#pond rambles

[ponds-of-ink]

Here’s a random thought I just had about Springtrap. Considering this a follow up to an older post, since I’m sure I’ve talked about this before.

He feels like the type of guy to be absolutely flustered about positive affection, but really tries to hide it.

For example: Let’s say you, being in the FNAF 3 Guard’s place, notice and offhandly remark that his walking is getting a lot better. Frighteningly good, in fact. Some of y’all might even go “good job” and give him the shakiest thumbs up of your life.

Of course, Springtrap (whether he can talk or not) would brush your words off and keep going. No amount of flattery should stall his mission, after all.

…But it would make him halt beforehand. Maybe even make him react a bit, like a head tilt or a slight shift in posture. However it would look, it would communicate the same question: “Really??”

And that “Really?” might turn him into a fuming mess if you’re persistent enough… And very fortunate in general.

Long story short: This man hasn’t had contact of any sort in decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of thing shatters his ego-tripped state for a second. He’ll have to pick up pieces of it for hours after that.

[shkika]

W1 design is done finally!!

W1 is both of the V models having combined themselves into one machine! Here are some notes on it! There's a lot to this fucker I think, but I'll do my best to cover what's most important.

Design notes:

More fragile areas are usually using V2's standard tougher plating. Main examples are the base of it's limbs, as the less of it's arm it potentially loses the better, it's head (which has 2 brains inside!), kneecaps and it's shooter arms, which are less powerful but made to handle guns and weaponry with more finesse.

Note! The knuckleblaster largely is off-colored, because it is a creation of V2's before their merge (she was not made with it). She made it before they combined. Has modified only it's hand after their merge (blue).

Big surface areas or places where blood often ends up use V1's plating. So like it's chest, forearms, punching fists and so on!

Their eye looks like that, because it's cool. and. 2 brains.

Their wings are a combination, because of limited resources. If it could use all of V2's it would as they are better protected.

Character/lore notes:

The V's do NOT fight for the body. Actually any disagreement on actions it must perform are VERY dangerous and scary they prioritize reaching a solution as FAST as possible.

Not functioning correctly can mean death. That being said differing opinions specifically are okay as long as they reach the same final conclusion on what to do. Nobody is panicking if they disagree on what their fave color is.

The two brains send requests incredibly fast between each other to operate the body. Both have full control over the body and must operate it together. This is a VERY processing heavy task and an inefficient one so it requires a lot of blood. It is a VERY hungry machine.

W1 combines before the events of the game! W1 would go through the events of the game in place of just V1.

[ponds-of-ink]

On a technicality, “Vanessa is Michael” can be a valid theory… If you apply it to the concept of someone like The Mimic trying to match up much more recent victims with faces of the past. “Vanessa is the new ‘Michael’” would probably be a better term, tbh.

With that said, I’m gonna check out the generator and get back to you later.

Hey, you, have you heard of the FNAF totally logical theory generator on perchance? Well, if you haven't. You have now. Thought it might be fun to try and justify one of the absurd theories it generates, so, that begs the question,

reblog for more votes if you want I suppose

[thetorturedlovergirl]

HAPPY BI VISIBILITY DAY TO MY SILLIES 💗

[morgan-n-cheese-91]

People I think would be a part of Master Windu's book club:

● Ponds - whether he likes it or not he's there for the soom (space zoom) calls and he gets the interesting parts read aloud to him (he's the biker bf to Mace's booktok girly gf)

● Cody - joined bc he was bored during his brief stint in the 91st, but has since become invested. has his own secondary club amongst the 212th command staff

○ Obi-Wan - reads over Cody's shoulder, inputs his opinions when stealing Cody's soom call snacks

● Fox - his vibes for a book club are immaculate. was offered a spot soon after posting, has the hottest takes

● Bly - joined after reading over Cody and Fox' shoulders while on leave, begged to join, has some of the most indepth takes on the books, also a hopeless romantic

○ Aalya - simular to Obi-Wan, reads over Bly's shoulder, adds thoughts when relevant

● Master Ti - strong willed booktok girly, is the reason they read "Where the Crawdads Sing" and "The Woman in Cabin 10"

● Master Che - joined for the book recommendations, stayed for the gossip

● Madame Nu - founding member

● Kit - has the same book vibes as Mace but more high energy, brings the best snacks for in person meetings

People banned from Mace Windu's Bookclub:

● Yoda - grandmaster crimes + troll + old = banned

● Anakin - this club is Mace's restbute from that lineage's insanity, he barely tolerates Obi-Wan joining over Cody's shoulder

● Depa - Mace does not want to know what his child thought of "A walk to Remember" or "The Girl with the Pearl Earring"

[transmasc-rose]

I'm thinking about the horror of the Doctor from the perspective of non-companions again, especially as it relates to people those companions know.

Rose? "Ran away" (not wrong) for "a year" (a week) with a "man" (alien) "twice her age" (approximately 50 times her age but yeah, he is Time Lord middle aged), and then gives absolutely no explanation for how or why that happened, except that she was "travelling".

Then when her mum does get an explanation (which, frankly, is only comforting because of the unfamiliarity of the alternative given. The devil you know.), Rose barely checks back in.

She almost dies for him. When she thinks he's dead, she's changed in a way her family doesn't know how to handle. Then she's gone for who knows how long and comes back with the Doctor wearing a new face.

When her original tenure as a companion ends, and Rose lives in Pete's World, she works for Torchwood/UNIT (they become the same organization). She volunteers for the Dimension Cannon. She explains to the alternate earth how to rig up a time machine.

She's changed in ways that no one else can really understand.

Amy? There's everything with River Song of course (though I'm still not there in my viewing), him running away with Amy the night before her and Rory's wedding, and also the connection between the Doctor and the Time Crack being the reason all of Amy's family's dead. Obvious stuff.

However he's also the strange man who broke into this child's house and made a mess of her life that she never got over, that promised to take her away from here, that she wrote about and drew and carved and made her friends dress up as.

And they sent her to psychiatrist after psychiatrist without any help. In their perspective, to work through what she imagined. In her perspective, to tell her that her reality wasn't real.

And then he comes back.

And to some extent, later, when he shows himself to everyone, isn't that more frightening? That the story your child told you, of the strange man she met as a child, of time travel, of nearly being stolen away, hadn't been a lie, or a misinterpretation, or an imagining?

And so he shows up at her wedding. And steals her away again.

Donna I feel like has the least horror until her final episode. I think exploring the in between section of her meeting the Doctor and finding him again would be interesting, but not exactly horror. More an exploration of how obsessive the companions can get about him, how it eats their whole lives with even one encounter, even as it makes them better people.

And then, obviously, the horror of having your mind altered and erased against your will by someone you trusted. For your own good, of course. Because he knows best. How could you know better than him? He's ancient. He's practically all knowing.

Shouldn't you be grateful?

(And he's forgiven.)

[chiliger]

Unprompted thoughts and headcanons about Commander Ponds because I think of him an unnecessary amount.

He’s the eldest of the Command Batch. (I say this as a certified eldest sibling, he has the vibe about him.)

A brilliant slicer and overall one of the best CC’s with technology. (Cody is not allowed anyway near Ponds while he’s working on any piece of tech. (Republic Heroes fans know. Ponds never lets Cody live down the whole shield generator incident.))

Off the battlefield, Ponds is usually the quiet type. He’s more of a silent observer and prefers to listen to people.

That said, he is the to-go for advice or a shoulder to lean on among, and even outside of, his batch.

Ponds likes to make things. His usual pastime on the field is wood carving. He collects small pieces that can fit in his pack, and uses his vibro-blade to make figurines of animals, ships, and people. (Wolffe keeps one of a loth-wolf that’s missing a leg.)

He is often the mediator whenever a fight breaks out in and outside of his batch. But if the situation calls for it, he is really to brawl.

This one I’m not too sure about, but I’m basing it solely off the scene of his death in the show. He doesn’t think of himself as “Ponds.” His name was given to him by his brothers, and he decided to go along with it since it in the long run it was easier for natborns to remember. Even though he worked under Mace Windu, a wonderfully supportive and kind man who treated him and his men like equals, Ponds still has a hard time allowing himself to be a person. Maybe he would have reached that point if he had survived.

[kiwibirdlafayette]

cookin up a season 10 design for this etho guy or somethin or other

inspired by his base vibes and redstone techy-ness :D also netherite slides because its infinitely amusing to me

[kukuandkookie]

People keep claiming Chinese BL manhua really only have stories featuring toxic male leads, so I offered to give recommendations with green flags... Someone finally said yes, so here's what I typed up in response!:

I Ship My Rival x Me:

One of my personal favourites!

Based on the hilarious novel, commonly known as I Ship My Adversary x Me and also has an audio drama adaptation on MaoEr FM. Basically a story about two actors who are seen as complete rivals by everyone except the actors themselves, which annoys the main character (Wei Yanzi) enough that when he discovers there are actual fans who ship them instead of pit them against one another, he’s so excited he sort of starts shipping them too (in like, an abstract, theoretical manner lmao). This of course causes shenanigans as he actually gets to know the person who people ship him with/pit him against, Gu Yiliang.

Gu Yiliang is a true sweetheart and the greenest of green flags. He’s a complete puppy and I love him. And this means, naturally, the only misunderstandings in this story are of the hilarious kind (you’ll know what I mean if you read it lol). 😂

This one actually used to be available officially in English on the Bilibili manhua’s international app before it got shut down, but it recently got picked up by Seven Seas, the company behind a lot of official English translations of danmei (Chinese BL)!

Touch Your World:

A literally colour-blind boy (as in, he cannot see colour at all and only sees things in black and white) discovers someone who he can see colour on. This person is a designer who has suffered past betrayal and trauma that has caused him to shut himself up and grow much more on edge, but this chance meeting draws both parties out of their shells.

Pixiu’s Eatery, No Way Out:

Not a green flag top in the traditional sense, but here we meet the mythical Pixiu: an ancient Chinese mythical creature who now runs a restaurant. While he’s a penny-pincher with a temper and he doesn’t get along with his love interest at first (a ghost named Wen Xi who he finds suspicious due to Wen Xi’s ties to a past rival of his named Taotie), Pixiu and Wen Xi eventually grow, quite naturally—and hilariously!—into a found family.

The Wife Is First:

Based on a novel of pretty much the same name (and is written by the same author as the popular manhua and donghua, No Doubt in Us (a heterosexual body-swap romance, which also has a subtle gay side ship)). Here we meet Jing Shao just as he’s about to lose everything: once a royal and a powerful general, he has been betrayed by all those around him…except the husband he has never treated well.

As such, when we first meet him, we actually witness his—and his husband’s—deaths. But then he awakens and finds himself back in time to the night right after he was forced to wed this husband of his, and Jing Shao vows to treat him well from now on because he stuck with him through thick and thin despite everything.

Don’t Say You Love Me:

A high school romance with a supernatural twist: Lin Yutong was confessed to by his best friend, Qin Weiyun, at their graduation party. When he drunkenly freaked out and ran away, Qin Weiyun was hit by a car during the chase…

Devastated by his loss, Lin Yutong quickly wakes up to find himself back at the start of his high school journey, right before he meets Qin Weiyun… And this time, he wants to keep Qin Weiyun safe.

But his overly familiar attitude at first gets the wary Qin Weiyun a tad suspicious, because he’s actually quite an aloof person.

The author and artist of this one is also behind another popular manhua titled Your Dream Is Delicious, which is about a demon named Yi Kui who discovers he enjoys eating the nightmares of Lin You. This eventually leads to them—you guessed it—falling in love.

It’s Not That I Want to Wear Women’s Clothing:

Our main character is hired to crossdress to help this CEO get over his gynophobia (fear of touching women) without him knowing. Naturally, this leads to an awkward romantic journey of both identities of our main character getting close to this CEO…who at first glance seems like the typical cold and aloof CEO type, except he’s actually quite a sweetheart.

Salt Friend:

A slice-of-life high school story about the “school bully” named Tong Yang who’s actually a crybaby and the aloof person named Xiao Zhen who discovers him crying. While the two don’t seem like they’d get along at first glance, this quickly becomes a friends-to-lovers story that navigates family drama alongside the romance.

How’d I Get a Heroine’s Script?:

A transmigration story with a twist. Chao Yi is wheelchair-bound but finds himself eventually as a young lord in what is basically a palace drama (court politics, intrigue, family drama, all that good stuff). His System, Qin Que, tasks him with wooing the difficult 7th prince, Gu Yunheng, who smiles on the surface but is quite cold in actuality.

Despite the two getting off on the wrong foot—mostly because Gu Yunheng is really hard to get close to—they soon end up as unlikely allies…especially since there’s a lot of secrets, such as regarding the death of the body Chao Yi’s occupying, the scheming princes, and even Gu Yunheng himself.

See You My King:

Zhang Li, a student interested in what is basically ancient Egypt, goes on an expedition to the ruined civilization and nearly loses his life. Except at the same time, he discovers an ancient tomb with a statue that actually comes to life and saves him…

And this statue even follows him home. This statue is sweet and loving despite its inability to speak, and Zhang Li grows attached to it (or him)… But then the statue falls apart and Zhang Li is devastated.

In wishing for a miracle to bring them back together, the statue’s stone heart sends Zhang Li back in time…to when this ancient civilization is still present. And that’s how he discovers his stone statue is the “tyrant king” of this region, and as cruel as he seems at first glance, both this king and Zhang Li eventually grow close and unfold the different sides to one another that makes them inseparable in the face of all kinds of threats.

Trapping the Foxy Doctor:

A doctor and a psychiatrist meet…except it doesn’t seem like a perfect love story at first glance. Not because the doctor is traditionally foxy (seductive and/or cunning), but because he’s so silly and on-the-nose that he initially kind of rubs the psychiatrist the wrong way. Except, of course, with the kind of sunny sincerity displayed by our doctor Zhi Banyi, you can’t resist him for long…

And the psychiatrist, Lin Li, is himself quite a polite soul despite his complex upbringing. As such, the two end up together through a series of cases where they have to collaborate and help clients, with a lot of shenanigans sprinkled in between (including the fact Lin Li has a side-job live-streaming as a woman—and “she” just so happens to be Zhi Banyi’s favourite streamer lol).

Pirouette Into My Heart aka Salad Days:

You know the “he was a skater boy and she did ballet” kind of set-up? Well here we have a boxer and a ballet dancer…and hey, “can I make it any more obvious”?

This one is basically a feel-good story of the century. It’s childhood friends to lovers, and it’s soft and cuddly and encouraging, as we follow the main character, Jiang Shen, in achieving his ballet dreams. And on every step of the way, he’s accompanied by the boxer Bai Jinyi, who’s also chasing his own dreams.

The draw of this one is that while there’s obviously conflict to drive the plot along, it’s ultimately a comforting story, so you get all warm and squishy inside reading it. Bai Jinyi and Jiang Shen are very supportive of one another, as is everyone around them.

There’s even extras at the very end that swap the classes of the two main characters, which makes for a similarly compelling AU. 🤭

Beryl and Sapphire:

Not always BL but often is. What do I mean by that? Well it’s a story that can switch to any universe even as the characters stay the same, and some worlds are just one-off gags while some are whole story arcs. The original manhua features stick figures, so if you really want to experience this one, I’d recommend the donghua. The first season also cleverly shows the main characters as actors in the OP, which explains all the world-switching pretty easily haha.

Don’t Pick Up Boyfriends from the Trash Bin:

Unfortunately I’m not sure the manhua for this one is still ongoing, but the original novel (all about transmigration and hopping multiple worlds) 100% features a green flag top.

The Guy Inside Me:

I know the title sounds sexual lol but it’s actually a joke about how it’s a body-swap story. 😆

The original Chinese title is “This Question Is Too Difficult”) and of course, the author also wrote Fake Slackers, which has two very smart students act like terrible ones due to not wanting trouble.

Falling to Where I Belong:

The thing about this one is that the top is 100% a total green flag... It's the main character that's more of a red flag, in the sense he at first only asks the top out to humiliate him due to a misunderstanding.

But it's still a heartfelt story filled with regret and growth, and I did really like the portrayal of Cheng Feichi. Personally I think the manhua humanizes him a bit more than the novel since we didn't really get his POV in the novel that often, but I did hope for even more emotion in the ending... Still, it was a satisfying read, and while I would like to comfort the main character, Zhen Yeming, over his regrets, I really want to just give all the good things to Cheng Feichi, who definitely deserves it after everything he went through.

More Than Brothers:

For the "non-freaks" out there, they're not actual brothers, don’t worry; not adopted brothers either. Just a guy who saw his younger friend as his bro…until this friend disappeared from his life and apparently got into a bad crowd… Except in reality he is being harassed and is struggling to leave his abusive family.

The Protagonist Just Wants to Fall in Love:

Kind of a classic in the transmigration genre, except now we get multiple worlds in multiple arcs. Our protagonists are Systems on their final mission, aiming to become human by the end of it, and their task is to guide their protagonists away from the path of "darkening" (essentially corruption).

And each and every one of these systems do so by getting their protagonist to fall in love with them lol.

Unsurprisingly, my favourite arc so far—in the manhua at least!—is the historical one between the advisor and the emperor, but the third—and currently ongoing as the time of me writing this—world between two university students who started getting close during military training and by playing games is also quite cute.

And okay, man I could really keep going, especially with the manhua that are based on novels, but this post is already really long asjakfl. It was, in fact, so fucking long YouTube wouldn't even let me post it at first until I cut it down AMFKGSJDFGS.

But I still want to at least give a shout out to some of the manhua with pretty healthy, green flag tops/gongs!:

Like Han Yuan, despite the characters not getting along at first and Yu Han being rather aloof to the spoiled Luo Linyuan, is still quite sweet at its core. Lovely Allergen is as well, even with their "brotherly" relationship being the forefront of the conflict between Song Yu and Yue Zishi.

Another kind I wanted to bring up is the ones where their worlds or stories are dark, but the characters aren't necessarily. Like The Film Emperor, He Insisted on Being My Patron has a very green flag gong (he's such a puppy!), but he and the main character are up against the reddest of red flags of a villain LMDFKGSJFD.

It's also not a manhua I think people who want green flag leads would necessarily enjoy, given that beyond being "darker," it also goes into the territory of fan service-y and "problematic" nsfw content, but again, the male lead is really quite sweet to the main character despite the shitty situation they're in.

And I thought of Bu Chonghua from Tunhai aka Swallowing the Seas (another one based on a novel), since the main character there, Wu Yu, comes to see Bu Chonghua as so good and just that he pushes him away because he feels like he can't dirty such a man with his own darkness, both in his past and personality. It's a trope I really enjoy.

I'll briefly mention some ⚠️ spoilers ⚠️but the reason I wanted to highlight it is because: the latest chapter of the manhua has Bu Chonghua overhear Wu Yu saying he likes Bu Chonghua, and this is after Wu Yu disappeared and Bu Chonghua is worried he skipped town for good. He follows Wu Yu, all while wondering if the like Wu Yu holds for him is the same as his liking of Wu Yu, and when Wu Yu is about to be gravely injured in an underground fighting ring, Bu Chonghua steps in to save him... The chapter ends with Wu Yu holding him back pleading with him to stop because it's not worth dirtying his hands with such a man as his opponent, and that's such a delicious flavour of angst because like...Wu Yu thinks it's fine for he himself to fight against such a person, but he doesn't want Bu Chonghua to. ;-;

Oops. I didn't mean for this to become a deeper ramble of Tunhai KMSGFKGHSJ. It's just interesting to me since Tunhai and its prequel, Poyun aka Breaking Through the Clouds, may not have what the people who prefer green flag tops want in terms of content, but its tops are technically not that much of a red flag either.

Which also get us to the kind of stories where plot can also sort of outweigh whether a top/gong is a green flag or not. Like No Arguing With Mr. Mo has two characters who struggle greatly in their relationship, with the question of "are they in love?" being an overarching issue for them, meaning it's not exactly healthy, and prevents them from being fully either green or red flags.

I also didn't bring up a lot of historical/xianxia manhua, which I'm sure some people may disagree with... Like the leads in Tianbao Fuyao Lu are arguably quite good, and while I haven't read Dinghai Fusheng Lu yet, I assume it's in a similar boat as something set in the same world.

And then there's the ones that develop into green flags... Like Mo Ran starts off awful, yes, but he does become much better later on!! But I don't think that's what those people after green flags want to hear lol. Plus I'd argue Erha is best experienced in novel (or audio drama) form over the manhua anyway—the manhua feels more like something made for established fans in my opinion.

Regardless, I hope this shows that with so many listed above, many manhua actually feature male leads who really do care for their love interests in a healthy, respectful way, whether they're 100% green flags or they develop into green flags or they're not even complete green flags. ^^

Edit: Oh I forgot to link my full list of danmei/baihe manhua recs HMSKFJSKS. I currently don’t have any summaries, tags, or content warnings in this list though, but there’s quite the range of stories!:

[solarpunkani]

*poke poke*

*nudge*

You wanna guerrilla garden some swamp milkweed around a retention pond so bad.

[ponds-of-ink]

Final Steel Wool PAX Predictions: “Of Helpy, Scraptrap, and Carrot Cake”

Okay, this is my last Steel Wool at PAX West/Freddy’s Birthday Bash prediction ramble before the actual event arrives. Mainly because I’m not entirely sure if I’ll have anything to add before then.

The rambling gets a smidge long, so I’m putting this below the cut. Happy reading..

—

I’m pretty sure about one thing, and that’s we’ll see the conclusion of Where’s Helpy? game. The last post was a cliffhanger with extra tags spelling out “SEATTLE”, and PAX West (iirc) is in Seattle. I’m going to be disappointed if it’s not.

Speaking of disappointment, I’m going to keep my hopes low and assume Helpy didn’t drag Dr. Scraptrap along for the ride. ..That is to say, we’re probably not going to get Help Wanted 2 DLC news at the event.

I know, I just made a post about the possibility of it showing up. I know I also saw on Steel Wool’s Twitter that there’s a “Dress as Your Favorite FNAF Rabbit” on September 2nd (iirc). I am fully aware that I just wrapped up a mini-saga of improvised art challenge sketches where Scraptrap gets emotionally wrecked by Helpi, and for all I know it could be another accidental prediction.

But if there is one thing I’ve also learned when predicting for FNAF stuff, it’s this: I need to assume the worst, and be very unsurprised when it happens. If I get overly hyped up for a second, then it’s not happening.

So I’m playing it safe and saying “Do not expect Dr. Scraptrap at this event”. Not even a cosplay.

Moving on…

Cassie and the whole Carrot Cake thing.

Unless I missed something, we didn’t get carrot cake on Steel Wool’s Twitter for the whole “Eight Days Of Freddy” thing. Not even a picture of an actual carrot cake from one of the developers.

So I’m still going with that part of my theory, but I’m switching up DLCs.

We might just get another chapter in Ruin, or something related to it in a book. Maybe that Escape From The Pizzaplex thing will get properly announced idk.

The point is: If there’s any rabbits that might return to relevancy, it’s Cassie’s take on Vanny. We could even get a new teaser for a new full-suit design.

���Or, y’know, the devs did celebrate with literal carrit cake and I just didn’t look at the right Twitter profiles. That’s entirely possible. If they did, please let me know so I can cross this off my list. Thank you in advance.

The last things I can think of are exclusive YouTooz drops, but what those could be idk. Maybe it’ll just be another poster or something.

TL;DR— My predictions are:

(1) Where’s Helpy will be concluded.

(2) No, “Patrick”, Help Wanted 2 DLC will not be announced. Scraptrap will not return either.

(3) Something about Cassie and/or literal carrot cake. Alternatively, we get Ruin-related news.

All in all, a pretty fun event but definitely lower key than last year. If any of these are wrong later, feel free to come back to this and type “that aged like Fizzy-Faz lol”.

[pixellangel]

an oceanic siffrin for your viewing. a seafrin if you will

[off-traveling-in-the-stars]

"raggedy man I remember you and you are LATE FOR MY WEDDING"

[thetorturedlovergirl]

You better love the women on doctor who because if not I’m fucking coming to get you.

[shadyufo]

saw a mink at the creek today!! he was playing in the water by a rocky ledge then hopped up onto the ledge and frolicked his way over to the roots of a several trees growing out of the bank. first time ive ever seen a live mink in the wild so that was really neat!

as with the otters a couple weeks ago, i unfortunately didn't have a camera or my phone with me to get any photos/video but im still so glad i got to see him just bouncing around and enjoying himself. <3

[transmasc-rose]

Amy grew up going to four psychiatrists, biting each of them. Being the strange girl imagining the strange Doctor.

Imagine what the others in her little town must think:

She must have been seeing things. Why is she so obsessed? What is wrong with her, little Amelia Pond, that she went to 4 psychiatrists and couldn't come out normal the other side?

And then there's River, who introduces her new face to the Doctor as a "psychopath". A non-medical term. A demonization of an idea. Who called her that first? Herself? Her "mother"? Some other person seeing her in her many lives?

Amy isn't high in empathy as it is. River would inherit that. Of course her "mother" moulded that into a shape convenient for her. A weapon shouldn't feel. A weapon shouldn't care. Taught not to feel sympathy.

And the Doctor at the heart of it all. The Doctor, who Amelia Pond met and befriended. Who left her. Who she never got over, who she drew and carved and told her friends about.

Who she told Mels about.

And little Melody, who was born to kill him, born to be a weapon... and who was told about him. His wonderful adventures. His blue box. The wonderful man that she and her mother stare at the sky and wish would come and save them. Hold them in his arms.

Something about How the Doctor ruins lives.

Something about how River inherits him from Amy.