#season 1 had like. very little lore and they managed to find the one good thing it had and take it away???? nah i don't fw the mask thing

[cangrellesteponme]

also. dear english speakers. y'all lied to me about this movie having one good song. they were all awful. hawkmoth's villain song was iconic i'll admit but it was BAD

I just saw the miraculous movie y'all I. nah

[mossycobbld]

Hello! I saw that you had an oc named Kaori, and I was wondering if I could hear some things about her? She looks pretty cool and I was curious ( I hope it’s okay to ask!)

hiii yes !!! i havent come up with Too much of kaoris lore, so right now its in a pretty rough place butttttt long post ahead youve been warned!!!

also pics of her for reference (i love drawing her like a soggy wet cat)

(ignore how it says half viltrumite in the last ss) heads up for inaccurate viltrumite stuff, i only know how they work from the show’s perspective

(warning AGAIN for Veryyyy long text below cut)

kaori (she/they), known as caaory on viltrum, was somewhat of a troublemaker, leading her to be chided a lot. this caused her to be very soft spoken and shy. but when her powers developed, she greatly exceeded her peers when it came to skill and strength. (though, her hearing developed too strongly that it became more of an disadvantage than a power.)

when tasked to fight to the death with her friend, she refuses strongly. this was seen as a sign of weakness and was scheduled for execution. caaory, terrified, flew away from viltrum as fast as she could.

two viltrumites go after her and find her still flying away. they use force rather than negotiation, and caaory still shaken up, kills them out of fear. mortified with her actions, she flies even faster. at the threshold of passing out, she sees the nearest planet and crash lands onto earth.

a family that was driving past sees her passed out in a crater that she left in a field. it was a young couple, their kid, ichiro, and the mom's side of grandparents. they took caaory in, and when asked for her name, she answered as "caaory", but because the name was mistaken for a similar one, the spelling changed to kaori.

it was well known to that family that she had powers, as they had to reprimand her to repress them when she used it casually as if she still lived on viltrum.

for the first two years, she never talked apart from when she told them her name. ichiro seemed to be the only one to communicate with her in a way. because of him, she was able to come out of her shell more easily and begin to talk more.

also!! repressed sibling bitterness but im not sure how to word it

BIG time skip here since i have a little more developed for her when season 1 of invincible takes place.. also kaori trying to live somewhere close to normal as she can, never really becomes a superhero. but wanting to use her powers for good, uses them very sparingly if the situation required it.

anyways around mid season 1, kaori knowing that mark is the new superhero, invincible, offers to train him. she teaches him for a while, but because at the time is time management is Ass, their training eventually stopped.

in season 2, kaori is running late to a class in college, but amber helps her catch up on the stuff she missed. they get along well, and they find out that they both know about mark. after mark and amber break up, kaori, begins to spend more time with amber to help her get through the trauma from when an*ssa threatened to kill her. they eventually start dating but im not SUPER sure how it all happens yet.

after the events of season 2, kaori tries to begin to train mark again. he agrees, wanting to be stronger. mark, frustrated with himself accidentally hurts kaori during training. apologizing profusely, she dismissed it and kept training him.

so thats all that i have for her so far!!! sorry if i made it too detailed, its hard for me to word things in simple ways for Some strange reason but i cant wait to build even more on her character!! i hope you guys like her :D

[theplatypusblue]

COMPILING ALL LEGENDS OF CHIMA SEASON 1 THOUGHTS BELOW THE READ MORE (super long post, written as I was watching)

(I can be a little mean but I promise I’m having fun lol)

Episodes 1 + 2:

Man this shits super boring.

Idk if I can get behind craggers plot line tbh. He’s too much of a dumbass for me to really root for him.

The lore seems really cool so far. I like the settings and the stuff about the legend beasts.

Like?? Forest full of trees that just fall down all the time? Epic.

Legend beasts are especially cool cuz it means this is how Chima characters react when seeing a regular ass lion for the first time:

Episode 3:

Man Laval really fucked everything up.

I have a feeling all of cragger’s dumbass-ness, like, transferred over to laval and now we’re gonna be seeing him making all the dumbass decisions

The only thing I really care about here is the b-plot about Gorzan and his flower. More engaging than the main plot

Episode 4:

Prediction about Laval replacing Cragger as the resident dumbass seems to be coming true

Gorzan is quickly becoming my favorite.

Oh hey look it’s the beavers!! I remember they show up in that one episode of ninjago. I had zero context for what they were all about then but now I know!!

Episode 5:

The gorilla tribe seems like the most chill out of everyone. Gorillas 👍

Can I just say I hate the fucking skunk. He sucks.

Honestly kind of a nothing episode

Episode 6:

Eagle spire does that cool thing where all the buildings are built on super scary precipices. There’s literally a post going around about this exact thing but I can’t find it rn

Oh so the eagles are just a bunch of nerds. A little weird I guess(?) I feel like eagles are usually symbols of strength n stuff so that’s different. It’s giving cloud kingdom.

“Wing girl” tf kinda nickname??

Apparently the ravens are double crossing everyone but I have not been paying close enough attention to what’s going on to really process that

Ok so it was all an extremely convoluted way for the crocs to get everyone to fight each other. And the ravens tried to profit but they’re kinda stupid so nothing really worked out for anyone

Episode 7:

Purble moon??? Epic

Man the bears are so epic just like me fr

Nooo don’t mess w the gorillas they’re so chill :(

I am entirely uninterested in the 100 year full moon skunk fart lore. Sorry.

It’s a little strange and maybe I’m hallucinating but I feel like the animation has has somehow gotten better?? Like the lighting or smthn…. Or the facial expressions???

Oh….. skunk fart lore is plot relevant………

Now that I’m thinking… is that the only skunk in chima?? Cuz rn it looks like just the one guy

Episode 8:

Oh it’s a big boy chi

There’s a fucking peacock?? Don’t know how to spell his name. So wait if he wins who does the chi go to?? He gets it all to himself?

Oh wait nvm it’s probably a cragger thing. Mr. Peacock comes back after retirement or w/ever in order to do some evil shit with the crocs I get it I get it

Gorzan I love you

WHO THE FUCK IS THAT GUY?? Is it a pig? A warthog??? It’s giving Mr. E vibes.

Man idk this episode is structured rlly weirdly. Nothing really fit together very well. It’s alright tho.

Episode 9:

GORILLA EPISODE?? Let’s go dude

It funny cuz I feel like gorillas aren’t actually this mellow irl

STOP FUCKING WITH THE GORILLAS CRAGGER I’LL KILL YOU

Oh hey it’s our mystery mans. Oh nevermind he left again.

There are balloon plants?? Oh yeah those are the things they were using in the other episode. Sorry I wasn’t paying attention to anything else that happened.

Episode 10:

Uhh I forgot to take notes while watching uhhh

The fox guy was cute. I like a little fox guy

This episode managed to make me feel a little bad for cragger!! He wants to do a good job but he kinda sucks at everything :(

It also made me confused abt cruller!!! What are you doing w ur life girl!!!!

Kinda messed up how the wolves had to serve the crocodiles tho… probly for the best she threw away that pledge

If Laval’s dad is right when he says they’re not gonna race for chi for a long time, I’m guessing they’re not gonna do any more racing episodes for some time. That’s fine honestly.

WAIT THAT RHINO GUY’S DYING. Oh nvm. This whole situation is cringe I hope it’s a one-off thing….

Also I forgot everyone thinks craggers parents are dead but really they’re just chilling in that canyon. Kinda funny actually

Episode 11:

Oh man the wolves are fucking everything up

“We all gotta stay here till the walls are fixed” bruh just call the beavers or smthn

Man what is the deal with this shadow wind dude.

If there’s one similarity I could point out with ninjago, it’s all this talk abt ~the balance~. I guess it makes sense since they take place in the same universe, technically

These bears are so cute lol napping does solve everything so true

Episode 12:

Jets travel super fast in the air. If they’re going through a storm Laval should totally be dead by now

Cragger is setting boundaries!! We love to see it. Cruller is acting pretty cringe. In her ~~girlfailure era~~

Is Laval gonna fall in this gorge?? Oh yeah he’s gonna fall in this gorge

Noooo Gorzans underwear is gonna tear

It’s a little sweet how Laval still wants to help out cragger

Episode 13:

I guess I’m still not super into cragger but I pity him a little. He’s trying his best but he’s just a bit stupid. And also his sister sucks ass

Okay. So she may be cringe but cruller is living her best(-ish) life.

That wolf is wearing a really cute apron

Man they were bringing up Shadow wind earlier and I thought they were gonna reveal their identity but now I’m a bit disappointed…

Laval is being peak dumbass rn I kinda like it. “The warm milk of oppression” lol

Episode 14:

“You bears think you’re so clever” bro they are literally asleep I don’t think they give a shit

I think the thing with Cragger is that I absolutely hate him when he’s under the influence of the flower thingy. He’s unlikable in a not-so-fun way, but he seems much more cute/compelling when he’s normal lol.

Oh my god they’re getting back-alley chi lmao

Oh is everyone gonna think Cragger did this on purpose. That’s sad.

This Reagle(?) guy is really silly I like his design a lot

Ohhhhh the wolves are gonna plug the fake chi and become chickens. It’s not a Cragger-might-be-evil thing. Gotchaaaa that’s cute

Seeing Cragger and Leval act like buddies again is genuinely nice they’re friends :)

Episode 15:

Eagles are based communists that live in the sky got it 👍

Cruller stop fucking with the gorillas istg.

Okay what the hell did burning the flower do. Is that like taking an inhalant

The ravens attempted to use the eagles’ based communist values against them. However, they didn’t realize that the eagles are boring as shit, and don’t “own” anything cool in the first place. Based communist eagles for the win.

Okay wait is Eris liking the rhino like. A brand new development or was it hinted at before?? It’s been a hot second since I watched the last couple episodes

Also I recognize that animation from the Ninjago season 5 finale lol

Episode 16:

Man I just hate this stupid skunk

This fog of destiny stuff is really goofy looking from the outside lmao it’s hard to take serious

So it’s like. Making them entirely delusional or something? Some of them are acting the opposite of how they usually do, but others are having like, delusions of grandeur. Idk how it works exactly

Laval there has got to be a smarter way to wake them up. You keep getting thrown into the lake…. Oh my god is the skunk gonna fart again. If that’s literally how they wake them up I’m gonna be so mad.

Oh okay thank god I was wrong.

Oh wait it randomly made cragger evil again. Man come on.

Cruller you stupid dumb idiot lmao get wrecked honestly

I hope the skunk dies like actually for real

Episode 17:

Oh shit Lavals dad also had a best friend that did shitty things and eventually grew apart from?? Damn.

Also Laval in exile time!!! Hopefully this will be cool

Eh. It’s not so cool with the skunk around

OH SHIT is the shadow wind the guy that was exiled before??? Ohhhhh

Ahhh okay Cruller backstory time. Damn girl was getting compared to her sibling straight out the egg. Didn’t even have a moment to spare there huh

Noooo Laval you just enslaved the wolves again by giving him the treaty. That was like the one cool thing cruller manages to do

Oh. I guess the exile thing literally didn’t matter at all lmao kinda underwhelming

Episode 18:

Lol so Cragger is such a dickhead now it’s even causing his stupid ominous dream to take notice

Okay so the floating mountain that gives everyone the chi also makes you on fire when you touch it. Chima world building really is epic man I gotta include random cool shit in my stories once I get around to writing stuff

This definitely feels like part of a finale lol maybe we’ll finally learn what the deal is w shadow wind

Andddddd the chi’s all fucked up now

Episode 19:

Tbh I would also be kinda mad at the lions like. They had no idea what they were doing or if it would have any negative consequences.

Man the whole thing with the wolves just kinda. Fizzled out huh? Like a few episodes ago they had ~all the chi in chima~ and now they’re all like “idk man why don’t we all just get along” lol

I love the attitude of just asking the beavers to fix the mountain. Like let’s just chuck a couple of construction workers at this malfunctioning holy site that’ll probably work

Episode 20:

I’m guessing this is the finale?? Let’s see

Laval looks so weird without his little crown thingy lol hes so square

He’s definitely not dead tho

CROCODILE LETS GOOO!!!!! EPIC!!!

OH UM. Okay well that complicates things. And there’s like a million other questions we still haven’t answered but ok. I guess all of that other stuff can wait until later????

I thought the eagle guy said chima only had 2 moons left before everything fell apart?? So they really gotta get the ball rolling on that one uhm. Oh well.

**EDIT** Last time I posted this I thought it stopped at episode 13 for some reason?? Tubi is stupid; thanks to the person who pointed out the actual episode number. I’ll probably stop here for a while, sorry it took so long to update this lol. My initial thoughts and feelings haven’t really changed all that much, so I’ll keep them as they were:

I definitely feel like it’s a show that doesn’t have super strong characters. I think it would better if the show leaned more into the world it’s created instead, if that makes sense. Maybe later the character writing will improve a little bit, and I’ll changed my tune. But!! Who knows. I’m having fun with it.

Idk when I’ll get to season 2, cuz I get super busy sometimes (I started this one a couple months ago but couldn’t finish it till now ugh) but I do want to continue watching!! Eventually!!!

[seahdalune]

template under read more + musings

TF2: so. TF2 huh. got into it last year. i kinda lost interest because of a tf2 discord server that i ended up leaving in bad terms + no content updates + i didn't do jackshit in the fandom. i made my robot oc blog but unfortunately that one died along with my fixation! oops.

Papa Louie: the ultimate killer of my tf2 fixation. the increasing amount of "Papa Louie lore is CRAZY!" videos in my recommended feed and the eventual release of Freezeria Deluxe drawing in streamers, and then Jerma, was what finally got me to crack and give the games a go. i don't regret it, because i finally joined a fandom that i actively (? the fandom's kiiiiinda dead aha;;) participate it, after like 2 years of wandering around! it kinda faltered around July~August, but after downloading Flashpoint, it came back double the force.

Scott Pilgrim: got the books for my birthday. read them. the graphic novels haunted me for a while because it was so.... different! from what i've read up to that point. i buried it into my subconciousness but the show dug it up again. i'm not thaaaat into it though. it's a background thought thing.

Good Omens: season 2 babyyyyyy, i wasn't as into it as i was in like.... 2021? i mean, back then i read like, a shitton of GO fanfics. i think that fandom is still my most bookmarked fandom within my fic folder. season 2 was great! heartbreaking even. but as i said, i already blew my steam back in like, 2021. i didn't really have Good Omens people to talk with anyways, not that i'm confident enough to find any.

Madness Combat: was around for the 2021 boom, but my fixation came back because of the Makeship plushie thing, fight meh ok. i wonder a little if they were worth it over the Papa Louie plushie when my fixation didn't last as long (it kiiiinda does sting i had to give him up? it would be nice to own official Papa Louie merch ;;) but whateves. they're in my arms. they're very cuddly. i'm getting off-point, anyways i love these freaks, love the action in the animations, i wanna play the game but at the same time i'm not sure how well i'm gonna be able to handle the guns and the killing. eh, i'll manage, i'll live. i guess i kinda stopped being fixated because like i said, nobody to talk to since i'm a little wary about the fandom... uh, i'm sure there are a lot of nice people, but i've had peeks at what arguments people have been having and that made me decide to just lurk.

AVA/AVM: my friend was watching it and they got into it, so i got curious and i looked into it as well. they're cute little ibbly babbles, those sticks. big fan of the Animator vs Animation series especially because awoo.... it advances so much in style in each episode. V and VI especially blow shit out of the water. love it. love it. didn't really bother to get into the fandom though. i didn't see a place to sit down, so i just walked through the merchant hall and moved on. i stare at the wares every now and then though.

HLVRAI: watched it recently. it's nice. not.... really enjoyable enough for me to be a full-blown fan, but whateves. i kinda don't know why that happened to be the thing that all my mutuals were obsessed with throughout 2021 but the only reason i didn't get into it either was because i didn't finish Hal-Life 1 and i wanted to get into the game blind due to hearing that it was "the best game ever that influenced the gaming industry forever". i wonder, that if i wasn't such a wuss, would i have watched HLVRAI earlier and enjoyed it more? we'll have to see with HL2VRAI. i haven't finished HL2 either btw... sigh.

[novantinuum]

top 5 side characters (from anything at all)

Oooooh side characters... that's a good question... I think I'll pick my fav side character from my most recent fandoms, one from each.

5) (Doctor Who) Missy- This incarnation of the Master is always very fun to watch, because her actress Michelle Gomez absolutely spends every second chewing the scenery clear off the walls. I also always enjoyed how they gave her a clear character arc in the seasons she appeared in- plus, it was lovely to see an incarnation of the Master who wasn't clear-cut "evil" as past ones have been, but rather Chaotic Neutral, and just in the game for the benefit of herself.

4) (The Legend of Zelda) Revali. A lot of the gaming community drags on this one, but I think there's a ton of interesting threads one can pull from what little we get of him in BotW canon that lend towards a fascinating picture of an incredibly insecure young warrior who's lashing out against someone (Link) who he sees as gaining everything he ever wanted but never working a second for it, as opposed to his hard, years-long struggle in perfecting his special flying ability. It's sad, in the end- because had he realized that Link was burdened by his own destiny and worked just as hard as he had to himself feel "deserving" of it, I bet they might've been able to find something to connect over, and became friends.

3) (The Adventure Zone) Barry Bluejeans- Goddammnit, FUCK YOU BARRY BLUEJEANS for having such a stupid ass name and making me CRY over you in just one 5 minute prologue! I really, really love this NPC... there's such a deep tragedy to his story- losing his wife and his whole found family and not even being able to remember that they're gone while in human form- and yet, every time he dies and goes back into lich form and remembers it all, still he manages to pick himself up and try again. Work harder. Work smarter. Set himself up for success each time he clones himself and returns to his human form to make his plan work. He fights tirelessly for YEARS without an ounce of thanks just because he loves his family and the world they've entered so much that he wants to make sure they'll all be safe, in the end. What a man.

2) (Gravity Falls) Fiddleford McGucket- For such an otherwise funny but unremarkable joke character back in season 1, it was amazing how the writers were ultimately able to transform him into such a tragic figure, and utilize him to give context to why the whole town literally pays no heed to any of the weirdness going on all around them. He's the sort of character who gives the show amazing re-watch energy- at this point, when I go back through the show, every single appearance he has just makes me feel incredibly sad- AND a lot of his otherwise "random" or "quirky" characteristics start to make a lot more sense. He's a man who lives in the dump, but is capable of building incredibly complex machines?" He's a literal genius mechanic who's simply gone through severe memory slippage. Said memory slippage? Self-inflicted by a memory erasing device he invented himself. Said memory erasing device? Has been used in the years since to purge the town of their memories of the supernatural. His backstory blasts open a whole new door of lore possibilities in this show. Love him.

1) (Steven Universe) Connie Connie Connie Connie Connie- Connie, my LOVE- I feel like by the end of the show she's grown into more of a main character than just a side, but that shows perhaps just HOW much wonderful development she gets throughout her journey. She grew from a timid young girl unsure of herself and her place in the world around her, to a fierce teen who has purpose, ambitions, and has a whole constellation of connections and confidants ready to cheer her on. I'm really proud of her <3

Every single time she showed up on screen for a new episode I got like, indescribably happy and went "damn this is going to be a good one," and basically every single SU reactor I've seen has had the same experience, so I think that alone shows how beloved Connie is, and how well written a character she is too. It's always great to have such a grounded presence amidst characters living in a world of fantasy.

[dastardlyobnoxious]

My time with Pathfinder: Kingmaker (P.1)

Full disclosure: I'm spoiling major stuff about Pathfinder: Kingmaker in this post, this is a recollection of my experience with Kingmaker. Both runs of mine were on easy and effortless difficulty and this will be my attempt at recounting the details of my playthroughs.  This wasn't initially written with three parts in mind, so apologies for any confusion. (Text Dump below)

In the initial run-up to my buying Kingmaker, I’d just beaten Skyrim for the first time and I was in need of a new fantasy/RPG experience. I considered quite a few games, from mass effect to Oblivion when MandaloreGamings review of Kingmaker came out. I’m a big fan of his reviews, with them often offering a window into games I’ve never heard of or never played. So, it didn’t take much convincing to dive into a game that sounded like just what I was looking for. For context though, beyond my time with Skyrim and the Fable series I had little outside experience in RPGs let alone ones with turn-based or management mechanics. Leading into my unprepared self forgetting key details of that initial review and eventually grinding my playtime in Kingmaker to a halt.   

The Start.

I want to clarify that Kingmaker is very beginner friendly, from its customizability to its encyclopedia explaining key details of the Pathfinder lore. Both of these systems kept me afloat throughout my playthroughs from my lack of knowledge of basic terms like Armor Class to stat distribution. The story especially roped me in with how engaging and fun it was to learn about this world and my companions, even the smaller things like resting dialogue gave the game this charm you don’t see often. That said, Kingmakers' gameplay was a struggle, from my avoidance of the turn-based system opting to run the game in real-time. To my complete lack of awareness when it came to enemies casting ailments like blindness, fear, or sickness. When I’d finally beaten the Stag Lord and moved on to kingdom management that was an even bigger hurdle. It felt like a system I had to appease rather than enjoy with its constant deadlines and success rates being debilitatingly low. On my first playthrough, I was consistently frustrated with myself past the Stag Lord, alongside having missed both Jubliost and Ekundayo initially. Only finding out you could miss companions when I was in desperate need of a treasurer after already having sent off the only other non-dlc/non-mercenary option. All this built-up frustration snowballed into me taking a long break and eventually giving up on my first playthrough.  

Act 1

Upon returning to the game, in October of 2022, I realized anything less than a full restart would’ve been a disservice to Kingmaker. From my memory of the story being blurry to my less-than-stellar kingdom management, I needed to sit down and commit to learning pathfinders systems within Kingmaker. And it did help, knowing the weakness and strengths of the initial enemies and being at least a bit more competent in running my kingdom led to a better overall experience. I’d only made it to the start of Season of Bloom in my first playthrough, and it led to a deeper appreciation of both the story and the initial dungeons in Troll Trouble and The Stolen Land. I’ve already name-dropped him a couple of times but the Stag Lord is iconic, he’s this faceless threat up until his confrontation, and for him to be revealed as this nut acting like someone out of the WWE is perfect. My character's alignment started as chaotic good and eventually shifted to neutral good due to my choices here, but these encounters with people like Kressle eventually siding with you against the Stag Lord or the Kobold an Mite feud in the Old Sycamore make strong first impressions. It’s very low stakes in comparison to the rest of the game but that’s what sets it apart, from my pursuit of Tartuccio to the recruitment of Jaethal. Amusement can be found almost anywhere here from the clearing of high Kobolds and Mites chilling to fighting that Worg and his gang hungry for Kobolds. 

Act 2

I wasn’t the hugest fan of Troll Trouble either time I went through it, just because of the initial difficulty spike in the form of the Swamp Witches Hut. The dreary colors and muggy feeling of the location on top of poisonous clouds and tough encounters made this into an area I always try to rush through. The same can be said for Candlemere Island, it’s a nasty ambush of electric wisps instantly downing/wounding your companions if you aren’t primed to counter their element. So, while I’m not the biggest fan of the aforementioned dungeons, the story still holds up, in both its side and main story. Candlemere Island's story of three explorers visiting the island only to find their corpses as we go up is chilling, and to have to fight the last remaining member transfixed on the location? It’s hinting at a greater curse here. That and the overarching threat of the troll and kobold king all build up this unknown puppet master. When it was revealed that the Guardian of the Bloom was the real threat, it was genuinely intimidating walking into an ambush instead of a gift. It’s an encounter that would’ve been rough with a full party let alone my physically weak player character who died multiple times before escaping. Aside from establishing the central villain, defeating Tartuk the kobold king and the beast that was Hargulkain was no easy feat. And while it would’ve been easy to dismiss or execute the former Tartuccio here and there it only made sense to me that they became a vassal of my kingdom. The trolls on the other hand were not nearly as lucky, between the general danger they posed alongside a majority of them eating humans, they were promptly kicked out of the region. Ekundayo's backstory is that his family was slaughtered by Trolls and he’s on a never-ending revenge trip. Watching his inner turmoil when faced with killing those troll children was such a profound scene for such a stoic character.

(the Lizard Folk are my favorite of the “non-civilized races” in the game, wasn’t really sure where to put this but if there's other good Pathfinder content focusing on them do tell.)  Act 3

Unlike the prior acts I had little forewarning on what was to come, Season of Bloom made a name for itself through its epidemic of animals bursting out of people. The mystery of the infection was a constant source of entertainment for me, from Tristain’s scene with Jhod debating if the disease could be extracted or not to having to appease a populace shaken up. Underlying this mad dash to find a cure was the cult of Lamashtu and the potential threat they or any other Lamashtu follower brought with people dying by the second. When I finally arrived at the cabin chasing one such follower, I wasn’t expecting a Whodunnit situation and was left pretty clueless on who exactly the Lamashtu follower was. After finally tracking and cornering their cult leader I’d spare the fools, even if I heavily questioned their practices it didn’t feel right in interfering with their chosen religion. Around then the tip-off that goblins had been interfering was revealed and it didn’t quite hit my expectations. The goblins had their moments of chaos but as genuine threats like Hargulkain they were grunts in a bigger game, their few friendly encounters at the windmill or through the goblin shopkeepers were hilarious but otherwise unremarkable the same cannot be said for Nok-Nok. His defeat of the goblin king and general quirky nature just made him super fun to be around even if I barely used him. The other companions' disgruntlement of him was honestly surprising because I never seemed to have trouble with him. While the Goblin Fort isn’t bad, it doesn’t match up to the Old Sycamore in terms of enjoyment, Nok-Nok’s moment may be strong but beyond him, this dungeon doesn’t have much going for it. After stomping the Goblin King out and finding the potential source of the bloom I was left with two choices, go back to support Jhod in the capital or support Kesten in his attempt at cutting the source of the bloom. This hurt, going into it I couldn’t have known Kesten was bound to die if I didn’t have a lawful alignment. I don’t regret going to the capital over aiding him just because of how chaotic it was on top of the Primal Owlbear being double the size of almost every other enemy in-game. And while I’d later honor Kesten by undergoing the project Jhod put in his name, it was a relief being able to stop the Guardian of the Bloom’s scheme and making that owlbear into a tavern rug. 

Act 4

I wasn’t sure how the story could one-up itself after Season of Blooms raid on the capital when the mystery of the Varnhold Vanishing began. I’d visited Varnhold a few times before the start of Act 4 and during those encounters I was often let down, without the Varnhold DLC this might as well have been a barren grassland with a shopkeep or two. So, upon receiving the message from the Swordlords about the area I didn’t expect much, maybe another power-crazed bandit lord? But no, with the guardian of the bloom confirming her lack of involvement I had no clue what I was walking into. A fog of silence lay over the town, it truly had no inhabitants, and it was a very eerie feeling pushing further and further in. A singular Raven was following me, as I came upon the band of Spriggan squatting on the corpse of Varnhold. Clearing the place wasn’t difficult and gave more questions than answers, it had been easy to assume they were behind the disappearance at first but now after defeating and letting their leader go that wasn’t the case. Only getting some answers when the Raven screamed hypocrite and openly announced it had some sort of involvement in the disappearance. Following this, I was left searching for clues with Barbarians pouring into the region on the whim of their leader and a group of Defaced sisters. Dugath was our only connection to Barbarian leadership at this point and while his gruffness might’ve put certain people off he didn’t like being dragged so far out of their homelands. After receiving the quest to find the other defaced sisters, I’d slowly come to find out what happened to the Defaced sisters and the barbarians who followed them alongside Vordaki the Cyclops necromancer. Areas like the Sepulcher of Forgotten Heroes while interesting were trap and puzzle hells for me, and while the City of Hollow Eyes would make up for this rough patch it was clearly illustrated how the Barbarians were being used as meat shields by the defaced sisters. Even going so far as to have the barbarians thrown at traps or left for dead before the Defaced sister would flee. I’d end up sparing both surviving sisters on the assumption they’d cease their violence, only to find their betrayal when I got back to Dugath’s camp. Unfortunately for them, Dugath was no fan of the sisters and their farces and turned on them instead. All this led me to the Valley of the Dead and Vordaki’s tomb, two extremely important areas I was unprepared for. First of all, I’d felt it necessary to bring Tristian along for his companion quest even if I had barely used him up to this point. He alongside Jaethal, Jubliost, Nok-Nok, Regongar, and eventually Harrim all became expert seat cushions as I stuck to my main five. With one last warning from the Raven, we entered and I could’ve made it so much easier on myself if I knew of ONE button. Using rations to heal, not just wait/skip time, as up to this point I’d never been thrown in a dungeon where I couldn’t leave. It made everything so much more intense because I didn’t know of healing/rationing in dungeons so as my main spells dried up I leaned more and more on potions and scrolls only barely making it to Vordaki in one piece. Speaking of Vordaki, he’s hands down my favorite of the villains in Kingmaker, from his appearance to his personality and his goal of invading the surrounding region. He’s the only villain in-game that isn’t a puppet of the Guardian of the Bloom and between his menacing appearance and Tristian’s last-minute betrayal, it left me dumbstruck and very intimidated, nearly losing when he finally went down. From here, freeing the souls of Varnhold was a breeze and it led to me feeling very accomplished. This was my favorite dungeon of the entire game with it being both challenging but never tedious in its encounters alongside my assumed lack of safety nets. 

Act 5

The Twice Born Warlord is mostly spent wrapping up the loose ends of Varnhold vanishing, from the role that the Defaced sisters hold in relation to the guardian of the bloom or “Nyrissa” as we come to find out. To what’ll become of Armag the barbarian leader and the traitor named Tristian. It does have interesting moments, but to me, act 5 is a stop-gap between the introduction of the kingdom of Pitax and the defeat of Vordaki. From Amiri sneaking into Armag’s camp and attempting to kill a defaced sister only to be faced with fighting Armag in a one-to-one duel (that is insanely in his favor). To the fun but rather short-lived raid on Armag’s camp with the Aldori Swordlords. Having to chase Armag into his tomb is interesting as well, between each of the trials via story books to the eventual realization that the Armag we’ve been chasing isn’t the true Armag but instead, a plant brought up by the defaced sisters and Nyrissa. I’d end up killing the fool and taking Ovinrbaane alongside the Warpainted Skull of Duthica, two items that’d make Amiri into a beast of a fighter. I’d end up helping appoint Dugath as the new chieftain as he was rather level-headed and knew it was best to return to his homeland. Finding out Tristian had been used by Nyrissa wasn’t a shock considering how much puppeteering had been done by her. What had been shocking was the fact he was a fallen angel of Sarenrae and after fighting a defaced sister the confusion that captured him seemed to break. He knew what he’d done was wrong, and now I was left to decide to banish, kill, or let him remain in my kingdom. And while he’d done a lot wrong I pitied his plight and wished for him to redeem himself in the eyes of his goddess. So, I let the fool remain even if he was now blind, I knew he’d try and make up for what he’d done. The last major thing that happens in Twice Born Warlord is the coronation, and it felt like a major accomplishment after all the fighting and working through dungeons to finally have proof that I’d made it deep into Kingmaker. And with one last confrontation at the bald hilltop the Twice Born Warlord comes to an end. 

Act Six.

The War of the River Kings is in an odd spot for me, after what’s arguably the best stretch in the game before the start of Act Six you're left with a huge countdown until the Ancient Curse attacks again. I get this sorta time is meant to be used for kingdom management but as someone who had combed the map for new spots, companion quests, etc it really was just me and the kingdom management tab for a couple of hours. Which isn’t bad, but when you are even remotely like me and failed to keep up with the leveling/training grind of kingdom management, balancing the 0% success rate advisors while trying to get them above 20% was a challenge in its own right. Only bailed out by the amount of gold I had and me realizing I could buy build points to counterbalance my own failures. When the Rushlight Tournament finally started it's the easy highlight of this chapter, it’s a cocktail of skill checks, betting on AI fights, and prizes! King Irovetti is just a jerk, and he’s probably the weakest of the antagonists in Kingmaker. Wishing to expand and grow his kingdom with an iron fist while keeping up appearances as he juggles all sorts of petty backhand behavior to discredit you. A lot of the quests here aren’t bad but not amazing, the stolen throne is probably my highlight in its absurdity, bartering with a goblin, and even as you discredit Irovetti’s attempts to bring down your kingdom it kind of bounces back to Nyrissa more than Irovetti here. From her selling him out via the Whiterose Abby and Evindra, to Linzi and the Storyteller using Nyrissa’s dreams to discover the truth about her and her plans. Irovetti is quickly left to hide in his castle after my party shows up to his capital, and embarrassingly this would mark the first time I’d used the turn/round base fighting mechanic that streamlines so much stuff and allows for SO much more experimentation. It doubles the time spent in combat, sure, but when you're fighting hordes of enemies alongside the Zottenropple twins you desperately need that buff. Speaking of the twins, they were the first of many lucky breaks for me as after loads of save scumming one of the twins had ended up polymorphing the other they’re so much worse than the fight with Irovetti. Killing Irovetti was nothing too difficult, finding clues and hints that he, like a certain wizard experimenting with trolls, had instead used an artifact he was keeping under wraps from Nyrissa. 

(Ivoretti reminds me of a taller Lord Farquad and it was so hard not seeing the parallels in his appearance and his eventual demise.) Part Two: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718622705272913920/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p2?source=share Part Three: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718899022820261888/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p3?source=share

[maybemountains]

Reasons Why Everyone Should Watch Drawtectives:

(aka - a passing thought kickstarted my brainrot for drawtectives again and i just needed to yell abt it someone else please go here with me)

(no cut bc im on mobile and sont understand how tumblr work! Apologies!)

1. If you know drawfee that should already be a sign that drawtectives is just /so fun/ and /very/ funny and chaotic and already that should be enough tbh

2. Julia has so clearly put so much care into this show and like?? the art??? everything, (especially from the new season bc that's fresher in my mind) that she'll prep and then just Not Use bc the others just ignore it??? Yall its so good and there's so much xare put into it and just-

3. It is truly one of the only shows ive ever watched that has me in tears from laughter during like, most of the episodes. Its genuinely so funny and good yall

4. Have i mentioned that i love all the PCs? Please theyre so good yall. Like i just,,,,, i live grandma and york and rose all so much theyre just /so/ good.

5. York Lore. That's it. If youve ever improvised lore for a character and then had to stick with it? That. Its so good.

5.5. Jacob starting to read smth and then going "I CANT FUCKING READ" bc he decided once that york cant read and now has to stick with it & its truly one of the funniest things ever i love it so much

6. Eugene is literally the prettiest boy ive ever seen amd also I love him and yall do you know how hard it is to get me to have brain rot over male characters???

6.5. I was never really an art person so i dont really draw HOWEVER, the Two Men i would like to get good enough to draw are Apollo Justice of Ace Attorney Fame and Eugene Drawtectives. I cannot understate how rare it is to get me attached to make characters and YET Julia has managed to do exactly that with her wonderful son

7. Have I mentioned how much effort and love goes into this show?? Genuinely, every episode I watch I'm like "god I hope Julia knows how much I adore this" like just- YALL. Its so good and so much work goes into and every episode has me in literal awe? Like,,, Do you ever watch a show and it leaves you with the feeling of like, if you werent terrified of the internet/people that you would find a way to @ the creator(s) and just tell them how much you love their show bc it makes you happy and it has you going feral every new episode and you just want them to know that their effort and work on the show is extremely appreciated? Yeah, Drawtectives makes me feel that literally every episode.

8. Jancy!! I love her. I miss her. Drawtectives is worth to watch just for her tbh

9. Have I mentioned that the PCs are all basically in a qpr/relationship/something and that theyve all adopted Eugene as their son yet? yall i dunno how to describe it but it's good shit. They're best friends and they're in love and I love them & will absolutely die on this hill okay? They're a FAMILY and I love them

10. I am not someone who rewatches media easily. I have considered rewatching drawtectives more than once.

11. I keep coming back to this but yall its the amount of work and effort put into this show that really gets me. Bc its like, its like watching an actual play, so already y'know there's work going in there. But then you have the fact that this isnt just dnd and a podcast or dnd and its recorded with cameras like there's art and assets and the mouths are animated to move and the faces change and- like there's little animations done to match the vibe visually and its so good and i can only imagine it takes like forever and it's just. I keep coming back to the work that goes into it bc thats genuinely part of what i appreciate? Like its a good show and i love it and I'd love it regardless, but theres smth abt all the effort that goes into it that just makes me more *gently holds* abt the show, yk?

Just,,,, yall this show is so fun and it makes me happy and i have had so much brainrot for the show recently like very "I'll have one passing thought and think abt it again" and i just,,,, it's so good. I need more people to go here so i can subject people to my stupid headcanons more often,,, please,,,

(also! If it sweetens the deal at all, drawtectives s2 (current ongoing season) can be watched without s1! you may miss a couple of references here and there but thats abt it!)

[caligulalotus]

ok so after everything that’s been talked about with blaseball and ao3 and all that i’ve decided i’m going to post links to all of my favorite blaseball fics so that they can become other people’s favorite blaseball fics and the authors can get some love. there is not a particular order to this, just as they come to mind and as i find them, though i did try to group them a little based on tone. key word is try. i don’t know if everyone here has tumblr’s so i will just be leaving their ao3 user. if your fic is here hi i love your work.

roots by marquis-roots is just under 40k words about the boston flowers (mostly) and the hellmouth sunbeams (partially) during the expansion era, told through the eyes of margorito nava and xer sister, nagomi nava. it is truly such a good read and for all of the sadness that it has, because, well, discipline era, it has so many happy moments and is overall really amazing.

pick your punishment by AgentO-a what if scenario following the spies in the wake of the pods winning the hall stars fight. it has screenshots from this hypothetical blaseball universe. everything about the world created in this fic is horrifying in a perfectly blaseball way and i highly recommend it.

good grief by waveriden-30k words about lenny marijuana, younger sister to dominic and randall marijuana. this is the lenny characterization, i love it truly so much and this fic is exactly why. it covers her from seasons 1-10 and tells you all the lore you need to know about her whole deal. it’s excellently written and each character feels so human in a tragic way.

la vie en rose by waveridden-a much happier fic than the others i’ve recommended thus far, so never mind about trying to sort by tone, i suppose. the lovers are holding a big offseason bash and are preparing in a perfectly-lovers fashion. it’s so cute and it’s all good vibes, check it out if you want a smile.

cards fall where they may by Novelsinourheads-i actually recommend reading this one on itch.io instead of ao3, but the ao3 has the link to the itch page in it so pick whichever you like. it’s an interactive twine anthology about blaseball, with three paths. one about morrow doyle, a second about peanutiul duffy, and a third about gerund pantheocide. morrow’s chapter literally knocked the breath out of me a few times, i highly recommend even if you know nothing about the three in question because you will care about them afterwards.

dust she does not raise by baliset-this is not a full fic, nor is it on ao3, but no restrictions here folks. do you ever think about how for one season silvaire roadhouse and jaylen hotdogfingers batted back to back and silvaire, newly debted, didn’t kill anyone? here is the ficlet to make you think about it more.

the life and death of kiki familia series by cydnakip-this is one i only just read because i knew that i had to include something of their’s here to i went to their ao3 and found a series i’d managed to miss. it’s a great series, covering all of kiki’s short life and death. they get the bittersweet victory of the hall stars so perfectly right.

the most peculiar day of your life by baliset-this is a found document fic about the short circuit crabs when there were two of them at once and it broke everything. they steal a baby god, it’s great. this is the fic that really sold me on found document fics, they’re such an interesting way to present a story and it’s done really well here.

polkadot patterson enters the vault by kosmosxipo-a fic about the hypothetical where the vault swap blessing from season 23 switches york and polkadot. it’s a great fic and if i can make any of you care about dot and alto by getting you to read this fic than i will say i have succeeded.

12 funerals of mike townsend by crabmoney3-a 12x100 about mike townsend, funerals, and death. another fic that really sold me on a format i hadn’t seen before blaseball. a very solid fic about grief and death that i really really love. it’s quick and sweet and if you don’t have much time it’s one of the shortest fics on the list so please check it out.

dying to live by marquis-i just read this one last night and it actually one shot me. a fic about lenny and five interactions before she died. everything about lenny marijuana’s death makes me so sad and this fic hits every mark about just why it hurts so much. it’s really great.

ruby bloomsday by marquis-another tumblr fic, from back during blasetober. it’s about the hypothetical where the flowers resurrected caligula lotus rather than the garages resurrecting jaylen hotdogfingers and it’s SO good. blink’s cali is always so good but this is absolutely my favorite example. i have a reblog of it sitting in my drafts because i can’t bookmark it like an ao3 fic but i wanna be able to easily reread it anyways.

ok i think that is all for now, however i just know there’s fics i’ve missed or ones that i have yet to read so i will try and update this/reblog it with new editions sometimes because blaseball writers deserve to have all of their work read and loved. please feel free to reblog with your own favorites/your own work!

[arashikitten]

Dark Danny Should’ve Come Back at Least Once

I think most of the Phandom can agree that The Ultimate Enemy was one of the best Danny Phantom episodes ever made, and for good reason. It was incredibly dark of a kid’s cartoon, especially one made by Bitch Hartman, and on top of that, it provided some very interesting lore and characters. We get to see Danny pushed to his absolute emotional limit in a way that I don’t think the show ever did before, save maybe for My Brother’s Keeper in season 1, and we get our first glimpse at Clockwork, who thanks to @five-rivers fanfic Mortified, has become one of my favorite DP characters. And of course, we get to see Dark Danny, or Dan.

But there’s one little thing about this episode that’s always bothered me: the very ending.

Because at the very end of TUE, we get a shot of the Fenton thermos that Dan is sealed away in rocking back and forth, before Dan’s face forms a massive dent in the side, his laughter echoing as the screen fades to the end credits.

You would think, with an ending like that, that Dan would come back in a later episode. That he would return in the series finale is this last big bad, this final demon for Danny to confront once and for all. 

But that’s not what happens. And it kinda pisses me off.

Dan should’ve come back. We should have gotten at least one more episode with this guy, exploring more of his character, more of his side of the story, anything at all. And you know what would be a great way to do this?

Vlad.

Imagine this, if you will.

Dan makes his escape from Clockwork’s lair, dead set on finishing what he started. Eventually, he discovers Vlad’s portal (let’s say that Vlad decided to rebuild his here) and, upon coming face to face with the man who made him like this in the first place, freaks out. Dan makes an attempt on Vlad’s life, and Vlad just barely manages to escape.

Once Vlad is sure this strange new ghost won’t find him so easily, he realizes that this new ghost had Danny’s insignia on his chest, and puts it together that Danny must be involved in this somehow. 

So Vlad makes his way to Amity Park to confront Danny about this new ghost. Danny assumes that Vlad is there to try to kill Jack or whatever, the two get into a massive fistfight, before Vlad finally tells Danny that he’s only here because a strange new ghost wearing Danny’s insignia popped out of his portal this morning attempting to kill him a second time.

And Danny freezes. He goes from snarky and flippant to sheer, raw terror that has Vlad actually worried. Danny demands to know what this new ghost looks like, and Vlad’s concern turns to fear when Danny’s face goes white with horror because this is the same kid who went up against Pariah Dark without a second thought, who has faced countless ghosts who’s powers could be considered godly with a fearless smile on his face, and Vlad may not have much respect for Danny but he knows what the kid lacks in intelligence he more than makes up for in bravery. 

Meaning that whoever this new ghost is must be incredibly powerful, incredibly horrific, and incredibly dangerous.

Danny tells Vlad to go to Danny’s house and tell them to put the ghost shields surrounding the town up, to not try anything funny, and don’t. Leave. The Shields. No matter what.

For once, Vlad decides to take Danny’s lead. He appears on the Fenton’s doorstep, Armani suit ruffled and hair disheveled, telling them that there is a very powerful ghost making it’s way toward Amity Park and they need to put the ghost shields up now, or risk a Pariah Dark-level threat again. 

Then Vlad makes his way toward the edge of town, because he still hasn’t gotten an answer from Danny as to who exactly that ghost was, and he’ll be damned if he can’t get an answer.

Meanwhile, Danny is just outside the ghost shields, waiting for Dan to arrive. He’s absolutely terrified, because what if Danny isn’t strong enough this time? What if he fails again, like he almost did before Clockwork turned back time? Would Clockwork do that for him again? Would he have to watch his future burn down this present that he’s taken so long to keep up?

Then Dan arrives. Right as Vlad makes it to the edge of the shield. 

And Vlad watches with awe as the two fight. He watches as Danny holds his own against this ghost that had almost decimated Vlad barely 2 hours prior, watches as Danny outmaneuvers, outsmarts this menace, watches as Danny fights tooth and nail in a way that Vlad is sure he’s never seen before, and he realizes that Danny has been holding back. Maybe not at first, maybe not during those first few months, but definitely for a while now, because Danny is holding his own now when Vlad couldn’t.

But then that leaves the question as to why? Why is Danny going all out now? Why was he so scared of this new ghost? More importantly, when did Danny encounter this guy? 

Because he had to have fought this ghost at least once before, to have had that reaction to Vlad’s description. 

And then, he hears the other ghost’s voice, one that sounds like a strange mixture of his and Danny’s, and he hears him say “It doesn’t matter what you do, Danny. You might’ve stopped that explosion, but there are still so many other things that lead to me. A car crash, an unlucky ghost attack, the ecto-filtrator, Vlad getting lucky, all of them could still happen. Your friends, your family, all gone, and you still turn into me.”

And suddenly, everything makes sense. That ghost that Danny’s fighting, that ghost that attacked Vlad, that is Danny, or it was, before something twisted him into an unrecognizable monster, and Vlad has a creeping suspicion that it has something to do with him.  And he realizes that Danny is so much more than he ever gave him credit for. He sees Danny, fighting his own future with a hope that Vlad would call naive if not for the fact that Danny had already thwarted whatever horrible future lead to this at least once before, and he understands that he was wrong about Danny.

Because this? Fighting against the personification of all the worst parts of yourself not once, but at least twice? It would require a maturity, a strength of will that Vlad knows he himself lacks, and he comes to the stunning realization that for all the childish quips and petty pranks, Danny is far more mature than Vlad ever was, far stronger than Vlad ever was.

And then, Danny does the ghostly wail.

And if Vlad was surprised before, then he's absolutely terrified now. That’s enough power to destroy an entire city, that single wail, and the sound is a bone-chilling scream that rubs the older halfa wrong in every way possible because that sound should not come from someone as young as Danny.

And now Vlad is caught between two realizations: that Danny is so much stronger than Vlad could ever be in every sense of the word, and that the only reason Danny is that strong is because he has to be, because he’s a child being forced to go against all manner of ghostly and cosmic horror all on his own, and Vlad suddenly feels intensely guilty because he should’ve been helping Danny, and instead he’s done nothing but make his life harder.

At that point, Jack and Maddie arrive. They freak out because Vlad is so close to Phantom and this other extremely powerful ghost, what the hell is he thinking!? And Vlad is trying desperately to get them to leave, because Danny looks exhausted and Vlad might be an ass, but he’s starting his redemption arc now and that means making sure Danny’s secret, and by extension Danny himself, is safe from his parents. Vlad knows what it’s like to be on an examination table, knows how terrifying it is to have doctors looming over you with knives and bright lights while you have no idea what’s going on, and he’ll be damned if he lets Danny (who he again reminds himself is very much still a child) go through that with his own parents.

But it’s too late. Danny detransforms right there on the street, in full view of Jack and Maddie and everyone else who’s gathered there (Dan’s been sucked back in the thermos at this point).

Danny turns around, covered in scratches and burns and bruises, blood in his mouth from where Dan punched him in the lip, left arm hanging in an unnatural angle, and he sees everyone: He sees Vlad, icy blue eyes so similar to Danny’s own filled with uncharacteristic worry.

He sees Sam and Tucker, both with wide, scared eyes, and he can just barely see the faint shimmer of tears gathering in their eyes.

He sees Jazz, face pale and her knuckles white as she grips the Fenton peeler with all her strength.

He sees Valerie, her helmet down and exposing a flurry of emotions ranging from shock to anger to horror to pain.

He sees his mom and dad, clinging to each other as they stare at Danny, at their son, and come to the realization that their son is dead, their son is a ghost and he has been for a while now and how did they never notice? How could they not notice that they had been shooting at their own son for at least a year now, that their boy had been putting his afterlife on the line for them while also trying to keep up with school, and evade capture by the GIW, all at the same time?

And Danny is scared, he’s so scared, because his parents look horrified of him and they think he’s a monster, and they hate him, because why else would they be looking at him like that?

He feels his fathers arms wrapping around him and he’s sure, he’s so sure that they’re about to haul him off to their lab to be pinned down and dissected by his own parents, because they saw Dan, they saw what he would become, they saw what he is now, they know now. But then his mom and dad start apologizing, because they never noticed, and they should’ve, they should’ve seen that Danny’s low grades and missed curfews and skipped classes were because he was putting his life on the line for everyone in this town over and over and over again. They apologize for not making him feel safe in his own house, because how many times did they rant about dissecting their own son right in front of him? How many times had Jack and Maddie shown Danny a dissected blob ghost and effectively told him that he was the next one on the list? How much hell did their own son have to go through on his own, because his own parents couldn’t see what was right there?

And Danny finally realizes that no, he’s not going to end up on a dissection table, that his parents do accept him as he is now. 

But there’s still this lingering fear because they don’t know. They don’t know what Danny might turn into, and he can’t keep that from them anymore, because Dan is a secret he can’t keep anymore.

Jack and Maddie are confused when their son pulls away, and for a moment they’re worried that Danny’s upset with them, that he’s angry at them, because why wouldn’t he be?

Then they see this nervousness, they see how he’s shaking and tense, and they might not always be able to read the room that well but they can tell that there’s something else going on here that Danny wants to tell them, even if he’s scared to.

So Jack and Maddie ask Danny if he wants to talk about whatever it is back at the house, and Danny says yes, but Vlad, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz should also be there, because Danny needs some level of support and he knows that Vlad won’t stop pestering him about Dan until he tells him.

Valerie steps in at this point, finally getting over her shock to demand to know what the hells going on, was Danny Phantom the whole time? Who was that other ghost? Why did that other ghost say that Danny would turn into him?

Sam and Tucker, who have been through the emotional wringer watching their best friend fight his evil future self, then reveal his identity to his parents, are kinda pissed at Valerie, because Danny’s already stressed out enough as is, she doesn’t need to be adding on to it. A fight almost breaks out between the three of them, which only stopped when Vlad of all people, steps in saying that while Valerie does have a right to know what’s going on, all of this yelling will do nothing but cause problems.

The three simmer down, and they all head over to the Fenton’s house, where Danny tells them everything: the portal, Pariah Dark (Vlad suddenly finds a particularly interesting spot on the floor), and Dan. He tells them about how Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker died in an explosion in that timeline, how that timeline’s Danny turned to Vlad to take him in, how Alt!Danny asked Vlad to remove his human half so he wouldn’t feel that pain anymore. How Alt!Phantom had been driven insane by the separation (he leaves out the part where Phantom fuses with Vlad’s ghost half: he’s not sure Vlad wants him to tell them about his halfa status), killing his human half before destroying most of humanity. How Danny had been forced to fight Dan a year ago, when he had attempted to blow up his friends in family in this timeline to ensure Dan’s recreation here.

When he’s finally done, about an hour and a half later, Danny looks around the room: at Valerie, at Vlad, at his best friends, at his sister, at his parents, and he sees not only acceptance, but respect. Pride. Because they saw that Danny was willing to look his fate in the eye, and say that he would change it no matter what. They saw him fight tooth and nail to protect them, they saw him defend them from his own demons with a bravery most grown adults don’t have, much less a 14 year old boy.

And they accept him.

[obeyme-kaidii]

Lesson 46 Summary

The adventures continue as MC learns more about Beel.

**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT**

In the morning, everyone meets Little D Number 2 outside, and he agrees to show them the way to the Casino where Mammon is supposed to be. Number 2 teases Beel about how tired he is, suggesting he had “quite a fun night”, which annoys Lucifer.

Once at the Casino, the group immediately runs into Mammon (who is wearing his Arabian outfit). He seems to thoroughly be enjoying himself within the video game and playing his role, and moves to snatch Lucifer. Just like in a video game, a message pops up announcing his entrance, and then Mammon proceeds to cast a spell.

As Lucifer gets taken, MC remembers Beel and uses their powers to cast a spell that strengthens Beel, causing him to shift into his demon form. Beel comments that his body seems to be moving on its own, and soon he’s canceled out Mammon’s spell. A powerful blast of wind then knocks Mammon backwards.

Beel then returns to his regular form, and asks MC if they did that. Solomon explains that yes, that was a result of MC learning to control Beel’s power. But he also explains that MC hasn’t figured out all of Beel’s power, so the test continues.

Lucifer thanks MC for rescuing him, and then turns his sights on Mammon. Mammon starts to panic a little, and begs for mercy.

The group returns to Number 2, and he thanks them for their help getting his money back from the “Greedy Monster”. As a reward, he gives them Beel’s Lord of Flies armor set at a discounted price. After Beel equips the new armor, Number 2 informs them that there’s a rumor “Demon Lord Satan” has attacked a nearby town.

As they journey towards Satan’s rumored location, Lucifer mentions he’s looking forward to returning to his normal size just so he can punish Mammon. Beel comments that Lucifer used to be nicer to Mammon back when they were in the Celestial Realm, but Lucifer insists he doesn’t remember what he’s talking about. Beel doesn’t believe him though, and brings up that Lucifer and Mammon often used to work together to argue with Raphael (who it seems to be being positioned as the Big Bad for this Season, IMO).

Solomon asks if it was Diavolo’s influence that caused Lucifer to become more rigid. He also points out that since they started as angels, becoming demons of such high status had to be hard. (Which is actually pretty interesting because up until now we’ve mostly been operating on the assumption that Diavolo immediately gave them their positions as Avatars after the fall. But it now sounds like they had to earn the right for those titles.) Beel however seems surprised to hear that that might be the case, and Lucifer once again pretends he’s forgotten.

Solomon then hears a noise that everyone first assumes might be Beel’s stomach, but they soon realize it’s a group of ghosts. At which point Solomon recalls overhearing some towns folk talking about these woods, and he just forgot to mention it, which annoys both Beel and Lucifer.

After running from the ghosts, the group takes safety next to a lake that seems to be protected by some sort of guardian spirit. The decision is then made that they should camp there for the night.

Some time later, MC wakes up and finds Beel already awake. MC is given the opportunity to join him and the two talk, careful not to wake Solomon or Lucifer. Beel tells MC he was thinking about what was discussed earlier - and how Lucifer isn’t the only one who is different. He admits that as an angel he didn’t use to constantly eat back then. He says that he doesn’t remember exactly what triggered the change, but one day he just stopped resisting. (which is pretty interesting, if you think about it, and opens up a whole host of theories and possibilities lore wise 🧐)

Beel also mentions that there are some things that are the same, such as the fact his brothers have always been part of his life and will continue to be. ❤️🥺❤️ Beel then admits to MC that he’s worried about fighting Belphie in the game, and doesn’t think that he’ll be able to protect them and Lucifer if that’s the case. MC is given the option of comforting Beel, who admits that he’s pretty lucky, all things considered, to have a “problem” like not knowing who to protect first because he loves so many people.

The following morning, everyone wakes up and prepares to leave. Beel mentions that he’s glad they weren’t attacked while they slept, and Solomon teases him about his late night “activities” which makes poor Beel blush, and annoys Lucifer.

Once the group starts traveling again, Lucifer points out that it’s been over 24hrs now so Solomon should turn him back. But Solomon is quick to point out since they are in a video game, it’s actually only been a couple hours in the real world, so Lucifer has to continue to stay as he is.

Beel then notices a treasure chest in the road and Solomon immediately suggests opening it. Even if MC urges him to be cautious and warns it might be a trap, he still insists that opening it is the best course of action (how is this man not dead yet???). While Solomon, MC, and Lucifer are discussing what to do about the chest, Beel opens it hoping to find food. Instead, there are 3 objects inside - a magical jar that protects the contents, healing herbs, and a pair of cat ears. (lolololol) Beel suggests putting Lucifer in the bottle and Lucifer glares at him. Beel then looks like a kicked puppy. 🥺

The sky suddenly darkens and Satan appears, explaining that opening the chest triggered the battle. Like Mammon, he too is very much enjoying himself and his time in the video game. Beel and Solomon are both quick to recognize that Satan’s appearance isn’t good, because when things like this happen in video games, you’re almost always forced to lose the battle for the sake of story progression.

Lucifer then turns to MC and tells them to use one of the items from the treasure chest. (Using the Cat Ears I think generates the most entertaining response.) Regardless of what option you choose, Lucifer still ends up in the enchanted bottle and Satan captures him, leaving Belphie behind to deal with everyone else. (yes, Belphie just pops up out of nowhere)

Belphie, however, isn’t too thrilled by this whole thing and complains about Satan. When Beel hesitates to fight Belphie, it’s Belphie who encourages him that it’ll be alright. Because 1) it’s a video game and 2) he’s much stronger now and doesn’t need to be protected. Beel has a moment of realization and turns to MC, letting them know he is confident he can protect them now and won’t hold back anymore, choosing instead to trust them completely.

MC then casts a spell to empower Beel, causing him to once again shift into his demon form, and Belphie is quickly defeated. Impressed by MC’s power, Belphie is eager to switch sides and join their party. All he wants is a chance to poke mini Lucifer, to which MC agrees. Beel and Solomon also admit to wanting to poke Lucifer. 😂 Solomon then suggests they spend the night at a nearby inn.

Meanwhile, Mammon and Levi are talking at Demon Lord Satan’s Castle. Levi is saying Mammon is no longer part of the game because he was too easily defeated, which makes Mammon sad. (Because he’s a geek and just wants to be included 🥺)

As the two bicker, Satan arrives with mini Lucifer, still trapped in the bottle. Both are very excited about seeing mini Lucifer, with Levi even calling him cute. Mammon then suggests that now is the perfect time to get revenge for all the evil stuff Lucifer has done to him over the centuries.

Like the time that he tied him up and tickled him until he cried while he hung from the ceiling.

(wait, what? THATS the worst he’s ever done?)

Levi also chimes in with a memory of one time Lucifer was truly horrible to him and refused to sign for a package that was being delivered by Akuzon, instead returning the item for a refund. 😱

(...may I present to you the Demon Lords of Hell...the most powerful beings in all the Devildom…)

Lucifer reminds Levi, Mammon, and Satan that he is going to punish them for whatever they do to him when he’s small, once he returns to his normal size. Satan then moves to take Lucifer out of the bottle, but the spell on the bottle prevents him from doing so. Levi makes an offhand remark about Lucifer essentially being a collectible figure, which gives Satan an idea.

Satan then proceeds to dress Lucifer up in various outfits using his magic (all his outfits from the events), and Mammon and Levi are both surprised that that is his idea of fun. But Levi points out that Satan is clearly enjoying this and it’s actually like his way of bonding with Lucifer (because clearly admitting to his true feelings would be the worst possible thing).

That evening, Beel, Belphie, Solomon, and MC enjoy dinner at the inn before retiring to their rooms. Solomon has managed to book two separate rooms tonight, which Belphie points out he did just so he could share a room with MC all by himself.

Later that night, MC wakes up to find that Solomon is still awake. When MC asks him what’s wrong, he admits that he was watching the twins earlier and was jealous about the deep relationship they had with one another. He laments the fact that even though he’s lived for centuries he doesn’t have someone like that in his life. If MC asks him about it, he admits that he thought he once had such a person but perhaps the feeling wasn’t mutual. 🥺 (my theory is this is the apprentice mentioned in Lesson 45, the one that founded the Sorcerer’s Society)

After thinking for a moment, Solomon then looks at MC and points out that this scene is another common one in RPG games, where important story points are told. He asks MC if they think that’s what’s going to happen tonight, and MC is given the option of kissing him. (which OMG was the sweetest most heartbreaking kiss scene and goddammit I think I’m now a simp for Solomon) Solomon admits that he didn’t think he ever had a chance with MC since the Brothers are always around them. He then asks MC to come a little closer (and presumably kisses them again).

The next day, Solomon is in a very good mood (I guess finally kissing the person you’ve spent over 2 years pining for will do that to a guy). Belphie is quick to realize why Solomon is in such a good mood, and starts to make the same joke that was made before (about having “fun”), but gives up, leaving Beel slightly confused. Solomon then asks Belphie how they are supposed to get to Satan’s castle, and Belphie says that’s easy - he just uses a spell to summon a portal and BAM they are there.

Beel points out if they had just used the portal last night, they wouldn’t have had to stay at the inn. And Belphie explains that yeah that’s true, but then “fun things” wouldn’t have been able to happen. The comment makes Solomon laugh as he agrees that that wouldn’t have been good at all if they had used the portal and avoided the inn. Poor Beel is still confused. (and is it just me or is Belphie acting like Solomon’s wingman…?)

The group then hears raised voices, and finds Satan taunting Lucifer, who is still in the bottle and now dressed in his wolf outfit. Satan gives the bottle containing Lucifer a little shake, making Lucifer feel nauseated.

MC then is given the opportunity to tell Satan to stop, and Lucifer is embarrassed at being seen as he is (and probably relieved too). Satan asks MC if they are sure they’re ready to battle him, since they skipped a lot of the game by using Belphie’s portal, and might not be strong enough to defeat him.

MC is able to talk to Satan, explaining to him that they value his relationship with his own brothers more than the test, and convincing Satan to let Lucifer go. Beel also chimes in, telling Satan that he knows how much he cares for Lucifer, even if he’s afraid to say it. He also turns to Lucifer and tells him that he needs to be more honest with Satan. Satan is a bit embarrassed by everything being said, but Lucifer lets him know that he never said Satan wasn’t his own demon, or that he wasn't great, so he isn’t sure why he seems to think that’s how Lucifer feels. (which is as close to an apology and compliment as we are probably going to get with this emotionally constipated lot)

Satan decides to accept Lucifer’s “olive branch” and returns Lucifer to MC (by tossing him lol). Once Lucifer is again safe, Beel asks if that means they have beat the game, and wonders what the point of it all was. Solomon then reveals himself to be the true Final Boss, and the one behind the entire thing.

Solomon explains that while he is very impressed with MC and how well they did defeating their opponents thus far, that the test was actually about unlocking Beel’s full potential, which they have not yet done. So, he’s going to give his “adorable apprentice” one last chance to prove themselves.

He then summons Asmo, who complains about how bored he’s been waiting for his turn to join everyone in the game. Solomon uses his powers to strengthen Asmo, who then turns to Beel and the battle begins. Asmo uses his “Charm” to paralyze Beel, but when MC calls for him, Beel breaks the charm. MC casts their own spell, empowering Beel, and he attacks Asmo in return. Asmo is absolutely shocked at how powerful Beel is now. Solomon, even though he’s losing, is very impressed by MC and the power they’ve been able to draw out of Beel. He ignores Asmo’s pleas for help, and MC wins the battle.

(NOTE - in the previous Summary, I blamed Simeon for alerting the brothers. Since it’s actually Solomon that planned the whole thing from the beginning, I guess I kinda have to make a note of that to be fair. But like...I still don’t like Simeon anymore soooo...)

Finally back in the real world, Lucifer (now his normal size), MC, and Beel are enjoying a quiet moment on the back patio near the pool. MC shows Lucifer and Beel their star that they earned from the test.

Screams are then heard coming from inside (presumably Levi and Mammon), and Beel asks if anyone hears anything, which Lucifer denies (he totally hears them). As Lucifer continues to relax, enjoying his wonderful evening, a flashback is shown to dinner time -

Mammon is sobbing, when Solomon comments on how wonderful it is that he must be enjoying his cooking so much that it’s moved him to tears. Solomon encourages Levi to have some more, but it seems he’s passed out already, so he offers the extra portion to Satan instead. Asmo complains about why he has to be there, and when Satan realizes that Belphie is missing, Asmo is impressed with him for having managed to escape. Solomon then makes a comment that he thinks Lucifer is a really nice guy because he didn’t punish him like he thought he would, but instead invited him to stay for dinner and let him do the cooking. (which...damn Luci 😂)

Back in the present, Beel and MC take a walk while Lucifer enjoys the distant sounds of his brother's “screams of agony”.

Beel tells MC that he’s glad he had the opportunity to go through that experience and strengthen his bond with MC. He says the star MC earned is proof of how close they are, and then asks MC if they remember when he gave them his own star at the end of Season 2. He promises to treasure the star, and shares a kiss with MC, telling them once again that he loves them.

Beel then mentions that he feels like he’s forgetting about someone, but decides it’s not important. (hint: it’s Diavolo. They’ve forgotten about Diavolo.)

Favorite Scenes -

It’s a trap!

The power of cats

Geeky Mammon

True evil

Lonely Solomon

Solomon kisses

Emotional manipulation

Lucifer’s revenge

Aren’t we forgetting something...?

[finaledenialist]

Okay, your tags on The Empty Post have showed up in my notes and I have to ask. Tell me more. Tell me it all. All of the feelings and thoughts about that scene because what I’ve seen so far? Absolute perfection and I agree wholeheartedly.

Thank you! Okay I basically unloaded most of my thoughts in my tags here but let’s go through this one more time. I may add: this was already said a thousand times by better meta writers than me 3 years ago when season 13 was actually airing. And I will ramble a little about Purgatory, too. Now with that out of the way: 

The Empty. Canonically it is a being, a living immortal being that rules the place or an ‘anti-place’ where angels and demons go are sent to when they die to dream of their regrets forever (this sounds awful and like a punishment for dying despite being immortal, for getting themselves killed or something). Also: the Empty was there before Creation, the Nothingness before Darkness and before Light. 

Okay. But let’s see what other things the Empty represents: lack of anything. Complete nothingness that Cas got sucked into (by Lucifer but also by helping the Winchesters). Now we know that Cas‘I am afraid I might kill myself’tiel had his issues, right (I still can’t believe that we are praising 8x08 thee Hunteri Heroici for being a filler episode with Cas - which is awesome, don’t get me wrong - but we all keep forgetting what he actually did say to Dean there!!! Dean says: are you afraid the angels will kill you if you show up in Heaven? And Cas looks straight into his eyes and says: After all I’ve done, when I see Heaven, I am afraid I might kill myself).

Please remember that it’s not only Dean, Mr. ‘Purgatory was pure’. Cas, after all he did in season 6, after his death in s7, after coming back and being literally haunted by everything he’s done, must have felt that Purgatory was liberating, too. It was some kind of an Alternative Universe where he didn’t have to face the consequences of his actions. He was free of them. It was literally his escape AND additionally it was (well, according to good old christian lore, maybe not specifically spn lore) a place where you are supposed to atone for your sins so there must have been the feeling of atoning, of making things right without actually doing anything specific, where having to survive and not get eaten by the Leviathans was his main problem (= surviving was just enough, nothing was asked of him), which, compared to all he’s done, wasn’t that hard or difficult. He found himself running away from Leviathans which could mirror running away from consequences of his actions - but it was Purgatory, it was at the same time atoning for what he did. It was EASY.

Cas basically confirms that he officially stayed in Purgatory because he didn’t think he deserved to go back to Earth and that is true but what he doesn’t say is: ‘Purgatory was pure and easy and kill or be killed and no other worries than that, no thinking, no real responsibilities which actually was a nice escape from the real world after all I did and been through in the past 3 years’. He wanted out, he wanted an easy choice. Okay, maybe he wasn’t actively looking for an easy way out but when it presented itself - when they appeared in Purgatory - he took it like a gift. We’re talking about a character who spent all his life following orders, who finally broke free and found himself completely lost in the freedom of choices, directionless and maybe wanted an escape. He must have felt overwhelmed but all this freedom (which he basically confirms in 6x20 freedom is a length of rope and god wants you to hang yourself with it). I COMPLETELY understand that choice to escape. 

So in seasons 8-12 Cas has a lot of stuff going on in his head, he gets lobotomized for most of season 8, he is hurt and tortured and treated like shit for most of season 9 and 10 and he ultimately gives himself up to Lucifer in s11 and then he almost dies in 12x12 and he never really got to talk about all of this or work this things out with anyone because Sam or Dean are not really the most talkative guys and Dean in 10x09 basically tells Cas to ‘let it go and not think about it’ which is a shitty advice to someone who suffers from some mental issues if I am being honest (this is like. ur depressed? oh go for a run and smile and stop being sad!!! kind of advice if you ask me). So these issues only grow and grow and start eating him up and please remember that at the very same time Cas is falling in love. I said it previously but I think the moment he realizes what he really feels is 12x12 when he is dying. In that moment he is able to name this feeling but it’s of course covered by: ‘I love you. I love all of you’. 

Now in season 12 he finally gets a proper arc with Kelly (god bless her, honestly, she and Cas had one of the most healthy relationships ever portrayed on tv and it wasn’t even romantic, I could go off about this but it’s getting really long anyway). So he kind of is on his way to find a purpose again - Dean is saved (from hell, from Michael, from the Mark), so he focuses on Kelly and unborn Jack and maybe in his relationship with her he rediscovers love (not necessarily romantic but he sees how she loves Jack) and he does all he can to protect her from basically everyone including the Winchesters. And he promises he will take care of Jack and then. Then he is killed by Lucifer (shattered at the altar of Winchester because he gets involved in the Apocalypse World because of them while having built something for himself with Kelly and Jack BUT still not having properly processed all his previous trauma). 

Okay, so fast forward: Cas is woken up by Jack in the Empty. He is of course confused and stuff (we still don’t know what was he dreaming about all this time he spent there now that we know this is a place where angels and demons dream about their mistakes and regrets <- fanfiction gap #1). He wakes up, he is ‘greeted’ by the Empty and one of the first things he says is that he has to go back because Sam and Dean need him. 

This is his first, automatic thought - I (probably) don’t want to go back, but Sam and Dean need me so I have to, I don’t want to go back for myself because I never wanted to since Purgatory but I know I have to. He doesn’t even think about Jack in this moment. I... maybe it is a stretch but I sense a kind of fear in these words. It’s like he thinks: ‘if I had the chance to come back and chose not to come back from selfish reasons then if the Winchesters ever find out about this they will be angry at me’. But I might be reading too much into this, but on the other hand Jesus fucking Christ this is precisely what happened in Purgatory. He chose to stay although he had a chance to return and the effect was Dean being mad at him. Talk about trauma--

Then the Empty (who was in Cas’ mind) voices his biggest fears: 

'I know who you love, I know what you fear. There is nothing for you back there. Wouldn't you rather be a fond memory than a constant festering disappointment?'

There is a lot to unpack here because this is the Empty’s (who, as stated at the beginning can be read as a manifestation of not only death but also Cas’ depression and self-worth issues) reaction to Cas saying that Sam and Dean need him. She says: uh oh you’re wrong<3 I know who you love, what you fear, the is nothing there for you, sweetie. Essentially: they don’t need you. No one needs you or wants you there. They are better off without you. Wouldn’t you rather be a fond memory (of actually being useful as in: saving Dean from hell, helping to stop the Apocalypse, helping to fight the Leviathans) than a disappointment (failing powers, makes mistake after a mistake, chooses to protect the unborn Antichrist rather than killing him before he’s born - and not to make this whole thing worse but this is what Dean has the audacity to say to Cas in 15x03: why if something goes wrong it always seem to be you).

I will now allow myself for some privacy, because I am a person who dealt with these kind of thoughts in my head for years, these are straight up suicidal thoughts: no one needs you, no one wants you, you are a disappointment and if you die you will be fondly remembered, everyone is better off without you. And we know Cas was suicidal because he literally tells us in 8x08 and we have no proof that he somehow got rid of these thoughts, ever. If anything, they were always there, present, if not growing. Thoughts like that don’t just disappear. Please remember one more time what was happening to Cas in seasons 8-11. He wasn’t healing. He was getting worse, while all this time managing to keep his head above water for someone else, while the guilt was rising and rising. 

If the Empty represents all his issues: depression, suicidal thoughts, guilt, self-hate, lack of self-worth, and what she offers is: eternal sleep. Maybe not entirely peaceful sleep, but sleep nevertheless, no consequences, no facing your fears, no dealing with anything, an escape, sleep - 

And she prompts him to stop fighting, to go back to sleep because there is nothing to fight for (now the symbolism of him being waken up by JACK who was his new found purpose just before he got killed), but she makes a mistake to confront his thoughts and fears with him. She makes a mistake of taking a ‘physical’ form, putting on his face and voice his fears. And Cas is a warrior and he kind of hates himself, so his instinct was to fight. Of course it was easier not to think about all of these stuff at all, to push it back, to try to forget. But once he was forced to face all of these? He fought back. AND HE WON!!!!! 

WHAT A MESSAGE TO SEND RIGHT?!!! You might have all these issues and not want to face them because you feel you will crush under them but look: when you are forced to face them it turns out you are somehow way stronger than them!!! The moment you choose to fight you already won, you are already saved!!! Because ultimately these are your thoughts and this is your mind and you control it, no one else! The moment you decide, you choose, to take control: you win. You are saved because you chose to save yourself because you decided you are worth saving. And the Empty (and everything she represents) immediately gets angry and lets him go, ultimately annoyed because he dared to defy her and she just can’t win with someone who decides he wants to be free. WHAT. 👏🏻  A.  👏🏻 WONDERFUL. 👏🏻  MESSAGE.  👏🏻

So... Having said all that. There is only one thing left: I have NO IDEA. NO IDEA. HOW HE FOUND THE STRENGTH. TO STAND UP AND SAY THIS:

I'm already saved. You can prance and you can preen and you can scream and yell and remind me of my failings but somehow, I'm awake. And I will stay awake and I will keep you awake until we both go insane. I will fight you. Fight you and fight you for... ever. For eternity.

A FUCKING ICON. STRONGEST CHARACTER EVER. YOUR FAVE COULD NEVER--

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Sonic X Theory: the other Ultimate Lifeforms

In Sonic X’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, they make an interesting claim about the Ultimate Lifeform prototypes on the ARK. When Rouge hacks into the base, she informs Shadow of one thing- he wasn’t the only prototype from Project Shadow that escaped the ARK massacre. 

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X: one of Rouge looking up Project Shadow, surprised and reading “Shadow? Secure and dispose?” Another shot of two escape pods falling towards a planet, with the caption from a GUN soldier: “Our mission ended when we sealed away the prototype of the ultimate lifeform.” End ID.] 

Rouge makes the claim that neither of these escape pods was Shadow... so in X Canon, is Shadow even who he thinks he is? And just as importantly... who are the other prototypes? 

Full theory under the cut. 

So first off. Let’s look at Rouge’s claim that Shadow isn’t who he thinks he is.

Part One: Is Shadow from the ARK?

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X of Rouge and Shadow talking, with the following dialogue:

Rouge: This is the progress report for Project Shadow, a plan to create the ultimate life form. The body they created is still held there.

Shadow: I know. That’s a prototype. I’m the Ultimate Lifeform they created afterwards- 

Rouge: Two capsules were ejected when the ARK was shut down. But neither was found. They couldn’t lock up in prison what they couldn’t find. Do you understand? I wonder who you really are.

Shadow looks troubled. End ID.] 

So two capsules were ejected and neither was found in the fifty years it’s been since the accident-- except I think Rouge is wrong about one thing. Shadow is who he thinks he is- because his capsule was sent out alone. It must have somehow not been logged. 

How do we know this? Shadow’s flashback of being sent away and the man who worked for GUN are completely different- first of all, the GUN soldier doesn’t remember her saying anything to Shadow, or Shadow even being there- it seems that she died to send away something or someone else. Second- Maria is in a different position around the lever in both flashbacks. See the GUN soldier’s first-- 

Though we don’t see the full room, we get the sense that it’s small from the other shots that I don’t have the time to screenshot. She’s around an elevated platform not attached to a wall, and either facing the pod she’s sending away or in a completely different room. 

But, both of Shadow’s alternate memories of Maria sending him away-- the first one more stylized, the second one we can assume more real-- neither looks like this. 

In both, she’s in a differing position. In the sepia flashback, she’s not facing him, and pulling a lever attached to a wall. In the second flashback, she’s already on the floor, and the lever pad we see would cause her to be facing away from Shadow. In neither of these do we see any evidence that anyone other than Shadow and Maria are in the room or even nearby. 

Shadow also has enough evidence he’s who he thinks he is- he has the right powerset, the GUN soldier says that they did, indeed, seal away an Ultimate Prototype, Gerald mentions Shadow enough in his monologues, and... honestly there’s really no evidence that he isn’t Shadow, other than the two pods. And two pods? Shadow was sent out alone, we saw no evidence of a second pod in either flashback. So he wasn’t with anyone else. 

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is that these are two different events- one where Maria releases Shadow, and one where she releases another- or, possibly, the others, the two pods that were logged as escaping. 

Maria either freed Shadow first and then the other two, or she freed the first two, got shot, and then managed to survive long enough to send Shadow away. Either way-- these events are separate.  

So what was in the other two pods? Two other prototypes of the Ultimate Lifeform, clearly, but nothing like the Biolizard, they’re too small. 

Now let me ask you something... wouldn’t it make sense for the Ultimate Prototypes to look similar, if they were similar lifeforms? 

And who do we know who looks similar to Shadow? 

Part Two: Sonic is an Ultimate Lifeform

[ID: Shadow looking down at Sonic, and saying, “I see. We actually do look alike. It’s like looking in a mirror.” End ID.] 

Okay so like. Unless you’re very colorblind I think you’ve noticed that Shadow and Sonic are completely different colors. But let’s ignore that for now-- they do have a very similar silhouette... in fact, Shadow’s silhouette is incredibly close to SuperSonic, which is Sonic at full power. And in-universe, they look similar enough that in low lighting pretty much nobody can tell them apart. 

And not just that- Sonic has a lot of power for a seemingly “normal” mobian. [Yes, I know they don’t use the term “Mobius” in Sonic X but let me simplify this somehow.] His superspeed, ability to survive so much shit... he’s powerful enough that he presents a rival for Shadow without chaos emeralds (though Shadow is nerfed a little by the Inhibitor Rings- more on that later). 

[ID: Sonic and Shadow racing; they are keeping up with each other. Shadow says, “It seems your appearance isn’t the only thing that’s similar to me. Who are you?” Sonic responds, “I’m me.” End ID.] 

Shadow’s right- their appearance isn’t where the resemblance stops. And of course there’s probably the most damning similarity-- they are the only two characters we see go Super and have the ability to control the Chaos Emeralds.

[ID: First image is SuperSonic and SuperShadow, having absorbed the power of the chaos emeralds. Second image is from the Third Season, where a MetaRex shouts, “There are two individuals [referring to Sonic and Shadow] who can draw out the power of the Chaos Emeralds?” End ID.] 

Oh and SPEAKING OF Sonic/Shadow similarities-- there’s a scene in Season Three where Sonic is being lectured by the villain about how all life ends eventually so why bother etc. and Sonic says that life is worth the good bits, all that jazz. Here’s the scene:

And exactly 1:25 in.... guess what starts playing

This song is scarily similar to “Recollection of the Ark”... Shadow’s sad song about his memories of the ARK... while Sonic is being lectured about still having faith in humanity. You know. Like MARIA WANTED.

Interesting how we know absolutely nothing about Sonic’s past, huh-- pretty much all we have before he meets Tails is that he says he’s fifteen years old, but honestly... are we even sure about that? First of all, if Sonic was revived alone, there wouldn’t be a way to tell his age, he’d probably just accept the first age someone assigned him. 

Alternatively, we know from the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three that time works in a very wonky way from Earth to Mobius- in the ~2-3 days Sonic’s alone with Chris, a week passes on Mobius, despite the fact we know he can chaos control at any time. In the third season? Six years pass on Earth while six months pass on Mobius. So time doesn’t really work in a reasonable way, meaning it’s possible that Sonic is fifteen... and he lived fifteen years on Mobius after awakening, while fifty years passed on Earth. 

And we know for a fact that travel between Mobius and Earth was possible even before the events of Season One... because Eggman was born on Earth.

[ID: Eggman looking shocked and turning around in a chair, announcing, “I was born in this world!” End ID.]

Eggman was born on Earth and somehow ended up on Mobius-- but he was young enough he didn’t realize until he saw that Gerald lived on Earth. So was he in the second escape pod? It’s possible, but I don’t think so-- he’d have to have information on Gerald, and it seems he had a picture of Gerald and Maria, so it’s likely he traveled with a parent or guardian, or at least some kind of family history, which I doubt Maria would think to store in an escape pod while everyone was running for their lives. This plot element was probably just to set up that travel between the dimensions happens more than we think. 

Neither escape pod from the ARK was recovered, probably because they ended up on Mobius. 

It’s most likely that they Chaos Controlled into the other dimension-- I know I said Maria probably wouldn’t think to store anything other than the lifeform themselves in the pod, but if the lifeform needed Chaos Emeralds to practice/control their powers, or the Chaos Emeralds were already stored in an escape pod for safekeeping-- or if, possibly, GUN was attempting to capture the Chaos Emeralds as well, and the Robotniks knew that they would use them in a destructive way-- all that combined could mean that the emeralds would also be important enough to send away in a pod. 

If even one of the pods had Chaos Emeralds, it’s possible that the lifeform inside could have sensed danger and unconsciously teleported them to the most safe place from GUN-- another world where GUN didn’t exist and couldn’t reach them. And even better-- a world where mobians like them lived. 

From Sonic X lore that I don’t have the time to find and screencap, we know that the two worlds used to be the same but split at some point in history. If this was after, say, the events of Chaos destroying the Echidnas-- which, sidenote, interesting how they disappear and nobody knows where they went, so it’s possible that Chaos straight-up split the dimensions just to get rid of the Echidnas-- then enough of their lore could remain. Old cave paintings, wall carvings, etc., could show enough mobians that scientists could probably think “oh, wow, that looks like a god figure. might as well design our ultimate lifeform after that, esp since they had this god that could control chaos and the chaos emeralds came from here.” 

Wanna know what’s interesting about those ancient echidna temples? Guess who’s there-- if we go by Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a game that ofc had been released by the time X was being written...

SuperSonic. 

Both the ultimate form of Sonic, and the silhouette of Shadow. 

So let’s say they find this on the ARK studies, and they’re like “okay so our ultimate lifeform goal is a hedgehog. Got it.” There’s two options after this:

They make Sonic, but deem him a failure for reasons and cryo-freeze him until they need him or can release him. They then proceed to make Shadow, who they believe actually is their ultimate lifeform. 

They made Shadow first, but after a while kept experimenting and making more prototypes, just in case, or possibly because they decided Shadow wasn’t powerful enough. However, the prototypes weren’t ready to awaken before the ARK massacre, Shadow never met them. 

So as I’ve made clear, I’m pretty sure that one of those prototypes was Sonic-- who, of course, has no idea. Either he only entered consciousness after arriving in Mobius, or his memories of the ARK were so vague, traumatic, early, or a combo, that his mind blocked them out. Either way, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he and Shadow are both prototypes, which is what gives Sonic his power. 

And Sonic’s power, btw, isn’t limited like Shadow’s. Because he doesn’t have inhibitor rings. 

If prototype!Sonic was sent away with inhibitor rings, he ditched them. Which would make sense, especially if he woke up with no memory of the ARK and didn’t know why these weird bracelets were on his arm. He would notice that the rings slowed him down and ditch them fast. And that’s assuming they even stuck rings on the prototype. 

But if we do assume they stuck rings on the prototypes... maybe we can find the other lifeform that was sent away along with Sonic. 

Part Three: Who is the Third Ultimate Lifeform?

Okay. Let’s do a headcount. 

Who, in Sonic X, 

Existed on Mobius at the same time as Sonic, 

Doesn’t appear to have a lot of power but has a lot of incredible strength if you pay attention, 

Sometimes shows strange abilities, such as far leaps into the air, a speed great enough that they can sometimes catch up to Sonic (though not as great, possibly because of the inhibition), even potentially the ability to summon weapons out of thin air, 

Looks similar to the Mobian Hedgehog-- or, perhaps, with influences from a Mobian Echidna, who were the ones who had the SuperSonic glyphs in the first place, and thus could potentially serve as a design point, 

Wears rings around their wrists at all times?

[ID: Amy Rose being absurdly powerful in several screencaps, often glowing; though this is normal anime expressionwork, it is something that exclusively happens to Amy in Sonic X. End iD.]

And, of course, this beauteous moment: 

[ID: A scene from the season two finale of Sonic X. Eggman’s ship, on which Amy’s hammer is stuck, is high above her, and Eggman taunts “It doesn’t matter if you’re angry because your hammer is stuck up here!” In the following image, a moving gif, Amy summons a hammer out of thin air, a puff of smoke coming from it, as she is still glowing with a fire-like energy. Eggman’s robots shout “She has another one! How many does she have?” End ID.]

That’s right! This was all an excuse to spout out my “Amy Rose could kill God” propaganda! But it’s not propaganda if I’m right!

Part Four: The Lifeforms

So. It’s been a couple months since I made this post, but I was rewatching Sonic X with my sister, and we did notice that you do see prototype lifeforms for a flash in the GUN soldier’s story.

[ID: Screenshots from Sonic X; The GUN soldier narrates his story, as we see GUN soldiers arresting scientists, while standing in front of empty tubes of bubbling green liquid. The caption reads, “There were many rumors about ARK. Such as doing research for eternal life or creating the Ultimate Life Form.” The GUN soldier steps to a tube that has something in it. End ID.]

We see a brief flash of an experimental lifeform in this memory, as seen above; we also see two more, the ones that were explicitly stated to be the ones Maria was freeing.

[ID: Screenshots from later in the same episode of Sonic X, the first showing two tubes with dark figures inside, surrounded by dark blue bubbling water. The next screenshot shows Maria preparing to free them, with the captions reading “An experimental life form? She’s planning to free it!” End ID.]

So, these silhouettes. Let’s uh. Let’s take a look at those huh

Now, the bodies are too thick to be standard mobian bodies- but we can also see wires attached to the prototypes, as well as, you know, whatever that liquid is. It’s entirely possible there’s something wrapped around their bodies, to keep them safe/asleep/etc.

But..... ok so I might be reaching here but analyzing the face silhouettes, using red lines to mark quills and green to mark potential laid-back ears, it really could be long-quilled sonic and short-quilled Amy.

As well as this, in the shot of the GUN soldier looking at a prototype, I swear I can see a mobian ear.

tl;dr this is all fascinating me and I think we should let the Sonic X crew return to making this show as if they never left so that we can get answers to this

[shiningjoy]

so i’ve finally watched s3 of free! and i wanted to put my thoughts in about it and hopefully also get some ppl to reply (respectfully) with their own input? also sorry if my knowledge of free seems spotty or incomplete since i don’t obviously have all free lore burned into my head so pls inform or correct me on anything i’m missing!

anyways before even watching s3, i noticed it was pretty widespread that s3 was rather disappointing or at least fell short to s1&2. and not only that, but i could see that s3 was likely going to be a bit disappointing just bc of how many less ppl were interested in it or even knew about it (ofc popularity=/=good but i doubted that the loss in numbers was just bc time had passed) sadly, the season actually exceeded my expectations of the worst.

first of all, i think way too many characters were introduced without any need of them being there. ofc not all of them seemed worthless to being there, but i think at least half of them didn’t have a need of being there (or at least didn’t need to appear as much as they did) or they could’ve at least waited to introduce them. don’t get me wrong, i loved characters like isuzu and albert, but with how little they appeared or added to the plot, i don’t think they were necessary at all. they introduced so many characters and kind of tried to forcefully endear them to us but it just seemed really shallow and random. i was really uninterested in the new iwatobi hs sc tbh (i love rei and nagisa, but i just don’t feel anything for the new members tho it was funny how the new manager is interested in fat instead of muscles) i don’t think isuzu was worth introducing, but i do get why they introduced albert at least. he was supposed to serve as their first rival introduced strictly from the professional world, and to emphasize there are many people above them not just in japan but the “world stage” but i definitely think they could’ve waited on that until the free 2021 movie tbh. plus i felt that any conflict he brought to haru was resolved within 1 maybe 2 episodes so yea they definitely didn’t really need him bc he hasn’t had much impact (yet) if anything, they could’ve just had him briefly appear at that training camp haru was at to race him and beat him to remind him that he still has a long way to go to get to the top. but all other appearances of albert were so extra and unnecessarily emphasized how inhumanely talented he was (the arcade scene, the thing with the chopsticks,etc) it just felt like really weak foreshadowing

also, the main conflict in s3 was just way too prolonged and solved unsatisfactorily. first of all, i don’t know why the blame seemed to be shifted by ikuya and hiyori almost solely to haru, like yes he was the one who quit first but it wasn’t an attack specifically to ikuya and the rest of them left too, so they should’ve held more grudges on haru makoto and asahi rather than just haru (or if anything at least have more blame on asahi bc makoto at least talked to ikuya beforehand) like did he just forget asahi also made a promise to not move away? honestly from the content they gave us, i’d argue that asahi and ikuya were actually closer than how ikuya and haru were, since i feel like most of the latter relationship was based on ikuya admiring harus swimming.

second of all, hiyori was another character i found so unnecessary and just weirdly protective over ikuya. he repeatedly gets in the way between them and ikuya when ikuya never said he didn’t want to talk to them (and it’s not like talking to them is gonna give him a health relapse) and so he just seemed to be there to prolong the conflict between them which was irritating. not even natsuya, ikuya’s actual brother, was that obsessive over him so i really don’t get hiyori. even sousuke, who was actually friends with rin before haru and the others were was not that possessive over rin, and there was actually pretty good reasoning why he had a grudge against haru (he didn’t see haru taking swimming as seriously as rin and thought that would cause him to hold back rin who looked up to haru, and was jealous that haru who had the talent to swim the world stage with rin wasn’t taking advantage of it when sousuke wanted to but couldnt bc of his injury) and like what right did he have to say to haru that his swimming hurts others when it didn’t even affect ikuya negatively (instead it inspired him and led to him wanting to swim like haru) like how haru originally thought it did to rin and how it did to asahi in high speed 2?

third of all, like i said before the way they solved the conflict between ikuya and the rest made little sense. like yes harus swimming is magical but i don’t get how swimming IM with him could instantly solve all the problems between them. (ik that it was based on the promise they made to race each other but i’ll get into that part and how shallow it felt later) if anything, i think what would’ve been more impactful was something happening to ikuya that made him realize that he can/should rely on/trust others, (maybe a more serious accident?) and enjoy swimming with a team and not just alone since his personal conflict was that he thought swimming alone was better than swimming with others when actually he was lonely (at least it was in starting days). and that wouldn’t even have to be with haru and the others that he learns that lesson. it could be with his own university team and hiyori, which would give hiyori a much better purpose of being there. (or they could’ve just not had him exist) if they were so inclined to have closure between ikuya and the other boys by having them resolve ikuyas personal conflict, i feel like it should’ve been at least haru AND asahi (maybe even makoto too but idk how thatd work when he’s no longer competing) racing him in the same race (if not them doing a relay but i guess they didn’t want to make it too obvious than they already were that they were just recycling the plot of s1 (lol)) if anything i think they could’ve even waited for them to reconcile while they were on the olympic team, but ig kyoani didn’t want to wait that long to reintroduce ikuya and wanted to use s3 to warm ppl up to the idea of ikuya being on the olympic team which they didn’t do very well considering how bad the development was

also what was with ikuya saying he swims his own way while obviously taking sm inspiration fron the way haru swam? it was so contradictory and even as kids haru told ikuya to swim his own way when ikuya told him that he wanted to be like haru and he understood that obviously but didn’t apply that to his actions at all? and i’m surprised haru was ok with ikuya blatantly copying him when i vaguely rmb that he’s been shown to get annoyed with even makoto when he seemed to be doing that?

another fault in having all these characters was that haru’s actual personality seemed to be taken away for the sake of these characters.

they wanted to establish a deeper relationship between ikuya and haru, but it just seemed so off the way they went about it in free! haru promising ikuya to race him just felt so ooc to me and had little emotional impact tbh bc of the lack of reasoning i felt haru had to agree to such a thing besides him promising ikuya that just bc he asked rather than bc he actually wanted to race ikuya. (while it took rin weeks to get haru to warm up to him and then agree to the relay, and seeing the process of haru getting used to the idea then openly enjoying swimming with the others was really touching) i think they just added that to make harus quitting have more impact on ikuya but i don’t think it was necessary at all when they already made plans with the rest to swim the relay again and win. if they wanted to make it seem like ikuya and haru had more of a one on one relationship with each other they should’ve gone into more about how haru saw the same darkness in ikuya that he did in himself like in high speed 2. make them bond over their similarities since i’m pretty sure ikuyas purpose as a character is to give haru a rival that is like how sousuke is to rin is; which is being rivals while being two of the same person. (in contrast to haru and rin who are very different and are rivals that inspire each other) but the way they try to establish the relationship between ikuya and haru pales sm in comparison to sousuke and rin that it’s a bit laughable, even more so in those occasional moments where they try to act like ikuya can measure up to rin’s impact on haru

another much more obvious event where haru’s character is forced to act ooc for the sake of the establishment of another character is with albert. yes, haru has grown a lot from the beginning of the series and has gotten a lot more open, expressive, and friendly, but that’s mostly just to the friends around him, but that’s not even to all of them (he still seems to find kisumi irritating and in TYM tries to leave at the sight of him lol) so him noticing, randomly approaching a stranger he doesn’t know a single thing about to help them order food and then even going far as to have lunch with him was the most blatantly ooc thing in the season. i think he may be polite enough to help him order his food but i don’t get why he even noticed albert in the first place. they should’ve just left him noticing albert to be at the practice race. like i said that scene was just there to emphasize albert’s skill with the chopstick thing but i think saying he was the world record holder and also being way ahead of haru in the race was already enough

besides haru’s character, another character i felt they did wrong was makoto. besides the plot of s1 being recycled, s3 makoto seemed to just repeat the development he went through in s2. by the end of s2, he already establishes that he wants to coach swimmers. and at the end of s3 he comes to that same realization but acts like it’s something completely new to him introduced by nao that he never thought of before?? the only difference was that he said in s2 he wanted to help kids realize how great swimming is, which was sweet and suited his personality, but in s3 he says he wants to do it for athletes on the world stage. tbh i like either way, and the latter one would help him be able to stand with rin and haru who in s2 he was afraid of being left behind by (hence why he swam the free against haru in s2) but saying that being an olympic trainer can also help him inspire kids and show them swimming is fun makes no sense. choose a path you want for the character already and make it consistent does he want to help athletes in the world stage or does he want to help kids fall in love with swimming? bc i doubt any kids pay attention to the coach or trainers in the olympics rather than the actual athletes so that reasoning like i said didn’t make sense.

and after haru lost what i think was the 200m (?) free at the All Japan Invitational, i found it weird that they had makoto there after to talk with haru and rin about the race? idk to me it just feels like it’s tradition for it to end up just being rin and haru talking when they’re struggling with swimming (in s1 was their fight in front of the tree that looked like the one by their elementary, in s2 it was the australia trip) his presence didn’t even feel necessary either, he just randomly interrupted the moment by saying his future plans after haru had that angst yell lol. it felt like just an appeal to mh shippers which is not a good enough reason at all

the last point i can remember at the moment is that the ending was so underwhelming. i don’t understand why they couldn’t have shown the ending to rin and harus 100m free race when the movie trailer already confirms that they’re going to the olympics. why cut to albert watching them on the tv?? all this build up to not even show the results of it? I think this ending really just confirmed that s3 was so unnecessary and just there to warm ppl up to the olympic movie but not actually give us anything good or plot moving

anyways sorry for this dump. besides all these criticisms, i want to say there were parts of it that i enjoyed, i just didn’t go into it bc this post is already so long, and me bagging on ikuya was not hate; i actually like him and the only time i teared up in s3 was in his race with natsuya lol. i’m afraid that at some parts i may have not expressed my thoughts exactly so please don’t be too harsh if you engage, but i’d love to hear other ppl’s analysis of s3 and the characters as well !!

[starrysupercell]

UwU the rest of the outline at per request. @lumpy-veev (still unfinished but it's okay! This should be thought of as a rough draft.) 💙

🦝 "RaR 3" or "Breaking Point" 🐍

It would be an unofficial Brawl, which is not allowed, but it happens, and what can you even do?

I see the two as basically ignoring each other's presence upon finding out that the other is there. Of course, as much as they won't admit it, it's making them think of. Everything.

This leads to even more on edge tense atmosphere whenever they would cross each other's path, because even if it’s a big park, you can only avoid someone for so long, especially when you happen to have common associates. (the Coworkers, Tara, etc.)

It doesn’t help they have growing animosity and take every little thing personally for every interaction.. and it’s only been a month or two.

Rumors begin to pick up around the park-- Just a little chatter at the bar. Just a little observation that those two sure have something between them huh? The gossiper is shushed, because did you forget who runs the place? his connection to Byron?

Luckily, the bartender didn’t seem to hear. He was busy cleaning glasses. The topic’s changed. customers continue to come and go.

One who arrives is Piper, who sits down at the bar. It’s busy, so she waits patiently for Barley to get her usual. (he’s good at that.) He sets down a coaster and the glass in front of her, but instead of a greeting and bustling away this time, he sticks around.

“Byron is well on his way to becoming a topic of interest around here...” he tells her.

She leans forward with a smile. “What have they said? And who, for that case?”

He explains what he heard, and omits the names.

Piper thoughtfully considers this. She had noticed this, but hadn’t chalked it up to a personal history, just conflict of interest. (byron was well off, belle was a thief. he would be cautious) Now that she knew, she wanted every drop of intel.

“I can talk to him. we wouldn’t want our dear coworker being talked about, do we?”

“I do not.” Barley replied, tipping his hat to bid her goodbye as he steps away to another client. He lets Piper take care of this, because he likes letting people come to him if they want to talk, and he feels that Byron would have already approached him if that were the case.

~

So, it’s another one of their patented teatime tête-à-têtes.

Piper skirts around the issue before dropping the news of whispers about the two.

But Byron doesn’t humor the topic, and refuses to talk about it.

Piper cheerfully pokes at him. “Crossed paths? Did you know her before the Park? maybe previous business associates? She robbed you, but you had good insurance, and one day she tricked you? Ooh~ Former flames-?"

And then Byron stands up and is about to leave wordlessly until that last suggestion processes bc if he doesn’t clarify now, ugh that’s gonna be what Piper thinks is plausible (kind of, bc he gay af) and he does NOT want that to be a thing.

“She’s a relative,” he says with so much distaste before he leaves that Piper is even more intrigued. but at the same time, there’s something that tells her she shouldn’t fan the fire any further.

they’ve had their share of back and forths, and it’s been a blue moon since something had gotten him so upset that he just up and leaves.

she drops it, and as the #1 gossipmonger of the park, the hushed whispers of “mystery between byron and belle?” is completely stamped out with a dismissive attitude and several “Really? I didn’t notice anything.”

If Byron really and truly didn't want this around the park, she'd honor that.

~

Of course, with QD Edgar on occasional trips with the Gang, that’s the biggest connection the sibs have at the moment.

The first time Edgar name dropped Byron, Belle froze and listened to 2.47 more seconds of the teen's rambles before telling him to get a move on around camp and quit yapping.

Edgar didn't notice this first time around and grumpily went about his way.

But I'm sure there's one thing or another that makes Edgar talk about his dad manager again, and one thing that will really piss Belle off, is comparison.

Tara, who notices the shift in mood, puts herself in between Edgar and Belle and swiftly soothes things over. She suggests getting on with the plan they have (already knowing what Belle will respond with).

"heist cancelled," Belle states, rearing up Elodie and galloping away from camp. (She usually winds down on her own after celebrating a big heist, but never before-- and never had called it quits at that.)

Edgar is put off. Tara muses that it's nothing he could help...

On her own, Belle just contemplates everything. Hours. It brings up familiar memories of being up on the rooftop with her head buried into her arms and knees feeling terrible.

Except now she's more than grown, with her share of things to be proud of and great memories she forged on her own. She's not curled up on herself anymore. She's staring to the long distance of the desert-- her home-- traveling with ease.

That stupid rooftop section of her life is nothing more than a fraction of her well-lived life.

It doesn't make her feel better.

Yet another thing Byron ruins for her without even trying.

She needed a drink.

~

Not wanting to head back to her camp for the night, and not in the mood to try nabbing some good drink, Belle simply walks into the bar and orders something.

Barley treats her the same as any Brawler, despite what he now knows about her.

As far as he was concerned, she came in there as a customer. And as long as she paid, he saw no problem in serving her...

She drinks quietly, and he keeps an eye on her intake.

And eventually, just like with any other customer with something heavy on their mind and enough drinks, words flow easier.

She doesnt use names, and keeps terms vague. Speaks angrily of her parents. Calls the brother a "dumbass of a pushover."

Now, it isnt like he associates Byron as a (pardon his french) 'dumbass' in any way, but it's the way she uses it that makes Barley connect the dots. The tone wasn't as bitter. Almost fond. Almost.

He lightly prods for a little bit more insight, and she gives up a little more as she drinks.

Unlike the other two members of his Trio, it wasn't in his nature to gossip, so this would stay between them.

Barley listens, because that's what she needs right now. Not advice, not interjections or lectures or deflecting the subject. Just someone to listen.

Eventually he cuts her off before she gets too inebriated (and probably causes trouble.)

{I AM going to write this scene out in depth. And cry while doing so.}

~

On the other side, after the season and back at the Gift Shop, Edgar is 🤔🤔 over that incident. He considers talking with Colette but 1) she's as mad as a Colette could be at the fact that he hung out with the NEW BRAWLER and TARA and didnt bother getting her ANYTHING. and 2) tbh she's a blabbermouth.

Byron does his regular check of the shop that day. Making sure Colette hasn't run off and Edgar isnt sneaking a nap.

He welcomes Edgar back from his little trivial loot and shoot games.

While Edgar hadn't even thought twice about it before, he recalls that when he had told Byron he'd be working at a different section of the park (namely with the new Brawler, Belle) he had acted just as dismissive.

Like yeah, there was your usual "old man doesn't get the teens" shenanigans, but Byron had never belittled his interest in anything before. Calling his involvement in the season a 'trivial game' sounded... personal.

He outright asks Colette if Byron was acting weird.

Any snippiness that Colette may have had for 2 minutes diminishes when there's a chance to talk with her favorite person in the world that she's seen little to none of for two months, AND about her favorite topic: Brawlers!

She spills everything she knows, because despite Piper's efforts, theres no secret a Brawler can try to keep when shes around.

She didn't find out everything of course. But she knows that there were questions involving Byron and Belle. Piper hushed it up, so for sure there was something.

Edgar nods. "Totally. I think she was close to rippin' my head off once. I brought up Byron once and she was ready to chew me out." (in case i didn't make it clear, Edgar picked up a slight drawl because of belle)

"Cool!" Colette exclaimed. "..I mean, not the rip your head off part. But that is cool too. I meant do we have lore on our hands?? That nobody ELSE knows!!?"

Edgar shushed her. Byron is in his office but the shop wasn't really sound proof.

......cue shenanigans from the Coworkers trying to figure things out in their very amateurish ways compared to Piper by "sneaking" around and "nonchalantly" trying to get him to admit something.

Byron knows they're up to something, and humors them until realizing the topic when Edgar tries bringing up the Goldarm Season.

He shuts them down even faster than Piper.

Of course, instead of deterring them like her, he just confirms their suspicions. Colette and Edgar are "o yeah we are def going to get to the bottom of this."

~

So, it's plan B! If they even try asking Piper she throws them for such a loop and leaves them so bewildered that Colette even forgets to ask for anything she could keep, and Edgar didnt realize she gave them nothing to work with until they're already out the door and down the street with cake pops in their hands.

So, Plan C! ...Barley.

It's hard to find a time to go there, since it's busy when they get off work. And Barley always seems to be at one place or another....

So the kids choose the perfect time (roughly midday), and just wait for the perfect day... when Byron comes in and checks the shop, then decides on his own that they could handle it for the rest of the shift and leaves them to it.

When the stars align, the teens wait until Byron is out of sight, and close up the gift shop. Their plan is to head to the bar... and maybe try and get something out of Barley..... not much of a plan, but they don't realize it there.

They make haste, running to the bar, because time crunch (when/if complaints start rolling in.)

Bursting through the doors of the Bar, Barley gives them a look. "Don't.. do that, please."

Colette apologizes enthusiastically, and urges Edgar forward. "Ask him! I'll keep watch!"

She hops over to the door and peers through it periodically.

Meanwhile, Edgar is stammering because he didnt plan anything to say, he expected Colette to talk to the robot.

"If you two think I allow underage drinking, I most certainly do not, no matter what Penny says." Barley warns.

"Uhh, no it isn't that. ...Umm. do ya know... well, you would know about Byron, and not Belle, I guess. But they've been acting weird lately, and we want to know why."

. . .

Barley pauses in consideration.

Options and questions flood around his mind, and he still had no answer.

Wonders if he should even mention Belle's visit some time ago, or the fact that he knows more in depth about it than Byron would care for, or that if Piper found out he knew more than her, and then told these two over would she be offended? ....Actually, in that case, why was he considering telling them anyway? Well, if they were interested in the topic for genuine reasons...

Edgar doesn't even know what to do either. Barley's not saying anything.

Colette squeaks, and scrambles from the door. "Edgar!! Any luck here? Because we're out of it over there!"

"What?"

"I think I see Byron heading here!!"

Who would have thought.

this is where i kind of dropped off the outline, but to continue/wrap it up, Barley points them to the curtain that covers the back room. There's an exit there which he tells them about, but the teens stay to EAVESDROP bc they care.

Barley and Byron chat. the conversation dips into the area having to do with Belle.

Byron frowns. "If I didn't know any better, I would think you're trying to get me to admit something, Barley. I can understand Piper, but you?"

"Me?" Barley asks. "Sir, you know I never mean harm."

"..." Byron stares at him unconvinced. "If Piper did put you up to this, you can tell me."

"U.. Believe it or not, I am among others in this park who care about you, Byron."

"...." wouldn't that be nice. But Byron believes him. My bad. He humors his coworker for now. "Fine." And asks for a drink.

Barley gets him his preferred one. [Lol I'll come up with it eventually.]

They talk. Barley finds out a little more. But just a little bit. Byron... it isnt like he has practice talking about ☆~feelings~☆

The teens listening in leave before too long. Colette is like O.O;; and Edgar decides that all they wanted to know was the relation between Byron and Belle, and they got that.

She agrees, and they both leave through the back door.

Byron didn't get as drunk ofc, it's still his working hours. Just enough to loosen up a bit and get through mild robot therapy.

After his leave, Barley sees him off, and then goes to check in the back. They're gone and he has a brief "oh, thought they would have gotten the hint to, listen in. Oh, well."

[There's one more event, involving the Coworkers interacting with Belle one last time, but still unplanned <3 it leads to the meet up and the fight... somehow though. I'll release that when I think of it.]

I can also see Piper being ":0 you knew before I did? And didn't tell me? You're mischievous, Barley!" In a very light hearted way at the very end.

Barley frets ;;; "I am not!"

[proudlylost]

My 6+1 favorite SPN fics: AU

After the SPN finale I kinda got sucked back into the fandom. The excessive amount of fanfiction reading ensued (I re-read all of my SPN fic favorites and then some) and I realised I have actually read quite a lot of them. So I thought I could share them, to highlight all the talented authors there is and also to gather all of my favorites into the one place. This post contain my favorite AU fics, the SPN universe edition of this fic rec can be found here.

Ninety One Whiskey by komodobits

“In the spring of 1944, the 104th Medical Battalion of the United States Army is disbanded, and its men reassigned to various infantry companies in preparation for their invasion of occupied France. For First Lieutenant Novak, this is less than helpful, as he has so far met his platoon’s designated medic a grand total of twice, and has both times found Sergeant Winchester to be the optimum combination of reckless, arrogant, and downright insufferable so as to make cohesive platoon function near impossible. When the time comes to move out, however, Castiel has to reconcile himself to the fact that men are going to go down and trust that Dean Winchester may well be the only person who can put them back together again. WW2 ETO infantry AU. “ 

READ! THIS! Well, there is some really disturbing war related and time period related stuff, but if you can stomach that, read it! Along with the Angel’s Wild, this is my favorite fanfiction. This fic is heart wrenching and so, so good.The characterization is on point. Historical accuracy is on point. Slow burn is on point. Everything is just perfect. However, as I said, this fic is heavy stuff. There is some serious angst (I cried. I almost never cry when reading) and trauma. But there is glimmers of hope, even if sometimes it feels hopeless. Expected recovery time: at least two weeks. Word Count:  401,183. Explicit

Angel’s wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone

“But that’s the whole reason he’s here, isn’t it? He’s not out here hunting Humans. He’s not even hunting deer, or bears, or anything else that featured in Bambi. He’s out here, freezing his nuts off every night, because he’s hunting Angels.

Sometimes Dean wishes that Angels were like how they’re described in the Bible. How people from time too old for him to care much about thought Angels were messengers and warriors of God, protectors of Humans. He knows that how they’re really described in the Bible is actually pretty terrifying, but at least they were told by God that they’re supposed to love Humans, right?

That’s a thousand times better than what Angels really turned out to be.”

This was first longer fic that I read from Supernatural fandom and I fell in love. So this is “the fic that got me into the fandom” but I have read it multiple times since and it is still very, very good. I love everything about this fic. It is very original and the lore is amazing. I love how Dean and Cas are both quite young (in Cas’s case, relatively speaking) and how their love develops (slow burn! <3) I love how Cas is described and I love how he communicates (unintentionally) with flowers. You can also read this without having any knowledge of supernatural series (like I did) which is always impressive for a fic. Wor count:  389, 271. Explicit

For All You Young Hockey Players Out There, Pay Attention by thursdaysfallenangel

“Dean Winchester knows two things about hockey, two things his dad made sure he knew. One, hockey is a guy’s sport, and two, hockey is family. Hockey meant Sam and Bobby and Benny and Victor and Gabriel and hell, his entire team. So when Victor gets traded, Russian-star-turned-new-teammate Castiel Krushnic becomes a threat. As much as Dean hates him for that, the longer he sticks around, the more he begins to threaten that first rule too. Dean’s been taught his whole life that those who play hockey should not be captivated by deep accented voices and the way a guy handles his stick, so how the hell is he supposed to justify what he’s starting to think about Cas? All Dean wanted at the beginning of the season was to win, and now all he wants to do is figure out how he feels about Cas and how to deal with it without ruining his career and tearing his family apart. “

Ah, three of my absolute favourite things smashed into the same fic: sports, slow burn and enemies to lovers. This fic has lots of cameos from supernatural characters, because hockey teams require lots of players. So it is easy to spot your favorite character in this fic. This fic is probably one of may favorites, because of the sport environment (Outside the fandom, I have been super into sports. Like so much I have several national championships medals from my sport. Anyway, not a point here): also the sexual tension between Dean and Cas is so good, especially when they are pumped with the adrenaline. You don’t really need to understand sports to enjoy this fic, though. Word count:  143,592. Explicit

Formula Won by cardinalwrites

“Of all the places Castiel Novak thought he would take in his career, an internship as a Formula One Paddock Correspondent (or journalist, for short) was most definitely not one of them for a few reasons. One: He had no clue what the hell Formula One was. Two: He knew nothing about sports in general. And Three: He should not fall in love with the people he’s supposed to be asking hard-hitting questions to, least of all the head driver of one of the oldest and most well-renowned teams in the sport’s history.

This is a love story told around the world through the eyes of the person that knows the least about where he has found himself in. Come follow a 20-race season finding love in the lost, learning the truth, and figuring out what the hell Formula One is along the way.”

Another sports fic with a slow burn. This is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, because there is quite a lot information about formula one, and the reading experience is more enjoyable if already know about formulas/do your research. Don’t let it stop you though, because this fic is very good. The friendship between Dean and Cas is very natural, and later the romance as well. The plot is very engaging and the drama inside the formula one organization is so good. This fic is also not so “heavy” as the other ones in my list (of course, there are problems along the way, but even the fic’s tags say there will be fluff). The rating is T, which is kinda surprising, because I did not notice it until I already had read the whole fic. Word count: 123,777. Teen

Have Love, Will Travel by squeemonster

Castiel Novak is a reclusive writer with a childhood so tragic it's left him terrified to leave his home—until his overbearing brother, Gabriel, drags him out for a night on the town full of booze and strip clubs, and he encounters Dean Winchester, a mesmerizing and mysterious stripper with secrets of his own. Both men find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other, and soon Dean's private dances for Castiel become much more, as both men confess their troubles and find solace in each other's company. But neither can seem to find the courage to take their relationship further than the intimacy of the club's VIP Room—and just when Dean's own brother gives him the excuse he needs to finally admit his feelings, Dean discovers something that brings it all crumbling down. Will they find a way past their demons and their trust issues, and back to each other?

This is one of the fandom classics and quite rightfully so. Both Dean and Cas have issues, in other words: what’s new? The sexual chemistry between them was so good and well written, but there is also angst and mental health issues (mostly Cas). Sam is quite young in this fic, but manages to be very much a little brother. I honestly loved this fic when I was a bit younger, but I think it is still very good and deserves its place in this list. Word count  94,054. Explicit

Pick It All Up by thepinupchemist

Army veteran Castiel Novak is a wreck after his tour in Afghanistan, brought home to his brother's apartment in Lawrence, Kansas with scars both mental and physical. He copes poorly, and during one night of bad decision making, meets somebody just as much of a disaster as he is -- a prostitute named Dean Winchester. And suddenly, two damaged men might not be as irreparable as they believed.

Ah, it seems that I’m incapable of picking nice, fluffy, happy fanfics. This certainly is not one of them. There is full warnings in the tags, because there is some triggering stuff: PTSD, mentions of past abuse, alcoholism etc. But, this is also very healing story in its own way (It has happy ending. I guess I can spoil that because it reads in the tags) . I avoided this fic for a long time, because the prostitute!Dean tag scared me away, but this was so worth of reading (as I said, happy ending)! Gabriel is super supportive and sweet brother and Dean and Cas are dysfunctional but they work so well despite all the trauma they have endured. Word count:  126,611. Explicit

Bonus: Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme

What begins as a transforming love between Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak in the summer of 1965 quickly derails into something far more tumultuous when Dean is drafted in the Vietnam War. Though the two both voice their relationship is one where saying goodbye is never a real truth, their story becomes fraught with the tragedy of circumstance. In an era where homosexuality was especially vulnerable, Twist and Shout is the story of the love transcending time, returning over and over in its many forms, as faithful as the sea.

Well, I don’t think this fic needs any introductions. This is the fic, the most popular in SPN fandom and one of the most popular ones in the whole ao3. I thought that I could read this, because I don’t generally have many triggers, despite all the warnings. I was a wreck during reading. And I have managed to read it once and I can’t make myself read it again. But it is good and amazingly written. This fic plucks every emotion out of you and does anything it pleases with them. You have been warned. Word count:  97,556. Explicit

(When I wrote this fic rec I also realised I have a serious problem with long fics. Like, most of my favorites are at least 100,000 words. At this point I think I don’t even consider a fic to be slow burn, unless it takes several days to complete the fic. Oops)

[flightfoot]

Hi! I was wondering, what are your favorite ML episodes? Like which do you think are best in plot/character development/fun stuff in general?

I’m gonna just cut out the season finales and the special from this, since it feels like cheating to include them.

This isn’t an objective list, but it’s not fully subjective either. It’s very much a list where the lower sections at least would change based on my mood at the time, though the top two are set in stone.

10. Feast 

I appreciated finding out Fu’s backstory (even if it didn’t quite jive with some of the earlier implications of him having chosen the wrong people before, back in Origins.) It fleshed Fu out as a character, and revealed that while he’s trying as best he can, he wasn’t chosen because he was some all-knowing, all-wise person who’s always right that the main characters need to listen to; even HE admits that he messed up in this episode. He’s considered a person, not some fount of incontrovertible wisdom.

I’ll still take him to task for some of his poorer decisions, but I appreciate that he WASN’T treated as infallible, and that we really get to see that play out here.

Plus Biker Bug and Banana Noir, Banana Noir automatically recognizing his buginette immediately even though she looks different, Chat’s face when he figures out Ladybug’s plan... it’s just fun.

Also I’m a sucker for lore, and we found out a decent amount of it here.

9. Zombizou

This was a really fun episode, with the party slowly dwindling down as zombies picked everyone off, one-by-one. 

It showcased some of the characters really well. Like with Chloe, it showed how she’ll lash out, be a brat and try to hurt people when she feels like she hasn’t done enough, or whenever something pokes at her own feelings of inferiority, of uselessness. But that she also DOES care for other people and is willing to sacrifice herself, even if only temporarily, to protect others.

It also showed the first time that someone puts up a good fight against akumatization, what sort of mindset is needed for that.

The class as a whole really shown this episode. Even though they were all pissed off at Chloe (for VERY good reason) and she was being a pain throughout it, they still refused to leave her at Zombizou’s mercy, protecting her even though it was hard, even though they didn’t want to, even though it put them at risk. Protecting her not because she “deserved” it, but because it was the right thing to do - not that they weren’t TEMPTED to leave her, they’re only human. 

Some great couple moments as well, with Rose and Juleka turning together, and who can forget Nino refusing to leave Alya, even though he’s dooming himself to becoming a zombie as well?

Just all and all, a great episode.

8. Miraculer

Another great character development episode, again, mostly for Chloe. She even successfully fights off an akuma, the only character to do so to date. We also get to see what an effective fighter she is, how much she looks up to and respects Ladybug, wants her to see her as being necessary - probably because of how she’s felt so useless and unwanted before, like she said in Malediktator.

But it also shows how self-centered she is. How little she cares for those who get hurt along the way, like Sabrina. How little she considers more overarching reasons for why she can’t be allowed what she wants, even when demonstrated right in front of her, with being denied the Bee because Mayura and Hawkmoth could easily steal it from her. Even when it’s nothing to do with her personally (beyond her decision to reveal her identity that is) she just can’t let it go.

We also get to Alya and Nino being AWESOME (seriously what WAS that parkour?) and just how stubbornly Adrien will keep trekking on, keep fighting, even when he can barely move because of the pain.

7. Syren

Yes, seriously.

This one.

The one that’s had to be defended to death.

It was actually the second episode of Miraculous Ladybug I watched, and the one that convinced me that the first one’s greatness wasn’t a fluke.

And the reason why I love it is also the reason a lot of people hate it.

We get to see Adrien be angry, frustrated, feel useless. See how the secrets are impacting him, how being left out of the loop and not even getting to know why HURTS. And how if he feels unnecessary, unwanted, that his presence, his fighting doesn’t help protect Ladybug or the city more generally, and also like he’s not being respected, that he’d be willing to give it up. That there’s only so much he can take. 

(And no I don’t feel like debating this, I’ve already done that MANY MANY TIMES. Give it a rest.)

6. Sapotis

Alya and Marinette hanging out and having fun? Marinette getting to choose Alya as the first temporary wielder? Her infectious joy as she runs around Paris and banters with Ladybug and Chat Noir?

And her hesitation, her reluctance to hand it back over, wanting desperately to continue, but ultimately doing the right thing, even though it was hard? 

It was a nice introduction for Rena Rouge.

(Also I’m a big Alya stan and I love her as a superhero so. You know.)

5. Startrain

When it came out, and even now, it was hailed as one of the best just regular episodes of Miraculous Ladybug, and for good reason. There’s some QUALITY Adrienette, Alya helping to set it up, and the whole class shipping the two of them together, wanting them to be happy.

The action was great and the whole class just got to have fun. What more is there to say?

4. Anansi

Carapace’s introduction knocked it out of the park!

 The way he tried to fight Anansi, even without any powers? He raced back to Alya even after being thrown, because he wanted to save her so badly? How he actually SUCCEEDED in fending off Anansi for several minutes without powers and with little experience, and just... never gave up fighting?

PEAK Nino Lahiffe.

Like, to the point that Alya even managed to figure out his identity. Hard to hide that Nino is Nino.

(Also Ladybug giving that little extra reassurance to Chat Noir, that he’s irreplaceable, fills my heart every time.)

3. Glaciator.

The episode that made Marichat fans swoon. The one where Marinette finally found out that Chat Noir is truly, sincerely in love with her, that it’s not just part of his persona. 

Adrien’s frustration and sadness with his father’s standing him up, even while preventing him from seeing his friends helped flesh out his circumstances, his feelings, the way Gabriel’s neglect hurts him, and how it affects him more broadly, with feeling frustrated and upset when Ladybug didn’t show up to dinner either - though in her case with good reason. 

We got to see Chat Noir calmer, not trying to put on a show, not his usual jaunty self, but acting more akin to how he does when he’s Adrien - a shift that’s abrupt enough to take Tikki and Marinette by surprise, despite knowing him so well.

Plus Ladybug and Chat Noir got to have a much needed heartfelt talk, with her letting him know how much she cares for him, values him, but that her heart belongs to another, and Chat Noir affirming how valuable her friendship is to him.

----

Now, most of these first eight could be swapped out with other episodes, and there are others I’m beginning to think should’ve been on the list, but the top 2 EARNED their place, and it’ll take a lot to dislodge them.

---

2. Chat Blanc

This episode was a treasure trove of character development, showing a “What if?” scenario. It affirmed just how quickly Adrien would leap to Ladybug being Marinette (which we caught a glimpse of in Kwamibuster) if given half the chance, and how much he absolutely adores the idea, melting into a love puddle at the thought and being certain that it’s true.

We see that they CAN be happy together, that they would be ecstatic and brimming with love.

How broken up both Adrien and Marinette would be at the unbearable thought of being separated.

And what Adrien’s reaction would be to finding out his mother’s status and that his father’s the supervillain they’ve been fighting this whole time.

Also what an absolute BASTARD of a shitstain of a human being Gabriel is.

Gave Ladybug an added incentive not to fall for Chat Noir, left a lasting impact in that way, as well as adding to the pressure to not make even the slightest mistake, that ended up descending on her in the season finale.

And we got to see Ladybug hugging Chat Noir after purifying him, her determination to ALWAYS consider him Chat Noir, that he IS Chat Noir, that he couldn’t be poisoned so much that he wasn’t still her kitty. She even called her timeline’s version over afterwards, just because she wanted that added reassurance that he was fine. She cares for him so much!

1. Oblivio

This is it. The holy grail. The episode that got me into the show. The one that showed that these two would fall for each other quickly, if certain pesky barriers weren’t in the way. That the “True Selves” narrative is false, that these two are themselves regardless of the costume they wear, just having certain sides of themselves accentuated.

He falls for her because of her wits, her bravery, her cuteness. 

She falls for him because of his kindness, his sincerity, the way he stares at her with those lovesick kitty eyes-

I’m love square trash, so sue me. 

Plus it shakes up their roles a little, evens them out. Both of them are involved with planning, with figuring things out. Both of them get to have fun, and Ladybug in particular seems like she has less pressure on her shoulders.

Also they kiss.

That is important.