

i genuinely don’t think he falls within the expectations of people who thought he was evil, or thought he was purely good, because he’s both. he’s neither. he cancels it all out, it doesn’t matter. but he is your enemy

[kingsandbastardz]

here u go, ask for trying times: give me your pitch for shipping wudi, i've got maybe one foot on that ship but i'm curious on your thoughts (gl on the all-nighter!!)

I survived it, sorta. The deadlines keep trucking om 😭 So here's my thoughts:

It's really unfortunate that we don't see enough of Wuyan but I do think we have enough of a framework to draw some interesting conclusions about them both relationship-wise. So here's to me heavily analyzing the 5 minutes Wuyan is on screen! LMAO:

Service as show of devotion - Chooses to act like and appear as a lower rank personal servant to dfs even though he clearly has a lot of power to draw from to get things done and dfs tells him he sees his rank as being much higher

Of everyone that focuses their attention on dfs, he's the only one that doesn't want to own or control him (master di - slave, jlq - wife, llh - 主人, fdb - wants to be in charge)

Despite knowing he was massively outclassed, still put himself in lxy's path at donghai

Shared experience: both survived the Donghai battle together and both have matching chest scars courtesy of lxy. They also worked side by side for years to accomplish the same goals

Llh is presented as knowing dfs the best - but imo, that means wuyan knows even more. Wuyan knows all the why's that llh doesn't know

We don't see much general conversation but considering how relaxed dfs is around him and willing to winge about personal things - he seems like he's actually capable of communicating well with dfs lmao

Pure headcanon here, but I want to say he and dfs learned or figured out how to hide their chi at a high level together. DFS uses it all the time and seems to be undetectable even to llh - wuyan seems to be undetectable to the world - I mean i think his name means something like "without presence"? He comes pre-labelled. So I think it's something martial-skill related that would give additional meat to dfs' respect for him

Guards dfs' secrets - how dfs truly feels about all the mengzhu stuff and rankings etc. Don't know if he knows anything about Di Fortress, but anything he does know about dfs' background it's not going to be a topic of conversation

He pays attention to dfs' preferences and knows how to deliver them in the form he prefers (see jlq who doesn't know his preferences and hates that dfs doesn't like what she prepared for him)

As a personal guard, in the early days when dfs was weaker, he likely went with dfs to any secret meetings with llh, hid his chi to keep guard, and was privy to what went on between them. Likely is the only one that would know this information - which is also why he fully understands why dfs is obsessed with llh and supports him. And listened to him mourn him for however many years (I assume he's the one providing clean clothes and food during seclusion so that's 10 years of crying he's been privy to)

Is willing to extend his top level standard of service to the ppl dfs cares about

He acts like he's a nobody, and he's not a pretty face, but everything points to him actually being a very, very competent and high-level guy in his area of expertise? So a good match to dfs. His martial skill isn't comparable, so he can't fight him like lxy, but he can do all the things dfs doesn't like to do - like the organizational stuff, dealing with and managing ppl, etc.

Headcanon again: i can really see them having an experimental phase in their youth together. Like something where dfs and him kinda decide to test things out and then maybe deciding the timing was bad or they weren't into each other like that at that time or whatever. But deciding to remain friends instead. And continuing to build jinyuan alliance together and everything else. It's like best bro + work spouse rolled into one -- with the wild result that they come out even stronger at the end of it. Think lxy + zhan yunfei but they see each other and work together every day. Successfully. With some extra headcanon and a small stretch you can probably position him and dfs as foils to lxy and shan gudao? (Sadly not enough info about the formation of daily workings of JA back then)

headcanon continued: They have to have good communication because they negotiated or figured out how to navigate their Situation and have clearly been at it for awhile - with one being a 'servant' and with the other one having ptsd issues with servitude/slavery. In the waterfall scene we get to see dfs mildly checking in and essentially being all, "Uh, you still good there? Remember you can change things up any time you want. My opinion of you is still A++ fyi" and Wuyan essentially signalling he's fine by continuing on as always.

Wuyan is the last person alive that remembers who dfs was before Jinyuan Alliance and the development of the Di Mengzhu persona. He helped craft that persona.

Basically if you are into themes like fealty and devotion and the sort of comfort you can get from a long time friendship where they've seen each other at their worst. Where they've figured out how to communicate and operate/exist together seamlessly while making allowances for each others' needs and interests. This is it!

They could be queer platonic, they could be sexual, they can be any permutations of anything and it still doesn't change the basis of their relationship which is years of trust, communication, hard work and shared experiences.

Like imagine teenagers - one holding the other guy's hair up while he vomits blood and bile into an alley. Where they patch each others' wounds in the shadow of someone's doorway after getting their asses kicked but somehow also saving each other from getting killed that day. They're the ones that figure out how to kill together. How to hide together. They figure out how to teach others to kill and hide together. They build power with their joined hands and with it they gain the money and prestige that allows them a comfortable place to sleep and full bellies. They give this same thing to others. They build it up so well people can afford to do normal ppl shit like fall in love and get married.

These are things they likely wouldn't have thought of when they were engaged in a battle royale in the street. It's them, their circle of friends, against everyone else in the world. And even when all their friends are now dead - they're still alive. They're still together. They'll see it through.

Maybe one day they'll find their way into each other's beds - the future is ever changing. But whether they do or not doesn't matter - they already have each other. They've survived this much together. Anything else is just icing.

[hollow-keys]

One of the things I'm- well, not disappointed by it's to be expected- annoyed by is X-Men '97's portrayal of Morph as a queer character. Morph is an AMAB nonbinary person who likes men (AMAB being important here because liking men will be interpreted as gay regardless of how Morph sees their gender). We were explicitly told before the show aired that they're nonbinary, but the only proof we get of that in series is two blink and you'll miss it, easily ignored and brushed off scenes where Cyclops and Rogue respectively refer to Morph with they/them in two episodes.

And to be honest, it feels like baiting when we get nothing else. It's Loki all over again where the creators say "you're gonna get representation!!!" in interviews that only more dedicated fans will see but resign actual canonical confirmation to something easily missed.

The justification for this is, of course, that the show is set in 1997, of course they aren't more explicit because of the social circumstances! But nonbinary people existed back then and there were people who were aware they were nonbinary and made communities to talk with each other. There were activists who were openly genderqueer. There's even at least one case I know of of a nonbinary character being in 90's comics. Though not positive representation, in Ghost Rider 2099 #10 [pub. 1994], Ghost Rider refers to a side character with ze/hir pronouns.

And it's not like Morph doesn't know they're queer. They're out! Why else would Rogue and Cyclops refer to them as they openly and in public? And how? If they're not more explicitly queer because "It's the 90's" then what's with the period atypical acceptance from their teammates?

Even if they went with the "Morph doesn't know" route, people who don't know they're nonbinary or have the words to describe themselves still have trans experiences like dysphoria and a feeling of wrongness about their gender which can be explored even if your character is an egg (not a literal egg ☠️, a trans person who hasn't realised they're trans).

For example: Morph primarily goes by their codename to the point where their civilian name isn't even mentioned. There could have been a scene where someone called them their male civvie name and they get uncomfortable and say they prefer Morph, their gender neutral hero name. And when asked why, they could just be confused and defensive because they wouldn't have the words to describe dysphoria.

They could even set up a realisation arc with Morph experiencing dysphoria, but not knowing what it is or why they feel that way, and then meeting nonbinary people next season when the X-Men are time travelling and going "Oh. That's me."

But we get none of that! We don't get out and proud, no/low transphobia representation or subtle, historically accurate representation of a closeted trans person in an even less accepting time. We get the historical inaccuracy of option A and the understatedness of option B for the most minimal attempt at rep possible, which boils down to just two headscratchingly anachronistic uses of they/them pronouns. Truly the worst of both worlds.

And on their feelings for Logan, that wasn't said before the show aired afaik and was just part of the narrative, so it wasn't baiting, but it was relegated to subtext that could also be interpreted as non-queer. So much so that it had to be confirmed by the writer on twitter when it should have been clear cut in the show.

Why didn't we get more content about that? If they can fit an entire love triangle around Rogue, Remy and Magneto, why couldn't we get more about Morph's feelings for Logan? Why didn't we get them pining for a friend who'll probably never return their affection, them worrying over how he'd react if he found out? That kinda thing. There was an entire plot point where characters were faced with their fears, would that not have been a good opportunity for Morph to be faced with theirs over being realised as queer?

Honestly there were shows and comics actually made in the 90's that were bolder with queer rep. I don't know the behind the scenes situation or how much the showrunners had to fight for this, but regardless of who made the decisions, it's still cowardly and frankly not enough in 2024.

[racefortheironthrone]

So what's the deal with Morph in the comics? They seem like such a random edition in the OG animated series (even if they do wind up presumed dead almost immediately before coming back eventually and now part of the 97 cast) compared to almost anyone else on the teams in the 90s, like Iceman or Psylocke or Colossus. Like, when did Morph show up in the comics originally?

This is a little bit complicated.

Morph was created for the '92 show because the showrunners had decided that having the first X-Men character to die be John Proudstar (aka Thunderbird, the Apache mutant who was canonically the first of the "All-New X-Men" to die under the pen of Chris Claremont) would be seen as racially problematic.

However, Morph is quite similar in power set to the Changeling, a minor Silver Age ex-villain (originally named Kevin Sidney) who is probably best known for having undergone a face turn (and then promptly heroically died) in order to impersonate Professor X on one of the number of occassions when Silver Age Xavier needed to fake his death for the sake of a dramatic cover to goose declining sales. (Silver Age X-Men was not one of the commercial successes of the House of Ideas, and it's one of the few Lee/Kirby ongoings from that era to get cancelled.)

While Morph's on-screen tenure on the original '92 cartoon was quite brief, evidentally they made enough of an impression that by 1994, their character design and personality was imported back into the comics as part of the "Age of Apocalypse" event, albeit with the same human name and some of the backstory of the original comics character. Morph was a natural fit for the cartoony, anime-inspired artstyle of Joe Madureira, and they became such a fan favorite that after the end of that AU timeline, Sidney was brought back as one of the leading characters of the multiversal team the Exiles in 2001.

As a sign of how popular X-comics were back in the day, Exiles ran for *100* issues despite being an exceedingly tertiary book.

[peppertaemint]

Taemin's concert was a rollercoaster of jaw-dropping, horny and emotional moments. I love the whiplash of "omg wtf is he doing" to "okee baby get yours work it" to just prolonged sobbing.

Link

Link

Link

Clip of Black Rose

[cloud-ya]

How about role swap, dog griseo protecting small kosma.

oh I had similar idea recently

[yarmiko-art]

"I must admit, Miss Haltmann, you have pretty strong punch. That poor fool didn't see it coming" "Why thank you. I'm full of surprises. But I prefer my Business Suit more.... You did a decent job piloting it, just saying" "I'm full of surprises"

I'm late but HAPPY VALENTINES DAY They had to join forces to fight some bad ppl. It turned out to rather fun!

[cookinguptales]

I'm dying, I had another fandom breakup several years ago where I also poured my frustration into a deeply pornographic fic.

The main differences are:

different fandom, obviously

this was actually one of the last fics I ever wrote for that fandom, it really was a kiss off. the only fics I posted after it were just me finishing up some prior obligations.

I actually wrote it and posted it, as opposed to the pornographic vent fic I was writing for wwdits that I set aside for now.

I APPARENTLY POSTED IT TO TUMBLR FIRST?

I know this because someone just reblogged it (and said some really kind things, thank you ;;) and I had completely forgotten that I'd been so deep in my fit of pique that I was like "well this is vent fic that I wrote to cope with my frustration towards canon, not REAL fic, so I should post it to tumblr, not AO3."

At first I was just laughing over the sheer timing of it all, someone digging up this ancient post with like 25 notes from many years ago the exact same week that I'm having angst over the fandom I replaced the old one with, but then I actually clicked on the post in my notifications and was like.

wait.

did I.... post a sixteen-thousand-word fic to tumblr?

I DID. AND PEOPLE READ IT??? like that's the fucking wild part, that people were willing to sit down and read a fucking sixteen-thousand-word fic under a read more on tumblr. people were so strong back then.

(thankfully, I was convinced to crosspost it to AO3 a few days later, which actually made the fucker readable.)

the sheer ridiculousness of my tantrum (and my weird internal classification for what fic "deserved" to be on AO3 vs. what should just quietly be forgotten on tumblr) has me laughing. which I think was actually kind of needed, haha. we all need to laugh at our own fandom angst sometimes.

if I do end up finishing and posting the wwdits ventfic, I promise I'll actually post it on AO3. lmao

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What if the Animorphs got duck morphs earlier (Or to expand on it, you could do what if they'd gotten their more useful morphs earlier).

Oh man, I think the answer to this one depends really strongly on:

How far away Joe Bob Finestre lives from their hometown (#16)

How far Grandpa G lived from civilization (#31)

How far from civilization Cassie ends up when she and Aftran are stuck in the woods together (#19), and most especially:

How far away Dan moves when he leaves the state (#7)

All of those are instances where the ability to travel fairly fast for a long time could make a difference. However, "long time" and "fairly fast" are relative — I think it's safe to assume that duck morph would speed the kids' return from the Arctic (#25) but it wouldn't get them home instantly either.

But duck morph would've made a huge difference in MM2. Rachel and Tobias are close enough to Marco et al. that they see the smoke from their campfire, but also far enough away that Rachel would have to leave Tobias alone (and injured) for several hours to go investigate the smoke. If either one of them had duck morph, then it'd be a quick 50+ MPH flight there and back — the others are at most ~30 miles away — and they'd soon be reunited.

Otherwise... it depends. #16 would be very different if the kids were able to fly out to WAA HQ anytime they felt like it; they wouldn't rush in and Jake wouldn't be fucked up by nearly dying to the point where he screws the whole mission. But we don't know if WAA is in, say, Nevada (an easy duck flight from So Cal) or in Virginia (a weeks-long one). Grandpa G is within driving and Bug Fighter flying distance of Jake's home, but not within 2-hour raptor-flight distance — again, duck could make a huge difference or no difference at all. Cassie has other reasons for not morphing wolf and leaving Karen to die, but if she could make a quick trip home and then back to the cave while Aftran is asleep then that book would have gone very differently.

And the big one for me would be whether Rachel thinks she can move away with her dad and remain an Animorph. Because I think she would, if given the chance. She wants to live with her dad not her mom — she feels forced into staying by the war. It'd be hard for her to live in Phoenix and fight the war in San Diego, and she'd miss out a lot, but it'd be doable with duck morph. But if she's choosing to stay in San Diego or join her dad in Boston: fuggedaboudit.

[sitelenco]

i was staying up until 3 AM agauy, thankfully i went to sleep

also this is the month's last free prompt, so again have a dose of MetaTuri, but sleepy 💙💛

can't believe the month is going by so fast, time is scary xd

[the-yearning-astronaut]

you can do fun little meta exercises about your blorbos and their vibes by pulling inspiration from other random bits of media just for the hell of it with absolutely no intent to do anything with what you come up with it's just a game but Watch Out....

[gennianydots]

I love. this. show.

I look forward to it every week.

Dare I say: it has “been my favorite” for a few weeks now. I’ll see myself out.

“How do you feel about him exactly?”

tHe KiSs hsksgksvgs and Mom interruption 1

Piseang comes out to mom but also, says its my business not yours

Pear: What the fuck is a “straight man” anyway? Who are you to dictate what that looks like? Fuck off.

Not: 😟😳

Kawi realizes he kissed Pisaeng and Mom interruption 2

BE MY FAVORITE: it’s all about the truth.