#shad talks

[allmightluver]

No but

How am I supposed to explain why I’m so depressed is because the story my favorite character is in, the same character whom i legitimately have learned to love like a real frickin human being and lover I know I never can have, is coming to an end?

Like I literally love this man.

I don’t want anyone else let alone a real person I want HIM.

I’m literally mourning over this because it’s like he’s dying in a way.

[shadowluver1242]

[shadowtarot]

Wait, that arena title is still on the table????

Keep in mind Covid affected development of a lot of titles. Pokémon excluded, a lot of games coming out were meant for release much earlier. Take the upcoming Fire Emblem Engage, it was meant to be an Anniversary Game but very obviously suffered setbacks and missed the 35th mark for Fire Emblem, leaving the fans with only the digital release of the first game as celebration.

I'm fully convinced that this Arena title suffered something similar, possibly starting development after the end of Royal and Strikers. But then it got shoved lower on the priority list when the pandemic hit, hence why GBVS dropped when it did.

Again this is pure speculation but it's definitely still a thing. Why else would they re-release Ultimax during the anniversary if they didn't plan to see interest in another Persona Fighting Game/Tide us over until it drops.

[shaddybon]

You all liked them so much so have more!!

[araneapeixes]

currently experiencing. sad autism where im scared that bc i post so slow everybody has already gotten over bg3 and theres no point in me getting to all the ideas i still have bc novody will care. can anybody just reassure me real quick that you will still want me to draw shadowheart once every 3 months in the future

[wereh0gz]

Why does fanon make Shadow call Sonic "faker" when I'm pretty sure Sonic is the one who called Shadow that first in canon and not the other way around

[piko-power]

Sometimes I think about how Sonic felt bad about how he thought he used to act around Amy when they were younger.

Sometimes I think about how Sonic wanted to talk to Amy about how he was feeling.

How just because he doesn't feel the same, it doesn't mean he hates her. He never hated her.

But then... he found out what she's been through. Why she was so quiet as of late.

That she kept all of her feelings from him. Her childhood. Her trauma. The possibility that she might've done something really bad to herself during the war since it was so stressful to her.

He might've believed that he was the reason she felt this way. He might've hurt her.

He didn't, but he doesn't know that.

He didn't even know what she'd been through... he felt even terrible.

She believed that her love to him don't matter and tried to move on, but the choice didn't make her feel happy.

...It didn't make him feel happy either.

Maybe they would hug and never let go. Maybe they would overlap each other's apologies for giving each other a rough time.

Maybe they would cry. Maybe they would admit that they love each other out loud.

Amy would admit that she still loves him, for the first time in forever.

Sonic would admit that he loves her too, as a friend.

Meanwhile in his heart, he wouldn't mind being something more. He wouldn't mind being in a relationship with her or anyone. (Shadow lol) He knows that it doesn't cost you your freedom, it only allows you to let someone catch up with you. She wanted to be free with him.

That kind of stuff doesn't bother him anymore, but for now, he just needed to be there for Amy. He needed to be her friend.

Sometimes I think about how Sonic and Amy's friendship would rekindle in a deep, emotional way.

Sometimes I think about how this moment could be the start of a slow burn kind of relationship between Sonic and Amy as time goes on and as they get older.

Sometimes, I think about this too much, and I cry like a baby LMAO-

[laurancezvahlslefteyebrow]

ok so y’all know how originally in my rewrite the first shadow knight was just some random guy? IM CHANGING IT BC I LIVE FOR DRAMA

so we all (maybe) know about Xavier the Admirer. I’ve talked about him before and how I believe Laurance is meant to either be his incarnation or to at least represent him. WEEEELLLLL i had a thought.

What if XAVIER was the first shadow knight?? Now hear me out. He was Irene’s guard, and he was madly in love with her (hense the title).

Imagine this: he dies in battle, sacrifices himself to save Irene. Maybe he doesn’t even die. What if he was captured by Shad? Either way, Shad, knowing he possesses some kind of animation magicks, transforms him into a sort of minion. A Shadow Knight. Somehow he manipulates him and forces him to fight Irene. Can you IMAGINE?!? THE ANGST?!? UGH

Council I need your thoughts on this

[dysfunctionaldogdude]

The amount of disfigured / Intensely scarred characters I like is surprisingly large

Idk why people are bothered by that stuff

Like Sal is neat

Wade is silly

I might get Krueger but like that's just if I think about it too hard (Trypophobia)

Remus is babygirl (I'm baby girl chat)

Joker is my dude (me)

I don't really understand the fear of stuff like that, it really isn't as "gross" or "ugly" or "horrific" as people make it to be

Like if I saw someone walking around with half a face I'd only be concerned if it was fresh or something otherwise it's not really my business 🤷

So what if someone is walking around looking like two-face? That's not something you would be worried about

People seem to be too caught up in the whole pity and looks aspect. My only concern is if it's fresh and they're in pain or if they're safe

Or people like Hillbilly (DBD) like he was born like that, it's not really anything anyone could do much of (his parents were shit but that's not my point)

OR THAT KID FROM WONDER

LIKE GUYS IT'S NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL?

[bed-of-ashes]

OKAY aphblr has allowed me to explain my silly little revamped version of Irene + Aphmau so you're all gonna have to suffer for it

I was an autistic little child who hated unforeshadowed plot twists (but also I was like 10 and only had so many literary analysis skills) and I have carried this grudge with me toward adulthood but. I really hated the Aphmau being amnesiac Irene plotline. I've tried remedying it several times over the years but I think the idea I've finally landed on and am now obsessed with is Aphmau being Irene's daughter.

First of all, it fits the whole matron theme, and second, it goes with that early season 1 lore that Irene had a family. It would make Aphmau's guilt really interesting when she thinks she isn't living up to her mother's legacy. The lore idea is that 1,000 years ago, when Shadow Knights/Shad came to kill Irene, she used the last of her power to place Aphmau in the staff. Hyria comes to the burnt wreckage of their home (hello! Remember how Aphmaus greatest fear was her village on fire!) to mourn and recognizes the staff for what it is, storing it until a Shadow Knight would protect Irene's daughter, making it safe enough for her to return.

But what if Irene had a second daughter? A younger one, who escaped the assassination and went on to live a normal life? We know Aphmau likes to name her kids + pets after people, so, for no reason at all in particular, let's say this girl's name is Alina. Magicks is a very uncertain area in MCD lore but I'd imagine it's to some extent genetic, so maybe when Irene's other daughter has a son, that son develops powerful magicks when he is far too young to control it. Maybe the Alina 1,000 years ago doesn't know how to help him and she sends him off with a tutor who promises he can reign in this boy's untamed magicks. Maybe that boy drove his tutor insane because the power of Irene ran in his veins, and his tutor pushed him off the balcony of a stony castle. Maybe his aunt finds him 1,000 years later and takes him in as her own.

[kurithedweeb]

For Drop of Sunlight, what's your take on the relationship between the Divine Warriors and Aphmau/her guards (Garroth, Katelyn, Laurance, Dante)

That’s a bit of a tricky one for me. I don’t remember a whole lot about the Divine Warriors from canon since I haven’t finished my rewatch, and I haven’t explored them that much because we’re still real early on and they haven’t become majorly relevant yet, but I think I can scrounge up a few ideas. We’re gonna talk about the Divine Warriors as a whole and not each individual for now.

The Divine Warriors were all friends, but Irene was what connected them. They were all drawn to her, all loyal to her above anyone else, they were . . . the term I want to use for the Divine Warriors is ‘a cult polycule,’ but that doesn’t really explain and also is probably wrong. Let’s rewind a bit.

Irene killed the Divine Warriors as a whole. Before they ever met her, Irene had lived for so, so long as this being more powerful than the rest of her race and everyone put her on a pedestal. Her power left her so isolated, so completely alone, that everything she did had to be perfect because she didn’t have anyone to fall back on when she failed anymore, not since she’d outlived her sister. Everything Irene did became just another duty she had to perform and she stopped feeling alive. Until Shad.

Shad was the first person she’d ever met that was anywhere near as powerful as her. Suddenly she wasn’t so alone anymore, and she clung to Shad for fear that if she let him slip away she’d be alone again for who knows how long. She nudged their relationship from enemies to friends to, eventually, lovers. Shad loved her because she seemed so good and she wasn’t afraid of him and with her he could have what he always wanted: someone to love and a family. I’m a little iffy on whether or not Irene was actually in love with him, but in those times being someone’s lover was seen as the absolute closest you could be to someone and you couldn’t really get a marriage annulled. Once they were together-together Irene thought she could never lose Shad.

For a while, it was Irene and Shad against the world. The rest of the Divine Warriors came after. They were all good people who had some kind of power, a power that Irene could help them foster into something they could use for the greater good. They became friends by virtue of spending a ton of time together and working to become a team because they realized their different dynamics and abilities actually meshed well, but above that they were always Irene’s most devout followers right up until they were shown by Irene herself that she wasn’t as good as everyone thought. I mean, if God-God were your personal friend, wouldn’t you be a believer too?

Everything fell apart after the relics were made. After they return home for the first time in ages, Shad goes looking for their daughter, so excited to see her sweet smile, only to not be able to find her anywhere. And when he goes to ask Irene for help looking for their baby girl, he’s told that she’s been in his relic the entire time, that it was her soul that had been used to form Shad’s weapon. Shad is obviously heartbroken, demanding to know why she would do such a thing, but Irene can’t understand that what she did was wrong. She can’t even fathom it. In her eyes, having their daughter was nowhere near as important as having Shad, because he’s the only equal she’s ever known and nobody else even compares. She’s struck dumb and feels incredibly betrayed when Shad turns against her because she’s been under the impression that, since they’re the same, he felt exactly the way she did. If she can’t have him, though, then at least she still has the rest of the Divine Warriors; they love her, they worship her, they’d never betray her like this.

Except Shad was one of their own. They hesitate for just a second when she says Shad’s turned against them and is an enemy, but it’s Irene so she can’t be wrong, right? But as the days stretch on they start to realize that Shad only wants to hurt Irene and he’s got a damn good reason for it. By the time they recognize that Irene is bad guy here, it’s too late. Instead, the Divine Warriors shatter Shad’s relic so it can’t be given to anyone else, so it can’t help turn this into a cycle and scatter the fragments, then disappear to build their temples. By the time they reconnect, ready to hear Irene out, Irene’s disappeared.

The stuff with the guards is way more specific.

When Anastasia (Aphmau) first appears, Garroth doesn’t pay her much mind. He’s got enough to worry about and she’s not hurting anyone, just kind of dipping in and out of town every once in a while. Then he realizes that she’s been fixing up the village and helping people out. She’s a very kind woman in a time when most people can’t afford to be kind, and fairly protective of Phoenix Drop despite not really living there or being close to its citizens. But she’s also fairly reckless with her own life and, despite knowing just about every trade there is, doesn’t actually know much about the world she lives in. Garroth is her protector first, then they become something maybe like friends, and he only develops feelings for her after she’s already started settling into her position as Lord. He shoves these feelings real deep down though and never makes a solid effort to act on them, it’d be improper considering their positions and cloud his judgement more than it already has. It’s enough that he can be her friend, that he can see that she’s happy, that he can be close to her and help her through whatever she needs him for. He probably gives her lessons about Lord stuff.

I’m debating where I should put Laurance and Anastasia’s first meeting, because I really like the idea of what they had going in Rebirth where Laurance first saw her when she was at her most frantic, but in the OG meeting he first sees her as someone who’ll go out of their way to fix their mistakes. Either way, it’s love at first sight for this sucker because he’s the kind of person who falls in love at the drop of a hat and who loves nearly everybody he comes across. He flirts because that’s the way he learned to talk to people who make him nervous and he’s only serious about it until he gets rejected, after which it’s just fun between friends. They’re amazing friends, partially because they’re on the same wavelength about a lot of things, partially because of trauma bonding. As time goes on, he gradually becomes more protective of and devoted to Anastasia as a Lord and he’s very serious about her personal safety. Laurance is always the one Garroth sends to negotiate with Anastasia about protective measures when she leaves the village since he always manages to convince her to take at least one of them along.

Dante’s conflicted about how he feels about Anastasia because he thinks of her like a sister. He has so many emotions about this, including feeling just a little bit guilty about it. He sees her as kind-hearted, adventurous, and always good for cheering someone up. It’s easy to joke around with her and playfight during training sessions. He trusts her implicitly, feels like he can confide in her about anything. He’s wary about feeling like this after what happened with his real sibling, especially towards his Lord of all people, but those worries mellow out after he gets to know Anastasia better.

Anastasia was already well-established as a Lord when Katelyn came into play, and they met in that time when Phoenix Drop couldn’t afford any political missteps so her first impression was that Anastasia was a regal leader who inspired a daunting level of loyalty in her guards and citizens and knew her way around doublespeak. She only realizes how prone she is to accidentally giving her guards heart attacks after she’s been turned to their side, and finds the startling difference between the real Anastasia and the Lordsona she presents to other villages hilarious. They’re also eventually good friends, she’s probably the first real friend Katelyn’s had in a long time, and Katelyn finds her easier to get along with than most of the other ladies at first because she’s gotten so used to interacting only with people in positions of power or the guards under their command since she was picked for the Jo9. They really bond during quiet moments travelling together. Having to trust your back to someone while you sleep in potentially hostile territory will do that for you.

I think a big difference between the relationships between Irene and the Divine Warriors and Anastasia with her guards is that Irene doesn’t feel anything, while Anastasia sometimes feels too much and that greatly affects the way they connect with people.

Another is that, nine times out of ten, Anastasia's guards would sacrifice their lives for her at the first hint of real danger. No one of the Divine Warriors would ever think to truly sacrifice themselves for Irene. What could possibly kill a goddess?

[shadow-tism]

*takes a deep breath*

The beauty of Sonadow (with transmasc Sonic) in the eyes of Shadow once he learns about Sonic and how both him (the ultimate life form) and Sonic (the snarky blue critter) are actually one in the same, they know each other in a way no one else can and maybe its because they have shared so many experiences, maybe its because no one will know you quite like your enemy. But maybe its because both of them were not born as they are but Made into who they are, and well isn’t that just beautiful.

[shadowluver1242]

How are you?

I’m doing pretty good, thanks 🙂 how about you?

[silverjurors]

I'm renaming the Divine Warriors in my version of MCD, so here are my changes:

- Irene is still commonly referred to as Irene in the Ru'Aun region, but in Gal'Ruk she's called Irena, and her real name was Irini.

- 'Shad' is an abbreviation of Shadow Lord/King (haven't decided which), his real name is Scyar but very few people know that and those who do know about it are usually very religious scholars and don't say it aloud because they fear it'll invoke his presence.

- Esmund is Eamonn, he's usually called Esmund in casual mention, but the Nobles of O'Khasis (his primary place of worship) call him Eamonn in their prayers.

- Menphina is Memphis. Both are used interchangeably by everyone except for those who are devout to her.

- Enki and Kul'Zac get to keep their names because I like their names, but Kul'Zac is occasionally called Kuzach in some villages.

Bonus:

- Irini's sister doesn't exist in this rewrite, she's replaced by Ein (or he Transed his gender, whichever you prefer)

- Scyrini's (my version of Shadrene) daughter was named Althea

- Ein was Irini's brother, and has had various different names to those who know of him (Dæli in Ru'Aun, Koino in Gal'Ruk, and 'Her Brother' in Majurî, which is a small island and his primary place of worship)

Anyways, that's it for now

[gxldencity]

See bg3 is probably better on a technical level and player reactivity but considering that the epilogue party feels more like they're all here to see tav instead of each other bc they haven't moved past being mild acquaintances, yeah veilguard is so much better at making the companions feel like they're friends.

[stillbreathing-aer]

AARON BREAKING THROUGH SHAD MADE ME ACTUALLY GASP OH MY GOD