#mostly the news/current events/other things that are super upsetting and

[h0neyfreak]

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[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Perhaps it's just me being salty for the whole s4 and s5, Kuro Neko and Ephemeral in particular. But I couldn't see a possibility of Adrienette break up because, say, Adrien know she's hiding a major thing about his life and feeling betrayed by it, without Adrien realizing that Marinette was hurt by his "outburst" and then then say sorry for being so "emotional" that he hurt her, just like what happened in Kuro neko.

This show is really, really bad at letting Adrien express himself in healthy ways. I've mentioned before that I think Chat Noir is in the wrong in Kuro Neko and it's not because he's not allowed to be hurt or quit. He had legitimate feelings and concerns! It's his handling of those feelings and concerns that was deeply unhealthy and unreasonable. He kept those things bottled up inside, never talking to Ladybug about what was wrong even though the writers chose to actively have her ask if he was okay, meaning he was straight up prompted to express himself, but didn't. Since he didn't, Ladybug had no idea until he took drastic measures, which is a good example of unhealthy relationships and a real life issue that many of us have probably experienced or seen.

Someone does something that upsets another person, but the injured party says nothing because they think the offensive is obvious even though it's super not obvious. At least, it's not obvious to the person causing the offense. So they keep doing the offensive thing and the other person keeps feeling hurt until there's a massive blowup where both parties end up feeling hurt.

This is just a thing that humans do. We build up stories in our heads based on our own perceptions of events, personal wants, and personal beliefs, but those stories are often unrealistic or at least warped versions of reality.

"My friends never call me, so they don't love me," said by someone with a large social battery who would happily do things every night of the week. Meanwhile their friend is over here thinking everything is fine because, in their world, it's perfectly normal to go months without talking. The two friends' different perceptions, wants, and beliefs about what a good friendship looks like is leading to a conflict that would be easily solved if the upset person just asked the hard question.

I don't think the above really applies to the secrets Marinette is currently keeping. At least, they don't on Adrien's side. Breakups don't need a logical reason, but if they did, Adrien would more than enough logical reasoning behind dumping the girl who hid massive, life-changing secrets from him. Getting angry and yelling at her would be perfectly valid reactions. But I also agree with your worry about the show turning it into Adrien somehow being in the wrong because the show hasn't handled a single complex conflict well.

A lot of that is due to the asinine "every episode must stand alone" rule, which is a terrible rule for a show with an actual overarching plot. Sitcoms mostly stick to petty drama for a reason. There are very few serious topics that you can introduce and handle in 20 minutes. Add in the rule that every episode has to have some sort of fight, eating up even more of your run time? And it's no wonder the show is such a total disaster.

I would not be surprised if season six ends up being a sort of inverted version of season four's conflict or even a straight rehash, which is straight up obnoxious because what was the point of season four if neither of these characters learned how to communicate? Marinette is still keeping secrets and I have no doubt that Adrien will continue to fail at expressing his very valid needs if he's even allowed to have them. Add in the fact that Lila is the new villain and is it any wonder so many of us have hit a breaking point where we no longer want to watch this painful mess?

Can you tell that poor communication as a plot point is a major pet peeve of mine? About the only time it really works is in literary fiction that's supposed to be a character study. In plot driven narratives it's just obnoxious. The fact that this is a show for little kids makes me even more annoyed because this is not suited to a kids show. I've said it before and I'll say it again: they're writing teen drama complexity in a Y7 show and of course that leads to a terrible final product!

[mchi22]

hey u wanna see me rant about an anime gacha game

so i play a mobile game called isekai slow life- youve probably seen ads for it before. its far from perfect, but i really enjoy playing it!

for christmas, they managed to get a collab with miss kobayashi's dragon maid. i used to be SUPER into that show so obviously i was hyped, especially considering they actually included fafnir, my favorite character

so. this is not the first collab event theyve had in the game, but this one is by far the greediest

i know, im playing a gacha game, i should expect as much, but let me explain:

there are 5 characters you can get, and 3 of this 5 are only obtainable through the gacha, with EXTREMELY low pull rates (note also that theres a 30% chance to pull fragments of other, non-exclusive characters. keep this in mind.)

throughout the entire event, we are given 40 vouchers to use on the gacha, for a total of 44 pulls. now, ive played this game for over a year and am very proud of the fact that i havent spent a single dollar on it. but you know what? i thought to myself: well, this is probably the only time the event its going to run, so maybe ill finally give in and buy some more vouchers

in order to get enough vouchers to pull 11 times, id need to pay twenty fucking dollars

and you know what? if i could pay $20 to ensure i could get fafnir, i would bite the bullet and do it. but for a chance???? youre fucking insane

thats not all though. remember i mentioned the fragments that show up in the gacha as well? this mechanic is by no means new to the game, but usually how they work is that in a gacha, there will be a low chance to pull a character, with a slightly higher chance to pull fragments. 100 fragments can be exchanged for the character

but the thing is, this has always also been the case during events! i assume the reason the gacha is instead using fragments of regular characters is mostly to make it harder to get the event characters, but maybe also in order to assist new players who may have just gotten the game because of the events

and no! im not done!!

when you pull from the gacha, you get points that you can then use in a shop. for the event, the shop included artifacts (just another type of item) of the dragon maid characters, which came with a sticker of them which you can use in the chat!

..... but only if you already pulled the character!

that along with the fact that you can only get their character fragments once youve already pulled them is such a punch in the face

(by the way, no other event has been like this. i have stickers of event characters i do not own)

all of this is on top of the fact that the event uses a stamina system to perform tasks, and rewards the player the more stamina they use.

after over a week of this event running, and after spending a frankly obscene amount of in-game currency, i have used 6.618k stamina

yeah to get tohru you need to use 50 fucking thousand

thats all i have to say i guess. a lot of ppl are upset about the event, even players who usually spend money on the game anyway. this paired with the fact that theyre currently running an event almost everybody hates, and a new event that seems to crash after a few minutes for almost everybody.. well the players arent very happy !

ok im done now .thanks 4 reading my insane rambling if you did or it you didnt and u just scrolled down to the bottom. thats fair i wouldnt read this shit either

[keystone8379]

Frame Imperfect

Regarding Kirby Fighters 2, when the game was relatively new, many YouTubers were trying to cash in on the new "kirby smash bros" hype. During this period I remember Mew2King coming into the KF2 server with interest in running a tournament for the game.

Wow! I couldn't believe this! Mew2King from funny YouTube compilations and competitive Super Smash Bros Melee (I had watched very little melee at that point, except for EmpLemon's There Will Never Be Another Melee Player Like HungryBox) was interested in our super cool Kirby game? Awesome!

At this point the game had garnered a rep as a pretty unserious competitive game, with many fake infinites being discovered and one real one as well. There was also Alpharad's video on the game that made it look...unflattering. It was unflattering for reasons other than just being a 'smash clone' but we didn't know why exactly yet. This was before 20XX, the first real KF2 tournament, for reference.

But Mew2King wanted to take a chance on us! He believed in our game and wanted to take a chance on a new, unique, exciting platform fighter! We were starstruck, plain and simple.

Which is why when M2K suggested MOBA style character bans everyone just kinda went with it????

Keep in mind this was before the first tourney, we didn't know shit about fuck, as fish would say.

They didn't go through with this.

So fast forward a couple months, and KF2's first appearance at Frame Perfect Series is upon us. As you'd expect, the community is really excited! This was one of the biggest brackets the community had ever seen, with a bunch of new faces! Mostly people we'd never see again but it was exciting at the time.

As for the commentator's bench, we were looking at M2K, who knew nothing about the game but was on comms for every game so whatever...and in the KF2 corner...Super Citrus. Who hadn't commentated an even since 20XX. Oh god. M2K was sprouting nonstop nonsense and Citrus just didn't have the game knowledge or confidence to debunk any of it. The VODs were a little painful to watch. Poor guy.

So FPS doesn't make the game look...great. It wasn't help that M2K was ridiculing the players he determined were 'lame' and I mean I don't like Ninja11 or Poyo but come the fuck on man. Commentary basics here. I could do a better job.

But what if I could actually? When FPS 4 was announced, we learned that KF2 would be making a return for it. I was more involved in the community at this point with one tournament under my belt (...which was New Generation) and did 2 major things for this FPS. Firstly, early on, KF2 wasn't looking great in the entrant count side of things. So, I got in touch with some of the folks in tourney committee and we talked about running a tourney where top 8 would get free entry to FPS4.

And this is where we talk about the unsung hero of this story, Thank You motherfucking Domo. When sponsoring Road to FPS, Domo offered to handle the free entry of anyone who we couldn't get people to pay for a gift sub for. In later Road to FPS events, he flat out offered to give any KF2 players free entry because he liked the game...and it makes for better content obviously but still. What a god damn legend. Rest in Power. (he lost his account in a phishing scam)

I realize that came off as kinda sarcastic but I was genuinely upset when his account got hacked. Shit sucks, I don't want to hear about phishing scams from Bool ever again.

OH, speaking of Domo, second major thing I did was apply for commentary! I had more tourneys and more experience under my belt at that point and I felt pretty confident all things considered! So I sent domo a few videos of my comms work, including a video where I have to make Bell look like a well designed interactive character for 30 minutes.

I didn't end up getting picked, but I thought to myself "well as long as it's not Citrus again we should be fine." lol. lmao. This time we did actually have a bit of time to give Cirtus a crash course in the current KF2 environment but it still wasn't great. In fact, it was maybe the worst video game commentary I'd ever seen.

For a long time, P47 had been seemingly untouchable. He was a KF2 expert, his Magolor inspired me to pick up the character fully, he was a lorehead, and a great guy to be around. The clip of him using Ultra Sword to push Nuggetz off a platform into an apple explosion is absolutely as iconic as it deserves to be. This was P47's last big tournament.

Now, remember how I said Mew2King was an asshole to anyone who he deemed lame. M2K was a Marth player in Melee by the way, I don't know if that's considered a lame character but I hope he is. P47 received the full force of this with constant hate from M2K's live chat, not to mention that Citrus also wasn't a Magolor fan. I'm not quite sure how bad it was exactly, but it was bad enough to lead to him quitting the game. Looking back on it, the whole situation is infuriating to me.

That was Citrus' last time commentating FPS, when FPS5 rolled around we had gotten Winters on comms, who was easily the most consistent commentator we had and also the person...you know...keeping the game alive. She was able to debunk a lot of M2K's bullshit and also was able to tell him that P47 quit because of M2K being an asshole last FPS. I don't think I ever told her how much I appreciated that.

Good time to mention that Mew2King also used he/him for EVERYONE. It led to me making this stupid fucking image.

But it gets worse. Of course it always gets worse. In top 8, Ninja11, one of my least favourite top players, was up against SoothingRuby, one of my favourite top players. Ninja11 kinda hates everyone in the community and Ruby hates people who are Like That so as you can expect these 2 get along great. This was reflected in the set between them.

It was a lot of this. Ruby would throw Kunai and Ninja would just crouch them. This matchup isn't even that bad for Magolor, I thinkj Mag wins it, Ninja's just an asshole. He ended up winning the set, of course he did. Great time was had by all, especially the twitch chat and M2K, who both already hated the game. Yikes.

So this brings us to FPS6, the final Frame Perfect event. Messages from M2K implied that Metafy, the main reason the tournament was being run, was on it's way out, but not before M2K was doing sketchy things in his own time.

Turns out Metafy still exists. Not sure what he was talking about with the whole final sale thing. Maybe it's an MLM thing. (Multi Level Marketing) Was I not supposed to think the platform was closing?

So the tourney rolls around on, of all days, the 4th of July. As a Canadian I don't give a shit, but as you can imagine, most people were not available. Zet ended up winning the whole thing. However there is one potentially sketchy set in there.

Somehow, before bracket, Qwertz had performed a coup d'etat and became TO of the bracket despite being on the other side of the globe. The actual TO didn't wake up in time, and all Qwertz used his power to do was changing the timeslot without communicating.

Then, when Zet "applied a taco to his router" (thank you Justin for giving my posts the rawest fucking quotes) Qwertz just said to play it out, though everyone knew this was mostly just because Qwertz didn't like Justin. Why do we let this man near any administrative privileges.

The stream also ended with Winters having to tell chat to have a happy 4th of july. She is a trans lesbian.

And that was the last FPS event. By the time the 3rd KF2 tournament had rolled around, we already knew M2K was doing more harm than good, but no one had the guts to tell him off. I think we were worried that he'd just run the game like a dumbass if we didn't stick around. To be fair, it happened with Kloudchasers.

So what's the moral of the story? Never meet your heroes? No, that's what we learned from Chuggaaconroy. Is Mew2King even my hero? Never meet a competitive Smash player is what we learned here. Though hopefully you all already knew that.

[fictionkinfessions]

This is a post about the current blog poll regarding ask games on this blog. You can find the original post and poll to vote on via this link below. Please do not send votes via ask messages.

Posts about this topic have the tag 'blog poll'.

https://www.tumblr.com/fictionkinfessions/724128639169544192/

This is long. Here is a read more.

Anonymous asked: sorry im not home and mobile search sucks or else id look myself, but is there a catchall tag for ask games? i think there is but bad memory lol. if not maybe there should be so people can block all games instead of each new one !

Anonymous asked: Suggestion for the ask game debacle: why not tag all those posts with one consistent tag like "kinfessions ask game" or something? Either in addition to or in place of the custom tags. That gives everybody's blacklist something to pick up without requiring someone to add a tag for every single ask game.

Anonymous asked: voted to keep ask games but consider just adding a catch-all tag alongside the specific game for blacklisting purposes maybe? the anon has a fair point with how many there have been lately that it can kind of drown out regular confessions but ask games are fun and it wouldn't exactly be fair to completely get rid of them. wouldn't mind a sister blog for them either though

There isn't a catch all tag, and that's a extremely good idea. I'm kinda kicking myself for not asking for feedback before making a whole poll about it. We'd still have the poll, but there would've been better options about what to do. Also for not doing that to start with.

Anonymous asked: i'm all for continuing the ask games, but can we at least LIMIT them? sometimes it feels like there's a new one every day, or like everything posted is a response to an ask game. it's obviously not stopping anybody from kinfessing normally, but it feels weird to only see ask game responses when the blog was originally intended for kinfessions

Anonymous asked: a suggestion about ask games: host one or two as events with loose but present time limits. kinda like this blog had for june, with mostly pride-themed prompts? it would probably require more moderation, so no pressure if you don't feel up to it mpc. we could even vote for favorite games but i can see it may leave someone upset bc their idea lost. right now it seems (to me. just a personal opinion) like this sudden overflow of different yet very specific prompts is a bit directionless. it's not necessarily bad for a community blog but could discourage a full "conversation"? of linked confessions, which i see as the point of ask games. this isn't to say there are no responses to posted answers - quite the opposite, actually! i just think having fewer themes would allow more unique experiences to be included, instead of splitting more subtopics.

True, there have been a fair amount, and it's been ramping up. Not a bad thing, it's nice that people have curiosity about other's canons and sources.

Seems like a lot of work, but doable imo. My concern would be actually getting people to vote for the ask games. Also if an ask game wins, but nobody plays it, then what? Do we just go onto the next one? Would there be a time limit? What if people send things after the time limit? I'd feel like such a dick for not posting it because they didn't send it in on time. This isn't really a final exam at school or your office job with time limits. Literally how do I explain it without sounding like a Super Serious Tool?

People do that for holiday things, you can't stop that from happening. The only reason I put a time limit for holidays is so nobody gets triggered after they remove a tag from their blacklist, assuming nobody celebrates Fathers Day 2 weeks afterwards. You know what I mean? Not to mention this blog is very active. People may not see prompts until long after the time limit, and they may still want to participate. Also who thinks up themes, if there will be any?

Though maybe we don't vote on them. Like you mentioned, people might get upset if theirs isn't picked. I suppose we could just do it chronologically, as they're sent in. I'm not sure how to manage this. Save the future ask games to drafts and hope I don't lose them? Probably.

Anonymous asked: Going to agree with the anon, there is a bit too many ask games ngl, like I like them but there is so many of them at this point and like I even blacklist the tags but they still get through. I just wish that there was a bit less of them or that there was a seperate blog :(

The thing about the auxiliary blog is that it won't have the same amount of traffic and might go dead. Not a bad thing, such is life. But I think part of the appeal of ask games replies and confessions is that this is a fairly high traffic blog. People want to be seen, even if it's anonymous. I wouldn't mind running a side blog, or at least getting it active enough to let someone else handle it.

Anonymous asked: Hello MPC! You don’t have to post this, but I saw that you were asking for opinions and I can’t actually find somewhere to vote on a poll (unless it was metaphorical? I can’t tell honestly), so feel free to delete this if it’s just taking up space- but I kind of agree with the anon who spoke up about the ask games. It’s not really a bad thing they exist, but when you have so many going at one time, it’s hard to keep track of and sometimes the pinned post/asks become incredibly long. It also feels like it goes against the whole ‘this is not a canon call’ mindset of the blog because it can and does spark up conversations between people, if that makes sense? It’s not a bad thing people are involved, but I feel like it takes away from the point of the blog a little. I think having the ask games be cleaned up and a new system put into place to make it easier to block the tag/find them would be super helpful, but I know that can be stressful. All in all, I’m sure everyone will support your decision!! Thank you for everything you put into this blog MPC 🖤

The voting poll post is here if you haven't found it already. Thank you for your input, you have some good points. https://www.tumblr.com/fictionkinfessions/724128639169544192 It's true that the ask game post is incredibly, tediously long. Even with tags, it's hard to ignore.

I don't know about the canon call thing, I haven't really seen people implying they should be contacted over x y z happening in their canon due to an ask game reply. Honestly I'm not fighting that battle very hard anyways.

I get the feeling that ask games are going to stay. But we did get some ideas on how to manage them better than their current form.

Summary of suggestions

Limit amount of active ask games per week or per month. Maybe 3 per week?

Create a catch all tag for ask game responses

Ask game topics per week or month. Maybe can be voteable as well?

Create side blog solely for ask games regardless??

[aikoiya]

More like I've thought all of this up to mostly be behind-the-scenes background logistical information so that if I write something later that contradicts that background stuff, I have something to look back on.

Though, I am currently in the middle of trying to flesh out the details of a fic that utilizes said information. I mean, at this point, it's mostly just a summary/prompt part 1 & 2 that's been super expanded to the point where it's no longer really identifiable AS a summary/prompt. I mean… plus a number of other things that sort of add onto the main summary/prompt. Don't worry, it's all put together on the same masterlist & all of my masterlists lead back in on each other, so if you can get to one of them, you can manage to get to the one you want. It just takes a bit of navigation, is all.

Anyway, for the moment, I really only have the story for the start of his eventual redemption arc. In my mind it would take way more than a single life for him to eventually be able to completely let go of a hatred that has been stuck to his soul like the fuggliest barnacle ever for multiple lifetimes.

My main goal in it is more so to give him something worth not giving up everything for. However, because of it, the first few parts of the story will end up only barely related to the game it’s based on. Now, there will definitely be overlap, but you don’t get to the actual game events until almost the end. And, in fact, I go very much out of my way to change as few of the in-game events as possible until halfway through the literal final boss confrontation.

Essentially, from Link’s perspective, there would literally be zero change from the actual game, but then suddenly at what most likely seemed like the absolute last minute, there’s suddenly this brand new character that may as well have come out of effing nowhere! And… I’m only just now realizing just how flipping confused the poor guy will most likely be & I am now determined to add his complete bewilderment as part of the story. 🤣

Anyway, the whole point is that everything from that moment forward is different, but I’m not about to inform you of anything regarding that.

But at the end of the fic, I want Ganondorf changed irrevocably & on a fundamental level, but to still be himself as we see him in the game. Like, he’ll still hate Hyrule, still hate Link & Zelda, but… You’ll just have to see.

And thank you! I've actually brainstormed how they'd taste & stuff! It was interesting! 😁

Also understandable.

And, that's fair. Mineru would be knowledgeable on this. And it really is freakin’ weird that Rauru & Sonia backing up Link could do something that Mineru swears couldn't be done. Like, I never liked this part because it felt… It just wasn't satisfying! Like, at all!

In fact, this is another one of the few things that legitimately got my goat about the game! Though, like I mentioned, it isn't so much that Mineru was wrong, because I try to look at it as an actual world where that's just their reality. More so, I was always upset with HOW she was shown to be wrong!

Though, at the same time, it’s possible that the reason why it worked was because, before that, they hadn't had, technically, 3 people able to use Recall at the same time? Or, well, they did, but they Mineru might not have thought to test it? Because, technically, Rauru should've been able to use Recall just as readily as Link. So, him & Sonia powering up Link may have resulted in Link’s Recall being amplified? And, it may also have been partially due to Zelda herself also being a Sage of Time with a stone of her own??? And, if so, then it would mean that it was, being literally reverse back to the moment before Zelda swallowed the stone, which is theoretically feasible for them to have not be able to do. Because every other time, the Recall Rune was really only used to reverse small, inanimate objects back a few seconds? Perhaps Mineru even tried it with Sonia before, but was unable to because there was only Sonia & Rauru with the Recall? As in, maybe Mineru hadn't thought to try again?

It… I admit, I’m not sure.

I agree that it would've been cool for Zelda to have the trauma & denial as part of her character arc. Mostly because, at the end of the day, they're still just people.

Personally, I tend to be of the opinion that it could've been a bit of both, because there typically isn’t just one singular reason, but more so a main reason backed up by other lesser, but still contributing reasons. Like how Link's main reason for saving Hyrule in TotK is getting Zelda back home safe & sound, but alongside all that is 1) saving his home, 2) his people, 3) utterly destroying the S.O.B what took his wife from him, & 4) it's just the right thing to do.

No matter what, the main reason is first & foremost that he just wants his wife back, but that doesn't make any of those other reasons any less valid or important.

As such, I like the idea that it was mainly denial & a frantic hope that this wasn't him & that they killed him, they made sure of that & hadn't they suffered enough??? But one of the things that supported that denial could've been the fact that Urbosa had never said anything about it & she trusted Urbosa, so the idea that her godmother (my hc) wouldn't inform her of such an important detail is… well, I think that it would be unfathomable to her.

Sorry if I'm overexplaining again. I do that a lot. 😅

Not to mention, it's possible that Urbosa herself actually didn't know the full story either. She definitely knew more than anyone else, but considering the fact that no one else seemed to know much of anything at all, that isn't exactly the highest bar to clear.

I mean, I doubt that Urbosa expected to have to worry about the guy literally returning from the grave. If anything, she likely expected to either put down the Calamity for another century for the next set of Champions to deal with or to, hopefully, just end it completely this time & finally put the shame of the Gerudo to rest without having to inform her little bird of that shame.

But, again, I might be inserting too much real life logic into it.

Oh! You & me both! I would’ve LOVED seeing how Rauru united Hyrule!

I mean, I know how I think it started, but ya know.

I'll be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo wanted us to think that all the Gerudo turned against Ganondorf, but as I mentioned before, there's really only so far that my suspension of disbelief will stretch. And one of the things that said suspension won’t cover & even specifically refuses to, is the idea that NONE of the Gerudo stayed loyal to him. If no one else, I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar that Kōme & Kotake stuck with him, but I’d still say that there must have been others.

Like, no! Even if Aonuma were to literally go out of his way to become fluent in every single language currently spoken on earth just so he could tell everyone on live television that both in OoT & TotK, ALL of the Gerudo turned against Ganondorf, I would still squint suspiciously & say, “No.”

Normally, I’m fairly adverse to the concept of “death of the author” as I feel like completely stripping the literal creator of a franchise of any authority regarding said franchise, is honestly just super dang disrespectful.

Like, at least wait until the flippin’ copyright has expired!

However, I still reserve the right to be a belligerent brat about it if I want to. As such, I feel zero shame in saying, “I don't buy it. If you want me to believe you, then do me a favor & actually make it believable & not just say, ‘trust me, bro.’”

Mm… True, I agree with the Fi thing… But didn't Granny Impa also mention that Sun didn't get to the Surface the way that she was supposed to? In fact, I remember reading a post where someone pointed that fact out. Because, remember, Granny wasn't just saying that because it'd been passed down to her from the guardian of the temple before her. She's literally Impa, meaning that she literally didn't remember it happening that way the last time.

As such, this implies that things had already started going off the rails at the start of the game.

And if that's the case, then it's possible that even Hylia hadn't expected this deviation to happen. And, if so, then it would suggest that Fi had believed that the loop was a stable one.

In other words, she miscalculated. Though, the thing about Impa remaining in the past is that had she not, then Granny Impa would've known for sure that something wasn't right. Because she would've remembered. Or, instead, Granny Impa wouldn't have been there in the story when we needed her. Or maybe she was still needed in the other timeline.

Also, it wasn't just that the pedestal & Master Sword weren't anywhere to be seen. Neither was Sun. Like, she's nowhere to be seen either. Which is partly why I found myself needing to create the Outset Timeline to begin with, because nothing made sense if I didn't make it make sense.

I can accept that! XD I can live with balancing things out.

And yeah. Though, to be fair, the first 2 main games in Kingdom Hearts, don't really have much, if any, of that hoop jumping, while Chain of Memories & 345/2 Days have a whole lot less than the others. And they're also super fun! 😁

I dunno. For all we know, “Misko” might be a family name or a title that you earn. Which, BTW, did you know that their name in Japanese translates to “Lambda” & in both versions, their symbol is the Japanese glyph for the lambda symbol? → 入 Which itself is based on the original lowercase lambda symbol? → λ

And, did you know that the symbol of one of the 7 Heroines of the Gerudo is actually the uppercase lambda symbol? → Λ

And maybe I have my tinfoil hat on, but I think that this is supposed to be a bit of a subtle hint to something. In fact, I think that Misko, if nothing else, may have some sort of connection to the 7 Heroines. Whether as a descendant of one of them or simply as a follower.

And even then, it's possible that, again, it could just be a family name or title. If so, then that alone could explain the odd time discrepancy. Or it could be a copycat thief.

My theory? I think that they are a Gerudo & that she is the descendant of, my guess, the Heroine of Skill, who I believe was the one who gifted the Gerudo Shield to the Mysterious Eighth.

But that's just me & my crazy theory that's based mostly on my own personal research as well as some things from other people. One such individual was actually the person on Reddit that I learned about all that Yorishiro stuff & the other, I somewhat pieced together on my own during a conversation with @alasse-earfalas.

We were talking & she mentioned that Misko's symbol was the lambda & that it was used in math. And then I think that I remembered something similar from that Reddit post I mentioned. So, then I went looking & she was right. And that got me curious & I realized that almost all of them were some sort of text symbol.

So, I thought that maybe they might correlate somehow. But for a good while the only one I was near positive about was the symbol of the Heroine of Heart/Spirit & that was mostly due to how Japanese culture, the piece of a soul is often depicted as being the shape of a tomoe or comma. → ❜

I eventually went back & investigated the colors of each symbol on the orbs. And then I listed the attributes of the Heroines as they were mentioned both times.

The first time we hear of them in BotW, they were told to us by Rotana & she listed them like this: "skill, spirit, endurance, knowledge, flight, motion, & gentleness.”

However, the next time we learn of it was from the Stelae, which listed them as: "heart, skill, fortitude, wisdom, flight, mobility, & compassion.”

Now, obviously, I’m more inclined to believe the Stelae rather than Rotana. Though, that doesn't mean that her information has no merit. All it means is that the stories have been told many times over through the years & that tends to result in details changing. Details such as the order & the most accurate terms. And, honestly, I quite like that they did that with the English version. Because even if it was a mistake, I find that it's a mistake that makes the quests feel more believable. Feels like you really are rediscovering something that's been lost for a long time.

Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what order the symbols were in until I thought to myself, maybe the games give it to you?

So, I looked & it seems that the order of the orb pedestals matches that of the order of the statues at the East Gerudo Ruins. And, if that order matched the order that the Stelae listed & the gifts left by the Heroines for the Eighth, then this is how they would be listed:

Heart; Shin (心; しん | heart, spirit, mind) = ❜ | Comma, phonetic symbol = Gerudo Shield

Skill; Gi (技; ぎ | skill, technique) = Λ | Lambda, phonetic symbol, ʎ used to represent wavelength in physics, electrical engineering, & mathematics = Golden Claymore

Fortitude; Tai (耐; たい | endurance or endure, resist | たい can also be used to mean want or desire) = o | phonetic symbol or O | Landau's symbol, null matrix or asymptotic behavior of functions = Ruby

Wisdom; Chi (知; ち | knowledge, wisdom) = : | Ratio or scales = Sapphire

Flight; Hi (飛; ひ | flight | ひ also be used to mean fire) = ⎎ | Hysteresis, technical symbol, correlates to f = Topaz

Mobility; Dō (動; どう | motion, action | どう also be used to mean copper) = Drop Sign | ??? = Gerudo Scimitar

Compassion; Jū (柔; じゅう | gentleness, softness | じゅう also be used to mean gun, but that's irrelevant) = ǁ | Absolute value symbol, phonetic symbol, alveolar lateral consonant = Gerudo Spear

The only one that I'm struggling with is the flippin’ droplet sign!

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what it's supposed to represent as far as a text sign is concerned, because all the other ones are, so this one must be as well!

Not only that, they’re all in some way or another related to math/equations or phonetics.

But… sorry… I uh… I went rambling again…

Honestly, my fave might just be the Mystic Set. Not for actual use, but most definitely for the aesthetic!

True, but not many of those game overs result in an actual scene hinting at the consequences of said game over. In fact, I know of at least one other. I think it was one of the OG Zeldas. Not sure as to whether it was 1 or 2, though… And, while it didn’t give you a scene, it had a text box that said that Ganon returned, I think is what I was told. Though, I haven’t seen it myself.

But, you know what? Now that I think about it, if Nintendo really did want to make an entirely new timeline to put BotW & TotK in, then why not just indicate that they split off from the MC bad end or the OG Zelda bad end? If nothing else, those are easy to confirm the existence of in a way that would be difficult to argue with.

Hmm… Didn't know about the Haniwa thing, might wanna look that up later… But that's understandable.

Actually… I'm not so sure that on’nen & miasma are a purely Japanese concept. More so, it's simply that Shintoism appears to be one of the only ones that go into the phenomenon in-depth.

For something that might be a bit more familiar, think about places with a truly bloody history. Places like Alcatraz Island or the sight of a bloody battlefield. Places that, even when all lit up, just feel haunted. The quintessential haunted house.

Or an aura of melancholic peace such as cemeteries.

Or, in contrast, places that feel peaceful or even sacred. Like a beautiful grove deep in the woods that seems untouched by man or a cozy little church.

This sort of concept does exist in places all over the world, but I'm not sure if anyone else has really put a name to it the way they did in Japan. If they have, I'll need to look.

It's the “vibe” I guess you could say. The emotional atmosphere.

Unfortunately, most of my sources are from Zelda related stuff like yours.

I can get being sad about that. It also makes sense.

However, I love that you bring up the Triforce & its virtues & all that because I agree. And actually, I have a theory regarding something. I’m not sure if we know as much about the Triforce as there is. Now, I’m gonna talk a bit about philosophy (which, take everything I say with a grain of salt), but instead of Buddhism or Shintoism, I’m going to be talking about Confucianism. Because in Confucianism, they also have a sort of “Triforce” of their own. A Triforce of virtues. And they happen to be Courage, Wisdom… & Benevolence.

I think that the Triforce has 2 sides to it.

Because isn't it odd that the Triforce is made up of 2 virtues & 1 non-virtue? As I just can’t see power as a virtue.

I theorize that we don't have the whole picture. I think that on a virtues level, it's supposed to be Benevolence, Wisdom, & Courage, but on a more practical level, they also represent Power, Order, & Justice.

In fact, I think the Triforce actually represents the qualities necessary for not only an effective ruler, but also a successful structured society, & possibly even a person.

Now, I'm gonna get into the Confucianism part. From what I can tell, in Confucianism, “benevolence” is defined as a moral sense beginning with those who are dear. In a word, one's own family. Above all, one must be filial to their parents & adore their siblings. Then that strong foundation allows for such feelings to flow outward to one's community & beyond. In other words, one must branch out from this feeling, considering others & empathizing with not only them, but even with one’s own heart.

One could even argue that it is an extension of Aristotle's idea that one's relationships with others reflects the relationship that we have with ourselves. In other words, how you view or treat yourself can affect how you view or treat others. Which makes self-compassion (philautia) rather than narcissism (narcissus) very important. Because arrogance is oftentimes a sign of someone who is secretly insecure.

Now, from how I've heard it, arrogance’s source is ego & is the counterfeit of true confidence. If one is truly confident, then it is far less easy to damage one’s pride. And, this is very much based on a CinemaTheropy video I watched on YouTube where they talk about this very subject as it pertains to Sokka from Avatar. And, while I don't always agree with them, I do find that they make a bunch of good points. Also, I likewise recommend taking a looksee at some of their other vids. Very fun.

And, this actually brings up something else that I learned about that I was, in fact, able to learn about from a non-LoZ related source: (https://folklore-japaneseswords.jimdofree.com/the-significance/#:~:text=The Shinto faith says that,this life or the next)

Now, I haven't verified the validity of the information, so just keep that in mind?

And, actually, I think I even discovered it due to having been looking for extra-cultural lore with which to help me expand upon my fic & some of the stuff that goes on in it! Like, yes, I believe that the search was prompted by a discovery of LoZ related information, but what I’ll eventually be talking about is mostly based on my own personal discoveries/logic & not that of others’. Regardless, I just found this to be super flipping interesting because, if the concept of Tsukumogami (付喪神; つくもがみ, Tool Kami or Artifact Spirit), specifically a Tsurugi no Tsukumogami (sword tsukumogami) that has been treated well, & the more spiritual aspects of the Sword with Japanese culture had been in mind when that particular game was made, then it could actually give us a bit of insight into Demise’s possible perception of himself. Maybe even hinting at a small underlying piece of his actual motivations underneath all of that rage. And, if so, it could cast him in an ever so slightly more complicated light than we currently see him in now. (Though, at the same time, this is only one of a handful of different interpretations of what tsukumogami are. So, I still might be wrong.)

Anyway, like I said above, in general, benevolence is believed that benevolence starts in the home & then spreads outward to one’s community.

In other words, I think that each Triforce segment has both a virtue & a purpose.

In my head, it's possible that the Triforce could even represent the threeway balance of power. The Triforce of Power/Benevolence representing the State (which tends to be more oriented towards the waging of wars for either offensive or defensive purposes), Wisdom/Order representing the Rule of Law (more oriented towards transcendental ideals of a timeless/religious nature), & Courage/Justice representing the People (more oriented towards protection).

What if the reason for the alignment of the Triforce pieces is because of effectiveness? Because, who would you choose to have the most power if not the one who is the most benevolent? Likewise, who would you choose to keep order if not the most wise & who would you select to deliver justice if not the most brave?

But, then, that begs the question of what happens when the family, the foundation of benevolence, is broken? What if the powerful has never known such stability?

Well, they fall back upon that which they know. Power, which they abuse.

Now, this is all just me speculating & hcing wildly, but if it turned out that I was right, then I have to say that it would be a really clever & deep way to go about this whole thing!

Otherwise, I agree with you in regards to what the Triforce represents.

Hahaha! Yes, but I was basically just a little middle schooler on a baby names site! The way it would be written might be (愛恋矢 or あいこいや). So, I was essentially looking to write “arrow of love,” but because all the site showed back then was that Ai & Koi both meant love, I didn't understand that they pertaining to different depths of love. With Koi 恋 being a more selfish or surface level type of love & Ai 愛 being something deeper & more tender. And Ai isn't just limited to romantic, though it is what the word is most associated with. It can also pertain to familial or platonic relationships.

However, had I known that then, my name on Tumblr might've been more like Ainoya 愛の矢 (あいのや).

And yes, I am aware of how cheesy it is, but in my defense, I was still deep in my Sailor Moon era.

Either way, I find that I can't bring myself to stop using it, if for no other reason than pleasant memories.

And, lightning does suit the Gerudo, but I also wish that we had a bit more variety. It’d be cool to have a Gerudo with sand magic or… OH! What if Tourma had Plant Magic?! That’d certainly explain how she’d be able to alter mangoes in such a way!

Also, like I mentioned before, I prefer the idea that no one is really barred from an element just due to their race. I mean, how cool would it be to have a more eel-like Zora with lightning magic? Or fire magic, but since fire can’t burn in water, their magic shows itself in the form of heat.

Eeeh, a wind dragon is only boring if you don't know how to use it. Imagine a dragon who creates tornadoes or that doesn't even need to touch you in order to cut you with its claws. Like, they can generate razor-sharp winds much like the Windcutter Longsword. Though, personally, I think that lightning fits Farore better if you think about lightning in the context of storms & nature's fury.

YES!! AUTOMAIL LINK!!! *punches air*

Also, that makes sense. I'll be honest, I find Flora’s interest in the Sheikah & Zonai tech adorable but… well, I guess I just find that the tech she's interested in is just… it's very obviously not the sort of stuff that the typical Hyrulean is going to see much use in.

For one, they seem the sort of thing that would need a lot of work & capital along with complicated machinery in order to make. So, this plus the fact that they don't exactly seem to be very useful for everyday use (other than the Purah Pad possibly), causes them to not exactly be… practical.

And even the Purah Pad isn't exactly the sort of thing that the normal citizen would have access to.

That isn't to say that parts of them wouldn't be, in fact, the actual Ancient Parts (the screws, cogs, springs, that stuff) would be very useful in the creation of actually legitimately practical technology.

By that, I mean things like household appliances that would make the citizenry's lives just that little bit easier & a tiny bit less time-consuming. Things like vegetable peelers & various things with hand cranks. Like food mills, hand blenders, spice grinders.

Heck! Why didn’t they bring in Pictoboxes?? Those are likely a bunch easier to produce than Purah Pads, so it would also be a lot easier to distribute out to the populous! It’s even a flipping Polaroid, so it produces pictures instantly & can even store a few at a time!! Like, it’s really weird that we have the Purah Pad, but no Pictoboxes in sight!

Similarly, we have stinking energy-based bows, regular bows, but no flipping CROSSBOWS???

Also horse-drawn wagons, then the ability to build what are essentially cars, but no carriages?

Just… Ugh!!

Anyway, as for a way to mitigate Link's climbing, maybe have the first part of the story going through a rainy season? Makes it difficult to climb, that's why they put in the Froggy Suit (which I loved), so maybe use this fact to your advantage & you can just sort of choose when you don't want him to climb stuff. Possibly even make it a running joke where Link gets frustrated by this fact.

Just make it:

(By ElderlyCats on Reddit)

And absolutely, losing your arm will definitely cause issues. Though, one of which that I know of will be phantom limb syndrome. It's where you sometimes feel the missing limb as though it's still there even though it isn't. And, in fact, you could probably use that as another way to make climbing difficult when you don't want him to. Have it so his brain is sending his false pain signals from.where the arm used to be. And, actually, that could be an interesting arc for him. Feeling less than he was due to the loss of his arm. Because he likely defined himself by his abilities as an adventurer, so having an injury cause him to not be able to climb so well would most likely sting.

Another interesting thing I think you should include. I noticed something about Link during TotK. The Purah Pad isn't what's keeping his things. But this means that he has some sort of knapsack on him. At the same time, you know how Link can just sort of through Wheat into the cooking pot? Well, I had a thought that maybe Rhoam gave him a mortar & pestle when he taught Link to cook. That way, when he uses wheat, it makes more sense him being able to use it because he'll be using the mortar & pestle to grind the wheat into flour. Of course, that isn't all it's used for, but that's the big thing, ya know?

“Oh that concept with Rauru's mom could be very interesting too!” Thank you! I wanted to have an actual story regarding how Rauru became king! My thoughts are that the Zonai, as in not just Rauru & Mineru, but the Zonai Empire. They came to Hyrule from not just the sky, but the skies of a distant land across the sea. (Not quite sure which yet, though.) Did you notice that both Rauru & Mineru end in -ru? And when you transfer them over to English, they read as Rare Mineral? Well, I’m thinking of making that the Zonai’s naming theme, with the -ru thing being the specific naming theme of the Zonai Royal Family.

The widowed Huētlahtoāna (empress, great speaker) is named Jueru Ryūmayateoteru (ジュエル りゅマヤてあてル) to mean “jewel” & “chosen of the sacred dragon goddess.” Meanwhile, her husband was named Nōburu or “noble.” I'd have her all in a black & deep, dusty orange in association with the marigold for mourning with a veil over her face at all times.

I was actually under the impression that it wasn't so much the Sword itself that traveled on its own as Zelda’s time magic, but now that I think of it, didn't Link literally just get Recall from Zelda's… temporal impression? Just before the Master Sword went back? If so, it could've been Zelda & Link's joint Recall? As in, the power… created a sort of point A & point B link in time, I guess?

I mean, aren’t the Sheikah Towers & even a number of the Shrines just up & disappearing on their own after their task was complete actually the more plausible answer here? Especially the Sheikah Towers considering that the way that we were introduced to them was via them literally coming up from out of the ground? And a bunch of the Shrines appeared in a similar manner.

If nothing else, those ones, at the very least, could've simply just peaced out! 😆

Just, “My planet no longer needs me,” & ⬇️. Like gophers.

True, they definitely could've given us something. It's possible that the entire point was to leave you asking questions, though. Not that that's an excuse, but still. Maybe they wanted to leave a bit of mystique?

Mmm… I actually think the point of it was that Ganondorf actually did want Link there. One of his big things is that he perceives the strong as the only ones worthy of survival. And as the strongest, he wants to prove it by dominating Hyrule. As such, he most likely wanted to fight Link one-on-one.

As for the Plateau & the Shrine, well before Link blows up the rock blocking the true entrance to the Plateau in TotK, I’m pretty sure that it was inaccessible for most other than Link & the Rito. Not to mention, the entrance wasn't there in TotK, so my guess is the Uprising shook the rocks loose enough for a bomb to finally reopen it.

So, my guess is that the reason why it isn't sacred is simply because not many people could get up there. So, I wouldn't be surprised if after TotK, it did become a sacred place with shrines & memorials.

… I'll be honest, I much prefer your alternative of the Sand Goddess having allowed the Gerudo to reproduce asexually far far more than a couple of the other theories I've seen. One in particular honestly said that they could do it themselves before & the only reason they couldn't do it now was due to “evil Hylian propaganda,” but let me just say, the actual hc made it seem like they thought the Gerudo were just gullible idiots who couldn't figure out that 🌭 + 🌮 = 🤰. So, while yes, I do prefer my interpretation best, I still like yours more than a number of those other ones.

Though, that begs the question as to the purpose of the 1 male a year? Like, if they never needed 1 before because of the Sand Goddess, why do they have one now? We're they always able to have a singular male? And, if so, why? For what purpose?

Not to mention, if they were literally designed to be women & never need men, then why not just make them hermaphroditic in the first place? Seems strange unless the Sand Goddess wanted to keep them loyal to & dependent on her.

Though, I will definitely agree with the sentiment that the Gerudo would've likely been much more well-adjusted if men were allowed in town. Or, if not men, then maybe at least the pre-18 y/o step-sons & adopted sons of Gerudo? I mean, in such an instance, they could probably argue that they weren't yet men, technically, & were Gerudo by right of being the child of another Gerudo?

And I actually think that voe are still being born, but I very much think that they’re… not exactly… allowed anymore? In fact, it’s entirely possible that it started out as no voe allowed (the subtext being no Gerudo Voe), but that it eventually became twisted over time into no voe, period. At least, that was my assumption. In fact, I kinda worry that the first couple generations after that was a scene from the beginning of the Prince of Egypt… Like, really think about it for a minute. If all the bad eggs in your basket were also always ones with spots, whereas all the others didn’t have them, what would you start doing whenever there was another spotted egg in your basket? And, I mean, think about just how bad it always ends up being whenever that egg is allowed to hatch. And it’s always just one egg. No one would miss it…

I’m being intentionally ominous here because as wonderful as humanity can be, we can also be truly despicable…

Especially when we believe such acts will save us from pain later on…

And as horrible as the idea is, it isn’t like this sort of thing hasn’t happened before.

Didn’t many women who birthed sickly or deformed children once leave their babies in the woods. Sometimes to die, but also sometimes in the belief that her child had been swapped for a changeling & attempting to return the changeling so the fairies would return her baby to her?

… Actually, I'm pretty sure that the weird dude that wants a bunch of crickets & frogs to impress a girl makes mention of remembering Link. He says something like, “The new in town act doesn't fool me,” or something like that.

And, to be fair, at least some of these people can be explained away with possibly having only met Link once 5 years ago. Like, do you remember some dude you met, maybe, once 5 years ago? Sure, a guy who did you a solid, but still just a guy as far as they knew.

Now, that by no means explains all of them, but I'd at least give a couple a pass for that. Because, you really expect Link to keep up with literally every character in Hyrule?

And, honestly, I very much doubt that anyone alive other than Link, Dorephan, Impa, Purah, & Robbie had actually seen Zelda in royal regalia. And, when Zelda's there, a literal princess, one who, in-game, has been doing so much crap consistently over the last few years to help her people. Are you really gonna take much notice of the feral dude standing beside her?

Well, to be fair. I'm more so suggesting that it isn't so much Demise himself who is being reincarnated, but more so his hatred.

Ah, but I actually think that he might be. Think of it this way; Time had the Triforce of Courage before going back to the past. But if that's the case, what happened to the Triforce afterwards?

Perhaps, there was a timeline bug, but it was more so that the Triforce registered the presence of a bearer, so the ToC went to said bearer. But then, we've never seen a case where only 2 pieces were in place with one missing. So, maybe, that cause the other pieces to seek out their own bearers?

Definitely possible. Though, I actually wonder if maybe Null is the mysterious Yōkai equivalent to the Tennō (emperor) that I theorized might exist? What I'm talking about is the fact that Demise & Ganondorf are always referred to as Daimaō, the mortal equivalent of being Daimyo. But the thing about that is, there are at least 2 other titles/roles above a Daimyo. Those being the Shogun (royal military general I think) & the Tennō (emperor). Of course, the possibility of such malevolent figures doesn’t seem to be substantiated in actual Japanese lore, but I just find the possibility of it intriguing.

But, you know what part of this theory, might be? See, I believe that at the shogunate’s foundation, there had been something in the ballpark of 200 daimyo under the servitude of the emperor…

What I’m saying is that, there may well be 199 other daimaō (possibly as powerful as Demise in their own rights) out there. And, who knows, maybe that's what Bellum & Malladus are. Just another couple of Daimaō.

But then, that makes me wonder about this mysterious shogun equivalent that I've essentially conjured up inside my own head.

And, if Null is the equivalent of the Tennō, then who’s to say that he wasn't the one who ultimately made the daimaō? Consider this: he can make echos. Echoes of people who can talk & think. So, maybe in his frustration with the tris, he also made things that they wouldn't go after. Things that he could sort of pincer formation creation with. Things that would hate creation as much as he wants creation.

Actually, that makes sense, but also I think that TotK Ganondorf is more complicated than that. I'm pretty sure that it's canonically confirmed that he's a Social Darwinist of the Struggler variety. As such, it isn't so much that he wants to destroy everything as he thinks that the strong survive & that peace makes you go soft.

In a lot of ways, I don't think that Ganondorf was actually in control of the Calamity. I guess one way to put it would be that I see Ganon & Ganondorf as 2 different, but connected entities. Ganondorf is a person who has his own identity & sense of self, & with that comes his own individual desires & goals. Largely, the obtaining of power, control, & eventual rulership over Hyrule.

But Ganon, in essence (in my mind, at least), is Demise’s hatred. And because of that, Ganon’s goal is ultimately the death of Hylia’s bloodline, the cessation of the Hero’s spirit, the annihilation of Hyrule, & ultimately, the destruction of everyone & everything around him. Because that is what Demise’s goal was.

Anyway, the way I tend to write Ganondorf, I sort of make Ganon’s influence more subtle &, in many ways, insidious. In a way, he acts as the Anti-Jiminy Cricket. A “Jack Hopper” if you will. (A term that I literally just made up, so searching it most likely won’t have any results.) He’s something like a combination of the devil on your shoulder & intrusive thoughts. He lurks there in the back of Ganondorf’s mind &... gives him little nudges in the “right” direction. Sometimes lending him a tiny bit of his black magic (which, in my version of things, is quite literally corruptive; spiritually, mentally, & even physically). And that’s how he typically tends to work… until Ganondorf obtains some form of power. At which point, he’ll slowly begin to influence his host more & more. Pick at his insecurities so that the Voe begins to use more & more of his black magic, thus pulling him deeper into his thrall. And, in a lot of ways, you could see Ganondorf transforming into the pig monster as the culmination of all that. In essence, representing Ganondorf losing himself to the very thing that he was so arrogant to believe that he could control.

And, maybe… Maybe Ganondorf dies & is reborn, but Ganon isn't. Maybe Ganon is learning. You see… Maybe that’s why Rancor & Miasma were so effective against the Master Sword this time around? Because, he's learning.

Perhaps… Ganondorf is ultimately little more than a pawn & no one but Ganon & the Twinrova are aware of it…

And, I think it’s been confirmed that the reason why Ganon &, through him, Ganondorf, is always associated so heavily with pigs. Because the literal definition of being pigheaded is stubborn obstinance to the point of self-sabotage.

Oh! I hit on a possible plot fix?! Yay!! 😄 I'm glad!

Though, I know that I don't have to help, but I want to! It's something I enjoy doing!

Oh! Also, the thing I brought up before, but didn’t finish, was a little detail that I'm not sure if others have noticed yet. It has to do with a bit of an interesting aspect of TotK Dorf's personality.

I think that he is a very intelligent & strategic individual, but that he's also prone to taking chances. And by that, I mean calculated risks. (Because of this, I tend to see him as a bit of a gambling man, but if you were to put him in a room with only roulette or a simple memorization game, he actually much more likely to choose the memory game even though I think he'd also see it as beneath him. The issue being that roulette is all luck & no skill. On the other hand, I think that he'd enjoy card games. Especially ones that involve bluffing & trying to intuit what sort of hand your opponent has.)

Once more, I'm basing this on the Molduga scene.

Think back, what is a Molduga's big, exploitable weakness? Simply put, the fact that they can't swim in solid earth.

But then you remember that Ganondorf sends them to attack the Great Plateau. So, by all accounts, all the Hylians would've needed to do was take a few steps back & let the Molduga fling themselves at the mountain & flop around. Maybe poke at them until the monsters died.

Now, does this mean he’s stupid for doing that? No, just a risk taker.

Because, why would you assume that this tactic was common knowledge among the citizenry of Hyrule if they weren't allied with the Gerudo before that? And, if my theory about the tribes being at war beforehand were true, then it was unlikely that many pre-Hyruleans would've visited the desert often. And if so, then they wouldn't have the same knowledge regarding the desert predators that the Gerudo would just by virtue of them living there.

However, if Ganondorf were to have only sent maybe one, two, or a few, then it would've been more likely that the soldiers might've tried their luck on their own, which would've revealed the play for what it was: a bluff.

And I am aware that he was too far away to be seen. However, even if they wouldn’t have known it was him because of this, had he only sent a few, then it would increase the likelihood of him not drawing out the information that he wished for.

Which is one of the next 2 points of order: Ganondorf’s goal & why sending a swarm of Molduga almost ensured that he achieved it.

Well, the reason why he needed the numbers was because, if you were a handful of simple little Hylian soldiers facing a swarm of massive & intimidating, but most of all, unfamiliar (beyond description & name), opponents, what would you do? Especially, if you had a King who was so powerful that many believed you a god?

You’d call him & pray he’d handle it because you don’t think you can do it yourself.

But what then would that powerful king do if he also was not familiar with how to fight that same opponent, but you had little time to learn their weakness before you were forced to figure something out?

He’d use his trump card: The Secret Stones.

Which, in my mind, was Ganondorf’s true goal. He wanted to bait Rauru into using the Secret Stones so that he could get an idea of how powerful the stones were or could be. Not to mention, getting an idea of who might’ve had access to a stone.

In other words, his attack didn’t fail. If anything, I think that Ganondorf got exactly what he wanted from that encounter.

Which is why it pisses me off that he pulled such a stupid move by only taking one stone!! He should’ve at least stolen 1 other stone if he wanted to ensure that he’d win! Because, he knew for certain that there were at least 3 people were in possession of 3 stones (because he would’ve seen at least 3 lights from a distance) & had likely encountered Mineru later. However, even if he hadn’t, he could likely infer as such just based on the fact that the only ones he knew had 1 were either Rauru or people noticeably very close to Rauru & he already knew of Mineru at least by the time of the audience with Rauru. So, if nothing else, he at least suspected that she might be in possession of a stone.

As such, he should’ve at least stolen one other stone!

I dunno, maybe he figured that because one of the lights he saw was bigger/brighter, that it meant that the stone could increase his own power more than he’d expect, but he shouldn't have banked on that!

Then again, the light to the left would've looked much bigger & much brighter to Ganondorf. And, it wouldn't have been too difficult to figure out that Rauru was likely the one in the center, yet despite how strong he was known to be, his light was no bigger than the one to the right of him.

If that's the case, then that would suggest that, without the stone, either Rauru had much less magic or his magic would be much less potent.

Perhaps he hadn't made his decision by the audience cutscene? And perhaps he used his time between that & the one where he kills Sonia to gauge each one's capabilities.

And, if he'd learned that the one with such a powerful aura had been Zelda & that she was actually still a novice at using that power, then he may have felt a bit of pressure to do what he needed before she could fully master this power that dwarfed Rauru. (Which is also part of why I don't think the Zonai are meant to be actual gods, as he & Sonia seemed to possess auras of a similar potency. While it's true that Sonia was likely a descendant of Hylia, herself, if Rauru were also a fully divine entity, then how would their power levels be the same?)

Regardless, he might have spied on them training, possibly both their magic, use of the stones, a/o in a martial aspect. We already know that Rauru was deft with a sword, so he likely trained. We just don't get to see it.

If you ever watch this one movie called “Tucker & Dale vs Evil,” I'd encourage you to only watch an edited version from the perspective of the college kids first.

And once you do, I'd then suggest you watch the full, unedited movie. (Unless you get squeamish about blood, then I'd suggest you just not watch it at all. It isn't by any means the worst I've seen, but it's still bloody & kinda grim.)

Either way, let's just say that perspective changes a lot.

And another example of this is actually in BotW with Link's memories. Specifically that, everything we see regarding Rhoam's relationship with Zelda is almost entirely based on the things that Link was there to see himself. But Link is automatically going to have a biased perspective in favor of Zelda no matter what. And that’s exactly what we see.

If we never met the old man or if he never revealed that he was Rhoam. And if we never find Rhoam’s journal, then we’d all have just believed that he was an a-hole & cursed his name.

Honestly… I kinda think that a few things may’ve been cut. A couple things seem to indicate as such, in fact. Because BotW just felt… More complete, I suppose? And a couple of things never really get addressed. One such case being the situation with Wabbi. Another is the thing with it being implied that Zelda is Rauru & Sonia's descendant, yet we neither see nor hear of hide nor hair of their implied child. We also get a shot of what was most likely a new iteration of Kōme & Kotake, but after that, we see nothing else of them. Then, there's the practical zero evidence of the Zonai as a culture & people.

So, either they forgot, they didn't care, or there was more, but something made it so they had to cut the fat (possibly, in order to meet the release date at all).

Also, sorry. When I said that they were thinking about bringing Koroks back in my last reblog, I meant to type “Minish.” There's literal flippin’ screen shots of Link kneeling by an itty-bitty Minish House! X3

Also, one thing that I just really didn’t like about the Wild games is, ironically, the trees & forests. They all just feel like the same straight trees that any child would draw. And none of them really had a natural old feel to them the way the trees in, say, Faron Woods did in TP. I just really miss the really gnarled, twisting, old-old, possibly ancient trees that actually look like they might have a little kodama living inside with the thick canopies above! But when you run through what's referred to as forests in the Wild Era, don't they feel too… Manmade? Like, my grandpa used to measure trees for harvest on a wood farm for the timber industry. A bunch of the forests in the Wild Era kinda look like that. And, I dunno. It just doesn't feel like a 3D Zelda game should because of it. Feels too intentional & not wild enough. Like, I wanna see branches twisting into each other to form archways! I wanna see fairy rings at random spots! I wanna see trees with their roots showing because of the rocks under them!

And, something else, I'd recommend looking up some BotW/TotK mods. One I know of is Second Wind for BotW (evidently, it's actually worth a fresh playthrough). It adds a bunch of stuff, including Ordon, but I'll be honest, it just… really doesn't feel like Ordon to me. It just feels like any other BotW village. The add on stuff is really cool, it's just that the placement & general aesthetic of Ordon isn’t the best, is all. There's also Relics of the Past for BotW,

Another one that's for TotK is Zonai Link, which changes the Ancient Hero's appearance to be… Less… Eugh, I guess you could say. And I actually really like the look of it compared to the canon version. There's also a Master Mode mod for TotK, a Champion's Cap mod to go with the Champion's Leathers & a Weapons Restoration mod.

Also, I think that you might enjoy the Trails series. It's a very intensely story-based game series that's just huge about continuity, lore, & making the world feel real. As in, it works how you'd expect a real world would.

Heck, sometimes completing certain side-quests will even change the reactions of characters in the main story a bit. But only where it would make sense.

Problem is, I'm liable to raise my expectations for games as a result. 😅

@aikoiya The post was getting too long so I’m replying here, hope that’s okay! If anyone is looking for the beginning of this discussion, it's here.

Your extended pantheon is amazing! I just knew that Gàlondo would end up being Demise haha. I'd say I prefer not to associate Demise with any race in particular (and the Gerudo already have quite a heavy burden with Ganondorf), but otherwise I like that backstory you came up with. So what's Hylia's role in your version then if he’s the guardian of the Triforce? I'm curious ^^

I'd say my reasoning isn't so much "I hate this" but rather "this doesn't make sense/contradicts something else" or "previous games did this better". I also want to show that it's still possible to create stories without ignoring everything that was established previously because to me this idea that the timeline is too restrictive doesn't stand. In fact I tend to believe being a bit restricted and working inside a frame can trigger more creativity (after all they did wild stuff like flooding Hyrule before and it fits perfectly in the timeline). I also would prefer to see the existing lore extended or clarified instead of them adding new confusing stuff and leaving it extremely vague.

Oh I LOVE your Outset Timeline!! Though the ending is indeed very bittersweet. It always makes me so happy when someone else points out the inconsistencies in Skyward Sword's story. That's exactly my reasoning for my fourth timeline, it exists because of Ghirahim and Link's victory over Demise in the distant past. Though you are right, adding a timeline split while keeping the Master Sword in the official timeline requires some gymnastics! At the moment I'm going with a lazy theory about the Sealed Temple being the future Temple of Time, so the Temple's magic somehow allows the Master Sword to exist in both timelines (I said it was lazy haha). Impa’s bracelet is another story though. In my timeline the Goddess Sword is also left untouched in Skyloft because Skyward Sword doesn't happen, which could be useful in case someone accidentally broke the actual Master Sword 😁 It's very intriguing to me that Sky left the sword in the past when he had no reason to (and it shouldn't even be possible since it's in the exact same spot as Zelda's crystal). It's probably just a mistake on Nintendo's part but I like to think there could be something else there, and that Fi had a reason to stay in the past.

About the DLC items the thing is that most sets are found in the Depths in random Zonai chests if I remember correctly, or in the coliseums, and there was no explanation as to how they got there. In Misko's little shrines we find the Fierce Deity set and the LA set, but also the barbarian armor, the shock-resistant outfit and the climbing gear. I can understand building shrines for the Fierce Deity or LA Link following what you said, but then for three random armor sets? Not to mention that Link already owned them in BotW, so making us look for them a second time was kind of a joke. I like this shintai/yorishiro idea, but I think it would work a lot better if there were only a few items to collect and not… the outfits of all the Links ever INCLUDING WILD'S (how!!). It feels really meaningless and more like a catalogue for you to choose from so you can look like your favorite Link (which is a bit insulting to Wild, you can just replace him at this point and go as far as changing his hair or even his entire appearance with the LA set). I also didn't really believe they were the actual items from past games, it made no sense (the same way Link wouldn't actually wear a red Nintendo Switch t-shirt or something from Xenoblade). It just really felt like fanservice.

The dictionary thing might help, but I think the story should be explicit enough on its own and I don't really want to study Buddhism/Shintoism in depth so that I can play Zelda games and understand what's happening haha. I mean of course it's fine if knowing a bit about it adds new context and all, but if you can't understand things like malice vs. gloom without it then I think it's a bit of a problem. Speaking of Fujibayashi I feel like this wasn't really an issue before he was in charge.

Yes the French translation for Demise is very misleading, that's another problem: depending on your language things are sometimes interpreted very differently.

I really like the English names for the three dragons, I think they're so much better than what we got in French. Nedrac, Ordrac and Rhordrac, really?? At first I didn't even understand the link with the Goddesses, and then the last two sound way too similar. Btw I remember from my very basic Japanese courses that it's common in Japanese to create new words by mixing a few syllables of other words together. For example "rimokon" means remote controller (remo + con), or there's the well known Pokemon = pocket monsters. So naturally we end up with stuff like Ordinn + dragon etc.

I thought as well about the dragons going by names given to them by mortals instead of their true names. The thing is, I don't really want to create new names because I'm already changing so many things and my timeline stuff can be a bit complicated, so I need to keep at least a few things familiar. And I really like Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra :D

I agree about Farore being more associated to wind and plants than thunder (I mean she's kind of Link's patron goddess and he has nothing to do with thunder). What's even more confusing in BotW/TotK is that the Gerudo are now also related to thunder for some reason, but they're definitely more Din than Farore in my mind.

Maybe I should give you some context about my dragons haha. The beginning of my story is quite similar to TotK, though I still made some changes. Ganondorf completely destroys the Master Sword, Link looses his arm (except here Rauru isn't there to replace it), and Zelda still travels through time (but not because of a Secret Stone since I got rid of everything Zonai). She arrives in ancient Hyrule one century after Sky killed Demise (because this is set in my alternate timeline), and she's stuck there so she needs to find a way back home. Before that she learns a lot about SS, the Triforce, the timeline split and Hyrule's past. After meeting various characters and most importantly Sonia (who's still a priestess, the Sage of Time and her ancestor), Zelda learns that this era has two Master Swords: the one left by Sky in the Sealed Temple, and the Goddess Sword that is still somewhere above the clouds. She understands then that she needs to retrieve the Goddess Sword in Skyloft and forge a second Master Sword in order to help her Link in the future, and to do so she needs the three Sacred Flames. Where are the flames? The dragons "swallowed" them since they weren't needed anymore after Sky left his own Master Sword, which turned them into the giant immortal dragons we see in BotW/TotK. So that's Zelda's quest: find a way to go to Skyloft and then get the dragons to lend her their power. Along the way she'll also meet the ancient Sages, who can help her return to her own time by using the Triforce (but of course this won't work because of Ganondorf, and Link will have to fight him in the present and bring her back himself).

I'm trying to make this both a story I could adapt in comic form and something that could work as a game. The idea is that Zelda's memories would be playable sequences with places to explore, fights and maybe even mini-dungeons and bosses. And of course there's an entire story for Link as well. At the moment I'm trying to come up with interesting arcs and quests for each race/Sage, both in the past and the present.

Anyway, that's why I'm so focused on the dragons. Zelda (and Link) will need their help and they will talk this time. And since they will remember being apointed by Hylia and they're supposed to absorb their respective sacred flames, I need things to make sense. This is also a timeline without climate change in Lanayru (here it's the same province as in BotW with the addition of Mount Lanayru and a good part of central Hyrule), so the thunder dragon has no business being up there. That's why the swap would make sense.

No need to apologise! I appreciate your perspective and that you're interested enough to share your own ideas! :D

I agree on Zelda's magic being her own and what you said makes sense! Love the part about her only thinking about how she's a failure (though I guess it's only natural if she's been trying for 10 years without result). I don't know if she would have had the same reaction had she witnessed her father's death though. AoC isn't canon but Zelda doesn't unlock her power when Rhoam "dies" in front of her and Link forces her to run. The memory where's she's crying in Link's arms in BotW also shows that she knows everyone is dead, it's even possible that she saw some of it happen (maybe in the same way as AoC for Rhoam, or they saw what happened to the Divine Beasts from afar). I guess they must also have seen some terrible things on the roads, so she could have unlocked her power trying to save her people. But it only happened when Link was about to die.

Haha yes, I'm probably one of the most obsessed Zelink shipper there is and even I can't stand that power of love trope. It really has no place in a LoZ game. In my headcanon Zelda wouldn't access her power only because of her love for Link, though it definitely helps, but rather because the Hero dying is kind of an emergency situation and would trigger her divine magic even if the necessary conditions were not met. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me though 😆

Yeah I'm okay with the women of the royal family having some sort of power though not as powerful as Zelda. I think some part of it could also be attributed to their Sage of Time abilities. And the gift of prophecy being inherited from Sky is such a cute idea!!

I don't know about Terrako, I only remember that Zelda built it when she was just a child?

I'd send you an ask to rant about TotK but I'm not sure about the character limit and I fear it would just turn into a second wall of text haha! Here are some thoughts:

– I could live with new lore that contradicts older games, if only things made sense and were sufficiently fleshed out. Then I could just enjoy the story and accept that this is a different continuity. But here everything is so vague and sometimes even confusing. Like if we're going to meet the Zonai and make them such central figures in Hyrule's history, then I want to know more about them and learn about their culture. What's the point if we're only going to see two of them and have no clue about how they created all that technology, mined the Depth, lived with the Hylians, and then disappeared? Same for ancient Hyrule: if the different tribes were at war, I want to see it, and I want to learn more about them. Ganondorf also had so much potential for an interesting backstory. What kind of king is he? How did the Gerudo feel about him becoming the Demon King? What about the Gerudo Sage? And so on. It feels like this could be so much more.

– Other things I would love to see explained: where is the Master Sword in ancient Hyrule and why does no one seem to know anything about it or the Hero? How does it travel through time to reach Zelda? What about Rauru and Sonia's descendants? Also what was the point of the fake Zelda, and why did Ganondorf stay in his bathtub the entire game instead of rehydrating himself right away and getting stuff done? There's also everything I said about the secret stones the other day, but I know you don't see it as a problem ^^ (Also I just rewatched the memories and I had completely forgotten what Rauru tells Zelda in front of Sonia's grave: "Remember, that was a future where you never appeared in this world". So does this mean this is a new timeline that kind of retcons BotW? If not then where did all the Sheikah tech go and how were the shrines replaced by the Zonai ones? I really need an explanation for all of that!!)

– The game also barely mentions what happened in BotW, except for the history class about the Calamity in Hateno, the statues in Zora's Domain, and the memorials left by Zelda to honor the dead. I wanted to see Hyrule starting to rebuild and to get some sort of follow-up on the story. Did Link regain all his memories? Was Zelda planning to take the throne? Does she have some sort of trauma after her century-long battle against Ganon at Hyrule Castle? Why does she react to Ganondorf's name, but doesn't link him to Calamity Ganon? Why did the Sheikah tech that was so central in BotW disappear, especially the Divine Beasts? I care about this world and its characters, I want it to feel like a real place and to see it evolve. But then stuff like this really reminds you that this is just a video game world, and that Nintendo doesn't really seem to care. And if things can be retconned any moment even in a direct sequel, then… why should I feel invested?

– There was a real waste of potential with the Light Dragon and Zelda just transforming back thanks to Rauru and Sonia (btw couldn't they have helped if they could appear anytime and still had that kind of power?). I find it so disappointing that Link doesn't have to do anything to help Zelda, it almost happens by accident. Mineru also said it was irreversible, but in the end it's no big deal (they shouldn't establish something and then ignore it like that). If only Link had to use the Triforce or something. I didn't want Zelda to stay a dragon but sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have been a better ending.

– It also really doesn't help that Link feels so disconnected from the main story. In BotW he was also experimenting the story through flashbacks but at least they were his own memories and they fleshed out his relationship with Zelda and the other Champions. Here Zelda is the one experimenting the best part of the story, and to make it worse you can find the memories in any order and get badly spoiled. It could have been so cool if Link also time traveled at some point and could explore ancient Hyrule (and they could have done something crazy like Link and Zelda being the ones to seal Ganondorf in the past, which would lead to his transformation into Calamity Ganon). Link is also so expressionless (except when cooking and all) that I find it hard to care when he doesn't seem to. Imagine how different Zelda sealing herself would feel in Skyward Sword if Sky didn't act so distraught. In the same way TotK would hit a lot harder if Link did stuff like falling to his knees after seeing Zelda's last memory.

– I also think that the hands/cooperation theme the devs talked about in interviews is a bit weak and cliché (with characters reminding Link and Rauru that they don't have to do things alone and that they're stronger together, stuff like that). First I don't find it very interesting compared to what games such as OoT, MM or Wind Waker did, and then Link being able to fight Ganondorf alone from the start kind of throws it out the window (and Rauru also ends up sealing Ganondorf on his own). The Sages are not even with Link outside of the dungeons, they just create creepy copies of themselves (and I found them so annoying I never activated them, except for Tulin when flying). But yeah sure they shake hands and vow to help Link. I still think him being accompanied by the Champion's spirits in BotW worked a lot better, and their powers were also more useful. I guess seeing everyone working together to rebuild Hyrule would have made that theme more meaningful. The thing I really liked about this though was Link finally catching Zelda in the end after failing at the beginning of the game, that was a really beautiful scene.

– Also I said it above but I don’t want everything to be explained by Buddhism/Shintoism parallels, especially if the game just expects you to get it without providing context. Let Hyrule be it’s own thing.

So I know this isn't only about lore, but these are the main reasons why I'm not very interested in TotK. To sum up I'd say that the game lacks some kind of depth and has a lot of wasted potential, and it also makes it clear that it's pointless to care about continuity. BotW Hyrule was interesting and I think a lot of things could have been done about existing races instead of adding a new one but not bothering to do much with it. Just bringing Ganondorf back in this version of Hyrule and see how the Gerudo react to him could be so interesting!! Some concepts were also excellent but didn't really go anywhere, like the Depths and the Sky Islands.

Honestly I haven't thought about all these side quests and minor characters yet, I'm still trying to sort things out with the main story ^^ But I don't think I'll touch the ones you mentioned, they were fine. I liked the thing with the Eighth Heroine as well, I've seen a lot of people complaining about it but it's one of the only things in the game I actually found interesting. I just can't unsee the parallel with Link and the Seven Sages (of course).

What I'll be doing for sure is making some of the quests and events more serious, I'm kind of aiming for a darker tone. Most of the quests are quite fun (especially the "potential princess sightings" ones), but I feel like this game really lacks some sense of danger and urgency. For example couldn't the people in Hateno have more pressing problems than making cheese or choosing between Cece and Reede? Or was it really a good idea to make lighthearted little quests about misanderstandings with Zelda when her disappearance should be driving Link mad? (I should have included that in my little rant above haha)

I'd also love to make the pirates in Lurelin something more interesting than just a bunch of Bokoblins, but I'm not there yet. And rebuilding the exact same village was kind of meh.

About the Gerudo questioning their traditions, I'm actually planning for my Ganondorf to be a lot more active and go to Gerudo Town in order to meet his people (I want him to care about them, so he wouldn't attack them the same way he targets the others). I don't have all the details yet but I'm pretty sure there will be a conflict between Riju's supporters and other Gerudo who believe he's their rightful ruler (at first they wouldn't know he's actually that one king who turned into Calamity Ganon). So that's another tradition for them to question.

The consequences of Ganondorf being the only Gerudo male are something I've been wondering about as well. Add to that the fact that he's raised to be king because he's male (and maybe even kind of worshiped by his people) and you get something that can turn nasty real quick. Though I also wonder if Gerudo aren't different from Hylians. You said you hc that the Gerudo are only women because they were cursed so it makes sense that you would view it this way, but on my part I believe that's just how they were created. For that reason I think this is natural for them, so it's possible that it doesn't cause exactly the same problems it would for us or for Hylians.

About Demise, yes of course Ganondorf is more than just Demise's hatred. But in this game it doesn't seem to matter, he kind of turns into a second Demise as soon as he gets his secret stone and his motivations instantly go from conquering/ruling to destroying everything and everyone. They could have done something a lot more nuanced or at least shown a more gradual transition, with him being more and more consumed by his hatred and loosing control for example. I don't know, anything that would look less like a comically caricatural villain riding a demon unicorn.

Also about Demise's curse, I always thought it sounded more like a warning than an actual curse, and I remember reading somewhere that this was the intention in the original Japanese text. In French Demise even says something like "you must never forget, history will repeat itself" instead of "I will rise again", and he and speaks of the curse of the demon tribe (implying that it existed before). Even in English it doesn't sound like Demise himself is casting a curse: "Those like you… Those who share the blood of the Goddess and the spirit of the Hero… They are eternally bound to this curse". He doesn't say "I curse you" or "I bound you to this curse". I feel like this makes a difference (the curse already exists). This is why I interpret it as him basically saying that evil will not die with him and that Link and Zelda/the Hylians as a whole will always have to fight the demon tribe, but not necessarily his reincarnation. So I don't even believe that Demise himself is influencing Ganondorf in any way.

About the Zonai Zelda explains she studied them at the beginning of TotK and recognizes what's depicted on the murals, so it seems strange that sky beings could get mixed with a tribe of barbarians living in the woods. But yeah history getting lost and mixed is the only explanation for this.

Oh you're completely right about the Mogma, I got the same vibe from them! And a Mogma mafia sounds hilarious ^^ I love the Rocktato, Link would definitely eat something like that 😆

I need to take some time to read through your master list, it all looks very promising!

[unu-nunu-art]

(in case of compression issues, follow these links for their full sheets on DeviantArt: Faith’s reference, Frenzy’s reference)

Their bio can be found right under the cut, and if you have any further questions, let me know!

Let's start 2021 with a bang by introducing two new characters! Designing these two took much longer than expected but it was really worth it. I’m super happy about the results and am very excited to share these two with you!

As usual I am a bit nervous about sharing my characters... I really, really hope you like them!! >u<

Name: Faith Occupation: Representation of all positive Alternate Universes and pacifist timelines Age: ??? Height: About 140 cm (slightly taller than your regular Sans) Sexual Orientation: Is a concept he accepts and supports Likes: Getting on Frenzy's nerves, getting the respect he deserves, balance, sweets and food (and also drinks) in general, peace, celebrations Dislikes: Frenzy, having to work, battles, rain, loneliness Abilities: He is able to influence the feelings of others around him in a positive way at will. He is also able to create illusions and is able to use magic that is fueled by the positive side of determination. The more positive influence in the multiverse prevails the more powerful he is. He possesses a wooden staff that can be used to channel magic in any form, but is also helpful in combat. He is also able to shapeshift, which will only change his appearance but not his physical or magical abilities and is limited to copy only existing characters within the AU he’s currently in.

Faith represents any good force in the multiverse and therefore refers to himself as a "god", even though he has no ability to directly influence the multiverse. He is outgoing, kind, a bit simple-minded but also slightly narcissistic and prefers when things are peaceful. He also likes to celebrate, but usually prefers to watch from a distance and doesn't get too involved into the events of each timeline. He can get whiny and childish when things aren't going in his favor, but it can be unclear whether he just wants to get on your nerves or is actually upset. He is more of a background character, but whenever he feels the need to jump into action will do so - after an audible sigh. Whenever he cannot avoid combat, he usually tries to get things over with as quickly as possible. Although he cannot get permanently hurt or die, he still can feel pain and will need time to recover after a fatal blow. He can be a bit cheeky and sometimes forgets others have earthly needs, as he has no need to eat or sleep, but loves doing so out of pleasure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Frenzy Occupation: Representation of all negative Alternate Universes and genocide timelines Age: ??? Height: About 140 cm (slightly taller than your regular Sans) Sexual Orientation: Is a concept he accepts and utilizes Likes: Getting on Faith's nerves, quiet, ruin, spreading doubt, manipulation, scheming, just really making your life miserable in general, sea food Dislikes: Faith, crowded places, know-it-alls, bright colors Abilities: He is able to influence the feelings of others around him in a negative way at will. He is also able to create illusions and is able to use magic that is fueled by the negative side of determination. The more negative influence in the multiverse prevails the more powerful he is. His weapons are daggers, but he's also able to control vines. He is also able to shapeshift, which will only change his appearance but not his physical or magical abilities and is limited to copy only existing characters within the AU he’s currently in.

Frenzy represents any bad force in the multiverse, even though he has no ability to directly influence the multiverse. He is a trickster that loves to mess with you, is calculating and silver-tongued, which only gains more impact by his abilities to manipulate emotions at will. He is driven by his hunger for power and likes nothing better than ruining timelines and turning them into a negative timeline. Mostly everything he says might sound slightly sarcastic, making it hard to distinguish whether he actually means it or not. He won't hesitate to jump into combat, although he will usually try to pull strings from the background or backstab you first. He cannot be hurt permanently or die, but he can still feel pain and if fatally injured will need time to recover. He has no need to sleep or eat, but enjoys these activities. He has a special fondness for sea food for some reason.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Additional notes:

They are NOT brothers. Being immortal beings, they aren’t related by blood and don’t consider themselves as brothers, but rivals

The general feud between them can be seen as a game. Frenzy is the one who actively tries to disturb the balance of the multiverse as total control would mean he is able to wipe out the entire multiverse. This is why Faith is serious about keeping the balance intact, but ultimately treats it like it's a hobby of his

When Faith and Frenzy tried to influence the same person at the same time, they'd cancel each other out (unless the balance is disturbed)

The halos around their heads display how much power they have - the higher the imbalance, the larger and intricate (or smaller and more simple) they become. However, they can be hidden by both Faith and Frenzy. Frenzy often hides his own, while Faith proudly wears it.

The reference sheets refer to them when the multiverse is in balance

Frenzy usually keeps his hood up, while Faith usually just wears it to emphasize his status

Their weapons can be summoned at will

Their names refer to the good and bad side of determination: Faith refers to the fact to never give up Hope, no matter how dire the situation might be, while Frenzy refers to the obsessive pursuit to achieve a goal no matter what it takes

[tomaturtles]

Are you familiar with the sonic comics? If so which one should I start with?

Somewhat!! I've read bits and pieces of Sonic comics on occasion since i was a kid, but I've been keeping up with the currently ongoing IDW Sonic comics since they started, so if you're asking me because of the Sonic comic stuff I've been reblogging lately I can probably help you!

First things first: Sonic has had his fair share of comic book adaptations over the years, but Sonic comic series are independent from each other for the most part (not counting miniseries/spinoffs and the like), so whichever series you vibe with the most is fine to read. I'll mostly talk about IDW Sonic since it's the current one and the one I know best, but I'll mention a couple of the most known others too.

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Publishing)

IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog is the most recent and currently ongoing Sonic comic! It started in 2018, not long after Archie Sonic ended, and some of its creative staff went on to work on IDW Sonic as well. The comic has its own continuity, which is based on the Sonic games' universe for the most part, although it also introduces its own original characters along the way.

Issues are released monthly. As of this post, the main series is at issue #46 and there are two annuals and three 4-issue miniseries; two complete (Tangle & Whisper and Bad Guys) and one ongoing, with one issue out (Imposter Syndrome).

The main series is pretty straightforward, but since the miniseries' events are part of the main storyline I'll try to provide a chronological reading list for it that includes the annuals and miniseries' place in the story:

Sonic the Hedgehog #1 - #12

Sonic the Hedgehog Annual #1 (2019)

Sonic the Hedgehog #13 - #16 (beginning of the Metal Virus Saga)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Tangle & Whisper #1 - #4

Sonic the Hedgehog #17 - #29 (Metal Virus Saga)

Sonic the Hedgehog #30 - #32 (aftermath of the Metal Virus Saga)

Sonic the Hedgehog Annual #2 (2020) (short stories set during the Metal Virus Saga)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1 - #4

Sonic the Hedgehog #33 - #46 (latest released as of now)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #1

It's probably fine to go on reading the main series and check out the miniseries and annuals as you feel it's needed (especially the annuals, since they're composed of short oneshot stories), but I hope this helps if you want a chronological order!

The Metal Virus Saga is the only one I named since it's the longest story arc in the comic so far. Heads up that this arc deals with a zombie apocalypse-esque situation that might somewhat resemble our.... current pandemic situation, in case that's potentially upsetting

Also, while you'll get the most out of reading from the beginning, #33 onwards (+ Bad Guys) is a good starting point if you haven't read the series but are curious about newcomers Surge and Kit and wanna check out their Imposter Syndrome miniseries! The main series and Imposter Syndrome will be releasing interchangeably over the next few months until issue #50.

Lastly, I didn't include them above as they aren't part of the main continuity, but Sonic the Hedgehog: 30th Anniversary Special and the story Amy's new Hobby in Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Free Comic Book Day 2021 are both set in the classic continuity and can be read on their own, and they're super cute!

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)

By far the longest running one (it ran for 24 years and the main title has 290 issues)! Most of it has a continuity pretty different from the games that did its own thing, but from issue #252 onwards a new continuity closer to the games was estabilished (though it still carried over some stuff from the previous continuity). Has a bunch of miniseries/spinoffs, the longest one being Sonic Universe, which has 94 issues and mostly has independent 4-issue arcs that focus on characters other than Sonic.

I'm not a big Archie Sonic connoisseur though i've read some of it, but if you wanna check out Archie without reading from the beginning some starting spots I usually see recommended are from #160 onwards, which is where Ian Flynn's run starts (he went on to also write for IDW Sonic) or #252, where the reboot starts! I've read some of Sonic Universe and imo it's also okay to read without knowing everything from the main book for the most part.

Also, my friend who IS an Archie Sonic connoisseur made an Archie Sonic downloads post you can check out here!

Sonic the Comic

Also known as Sonic Fleetway because of the publisher, this one's a British comic that ran from 1993 to 2003! To my knowledge, it also doesn't follow the games and does its own thing. I admittedly know very little about this one and haven't read it, but I assume it's okay to start from the beginning!

There are other Sonic comics but I know even less about those so I'll stop here for now :') Hope this helps!!!

[michibikionmain]

Sapnap's Lore Teaser: Assorted Thoughts and Ideas

we are just being FED sapnap content lately huh god bless i aint complainin its about time

JUST LIKE ITS ABOUT TIME WE GET THE SAPNAP LORE TEASER LETS GOOOO

I havent looked at it super in-depth yet, but I did watch it a few times through and I have some thoughts/theories/discussions to put out from my assorted ramblings in discord lmfao. theyre below the cut enjoy!! tw for torture mentions and fighting ig? nothing graphic or detailed but just in case :)

The glitching/flashing images over the community house for the ending segment aren't just of the community house, they're also pictures of Kinoko Kingdom?? IS HE- IS HE FORESHADOWING?? FORESHADOWING EITHER 1. HES NOT GONNA LET KINOKO KINGDOM END UP LIKE THE COMMUNITY HOUSE MEANING WE GET OVER PROTECTIVE SAPNAP ARC 2. HES GONNA DESTROY KINOKO KINGDOM BECAUSE, SIMILAR TO DREAMS DOWNFALL LEADING UP TO DOOMSDAY AND THE DISK FINALE, SAPNAP HAS REALIZED THAT GOOD THINGS DONT LAST ON THE SERVER, LEAST OF ALL FOR HIM, SO HE'LL GET RID OF THEM HIMSELF

The pathway hes standing on looks like the prime path or the pathways leading up to the prison. you can tell based on like the- the wood and chiseled stone bricks. hes near the community house in the end frame where he pulls out the sword. the fact that he pulls out a sword feels important as well because if he was just destroying things, he would use flint and steel or tnt or some other kind of destructive material. but swords? swords are only good for bamboo, cobwebs, and killing in minecraft. so hes definitely preparing to either kill or fight someone as he approaches the community house.

The flashes of kinoko kingdom that appear over sapnap looking at the community house in both the past and present lead me to believe that he's mentally connecting them, as in seeing history repeat itself, and that the symbols of his past memories are "gone" hence the title. So using that kind of inference, he's probably killing someone at the community house, someone that has some kind of connection to kinoko kingdom and probably doomsday or the past in some way.

that narrows things down pretty well in my eyes to Dream, George, Karl, Quackity, or Sam.

I don't think it's Dream. If he's going to kill Dream, why show the community house and not the prison or something? Or allude to the prison in anyway? I feel like their relationship will be an important factor in the Sapnap lore but I don't think that's who sapnap is planning to fight/kill.

Similarly, I don't think it's Karl. Yes Karl's in Kinoko Kingdom and is connected to memory and time and all that, but... he doesn't have the same connections to the past of the smp. He has a lot of lore but its mostly background type of lore i guess? its not tied to a lot of the major plot events, and while its affected sapnap, I don't think its gotten to the point of sapnap wanting to fight or kill karl yet.

George has been there since the beginning with Sapnap and Dream, so he's got the connections to the past, plus he's in Kinoko Kingdom with Sapnap. We also know due to his Dreaming lore that he still cares about Dream and wants him to come back and be with them again outside of the prison. He wants to ignore all the bad Dream has done because he cares for him more than he cares for the server overall. This could be an interesting conflict between their characters and I think it's possible, though unlikely because this is George we're talking about. My mans doesn't DO serious lore like this.

That leaves Quackity and Sam, who honestly id be satisfied with it being either of these two, but I think Quackity is more likely. I'll explain.

Quackity is not in Kinoko Kingdom, it's true, but this is a source of conflict for him. He's upset that he's not in Kinoko Kingdom, that his fiancées didn't invite him to their new country especially after spending so much time building a new country for all of them together. We also have many shots from Quackity's own lore streams which show him walking along that same path to get to the prison. Could be a coincidence, but personally? Personally I think it's an interesting parallel, especially when you take in to consideration that in Sapnap's prison visit lore stream he mentioned not wanting Dream to escape, but that he still cared for Dream and loved him even though he fucked up big time. Maybe Sapnap finds out that Quackity has been torturing Dream somehow and goes to confront him about it? This situation makes the most sense to me, at least compared to Sam

Sam lines up with the messages about the past and the community house and the connection between the original SMP/history with the current SMP, but he really doesnt have any connection to Kinoko Kingdom that I'm aware of. He could approach Sam possibly for allowing Quackity to torture Dream in prison, or something along those lines, but ehhhh Makes sense, would work for him to do that, but I'm not really sure how to tie that into the Kinoko Kingdom evidence yet.

No matter what happens though, I'm SO excited for Sapnap lore becuase I think his character is definitely one of the most fascinating on the server and yknow what? ill say it im biased i just think hes neat

[ipatrichor]

are there... are there more details about Revivebur teaming up with Grian and being a fanboy like you mentioned on the ask blog because I'm gonna cry that is so precious to me

not currently, but i can come up with some if you'd like!! ^^

- when he gets the team lists, he's super excited!! he gets to team with both techno and lord grian dreamslayer??? just imagine, if he'd stayed dead he would never have gotten to experience this. he's really happy!!

- like irl, he practices not swearing! since ranboo also doesn't swear, he asks for tips and listens very diligently as ranboo comes up with bullshit stuff on the spot because he's not avoiding swearing per say, he just... doesn't. he wants to help his new friend, tho, so he does his best to give suggestions!

- so wilbur practices by stubbing his toe and not swearing! tommy finds him doing this and is concerned, until he explains what's happening and tommy also gets excited. he offers to help wilbur practice by kicking him in the shins, and laughs at him when he agrees (tommy still does it, though he doesn't kick nearly as hard as he's capable of). mostly, it's just the two of them joking around while tommy tries to trick him into swearing

- he does get embarrassed abt forgetting the outfit :' he got too excited about the whole thing and it just completely slipped his mind, but he's glad that he wasn't the only one and that the others only jokingly tease him about it and aren't actually upset

- wilbur is pretty nervous about the whole thing, but grian and jimmy's easygoing attitudes paired with techno's familiar casual humor helps him relax a lot!

- buildmart is a high point for him, being a floater plays to his strengths as well as scratching the persistent itch in his brain to be useful :' it makes him really happy when grian compliments the team's communication afterwards, bc he also feels like they did a really good job and the confirmation from someone whose opinion he respects is rlly nice :D

- he does fall back into the role he used to have in previous tournaments of cheering the team up and keeping spirits high. it takes a bit to readjust to it, but thankfully he has high energy that day and his positive attitude & silly bits like replacing swearing with scatting keep the team's energy up as well

- his personal score being eighth is absolutely thrilling, esp when techno comes over to celebrate w him! he gets even more excited bc of it, and ends up expending more energy than he means to (which is fine in the moment! but becomes a slight problem later)

- the gong is great!! it's very nice actually, and helps him level out his energy levels a bit. unfortunately this man is zero or one hundred after Certain Things That Happened, so the gong lowering his energy actually kinda causes his crash sooner than it would have happened otherwise

- so u know how in the actual event, cc!wilbur's fire alarm went off? so i've decided the in-universe equivalent of that is he got too worked up by the energy/excitement of the event and everything and ends up having a bit of a breakdown in the middle of parkour tag. he ends up sitting out for a little bit to regain his composure (which his team is very understanding of!! mental health is a complicated thing, and none of them are exactly strangers to panic attacks) and phil subs in for him for a bit while he calms down

- anyway things are a bit better after that ^^ he's a lot calmer, and kinda embarrassed about what happened but they're not letting him be apologetic bc dude this kind of thing happens sometimes, it's fine

- also, grian being a bit tough on himself helps humanize him in a way bc wilbur gets it like 'oh same' so they're both supportive of each other and it's a nice dynamic, they sort of start to bond a little

- they're all disappointed abt not making it to dodgebolt, and wilbur is blaming himself bc he had a breakdown in the middle of parkour tag and played poorly for a bit there (by which i'm referencing when he was afk in the actual event). they all cheer each other up pretty quickly tho, and for once it's hard to hold onto the bad when the rest of his teammates are actively focusing on the good parts of the day and engaging with him in discussion about those good parts

- while dodgebolt is happening, grian actually takes him aside for a bit and, without prying, offers advice and a few breathing exercises that could help in a similar situation in the future. he also gives him his com number, and tells him that if he has any other questions abt that stuff or he just needs someone to talk to then he's welcome to call (with a joke about like 'as long as you keep it pg' or something)

- after the event, he goes up to grian and asks him for a favor. when he explains what and why, grian smiles and agrees. getting back, wilbur goes to see tommy and presents him with an autograph signed by lord grian dreamslayer. tommy hadn't asked wilbur to bring him one, but he didn't have to- wilbur knew he looks up to the guy bc of his dreamslayer title, and he knew getting an autograph would make him happy so he did it

- idk, wilbur just has a good day and a lot of fun at a friendly tournament, and makes some friends bc he deserves happiness and good things :}

[etherealjaunt]

Should I get this cookie run game? I'm interested to know what it's like and I'm looking for an experienced person to ask if they reccomend it or not

It’s a bit long but i hope this gives you a clear idea of what the games are like as well as the company behind them: Cookie Run Ovenbreak (the “main” game): Gameplay: - 2d side scroller - you run and collect jellies/points - 2 main keys: jump/slide - each cookie has different perks and abilities - compete in races where the winner with a higher score gets rewards - compete in guild races with other members to beat other guilds for rewards - events and new cookies released often PROS: - cute art, music, and characters - fun for a while CONS: - extremely grindy, it became a chore really fast and i dreaded playing it - it’s PAY TO WIN if you’re a new player and haven’t invested a lot of time yet to make it “bearable” - new cookies are generally the “META” meaning you need them to score well (thus P2W) - it can be difficult to keep up/score well enough if you fall behind because of the constant new “you must get this new cookie” updates - events are very repetitive Yes/No? I personally would say no after playing it for a while. It maybe fun for the first while but it gets grindy and boring. == Puzzle World (the “match 3″ game): Gameplay: - matching game - unlock/use cookies with different abilities/power ups PROS/CONS: - i can’t really list these since i’m not interested in matching games Yes/No? If you’re into matching games and you like characters then sure ==

Cookie Run Kingdom (the farm/pvp game): Gameplay: - new, so easy to catch up atm - farm resources to create items - decorate your kingdom with buildings and deco items - small pool of cookie characters (for now) - pvp system with a customizable team of cookies to fight each other - story/lore to follow with story map - dialogue and voices available - each cookie has different skills and stats - frequent events - guilds will probably be released soon PROS: - one of the easier and more ‘forgiving’ type farm games - very cute art, music, and characters - many interactions you can do with the cookies and the decorations/buildings - combat system is fun - clear timeline of events and upcoming events CONS: - it crashes so damn much - it’s imbalanced in terms of cookies, (ex. you ABSOLUTELY NEED espresso to win) - not as P2W as ovenbreak CURRENTLY, but i do see the possibility since that’s how they messed up their old game Cookie Wars - unclear at times and has translation errors (ex. details about the buff items for pvp is inconsistent with KR text) - it’s not very balanced with overall character skills and items (ex. attack speed is kind of useless but they still make it a “thing”, and crit resist)

Yes/No? If you’re really interested in trying the cookie run games, this is probably the one you should go for. It’s still new (released in late january 2021) so it’ll be easy for you to catch up. You can get a head start when things become more P2W (which they most likely will) But be prepare for crashes and frequent long maintenances. == Devsisters (the company itself): Before deciding, I think it’s good to also know a bit about the company. I want to make it clear that they are not an indie company. It is a corporation that is owned and run by men. The management team behind this company purposely chose the name Devsisters as a marketing tactic so investors and customers were “more likely” to choose to work with them when they think the company is run by women. They have a very long history of showing misogyny within their games despite the cute characters and supposed representation. If you want to read about it in detail, you can check it out here:

{{WARNING: it may be upsetting and have sensitive content such as clear misogyny and homophobia}}  twitter(DOT)com/I_love_My1a/status/1360645981918744578 (Also just in case someone tries to argue since it has happened) Many KR players HAVE contacted the team about these issues a long time ago. The company waited a long time and MASS REPLIED to all reports with the SAME COPY AND PASTE MESSAGE of in a nutshell: “sorry we can’t do anything”. But are super quick to take action when men are mocked/insulted in usernames/messages == Conclusion: What i’m trying to say is, if you do decide to play the games or just join in the fandom(+ consume the cute character content), it’s good to be aware that the people managing it may not be genuine and the games can be quite P2W.

Some players found it difficult to keep playing or staying with the series after these many incidents came to light, some found it even difficult to join the fandom...

They are not much different than the big triple A game companies that have a long history of questionable actions/decisions behind closed doors. (cough blizzard+riot)

The artists and the creative team themselves are still the MVP of the company and the reason why the game is still alive today. (I truly think they’re just trying to do what they can to make a living since it is quite difficult to get an art type job especially in South Korea with so many competitors) 

I personally refrain from purchasing too much and think that it’s best to directly support the artists of the team since they do have their own personal social media online.

*~*~*~*TL;DR*~*~*~* It’s a cute game but you don’t need to play it to enjoy it. I personally think that the main success factor are their characters, which you can very well enjoy them on their own without touching the games at all. I hope this was informative and helpful for you! FINAL NOTE: I want to clarify that most of what I said are my opinions only. BUT the contents of the link and the history of the company is real. The evidence is mostly in that tweet but also deeper if you want to look further.

[finitepeace]

this week i read...

Darling, Keep the Lights On (Until I Get Home) by capsicleironman  💙

Summary: When Steve Rogers is awoken from the ice early, he is assigned as the personal assistant to Tony Stark, the man on TV with the strange glowing light in his chest. The plan was simple - protect and gain intel. It was supposed to be just another job, but then again, nothing in Steve's life has ever gone according to plan.

Iron Man 2 Divergence where Steve ends up working for Tony instead of Natasha, and his interest first in the arc reactor and then in Tony himself, leads him through the events of the Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Captain America 2.

17k words 

It's Only Half Past (The Point of Oblivion) by LadyHabren (equalopportunityobsessor)

Summary: "I think it's generally agreed that all of Steve's senses are powered up by the serum? He can hear people whispering on the other side of the room, probably sees a hell of a lot further, etc.

But there are definite downsides. How does Steve control this side effect of the serum?"

Captain America is more than a man - he is a hero, he is an ideal, he is pure muscle held together by patriotism and moral fibre... And not even Captain America can fight it when his own brain turns against him.

4k, sentinel/guide au, not set in mcu, 

Do-Over by gottalovev  💙

Summary: Steve woke up six months ago into a future that leaves him indifferent. There is work, and not much else. His current mission is a basic search and rescue operation to retrieve an American who was kidnapped by a terrorist group ten days ago. He won't let the fact that the hostage is Howard's son be a distraction.

14k words, ironman 1 - 2 but with steve on it!, 

Calls Me Home by steve-capsicle-rogers (adorable_lab_rat)

Summary: Tony can't help but notice the far away look on Steve's face. The visible pain and loss. It wasn't right and giving Steve back everything he'd lost was the right choice. The right thing. And honestly Tony didn't do the right thing near enough.

9k words, post avenger 1, tony time travels to victory day with steve to make him happy 

Memorial by hanyou_elf

Summary: Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God.

Steve visits Arlington's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in lieu of visting the tombs of those he's lost.

600+ words, steve visits his grave and tony supports 

Damaged by orphan_account

Summary: Prompt: Can you write a story where Tony is having heart problems again even after the shrapnel and arc reactor is removed, like he needs a pacemaker or something please? :)

Steve is worried about Tony after the doctor tells them Tony needs a pacemaker. Tony being Tony decides to build something better.

2k words, arc reactor + health problem 

Warning by laireshi

Summary: Tony's left arm hurts.

100 words, angst post-civil war au 

Told You Dirty Jokes Until You Smiled by ChibiSquirt  💙

Summary: Steve was waiting at light, casually checking out the man in the car behind him, when his phone pinged.

75k words. WIP T_T . steve is cap but tony isnt ironman (yet?). steve is awaken before ironman 1 and meets tony, proceed to have friends with benefits arrangement... 

blood, Lies, and Love by Ridley160

Summary: When Steve Rogers volunteered for Project Rebirth they told him they would make him a hero. No one bothered to tell him that the serum would change him into a monster that needed to feed on the blood of the living for survival. Now he has woken up 70 years in a future where there are more like him and his affliction is now seen as gift. Only Steve is convinced that he is at his core still just a monster.

Then he meets the brilliant, quirky and charismatic Tony Stark, the only person in this crazy new world that seems to understand Steve's misgivings about what he is, but Tony is haunted by something. A secret he has carefully guarded for many years that forced him to push everyone away.

33k words in 13 chapters, steve is cap + a vampire but tony isnt ironman, 

Blood Loss by wisia

Summary: The serum really did work a miracle. It created Captain America, and Tony would like the serum to work a miracle on him too. If only he didn’t fall in love.

5k words, set in captain america 1st avenger, tony is scientist/adventurer looking for a cure for his heart problem 

scientific Heresy by antigrav_vector

Summary: In the process of running the particle accelerator in his basement and fixing the arc reactor, Tony finds himself flung into the past where he has to take on a fight not his own if he wants to get home to stop Vanko. At least he had a chance to replace the old rector that had been killing him with the new one before everything went sideways... But now he has no choice but to face off with family, friends, and old heroes, and none of that sounds remotely appealing. Well, okay, getting to meet them all during their glory days kinda does.

But as it turns out, they're not exactly what he imagined, and his path home is a lot longer than he'd hoped it would be.

And a lot more complicated.

34k words in 12 chapters, time travel au @ cap 1 and ironman 2, steve/tony/bucky 

we will meet in another life by theappleppielifestyle

Summary: Tony is there instead of Howard during Project Rebirth. He ends up following Steve into the Howling Commandos, into the Atlantic ocean and into the 21st century.

6k words, canon divergence. 

Keep on Beating by itsallAvengers

Summary: There were an awful lot of things Steve loved about Tony. But one thing in particular Steve could never get enough of was his heartbeat.

6k words, self-sacrificing tony strikes again and steve is upset.. so tony comes to a solution... 

Coming Up Roses by NobodysBloodyPrincess  💙

Summary: Those with a death wish referred to the High Commander’s infatuation with the late Tony Stark as an ‘obsession.’ They were wrong. It had to be more than that, after all there was no word for what the High Commander was about do in the name of making things right.

No one gets a redo of life… no one except High Commander Rogers that is. Everything is coming up Roses and Sunshine for him. After all, he has a dream and it’s going to come true.

41k words in 3 chapters, beautiful but a bit dark and sad, just like the author said: “‘i’ll be with you till the end of line’ but stony”, definitely one of the best fic i’ve read because THEY ARE HAPPY T_T 

The One With Bucky's Biggest Fan by justanotherpipedream

Summary: Steve still can’t believe how long it took for him to notice. It wasn’t a secret really, just something that no one had cared to ask...it honestly took Rhodey pulling him aside and pulling out an old photo album, before Steve really understood.

Tony Stark was a Bucky Barnes fan.

(aka The one where Tony is the biggest Bucky Barnes fanboy, Steve is a supportive boyfriend, and Bucky is perplexed by it all.)

2k words, it’s all in the summary 

Sins of the Mother by skullshy  💙

Summary: All she could see when her eyes closed was Steve’s face in the courtroom. Stern, pained— with that fucking all-American self-righteousness.

Toni wondered for years whether it would have made a difference. Told him that she was pregnant, that Ultron was to protect their baby, and how sorry she was.

On her worst days, she imagined it wouldn’t have mattered.

23k words in 23 chapters, female tony stark, civil war (or age of ultron?) canon divergence 

So this is bonded life by Captainstark12

Summary: Steve had been protecting the human village from hydra creatures like him for five years. And now he was ready to take his prize as he had the privilege of choosing an omega to bear his child. Hopefully his chosen omega human would want him back as much as he wanted him

4k in 6 chapters, mythology au 

I don't think there's a manual for this by itsallAvengers

Summary: So. His son can stick to things, apparently.

If only Tony had realised this before he'd caught him hanging off the 89th floor of the tower.

Well. Parenting was never going to be a smooth road, was it?

2k words, stony adopts peter parker and then they become superfamily 

For Your Eyes Only by SarahHBE

Summary: Every soldier looks forward to mail call. But Alpha Steve Rogers gets a big surprise with the letter his Omega, Tony Stark, has sent him.

2k words, explicit bcs of sexual content 

It Was Just A Matter Of Time by babynative

Summary: The clock was ticking. And then, black.

719 words, civil war canon divergence, angst 

This Can't Be The Last by MusicalLuna

Summary: Hours after a mission ends, Tony's heart starts to race.

1k words, tony had a heart attack, but not angst! 

The Billionaire and the Army Captain by Neverever

Summary: Facing finanical ruin and needing to care for his sick daughter, Steve Rogers agrees to marry Tony Stark, who needs to get married by his 30th birthday to inherit. It's just a job for Steve until he starts to fall for the enigmatic billionaire.

12k words, non-powers au, 

Adopt by greenteeth  💙

Summary: Steve's life is the same as usual. He goes to work, fights super villains, banters with other Avengers and goes home to an empty apartment. Until the son of an old friend shows up asking for help, well sex first, then help. Suddenly Steve is married, fighting super villains, worrying what Obadiah Stane and coming home to Tony most nights of the week.

42k words in 17 chapters, ABO, tony is not iron man, the story is complete but it’s a part of series that seems to never see the light T_T 

The Act of Creation Will Be Your Salvation  by scifigrl47  💙

Summary: When Tony Stark was seventeen years old, he built his first AI. On that day, he ceased to be his father's creation, and became a creating force in his own right.

That one act likely saved his life, and not always in the most obvious ways.

84k words in 8 chapters, stony but mostly looking through his AI bots a.k.a. jarvis and dum-e, definitely one of the best fics ever! 

Bewitched, Body and Soul by iam93percentstardust

Summary: Almost ten years after joining the British Army, Steve Rogers returns to his childhood home after his mother's death. The house seems quiet in a way that it's rarely been. But the peace is shattered when his oldest friend stumbles into his home and into his life, seeking an escape from an arranged marriage to a cruel lord. Steve provides that escape but finds himself engaged to be married instead. This wouldn't be a problem - except that Steve is, always has been, and always will be deeply in love with Tony Stark.

16k words, regency AU, ABO,  the classic stony misunderstanding trope 

Right place, right time by hkandi, ralsbecket

Summary: An alternate take on the Captain America: The First Avenger movie. Tony is working with his dad to help out the SSR on this new project, though he and Steve happen to run into each other before that, and sparks fly from the start.

8k, CA: First avenger AU with tony stark present

[lilatreus]

im new to the ac fandom and i didnt know there were any books should i be reading them?? or are there certain ones that i absolutely need to read or would i be okay if i skip them?

Yeah it’s okay to skip them if you want! They’re mostly there to give some more insight on some of the characters. If you want to read them but you don’t have to money to buy the books, you can read them here. I actually have all the books already on paper copy so I would definitely recommend buying them if you really enjoy them.

There’s also some comics and graphic novels about them too which I have included in on the master list. They actually follow the modern storyline of you want to read up on that. If you want to read them just do readcomicsonline. They have them all, only watch out for ads.

Anyway here’s the master list, it’s pretty long won’t lie:

The books, in order of strictly historical events:

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey by Gordon Doherty (2018)

Basically this books gives the canonical story to assassin’s creed odyssey following Kassandra around Greece. If you had the “best” or good ending from the story then you’re probably going to be upset with the book. I actually liked it and if you were ever confused about the game then this is definitely for you to read.

Assassin’s Creed Origins: Desert Oath by Oliver Bowden (2017)

This book takes place years before Origins. It follows Bayek who a teenager at the time. We learn how Bayek and Aya start their relationship and it kind of explains some of the side missions that talk about Bayek’s past. If you love Bayek and Aya’s relationship you will love this book.

[ insert for whenever an ac valhalla book is written ]

Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade by Oliver Bowden (2011)

This book is the one I’m currently rereading, so it takes place with the father of Marco Polo talking about Altaïr’s life. It talks about his—Altaïr’s—dad within the first few chapters, events that happened in the game, and then what happens after. It gives more insight on what happened between the events of ac one and the little bits of scenes we see in ac revelations of Altaïr in game. If you want to know how Maria and Altaïr got together you’ll like this book it’s very sweet and I love how smitten Altaïr was. If you love Atlmal (Altaïr and Malik) you’ll also like this book but it will crush you.

Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance by Oliver Bowden (2009)

This follows Ezio through assassin’s creed two. Literally just the book version of the game. Does talk about how Ezio and Cristina got together and a few of the memories you get to play in Brotherhood are in this book. I like it. It pretty much follows the game exactly so if you want to skip it, you can but still a really good book that I recommend reading.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood by Oliver Bowden (2010)

Follows the plot of the game. It’s pretty similar to it as opposed to a few differences. While I like this book, I will always say the game is better than this book entirely. Still, it’s pretty good and explains a lot of plot.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden (2011)

It explains why Ezio is doing what he does in the game. Why he’s there and what is reasoning is. You get a little small bit about Claudia but that’s it. Ezio does, in book, visit Leonardo on the last few days before the artist dies :( that’s pretty much it. Only some minor differences to the game. If you’re looking for something about Desmond, you won’t find it in this book.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag by Oliver Bowden (2013)

I’ll be honest I only read this book once so my memory is pretty poor on it but from what I can remember it’s about Edward and Caroline and how they got together. And then there’s something about Anne Boney and Edward towards the end I believe. Kind of explains his backstory from the little scenes we’re shown in the game I think? (Correct me if I’m wrong on this one but I’m certain that’s the gist of it).

Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden (2012)

This one was the first assassin’s creed book I read. Now fair warning: if you do not like Haytham Kenway, I strongly advise you to not read this book. It is all about Haytham until the final few chapters and then Connor takes over the book once you’ve killed him in game. This book explains how he (Haytham) came to be apart of the Templars and how Edward dies. It talks about his relationship with Ziio and how he built the Templar order up during the seven years war. I’ll be honest it was okay when I first read it because I was like 11 and the only other thing I had read was like just percy jackson. Looking back on this book though, it’s not that great. I do not like Haytham at all so I, personally, would not recommend this book. I went in reading it expecting for it to be about Connor and I was very disappointed and upset that it wasn’t. So you can skip this book if you like because the only thing it does is give insight to a lot of what Haytham does.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity by Oliver Bowden (2014)

This is my favorite book. This is about Arno reading Elise’s diary after she passed. There’s little bits where Arno writes in here and there throughout the novel. It’s pretty sad I won’t lie. Explains how Elise grew up, what she did during the parts where we didn’t see her in game, and talks about how she felt during the parts where we did see her in game. Basically at the end of the book it’s Elise asking Arno to please help seek unity and stop the war between the Templars and Assassins.

Assassin’s Creed: Underworld by Oliver Bowden (2015)

This book follows Jayadeep Mir, also known to us as Henry Green. There’s two parts to this book. The first part takes place six years before the events of syndicate and you get to really learn about the twin’s father and then the second part takes place during the events of the game. It talks about Evie and Henry’s relationship during the second part and it’s pretty good!

There are no books about assassin’s creed chronicles (ac China, India, and Russia) if you’re wondering why they’re missing :(

The comics:

*most of these take place during the modern storyline I’ll try my best to explain when they come in and how it adds up to the new our modern storyline at the end

Assassin’s Creed the Fall

There’s three issues with this it’s just a graphic novel honestly. Takes place with the main character from AC Chronicles: Russia

Assassin’s Creed the Chain

Graphic Novel sequel to the Fall

Assassin’s Creed Brahman

Written by the same people who wrote The Fall and The Chain, however this focuses on Arbaaz Mir who is the main character from Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India.

Now from what I’ve seen, correct me if I’m wrong, but the templar and assassin comics pretty much take place around the same time.

Assassin’s Creed: Trial by Fire

Assassin’s Creed issue #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Assassin’s Creed Templars: Black Cross

Assassin’s Creed Templars issue #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Assassin’s Creed: Setting Sun

Assassin’s Creed issue #6, #7, #8, #9, #10

Assassin’s Creed Templars: Cross of War

Assassin’s Creed Templars issue issue #6, #7, #8, #9

Assassin’s Creed: Homecoming

Assassin’s Creed issue #11, #12, #13, #14

Assassin’s Creed: Uprising

Common Ground Vol 1: issue #1, #2, #3, #4

Infection Point Vol 2: issue #5, #6, #7, #8

Finale vol 3: #9, #10, #11, #12

Assassin’s Creed Reflections (pretty much a stand alone I would say, focuses entirely on past assassins but canon to the templar comics).

Reflections 1: modern story focuses on Otso Berg historical story focuses on Ezio where we learn Ezio is implied to have hooked up with the woman who in the Mona Lisa painting.

Reflections 2: same thing for modern story but now Otso is looking into Altaïr’s story. We get to see Maria, Altaïr, and their son Darim.

Reflections 3: Otso is now looking into Edward Kenway.

Reflections 4: Otso looks into Connor and we see him with his daughter. It’s super cute this issue is my favorite.

Last Descendants

The Last Descendants (Novel)

Locus: issues 1 - 4

The Last Descendants: Tomb of the Khan (novel)

The Last Descendants: Fate of the Gods (novel)

Assassin’s Creed: the French Books (these have all been translated into english and theyre all graphic novels).

These books I would say to skip. If you want to read it you can, however the modern storyline has been said to no longer be canon anymore. The historical storyline however is still canon but not actually necessary to the plot of anything.

Cycle 1

Assassin’s Creed 1: Desmond

Assassin's Creed 2: Aquilus

Assassin's Creed 3: Accipiter

Assassin's Creed 4: Hawk

Assassin's Creed 5: El Cakr

Assassin's Creed 6: Leila

Cycle 2

Assassin’s Creed: Conspiracies

This takes place during WW2

Vol 1: Die Glocke

Vol 2: Project Rainbow

Cycle 3

Assassin’s Creed: Bloodstone

This takes place during the Vietnam War. A follow up on Conspiracies.

Vol 1: book one

Vol 2: book two

The last two I have listed (Conspiracies and Bloodstone) are canon to the comics’ modern storyline as well as the historical. Cycle one is not. They’re both graphic novels. Also I want to say that I have not read these two yet so idk if I’ll be allowed to recommend them but they’re there. I have no idea where they’re placed in terms of modern storyline bc these two are very confusing seeing as they originally were canon then told they weren’t and now they are again.

Other comics that I really have no idea where to place but they do exist if you want to read them:

Assassin’s Creed: Origins (mini series)

Four issues for this comic takes place following Aya and her journey. You get to see what happens with Cleopatra. I personally really like this comic you get some lore on the Brotherhood and Aya so it’s good. Read this after the video game. (Pretty positive it takes place after the game events but before the DLC: hidden ones)

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Song of Glory (mini series)

There are three issues in this. Haven’t read this one yet, however it focuses on Eivor. Read this alongside the video game.

Okay so for canon timeline purposes here is the exact order of everything I’ve listed and where they fall in for strictly the modern storyline:

1 The Fall and the Chain (also called subject four which is just the two of the books into one)

2 Desmond’s story

3 Brahman

4 Assassin’s Creed: Trial by Fire 1 - 5

5 Assassin’s Creed Templars: Black Cross 1 - 5

6 Assassin’s Creed: Setting Sun 6 - 10

6 Assassin’s Creed Templars: Cross of War 6 - 9

7 Assassin’s Creed: Homecoming 11 - 14

Assassin’s Creed Reflections (stand alone don’t have to read if you don’t want to but if you do, read along side the templar stories.)

8 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate modern storyline takes place here

9 Assassin’s Creed: Uprising

10 Origins modern storyline starts here and continues for assassin’s creed odyssey and valhalla*

*If you’re confused as to why Juno isn’t in the game plot anymore the comics explains it. Ubisoft has completely moved her story to the comics entirely and in doing so completely finished the story.

[ask-iamnotanalicorn]

Previous: The Tirek Timeline

The Discorded Timeline

The new Element bearers had not appeared. With nothing to fall back on, Celestia went to face the return of her sister armed only with her determination and desperation. With the knowledge that anything other than subduing her sister would result in Luna’s death or her ponies’ enslavement, Celestia fought with all her heart. 

A thousand years hadn’t tempered Nightmare Moon’s madness, but it had grown Celestia’s magical skill. The clash of the last remaining alicorns filled the sky with light and darkness that could be seen across the entire country... including from the gardens of the castle in Canterlot, where a long-dormant statue waited.

If Celestia had known the danger... if she had known that the Tree of Harmony had grown weaker over a thousand years... if she had known that the Element magic used to imprison Discord was weakened with it, and he only needed one significant bit of discord to break the last lock on his prison... she might have preferred allowing Nightmare Moon to take the throne. 

Because two alicorn sisters displaying their ground-shattering discord across the skies was more than enough. 

Discord caught them mid-battle...and was honestly kinda irritated to find them more focused on fighting each other than challenging him. He couldn’t even set up a good game for them to lose at before he took over! He’d just have to fix that with a bit of chaos magic. A quick boop to the heads, and... well, things didn’t turn out quite like he expected. Celestia became haughty, snide, and violent, but Luna changed out of her (decidedly tacky, but what could you expect from pony fashion) goth look and turned all nice and weirdly remorseful. Luna tried to appeal to her sister, Celestia (who now had an interesting tinge of fire in her mane) unleashed some demeaning verbal attacks, and pretty soon it looked like they were gearing up for another fight, and...

Well, this was stupid. They were so focused on each other, they weren’t even paying attention to him! He’d fix that with another boop on Celestia’s noggin - really annoying, having to un-chaos someone, but at least it put the two ponies on the same side so they could get their priorities straight and focus on...

Ah, yes, there it was! Just what he’d waited for these past thousand years: two alicorn sisters, both staring at him with horror and worry and that oh-so-precious pony determination. Too bad they had already worn themselves out with their fight over who-knew-what. They were almost pathetically easy to overpower, especially with not an Element in sight.

The princesses were his playthings. Equestria would be shifted and reformed under his chaotic whim. And none stood able to challenge him.

The Reign of Discord had begun.

----

Meanwhile, Salespitch was visiting Canterlot at just the wrong time, and... 

Well, what do you think happens when a lord of chaos notices a pony standing in the middle of the road, trying its hardest to not show how petrified it is, and it has a horn and wings but clearly no alicorn magic? And then said lord of chaos investigates said pony out of curiosity, mocks him about playing princess, and is amazed when said pony actually gets annoyed enough to scold Discord that no, he is NOT an alicorn, he’s never WANTED to be an alicorn, and he would really prefer it if people didn’t mistake him for royalty when he’s just a stallion with a genetic mutation trying to live a normal life!!!

Discord thought that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. 

Long story short, instead of Discording Sales’ personality, Discord just... made his biggest annoyance a reality. Obviously he didn’t give Sales FULL alicorn powers, and what powers he did give him are pretty wonky - the ability to turn random objects into suitcases, and fly upside down, and speak in a dramatic Royal Canterlot Voice at random and totally inconvenient times, etc. The royal regalia was a stroke of genius inspired by one of this new era’s “cartoon characters,” a perky little alicorn called Prince Smiley. (The fact that Sales had once dressed as said character for Nightmare Night was sheer coincidence, although Discord would have found that even more perfect.) 

Obviously Sales was horrified, which is really the wrong reaction, because it just made the whole thing funnier to Discord and thus made the draconequus that much less likely to forget about Sales and go pester other ponies. Anonymity is your friend in Discord’s kingdom.

Now, Discord being Discord, he gets bored of things easily - including mocking and tormenting the powerless alicorn princesses. There’s a whole nation to twist and remodel into a true chaotic kingdom! Plenty of other ponies to give him some variety. Turning them to stone would be so gauche and ruin his single moral high ground over the ponies, so when Discord tires of his princess fun, he turns the alicorn sisters into fillies and leaves them with his newly-appointed Prince of Babysitting. After all, shouldn’t an "alicorn” be in charge of baby alicorns? Discord even made him a lovely glass castle with stone windows - more of a cage, really, since Sales can’t leave it, but he has a throne and everything! Discord doesn’t even have to worry about manipulating somecreatures into worshipping the new “prince”; Sales has already got his own cult that fawns over him outside the see-through castle like a fanclub, to Sales’ eternal embarrassment. Yes, this is clearly the best setup Discord could have come up with all around, takes-hand-off-and-pats-self-on-the-back.

Time passes with no end in sight for the madness that has turned Equestria into a kaleidoscope’d chaos playground. Sales kind of falls into a perpetually annoyed resignation. He tries to be grateful - at least he still possesses full control of his mind, unlike so many ponies outside his weird castle. He has the honor of safeguarding the princesses - although he feels guilty that he can’t actually protect them from Discord’s whims. But he can keep them happy, and the few times he gets to talk with them before or after they’ve been in their baby states, Celestia manages to give him a word of encouragement or gratitude. (Plus, well, they ARE pretty adorable as fillies... even if he is NOT the world’s best babysitter and has to figure things out on the fly. He really wishes his mom were here.)

There is one actual advantage to all this. Ironically, Sales has a closer connection with Discord than most; since Discord made Sales the caretaker of the princesses, he actually talks to Sales sometimes. Granted, he mostly treats Sales as a captive audience to whine at when Discord starts getting bored of whatever recent chaotic plan he’s enacted. After all, when EVERYTHING is chaos... well, chaos almost becomes normal, so Discord keeps having to up himself. Sales actually manages to have conversations with him sometimes, and he’s gotten a glimpse of the truth even Discord can’t or won’t recognize: that he’s lonely, dissatisfied, and lacks a real sense of purpose or fulfillment.

Sales has to treat carefully, since annoying or upsetting Discord too much results in chaotic ‘punishments’ that are usually more disorienting and frustrating than actually harmful. But Sales has started picking his ear a little bit with hints that maybe Discord is bored because most creatures subject to his chaos don’t enjoy it like he does? Maybe sharing fun WITH people is better than just having fun for yourself at others’ expense? I mean, look at you, Discord, the only pony you really talk to is a nobody you made into an alicorn just to embarrass him.  That’s a pretty lonely way to live, isn’t it?

Sometimes Discord listens while making snarky comments. Other times Discord gets irritated and turns Sales into a tiny alicorn who has to ride around on baby Celestia’s back and try not to get stepped on (or something of that nature). But Sales keeps trying and hoping and praying he’ll get through, because if they ever hope to stop Discord’s reign of chaos... well, it might just take teaching the Lord of Chaos what friendship is.

Even if the only pony currently able to make the effort finds him super annoying.

-----

Fun Facts About The Discorded Timeline:

- Yes, Luna’s popsicle is her cutie mark. I suppose once she digests it it will reappear back on her flank. XD

- Cadence hasn’t become an alicorn yet in this timeline. The chaos events do lead to her meeting Shining Armor, though, because TRUE LOVE and such :D

- Sales’ cult ABSOLUTELY LOVES THIS SITUATION. I mean, a lot of them hope/expect that Sales will eventually break free and defeat Discord now that he is showing his true alicorn might. Sales yells at them through the walls sometimes, but they have a hard time hearing him, so naturally they make up all sorts of “godly” nonsense he’s supposedly sharing.

- Discord did in fact accidentally cure Luna of the bad magic that was fueling and feeding off her old rage and paranoia. She and Celestia have pretty well made up through these weird events. And as Discord grows bored of their initial humiliation, his torments get less frightening and more, well, just weird, so life is KINDA bearable. Plus they really like Sales now (they don’t remember their adult selves while they are babies, but Discord makes sure they can remember every embarrassing toddler thing they did when they get aged back to normal.)

- Sales doesn’t know what’s going on with his family, they were back home when this happened. He’s hopeful they didn’t get affected too badly. In fact, Featherhorn (his hometown) got turned into a cardboard village and a few ponies had their heads swapped around, but Discord hasn’t made any connection between them and Sales, so he doesn’t think anything special of the place. Mostly just chocolate rain, flying rhinobunnies, and corncob trees. Everypony agrees it could be worse (but not out loud, that’s just ASKING for trouble!) Also Per talks backwards now, but everyone can still understand her (somehow) so it evens out.

- Black DOES run into Discord at one point while trying to sneak into Sales’s castle. Discord thinks he’s just another of Sales’ fanclub, so he turned him blue and forgot about him. Black finds this super annoying, especially when he can’t change his color no matter what magical disguise he makes.

- Don’t even worry about Sombra, he’s not touching a Discorded Equestria with a ten foot pole. Honestly Discord probably went after him as soon as he showed up, adding the Crystal Empire to his chaos kingdom. 

- The Changelings are staying the HECK away in their nice little magic-negating castle, the only safe haven from Discord. Pony refugees actually try and go there, although it is tricky to get around the thick forest of living candy Discord erected all the way around their territory. Those who do get in exchange servitude and donations of love for safety. It keeps the changelings fed and the ponies feel safer working for bug-ponies in a place of order than out in the madness of Discord’s land.

- So as you might imagine, Sales can’t break through the glass of his glass castle. If he were to try and smash through the stone windows, though... let’s just say he feels really smart AND really dumb while making his escape attempt. It doesn’t go over well with Discord, especially when he manages to successfully pawn the baby princesses off to some of his cult members (one of whom is Black, don’t worry), who hide them away. This leads to a rather heated conversation when Discord catches up with him... and perhaps a moment of truth where Discord might realize he actually does maybe kinda sorta consider this silly brown pony a friend who he possibly doesn’t want to severely punish as a warning to other ponies who might defy him. Maybe.

- Art note: I didn’t draw a background for this one initially, and then I got around to coloring them and knew it needed SOMETHING. Came up with the glass castle with stone windows because that seems Discord-like. Also baby bottle trees. The idea for breaking the stone windows was literally last minute as I wrote this, so bonus!

Next Week: Industrial Devolution (Flim Flim Universe)

[fmdrohan]

hello, hi ! 👋🏽  i hope this introduction post finds everyone well. ♡ i’m no one new to these parts, but for those of you who don’t know me, you can call me alé. i’m 21+, use he/him pronouns, and i’m the current typist for aria’s main vocalist, nina seo, & now, i’m bringing you all yet another muse. so, without further delay, i’d love to introduce you to brand-new creation of mine called 𝖞𝖔���� 𝖗𝖔𝖍𝖆𝖓. he is knight’s main dancer, sub vocalist, and rapper, as well as their currently marketed “sexy” member. outside of his career, he’s honestly just one big douche-bag skater kid that seeks cheap thrills, and who wants to do nothing more than put a smile on your face... even if causes him trouble sometimes. more info about him is below the cut, so please like this to plot ! ♡ tumblr im’s or discord by request.✨ 

𝖍𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞.

born in seoul, south korea, to a working class, christian family.

mom was a manager at a local restaurant, dad worked at a law firm.

both of them were busy all the time; they lived paycheck-to-paycheck.

he didn’t get much attention at home, so he sought it out at school.

there, he was known as a a huge “class clown” or “class daredevil.”

all he wanted was to put smiles on people’s faces and push limits.

did he end up in the principal’s office a lot? YES, that was his “brand.”

as he got older, his class clownery turned to pranks and thrill-seeking.

he also became HELLA interested in skateboarding and parkour lmao.

rohan felt as if he wasn’t living if he wasn’t on constantly on the edge.

he’s broken a few bones, endured tons of scrapes, but never gives in

this, obviously, didn’t please his mother and father... they were just busy.

too busy to reprimand him and care—rohan got away with a loooot of shit.

he didn’t start receiving discipline until he was scouted by bc entertainment.

despite his messy hair, distinct style, and overall vibe, he fit the bill somehow.

the two years he spent in practice changed him a little as a person; for better.

he found a new love in dancing, and he was naturally pretty great at it tbh.

his background made him extremely coordinated, flexible, and really strong.

his fearlessness made him bold enough to try out new moves or stunts.

two years later, he débuted as a main dancer and kept his impulses at bay.

this isn’t exactly what he saw himself doing in life, but he wasn’t mad at it.

over time, his image began to shift into sexier and “stud-lier” territory.

his outfits became more revealing and he was treated differently in public.

this... fucks him up a lot because it’s the exact opposite of how he is.

he’s just some skater / parkour punk that gives off dumb big bro vibes.

how on earth do they expect him to be portray and convey sexy 24/7?

as this is more of a “job” to him than passion, he does what they tell him to.

so long as his checks get signed and he accumulates wealth, he’s good.

𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞.

as mentioned above, rohan gives off very douchey “big brother” vibes.

he’ll pick on you, tease you, pull pranks on you, etc. all in the name of fun.

he’ll go too far sometimes, and he’ll feel bad, but has “no regrets.” 😎  lol.

lowkey loooves anime and draws his own bad sketches; also into sci-fi.

underneath the dumb, douchebag exterior is just a big ol’ nerd, that’s all.

if you’re a cute guy, he’ll DEFINITELY flirt with you—taken or not taken lol.

he’s someone that hasn’t really let being an idol ruin his personal life tbh??

he still does whatever the fuck he wants within the constraints of his contract.

though, whenever he gets “bored,” he does things he’s not supposed to.

bc entertainment’s warned him of being careful not to injure himself, but...

i don’t really think he cares at this point in his career; he likes more freedom.

little random, but he loooves underground / indie rock music and rap, too.

one of those assholes that doesn’t really listen to any other idol music lmao.

to be fair though, he’s not really a massive fan of knight’s music either. 😁

he just sings or raps whatever they tell him to and rolls with the punches.

lowkey wants to take up tattooing and graffiti at some point, he’s that guy.

loooves to talk and meet new people, even if they find him a li’l annoying.

whenever he’s stressed, angry, upset, hungry... he shows it with aggression.

it’s never gotten intense much, but he’s not much of a sensitive “crier” yk.

there’s more of him for me to discover as time goes on, so that’s it for rn!

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙-𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖘.

no plots page yet, sry :/// i’ve been a little busy this week rip.

some ideas will be below though so lmk if they appeal to you!

one, he’s definitely known to ghost people, so... maybe your muse is one of ‘em? like, this would be locked to males in the lgbt community, but you know. give him some really awkward encounters to make him feel like shit for ditching you after tons of sweet talk. sad thing is, he’s aware of it, and it’s mostly because of his schedule, but also ??? he’s just having fun, you know. he doesn’t wanna get tied down to anything right now.

two, maybe that ONE GIRL he tried to fuck with at the beginning of his career. while he knows he’s always been attracted to men, i think he would’ve convinced himself to at least try it out with a woman to make sure he wasn’t also interested in them, too. he’s a MASSIVE flirt and sweet talker, definitely made her feel special, but like... it never really went anywhere because... he just wasn’t into it, but didn’t wanna make her mad lmao. clearly ended up in a break-up and it could be both an ugly or pretty ending imo idk.

three, i’d DIE if other muses in famed were super into skating, or anime, or really any of his interests, too, and they’ve formed a “club” of sorts? just your local band o’ dirtbags who get together and fuck shit up a little bit here and there. i feel like this could be open to anyone who shares any of his interests tbh ??? maybe closer to his age is preferred, but honestly, i’m here to discuss whatever! i’m all for compromises and shit tbh.

four, maybe someone’s he’s lowkey seeing ( male, male-presenting lock ) that he’s really vibing with, but he just can’t... feasibly reason why he should have a bf right now. he’s got a lot going on, so he’s kind of a flake, but at the same time, he doesn’t intend to be an asshole to them. they’re maybe one of the only people he’s “softer” with. can end up romantic or platonic depending on how they handle it together, me thinks!

five, a dance partner or two would be pretty cool tbh! he’s not a dancer first, so he likes to dance with other people who are passionate about it to learn from ‘em. he can handle his own with choreography, but doesn’t have his own distinct style, so he’d really appreciate all the help he can get in becoming better ig? all in the name of work!

six, maybe a person who fucking HAAAATES him because they find him really annoying and super douchey, so they just... avoid him at all costs. however, he kinda picks up on the fact that they avoid him, so he pesters them even worse, which doesn’t end well... ever. this is definitely more open to anyone tbh and we can plan as we go!

seven, flipside where it’s someone that he CAN’T stand because he finds them really persnickety, snobby, and rude as fuck. if there’s one thing he hates A LOT, it’s bratty rich kids with silver spoons in their mouths. like, if this was a “the outsiders” verse, he’d be a greaser 1000000%, not a soc. lmao. he’d butt-heads with this person a fuck-ton.

eight, however many guys wanna piece of him, he’s happy to have a catalogue of fwb’s he calls on. he’s definitely not someone who says no to a good time, and he can act like a perfect boyfriend if that’s what you want. sadly, this’ll always be a temporary game. any of these fwb’s can go in many directions and can be plotted out individually!

nine, the age old question... “who’s your ideal type?” under pressure, he said you as a joke ( because of this, it could be male or female ) and now, fans of your respective groups ship you two together all the time. it’s a little awkward, and you two haven’t really talked about it much, but here you are... at a shared event sitting next to each other. how do you handle it? what do you do? is it awkward or all in good fun?

ten, someone who kinda hates that he doesn’t really take being an “idol” all the serious. he’s got a lot of shit on his bucket list he wants to do and he doesn’t let fame fuck with that, so he’s careless. he didn’t go into this business because of passion, it’s just where he ended up. your muse doesn’t like that, and thinks people like him are lazy as fuck.

[spacenoise]

Essential Steven Universe Episodes

Hello everyone! 

Looking to watch Steven Universe, but not drag yourself through all the episodes? Never fear! I’ve made a list of what I believe to be the most essential episodes of Steven Universe with unnecessary ones labelled as such (and my reasons why). Now here’s some things to keep in mind before looking at the list:

When I say “essential” I mean ones that introduce important elements to the story. New important characters, new powers, episodes that develop the character and plot-relevant episodes fit this category. 

Episodes that develop certain characters will be labeled as “unnecessary” if they don’t contribute enough to the plot or their growth.

There may be some personal bias since I found one or two filler episodes to be enjoyable despite their uselessness to the overall plot but I’ll label them as well so you know.

 Avoid reading ahead. The labels for unnecessary ones may contain SPOILERS so if you care about that kind of stuff: you’ve been warned.

On to the list!

Season 1

1. Gem Glow

2. Laser Light Cannon

3. Cheeseburger Backpack: Steven’s first mission

a. Together Breakfast: shows off gem rooms and a monster but that’s really it.

b. Frybo: introduces PeeDee but he doesn’t ever really do anything so...?

4. Cat Fingers

5. Bubble Buddies

6. Serious Steven

a. Tiger Millionaire: while there is some character development, there isn’t really enough to make it worth watching since most of the episode is focused on wrestling.

7. Steven’s Lion

8. Arcade Mania

9. Giant Woman

10. So Many Birthdays: a peek at how dark this show can get

11. Lars and the Cool Kids

a. Onion Trade: mainly about Onion; if you like his character, feel free to watch but if not I’d avoid it since it ultimately doesn’t mean much.

12. Steven the Sword Fighter

13. Lion 2: The Movie

a. Beach Party: Gems piss off the family that runs the town’s pizza shop and try to make it up to them by inviting them to hang out. Shenanigan ensue, but has no lasting impact on the story.

14. Rose’s Room

15. Coach Steven

a. Joking Victim: develops Sadie and Lars’ relationship; skip if you don’t really care about either

16. Steven and the Stevens

17. Monster Buddies

18. An Indirect Kiss

19. Mirror Gem & Ocean Gem 

a. House Guest: shows why Steven has trouble with his powers, but nothing too important happens other than that; watch if you wanna see more Pearl & Greg interactions

20. Space Race: shows Pearl’s fondness of space; develops her character and background but not necessary; skip if you want

a. Secret Team: if you don’t like episodes about characters making temporary truces I’d avoid this one; not enough character development to make it worthwhile.

b. Island Adventure: another Sadie and Lars episode; Lars opens about his feelings but not much else happens.

21. Keep Beach City Weird: relevant for SU: Future reasons, but if you don’t like Ronaldo skip

22. Fusion Cuisine

a. Garnet’s Universe: contributes nothing, but is a kinda cute episode.

b. Watermelon Steven: introduces a character(s) that is only used a total of three (maybe four?) times; also introduces a power that is rarely ever used when it matters.

23. Lion 3: Straight to Video

24. Alone Together

25. Warp Tour

a. The Test: some good character discussions, but not important overall.

26. Future Vision

27. On the Run

a. Horror Club: if you don’t care for Ronaldo, Sadie or Lars: skip. Even if you care about Lars, skip this one since you kinda get the gist of his character at this point.

b. Winter Forecast: a few nice moments, but ultimately a big “what-if” episode

28. Maximum Capacity

29. Marble Madness

30. Rose’s Scabbard

a. Open Book: a Steven and Connie episode; fun if you like them, but skippable

b. Shirt Club: focuses on one of the Cool Kids but ultimately means nothing

c. Say Uncle: Uncle Grandpa Crossover; some funny moments from the Gems but if you don’t like UG avoid this one.

31. Story for Steven

32. The Message

a. Political Power: addresses certain concerns the Gems have, but nothing important crosses over into the next episode; most about Mayor Dewey anyway

33. The Return

34. Jailbreak

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Season 2

1. Full Disclosure

a. Joy Ride: Steven messes around with the Cool Kids; there’s a bit here briefly referenced in SU: Future I think, but other than nothing really happens; skip it if you want

b. Love Letters: properly introduces Jamie and shows his character, but he never does anything for the plot. All you need to know if him and Steven are friends.

c. Reformed: introduces Amethyst's new form and shows more of her insecurities but that’s all this episode is really good for.

2. Sworn to the Sword

a. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies: a Ronaldo episode; need I say more?

3. Keeping It Together

4. We Need To Talk

5. Chille Tid

6. Cry for Help

7. Keystone Motel

a. Onion Friend: another Onion episode; addresses how Amethyst feels regarding the current situation, but other than that nothing worthwhile.

b. Historical Friction: Jamie puts on a play and some gem stuff is involved; no action, but tells us about the Gems’ history

8. Friend Ship

a. Nightmare Hospital: mostly about Connie and her mom; some cool scary bits, but skippable.

b. Sadie’s Song: entirely about Sadie and how her mom makes her feel; skip if you don’t care much for Sadie.

9. Catch and Release

10. When It Rains

11. Back to the Barn

a. Too Far: develops Peridot and Amethyst’s relationship, and develops Peridot’s character, but not enough to make this episode necessary

12. The Answer

a. Steven’s Birthday: fun episode, but ultimately contributes nothing

13. It Could’ve Been Great

14. Message Received

a. Log Date 7 15 2: shows how Peridot got to where she is (as a character) and fills in some holes between Catch and Release and Message Received; fun and worth watching but skippable regardless

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Season 3

1. Super Watermelon Island

2. Gem Drill

3. Same Old World

4. Barn Mates

5. Hit the Diamond

a. Steven Floats: introduces new power but not much else

b. Drop Beat Dad: Explains where Greg gets his money, and I guess if you’re a Sour Cream fan watch this one? Skip if you’re not. 

6. Mr. Greg

7. Too Short To Ride

a. The New Lars: focuses on Lars mostly, but Sadie also shows up at one point; skip if you don’t care about them.

b. Beach City Drift: watch if you like Stevonnie; skip if you don’t really care.

c. Restaurant Wars: pointless fight between the pizza shop family and the fry stand family. I guess if you like food watch this one, but you can skip this one.

d. Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service: focuses on certain member’s of the pizza family. Skippable, but watch if you like pizza I guess.

8. Monster Reunion

9. Alone at Sea

a. Greg the Babysitter: a “stories of the past” episode where Rose shows up; nothing important really happens though

b. Gem Hunt: a certain character makes a return, but not until the end of the episode; skippable

10. Crack the Whip

a. Steven vs. Amethyst: develops their relationship but skippable overall

11. Bismuth

12. Beta 

13. Earthlings

14. Back to the Moon

15. Bubbled

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Season 4

a. Kindergarten Kid: Looney Tunes-esque episode; fun but skippable

b. Know Your Fusion: certain fusions return but still skippable

c. Buddy’s Book: shows off more of the Gems’ history and has Rose in it; still skippable despite all this since none of it is super important.

2. Mindful Education

a. Future Boy Zoltron: skippable since it focuses on Mr. Smiley and a former colleague; watch if you want to see some fun interactions.

b. Last One Out of Beach City: fun episode and shows some of Pearl’s development, but still skippable.

c. Onion Gang: it’s an Onion episode so: skippable.

d. Gem Harvest: Thanksgiving episode; reveals Steven’s real last name but nothing else important.

3. Three Gems and a Baby

4. Steven’s Dream

5. Adventures in Light Distortion

6. Gem Heist

7. The Zoo

8. That Will Be All

a. The New Crystal Gems: shows us what Connie, Lapis and Peridot did while Steven was in space. Nothing really happens so just skip this one.

9. Storm in the Room

a. Rocknaldo: features Ronaldo once again and is arguably one of the worst episodes. Thankfully, it’s skippable.

b. Tiger Philanthropist: callback to an older episode; doesn’t contribute anything to the current plot

10. Room for Ruby

a. Lion 4: Alternate Ending: goes no where and contributes nothing; reveals possible name for Steven if he was a girl though so...cool I guess? Skip it.

11. Doug Out

a. The Good Lars: develops Lars’ character a little, but not much else

12. Are You My Dad

13. I Am My Mom

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Season 5

a. Stuck Together: Steven and Lars’ relationship develops further along with Lars’ character; some dramatic moments make it an overall a good episode, but you can skip it if you want.

1. The Trial

2. Off Colors

3. Lars’ Head

a. Dewey Wins: Steven realizes why Connie’s upset with him; saved you from watching Mayor Dewey for almost eleven minutes.

b. Gemcation: another good episode, but skippable regardless.

4. Raising the Barn

a. Back to the Kindergarten: shows how Peridot feels after a certain event, but nothing else really happens.

b. Sadie Killer: Sadie starts a band and that’s it. Skip if you don’t care much for Sadie.

c. Kevin Party: watch for character drama and one resolution, but skip if you can’t stand Kevin.

5. Lars of the Stars

6. Jungle Moon

7. Your Mother and Mine

a. The Big Show: a Sadie’s band episode; skippable

b. Pool Hopping: shows off Garnet’s fears and insecurities but is still skippable

c. Letters to Lars: basically amounts to Dewey finding his place in town after losing his job; nothing else so just skip this one.

8. Can’t Go Back

9. A Single Pale Rose

10. Now We’re Only Falling Apart

a. What’s Your Problem: develops Steven and Amethyst’s relationship further; skip if you want, but it’s a good episode to watch.

11. The Question

12. Made of Honor

13. Reunited

14. Legs From Here To Homeworld

15. Together Alone

a. Escapism: shows how Steven contacts the B-team but overall just feels kind of out of place? Skip if you want.

16. Change Your Mind (four parts; almost an hour long btw)

  -------------------

Watch Steven Universe: The Movie if you plan on watching Steven Universe: Future

 -------------------

Steven Universe: Future

1. Little Homeschool

a. Guidance: skippable since nothing in this episode is mentioned ever again. Smoky Quartz is in it though so watch if you like her.

2. Rose Buds

3. Volleyball

a. Bluebird: introduces Greg’s new look and a new fusion that’s never brought up again.

b. A Very Special Episode: fun episode but contributes nothing to the overall story.

4. Snow Day

a.  Why So Blue: shows other Lapis Lazulis and shows us how far Lapis has really come; watch if you’re a Lapis fan, but skip if you want.

b. Little Graduation: skip if you never really cared too much about any of the human characters since this is mostly about them.

c. Prickly Pair: downer of an episode; no one ever mentions anything that’s said in this episode, but check it out if you wanna see Steven more of Steven’s plant powers!

6. In Dreams

7. Bismuth Casual

8. Together Forever

9. Growing Pains

a. Mr. Universe: Greg’s history is revealed but doesn’t contribute much so skip if you don’t really care about that too much.

10. Fragments

11. Homeworld Bound

12. Everything’s Fine

13. I Am My Monster

14. The Future

And that’s it! I guess let me know if this list was helpful or not, but other than that: I hope you enjoy Steven Universe!