#now he's still weird and evil but also a lizard man

[pumaskulls]

I don't post sketches often, but I like these two so far and I've been having enough trouble focusing that who knows when I'll parkour back around to finish them

[glouris]

About some characters’ possible incarnations in previous samsaras

So Teyvat is trapped in a cycle, is constantly going through samsaras, and reincarnation really is all but confirmed now apparently. 

A lot of people jumped to point at Childe and Parsifal, then speculate which other historical figures could also be his previous incarnations.

Childe's case is really, really interesting, but I wanted to bring up another character that also seems to be pulled into this samsara vortex somehow - Itto. 

(This is gonna be long and have A LOT of reaches and speculations.)

Let’s look at Akuou (Touzannou) from Watatsumi Island. We don't have confirmation on which species he actually belonged to, but from what information we have on him, he would most likely be either a vishap hybrid, or an oni. He was described as “the wicked fangs and claws of the Great Serpent, the savage, demonic invader of Yashiori Island”. “‘Fangs and claws of the Serpent” makes it sound like he was a vishap, but I think him being called “demonic” is a more important characterisation here. The name ‘Akuou’ also may be a reference to the legends of Akuro'ou - “an ancient demonic warrior in the Japanese folklore who fought against the imperial court”, so again, demonic, an oni. And, well, oni also have claws and fangs, but I did have to mention that this guy could be a lizard person instead. 

If we assume that Touzannou was an oni, we can start to notice a lot of coincidences pile up. First, Touzannou’s personality seems to resemble Itto’s - he was reckless, boastful, presumptuous, but very kind. Not the brightest mind, as it’s said that “his strength was his only strength". He came up with his own fighting styles that are still passed down on Watatsumi. Itto’s fighting style is his own as well: 

(I love Itto so much man.)

Touzannou fought the Tengu Sasayuri and was called Akuou  - “Wicked King”; Kokomi’s Everlasting Moonglows story mentions it like that: 

Itto’s Redhorn tells a story about an “Otogi King”, who was boisterous and boastful too. And that’s where it gets weird, please walk with me. One of Itto’s passive talents is getting more wood, and if we look at how the trees are distributed on the map, the VAST majority of the Otogi trees are found on Yashiori Island.

As already mentioned, Yashiori was invaded by Orobashi and his people 2000 years ago, and ultimately became the resting place for Akuou (Touzannou) and shrine maiden Mouun, a very important figure I’ll talk about later. 99% of Itto’s story quest also happens to take place on Yashiori.

A cornplate detail, but Itto was also at Nazuchi Beach (Yashiori Island sub-area) in his dedicated album posted on genshin’s youtube channel. The ost playing on Nazuchi Beach is called Stranded Wish, which is quite an interesting name choice for a place that suffered so much tragedy and war. 

(This is also actually a Watatsumi ship, as mentioned by an npc we can talk to there)

Speaking of Watatsumi, Itto’s most obvious connection to it is through Gorou, as he is his dedicated support. The less obvious connection is his similarities with Akuou, and some things involving Kokomi. Sure, his quest is only accessible after you complete Kokomi’s, and their signature artifacts in the same domain, but her involvement seems to run a bit deeper than that. 

You see, the whole thing that started it all is Akuou being mentioned in Kokomi’s donut. At first I thought it’s actually the same guy from the Redhorn, because their description was so similar, basically just ‘evil king that fights a tengu’. But it was exactly this description that made me notice some interesting pattern of interconnected characters.

2000 years ago: Akuou the Evil King, Mouun the shrine maiden and Tengu Sasayuri. 

500 year ago: Tengu Reizenbou, Asase Hibiki and Ako Domeki.

Present day: Arataki Itto, Kokomi, and Kujou Sara. 

Take a look at depictions of Asase Hibiki (left) and Mouun (right) from the TCG cards:

Their haircuts seem to be identical, with the hair color being the only difference. Better yet, it's also similar to Kokomi's haircut. 

The oni from their respective time periods (or samsaras) are named Akuou, Ako and Arataki. Inconsequential, but interesting. 

Let’s take a look at Ako Domeki, and speculate a little (or a lot). Both Akuou and Itto had conflicts with a tengu, but Ako seemingly didn’t. But, since he’s 500 years back on the timeline, it puts him on the same time period as Tengu Reizenbou and the ‘otogi king’ from Itto’s redhorn. There is a slight chance that this ‘otogi king’ was actually Ako Domeki post Serai and Golden Apple, but there’s nothing really to prove or disprove this, apart from the fact that they both have similarities with Akuou and Itto.

Another thing that could possibly have something to do with Ako Domeki are those weird oni symbols scattered around Watatsumi. These symbols are connected to Rinzou's Treasure world quest - you look for pirate treasure, and find Rinzou’s letter where he talks about his life.

This “outlander king” inspired Rinzou to leave Watatsumi when he grew up. And, it’s interesting that he chose an oni mask as his insignia when he left Watatsumi. If this old man was the reason for him to go into the world to seek adventure at sea and become a pirate, it would make sense for his insignia to be inspired by this old man. Which would make him an oni. 

Could this be Ako Domeki, an oni pirate, that inspired another person to become a pirate? It’s far-fetched, but again, as we don’t have any confirmation for the end of Ako Domeki story, it could have really been him. 

Getting back to Akuou and Mouun. Mouun’s name has a very interesting possible origin: 

Kokomi’s ‘slumbering dragon’ constellation comes to mind here. 

Mouun was friends with a great 900 year old whale called Daikengyou.

They both were slain during the Yashiori Island invasion. But, the fact that this whale managed to live for so long almost definitely means that it was no ordinary whale - perhaps it was the same creature as the All Devouring Narwhal. 

Meanwhile Kokomi had a whale in her demo, which should definetly raise some red flags.

Akuou was taught different rituals by Mouun and her sister Ayame, including an art of whalesong. Interestingly enough, Itto is a very good singer apparently:  

So, in light of recent developments with whales in the main story, I don’t really think that this art of ‘whalesong’ was something connected to ordinary marine life, it’s too specific now. Given that Orobashi was actively opposing Heavenly Principles, I won’t put it past him and his followers to be involved with the likes of Surtalogi that keeps celestial whales as pets. 

Last thing, the books about Akuou and Mouun, as well as about other Watatsumi dealings (Debates on the "Viceroy of the East", A Preliminary Study of Sangonomiya Folk Belief, The Life of Mouun the Shrine Maiden, and more) are not in the book archive, but in the quest items. Must be important. 

So, let’s round things up. Akuou, Ako Domeki, Arataki Itto, all with similar sounding names, are boisterous, kind oni, that all have mentions of being called ‘kings’ (Itto’s ult is called ‘raging oni king state’), all have some ties to Yashiori Island (Ako Domeki is mentioned on a note on Nazuchi Beach, and if the Otogi King and him really were the same person, there’s Yashiori having the most otogi trees in Inazuma), all being exceptional fighters, all having ties to a notable tengu and a shrine maiden, that also have connections to characters taking on the same role from a different time periods. 

Ako Domeki is up in the air, but Akuou and Itto really do seem to be connected somehow.

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

My thoughts on Trolls 3 & that Adam Sandler Lizard movie Leo (and also my thoughts on Wish)

So there's a lot to unpack here; let's start with the most basic, Trolls 3! It's adorable, nothing bad to say about it, good movie to watch with your family! For once I don't have a lot to say about a DreamWorks film, other than it was so cute and funny. I still prefer the first two but this was great and I loved the songs. I thought the 2D scene was a little bit weird my uncle thought the same. Didn't care for the villains' design but Velvet and Veneer were funny! I like how they had colorful lipsticks tho haha XD anyway, I recommend Trolls 3, see it in theaters if you still have time.

As for that Adam Sandler Lizard movie, it was great! It's called "Leo" and it's on Netflix. It kind of gets heavy when Leo finds out that he one year left to live and when he talks to the kids, it's amazing. I love how they tried to show different types of kids and different struggles they had. One girl talked to much, the other girl whose parents were going through a divorce, there was also a boy who was insecure about his voice and another one who was insecure about body hair, and I even liked how they didn't make the rich blonde popular girl be mean, they even showed her struggle too! There was also this one boy whose mom didn't allow him to play outside and be a kid and he had this drone follow him around all the time, and she even made him wear a hazmat suit inside his house which to me, was the most depressing. The part with the teacher, was on and off. I hated her for most of the movie but she even had redemption. The teacher at the beginning was really nice but it was the old lady teacher, idk man I didn't like her for most of the movie but at the end she's okay. I still think characters get redemption way too easily sometimes. Just my opinion... btw the humor was really good! It had that 90's Nickelodeon type of humor (like from CatDog or Rocko's modern life or Angry Beavers). Like, there were a few dirty jokes and just a few fourth wall breaks. Also, the movie had a good message. I wasn't expecting it to be a musical but it was. Let's just say that the songs weren't as good as Under the Boardwalk, but they weren't bad songs. Honestly, I even think the songs in Wish were better but Leo is over all a better movie and has a way better message.

About my opinion on Wish now, I don't recommend you watch it in theaters, unless you're a really wealthy person who can afford to see movies all the time. I mean, in my opinion it's a waste of time and money. It's better to watch it in the comfort of your own home on a free website, don't even watch it on Disney plus. There's a few reasons why but here's one of them https://www.instagram.com/reel/ but the other reason is because I don't think Disney deserves to make a lot of money form this. Part of me feels bad because I LOVE the character design, and the diversity. I feel bad for black girls, they can't get at least one modern Disney princess who from a good movie. Tiana's movie is old and she ends up marrying the dumb hunk prince when she just wanted to be a restaurant owner, Ariel is racebent but she's pretty cool even tho there's a war over her being black, and Asha's a sweet character but her movie doesn't make sense. Like, Wish's plot was all over the place; at first you were kind of on the king's side but they did make him out to be evil enough that you were on Asha's side. The hardest thing for me to understand was that at first she wanted the king to grant everyone's Wish because she wanted her grandpa to be happy since he was 100 years old, then she wanted to get her grandpa and mom's wishes back from the king, and then she wanted everyone to be happy but I was so lost... the only time I laughed was that one song and it showed the bear and the deer, and they called the deer "Bambi" as a joke, but really, it looked like Boog and Elliot from the Open Season franchise. The dancing chickens was pretty funny too, it reminded me of the Flip flop and fly scene in Chicken Run. Honestly, Wish isn't the worst Disney movie ever, but it's not that good. If you're planning on seeing it, know what you're in for. The story was incredibly boring as well, and the background characters barely had any personality or lines but were still cute (I like Asha's friends, especially the plus size girl in the red and also the girl with the yellow dress and blue thing in her hair). And like, the best thing about this movie had to be the character designs. Not only did it show race and skin color diversity, but it showed body type diversity as well! Some shows and movies just show skin color diversity and make the plus size characters the joke (like **cough cough** Total Drama show) but this movie actually have TRUE diversity! It's a shame that the story's a disaster because the designs were a 10/10... as for the story, it's a 4.5/10.

We've come to a conclusion. Watch Leo on Netflix and if you don't have Netflix, you can use kisscartoon, actvid, or whatever other free movie website you have. If you want to watch Wish I don't recommend seeing it in theaters but I'm not stopping you. (Please click the link to the video I sent). Also, Wish is better than most of the old Disney movies, don't go comparing it to peter pan or something, we know that movie's outdated and way worse than Wish. If you're a Trolls fan or just have any interest in seeing Trolls 3, GO SEE TROLLS 3 in theaters! I recommend it! And also, if you have any thoughts, whether you agree or not, just let me know. Even if you have different opinions than me, just let me know!

[pbaintthetb]

Invincible s2e5

It's here, it's here!! Some of my thoughts. Spoilers ahead

"He's never on the hook for the lives he destroys. Just leaves it for everyone else to clean up. Again and again." -> incredible

Brothers eh!! and also Debbie saying mark must get his nobility/reluctance to abandon people from her side ;-)))), especially since this is like one of if not the only time mark is compared to his mum and not his dad. (Whether it's a you're nothing like you're dad, you will be your dad, your dad doesn't influence my view on you)

debbie taking time off work ot look after mark's brother just after they all said they wer so glad she was back :-(( I get that she priortises mark's education though

oop the donald sub plot, forgot about that but now Im hella intrigued again, he a cyberman, though he's the six million dollar man to hear Cecil tell it (we can rebuild him...)

william boxed up mark's stuff.... oof that must have been rough (for william i mean, assuming he's dead)

cecil stfu and stop being a creeper- although if he wasn't like that he wouldn't be cecil, his job is to be a bastard in order to do what he deems necessary

"He's an alien. We're more qualified to take care of him."- very ominous very uncomfortable, glad to see mark isn't having any of it but still. actually ingernal loving mark's convo with cecil

Cecil's little side eye at the end, he's scared ohohoh. and that petty "im sureyour mum will love ooking after her ex's kid" like uh, no but she said she'll do it for mark and otherwise mark will do it so so?

Mark and Amber are cool, and yeah it's nice to see him listening to her problems even if maybe it's revealing that uh... yeah he can't be there for her and that's complicated (as mark said)

Rudy and monster girl is intersing, like i get why she's pissed and i get where he's coming from

DECEASED they all knew he was from mars.Almost disappointed because him desperately trying to be human was hilarious but also this reveal was the funniest fucking thing so, even his reveal felt so unhuman

also how noble and excited the abckstory is until the awkard... so I sort of tried to kill him but I didn't even do that right and now he's coming to earth to kill us all possessed by a hive creature

"No, before, I was lying. Now I'm telling the truth. It's very different." hilarious, might steal that.

Rex, gonna go OOC real quick, then pan to Atom Eve AMV... iconic, I wonder what this could mean /s

Ok I was like, stop commenting on everything but like Rex is a prick but the absolute funniest, saying that maybe Eve's parents WANT her to be abducted because they still haven't fixed her broken window lock killed me

also more seriously actually the familiarity with which they talk and rex moves around eve's room (the l atter would be weird if it weren't so obvious eve could make him stop if she wanted) is great? Because yeah they dated for a while, like they should know each other even if they don't get on anymore and it's great to see the evidence of that Similarly the fact taht Eve reveals at teh end she knew rex just wanted something but that she also does think he genuinely helped her see that she helps people

Man, mark :-( spread too thin, and he's realising it but what is the way out?? Butter spread over too much bread and you can't just put it back in the tin

Shapesmith's intonation and diction and also just his timing of what he says is, mwah, chefs kiss, incredibel

when is the shapesmith show coming, we've already had "Allan"???

was gonna say "nice fight scenes" then kate happened, and i mean they're still good but oh fuck holy shit oh god hog do

.um. well post the homeward guardians fight all I have to say is that it seems that Rex is ranking guardian after all.

Or um, them some cliff hangers amirite, sure do hope everybody is fine

but no did like Rex's last line of the episode and also King lizard's smarmy evil pragmatism ooh very nice.

[randomnameless]

I think it comes from the same anon, so here is your reply, and for the love of blue cheese, please learn how to use commas, remove double spaces or just press F7 on your keyboard next time you try to write something, it will really help you in the future.

Now, back to your statements :

Fighting against Rhea fits in quite nicely with FE running theme of humanity choosing its own fate rather than being playthings for dragons

Fire Emblem has never been a series of “choosing” fate rather than being “playthings” to lizards.

FE series is all about a blue haired protagonist coming to terms with their duties and expectations, and doing the “right thing” when it is needed/asked.

Also, daily reminder that FE8′s dragons do not expect anything from humanity :)

While the Elibe dragons just wanted to live in peace, but some people didn’t want that :)

Unless you’re talking about some weird kink Nergal (and Eliwood?) was into with his dragon wife, but I am not into that.

heck its been there from the start with dragons starting a problem and humanity escalating into bad behavior loupre the evil dragon who corrupted a bunch of humans

Imagine an asshole doing assholish things suddenly means all members of the race of the asshole are automatically assholes themselves :(

I sure hope it’s not the case, else, following this maxim, Seliph is also someone who forcefully seduces ladies since Bramsel did it first, because they are both humans.

Elibe dragons were attacked by humans, so unless breathing counts as “starting a problem” I don’t know what was expected of them. Archanea dragons, since you seem to like this verse enough to talk about it - but not enough to read about it - degenerated naturally, yes, but the enemity Medeus had towards them is not because humans have round ears, nope, but because humans enslaved “disminished” dragons who became manaketes.

You could even make a point that humans always start to mess with dragons and it bites them in the rear, this is what happens in FE Archanea, FE Elibe, FE Ylisse (since Grima is an artificial, human made construct) and, arguably, in FE Fodlan with all this nonsense about Crests and whatnot.

Hm.

This makes me think of this (translated) line in FE4, between Loptyr who possesses Julius and Seliph :

Yurius (defeated by Celice): “Urrgghhhh… Take note, Celice…! While greed exists in men’s hearts… …I will return…! …You’ve been warned! Gaaahhh…”

FE15′s ending narration :

Only one truth is clear: War will come again, when man grows proud and slothful once more, and its flames will devour one and all, raging until the very earth itself lies scorched and bare of life. For whatever madness lay in the hearts of gods… a darkness deeper still beats wild in the hearts of man…

Medeus from FE12 :

Medeus: GWAH...! WHY......? WHY... HAVE I... BEEN DEFEATED... SO EASILY...? IS THIS... THE POWER... ...OF NAGA'S... BINDING SHIELD...? KNOW THIS, HUMANS... THIS LIGHT IS ONLY A BRIEF RESPITE... SO LONG AS EVIL LURKS WITHIN THE HEARTS OF MAN... SHOULD THIS ACCURSED SHIELD BE LOST, WE SHALL RISE FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL... DO NOT... EVER FORGET...

Medeus from FE11 :

Medeus: “Nngh…Defeated again…by humans! Know this, Altean prince… That light which surrounds you is only a temporary respite. So long as the darkness in your hearts continues to sustain me…I cannot be…destroyed….. Rrraaahhh!!!!!”

So what can take from the Archanea saga - which created and cemented the themes that inspired all future FEs?

Some dragons are big and scary and powerful, as long as Men have evil/greed/darkness/madness in their hearts, they will continue to exist ; almost as if those bad dragons are the symptoms of an illness caused by Humanity’s folly, or just, humans being humans and asses.

Loptry did not corrupt the first Galle - Jugdral is very clear about how Dragons give magic blood to humans, it is a pact. Galle I wanted power, and he received power. Through the course of the Jugdral games (I recommend playing them, watching a LP or just reading their script on SF, trust me, your posts will finally have some substance!) the player will realise that Julius is the only “corrupted” human by the power of Loptyr, but Manfroy, Bramsel, Chagall, Di Maggio, and even Arvis himself?

Are not corrupted at all by a dragon, they made their own choices and while I know some people really like the concept of agency being removed to justify a fave still being a fave, even if she ends up mindbroken in a certain game, all those Jugdral people? They do what they want, and not what a lizard locked in a book wants.

rhea reminds me of mila and dumas They all actively interfere with and try to shape humanity to fit their ideals but ultimately are detrimental to the humans they seek to protect

DM me if you can create a Tumblr account, because I would really like to play the personalised copy of FE15 and FE16 you received!

In my copy, and the one some person at SF received and transcripted on the site for everyone to access, and the ones all those people on Youtube who made LPs received -

Mila’s biggest “sin” is to have grown lazy and complacent and not have taken enough action regarding the humans of Zofia, allowing Lima to seduce ladies and Desaix to burn a bunch of babies.

Rhea’s interference is so active that 

Hubert complains that she didn’t do enough to shape the world as she saw fit,

Nopes!Leicester dgaf about her and don’t even know who she is, 

a branch of her organisation tries to kill her for sheltering foreigners.

I suppose she is as active as Leopold’s braincells when he stares at a map.

rhea was scared of humans and claimed without her fodlan was doomed which isnt true

She was so scared of humans that welcomed thousands of them in her home, and even showed her ears to at least one of them!

Seriously, I panick and freeze the second I see a wasp (the animal!), so I would never welcome thousands of them in my home, and show them my ears. 

Also, given how suicidal Rhea is, I doubt she would have ever said, or entertained the thought, that Fodlan would be doomed without her - she might have said something similar regarding the Goddess however, but unlike what some peple seriously believe, Rhea and her mother are not one and the same -

ergo, the Church of Seiros is not the Catholic Church! but take this statement with a grain of salt, I don’t have any degree :’(

( I meant Loptous not loupre I confused his name for something else its been a while )  julius was a victim of loptous  his mind was changed due to his hatred for humanity which was embodied by the tome which had always been his goal The devs outright said that Loptous was in control of both Gair and Julius, even calling Julius his victim    mila and dumas were wrong  and their actions hurt humanity 2/2

Are you talking about this?

A: Loputousu, Narga and Holsety held different positions compared to the other dragons. Loputousu’s plan was obvious – “to use Bishop Galle to wreak vengeance on the humans”, which is why he formed a blood pact with Galle. The holy dark tome Loputousu contained Loputousu’s overpowering hatred and resentment towards humans, and was able to control the human who broke its seal (namely Bishop Galle’s descendants, those who inherited large amounts of the original pact-former’s blood). So it was, a human who possessed Loputousu’s strength and will was born.

Loptyr was an ass, and wanted to piss on humans by using Galle’s descendants as meatsuits (note how this only says the humans who were controlled were Galle’s descendants, not the man himself!).

As for Galle 1, Kaga says this about him :

In Genealogy of the Holy War, the ambitious Bishop Galle believed the legend that “drinking the blood of the ancient dragons grants one tremendous power and eternal life” and traveled around the world, finally arriving at the continent of Akaneia. He met with one of the Earth Dragons, Loputousu, who allowed him to form a blood pact.

Julius is indeed a victim of the dragon, but in Julius’s case, since we know jackshit about Galle 2 to Galle X (who was rekt’d by the Crusaders), who is the loser who “engineers” his creation, and who gives him the tome that will corrupt him?

It’s not Loptyr, since Loptyr locked himself in a book. Hint : that person has no scales.

And don’t worry about Duma and Mila being wrong, my personalised copy of FE15 had them acknowledge the errors of their ways, and entrust the fate of Valentia to Alm’n’Celica, but my copy also had a character named Desaix who burnt babies to become King without any draconic interference.

3/2 dragons arent all evil but a dragon calling himself a god and refusing to humble themselves tends to be a sign of bad things

Hopefully not many dragons call themselves gods, especially not in the Archanea verse where that title is given to them by humans, but they never call themselves “gods”.

And I think we went over it in the other post, what do you mean by “humbling” themselves? Truncating their ears? Mutilate themselves to “look like” humans? Get rid of their hearts?

Medeus was so pissed that humans enslaved dragons who accepted to “humble” themselves that he became very angry - unless you’re suggesting that the only way for dragons to “humble” themselves is to become slaves?

from the start onwars the trend had been a dragon starting problems and humans escalating into terrible behavior

You are repeating yourself anon.

( dumas and mila whose human followers reflected their degenerated states)

Are you implying that Duma, in his madness, would have swooned over Zeke and fell in love with him, like his follower Tatiana did ?? 

Or Nomah is a lazy bum who has a harem of nuns, like Mila ??

it was dumas fault and milas fault  later games evened out the dragons and human conflict like in fates ( basically dragons do cause problems  like rhea who tried to control humanity

You know, since you put numbers in your asks, there is no need to repeat yourself since I read and reply to them in a bulk. So there is no need to repeat “Mila’n’Duma BaD” in each post, I got your pov the first time!

Fates is, I reckon, not my area of expertise. You would have more chance talking to Fates fans. But from what I remember, Anankos degenerated, he gave his dragon stone to Azura’s ancestor hoping he could sing for him but after some time it didn’t work, and that’s it ?

I don’t think how this evens it out - unless you’re talking about how, in Fates, everything “bad” happens because of Anankos, without any human hand, but it has the very unfortunate implication of saying a race of people is bad because this person who has a mental illness did bad things, and I really do not support this train of thought.

As for Rhea :

It goes without saying, however the reason for Seiros tampering with history was not so she could rule over humanity—it was to minimize war and preserve peace across the land.

The devs don’t agree with you, and despite what the personalised copy you got said, or what NoA advertised, Rhea, and the Church of Seiros, never controlled nor ruled over Fodlan.

Whatever issues Rhea’s secrets and “guidance” cause, the main problems arising in FE16 (and in Nopes) are caused by Agarthans - humans. Not lizards.

---

Actually the picture I picked isn’t very adequate, because after all those burns, you need to stay hydrated anon, and drinking your own salt won’t help you at all.

Maybe you should try water?

[britishassistant]

I wonder what the supervillains (the dorm leaders) would do if they get switched with their other self in Twisted Wonderland.

They'll meet a younger Yuu calls them senpai and probably get shivers when they hear someone shout Prefect but then realize its Yuu's role in that world.

Bonus would be if Yuuken's there too, sharing the dorm with Yuu.

Thank you for the ask, dear anon!

I decided to take a little inspo from my Villainous Paranoiac series for this one! Not a whole lot, but the idea of Twisted Wonderland Yuu being put in the infirmary after the events of Chapter Five!

(Also consider it non-canon, since it kinda involves everyone’s identities being exposed!)

Basically imagine that the supervillains find themselves in what looks like a private school infirmary, late at night. The air is buzzing with a strange energy, almost like the powers back in their home world, but...different, somehow.

The room nearly empty, save for one occupant in a cot close to the door.

Poison Queen and King immediately begin bickering over whose fault this mess is, while Royal Flush tries to get them to keep their voices down or else they’ll be detected. Charon is half a minute from going to curl up in a corner, clutching his freeze ray like a lifeline, while Octo Dealer and Snake Charmer are busy inspecting their surroundings for anything of value or that can be requisitioned into a weapon on short notice.

Tsunotaro has wandered over to inspect the sole other living being in the room with them.

He is pleasantly surprised to see what looks like a younger version of the reporter he’s so fond of, fast asleep in the infirmary cot. Their cheeks still retain the last bit of baby fat from childhood, and there’s some acne left that will fade with age. He may give one cheek a gentle poke, just to satisfy his curiosity. The sleepy mumble they let out is a little more high pitched than normal, but that’s the reporter’s voice alright.

He is less pleased to see dark circles under their eyes, or the bandages around their throat that stink of medicinal salves. If this truly is a younger version of his child of man, then why do they look so worried, even in sleep? Why are they injured and sleeping in this place of healing in the first place? They’re a mere child, barely old enough to operate a vehicle or live alone. Their only worries should be trivial things, not whatever is causing this furrow in their brow and hunch in their shoulders.

The other supervillains have begun to migrate over to where Tsunotaro is crouching in silent contemplation. King flips his eyepatch up to get a better look, whistling lowly. Octo Dealer busies himself with refilling their water glass, sneaking glances at them as he places it within easy reach. Snake Charmer pulls their pillow more under their head from where it’s almost slipped off. Poison Queen straightens the arrangement of the very tasteful bouquet on the bedside table, so the flowers’ best angle is shown to the bed’s occupant. Royal Flush carefully tucks their covers in over them.

Charon takes a picture with his tablet.

He forgot to turn off his flash.

Yuu cracks their eyes open...

To see seven adults looming over their bed in masks that resemble the ink from the overblots that haunt the Prefect’s nightmares.

Cue terrified screaming.

Snake Charmer lunges forward instinctively to cover Yuu’s mouth—

It’s only thanks to Poison Queen yanking him back that he doesn’t end up with an arrow in the shoulder.

Several more follow the first one through the window above the prefect’s cot, cold iron sharp and perfectly aimed to seriously maim if the supervillains don’t immediately get away from the screaming teenager. Rook was lax in protecting the Trickster after VDC ended, assuming there was no more danger after Roi du Poison’s overblot was saved. He will not make that mistake again.

The infirmary doors burst open, a younger Yuuken in a sleep-rumpled uniform barging in from where he decided to sleep outside because Ramshackle felt too empty and quiet to bear, but was forbidden from staying in the infirmary himself. He only has a pillow, but he brandishes it at the strange adults, fully willing to defend his dorm mate in whatever way he can.

The vanguard appears in a flurry of bats though, too many to fight off, small and vicious and furious. Their commander materializes in the center if the swarm, hovering over the head of Yuu’s cot, pink eyes brimming with a cold rage that makes his small and cute form look like it’s bursting at the seams holding something much older and angrier back. He opens his mouth, fangs long and glistening—

Only to stop short at the sight of one of the supervillains. “Malleus? Malleus Draconia?”

Tsunotaro nods warily.

“Wh-What in Twisted Wonderland are you wearing??”

Tsunotaro ducks his head like a chastened child. “I could say the same thing.” He mutters sullenly.

From there the lights get turned on, and the seven supervillains are made to explain themselves to the sleep-deprived students and staff who trickle in to see what’s going on. All six dorm leaders and one vice dorm leader vanished from their beds, setting everyone on high alert until news of these...alternate versions spread.

It is very weird for the supervillains to see all their minions as teenagers (again in some cases). It is only surpassed by how weird it is for everyone else to see their dorm heads and vice head all grown up and adult, even if they are dressed weird.

Ortho still wants to shoot them with a beam until they bring back his nii-san. Luckily Charon is able to convince him that Idia should be fine if he’s in Charon’s lair—he’s got plenty of the latest games, manga and tech for him to play with, so that should keep him occupied for a while.

Sebek is in a state of Malleus awe. He has shut down and will not restart. Silver has taken to pinching himself just to make sure this isn’t a Lilia’s cooking induced fever dream, while Lilia himself scolds Tsunotaro that he raised him better than to go around watching people sleep like that! Tsunotaro tries to use the “but I’m a supervillain” excuse, only for Lilia to shoot back “and I’m a war criminal in some nations, what’s your point?”

King is enjoying watching the overgrown lizard get scolded. Now if only the tiny Ruggie would stop asking him what injury the eyepatch is for, and making remarks about how embarrassing it would be if it were totally pointless—King does not pay his adult self so much to put up with this shit. The baby Jack also needs to stop demanding to know if his adult minion self can pull a sled faster than a moose or something...

Jade and Floyd are attempting to wind up the adult Octo Dealer, trying to see how much they can get away with compared with the normal Azul. Octo Dealer is legitimately at a loss as to how this world’s Azul doesn’t keep them in line without letting them turn to a crime or two. Then he learns about Azul’s contract business and feels a pang of commiseration and understanding.

Poison Queen, Royal Flush, and Snake Charmer are unpleasantly shocked when their dorms address them by their respective secret identities in front of their fellow supervillains out of the blue.

Poison Queen has to put up with King’s uncontrolled laughter as he finally understands the full extent of the incident with White Neige so long ago, while Tsunotaro tries to tell him he liked Schoenheit in his role as the evil dragon prince in the GaoGao dramatization. Royal Flush is about two seconds away from throttling Octo Dealer if the bastard doesn’t stop trying to make a deal to guarantee his mother doesn’t learn about her son’s private activities. Snake Charmer’s just glad his civilian identity flies under the radar enough that Charon has to try and look him up to understand who he is (and fails because he’s not on school wifi and his cellular data is bust).

Poison Queen is also getting a headache from Rook rhapsodizing about how his villain form is another, enhanced mode of beauty he is fortunate to lay eyes upon, as if he hadn’t been willing to skewer Poison Queen along with the rest of the supervillains five minutes ago. He’s at least able to amuse himself by letting Epel run away with his speculations about how he’s the buff hyper-masculine muscle for Poison Queen.

Kalim is crying that Jamil had to resort to becoming a villain in his home world! He must be so sad if he has to do that! He’s mildly cheered up when Snake Charmer tells him they work together on schemes, and that Snake Charmer is actually reasonably happy with his chosen vocation—and then he begins panicking that Jamil will like that world so much, he won’t want to come back.

Royal Flush is glad his counterpart at least has good people around to look after him, even if it is odd to have young versions of Trey and Cater trying to mother hen him despite the fact that he’s the older one now. At least Ace and Deuce acting up seems more fitting now considering their age than it ever did on their adult selves.

Ace huffs a sigh and leans on Yuu’s shoulder. “This is a mess, huh Prefect?”

“You said it.” Yuu replies. “I just wanna sleep forever.”

The supervillains go still.

“I’m sorry,” Snake Charmer says carefully. “But isn’t Enma-san the Prefect?”

“No?” Yuuken replies, confused. “Yuu’s the prefect of Ramshackle Dorm. I’m their vice— or would be, if we had any other students apart from them, me, and Grim.”

Octo Dealer laughs, sounding slightly strained. “Ah, apologies, but you see, that isn’t possible. It can’t be. Yuu isn’t—”

“But I am the prefect, Azul-senpai.” Yuu the Prefect says. “I’ve–I’ve always been the prefect.”

There’s a stunned silence.

Royal Flush places his head in his hands. “What the fuck.”

Back in the Supervillain AU universe, Yuu the Reporter sneezes sharply while trying to wrangle five frightened teenagers, one frightened-but-playing-tough twenty year old, and one confused however-old-he-is-but-younger-than-Tsunotaro fae.

They wonder what the chill down their spine is.

[radiance1]

I like redeemed Vlad, so I'm gonna do with that BUT he's still an asshole you know? Like, Vlad is seen as an 'Evil God' in that world because he brought 'evil' into it and, like an devil, he's been making deals left and right with such ironclad rules for when he offers and wiggles his way and loopholes conditions when he's being offered a deal.

He's a business man, it's what he does.

And then whenever he disappears most of the time it's just him going to manage VladCo, and the few times he's actually been kicked out was more of a timeout if anything because of said deals he's made that's ended up having a bit more consequences than he foresaw. Then, as you said, he could be poked fun of because of how he was in the past with evil throw around casually because yea, he was evil, much to his exasperation because he's changed!

They then point out how his deals usually end up worse for the one dealing with him than the other way around, and even a few souls he's claimed up. Which he defends with, again, businessman, and it isn't his fault if they offered up his souls in exchange for things he can give them!

Vlad: [Pops up in this world for a vacation because he's just absolutely done with being a businessman right now.]

Also Vlad: [Starts making deals left and right while scheming how to fulfil them]

The Pantheon (What I'm calling them now): Oh my gosh, this hypocrite is at it again. Hey, hey! No! No! You're supposed to be resting do NOT make someone king you evil bas-

Vlad is absolutely in his element being an evil, scheming lil guy in the background and the rest of The Pantheon is exasperated at this because he's supposed to be on vacation or whatever but if it works it works they guess?? He's like that weird uncle who is ultimately harmless (to The Pantheon at least) but you have to tell off a bit before he goes too far or something.

Might I suggest, based on what you have, that Star would be the minor deity of History or something like that? With a connection to Tucker because he's the God of Wisdom/Knowledge(+other things?) here as seen by the people of the world.

Not gonna lie, love the idea that Sam is the main rebirth method, with help from Dan, of this little world. I don't know why I just like it :D

Also, love the Fantasy with hints of highly advanced magitek because yea, why wouldn't Tucker do that? His old temples have various hidden secrets that his students (and those who're inclined to, like adventurers) have to explore while figuring out puzzles and is absolutely delighted when they start making dungeons.

Also regarding the next question. Previously I imagined it was humans but then realized why stop there? You can have dryads, which are the attendants to Mother of Life and various forests around the world. Monsters, and like you said, lesser dragons wandering out and about. They wouldn't be divinity because, well, yea, but they might be considered sacred creatures to some groups of people or just dangerous forces of nature to others.

Klarion looking similar to them would be funny, the lesser dragons would know he's different from them, but the YJ don't know that now do they?

Might even be a few races that have more lizard/draconic features hehe.

YJ: [Wants to bring Klarion back but never mention him by name]

The Pantheon: [Knows who they're actually talking about before Side eyeing Vlad in the corner doing his little Evil God roleplay]

The Pantheon, deciding to commit to it since it's already there: Okay yea, we'll totally help you bring that guy down.

Also yes, most definitely magic. Even different types of schools too! Like:

Star magic (Danny).

Nature, Life, Plant, magic (Sam).

Sand, Rune, Enchantment magic (Tucker).

Death (Dan).

Wind (Dani).

Contracts, dark/black magic (Vlad because you know, Evil God thing).

And since Klarion has stepped into the world, Chaos magic becomes an option as well though it isnt mostly known until someone actually taps into it.

There's various subs-schools of magic, most definitely. Necromancy is a mix of the Death and Life magic school, the four elements would fall under Nature, but Wind might be considered its own special kind of school because of Dani's existence, etc.

I want to say that Time would also be a secret option, but I don't think Clockwork has stepped onto that plane yet for it to become one. I also want to say that Pariah stepping onto it would also breath a new magic to life, but I have no idea what it would be....

Will the Young Justice ever manage to figure out that Klarion was with them throughout there entire journey? Find out next on DRAGON BAL-

Inspired by @puppetmaster13u and various dragon aus they have.

BUT! This is also a bit of a fantasy/DnD au I guess...? IDK BUT HERE WE GO-

Okay now so, I'm imagining that that Danny, Tucker, and Sam create a pocket dimension for their game via the use of reality warping (via scepter) and something given to them by Pariah Dark before he went off on that whole honey moon thing with Clockwork.

For the record, Danny isn't the ghost king here, Pariah Dark is he's just the prince.

Sam created a garden from the barren earth, that eventually grew into a great forest and spread out to the rest of the world, which technically made her the creator of life but anyways. So, she's holed up in said garden turned forest.

Tucker bestowed upon his subjects (after they were made of course) knowledge and technology and is regarded as the greatest teacher in that world's history.

Danny? Oh yea he became that one that giant dragon that everyone knows is there, is afraid of, and just sleeps all day in this one specific place. You'd have to cut him some slack though, because no one told him creating a world and its laws would be so hard even with help.

That and him, as the one with basically the most knowledge and resident fanboy of space, created the stars surrounding the place as well!

Of course, they couldn't stay there all of the time. What with work (Tucker), high-society (Sam), and studying (Why the heck did Danny decide to go to collage again?). That entire place was just made to play around in before they had to go their separate ways and be, you know, actual adults, so it was easy enough to let go of it really.

Except for Danny. Not of any great reason, really, he just needed someplace where he could quietly study in peace, nap, think or just get away from the Ghost Zone before he had to go through all that princely nonsense again. Plus, none of their creations in that pocket dimension really wanted to mess with the giant fuck off dragon who was said to created the place anyways.

For the record, Danny is more of an eastern dragon in design with a long body rather than western. So that probably just added more into his intimidation with his sheer length.

So, you know, of course he would have been none too pleased when someone actually did disturb his solitude (as stated by the dimension's residents) as soon as the world was thrown off-balance by an outside force.

Meanwhile, Klarion the Witch boy is having the time of his life coming across a whole world that somehow hasn't been affected by Order or Chaos. So he's capitalizing on that.

Then he came across a place that was said to be sacred, not that he cared, and then came across a boy who didn't look a day over his teens (which frankly doesn't say much in regards to immortals) with a frankly long tail that looked longer than he was tall and very majestic looking horns.

Danny was annoyed yet curious, Klarion was surprised yet delighted.

[disconnected-dragon]

resident evil 😏

oh boy. I'm ready for this. alright let's see:

My blorbo: prob Lucas Baker? IDK why, but he's such a fun character and villain it's sooooo fun to imagine what he'd do/how other characters would interact with him/what he'd do with his weirdo Mold powers (probably just use it to grab shit/reach up for wiring and machinery but might try to punch a gator like his uncle Joe and get his shit kicked in) and how he'd react to being jailed by Blue Umbrella if that happens and God he's just the best worst guy, y'know? All the other RE villains are so put together and slick, and don't get me wrong, it's nice to see Wesker and his suit and Alexia in her evening gown. But sometimes villains should be unapologetic grease goblins and that's what Lucas is and I love him for that so much. He's rough and tumble and his traps are clever but held together via spit/prayers and he can think of the exact way to wire a tripmine but is too lazy to properly bolt speakers into the wall and probably thinks he can wrestle gators and Evie and Uncle Joe and that idiot twink across the bar NOT LIKE THAT WAY ZOE SHUT UP. He's rolling around in the trash and he loves it and I don't want him to change. He's a spiky blorbo but best blorbo.

Scrunkly: Ethan Winters. He's the father I wished I had and didn't know I needed until he stared God in the face and blew it up with his dying breath. Boy. Boy. Also he's strangely relatable? At least to me. I tend to shut off in stressful situations and either blank face my way through it or scream the entire time, with no in between. So everyone bashing on him for being milque toast in RE7, it didn't really make sense? Like c'mon, the guy's brain is probably still back at "I FOUND MIA!" he doesn't have time to deal with the fact that he's having a fucking chainsaw fight with a hillbilly! And also, why is everyone yelling at him for doing it too much, like his kid's life is on the line, wouldn't you be working yourself up? IDK, he's just nice and friend-shaped anyway. He's the kind of guy that you could talk to about life, and he'd just nod while Rose sleeps in the carseat beside him or something. Or just-- let Heisenburg/Lucas climb all over him like a jungle gym while he just-- stands there accepting that it's his life now. Absolutely friend shaped.

Scrimblo Blimbo: Steve Burnside. I know he's all like cLaiRe and soRrY and his voice actor sucks in the original CV and I KNOW HE'S ANNOYING but he's just so-- cute? Underrated? He turns into a lizard in the end and I like lizards so I'm biased? IDK, I just like the boy and I don't think he deserves all the hate he gets? Like, even the FaTheEr line, I find that really heartbreaking. That kid is being forced to kill his own father after not seeing him for-- weeks? Months? How long was he in that jail? Yeah, he's sort of cringy and hot/cold, and trying to impress Claire, but that's pretty much understandable. Claire's the only person he's seen in-- how long? Also, this might just be me, but I feel like he's sorrrrrt of trans? He gives me the vibe of a guy that just figured out he passes and so is flying high despite his horrible situation while desperately trying to impress this one cute person that finally recognizes him as a man and ends up doing some really cringe things in the process. And-- wow I don't find that relatable at all /s. I dunno, at least bring him back for the lizard form, that was cool.

Glup Shitto: James Marcus. Not the weird scientist guy, well also the weird scientist guy because he started the whole thing, but mostly the leech James Marcus. That is a whole ass giant leech shaped into the form of a person, believing they are that person and just fucking seeking revenge for its death. Capcom just fucking did that and expected us to-- accept it? Holy shit, mAN! Genius. Brilliant. Stunning. I love it so fucking much. I'm not joking. I love Leech James Marcus so much. It deserves so much more then like one note in Umbrella Chronicles (tho that was pretty metal). #BringbackJamesMarcustheLeech

Poor Little Meow Meow: Alfred Ashford. IT'S ALfrEd aSHfoRd and I KNOW he's problematic and aged poorly but c'mon! He's evil and British and basically a bond villain and so fun to look at in the game. And the whole reason he did that is because his father favorited his sister over him so he thought that latching onto her would earn him favor and then she just slowly became the only person he could depend on and vice versa for her but she destroyed herself with T-V and left him with nothing-- man I just wanted him to survive and go on a journey of self-discovery through the arctic wasteland, which is now packed full of T-V infected polar bear/bug monsters that hide in the snow to wage guerilla warfare, and come out with his dignity dashed to bits but with a healthier viewpoint on life and his sister's memories and work. Maybe it's the corny British accent but he's just a meow meow.

horse plinko: As you can probably tell, my horse plinko tends to be universal, but tbh William/Annette Birkin. Those in particular, not their daughter Sherry, she's been through enough. A role reversal where Annette gets shot up and injects herself with G and William is forced to take charge and protect his daughter while confronting the literal embodiment of his own mistakes would be-- mm prime trauma material. On the other hand, if Annette just-- fucking left the lab before locking it down and put some effort into protecting her kid, she could've bounced back and become a Good Guy again. IDK, maybe it won't do anything but I wanna see 'em bounce around and hit the ground.

Eeby Deeby: Albert Wesker. Nobody has that much of a furious rivalry with someone for THAT long and bend over backwards THAT much just to see them again and rub it in their face that you're all awesome now just for purely intellectual reasons. Nobody screams their rival's name That Way as they died for totally heterosexual reasons. If he's dead, he's crackling in supergayhell for gay eugenics crimes.

[codenamesazanka]

the reactions are in! my anime-only friends said of the episode:

(asked if it was good or bad) …It was an episode

It’s just Shigaraki in the woods with a giant rock man

I’m a bit confused

that’s the doctor from the first episode? What— oh, he’s helping Shigara— wtf, those hands are his family? why hands— Oh, they’re being sent back to the rock man

(Good so far?) Well, the lab is pretty cool looking. The hand thing is fucked up, but now we know why they’re there. But why hands, they didn’t get destroyed?

So this all happened last year (in-universe)…? In December. Kurogiri’s still there so— When was he captured again? Oh, it’s before last season’s Endeavor arc. So right after Overhaul arc?

They’ve just been fighting the rock man this entire time? They haven’t done anything else? What about the High End—?

(Second half of episode) Who’s narrating? Wait, it’s the lizard guy?? Huh, weird.

Dunno, the League is still kinda… They’re not that interesting. Like, what are they doing? Why are they sticking with Shigaraki? There doesn’t seem to be anything holding them together.

Why aren’t they all killing each other by now? Especially stabby girl and Shigaraki and Dabi and…everyone else.

What is up with stabby girl? What’s up with all of them?

Deadpool copy guy still seems cool.

Who’s the hostage? (Giran, the broker) Who? Have we met him before? (Yeah, he’s the guy who introduced Toga and Dabi to Shigaraki in season 2, remember?) …No, not really.

Okay, random new villains… They’re like, an evil corporation? (No, the leader is just also the CEO of a company.) Oh, so it’s not an Evil, Inc. type thing?

(Curious, Trumpet, Skeptic in background of RD phone-call) Weren’t they just elsewhere? (No, those shots were just… abstract character-establishing still scenes) Oh. Okay.

Yeah, sorry, you’re still weird for liking that Shiggy guy, Nal. We still don’t get it.

-

OVERALL, my anime-only friends are a bit confused, but they’ll keep watching. Mostly just to finish the season.

With the episode skipping back two-three months from last’s episode, and covering 3-4 chapters in one episode, all lot is going on, with seemingly little context. The focus seemed just to suddenly shift to the villains. My friends watch each episode weekly, so lacking a recap, they’ve forgotten most of what the League as a whole last did.

Literally one of them told me in the time between Overhaul and the Doctor, it doesn’t seem like the League as done anything. Which is exactly the point, except instead of learning they were poor and reduced to dumpster-diving via the MVA introduction with Spinner’s narration, the League now just seem to be boring and bad at being the active terrorist Villains they’re supposed to be. The anime really just suddenly switch to the League in the middle of nowhere being attacked by Machia, no context, no lead-up, nothing.

Literally my friends told me the League didn’t seem to have a uniting purpose, which again, was the point, but now they seem like carelessly-written flat characters that are just thrown together. Why do any of them stick around? Without the scene of them hanging out - the mass murder bonding, Twice and Toga playing with a necklace, the banter, the sushi quip - the League’s connection with each other and Giran is completely random and unconvincing.

Plus while I’m happy Spinner got to narrate a bit, for my friends, it seemed completely random that the role was given to the lizard guy. A bizarre choice, because what’s notable about him? Why this background character? He’s just gonna talk; okay then.

Besides those issues that would’ve been easily solved by adapting 220 properly, there’s also the fact that with the rush pacing, there’s little time to take in the atmosphere and tone of the lab scene. Do we get to linger over the whiplash of AFO hugging Tenko, then immediately giving him the severed hands of his family, and so fully realizing the horror and inexplicable cruelty of his backstory, re-arranging emotions and judgements of the silly hand-man? Nope. Do we get to take in the impact of Shigaraki’s dream and the depths of his distortion when he’s speaking at top speed? Nah. We get a brief moment of ‘what the fuck’ over the hands, another ‘what the heck’ over the speech, and then we’ve moved on to wrestling with Gigantomachia. It’s hard to reflect on all this new information when there’s even more new things to learn about a broker and the new army and the League being challenged to a fight.

Basically, the episode and beginning of anime MVA is a mess, giving only the barest of chance for interest in the characters and what’s going to happen in the next five episodes; mainly any continue watching is due to obligation to finish the season and momentum of ‘oh, we’re diving in, okay.’ This is the reaction I get from friends I was eager to watch MVA with and introduce and celebrate the Villains. I’m kinda devastated.

[ceoofanticatradora]

We need more anti C//A who are Adora stans (like you seem to be) so that people can understand that C///A is bad for Adora. Heck C//A is bad for Catra too, but the shippers don't seem to realize it. If Catra had been able to let Adora go maybe she could have healed instead of her festering and the abuse may have ended instead of escalated.

Hello Dear, welcome on my Blog and a big thank you for your message! Firstly I wanna apologize that this response is reaching you more than three full days, almost four later. Just real life getting into the way of my online presence (at least I got my A-Levels admission!) but I assure you that replying to you was on my To Do List the entire time. And while I could've typed something quick, I thought you deserved a full length response just as much as the person before you received. That goes for anyone really to ask/write me anything in the future.

Adora is a character that has flaws, her own interests, things she struggles with/is insecure about etc. but she also still works on being better (up to Season 5). This makes her relatable, fleshed out and overall three dimensional. Overall for me that makes Adora very likeable. Which is funny because when I first watched the show I thought of her as too goofy and felt like she as a character was overall just flat. Her character design did not speak to me either, the ponytail with the weird hair poof and these pointy shoulders of her jacket just really were not my taste. Isn't it amazing how perceptions can change?

As you can guess from that description I did not always stan Adora and she's probably still not my favorite character but over the almost two years I've been in this fandom I've grown rather fond of her. Other important characters to me are Kyle (a very relatable comfort character of mine, he learned to stand up for himself and others and I support that, f*ck Season 5 for barely acknowledging his existence), Lonnie (apart from treating Kyle badly (which I really do NOT support or excuse) I really love her, man, some women just do me like that, I mean she really stood up to Catra like that), Entrapta (I'm autistic too! It's great to have some representation, seeing the ableism/treatment she experiences in the show is not so much though), Seahawk (I don't even know why, I have some issues with his behavior towards Mermista at times but overall I love this dork), Scorpia (she reminds me of myself so much and I really wanna give her hugs, I'm so glad she chose to no longer let Catra treat her like that even though I will be forever salty she just immediately forgave her), Peekablue (I can explain this even less than Seahawk, especially since it was not even really him in the end but his existence somehow helped me cope with Season 5, without him I probably would've left this fandom ... and also my favorite color is blue) and Double Trouble (now there's enough people already critcizing how they're not exactly great Non-binary representation but this dramatic lizard will forever be in my heart, that reality check they gave Catra, basically slapping her in the face with facts was satisfying as h*ck, also I like lizards overall).

Now there's plenty of characters I like, dislike (or even hate) or am simply indifferent about but after all this is not a tier list but me talking about Adora, Catra and Catradora. Adora started off as this girl that was so sure what she was doing is right but once she was taught differently she was willing to leave everything she knew (except Catra, because she valued her despite everything) behind. And not only that, she broke out of the abuse cycle that Catra tried so hard to keep upright. And that is exactly what makes Adora such a good role model. She teaches children (or people) that:

Your past doesn't define what/who you are or what/who you can become

-> Adora used to be a Horde soldier and did not know where she came from, but nonetheless she found herself a family and became a hero that saved thousands of people

You can always change your mind and start a new life if you feel disappointed in what you are doing/who you are as a person

-> Basically the exact same point, Adora started a new life as she saw what the Horde really was and changed her mind about who to fight for

You deserve love too, be it platonic or romantic (or se*ual???) (If you're aro and/or ace just ignore the part that does not work for you)

-> While Adora for various reasons thought her only use was to please others and meet their needs and expectations (mostly due to Shadow Weaver and Catra) she learned to accept that she too deserves love and validation (if the love aspect would not have been focused on it being romantic love so she could smooch Catra in the finale this would've been a billion times better because she got love from her friends that showed her her real value)

You can walk away from something/someone, that does not make you egoistic/selfish

-> Adora walked away from the Horde, after Catra stubbornly refused to come with her despite many offers (basically Catra broke the promise, not Adora) from her too and that did not make her a "traitor" or "selfish", h*ck, Adora in the end did this for a bigger purpose too, even if part of it was her not wanting to live with such wrong morals

Your opinions, feelings etc. about a person/something can change and that is perfectly fine and valid, being able to change is part of what makes someone human

-> Adora's views on many things changed throughout the show: The Horde and the Rebellion, the First Ones, Catra, being She-Ra, herself, her priorities and so on ... she actually makes use of her brain, which is why Catra saying "Don't you ge it?" or calling her an idiot and dumb never sat right with me, she's a realistic character for shifting with her thoughts, feelings etc. and sometimes just does not fully think things through

You don't have to let other people treat you like sh*t (just because they have some issues they never worked through does not give them any right to let it out on you)

-> This point is obviously centered mostly around Catra and her abusing Adora almost every chance she gets, which is why Adora standing up for herself and not letting Catra blame her for her own decisions and mistakes is so important, "You made your choice, now live with it" is one of the most powerful lines throughout all the five Seasons

Now I'm sure there is still more to Adora's character than what I just listed and unfortunately almost all the points basically got pushed aside, well, Adora as a character got pushed aside in Season 5. All her growth, the things that made me love her, see her as great role model for so many people robbed of their value for the sake of making everything revolve around Catra. That brings me to her and how you are absolutely right that Catradora is harmful to both characters. Of course Adora is affected most by it in the end but Catra too is obviously suffering under the fandoms obsession and just the overall idea of them being romantically involved.

Just like with Adora the stans make almost everything about Catra over her relationship with Adora. She too can barely exist outside of it and if she wasn't the fan favorite she'd most likely would too be mostly in Fanarts that include Adora and not just her (if you google "Catra Fanart" most content is still Catra and Catra only but here and there Catradora still peaks through). But for whatever reason the fandom still views her more as her own person as the other ones? Catrouble and Scorptra Shippers might actually still get less hate than Glimmadora Shippers (I'm not denying they don't get any, they most certaintly do) which is just plain hypocricy and favorism. Kinda like the: A woman needs to be loyal to her husband and her husband only but if the husband wants to be active with other women that is perfectly fine because "that is just how men are" or how i like to call it ... sexism. Now in this case they are both women so it's not sexism but yo do get my point.

But much more importantly, Catra has an unhealthy obsession with Adora. Signs of that are for example:

Constantly talking about Adora, even when said person is not around (to Shadow Weaver, Scorpia etc.)

Obsessing over having control over Adora like in that one Episode "Are you kidding? I finally got control over Adora, I'm not giving that up!"

Building her entire character and her actions around Adora "We need to take Adora down", "Adora left me", "I'd rather see the whole world end than see you win!", also shown in Season 5 where she states she does save Glimmer only for Adora and not for Glimmer or to do the right thing

Getting aggressive or very emotional over Adora like clawing the wall, having nightmares etc. (destructive behavior towards herself and others)

Having no or barely any characteristics outside of her relationship with Adora like, we don't know her interests or likes and dislikes outside of being evil, obsessed with Adora, being abused by Shadow Weaver ...

Trying to force Adora to meet her needs and expectations regardless of Adora's owns

Sacrificing her oppurtunity to be happy in the Crimson Waste for the sake of her Adora obsession and being better than her at all costs

So yes, you were very right with saying that not putting Catra in a relationship with Adora would've benefited both characters. Catra could've learned to exist on her own, develop interests and a life outside of Adora. Learn to accept herself and eventually come to terms with her childhood abuse. She could've been free and not "the abusive cat girl that ended up with the person she unhealthily obsessed over to the point of no return" she kinda is now. Even if we ignore the whole "dating your long term abuser" part from Adora's side and "being rewarded" for horrible behavior, Catra alone is not giving a good example to people watching. As much as I dislike Catra, disdain her even, an ending where she is dependent on Adora, unable to stand on her own two legs after she led armies in war is not what I would wish for her, even with a decent redemption arc (that she did not get).

[transsexualhamlet]

sherlock holmes reactions part six (aka me losing my mind over the final problem)

Hi, I am once again reminding you all that I've formed a parasocial relationship with the crackhead detective 👍 This made me overly emotional for the fact that he didnt even die

But like

hhhmmmmmmmm those were certainly an interesting 14 pages

Yeah, I already made a post about how the final problem relates to yuumori's final problem and how incredibly sexy it is but yes now I'd just like to relay to you how absolutely heart brocken i am over this lol I will eventually get to reading the post hiatus stories i just. I haven't emotionally recovered from this yet

Yelling below the cut somehow this reaction feels longer than the story itself. but it's about half cracking jokes and half sobbing so be prepared

I mean, starting off strong with "well yknow since i got married my and sherlock's Very Intimate Relations had to be modified and all but we hadnt seen each other in a while so it was kind of jarring to see him crawling in my second story bedroom window clutching Wounds and closing the shutters absolutely fucking wasted losing his mind over some dude named moriarty"

We've been over this but. Oh my god why are they gay

I just like????? Imagine how fucking bizzare that would be to just see your old homie crawl into your window bleeding on your floor and asking to exit the other way in case he's followed like "hey bro can we Talk i hope you're not busy" WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO DO, SAY HE IS? Imagine watson just like "no dude I'm fucking busy go get killed"

But legitimately. That's certainly something. And like, I see a lot of books starting like this lmao but. Holmes's stuff usually starts off kind of easily with watson going "yeah so lately ive been Experiencing Sherlock Holmes" and spend 20 minutes on exposition with them having a Conversation but no. mans just fucking escaped a hitman and went directly to his boyfriend's house having apparently Never Before In His Goddamn Life mentioned his actual nemesis to this guy. How the FUCK has watson never heard of him before.

And how sherlock starts talking about it isn't any less funny he's just like "UHHH SO THERE'S THIS GUY. THIS ABSOLUTE MAN. AND HES REALLY IMPRESSIVE I MEAN HES LIKE SUPER FUCKING SMART AND HES LIKE DOING CRIMES????? SO I LIKE. I NOTICED AS I DO BUT HE NOTICED THAT I NOTICED AND I MIGHT HAVE MADE A LITTLE FUCKY WUCKY DUDE CAN YOU HELP ME LIKE. FLEE THE COUNTRY" and watson's like my dear sherlock What The Fuck

Im also loving how he calls moriarty a "mathematical celebrity" awhi;grih;oaewhhta;ioh;iaewh;ii;oewh;eh;rg mans just. ok lol hes a Math Celebrity that had to quit his math teacher job because EVERYONE JUST KNEW HE WAS A CRIME LORD LIKE THEY TOOK ONE LOOK AT HIM AND WENT MANS DEFINITELY HAS BODIES IN HIS BASEMENT I DONT WANT HIM TEACHING HERE

But yeah, it was interesting to see what the big deal about og moriarty was... especially since the deal simply did not deliver. There was not really a big deal. It's like reading the first chapter of a book and immediately skipping to the climax. Everything is so hyped up and clearly having been building for years and you just get like NO CONTEXT. I swear Moriarty wasn't goddamn mentioned any time before this. He's just suddenly the big guy and watson has just never fucking heard shit about this guy.

What's so funny about this whole situation is that I just. Cannot objectively know anything about Moriarty at all because sherlock just... does not go into what this dude's alleged crimes even were, other than. The fact that he like. Does them. He's just really involved in crimes. How? Why? For how long? In what way? For what purpose? NO FUCKING CLUE HE JUST. HE JUST DOES. And there's nothing to really suggest that Moriarty was honestly a really evil guy. They're all like trust me he was just. he was just really bad but show absolutely No examples of being such. The most evil thing we saw Moriarty do personally was call sherlock stupid for letting him get into the apartment. And even then he immediately followed it up with complimenting him lol

yeah, my impression of Moriarty was like. I expected him to be worse, honestly. I expected him to be like a cartoon villain because he was kind of made out to be one and then he's just honestly a really polite and refined guy?? Mans strolls the fuck into 221B like hi shawty and it is Not like yuumori obviously man's holding a gun but like. What the fuck they are just. They have never met before but They Clearly Have and it's. its so weird

Like honestly I don't dislike og moriarty. He's really what william tried to be (and fucking failed, but beside the point) but like. Dude's so powerful and for what. He just walks into the apartment with No Pretense like why sherlock holmes is that a revolver or are you just happy to see me oh my goodness you are a dolt why would you hold the gun that way. disgusting. disgraceful. dreadful. Oh my god. I love him I'm sorry

abngnahhghifeah;iewh and Why does sherlock describe him like that hes like "MANS A REALLY REFINED LIZARD /pos" HIEHIFEHW:HGIHOEWFEEW FOR WHAT. FOR W H A T

baaaaaaaaghhhhhh but likeeeee they went STRAIGHT to "you know what I'm here for" "you know how I'm going to respond" "well then" "yeah" "mhm" "damn well it really do be like that sometimes" "ur really smart by the way" "im fucking aware let's kill each other as we both Thought in our Minds" "yes lets" AHDHDHDHDFS WTF THIS IS INSANE

But damn uh. mutual destruction my beloved this is very different from sherliam but im not. im not. opposed to it tucks hair behind ear

I just. Holy shit they really went "if you destroy me I will ensure that we both go down hand in unlovable hand" "I wouldn't mind that"

Annnnd I just noticed that the actual lines for this part kind of. that kind of happened in chapter 31 when sherlock was like i would Gladly die to take down the lord of crime and william was like. hahahah yeahNO NO NO NO

BUT SERIOUSLY THO IM LOSING MY MIND OVER HOW SHERLOCK SAYS THIS WHOLE THING TO WATSON AND HES LIKE DAMN SHAWTY HES LIKE THE REASON FOR HALF THE CRIME IN THIS CITY BUT HES SO NICE THO??? LIKE I EXPECTED HIM TO BE TOUGH AND EVERTHING NO HES JUST SOME POLITE PROPER UNDERSTANDABLE MAN WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE VERY DIABOLICAL shawty is having a Crisis

And then watson is like wowww that was cool you wanna spend the night and sherlock is like "UNFORTUNATELY BESTIE I AM BEING FUCKING TRACKED DOWN ID LIKE YOU TO NOT DIE WITH ME"

This bit gave me a Moment Moment because oh my god. Then watson is like "no shut up i'm coming with you i don't care" and i just had to Take A Minute because THEY SWITCHED PLACES AAH SHERLOCK IS TRYING TO KEEP WATSON SAFE NOW AND WATSON IS NOW MORE RECKLESS BC OF HIM AND. AHHHH

Completely random but. How sherlock still refers to 221B as "our rooms" to watson even though watson hasn't lived their in years........ shawty i am emotional.........

SO THEY GODDAMN FLEE THE COUNTRY TOGETHER BC WATSON SAYS THEY HAVE TO STICK TOGETHER AND SHERLOCK HAS A MOMENT WHERE HE'S LIKE YEAH NEVERMIND PLEASE GO HOME WATSON AND WATSON IS JUST LIKE. NO. AND HSERLOCK IS LIKE. DAMN OK I HAVE NEVER HEARD YOU SAY THAT BEFORE

But. Ok as funny as this is. They have this fucking Conversation on the train to switzerland where sherlock is like "I have not lived in vain" and watson is like "YOURE NOT DYING" and hes like "i have not lived in vain. like i said. this will not be a bad way to die" UHHHHHH DAMN SHAWTY

hhhhhh and it just Gets. it. it. it Gets. These fuckers get to switzerland and they stay in a hotel and then leave for reichenbach but watson gets this goddamn letter telling him that hes needed at the hotel to basically save this lady's life. And he doesn't. Like. he doesn't even want to go he's like FUCK IT SHE CAN DIE IM NOT LEAVING YOU but sherlock convinces him to go fULLY KNOWING THE LETTER WAS FUCKING FAKED BY MORIARTY JUST AS A PLOY TO GET HIM ALONE

AND THEN HE JUST. WENT ANYWAY AND WATSON HAD TO WATCH HIM JUST LIKE GODDAMN WALK OFF INTO THE SUNSET LIKE "LITTLE DID I KNOW THIS WOULD BE THE LAST TIME I WOULD SEE HIM BUT IT JUST. IT HAD THAT VIBE YKNOW"

God I just. Wow sherlock really did that huh. He really went and did that. And I went over it in the post about this compared to yuumori but it just RUINED me how watson just. Never saw what happened and there's just so little information about it that all they have is these assumptions and pieces that just suggest that these guys met up, walked up to the goddamn waterfall having a nice civil conversation about how talented and smart they both were at this and how they revealed their methods to each other and complimented them because of course they did

And they just sat up there talking to each other so long and Moriarty legit waited politely or even possibly was the one that suggested he write a letter to watson in which sherlock just went "damn lol moriarty's pretty nice actually anyway uhhhh sorry watson ily ✌" and just like. left it up there in his damn cigarette box

But just like. damn the insinuation that moriarty just sat there and watched while he wrote that entire goddamn letter, sealed it up, and then got up and went alright buddy let's go but it makes no goddamn sense if they wanted to actually kill each other and assure they themselves would survive I could name like 23 different ways they could have managed it so easily and they Didn't. they were really set on mutual destruction huh. There's no way they were even trying to do anything but Die Together at that point and that's Something huh

It absolutely baffles me how they could say that these guys had plummetted like, holding each other tho. Like. ok lol but How Do You Even Know

It was certainly a ride. But the fact that Watson had to actively try to think like Sherlock to figure out what happened in the scene was just. The cherry on top. Especially after they'd consciously started to switch roles in this i just. Damn.

In conclusion uhhhhhhhh gay people real I suppose

[blouisparadise]

We recently received a request for enemies and lovers recs. We already have an enemies to lovers fic rec list here, but after looking at that list, we realized we had much more to add to it and therefore decided to make a part two.

Happy reading!

1) I Couldn’t Get Away From You | Mature | 5185 words

Suddenly in the heat of the moment, Harry’s eyes turned darker as he pushed Louis’ back more and more towards the wall. “Fine.” He plants his lips on Louis’ and begins to roughly kiss him, soon enough turning it into a make-out session.

“Fuck you, Styles,” Louis moans and grips onto Harry’s shoulders, hands trailing up to the taller’s hair and gripping that as well.

“We’ll see about that.”

2) There's More Than One Place To Call Home | Explicit | 8416 words

Harry never asked for much from his neighbors - he didn't care about barking animals during the day or loud talking during the night.

The only thing he needed was silence when he was writing. And that was the only thing his new neighbor wouldn't give him.

Deciding to confront the loud guy who lived next door, Harry found himself ringing his doorbell one night. And that decision just may be the best thing that's ever happened to Harry.

3) Make A Run, Cause Some Rebellion | Explicit | 8824 words

As a general rule, kitten hybrids are small and disinterested in what other people want them to do, slightly evil and at least a little manipulative. Louis prides himself on being all of those things to varying degrees, but especially on being uninterested in what other people tell him to do. He’s still human goddammit, despite his pointy ears and penchant for curling up in the sun and taking naps.

He’s going about his daily business, knocking things over where he sees fit and leaving a trail of mess in his wake. As exasperated as it makes Liam he’s used to it by now, having shared a flat with Louis for almost three years now, and if Louis whines enough he’ll even clean up after him. It’s a great life, really.

With the exception of Liam’s stupid, broad shouldered, entirely too big mate, the one who always comes over to watch sports with him. Louis hates that guy. His hair is always greasy and he brings weird hipster beer with him when he comes that tastes like shit. And he won’t even let Louis have any of it, either. The only reason Louis even knows what it tastes like is because one time he stole a bottle from the fridge and fled to his room before Harry could catch him.

4) Something To Prove | Explicit | 9425 words

Louis is the first and only omega to work at Red Valley Medical Center. Despite being more than qualified, he still faces prejudice for his career choice everyday. From patients refusing his treatment to condescending alpha doctors intervening with his work, practicing medicine in Boston is more challenging than Louis had ever thought it would be.

5) Where Do We Go Now | Explicit | 10617 words

Louis goes off to college ready to start a fresh life away from the oppressive alphas of his pack.  The odds aren't in his favour when his new dorm mate turns out to be an alpha.  Louis hates alphas.

6) Enjoy The Ride | Not Rated | 11103 words

The one where Louis, an omega more than tired of being treated as lesser than alphas, is forced on a road trip by his beta besties only to meet Harry who might just be the alpha he never knew he wanted.

7) I Didn’t Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me) | Explicit | 20681 words

These days Louis tends to steer clear of dating alphas. He’s dated too many knotheads in his time, and he’s ready to just focus on school and his friends and his pet monitor lizard, of course.

Too bad the alpha next door won’t take a hint and stop using the worst pick up lines of all time on him. He’s really got to stop laughing with him--and talking to him and walking to class with him and letting him bring him coffee and tea and gifts for his lizard and watching Netflix together and...

8) Written In The Stars (That’s You And Me) | Explicit | 22632 words

Louis pushes himself up on one elbow and stretches enough to just barely trace his fingertips over Harry’s jawline. Harry’s eyes drop to track his movements as he does it again. “D’you feel that?” he whispers.

To him, it feels like all of the universe’s magic lives just beneath his skin when he touches Harry with intent. It feels like something special. Louis watches Harry’s lips part and wants to touch that too. He almost does, but then Harry shakes his head. “Feel what?”

6) Middle Ground | Explicit | 23516 words

Note: This fic has been locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Harry moves to a new town for work where he meets the enigma that is Louis Tomlinson.

10) When It’s Late At Night | Mature | 25597 words

The Late Late prompt that we all need to get through this excruciatingly hard time.

11) Supposed To Be | Explicit | 26100 words

The Geek Charming AU where Harry's a film geek, Louis' a popular jock, and they both need each other to get what they want.

12) Magical Soup | Explicit | 28850 words

Slytherin prefect Louis Tomlinson's seventh year at Hogwarts takes an immediate turn for the worse when he's made to be potions partners with Harry Styles, Hufflepuff's resident heartthrob and class clown.  Louis has always considered Styles to be a terrible show-off who coasts by on his charm and good looks, but the more they work together, the more he questions that idea.  As term goes on, will Louis be able to admit to himself that he might actually like Harry Styles after all... and maybe, just maybe, as more than a friend?

13) Building Me Up (But Buttercup, You Lied) | Explicit | 31007 words

Harry’s mouth felt dry just saying those words. What he had with Louis was so much more than a simple ‘fuck buddies’ situation. It was slow kisses in the morning between soft sheets and shy smiles, it was holding hands in the afternoon while walking and eating ice cream. It was breakfast for dinner, laughing and licking honey from each other’s lips as they shared goals and even some secrets, it was happiness, it was glow.

To Harry, what he had with Louis meant everything. Until Louis decided it meant nothing.

14) You’ve Set On Me | Explicit | 31100 words

Louis' in an obscure band. Harry's an international popstar. Their paths aren't meant to cross, not like this, but when Louis' band signs on as Harry's opening act, both Harry and Louis are forced to confront the open wounds of their shared past.

15) Nicotine | Explicit | 32245 words | Sequel

"We're two different types of people, Liam. He likes sex and drugs, I like theater and tea. Trust me, we'd never date." Except they would, they do, and neither of them plans on letting go anytime soon.

16) Let Me Feel Your Heartbeat | Explicit | 34572 words

Harry is 98% sure Louis hates him. So he feels like his bewilderment is justified when the omega offers to help him through his rut.

17) Close To Nowhere | Explicit | 34589 words

Louis and Harry are psychics who kind of hate each other. They go to Tennessee to investigate a haunting.

18) Make This Feel Like Home | Explicit | 42032 words

The house on West 28th Street in London is twice the size of Louis', more expensive than the price of all of his house and car payments combined, and is falling apart at the seams.

19) Strangers in Love | Explicit | 42207 words

Louis wakes up to find himself in a marriage with the last man he thought he'd ever end up with.

10) Why Can’t It Be Like That | Explicit | 63567 words

A fashion AU with a royal twist, where Louis doesn't need a stylist, Harry's thrilled to have a real life Barbie doll, and they're both very wrong about each other.

21) I Want You So Much (But I Hate Your Guts) | Mature | 83648 words

AU in which Louis gets accepted to play for the Manchester University Alpha-Beta Football Team. The only problem: Louis is actually an Omega. He is determined to make it big in the football world, though, and he can't do that bound to an Omega team. With the help of a faked doctor's certificate and some pretty strong suppressants he is ready to fight for his dream.

That Harry Styles (Alpha, second year and youngest football captain of the A-B team in ages) doesn't seem to like him complicates matters, though.

22) For Reasons Wretched and Divine | Explicit | 94655 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

Ten years ago, Harry Styles was just a nerdy kid with one friend and a debilitating crush on the captain of his school’s football team. He thought the stars were smiling down on him the day he and Louis Tomlinson were paired for their end-of-term Literature project. But because Harry’s life is decidedly not a fairytale, the budding friendship quickly leads to the least happy ending of all time.

Now, Harry Styles is a household name. Barely twenty-seven with two Grammy nominations to his name, the singer-songwriter is poised to take the music industry by storm with his highly anticipated third album. So, what happens when the best producer in the business is also the only person Harry’s vowed never to speak to again?

23) You Drive Me Crazy (But It Feels Alright) | Explicit | 102306 words

Note: This fic has mentions of BH.

“Harry is not short for Harold,” he corrects, his voice as thick as molasses. He lowers his eyes to Louis’ sequined lapels, rubbing one between two fingers. “Is this small or extra small? It looks lovely.”

Louis breaks away from his grip with a petulant huff and pushes him back with two fingers.

“You’re mocking me. Again.”

Harry smiles and it's a real honest swoop of his lips this time. Louis’ stomach swoops with them.

24) Tainted Saints And Velvet Vices | Mature | 126056 words

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they're forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Title: Abundance: The Future Belongs to Us

Author: Paul Allen

Rating: 1/5 stars

I started reading Abundance this morning and it was tough. I finished the first 250 pages, and then I had to read the same two chapters over again for context.

First of all, the subject matter is fascinating: a future in which everyone has a million-dollar income by the time they reach 18, a trillion-dollar "superfund" is created to deal with all of the waste, and we all own the air we breathe.

But then, as the pages fly by, the writing gets even more bizarre than usual -- and the plot gets even weirder still.

The first few chapters are just about a kid called Nello, who is a failure at most things in his life and is told in a number of ways to just keep on truckin' and keep on giving in order to keep his parents' house and job. He goes to an all-boys' Catholic school, because he doesn't want to ask big, difficult questions -- like "am I queer?" -- when he comes out; he goes to an all-girls' school and doesn't ask women out because what the fuck, dude; he goes to an all-girls' high-tech high-status college because fuck it, man. He's not even in the Top .5%, and he still has to ask the professor if he can borrow a copy of the textbook he's assigned to write a research project on because his old one is too fucked up and he'll have no idea what he's doing. Meanwhile, his parents are making the best life they can, and he's not doing well enough to make it all look like a failure.

At some point, he meets Grace, a charismatic and beautiful woman who is also in college. They get together and start a feminist book club, which quickly goes from funny to creepy because Grace starts telling horrible things about herself. She's a brain-in-a-vat conspiracy theorist who thinks her father is really the evil Dr. Zaius as in the Wizard of Othmore and that the world is actually run by a giant, robotic, lizard-man robot named Frank. Grace is pretty though, in a way that is a lot more Ms. House than Hannibal Lecter. And the three of them spend a lot more time together than anyone in typical "feminist" fiction tends to.

Then Grace and Nella get recruited by a guru called Bill and really do perform an experimental quantum teleport-teleport ritual which shatters the strictures of incomprehensibly complex, ancient law known as "the rules" and lets tens of millions of people break out of prison, get jobs, and have relationships which would have been entirely forbidden by these rules. Grace dies in mysterious circumstances, taken by mysterious forces, and Nello goes back to college with Grace's ghost repeatedly prattling about reading books about how her mystic mentor has gone off into the cosmos to help light the way to the new age now that the old age of the rules has ended, and is posting these books to review websites.

Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are engaged in a super-racist scheme to enslave the Eskimos by helping them produce through primitive agriculture large amounts of gas (but this is at the expense of turning them into cold-climate type ZOs?). Another character's dad is a guy who thinks people who use the bathroom before sex are weird and evil like the unclean ones from the unclean unclean unclean east.

At the end of this thing, it's not clear if Nello and his friends are benevolent versions of the sort of feminists whom most of the great works of literature are an example of rebellion from, or if they are the people the figures they are praising actually wanted them. It's the latter, sure, but it's also the source of the weirdness that accompanies the whole thing. Energy, for instance, is a commodity that is bought and sold, which takes money and asks for faith in the company and can get you a little bit of both. But resources -- water, muscle. This is not a thing people are willing to spend on each other without thinking about it first as a transaction of faith. Nello's whole charisma thing is a sort of salvation by faith. The second he starts talking like, well, a particularly stupid version of a rapist, he's not so hard to pull away: people who think a bullshit scam like that is good at his age probably aren't ever going to do much to save the poor.

So the vision of the World That Should Be that Nello's life teaches us is one of fantasies and fraudulence and of sitting around reciting mantras in a way that can literally move the very air through which we walk. The world that he promises at the very end (which gets me, a factual, empirical author of historical fiction, excited, I deal in fact and not hype even for bullshit) is this grim comedy of gender roles and crowd-sourcing enforced by mood and light. The world of a thousand narratively parallel Jordan CerNS.

[shiredded]

A white animation student’s take on Soul and POC cartoons

This got long but there’s lots of pretty pictures to go with it.

Hi, I’m Shire and I’m as white as a ripped-off Pegasus prancing on a stolen van. Feel free to add to my post, especially if you are poc. The next generation of animators needs your voice now more than ever.

My opinion doesn’t matter as much here because I’m not part of the people being represented. 

But I am part of the people to whom this film is marketed, and as the market, I think I should be Very Aware of what media does to me. 

And as the future of animation, I need to do something with what I know.

I am very white. I have blue eyes and long blond hair. I’ve seen countless protagonists, love interests, moms, and daughters that look like me. If I saw an animated character that looks like me turn into a creature for the majority of a movie, I would cheer. Bring it on! I have plenty of other representation that tells me I’m great just the way I am, and I don’t need to change to be likable. 

The moment Soul’s premise was released, many people of color expressed mistrust and disappointment on social media. Let me catch you up on the plot according to the new (march 2020) trailer. (It’s one of those dumb modern trailers that tells you the entire plot of the movie including the climax; so I recommend only watching half of it)

Our protagonist, Joe Gardner, has a rich (not in the monetary sense) and beautiful life. He has dreams! He wants to join a jazz band! So far his life looks, to me, comforting, amazing, heartfelt, and real. I’m excited to learn about his family and his music. 

Some Whoknowswhat happens, and he enters a dimension where everyone, himself included, is represented by glowing, blue, vaguely humanoid creatures. They’re adorable! But they sure as heck aren’t brown. The most common response seems to be dread at the idea of the brown human protagonist spending the majority of his screen time as a not-brown, not-human creature. 

The latest trailer definitely makes that look pretty darn true. He does spend most of the narrative - chronologically - as a blob. 

but

That isn’t the same as his screen time. 

From the look of the trailer, Joe and his not-yet-born-but-already-tired-of-life soul companion tour Joe’s story in all of its brown-skinned, human-shaped, life-loving glory. The movie is about life, not about magic beans that sing and dance about burping (though I won’t be surprised if that happens too.)

Basically! My conclusion is “it’s not as bad as it looked at first, and it looks like a wonderful story.”

but

That doesn’t mean it’s ok. 

Yes, Soul is probably going to be a really important and heartfelt story about life, the goods, the bads, the dreams, and the bonds. That story uses a fun medium to view that life; using bright, candy-bowl colors and a made-up world to draw kids in with their parents trailing behind. 

It’s a great story and there’s no reason to not create a black man for the lead role. There’s no reason not to give this story to people of color. It’s not a white story. This is great!

Except...

we’ve kind of

done this

a lot

The Book of Life and Coco also trade in their brown-skinned cast for a no-skinned cast, but I don’t know enough about Mexican culture to say those are bad and I haven't picked up on much pushback to those. There’s more nuance there, I think. 

I cut the above pics together to show how the entire ensemble changes along with the protagonist. We can lose entire casts of poc. Emperor's New Groove keeps its cast as mostly human so at least we have Pacha

And while the animals they interact with might be poc-coded, there’s nothing very special or affirming about “animals of color.” 

So, Soul.

Are we looking at the same thing here?

It’s no secret by now that this is an emerging pattern in animation. But not all poc-starring animated films have this same problem. We have Moana! With deuteragonists (basically co-protagonists) of color, heck yeah.

 Aladdin... Pocahontas... The respect those films have for their depicted culture is... an essay for another time. Mulan fits here too. the titular characters’ costars are either white, or blue, and/or straight up animals. But hey, they don’t turn into animals, and neither do the supporting cast/love interests.

Dreamworks’ Home (2015) is also worth mentioning as a poc-led film where the  deuteragonist is kind of a purple blob. But the thing I like a lot about Home is that it’s A Nice Story, where there’s no reason for the protagonist to not be poc, so she is poc. Spiderverse has a black lead with a white (or masked, or animal) supporting cast. But, spiderverse also has Miles’ dad, mom, uncle, and Penny Parker.

I’d like to see more of that.

And less of this

if you’re still having trouble seeing why this is a big deal, let’s try a little what-if scenario. 

This goes out to my fellow white girls (including LGBTA white girls, we are not immune to propaganda racism)

imagine for a second you live in a world where animation is dominated to the point of almost total saturation by protagonist after protagonist who are boys/men. You do get the occasional woman-led film, but maybe pretend that 30 to 40 percent of those films are like

(We’re pretending for a second that Queen Eleanor was the protagonist, because I couldn’t think of any animated movies where the white lady protagonist turns into and stays an animal for the majority of the film)

Or, white boys and men, how would you feel if your most popular and marketable representation was this?

Speaking of gender representation, binary trans and especially nonbinary trans people are hard pressed to find representation of who they are without the added twist of Lizard tails or horns and the hand-waving explanation of “this species doesn’t do gender” But again, that’s a different essay.

Let’s look at what we do have. In reality, we (white people) have so much representation that having a fun twist where we spend most of the movie seeing that person in glimpses between colorful, glittering felt characters that reflect our inner selves is ok. 

Wait, that aesthetic sounds kind of familiar...

But I digress. Inside Out was a successful and honestly helpful and important movie.  I have no doubt in my mind that Soul will meet and surpass it in quality and and in message. 

There is nothing wrong with turning your protagonist of color into an animal or blob for most of their own movie. 

But it’s part of a larger pattern, and that pattern tells people of color that their skin would be more fun if it was blue, or hairy, or slimy, or something. It’s fine to have films like that because heck yeah it would be fun to be a llama. But it’s also fun to not be a llama. It’s fun to be a human. It’s fun to be yourself. I don’t think children of color are told that enough. 

At least, not by mainstream studios. (The Breadwinner, produced by Cartoon Saloon)

It’s not like all these mainstream poc movies are the result of racist white producers who want us to equate people of color with animals. In fact, most of those movies these days have people of color very high up, as directors, writers, or at the very least, a pool of consultants of color.

These movies aren’t evil. They aren’t even that intrinsically racist (Pocahontas can go take a hike and rethink its life, but we knew that.) It’s that we need more than just the shape-shifting narratives of our non-white protagonists. 

It’s not like there isn’t an enormous pool of ideas, talent, visions and scripts already written and waiting to be produced. There is.

But they somehow don’t make it past the head executives, way above any creative team, who make the decisions, aiming not for top-of-the-line stories, but for the Bottom line of sales.

When Disney acquired Pixar, their main takeover was in the merchandising department. The main target for their merchandise are, honestly, white children.

So is it much of a surprise

that they are more often greenlighting things palatable for as many “discerning” mothers as possible?

I saw just as many Tiana dolls as frog toys on the front page of google, so don’t worry too much about The Princess And The Frog. Kids love her. But I didn’t find any human figures of Kenai from Brother Bear, except for dolls wearing a bear suit. 

So. What do I think of Soul? 

I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be a great movie.

But I also think people of color deserve more. 

Let’s take one more look at the top people who went into making this movie.

Of the six people listed here, five are white. Kemp Powers, one of the screenplay writers, is black. 

It’s cool to see women reaching power within the animation industry, but this post isn’t about us.

We need to replace the top execs and get more projects greenlit that send the message that african, asian, latinix, middle eastern, and every other non-white ethnicity is perfect and relatable as the humans they were meant to be. 

Disney is big enough that they can - and therefore should - take risks and produce movies that aren’t as “marketable” simply because art needs to be made. People need to be loved.

Come on, millennials and Gen Z. We can do better.

We Will do better.

TLDR: A lot of mainstream animation turns its protagonists of color into animals or other creatures. I (white) don’t think that’s a bad thing, except for the fact that we don’t get enough poc movies that AREN’T weird. Support Soul; it’s not going to be as bad as you think. It’s probably gonna be really good. Let’s make more good movies about people of color that stay PEOPLE of color.

[rex101111]

The Universe Would Stay

Fandom: She-ra and the princess of power

Rating: G

Summary: Adora wakes up to see the world is healing. (quick snippet of what might be to come, with more than a little lingering on what is right now)

have a soft and fluffy thing

The first night after…everything, was loud and blurry. The next morning all Adora could really remember clearly about it was that Seahawk might have lit something on fire and that she probably kissed Catra somewhere around a dozen times before they were all partied out.

Less clear were images of Scorpia lifting about four people on her shoulders and dancing with a pink blur that was most likely Perfuma (with the people still on her shoulders), Entrapta building something with Hordak and Wrong Hordak that caught fire almost immediately, and Glimmer doing something that would have made Angella ground her for a week and made Micha shed a tear of pride. Kyle and Rogelio were also there. She thinks. There was a huge lizard guy making out with some tiny dude and that can’t describe too many other people she knows, but she knew better than to assume.

The rest of the night was just a big blob of noise and light and oh thank fuck we actually survived all that that made Adora smile as she woke with a mild headache and a warmth pressed to her side. Looking down, she saw something she barely allowed herself to dream about, Catra, purring in her sleep as she hugged her tightly around her waist.

Her tail was wrapped around her leg, every inch of the magicat making contact with her. If her wounds from the fight against the Heart and what Prime threw her way didn’t still pulse with a dull ache, she’d be certain this was a dream. Just a fantasy she cooked up in her head because the world felt too lonely and too cold without the feeling of Catra’s rough fur rubbing against her.

Bow and Glimmer helped her more than they would ever understand by sleeping together with her, by helping to keep the loneliness at bay long enough for her to fall asleep. Feeling Catra by her side after all this time, after all that heartbreak, it was a piece of her that broke off and now suddenly back with her again.

“I love you! I always have!”

It was surreal, maybe it was testament to her own low opinion of herself, but she could never have expected Catra to say anything like that. But, here she was, in love, safe, finally back home, finally back with her.

Catra snuggled closer to her, almost in response to her thoughts, her purring rumbling out of her chest and sinking into Adora’s still aching muscles. Adora patted Catra’s fur with a soft smile, keeping quiet so this moment could last a bit longer.

As she threaded her fingers through Catra’s hair, she looked around to take stock of her surroundings for the first time since she woke up. They were in the large party tent the rebellion had set up for the celebration, and all around she could see her friends and the various people who have fought and won that gruesome battle.

Scorpia was bear hugging a snoring Perfuma, who did not seem to mind in the slightest, while Frosta was draped over her head like a dog on a couch. The three of them were utterly at peace with the world, goofy grins on their unconscious faces as they dreamed about something pleasant. Both of Perfuma’s hands were holding one of Scorpia’s pincers with a degree of gentleness that was at once a bit surprising and not surprising at all.

She hadn’t known Scorpia for very long in the grand scheme of things, but Adora quickly learned how loyal and friendly she was during the fighting after she broke the sword. Considering how often they fought each other before it was still a bit of a shock how easy it was to simply trust Scorpia, she just had the kind of face you couldn’t hate for long.

Some of the things she said about Catra gave her pause at the time, and even now, knowing how far they had all come, Catra especially, she was surprised to see Scorpia even agreeing to be in the same room as the magicat.

Another memory from last night came back to her, of Scorpia and Catra in some secluded corner talking in hushed tones about something she couldn’t catch. Months earlier the sight would have kept her up at night with suspicion, but then Scorpia put a pincer on Catra’s shoulder with a sad smile, to which Catra answered with a regretful nod, and Adora quickly looked away in the interest of giving the two some privacy.

She didn’t ask Catra about it, but she seemed a bit clingier for a few minutes before letting out a deep sigh and straightening her back and rejoining the party in full force.

Adora learned that straining and poking at wounds never helped them to heal, so she’ll just let this matter drop for now. Catra knows she can ask for help if she really needs it.

Adjusting her gaze westwards, she saw Seahawk laying on the floor with Mermista pressed to his side. Adora had long learned that Mermista had a case of resting bitch face, despite how generally warm and kind she was, and that extended even to when she slept. And indeed she was scowling, even as her arms stayed wound tight around Seahawk and she leaned her forehead into his neck.

Usually it was a bit funny, but there was something a bit tense about the scowl she had as she slept, her form shaking just a bit. Adora quickly put together why with a glance at her neck and the bandage that covered it. Another look at Scorpia and she sees the same bandage, and on the same on Spinnerlla, and Micha, and so many more people around her that she knows will have scars of various kinds that won’t ever fully fade away.

She brushes a finger over the back of Catra’s neck, feels that patch of puckered skin where once something evil beyond words stitched itself into her soul and brought something ugly with it. Catra doesn’t flinch away from her touch, or whimper in her sleep, and a bit of her faith that the universe is kind is restored.

Seahawk tightens his one armed hug on Mermista, and her shaking stops. He cracks his eyes open less than an inch, his gaze is soft and lacking the manic, fiery energy he usually has in abundance, something quiet and calm in its place. He leans down to kiss her furrowed brow and Adora looks away.

Her ears, still buzzing with the magic of Etheria and still stronger than she’s used to, pick up on him whispering, “You’re safe dearest…I promise.” And she has to swallow the urge to break the silence to say she’s sorry for intruding.

In another corner of the tent, the furthest away from anyone else, are Entrapta and Hordak, the former despot laying on his side while the princess hugged him from behind, her long purple hair wrapped around his limbs. Adora was the one who freed him from Prime’s control, but she was still unsure of how to feel about the man. He hurt her, hurt her friends, hurt so many people for so long…and yet, Entrapta saw something beautiful there. Considering the warmth at her side, she decided she could hardly judge the princess for loving someone with more than a few sins to repent for.

He was willing to change, wiling to fix what he destroyed, willing to offer his neck if that’s what was demanded of him, he told her and Catra as much, and Adora figured that was enough. Though she hoped, for Entrapta’s sake if nothing else, that he would be offered some measure of mercy. The war was over, for all of them, stewing in past pain would do none of them any good.

Wrong Hordak (and man do they need to come up with a better name for him at some point) sprung up from behind the two and wrapped them both up in a hug, a goofy grin on his face. Hordak grumbled, but Entrapa chuckled quietly and had her hair wrap around them both, which quickly put them all to back.

Despite whatever history she had with him, even she had to admit that was a little adorable.  

There’s a sight like that no matter where she looked, people hugging in their sleep or mumbling something miserable or whispering assurances she had no right to hear and she never, ever believed in miracles but dozens of them were spread out in front of her in the shape of people who survived and impossible to deny.

The last thing she catches before her heart can’t take anymore is Glimmer and Bow, they’re in a far off corner, leaning on a turned over table. Glimmer is in Bow’s lap, her arms around his neck while he hugged her waist. She caught them kissing last night too and honestly that was the most surprising thing about the entire night, even more than that whole “saving the world and surviving” bit. She teased them about it mercilessly, just as viciously as they teased her and Catra, and in remembering it she realizes she had never been as happy as she is right now.

She loves them, she isn’t sure she ever really loved people the same way she loved those two before they met in the Whispering Woods fighting over a sword that carried the fate of a war. They were family in a way she never really knew before then, filling up a space in her heart that not even Catra could. They saw the best in her and saw through her bullshit and pulled her up when she so desperately wanted to sink down.

They made her better, these two weird and awkward and wonderful people, they made her stronger, kinder.  She didn’t deserve them and she would never let them go and she is so deliriously happy that they found something in each other too. After everything they all went through, after everything they lost, they deserved to gain something.

“Adora…” Catra mumbled quietly, whatever irritation she tried to display mitigated by her snuggling closer to her, “you’re thinking too loudly, shut up…”

In response Adora returned the embrace, pairing it with a kiss on the crown of Catra’s head, smiling into Catra’s hair when she felt her purring as she did. “Did I wake you up?”

“Nah…” Catra yawned, her tail unwrapping from Adora’s leg to circle her waist, “been awake for a while…just wanted to…” She blushed deeply enough for it to show through her fur, starting to mumble as she went on. “…you know…”

Adora nearly cried but just barely managed to control her voice to giggle warmly, “stay.” She whispered, one hand rubbing soothing circles on Catra’s back while another went to wind it’s fingers with the magicat’s. “Stay as long as you want, Catra.”

Catra smiled, opening her eyes a smidge to look up at Adora, leaning forward to plant a soft kiss on her lips. “…You’ll stay, too?” She asked, barely above a whisper, something scared but hopeful in her tone, “you’ll stay here? With me?” Her voice trembled a bit, something fragile seeping in, “…promise?”

Adora did cry a little now, but smiled wider as she kissed her back. “Always.” Her hand squeezed Catra’s fingers, trying to banish every quiet and cold night they spent apart from her mind to replace it with the warmth she felt now. “I promise.”

Catra laughed, something between relief and incredulity, a few tears slipping down her cheeks, before kissing Adora deeply, both of her arms winding around her waist to join her tail.

Somewhere, outside the tent, the sun began slowly raising, quietly marking the start of the first new day, the first new free day, in Etheria in decades. Madam Razz tending to her pies in the forest, took a whiff of her work and smiled.

She left the victory party first so she would wake up early enough to get to baking as quickly as she could. Adora and her friends had another long adventure on the horizon, the least she could do was make sure they had enough food for the journey.

A wind came in from the Whispering Woods, and lightly rattled her shack. Razz laughed loudly, “oh simmer down!” She admonished with no small amount of affection, “I’ll get to waking them up later, let the children rest!” Her smile grew softer, “they’ve earned more than their fair, wouldn’t you say, Mara?”

Another wind, quieter and gentler, came in again, ruffling her cloak.

She laughed and put one more pie in the oven, the sunlight slowly trickling into her window.

The day would begin soon enough, another journey, another story, would surely come once more creep over the horizon, with its own challenges and trials, for all of them.

For now, Adora and Catra savored the peace they well and truly earned.

The universe could wait, and it would not vanish from them if they turned away for a moment. It would not move on if they just stopped for a moment to catch their breath and gather their bearings.

They know, truly, that at least for now, at least for the moment, that the universe would stay.

[atamascolily]

Unicorn Chronicles, Book 3: “Dark Whispers,” by Bruce Coville

Whenever people grumble about how long it's been since their favorite fanfic updated, I can't help but smile a little in sympathy. As someone who's read a lot of CLAMP manga, I've grown used to the stutter-stop of hiatuses and discontinued stories that will never be finished. To quote the Princess Bride, "Get used to disappointment". It's just an occupational hazard.

I know people who only read completed stories, but I would have missed out on a lot of great material and works that really matter to me if I followed their example. It also meant that I got really good at imagining what happens next.

So it was a delight to discover that Bruce Coville had actually finished the Unicorn Chronicles when I was busy with other stuff (i.e., life) and there were two more volumes. Coville specifically thanks readers for nagging him about finishing, which is simultaneously #hilarious and #relatable.

Song of the Wanderer came out in 1999, right on the cusp of the Harry Potter boom that shook up the juvenile fantasy genre. (Both series are published by Scholastic.) Dark Whispers came out in 2008, and you can see how much the genre has shifted in the cover art alone:

This is gorgeous art by Petar Mesedlzija, but it only tangentially fits the descriptions in the books: Cara doesn't really wear anything like this outfit, and the story emphasizes she keeps braiding her hair to keep it from tangling. She has a sword, but she doesn’t really ever use it?

Furthermore, the layout, design, and chapter headings of Dark Whispers are clearly meant to capitalize on Harry Potter: Grimmwold has a looping signature reminiscent of Dumbeldore's in the opening prologue, for instance. It's a very different feel from the way the first two volumes were presented, and tbh, I miss the old way that has gone the way of the dinosaurs now.

Inevitably, with such a long gap between volumes, Dark Whispers ended up with a very different style and tone than its predecessors. The most obvious difference is that it's REALLY LONG--464 pages in hardcover. Some of this increase in length is attributable to Harry Potter proving that giant fantasy tomes can sell like hotcakes, and some of it is the fact that the storyline is now really big, with a lot of different players moving in different directions.

Inevitably, this means that instead of following Cara's POV for the entire book, as we did in the first two volumes, we are constantly shifting narrators. It's completely understandable, but as a reader, I find it really annoying--like I am suddenly reading an entirely different series with overlapping plot and characters. It's not that this new series is bad, per se, it's just... not what I imagined when I was making up the ending in my head in the early 2000s. I do not know if this disjunct would be so obvious or unsettling to someone who was reading all four volumes together for the first time.

Anyway, so since it's been literally a decade, Coville makes the sensible decision to open with a recap from Grimmwold, in his role as the keeper of the Unicorn Chronicles: unicorns and human hunters are at war; the latter are lead by an immortal woman named Beloved with a personal grudge against the unicorns, and she just got an amulet so she can invade Luster.

In Cara's plotline, she is still coming to terms with the fact that her grandmother, Ivy Morris, was a unicorn in disguise, and is now Queen Amalia Flickerfoot. Her grandfather Jaques is super depressed (because literary references, yo) and also because this is super-weird for him, too. As they prepare for Beloved's assault on Luster, Grimmwold reveals that pages from the Unicorn Chronicles are missing, and that others reveal an unsettling prophecy about unicorns confronting their own darkness and a mysterious figure called the Whisperer.

Another human, Alma Leonetti, comes forth and suggests that the centaurs might know more details. The Queen sends Cara and her friends to investigate, while Jaques and Thomas the Tinker go on separate missions. Thomas does give her a watch that marks the days and also explodes, so you know right away she's gonna need both on her trip. M'Gama the geomancer is trying to determine where and when the Hunters will invade: the date is the forthcoming Blood Moon, but she's still working out the details on the place.  

Grimmwold tells the group a story about Alma Leonetti, and how she tracked down the wizard Bellenmore, who opened the gate to Luster for the unicorns. Bellenmore has a snarky talking lizard and great tastes in decorating:

On the mantel above the fireplace stood a row of earthenware mugs with hideous faces. One of them winked at me; another leered and rolled its eyes; a third stuck out its tongue and made a rude noise. Then they began to sing a bawdy song until Bellenmore waved a hand to silence them.

Alma bluffs her way to Luster and eventually persuades the unicorns to keep one of their kind on Earth so humans don't forget true beauty and goodness and the spark is kept alive. The hunters keep trying to kill the Guardian, but they always replace the fallen with a new one and the cycle repeats.

We also learn that Ivy summoned Moonheart to heal Cara as a child, which is what alerted Beloved to her presence, forcing her to kidnap Cara and flee because Beloved wanted the child, too. Ian Hunter was a first grade teacher who had no idea about any of this until Cara disappeared and he was radicalized by Beloved and went through an intensive training camp she's built up for her army.

Meanwhile, Ian is in India, tracking down the Rainbow Prison where Beloved has imprisoned his wife. He makes a deal with a mysterious entity, the Blind Man, trading occasional use of his sight for the knowledge he needs. Beloved's men attack Ian, but he is saved by a street urchin named Rajiv who is eager for adventure, and the mysterious Fallon, who is trying to find a doorway to Luster. The three of them team up and head for the Himalayas to find the doorway to the Rainbow Prison while Beloved's forces pursue them. We learn that Fallon is super-hot and also seeking his best bro Elihu, in a relationship that I'm pretty sure was sexual although it's never stated directly.

There's also a plotline involving the delvers - the evil dwarves we mostly forgot about in Book 2. The King keeps talking to the Whisperer, and sending his subjects to do Evil Things as the alliance with Beloved continues. (The delvers do not love humans, but they hate unicorns and so the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" at least temporarily).

The plotlines converge when the delvers attack M'Gama the earthmancer's house and steal a macguffin and kill Flensa, M'Gama's servant. Cara's party splits up, with Finder and Belle hunting the macguffin while Cara and Lightfoot continue on. Finder is killed (sob) and Belle regrets being a jerk to him. Cara's group is attacked by delvers and she is captured and taken underground. (The delvers either don't know Beloved has an amulet already/don't care/want one for their own purposes.) Cara tosses the amulet into an abyss when it fails to transport her to earth, and she is imprisoned in the dungeons with a delver dissident who has had his name ritually stripped from him for defiance.

Cara renames the delver "Rocky" and the Squijum shows up with the amulet and steals the key. They meet up with Grimmwold, and escape. They also encounter the gryphon Medafil, who is lost below ground, only to wake a monster known as the schwartz, a Terminator-like blind dragon that never gives up pursuit. Cara defeats it using the expanding light sphere from Medafil's nest, and they emerge in the centaur's valley, where Belle is waiting for them with the news of Finder's death.

The centaurs are standoffish, but eventually Cara persuades their leader Chiron to spill the beans: after the war with Beloved began, the unicorns decided to expunge all the darkness from their souls with the aid of a magician named Elihu (hi!), which gained sentience and has been egging Beloved on ever since. It's also corrupted the delvers,which is why they hate unicorns so much. In exchange for the info, Cara agrees to mercy-kill Chiron, which none of the centaurs can do for personal reasons. Cara reports this story to the unicorns, who are all :shrug emoji: about it.  

Meanwhile Ian and company are stuck in the Rainbow Prison, the Dimblethum is being tormented by the Whisperer, and ends up taking the macguffin the delvers stole and placing it at the Axis Mundi, the world-tree of Luster, so that Beloved and her forces can enter there. Lightfoot tries to stop the Dimblethum but isn't in time. And the book ends on the seriously metal note of Beloved opening the portal beneath the blood moon and invading Luster with her army. *cue 'Bad Moon Rising'*

[Which, I may note, is pretty much where the LAST BOOK also ended.]

SO. That was a lot.

Once again, the core group of characters from Book One gets broken up. Thomas the Tinker gets sidetracked pretty quickly and isn't seen again; the Dimblethum gets a few brief sequences, but doesn't do much until the end. Lightfoot and Cara are separated fairly early on and don't have much time together, though their musings about their sudden familial connections at the beginning are nice, even though Cara also keeps shipping Belle with Lightfoot. Lightfoot himself doesn't get to do much, Finder dies, and Belle is likewise sidelined by the narrative for a decent chunk of the story. Coville also keeps emphasizing that Lightfoot is a Prince, which just grates on me, too.

I would also like to see more of Cara? She has plenty of scenes, but after two books of focusing solely on her, it's so strange to suddenly be jerked in different directions and it makes me grumpy.

It's great to see Medafil again, but I found the whole delvers/underground plot to drag on too long for my tastes. I'm glad Coville brings back that one delver from the first book who let Cara go because he thinks (rightly) his king is batshit crazy.

I like Alma Leonetti's story, but it feels unrelated to the plot, so I'm not entirely sure why it's there. I think it was originally a stand-alone short story, and I think it's better suited as one, because I can't figure out what its narrative purpose is. Or is it just that Grimmwold is contractually obligated to tell at least one story per book?? Or maybe this is something that will pay off in Book 4.

Ian Hunter's story basically bores me, and I found that whole subplot extremely tedious. He's been more or less retconned to be sympathetic and a victim, and I just don't know how I feel about that.

I HAVE SUCH MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THE BIG REVEAL. On the one hand, it's a great twist to see the psychological shadow as the literal villain; on the other hand, it takes away some of the delvers' and Beloved's agency as villains in their own right because they're now Pawns of a Bigger Bad. It also just seems like such a weird thing for the unicorns to do--and maybe that's a way of making them more alien, but I don't know.

Coville explicitly uses the word 'hubris,' so it also feels weirdly victim-blaming to me because the unicorns are doing it to themselves (and this isn't just a war, but genocide we're talking about here!). For better or worse, this twist muddies the black and white/good vs. evil paradigm into shades of gray: the unicorns are beautiful and good but also arrogant assholes; Beloved is homicidal but also in terrible pain; the delvers are misunderstood and need to be embraced rather than ignored.

Alma Leonetti consistently delivers the best lines - I guess she's taken over the role Ivy Morris used to play, since Ivy is now a unicorn:

"Perhaps the unicorns need to try to recover some of what they have lost?... You face a dedicated enemy who has shown no mercy, one who will stop at nothing to destroy you. And what have you done? Gathered together, which is good. Prepared to defend yourselves, which is good, too. But is it enough? How fiercely are you willing to fight to save your lives? How strong can unicorns be? ... Maybe you need to take in some of that darkness you once released."

I remember feeling oddly disappointed on my first reading, which unfortunately persists on re-read. This story has now moved in a very different direction from the one I expected, and while that's not necessarily bad, it is unsettling and strange. As I mentioned earlier, some of that might just be that the final result doesn't match the story I made up in my head; or it could just be the inevitable result of such a long gap between books and the changes in the fantasy market post-Harry Potter. I don't know.

(I wish I had written down my thoughts about an ending--aka fanfic--because while I could write one now, it’d be reacting to canon, rather than creating it.)

Either way, major kudos to Coville for writing this book, because I had assumed the series was dead and would never be completed, and he fucking did it. That’s such an inspiration, honestly.