#old canon vs new canon yk

[probablywhisper]

Next ship! This one is a classic and also has my favorite ship kids

This is Honey Lavender (Dreamswap!Dream x Hazel)

Hazel can’t really swap with anybody as of right now so she’s staying her normal self

Fun fact! Hazel is easily flattered. Probably why she has so many boyfriends

Dreamswap Dream belongs to onebizarrekai

Hazel Froslight belongs to me

[fangirlanxiety74]

TELL ME ABOUT TED. Headcanons you have for him, anything... Can be silly or serious.

Someone... SOMEONE'S ASKING ME ABOUT MY HEADCANONS?! IT'S BEEN YEARS SINCE SOMEONE'S ASKED ME ABOUT MY HEADCANONS!! HOLD ON, I MADE A DOCUMENT!! /ref/hj

In actuality, I did genuinely make a google doc. But it's not ready to be shared yet, so I'll share the highlights.

First off, the game manual lies. He is NOT 44. He's 33 at OLDEST. I kind of consider him more like 29/30. Just barely.

He grew up in South Carolina hehe, farm boy

Bisexual disaster but I think this is kinda just obvious.

He is the oldest between him and his 5 siblings!!! And adding onto this, he is SUCH a good older brother. I don't care if everyone else disagrees, he could be the worst man alive but the one good thing someone could say was that he took care of his siblings.

If you know Ayano from Kagerou Project, I think he's a lot like her when he's younger. Like 8/9 years old. He tried so hard to protect them all from their parents and keep them happy. He'd sacrifice so much for them, it's why he kinda,, went into the extreme of being so,, entitled as a grown up. Ykwim???

Just imagine. With the ice caves, moving without thinking to save the others before himself? His brain subconsciously doing what he knows best; sacrificing what he has for others.

Selflessness as a core trait for Ted, please.

Another thing relating to his siblings: He knows how to do ballet!! And he's REALLY good at it. He actually has a lot of fun doing it. One of his sisters wanted to, but she was too afraid to take lessons alone, so he went along with her in secret. Didn't get caught for years. (She stopped lessons once he got forced out of them)

He talks a little like a New-Yorker, or at the very least, that transAtlantic accent (yk like from the old movies?) to try and play off as that kind of guy like Great Gatsby.

His actual accent is Southern. Sometimes it slips out when he's like, extremely flustered/angry, but it's such a rare thing.

He can't stand the sound of someone crying, it immediately makes him angry. Take that, and yk, Ellen or Benny constantly crying... Yeaaaah. (This is also due to his siblings).

This is obvious, he forces himself into doing a lot of masculine things that he doesn't like to appear older/wiser/better, insert whatever word you wanna use that translates to "I am insecure about myself" lol

Okay this last one is really important to me and like. It. Needs its own special paragraph. He is a creative person in his soul. He loves to learn, he loves to write, he loves to read and dance and sing and draw and he has such a huge imagination and love for creativity. You can see it in his psychodrama with how it plays out like a full-blown Grimms Fairytale, the monster he imagined that no one else could see, the line in the radio drama "Am I the last storyteller, telling the last story...?"

He's a storyteller. He has so much to say and share, and he would've done something creative with his life if he had the option, but the abuse he faced and the societal expectations placed on him forced him to,, give it all up. Made him realize he could never have that. Which is why, at least in the game, AM chose him. Ted had so much potential to create, and just... gave it up. For seemingly nothing. Why wouldn't that make AM mad, who can't create, can't even imagine or wonder?

AKA Theatre Kid Ted canon, let it be known

I have like, also. I have a somewhat-AU of Omori for the ihnm cast, and Ted takes the role of Basil. I think Dream Basil vs RW Basil fit a lot of what he is as a kid vs an adult, or at least aspects of both due.

I also have a Hadestown AU of him with my self-insert where he takes the role of Eurydiceeee.... Like. Guys, Hadestown fans, hear me out. Ted singing "Flowers." AM singing "Hey Little Songbird" to Ted. PLEASE HEAR ME CAN YOU HEAR ME??? ARE YOU LISTENING??? /J

There's so much more I can say but this is getting so long I will definitely share more if people want nfjkdc bUT THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!!

[leasey-peasey]

If I had a nickel for every time someone made Lumine a mother, Id have three nickels which isn't a lot but it's funny that it happened thrice.

Jokes aside, could you elaborate on Lumine being a mother?

Please don't feel forced to answer this ask.

HI I LIKE TO TALK ABOUT MY THOUGHTS SO BET!!

so this idea is partly because i’m in a constant state of “aww babies” and partly because i really like to hurt my own feelings with angst

so my thoughts will be kinda unorganized with this but please bear with me

so cause i get a little obsessive with my hyperfixations and works (fics) i need to know everything about the background of characters so i can really understand them to make them more interesting

and the twins don’t have a whole lotta canon lore on them, like yeah they have the alien thing going for them and the implications that they are immortal beings that isn’t really touched on but totally should be

so i really made up a whole lot of their background from theories i both read and came up with mixed with a bunch of headcanons because it’s canon until proven otherwise

so for lumine being a mom:

her and aether’s world was full of immortal people and was destroyed either by war or some form of apocalypse or something so they travel to other worlds maybe trying to find one that replicates the homey feel they had when they lived on their home planet

i imagine they were rather young, as in young for their people vs young as in our/teyvat standards. to me that’s between 500-700 years old, and their aging/maturing is sorta similar to elves from dnd only they continue to live until they fall in battle, vaguely Highlander style only they don’t have to be beheaded to die, they can die from a stab wound or something

but i imagine that they found their peace/new home at one point, not exactly early in their travels, but much much earlier than teyvat if that makes sense? like, they were traveling for at least a few hundred years before reaching this planet

so finding the similar feeling in this new world they land in, the two decide to make it their new home

now this is because i like angst and there is nothing more tragic than losing your child imo

but lumine totally fell for this person on this planet, and despite them being mortal, this was the twins new home so she pursues this romance with them and they end up having a single child (daughter and i call her Étoile because that means star and it kinda sorta fits the light names of the twins) together

well the both of them (étoile and the partner) are mortal, so lumine watches them grow older until they eventually die of natural causes (and she probably has grandkids so that line kinda continues on that planet) and she hates the feeling of losing them, especially her baby, so they (the twins) end up leaving that planet

this starts their “we’re only here to observe” thing so they continue to travel from world to world, still searching for that feeling of home in each one, but deciding to stick to themselves instead of getting involved with others because that only ends up hurting them in the end

but yeah, plus i feel like it adds more to her and paimon’s relationship (i chose lumine as the traveler when i started playing so to me she’s the canon traveler, and i use that in my fics)

because yeah, they’re best friends and have a big sis/little sis relationship, but if lumine also sees aspects of her daughter when her child was young in paimon then it adds more ✨flavor✨ to them

plus paimon does act sorta childish, like a talkative toddler yk? but it would add to her fun lil protective attitude towards the mysterious flying pixie creature that is paimon

i also think it adds more potential and character to lumine in fics because she probably really loves children and despite the pain behind the memories of her daughter, she wouldn’t want to forget her, so seeing bits of her (common traits in children) live on in other children kinda wooshes her a little?

but yeahhhh~

[henrysglock]

Ohhh my god so re: what i remember you for as a writer theres SOSOSO much to choose from, but I have to go with Ptolemaea!!!!!

And even though there’s SO many iconic scenes/lines in Ptolemaea that stuck wirh me/that I remember you by, the shower scene from Ptolemaea is the one I’m going to talk about right now because it stuck with me and i was flashbanged by it again last night when rereading it HWBDBFN

Like, this part specifically:

“That didn’t mean it was any less appreciated, though, even as the blisters on his ankles burned with it. Hot water meant that the dirt, grime, and blood melted off him with minimal effort. Even so, he took a certain amount of comfort in scrubbing himself pink and toweling off roughly, as though he could peel the past three years off his body the way a spider might shed its carapace. To grow.”

First of all, the line about how the water is making the blisters on his ankles burn is so strong/physical/it’s like I can feel it.

And it’s also such a fantastic line/fantastic use of word choice when it comes to the fact that Ptolemaea being a “Henry got out of the lab early” AU and therefore also a “Henry didnt get sent to Dimension x” AU versus the use of the word “burned” here, especially in the context of Henry trying to scrub off the lab/leave the lab behind versus the way that Henry physically leaves the lab behind in canon being getting sent to Dimension X & getting burned there.

It just works so well to give this subtle vibe/subtle reminded of “what couldve been” and how even though what Henry’s going through right now sucks (ie all of the Ptolemaea horrors, and even just the water from a nice shower hurts his blisters), it could’ve been so much worse/it really nails that “full of horrors but also full of Hope” vibe that Ptolemaea has.

And second of all, specifically looking at this part:

“Even so, he took a certain amount of comfort in scrubbing himself pink and toweling off roughly, as though he could peel the past three years off his body the way a spider might shed its carapace. To grow.”

I cant even describe how much I love this part. There’s so many little layers to the comparison between Henry in the shower vs a spider shedding its carapace, snd how its not just “oh yeah yk hes got the same vibes as a spider shedding its carapace because hes trying to start anew” but instead the comparison *also* so Physical and the mental/emotional change/struggle is convey so Physically and how it’s specifically connected to the way that Henry scrubs himself pink, and the way that this line about how Henry scrubs himself pink evokes the visual of new skin being pink and “sore”/sensitive because it’s new, much like the new flesh under an old carapace.

And then how Henry towels himself off roughly vs that also working so perfectly to really convey that feeling of shedding a carapace in a very very physical way and the Movements of it and im just!!! The WORD CHOICES here are so perfect to convey a really visceral/physical feeling, like with the use of the word “peeling” and with how that use of the word” peeling” is where it all then connects to the mental aspect of it/the bridge between physical vs mental re: henry trying to peel the last three years off of his body (especially with the imagery re: peeling skin off/peeling years off vs all of the mental/supernatural “flaying” in ST vs the peeling skin imagery tying to the idea of literal flaying in the sense of flaying skin off).

And the “last three years” thing always gets me, it’s not only such a good reminder of how long he spent in the lab/how many years he’s lost, But then also, specifically in the context of shedding a carapace/molting, the implication that Henry hasn’t “molted” in three years/that this carapace that’s stuck to him is three years old/literally made up of the past three years really hits me every time re: the fact that spiders shed their carapaces/molt wayy more often than that so he hasnt been Allowed to molt & also the fact that some types of spiders stop molting entirety once they reach maturity (this is the case for black widows)/other types just molt less frequently (once a year) when they reach maturity vs the last three years in the lab being what makes up Henry’s “carapace” & Henry not having “molted” at all in the lab/at all in the last 3 years vs the way that Henry was forced to grow up quickly in the lab but how it Also stunted him & how not molting anymore is a sign of “maturity” /adulthood in spiders.

And especially with all of that/the idea of being forced to grow up quickly but also having your growth stunted as a result vs using the imagery of shedding a three year old carapace to convey that & the way that having a built-up old caparace/unshedded layers would make him seem “bigger”/more grown” when in reality, it’s a sign of *not* having grown/not being allowed to shed it is *stunting* his ability to grow/it’s like he was being forced to “grow” by not shedding (which then also ties SO PERFECTLY into Henry’s canon regen healing & the way that there’s all of this tumor imagery associated with it/unwanted growths) and that weighing up down/the extra “weight”/“size”/“growth” on him re: not “shedding his skin” & how his/a spider’s limbs aren’t going to grow properly unless they shed their skin so then there’s the whole visual of him not growing in a typical Growth way/his metaphorical limbs not getting longer but instead just “growing” by having all of these extra layers/“skin” that hes now trapped in/cant shed to properly grow vs the idea of Brenner wanting him to be like a child and like an adult simultaneously (ie being a Freak & Liking the fact that Henry’s a child vs also stealing his childhood/putting him in a lab/making him behave Like An Adult/making him grow up quickly).

Especially with black widows no longer molting once they reach sexual maturity vs the idea of Henry not being *allowed* to molt/stopped early from molting/being forced to reach that maturity early (smash cut to the SA imagery in the lab) when he hasnt Actually reached it physically.

And then that all also ties so well into the idea of being a Child Forced To Behave Like An Adult/Forced Into Adult Activities rather than Actually Becoming An Adult.

I just!! The line about a spider shedding its carapace as a way of describing Henry’s attempts to leave the lab behind is literally such a perfect line, like there’s something so physical and visceral about it, not only is it such a perfect description of the situation, but the spider aspect then ties so perfectly into Henry’s character specifically.

Especially with the next context TFS Henry & the visual of those spider legs bursting out of his back during the attic scene with Virginia & how that’s Also very Physical in a similar way to this scene (and yet again, Ptolemaea ages like a fine wine.)

And then also, specifically looking at the “To grow,” line, this line specifically always feels like so perfectly like Henry reassuring himself/tears in my eyes over little 15 year old henry “spider guy” creel reminding himself of how spiders grow and how it’s okay even though it hurts, because it just means he’s in Spider Mode and Spider Coded and Based and Spiderpilled HWHDBDDNHEHD like he’s reminding himself that not only do spiders shed their carapaces, but they do so in order to grow/it’s Necessary in order for them to grow. Like it almost feels like the way a parent would try and get a child to do something (ie if a kid loved superheroes, the whole “superman would clean his room 🤨🤨🤨😌😌😌😌” vibe/“a spider would go and clean himself in the shower because spiders need to shed their skin in order to grow-“) but it’s coming from Henry and directed at Himself, which then emphasizes how lonely he is/the lack of parents/Virginia being dead & Victor being locked up & Henry having to parent himself (but then also the other side of the coin and the lowkey Freedom of Henry getting to parent himself in the context of Brenner/no longer being forcibly “parented” by Brenner).

And it works so perfectly with the “grow together” stuff from the VR (yet AGAIN, Ptolemaea ages like a fine wine) vs what I said earlier re: Brenner “forcing” him to grow by making him keep all those unshed layers/giving the illusion of growth when in reality in order to Actually grow, he’d need to shed those layers vs the way that VR Henry is described as “eager to please” etc vs the idea of him not properly growing/not shedding his carapace in order to please Brenner…

Like I just can’t express enough how much I love that part- it that makes me feel like I’m back to when I was first getting interested in Henry as a character (in a very very good way) and is just this instant, perfectly encapsulated reminder of what I love about his whole story/the vibe of it.

Especially with this being Henry’s POV vs the way that not only is this whole part such a perfectly, artistic, extremely thought-out line on behalf of the writer, but it’s also such a perfect insight into Henry’s character & his spider nerdiness & what I said earlier re: spiders not molting anymore being a sign of them reaching adulthood vs when he does finally “shed his carapace”/scrub himself in the shower, he’s comparing it to a spider molting/his “childish” little spider nerd vibes are coming back, he’s both growing and “regressing” because he’s growing into the Child/15 year old that he Is rather than being a child forced to behave like an adult- especially then with adult teacher Henry’s continued love of spiders/the way that “childish” interest remains even when he Is an actual adult.

Anyway! Ptolemaea my beloved….. <333333

it's why he's so small in canon actually. bro hasn't molted in years we can all give him a break for being the world's Tiniest boy.

anyway alkdjflsd WOW

When I was writing that part the biggest thing in my mind was a combination of not molting/being held back/being trapped under the layers of what he had to do to survive but specifically in the way of protective layers being added with each trauma/him being forced to grow this thick outer shell layer by layer specifically to defend against what was being done to him/retain his sanity and dignity. Which speaks to a degree of removal from what was done to him, in my mind, this kind of

"It happened to me, and I'm self-aware enough to acknowledge that...but it was done to an outer layer that I can shed, so is it really something I have to live with? Or is it something i can just put away somewhere out of sight and never actually deal with in a healthy, meaningful way?"

and so while he's peeling the carapace that's stunting him, it's like...every light has its shadow. He's able to grow into a normal boy, now, and even though it's sore and tender all over at the moment, it's a good thing. But is the way he's doing it healthy? Is he discarding his carapace without addressing and accepting/healing the ways its weight and prolonged presence warped him?

Or is he hobbling around on eight misshapen legs like

"Lalalala...It doesn't exist because I can walk on these legs. They're a little weirdly shaped, but I can hide them well enough if I make a home in the neatly-trimmed Kentucky bluegrass lawns of suburban America. Could a damaged spider walk around as well as I do? I'm so normal and also healthy. Being prevented from molting definitely had no lingering effects on my well-being. Haha, no there's no reason why I refuse to go out on the pavement and show you guys my totally normal legs. I just don't want to. No other reason. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm a normal spider :) Anyway, look at my web. Could a broken spider make a web this nice? Didn't think so. I'm totally normal and there's NOTHING in my past that I need to heal from."

Something something "I'm not a freak. I'm normal. I'm Henry Creel."

There's also the more surface aspect of the Will-Henry Mindflayer-Brenner "I felt it everywhere/I still feel him" and Henry thinking that if he scrubs hard enough, he can rid himself of the lingering memories, the same way Will thought that if he could just keep running, he could escape the Mindflayer/the lingering trauma of what happened to him in the UD/the slug stuff.

They're both running away from looming, lingering CSA trauma, just in different ways. Will can run all he wants, but the Mindflayer is going to catch him anyway. His trauma will always catch up to him. Henry can scrub all he wants, he can peel off that outer shell and pretend like he's getting rid of everything that happened to him, but the damage was mental. It's something that's inevitably going to catch up with him until he can't ignore it anymore.

That's also where the burning came from in my mind: Will being rid of the Mindflayer by burning, but him still being able to feel it/it coming back later vs Henry trying to rid himself of his history with Brenner via scrubbing himself raw with burning water because he's still able to feel that history physically/that history will come back to haunt him later much like the Mindflayer haunts Will.

—————

Tell me what fic or line of writing you remember me by

[mydearestbeloved]

okay chapter 5 review here bc word limit.

amazing how your very first and latest draft can change how I feel about your story as a whole lmao. ngl the jinwoo in your first draft reminds me of those daydream yandere!jinwoo fics lolololol so imagine my whipslash when i read the revised and expanded draft of this.

i love those to death i will be honest here but sl reader fics that depicts jinwoo more closely to his canon counterpart always hit different fr. i love how jinwoo isn't trusting of reader and constantly trying to figure her out. he's so inquisitive and smart when trying to piece everything he can find about reader (that makes a lot of sense since he becomes a detective in the revised timeline).

i really appreciate you writing him like this and it's a shame canon kinda stop writing the strategic and observant jinwoo after over the half of the story. of course if you wanted to be more canon compliant (and an excuse to keep reader involved), jinwoo would have to be more suspicious and distrustful of her and monitor her (such a jinwoo move) bc yk his deep trust issue (that has been forgotten or somehow resolved on its own in the canon story just bc. no im not bitter about it nope). therefore, it's so intriguing to read fics where his issues being addressed and his worldview being challenged. i know solo leveling is a power fantasy but it's frustrating to see our protagonist keep proving right about his very flawed and detrimental outlook, carrying the world on his shoulders alone and all that and the story acts like none of that affects him negatively or has any long lasting consequences. again it's a power fantasy but i think i can overlook this very real potential issue only if the story isn't set in a modern and semi-realistic urban setting.

anyway i skimmed through all the drafts you have and i love how they are mostly about him slowly opening up to reader. my god i cannot wait until jinwoo becomes absolutely whipped for our fae queen like in the old drafts. i know it will be absolutely satistfying and worthwhile. (can't believe all the chapters are still drafts???)

?System¿:

[ Review of (14/11/2024) has been submitted.

We thank you for your feedback, Reader.

System will now connect you you to 《AUTHOR》 ]

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Thank you for sending your review, this genuinely made my day! 💞

Now onto your review:

Original vs Now

Funny story, this Trial Player AU's original idea was just supposed to be a single, one-shot thing. So, you're not wrong to think that it feels like a daydream yandere!Jinwoo fic, because IT IS.

I even format it like so because I didn't want to get overboard, and that I was afraid of losing interest if I held onto it for too long just because I don't have enough time to write it as long and detailed as I would've liked.

But as it turns out, I just fooled myself, because here we are with a full blown series. And me with too little time still.

The original concept of a trial player isn't even mine. I was inspired by one of @circeyoru's fics, where I just wanted to write a similar story but with a Reader that have different powers and personality.

I ended up having too many interesting ideas to expand this after posting Imagine #1, which now became the summary of this series instead of its original purpose as a one-shot, one-time thing.

To simplify: I hyperfixate. Drafts started piling up. I wanted to work out the details little by little but they were too messy for me to find the time to sit down and edit them. New method: try posting it. I can edit them as I go as long as I gave warnings beforehand to Readers that my writings can change. If this goes well, there's a chance I can receive feedbacks to improve further. Two birds with one stone. A win-win scenario for me.

I mostly write when I'm stressed out from studying and needed a temporary escape. So, it brings me extra joy when people actually enjoy my stress-induced vomit of words. 🥰

How I write canon characters

I LOVE Reader Inserts/x Reader stories, and one of the things that most of the time ruined them for me personally is if the canon intended act too OOC.

Like, I get it, we Readers aren't in the canon story, of course the canon characters will act out of script since they literally are. But if they act like a different person all together with little to no explanation, no reason that can tie them back to the essence that make them just them, then what's the point of canon x reader when it's just the same as oc x reader?

At least add a warning/note/anything else to inform readers if you're going to do that, or if you're not too sure you can write them to stay true to their canon counterparts (like me 😓).

In real life, we already proven that we are fickle beings. We kept changing for one reason or another, but we can still stay true to ourselves or be recognize as just us.

And that is what I tried to do in writing the canon characters, especially the MCs since we readers follow their story the closest, which resulted in us knowing about them more then the side/supporting characters.

We don't truly know them, we never will, but we can predict them when we put those characters in different scenes/scenarios/settings because they already have a pattern that we know.

That is what we readers of Readers Inserts ultimately sought after, to be able to imagine interacting with those same characters that we know through the pages.

At least, this is what I want. Different people, different views and opinions. This is mine.

How I write Sung Jinwoo in this alternate scenario

I only know of Solo Leveling through its webtoon/manhwa and anime adaptations. I know little no none how they are in the original webnovel/novel and game, and the little that I know are form spoilers, tidbits of them.

With this in mind, I do feel that the manhwa are missing some things, and as it turns out (from the spoilers I read), it does skip many scenes from the novel.

No hate for the artist though, if it were not for him, I wouldn't have known Solo Leveling. And I could only imagine how hard it would be to draw everything from the original.

Back to the topic, this Trial Player AU of mine will mostly follow the manhwa, and I'll be using the manhwa-specific plot-holes/gaps to further integrate Trial Player!Reader into the story.

As for Jinwoo, I'll try my best to stay true to his character from the manhwa. But note that I also added the 'Yandere' element. So, to make him not too OOC, I'll explore his thought process from the start to then falling in love to the point of madness with someone like Trial Player!Reader.

I don't want this to be a slowburn, but I also needed to work out the details to Jinwoo's feelings if I want to execute this as smooth as I can get.

Hence, I apologize for the later instances of Jinwoo acting not himself, I'm still figuring out the details for those scenes, that is why I still labeled them as drafts.

Extra related topics

There is two points I shared that can be tied back to Player!Reader's personality:

One, she is a casual fan of Solo Leveling. To make this easier to write, what she knows about the original story is what I know. Reader reads the manhwa, watches the anime, and knows little of the game and original novel from spoilers only.

Second, her view of the Yandere trope. I already I wrote it somewhere in the (for now) unknown chapter 0.1, the only writing that I managed to finish.

I explained there how Reader views this particular fiction trope. It is in many ways similar to mine too. It's just so interesting to see how different people with different personalities spiral down to the far end of the emotion called love, more often associated with warmth and healing.

Emphasis on 'how', I want to see the process. Tying back to how I write Jinwoo.

It is just such an fascinating concept to imagine. And fiction have less restrictions to express that ideas than in reality, as long as we can (and should) differentiate which is true or not, which is good and bad, even if the line that separated them often blurred.

I DON'T condone yandere, toxic and extreme behaviors and actions in real life. All of my works are purely FICTION.

---

I think that's all I can say for now. Thank you once again for reading my stories and for sharing your reviews. I really means a lot! 💞

Oh, and a piece of advice:

Perhaps you should hold off reading the last two chapter for now (9 and 10) until I updated them. Because they are of the newer drafts, there are certain 'too-fast-of-a-development'/OOC instances there that you might find a bit weird if I assumed through this review of yours.

I just feel responsible to point this out.

You're still free to read them, of course. After, you can just keep watch if I updated them, though by then you might want reread them. Hopefully, this is not too much. This is the downside of posting drafts. I apologize for the inconveniences.

I'll always inform a major draft update in my Masterlist. So there is no need to check each draft individually everytime.

[fandsart]

This is old news, but I haven't really reported on it yet. I don't like most Nancy ships because they always seem to revolve around her. I like my ships to be mutually dynamically fulfilling, and a while ago I tried to think of any stranger things character I could see her being good with, and the only one I could think of at the time was Kali. (side note: I didn't look up an official list or anything, so Chrissy wasn't one that I'd thought of at the time, but I was very recently introduced to the idea of them being in a relationship and I kinda like it, maybe even more than kalancy, but that's irrelevant rn)

The reason I haven't really talked about it though is because the only way I'd ever be able to do anything with it is if I thought up an au for it, because I can't so easily just slide that into canon st plotlines. Especially since steddie is my main favorite ship, it's also not something I could just slide as background into there. But I'm not much of an au person so I just figured nothing would come of it, but... well I thought of one

Robin Hood!Kali Maid Marian! Nancy. And obviously Kali has an established gang, which would stand in for the merry men

Now first of all, obviously Nancy is kind of known to be the sharp shooter, but also lots of versions of Robin Hood give them a history from before he becomes an outlaw. So the idea that one of the extracurricular Nancy had to partake in is archery, and it's one of the ones that she actually likes, so she teaches her friend (Kali) to do it

A common Robin Hood plot is around a competition for this golden arrow, often accompanied by a kiss from Maid Marian, so the idea that Kali shows up just to see Nancy again, and marvels as Nancy pulls a Merida, competing herself, taking her agency back in the situation

Maid Marian often has lady in waiting and that's gotta be Barb. Yk that scene in canon where Nancy and Barb are talking about Steve and Barb kind of mocks her like "'We just made out a little.'" I'm thinking we'd get that type of dynamic a little bit, and Barb can go to Nancy as a confidant when Barb realizes Nancy's feelings for Kali. Barb admits that she's been sneaking off with Robin, who is the king's scribe's daughter (Also Robin intends on being the, like, royal translator when the current one retires, and has actually gotten work a few times when they've needed one last second). Now Nancy has a closer confidant in Barb.

Some extra background stuff I got carried away with

I think Steve has to be royalty too. I think he was the prince of a neighboring kingdom and was one of Nancy's suitors at some point, before he did something against his father and was banished. So he stays in Nancy's kingdom. If we want to throw in some background steddie we can have Eddie and Wayne take him in. I think Eddie is in Kali's gang, and maybe eases Steve into it too. I think Dustin, Max, and the Sinclairs are also in the group from pretty early

Robin and Steve meet while working at a soup kitchen, with all the financial issues going on in the kingdom, as is part of the Robin Hood plot

The Byers family work in the stables, and Nancy once had a rebellious relationship with Jonathan, and Mike (who would also be in a similar social position to Nancy, being her brother). I'm honestly not that invested in the B*ler vs m*leven rivalry (censoring because people get intense about it). I think Will doesn't deserve to go through this emotional wringer for Mike, but there's opportunity here

The sheriff in Robin Hood is obviously an antagonist so I'm not gonna be placing Hopper there, I'm going to make him Friar Tuck, even though I don't view canon Hopper as particularly religious, I think the role fits

Instead of the situation being the typical Robin Hood route of "No, royalty is good, but we gotta be loyal to those rightfully in power" where Prince John is just left in charge while his brother, the true king, is on the crusade, we're just going full anti-authority. The kind is in charge and it's Brenner. Idk how royal positions work and I've tried so hard to google. I have no idea if Maid Marian is supposed to be related to the king or not. But I could totally see them related on her dad's side. We're just going with it. The Sheriff is gonna be Mayor Kline

Now obviously the Robin Hood plot is about exploitation which fits into Kali's real motivation, but in Robin Hood it's financial exploitation, so I think El has to be just a victim of child labor through orphanage before Hopper takes her in. I think all of the experiments need to have fallen victim to child labor, and Kali and El were the only ones who actually got out of it. Kali would have probably had to have gotten stuck in it after her childhood friendship with Nancy

[dykesbat]

yk I complain abt the negatives of it often but I really do think it’s easy to appreciate how the comic industry effects characterization and I find it strangely compelling bc yes it brings a hand to lot of mischaracterization but it also brings a lot of opportunities for revitalizing old concepts from new angles and breathing new lives and stories where these characters are first and foremost narrative tools and stories vice versa. I like how contradictory the rigidity of the stories and canon vs the fluidity of the medium are and I think it’s very reflective of art in its barest bones.

[ranboo5]

What's zablr

Takes a long slow sip of my cold brew, slams it down on the table

Might've told this story before I don't remember but I don't care to go looking. Get ready 4 a story of the most irrelevant low stakes niche fandom drama you've ever seen

A long long time ago. Around Feb 2021

So, motherfuckers HATE Philza Minecraft and they have always hated Philza Minecraft. Like it's the same problem as still very much exists today and is not confined to Philza – the way it can feel impossible to hang out in places related to DSMP without seeing neg of your little guy, right, and sometimes vile neg, like, not just wrong but genuinely distressing and fucked up. I'm sure you know the type anon you must be quite invested in the source to have any eye on this blog in 2022 and you must thus have some little guy who you've seen just the worst shit about. And hell I've probably posted stuff in that vein but I have tried to avoid it in past months so if you don't know wht Zablr is

But in Feb 2021 the fandom was obviously much bigger and more active – this being the era of active lore discourse and all – and aggressive Phil neg was not just annoyingly prevalent but quite literally unavoidable in the character's own main tag. The Philza tag was literally unusable shit was awful and it felt like any form of dissent from that was scattered and miserable. Boreal enjoyers in early 2021 were unavoidably and eternally fighting for our lives in the trenches

So some semi-influential bloggers (almost all of that old guard have moved on from DSMP by now and I'm not in contact with I think any that remain unless Nocturne count) started the Zablr tag instead so Philza enjoyers (by proxy, emerald and boreal enjoyers) could exchange content about our little guy without being, as aforementioned, in the mf trenches

It did not take long for the Discord to be ensuingly made and for Zablr to become a proper community. I think I joined in late February or sometime in March? Anyway, it seemed like an oasis at the time. A place where I could actually have takes that differed from fandom consensus! A place where I could talk about actual canon! A place where a mention of Philza didn't spiral into tirades about how much he sucked! Imagine that!

But even then like. I can't even say we should've known but the signs were there, yk? The administration system was SHOT (altho I didn't learn until later), there was barely any kind of genuine stability in it, etc..

I set up shop in the discourse channel bc I have always been Like This and. God okay the tragedy of Zablr rant chat is basically what this really ends up being. I can barely call it a decline bc it was never actually good! Red flags existed from the start! The effective dogpiling that happened the way we were as a community defined by the hostility outside... the us vs them mindset and the way Zaph (ZAPH! THE #1 PHILZA MINECRAFT SHOOTER!!!!) and I having an actual conversation abt Philza's flaws got told to leave were like . Fully inevitable. It was externally motivated bc like the place could not have existed and rotted w/o the trenches but it was also like. The infrastructure, formal or informal, to keep it alive never existed

In the later stages of Zablr attempts at getting more moderation and regulating rant chat more were made, including an extremely controversial decision of shutting it down fully, especially as more and more members new and old became more and more uncomfortable abt it, but it was too little too late yk. Bandaid on gangrene type of shit

There was functionally a mass exodus. Zablr hemorrhaged active members over April and while I still check in every so often it's like three ppl and nowhere close 2 what it once was yk? It's not fully dead but everyone who was involved at its peak days is inactive or gone and does not remember it too kindly

And I cannot emphasize enough here. I had good times in Zablr I met lovely friends in Zablr several of whom I'm still in contact with even in rant it was also absolutely a legitimate refuge from what was at the time an Unlivable larger fandom it was good it literally was

But at the same time . It never was. The seeds of its destruction were in there from the start and idk if we could have weeded it especially with the external pressures relevant. At the end of the day the discourse chat nuke and nuclear winter starving out the remainder of it slowly were not the beginning of the end but. Well. The end of it

Thinking back on it it seems fucking insane to me that this happened over like two months it seems like such a huge part of my experience with the DSMP like fuck it's still in my bio!!! But it was only a couple months!!! It's literally irrelevant!!!! What the mf hell!!!!!

Anyway that's why I'm a Dark Souls boss

[red-i-mean-blue]

A:TLA romantic ships part 1

yes, no one asked for my opinions, yes I will give them anyway, yes because I have decided making a bunch of meaningless decisions and arguing for them will improve my mental state, yes I watched the show all in one very sleep deprived go and i’m not interested in rewatching it so yes I have absolutely no sources, yes this is a really long grammatical nightmare because I don’ t know how to be succinct and i use way more words than necessary at any opportunity because if my point doesn’ t come across exactly like i intend it will greatly upset me, no I have not yet watched Korra or read the comics because i’m tired now let’s do this.

includes Kataang, Zutara, Jetkara, Jinko, Maiko, Sukka, Taang, Tokka, Toko Ty Lokka, Tyzula, Yukka bc these were on the Avatar wiki ship list, part two will go into gay ships more

from 0 I despise people who ship this immediately to 10 I will read absolutely anything with this, I love it and could draw it for hours on how much I think the relationship would be good and how happy it makes me

Kataang (looks like a comic book sound effect so plus points)

very clearly built up over the series

cute kid crushes also ngl did not know katara was 14 and not older 12 or 13 so didn’t care about age when watching

now I know she’s 14 and he’s 12 it’s a little weird but still

haters say katara was just the avatar’s trophy girl, as if aang didnt kiss the ground she walked on and wouldnt stop telling anyone how amazing she is. Katara was the first face he saw from the new world and they immediately became friends. she was so excited to meet another bender, he clearly is trying to impress her and it is working, he listens to her about bending and offers to take her to the other side of the world to master water, TELL ME at this moment she is not ride or die and she doesn’t even know he’s the avatar, he lets her feel like a kid again, which is a feeling she’s forgotten after years of being a mother to sokka and the children. he literally sweeps her off her feet to save her from the fire nations ship i-. rewatched boy in the iceberg and hoo boy had canon not messed it up, this ship could have been legendary

hard to imagine older them working out what with the whole last airbender, preserve air nomad culture, let’s travel the world bc nomadic lifestyle, what’s marriage i’m a monk without biological family values vs last southern waterbender, preserve southern water tribe culture, I believe in the power of family and am ridiculously dedicated to my tribe,  let me go home to my father and tribe shtick, but I don’t care for after the show finishes much except for following the gang fix the world so I don’t really care about the marriage issue

canon was good until that Mess in season 3, WHY did he kiss her after that speech, wish they talked that out properly, wish he learned letting go of her to open the 7th chakra was the only right decision, wish the ending was a little more vague in ships and just left things open but yk whatever

that finale kiss was sweet, they hugged foremost as friends, no blushing, and then got the fuzzies, that moment standing alone? a+ but without any talking about what happened on ember island, a little unsatisfying

overall, fine ship, not my favourite nor do I actively ship it, but I see a kataang moment, i’m like, sweet so I give it a 6

Zutara (apparently fans are zutarians which looks like an alien race, plus points)

latter half of the show had quite a lot of Zutara potential, but idk about Zutara actual

katara was so ready to drop his ass, no way at the start

there is only one dynamic between them in which I can see Zutara working and that is as in the Stalking Zuko by emletish series where katara is so distrusting over zuko she takes to stalking him to make sure he isn’t doing anything to hurt Aang or about to betray them (her) again but he is just such a sweet dork who keeps trying to apologise to her even while she’s apologising to him for being a bitch that she can’t help but start to trust him, i’m a third into the third book in the series not stalking firelord zuko and I am thriving and tbh this is the only situation where I accept zutara, read the series I love it

age gap is weird, I know it’s the same difference between kataang but they made a point of zuko being older in the show also he’s so much taller and I don’t like 16 year old boys with 14 year old girlfriends in real life and so would katara because jet

katara has a bad experience with bad boy sword weilders (jet) but I guess you could see it as the start of her type idk

they are both the moms of the Gaang. sokka is the fun dad.

there is a parallel between their families, with the leader of their people dad, mom who left the picture when they were young, an older brother who is not a prodigy at/can’ t bend their respective element so they become proficient at swords instead, prodigy at bending younger sister with a violent streak. this is why I see zutara as potentially a really close friendship, almost siblings, but not a romance because to me katara is a little too like azula for comfort...

tbh I think a lot of folk shipped it because ooh fire boy and water girl (not the game) that’ s perfect, and bam army of zutarians

overall, kind of weird but ok and good grounds for humour so I give it a 4

Jetkara (bad ship name, why would you like this, minus points)

Jet is bad. yes Katara really liked him, yes he was definitely her first kiss and she would definitely consider him her first boyfriend but they would not define it because it’s easier to manipulate someone when it’s unclear what your relationship is and Jet is bad, with his weird fricking eyebrows and not even real swords those hook swords

Not wasting my time, 2

Jinko (cool name, reminds me of Hong Jinkyung, plus points) 

short but so sweet. not the first thing people remember from watching the tales of ba sing se (brb going to rewatch and cry) but really cute, so here’s a running commentary

his first thought was she knew they were fire nation rather than a pretty girl sat in a teashop giving him looks because she had a crush omg

that honest surprise when his uncle suggested she liked her and then she walked up and asked him on a date, adorable

anyone who looked at that god-awful hairstyle and still thought he looked cute has it bad also aww that hair ruffle and the little grab onto his arm

he’s pushing his food around and she’s trying out ice breaker questions and recieving one word responses he has no idea what he’s doing

“she is not my GIRLFRIEND” he’s not over Mai, clearly but he still is trying his best to be a good date even if he’s terrible at making conversation

anyone who sat through that date and the bad lying and the stilted conversation and still thought he was cute has it bad 

he is So Bad At Lying he just told the truth very vaguely and then bam travelling circus

jin so knows the two are fire nation, the whole date she just politely ignores the clear lies and doesn’t react to the obvious firebending, what an icon we love jin

honestly I was really expecting the show to reveal that jin knew he was a firebender if not from the start then from the lights but eh I guess she can keep a secret, good for her

HE KISSED HER BACK BEFORE REALISING A RELATIONSHIP COULD NEVER GO WELL AND HE MAY HAVE ANGSTILY STORMED OFF BUT HE ADMITTED IT WAS A NICE TIME TO HIS UNCLE

that being said I can’t see anything more happening but this date but omg imagine fire lord zuko coming back to visit and they become friends I-

overwhelming support for pre-date jin flirting to an oblivious zuko and the date Jinko, 8

Maiko (name would be a good name for a cat idk why)

childhood sweethearts before the banishment i think

she crushed because he saved her hair from getting burnt by tackling her into a fountain? adorable

I love mai she’s so funny but I think not the best match for zuko? he has a lot of trauma to get over and she doesn’t seem like the let all your feelings out and let’s talk about it until you feel better kind of person.  it was deeply ingrained in her to keep all of her feelings and emotions strongly hidden because she got what she wanted from her politician parents so long as she was quiet, well-mannered, and perfectly behaved according to avatar wiki so I get why she’s that way, until I was 11 I was that way too all the time, I understand freezing your face so you don’t look afraid or upset or angry and risk annoying adults, but I don’t think that that would fit zuko with his social ineptness

they literally broke up twice but are just assumed back together? she just surprised him and said they were back together and I think he forgot she existed

the deadpan firelady and the fire lord would be hilarious together tho she got the ruthlessness he lacks

post coronation I can see it happening, 6 but under Kataang

Sukka (terrible name lmao)

the cutest, sokka very excitedly says “Suki!! :DDD” every time he sees her

she didn’t give him the time of day until HE changed, incredible

just the best canon ship, the two nonbenders in the Gaang but very clearly shown to be important key members.

suki is sneaky and badass, rivalling zuko for position on the team as the sneaky badass one (they tie and bond over being sneaky and badass)

sokka is a great dad, he is the dad of the Gaang and he clearly loves suki and suki loves him back

sokka ships are ELITE, 9

Taang (a delicious orange drink mix that reminds me of home, nostalgia)

foreshadowing from the swamp where someone aang loved in the future really made me think taang was endgame yk

opposite elements ideology that I guess is what zutarians like also leaves everyone in the gang dating a Gaang member if zutara happens

actually the same age but not much else going for it

best friends, 4 but under Zutara

Tokka (great name of a small pet fight me)

sokka ships are elite, childhood crush turned adult strong friendship

I really like seeing the rough, tough, greatest earthbender in  the world have a crush, adorable

sokka is a great friend and his and toph’s canon relationship is so sweet, I wouldn’t change it

toph was fully going to give sokka a kiss on the cheek for saving her life i’m melting

age difference is too weird for a romance he’s like 16 or 17 by the end I think and she’s 12

best friends, 10 as a relationship in the show, 2, but in their 20s after the show... 4 but under Taang

Toko (very forgettable name but both characters have 4 letters so I guess it’s hard to come up with something memorable but every time I read it as Toph because same shape ish so minus points for being annoying)

even weirder age gap than Tokka 

not many moments that could be considered romantic? 

toph first accepted zuko despite him burning her feet, how she sees, which was big and they resolved problems between them quickly

toph clinging to his arm and asking for a life changing field trip caused him to blush, but I see that as him being like oh someone wants to spend time with me?? she’s hugging me??? what is this 

convenient ship for kataangers because the Gaang could be paired off as Kataang, Sukka, Toko

her crush on sokka seemed to go away or calm down when he showed up and she punched him and teased him a lot, her way of bonding

similar strict teaching styles and bonding over secret identities as Blue Spirit and Blind Bandit and parental issues and being the children of important families who made them run away to enjoy not having anything to do with politics and being nobility with impaired vision who have never stepped into a kitchen in their lives and being used to servants and then being on the run

I really see them as siblings with her helping him relax from his duties as fire lord because you already know this boy’s sense of honour is going to make him work tirelessly to fix the world and him helping her relax from the whole i’m not a fragile, weak little blind girl, i’m the greatest earthbender in the world shtick and reminding her she can be both a blind 12 year old girl and the most powerful earthbender in the world, she can accept help without being weak or lesser than anyone, people want to help because they care not that they pity you

best friends 10, relationship in show 1, after show 3

Ty Lokka (I don’t like this name looks like a place but can think of nothing better)

yeah I guess ty lee’s obvious flirting is grounds for a ship but in every interaction he’s involved with someone else and doesn’t seem to like her as a person

do they even interact while on the same side?

friendly aquaintances at best, don’ t understand, 2 but above Jetkara

Tyzula (don’t like this name, like a mineral water?)

canon I don’t care it is canonically a possessive relationship

azula’s only genuine apology goes to ty lee after hurting her feelings

Azula clearly loves ty lee, her betrayal sends her mad

after a lot of therapy for azula and apologies, maybe a healthy relationship could form after the show, 8 above Jinko

Yukka (looks like a childish insult, surely someone could have thought of a better name)

Sokka’s love for Yue stays with him for the rest of his life, she was the first person to die in front of him and he sees the moon as her facing the earth

love this forbidden lovers content, sokka ships stay elite

Sokka and Yue spend as much time together as possible with secret midnight dates flirting (“you wanna do an...activity together?”)  Sokka’s reaction to Yue’s engagement shows that he wants to have a serious relationship with her, and also he thinks Hahn is a bad person for Yue, which he is. 

Yue dying devastated him and he never falls out of love with Yue. her last words “[she] will always be with him” are true. swamp visions show Yue as one of the most important people in his life like a season or so after he last saw her. he wouldn’t kiss suki in front of the moon, and cries when Yue appears on stage, ignoring Suki. he talks about the moon as if it is directly Princess Yue in that cactus juice scene.

she died in his arms oh my god don’t look i crying, he feels personally responsible and guilty

yue was great even though she was the indigenous or black girl with light hair and eyes character and I wish she could have helped aang in the spirit world 

despite her arranged engagement she clearly really likes sokka even though she knows nothing can happen, 9

Kataang, Zutara, Jetkara, Jinko, Maiko, Sukka, Taang, Tokka, Toko, Ty Lokka, Tyzula, Yukka

[stxnsia]

Sorin is often described as a hedonist, in canon. In what ways do you interpret that as it relates to your portrayal of him? What sorts of luxuries do you see him indulging/overindulging in?

;; I noticed how his hedonistic nature has shifted in various sets, and take notes on it. I interpret it as his growing bored of certain things. It doesn't help that he's so contradicting as a party of his nature. See example, his quotes in Bloodflow Connoisseur vs Vermin Gorger. This also depends on what verse I'm playing him in. Pre-SOI/EM Sorin likes the pain he can inflict on someone, the power he can have should he take on a new student, thrall, even friends. See 'Promises old and New' from his and Nahiri's point of view. He relished in the control he had over her situation. "I never asked for your trust, child. Only your obedience." '"I took you under my wing, and molded you into what you are," he said.' Magical abilities, physical strength. However he can max it out. He indulges in that especially. As well as flaunting his freedom, the ability to go anywhere and do anything he pleases. A life where everyone else follows rules but he doesn't have to. Showing off the wealth he has not just from being a Markov, but items and currency he has acquired ( most of it stealing but yk ) over his long years. Post-SOI/EM Sorin doesn't care too much these days. All he asks is his freedom. Everyone and a while going back to his old days of having the control, the drive to dance around responsibilities and to live carelessly.

What I see him indulging in is what I stated. Having as much control as possible. Showing of his young students/creation/daughters nit only of pride but of showing up anyone else. It's not a material thing.

[lesbeet]

what are your fav magic subjects from the hp universe? i always thought curse breaking & transfiguration were interesting but the concept of arithmancy was so depressing like why would you ruin fun magic with advanced calculus I've been tortured with it enough 😭 also wonering if you plan to explore any specific magical concepts in your story bc i rly love when authors try to add to magical theory

oh i always say if i got to pick a job in the wizarding world i’d either wanna be a cursebreaker (but not for gringotts. like….freelance or something, yk helping people break curses on old family heirlooms and like. on their houses and loved ones and such)

or i’d want to make spells for a living. the series only mentions a committee for experimental charms but i have to assume other types of spell committees exist as well, but also i do think charms would be my favorite subject. transfiguration is too much like math imo, even though it’s incredibly useful. like i feel like i’d be proficient at it so that i can conjure and vanish and transfigure things that i would need to do in my everyday life, but nothing super advanced. and charms i would just go batshit crazy thinking of all the ways to alter something (vs changing it into something else completely)

AND/OR i would wanna study wandlore bc i just think that would be a really fucking cool job, and it would be incredible to be able to tailor myself my own wand bc i would have expertise both in the craft of wand-making and in knowing myself

re: arithmancy tho, i think if im remembering correctly that arithmancy is literally just…numerology. like i’m pretty sure official content has been released that shows that it’s literally fucking like. letter numerology and shit, which imo is even worse than combining magic and advanced calculus, bc the latter actually seems like it could produce worthwhile results. but what i don’t understand is that if arthimancy IS just glorified numerology….why does hermione like it so much? and i think it is, because the name arthimancy in and of itself is structured the same was as like cartomancy, etc, which means it’s probably just another type of divination….which hermione doesn’t respect as actual magic aside from the existence of prophecies (even though we’ve seen even those aren’t always wholly binding so much as self-fulfilling) 

sorry this is what happens when you get me started speculating about the hp universe ksjd;fksjdf;klsjd

-

ANYWAY, yes i do explore some specific magical concepts in my fic, but surprisingly they have like. a fairly tenuous basis in canon magical theory, which is unusual for me. but one of my pet peeves in fics is when people write about magic in a way that’s opposite to what’s been explicitly stated in canon, so at the very least i won’t be contradicting any established laws of magic, and will do my best to find a canonically-established magical precedent to the concepts i’m adding, if that makes sense?

i don’t really wanna say more bc i’ve been super good about keeping the fic under wraps, and i’m almost done!! it should be published before the new year :)

but yeah in other fics ive started (never finished lol) ive done much deeper exploration into established magical systems n processes n such, so lemme know if you wanna hear about those klsdjfsjdflks

this was so much wow i apologize, but thank you for the question this was really fun to answer

[bthump]

Do you think there's an animal that symbolizes Casca well enough to be comparable to the dog/wolf and falcon symbols for Guts and Griffith?

tbh not in canon, Casca might be the only main character who never even gets compared to an animal let alone getting a full on motif, as far as I remember. Unless her taking over as the leader of the Hawks means she also gets in on the hawk symbol.

Which on the one hand is meh because that’s Griffith’s thing and if we apply the hawk symbol to Casca too that could easily just feel like a rote copy with no personal meaning to Casca. Which is pretty much how it feels in canon. But on the other hand you could really delve into it and explore what that symbol and that position of leader means to Casca specifically, yk if you throw the canon explanation of “I led the Hawks for a year as a gesture of self-sacrifice bc of my unrequited feelings for Griffith” out the window.

What does the dream mean to Casca? How does Casca feel about Griffith throwing it away and ruining everyone’s lives? What do the Hawks mean to Casca, especially compared to what they mean to Griffith (then or now)? What does it mean that the hawk symbol has changed w/ NeoGriffith if Casca represents the past/original symbol? Is Falconia the dream Casca fought for? If not, how is it different, if yes, how does Casca feel about that now?

Also if NeoGriffith and Casca are enemies now but with the same animal symbol, I feel like that would suit Casca vs Griffith as the new central conflict, especially since Guts’ revenge thing was more like a temper tantrum that he can’t follow through on anymore now that Griffith is hot again. Like, Casca representing the old band, having earned the role of avenger, hawk v hawk setting up a nice compare/contrast wrt themes and ideals, etc, it sounds potentially good to me.

Like I’m js imo there’s a lot worth exploring when it comes to Casca as Griffith’s most loyal follower, replacement, and enemy that could be a lot deeper and more interesting than we actually see in canon where it all boils down to who she has a crush on lol.

ALL THAT SAID I’ve seen Casca as a lioness several times in fandom and I like that animal motif for her a lot even if there’s no canon basis for it. Like as far as representative animals go, lions are badass, violent, grouped together in prides which fits Casca and her family w/ the Hawks, and I think lionesses get kind of a raw deal compared to males? What with being the ones who do the hunting and stuff, which isn’t exactly unfitting.

Or, similarly to the Hawk thing but with a bit of a difference, maybe a phoenix would be a good symbol for her? I mean she’s got some rebirth/resurrection stuff going on right now, and if she represents the old Hawks they were going to end up being the White Phoenixes before Guts and Griffith ruined everything, so that applies to her too.

Plus since these animal motifs tend to represent evil furry alter egos and I’m still clinging to my Casca goes apostle hope, lbr she’s not going to look like Femto if she turns into a monster, so mb her animal should be similar to fit her role as the representative of the old Hawks, but different enough to make for a cool new monster design. And Danann went and (v suspiciously imo) dressed her in a weird looking flowy dress with feathers - plus, since helmets always end up incorporated into these monster designs, you got her old helmet with a feather crest which is kind of similar to her hair pieces in that dress:

Idk I think phoenix would be a fitting basis for a cool monster design. Wings, a feathery crest, long trailing tail(s) - and monster foreshadowing is the only good explanation for that stupid dress.