#she doesn’t really have many extreme or out there traits to go off of Tumblr posts

[qwortywarrior]

Bard of Doom, Mage of Heart, Knight of Void

[cl0wncakez]

Say whatever you want about the black and white anime, but the one thing i will always stand by is that IRIS AND CILAN WERE NEVER PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!!

i did a full watch of the bw series a few weeks back, and the main 2 complaints i had about it were ash’s pokemon (he caught too many and most of them didn’t get enough screentime as a result) and team rocket (they were like barely there and didn’t even do the blasting off gag until the last season i think)

but for me the best parts of it were iris and cilan!!! i was kinda expecting them to be annoying cuz of all the hate they got, but i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable they were.

first off, i am the number 1 iris defender. all the posts i see that complain about her say the same thing everytime: “all iris does is say that ash is a little kid!”

well, as someone who’s binged the entire unova anime in like a week and a half, i can say that there is so much more to her. but for one, she doesn’t even say that ash is a kid as often as you might think. she mostly says it in the first few episodes when she first met ash. for the rest of the series, she’ll occasionally say it in passing, but it is not her one defining trait. while there are a few instances where i thought that it wasn’t warranted, there are plenty more times where ash was being big dummy and deserved it.

what people seem to forget about iris is that at the start of ash’s unova journey, iris is practically a new trainer. her axew is at most only a few weeks old, and her excadrill, while strong, hasn’t battled for who knows how long after being brutally defeated by drayden’s haxorous, leaving it in a state of shock. so obviously, she isn’t going to be the most experienced trainer out there.

iris grew up in the village of dragons, which as the name suggests, is a village inhabited by various dragon type pokemon. having spent her whole life surrounded by dragon types, iris has made it her dream to become a dragon type master. while at the beginning of her journey, she’s just with her axew, she over time has several encounters with dragon type pokemon, all of which help her better understand how to communicate with dragon types.

in one episode, she helped a druddigon out from a trap set by team rocket, while everyone else assumed it was rampaging out of anger. in another, the gang were helping out at a pokemon daycare, and in it was a deino, who was extremely shy. it’s trainer hadn’t returned for days after they said they would (the trainer ended up getting lost in a cave) and it was beginning to refuse to eat due to its anxiety. and what did iris do? she stayed with the deino the whole night, helping it relax in a place it wasn’t familiar with. it��s episodes like these that show that she’s not a one dimensional character, and like the rest of ash’s companions, she has character development.

but what helped fully flesh out her arc was when she caught her dragonite.

unlike axew, who was by her side from the beginning, she and dragonite did not get along immediately. dragonite was stubborn, wouldn’t listen to iris, and had its own way of battling. in order to become a dragon master, she would first have to understand dragonite. the trust that was built happened really slowly, but she did get there. by understanding a pokemon as troubled as her dragonite, iris would then be able to reach out and soothe her excadrill, making it confident enough to battle again, and help axew evolve after her journey with ash ended. and i think that was a solid way to end her arc until pokemon journeys, where offscreen, she fulfilled her dream as a dragon master and became the champion of unova.

now onto cilan.

cilan doesn’t get hated on nearly as much as iris, he’s more or less just forgotten about. so while i was expecting to hate iris when i first started watching, i had zero expectations on cilan. and tbh, i think he’s my favorite traveling companion?? if not than at least top 3.

cilan is the oldest of three siblings, and he first met ash and iris when ash came to battle at the triplet’s restaurant/gym. usually, the challenger only battles one of them, but ash was the first person to want to challenge all 3 brothers. when it was cilan’s turn to battle, he assumed that he would win due to him having the type advantage (ash choosing to battle with oshawott against cilan’s pansage)

well, ash won. and a few episodes later, cilan asked if he could join ash on his journey. the reason cilan wanted to come along was because he saw a new side to pokemon battling that he wanted to better understand.

something about cilan is that while he is a gym leader, he doubles as a pokemon connoisseur. a connoisseur is someone who makes critical judgements in fine arts or matters of taste. for cilan, he analyzes the bond between trainer and pokemon. and during his battle with ash, he evaluated his and oshawotts bond based on their battle. and he dug INTO ash, almost outright insulting his capabilities as a trainer, due to his assumptions from ash using a water type against a pansage.

but the thing is, cilan was wrong. in the end, oshawott ended up winning with ash’s strategy and support.

he fully expected to win, and was given an entirely new perspective of battling after seeing ash pull through. like cooking, pokemon battles aren’t just about type advantage and throwing moves out. it’s about thinking outside the box and trusting your pokemon, which ash accomplished by having oshawott use its scallchop to deflect a bullet seed attack. wanting to become a better trainer and connoisseur, cilan tagged along to gain a new understanding between trainer and pokemon.

and outside of his arc, cilan is just a genuinely fun character!!! did you know that along with being a pokemon connoisseur, this man is also a fishing, cooking, detective, judge, and film connoisseur??? and he can cook!! (EDIT: people are mentioning that he is also a train connoisseur!!! sorry :( i forgor)

cilan is shown to be more composed with his emotions than the previous traveling partners ash had. he also plays a mediator role whenever ash and iris bicker. and remember, cilan is the oldest sibling of 3 triplets, so he’s likely had to play mediator countless times if his brothers ever argued. ash and iris also seem to have a sibling-like bond, so their clashing was probably similar to what cilan faced before with cress and chili.

as i said, cilan is much more patient and gentleman-like. so the few moments where he genuinely loses his shit leaves a stronger impact.

the most notable example was with skyla, who instead of fulfilling her gym duties, played out battles in her head, and made her own judgements on if she could win a battle or not. this lead to challengers either being pushed away without a chance to battle, or given a gym badge without deserving it.

now cilan, who is a gym leader, sees this as a disgrace. it goes against everything a gym leader is supposed to do. skyla was lazy, arrogant, and wouldn’t do her job, which set him off. while he did lose against skyla, it was a big character moment to try and defend his honor as a gym leader.

overall, cilan is soooooo cool you guys don’t get him the way i do!!! i am the number 1 cilan fan!!!!

i think the reason people complain about iris and cilan more than any other companions ash had is because they were different.

iris had a completely different goal than everyone before her, it was a complete 180. she had zero interest in contests or performing, her dragon master dream was brand new in the anime. additionally, her relationship with ash was more like siblings than best friends, which likely made some viewers think their bickering was annoying.

and cilan. poor guy didn’t even have a chance from the start. not after brock was around for like a billion seasons.

overall, the black and white anime does have its problems, as does every pokemon anime. but leave iris and cilan out of it THEY ARE INNOCENT PARTIES :(

[lucent-roase]

Why I Think Willow has OCD

(i've done a lot of reposting lately so i'm just going to reply to this instead of my previous post about it)

explanation is below the cut, i just wanted to address a few things beforehand. there will be a few triggering topics when you go on.

before anything else, Willow has extremely good neurodivergent representation in general. clearly unmasking in front of her friends, succeeding in the plant track because she learns differently than others, and of course, she (arguably) hyperfixates on flyer derby. those are pretty surface level symptoms that i'm sure everyone knows, but there are other traits (belonging to the entirety of the neurodivergent spectrum and also specific to OCD) that i will go into throughout this post.

Willow’s anxiety. one of the interesting facts about OCD is that many scientists consider it to be a syndrome rather than a disorder (for reference, obsessive compulsive disorder) because it consists of so many other disorders such as anxiety, depression, different EDs, amongst others. furthermore, Willow’s is debilitating. she defaults to blaming herself in almost every situation, even when she gets more confident in ASIAS. nothing stops the nagging feeling that she made the mistake, set a bad situation into motion. she thinks back to everything she did and she excuses everyone’s actions except for her own. in ASIAS, like i mentioned, this is so prevalent. Willow is constantly doing the right thing, for her team and everyone in it. she’s hopeful and she pushes her teammates to be their best selves. she helps Hunter, and he initially pays her back with jail time and the promise of leaving her friends and family forever. that situation was entirely in Hunter’s hands, and he would have picked up a few other students to join the emperor’s coven anyway. but Willow blames herself for everything. she shouldn’t have asked Caleb to join her team. maybe she shouldn’t have even made the team in the first place, her old teacher was right. she put many people she cared about in danger. until she can “redeem” herself by helping everyone back to safety and hear Hunter indirectly apologize for putting them in that situation himself, she’s in her head about it. with the distraction and confirmation of being of help to those she “messed up” with and that she didn’t really even mess up, she was able to go back to her charming, typical self.

similarly but also slightly different, she regrets her actions immediately after doing them, assuming she’s at fault and kind of gets hyper focused on it. when she, Gus, and Luz get caught animating the house, it takes her a moment to remember that she can grab the root they’re hanging from and completely save their asses from dying. lots of OCD people tend to second guess their own judgment and actions. this can show up when police are called, and trying to find someone. someone with OCD might believe they committed a crime even if they were just, say, reading a newspaper. another instance is if someone talks in a different tone than usual, triggering anxiety and leaving because they think they have done something wrong and that the person who talked differently doesn’t want the person with ocd to be around them (sorry, that was a mouthful of words). this is similar to when Willow gave Hunter that picture of him and Flapjack, causing his eyes to widen and just stare at her. for all we know, he could have just been taking in her nice words and gesture. she shut down and fled the situation as to “not bother” Hunter anymore.

Willow also has her “out of sight, out of mind” mindset. i would argue that this is compulsive behavior. when an OCD individual has intrusive thoughts, such as “___ will die in twenty minutes from now,” they are typically convinced that it will happen. sometimes, partaking in some sort of ritual will ward off the thought or almost counter-convince the person (this will generally sound like “if i turn the light switch on and off 6 times, that car crash won’t happen and everyone will be safe) (also, that’s why people with OCD are usually stereotyped to always be cleaning—rituals like needing everything lined up in the right order are common). Willow’s “out of sight, out of mind” and “i can do this” is similar to an OCD ritual, especially because her thoughts are sometimes dangerous (to her wellbeing). when the polaroid of her and Amity came up, she immediately told Luz her motto. thinking about her old best friend might have sent her into a downward spiral, because it would have reminded her of how she "wasn't strong enough to be Amity's friend" and how badly she had ruined her life. i also believe that the vines that she had created were very representative of intrusive thoughts. they were literally eating her up, and they wouldn’t go away until she let her emotions out, and actually facing how badly she felt.

i can assure you that some of these are far-reaches but i really felt represented by her throughout the series, especially the vine scene in For the Future. it felt so realistic no matter how much magic was being used.

uhh, i’m bad at conclusions, thanks for coming to my ted talk!

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA Episode 6 - Masks (2/5)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

Aang begging Zuko to let him go save his friends seems naïve of him (it is, kinda) but Zuko's resigned 'no' at Aang's pleas is heartbreaking. He's not gloating, he's not angry at Aang, he's exhausted and beaten down and surely feeling guilty over all the arguments Aang is throwing at him - everyone assumes they know who Zuko is because of the mask he's put on since his banishment, but Aang is the one who can see through it. Aang's naïve belief in the inherent goodness of people extends even to his enemies and is such an important character trait.

The war council flashback is ssooooooo well done! Zuko clearly just happy to be there and not actually paying attention, then desperately fumbling for an adequate answer to his own plan for the attack - all of which any viewer who had been paying attention could see are bad plans. BUT when the general suggests his own plan, Zuko is smart enough to see the flaw in it - he's far from inept, he just wasn't ready to jump in with his own strategy at his first war council. The frustration and disappointment Ozai shows as he tried to prompt his first-born to prove to him he was worthy is much more interesting to me than Ozai just writing Zuko off from the start. Ozai's insistence that 'sacrifice is a part of war' really is a key aspect of why he does what he does - to his people and to his children - and ironically, is exactly what Roku and the other Avatars always advise Aang. While Ozai takes it to the extreme, and it's very important that you know when a sacrifice is going too far, the sentiment is a solid one. Soldiers die in battle - it's when you resign yourself to that and no longer fight against it or you feel a twisted sense of pride and accomplishment for 'bearing' that sacrifice that the issues really come up.

It's a GREAT detail that Ozai doesn’t break eye contact with Zuko as he asks which division it is that will be sacrificed - gauging his son's reaction.

How Zuko stands up against the general is just sooo Zuko. Again, SHOWING his honor, not just having Zuko yell it randomly. The plan is 'unworthy' of the fire nation - it's a dishonorable tactic. In Zuko's eyes, just like fighting with your face hidden and employing mercenaries, it's underhanded and not how the fire nation - as they have positioned themselves to be in the world - should behave. All that propaganda about the Fire Nation being the best and always doing what is right begins to crumble, but he believes, as of now, that it's 'just a few bad apples' and the system is still good. If he can just speak out against the aberrations in the system, then everything will be fine because the system is correct, others just aren't living up to the way 'the system tells you to be' in the Fire Nation. (Oh my god, I knew my current DnD character had a lot of Zuko in her (plus Azula, little bit of Yue, some Darth Vader, and others) but damn, this analysis is hitting very close to home for her).

The Blue Spirit animated episode really shows Zhao's station in the Fire Nation - other leaders think he's just on a vanity project going after the Avatar. This is shown in the live-action all the way at the beginning of the season with Ozai declaring him 'no one of importance'. I think the live action giving us an early look at that, and Azula seeing him as someone she can use to further her own gains, adds depth to Zhao as we're not doing the Jong Jong storyline. Having Zhao take command of Zuko's search for the Avatar lines up with the animated version, and I like how they combine Zuko breaking his banishment by sneaking into the fire nation to capture Aang in the animated series episode Avatar Roku (part 2 of the Winter Solstice) with his infiltration of the prison. In an animated show, you can have many repeats of plot points (Zuko defying the fire nation rules to capture Aang) and meld them into one plotline that gives the moments time to breathe.

As iconic as the Blue Spirit episode is, there's little connective tissue from Zhao capturing the Avatar and Zuko showing up as the Blue Spirit to get him out - for some reason he's on the roof of the building as Zhao gets his promotion, then somehow gets back to his boat and sails off without Zhao realizing he was in the area until his boat pulls up beside his, then there's no indication that Zuko has any informants that would let him know that Zhao has caught the Avatar in a remote location or that he sent him to that particular prison. How does Zuko know any of this? It's established that Zhao is the one with resources, not Zuko. Sorry to poke holes in this beloved episode, but if y'all are going to complain about the live-action, I need to bring up this stuff so I can compare it to how the live-action handled it.

So, how did the live-action do it? Zuko was already employing June to capture Aang, and since we know she's great at it (and succeeded before), she gets him and hands him off. Then Zhao comes and 'takes Aang off Zuko's hands' as he's been given charge of capturing the Avatar and he goes ahead and taunts Zuko with the location he's taking him to: hammering home Zhao's overconfidence and urge to gloat. So in the live-action, there are direct lines from Zuko tracking and capturing Aang, Zhao taking him to the prison, and Zuko showing up as the Blue Spirit. Yes, the vibes of the animated episode are immaculate and I'm sure a lot of the questionable plot holes concerning the spirit are to keep the mystery of who it is until the mask comes off - but according to first-time watchers of the live-action, they didn't call it was Zuko either until the mask came off, so I think, from a storytelling perspective, the way the live-action did it flows better and is more tight storytelling while still maintaining the mystery of the masked man's identity.

Zuko's performance here is so great - Dallas manages to capture Zuko's anger and frustration as well as his vulnerability so well without skewing too hard in either direction. The perfect balance is struck where I think the animated series sometimes fell short of as, even though the narrative was clearly trying to get us to see that Zuko wasn't a flat villain and that there was a chance for him to be redeemed, a lot of his actions were quite one-note in the beginning. There were definitely hints of his softer side like in episode 3 when he asks Iroh if he really meant that he had more honor than Zhao, but I think the live-action, like with many of the character shifts, made him more real and believable rather than a heightened cartoon version of the archetype (after all, cartoons are meant to be heightened).

From the moment we see Aang tied up in the prison, it's almost a complete shot-for-shot remake of the animated version - even down to Zhao dictating to his little note-taker - and it's soo good. Funny enough, Zhao even tells Aang to stop worrying about his past and start worrying about his future. Just as with Ozai's twisting of 'necessary sacrifices', we see Zhao twist the idea of moving on from the past into something darker. Zhao is the epitome of the new Fire Nation ideals taken to the absurd extreme - the hubris, arrogance, and ambition by any means necessary. And unfortunately, despite its absurdity, it's a very very real depiction we see every day (Trump and Elon Musk being prime examples).

The escape is so close to identical even down to Aang's little quip where he questions the masked man, gets no response and says 'IIIII'll take that as a yes' (or the live-action version 'Right, escape now, talk later' which is the same energy so if you had an issue with that, take it up with the animated show). Though I will always mourn the loss of the line "Wait! My friends need to suck on those frooooggss!!!" I understand the need to nix that bit.

The standoff at the gate between The Blue Spirit holding his blades to Aang's throat and Zhao ready to take them out was so well done. No words, but the fact that you can see Zuko's eyes behind the mask, hear his shallow breathing as he's terrified his plan might not work, it adds so much. Aang's confusion, Zhao's cocky assurance, then uncomfortable shifting as he realizes brute force won't work this time - the Blue Spirit isn't afraid of him (he thinks). So many layers of masks and bluffs make the scene so good, even though most of us know how it's going to end. Being introduced to the Yuyan archers with Azula and then having Azula be Zhao's backup was a great way to tie in him getting promotions and more resources than he otherwise would have.

In The Blue Spirit episode of the animated series, Sokka and Katara are benched by getting sick, but I like that the live-action changed it to being captured in the Spirit Realm by Koh - it lets then still do stuff (character building stuff) while out of commission and Aang's reason for being in the place he's captured is a lot more compelling than 'he was looking for frozen frogs'.

<Ok, next posts are going to be very in depth about Zuko and Aang's interactions after the escape and the Agni Kai - I have a LOT to analyze there>

[chaotic-starlight24]

Cynthia's character page :)

Welp, here it is y'all. Cynthia's very large amount of information! Since she isn't a part of any fanfic so I can ramble for a while! It is organized in sections, so skip through stuff you don't care about! I hope the characters mentioned are in character!

Who is she?

Cynthia is a 17 year old, middle class teenager who lives on the top of her family’s soda fountain in Tulsa, OK. She has shoulder-length dark, curly hair and dark brown eyes, as well as skin on the tanner side. Around 5’7 ½ . She is a part of the group of families who are just between being a soc and greaser. Not as rich and emotionless as a soc and not as poor or wild as a greaser. But she mainly chooses to hang out with the greasers. She is very hard-working, her and her brother mainly running the soda fountain and can be quite stubborn. But she is also very caring, always letting greasers come in and helping patch them up if they’ve just been jumped. She does still go to school, she is quite good at math but other than that she’s pretty average. Some other character traits of her or little facts:

She can be extremely brutally honest. Like she can’t help herself but point out the negatives if you ask her. Which many can take offense to.

She has really good comebacks, mainly because she doesn’t exactly think before she speaks. It's good for rude people! But has gotten her into some trouble before…

Teacher: Now with those grades you have…Don’t expect to be able to join any sports, not that you had a chance anyways.

Cynthia: With that hairline, don’t expect to be able to get anyone to marry you. Not that you had a chance anyways.

She doesn’t hold any hatred for most socs, but she dislikes the ones who go looking to pick on greasers. Which means she also dislikes the greasers who jump random people. 

She just matches the vibe of whoever she’s hanging out with, but since she hangs out a lot with greasers she can take on more of their traits

Her dream is to be an actress, this is because her mother and her used to go watch movies together as their girls thing and now deep down she wonders if she’ll get her mother’s attention again.

Since she has worked at the aforementioned ranch, she has a plethora of strength that she likes to show off.

Cynthia can be very observant without really realizing it. It’s how she knows so much about a lot of her friends (the gang) or family members. Just by catching little details and remembering them whenever needed. 

Her closest family

Cynthia’s parents are ok people. Her dad mainly works at the family ranch that her grandparents’ own and her mother helps out with organizing the rodeo events they host. Her mother occasionally comes to help out at the soda fountain but Cynthia and her brother end up left to their own devices most of the time. Since both are almost adults anyways they’re ok with being alone a lot. (But it’s more on the unhealthy side how much they are with their parents since they just don’t come home like half the week. Cynthia blames it on their jobs taking over.) When they were younger, their parents raised them in a laid back manner. But certain things they definitely drilled into their heads. They would remind them about these rules very randomly. Like I’m talking:

*At the dinner table*

“Cynthia?”

“Yeah, mama?”

“I need you to remember this.” “...Ok?”

“Wait till marriage for the following things. 1#-”

Joey has let go of a lot of the rules he doesn’t like or just forgot them. Cynthia has held onto those rules more. (Probably because she wants the attention from her parents that she has listened to them just like they asked her to do.)

Joey is Cynthia’s older brother who is 19. He is a lot like Darry, but more like if everything went right for him. He acts a bit more like a soc but always helps out the greasers when he can. He got a scholarship from football but he enjoys baseball a lot more. He could win a Paul Newman look-alike contest (when Pony first met him he took a double take). With his literal movie star looks, girls have tried flirting with him at the fountain. But he is honestly really passive aggressive about the fact he has a girlfriend who he loves very much and her name is Roxie and did he mention he loves her very much? He is overall a very kind person who can also be very protective with Cynthia. (Especially with a certain hood *cough cough* Dallas Tucker Winston *Cough Cough*) Though he is still pretty young, he is usually the voice of reason in a lot of situations. He is a bit bitter that he can't really leave for college yet because of the soda fountain and Cynthia can't be left alone. But he's seen people like Darry so he's more at peace with it. He is the best bros with Angel's older brother Todd. (@ollenotter27 other OC)

Their cousins Rosemary and Tessa also basically live with them at this point. Rosemary is a 21 year old hairstylist with her own salon. She is extremely independent and a big fighter for women’s rights. She enjoys different arts and crafts but especially crocheting and knitting. She has also become a pretty good friend to the greasers and can be very mom-like to them all and with that become great friends with Darry. She helps him out a lot even if he insists that he doesn’t need it but he does really appreciate it. She’s also just there for him to have someone to talk to that is his age. Sodapop and Pony definitely think they should be dating.

Tessa is Rosemary’s younger sister at about 14 years old (and a half). She is extremely outgoing and sassy whenever she’s comfortable. She really enjoys hanging out with the greasers (especially Pony and Johnny) but is terrified of Dally. If there's anything Rosemary has taught her, it’s that you shouldn’t let the enemy know she’s scared. So Dally just believes at this point she’s a very rude person. Rosemary has also taught her how to do great hairstyles and how to fight. Rosemary is her main caretaker after their father left and their mother was just not mentally ok enough to take care of them. Rosemary initially didn’t want Tessa to have to constantly sleep in the salon so she would send her over to Cynthia and Joey. She grew up not being able to lean on others, leading to her being extremely independent and that was why she didn’t stay with them at first. But she was eventually won over. 

(If y'all want to know anymore about the details of these goobers let me know :)

Her friendship with the canon characters

Ponyboy- She has noticed that he (and Johnny) can be very quiet so she tries to talk to him about his interests and just lets him ramble about all sorts of different things. So a lot of times he can be found after school drinking a Pepsi and talking about the newest movies while Cynthia cleans the dishes. 

Sodapop- Soda is her best friend out of anyone in the gang (besides her boyfriend) and they hang out when they’re not working. They both have the understanding of having a more undecided future and also love for horses. She is one of the few who have actually heard about his insecurities, one of the few to know that he isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. She also has a dislike for Sandy (not in a jealousy way) because she doesn’t trust her. She just feels something off about her and how Soda seems to be the one to care a lot more. But she never says anything. At some point Soda talks about Mickey Mouse (the horse). After hearing some about Mickey Mouse, she realizes that her grandparents recently bought a horse that used to do rodeos and stuff and gets Soda to tell her what he looked like. She makes the connections and takes Soda to see him. He most definitely just fell to his knees when he saw him and it recognized him.

Darry- She likes him enough as a person. But she hasn’t really gotten to know him since he is working so much. She feels bad for him, especially knowing that he is friends with her brother, who is basically him if his life went the expected way. She knows most about him from Rosemary and is also a Rosedarry shipper.

Johnny- Like with Pony, she noticed that he was extremely quiet. But she also realized that it is more towards the point that she can’t get an answer out of him. She decided to leave him be and let him reach out if he really wanted to. But they ended up becoming friends of sorts when he learned that she just says what comes to mind and she learned that he can say some more rude things after picking it up from Dally. So their main thing is just people watching and judging. (Some people may see that as ooc but I’ve seen a lot of headcanons that Johnny has picked up traits like that from Dally so…)

Steve-She’s not exactly good friends with him. She has hung out with him and Soda before so they have done some chaotic stuff together. But it’s more the kind of trio where two of the people don’t really like each other, they just happen to both be besties with the one. But she does trust him and knows a good amount about him.

Two-Bit- She likes him a good amount. She wouldn’t exactly hang out with him alone but she thinks he’s a fun person. She learned about his younger sister and offers to help out with her when she can and he appreciates that. So in general, they’re nice to each other and everything but not besties. 

Cherry- Cherry has come to the fountain with her friends several times so they are acquaintances. They’ve also seen each other at school or at Rosemary's salon. So they’ve had a couple chats but not much more than that.

Non-Canon Characters

Angel- (Angel is a soc oc created by @ollenotter27 :) They are both great at roasting other people and Angel has bruised Dally’s ego several times. So they sort of teeter on the friend and enemy line. Though once she starts dating Sodapop, they become better friends.

Dally will be covered in the relationship post! I promise y’all I’m not basic, I just like their dynamic

[zwy01]

Noble OC! Raskreia’s mom doodles!!!

Finally got to do Raskreia’s other parent lol. Very excited to introduce her! She’s alive in the present day in my Millennium AU (check out my pinned post for more info) and while she doesn’t really have an active role in the foreground, she is quite influential and does move things around in the shadows.

Her outfit is lined with black feathers, which gives her the image of a mysterious raven.

Desdemona Kravei: often addressed as Lady Desdemona, Mona, Moni (by friends) or simply just Desdemona. Never addressed with her surname. She’s Raskreia’s mother, and the Previous Lord’s childhood friend. She and PL were not romantically involved; she offered her soul fragment to PL when he needed an heir, and they co-parented Raskreia as friends. She’s part Kravei, part Agvain, and part other clans. Her exact heritage is a mystery but she’s Roctis Kravei’s not-too-distant relative and their blood relation is close enough for the Kravei soul weapon Lantheart to go to her after he and Ignes died, though she constantly rejected it and Lukedonia had no choice but to create Cordelia as the next pure blooded Kravei heir and Clan Leader. Desdemona is an extremely beautiful woman with a calming and sometimes creepy aura. Her appearance mostly suggests that she is a Kravei, though her signature long black hair glitters a gorgeous dark red hue in the sun, which is a very prominent Agvain trait. She passes this trait (which skips her daughter Raskreia) onto her grandson Reiner, who looks a lot like her.

Desdemona is quite unusual for a noble, for many reasons. First of all, she rejects everything that could possibly be tied to her identity, which includes her surname Kravei. It’s not that she dislikes the Kravei clan members or anyone in particular. There are no personal grudges or complicated issues. It’s more that she just feels like she doesn’t want to belong to them, or any of the nobles clans, for that matter. Her heritage is there and obvious when people look at her, but she hates it when she gets associated with them. She wants to be alone, by herself, without any particular identity. Desdemona’s simply… herself. Literally. That’s all she needs. The second reason is that she doesn’t care about Lukedonia at all. Her clan members, fellow nobles in general, whatever drama’s going on… nope, she’s having none of that. She simply doesn’t care nor does she have the patience for any of it. So abandoning her surname is “her way” of saying that she has separated herself from the rest of Lukedonian society. It was a clear message for all the other nobles to back off and not bother her, no matter what their latest affairs were. Even in urgency she wouldn’t act. Sure, you could go to her and ask for objective advice, as she is great at giving them and doesn’t mind the act of talking. But don’t expect her to get up and actually do anything to help. Lukedonia could prosper, and she’d still prefer to live in the shadows. Lukedonia could burn down and perish, fine then; she’d die alongside them with no resistance. If that is to become her fate then bring it on. So be it. This mindset is essentially her philosophy of life. This leads to a lot nobles thinking Desdemona doesn’t care about them. Which is pretty much true, because she doesn’t exactly feel much kinship with her own kind, if at all. Even she herself feels foreign in her own skin sometimes. Her identity as a noble is one she doesn’t exactly want go along with, and she isn’t too keen on being referred to as one either. If you reminded her that she in fact is a noble too, she would simply answer “…yes, perhaps that is what I was born as, nothing more. Did you seriously expect another answer?” In a way, you could say that she has separated herself from most of Lukedonia, aside from the several specific individuals whom she genuinely cares about. Desdemona would’ve abandoned her first name too, but then she realized people would have a very hard time referring to her at all, so she begrudgingly decided to keep it in the end. Desdemona staying completely neutral and uninvolved in any of Lukedonia’s affairs means that she is, unintentionally, a very powerful balancing force in the background. She was never out there in the open screaming “I don’t care about any of you”. Rather, she remains silent and stays loyal to the shadows, essentially creating a barrier between herself and the rest of her world. One could go to her and tell her blablabla is going on with blablabla clan, she’d nod and then forget about it. One could even tell her about their plans to betray Lukedonia and slaughter a good portion of their own population, cool. She doesn’t care. She is known as the wise to her people, as she would give advice to just about anyone. Want to do good? She’ll give you a wonderful way to do that. Want to commit genocide? Here’s the most efficient way to do it without getting your hands dirty. It goes in both extreme ways.

She isn’t good, nor is she evil. Desdemona, to her very core, is impartial. She knows things, and will let you on her knowledge too if you ask. But just because it’s an answer doesn’t mean it has to align with any morals, it is what it is, an answer. That was her way of thinking, which was mesmerizing and fearsome at the same time. In the shadows she has the power to move things around, as a single piece of advice had the potential to inspire people to do either extreme good or extreme evil. For this reason, even though PL was her friend, he was wary of her as he knows what she’s truly like. Desdemona preferring to stay in the background doesn’t mean that she rejects people completely. Specifically, aside from guests and/or advice seekers, she does in fact have a social life and friends whom she cares about, as they are individuals that matter to her. But Lukedonian society and general politics as a whole? Nope. Unless it’s a very very close friend, if she passed by an injured or dying person, she wouldn’t extend a helping hand nor would she kill them out of mercy; she would simply keep walking on her path. This extends to herself. If she is ever in danger, she will not expect any help to come, and let fate decide it for her. In other words, she is only truly terrifying because she is so fair to everything in the world.

Personality wise, she is generally pretty aloof and distances herself from the average noble, though she can be both physically and verbally affectionate with people she’s close with. If she makes the conscious effort, of course, because this doesn’t come naturally to her. Which extends to several individuals, and they are extremely flattered to receive this “special treatment” from none other than the Desdemona. But even her relationship with her loved ones are a bit special. If she cared about them, they’d definitely know. But say they need to do something to save the world, and want her to accompany them and fight together so the chance of success is higher and risk of failing/dying is lower? Sorry, she won’t come with you, that’s on you and you alone. Not any of her business, even if she does care about you. Of course she’d want you to be safe, but if you died, then… too bad. Hopefully you didn’t go painfully. That’s where Desdemona draws the line, and her friends and loved ones are aware of it. There are almost no exceptions, and they know to expect that from her. She isn’t purposely trying to unhelpful, that’s just how her logic works. In terms of fighting capabilities, she is quite skilled and powerful. She still won’t help, though. Which is exactly why she does absolutely nothing during the Invasion of Lukedonia arc, leaving her own daughter Raskreia and her Clan Leaders to fend for themselves.

Desdemona has two distinct hobbies. She lives alone in her own place, a massive estate all to herself. Occasionally she’d get visitors who come for advice, or she’d bring her daughter Raskreia back home when it’s her turn to watch her, but other than that, she has no one else living with her. One of the things that she does is record history with giant stained glass panels. Times of war, times of peace, the rise and fall of noble factions… anything really. She isn’t deliberately trying to be artistic, but she is very talented. Looking at her stained glass panels filled with story and the wonders of the world would get people emotional and they’d start crying. Her home is generally very dark, with no light at all other than sunlight or moonlight that shines through her glass panels at specific times of the day. For this reason, Raskreia didn’t like staying with her mother/soul fragment donor because to her it was suffocating and gloomy. Desdemona on the other hand thinks her home is a safe place and the perfect cave for herself. Whenever kid Raskreia didn’t want to stay with her mother anymore and wanted to leave, Desdemona would just set her daughter free and have her run back to PL. I did my part and watched my daughter, now that she doesn’t want to be here, my job is done. That’s how she thinks. Desdemona’s other hobby is making ephemeral artwork, the kind of stuff that’s not supposed to last. She’d go on a walk and rearrange fallen leaves, pebbles, etc. It brings her a feeling of contentment. Most of the time her works go unseen and eventually destroyed with the natural passing of time but every now and then, someone would come across her “artwork” and go “Ah, Mona was here”. In a way, this is a parallel to her philosophy of life. She takes and uses what’s there, and if it shall perish and be forgotten forever, then so be it. It is beautiful to some, and haunting to others. Desdemona doesn’t care about what anyone thinks though.

Moving onto her relationship with the other nobles. Only going to list the more relevant ones. For ones that are not mentioned, feel free to ask!

The Previous Lord: her childhood friend, obviously. Desdemona used to be even more indifferent towards her own kind prior to meeting PL (when they were both children) and in a way he changed her a LOT. For the better. Much better, actually. Desdemona’s parents had a very hard time with their daughter. She’d always ask things that made people question her morals, such as “why give sick people medicine? Why not let nature take its course and decide their fates for them?” and “unforeseen events are entirely the person’s own fault because they were not wise enough to predict it. Why spend your own resources to help them clean up their own mess?” And so on. She wasn’t trying to be cruel, that was just what made sense to her. On the other side, PL was a bright and optimistic child who was open to many things. Perhaps he was able to show Desdemona not necessarily an answer, but a different perspective to her clear-cut world view of everything. And he did succeed. Desdemona’s core was never influenced but she did change the way she acted, specifically that while she would still be indifferent towards most things, she’d just do so quietly without saying anything to people’s faces. And PL was the first person ever in this world to be affectionate with her (her own parents were too scared of her and avoided her at all costs) and she was able to experience something, which was the first ever fuzzy, warm feeling, right there in her chest. And for that Desdemona was extremely grateful. PL would also be physically affectionate with her, which she reciprocated. The truth is, she simply copied the act of hugging or hand holding but she essentially never does it intuitively. She just knew that people liked these kind of things, and not the why part. And it did feel nice to be cared for, so might as well do it too for someone she cares about. PL knew this and was more than flattered to know that she’s essentially saying saying he’s important to her. The two would grow up to be close despite the massive gap between their characters and such. PL was aware of Desdemona’s true nature, and she knows he knows. They’re both okay with it. In a way PL appreciated Desdemona’s straightforwardness, as she was as genuine as anyone could get, in a good and bad way, because her impartialness was both impressive and unsettling. And Desdemona appreciated PL for acknowledging her for who she was, and that he was the first person to show her kindness. People still got weirded out whenever they saw the two of them together because there’s the kind angelic one and then the cold creepy one. They themselves didn’t mind, though. Desdemona didn’t even hesitate when PL announced that he needed an heir. She volunteered her soul fragment immediately, much to everyone’s shock, because usually she never involves herself with any affairs. Surprise surprise, she actually cared enough for someone to cut her own lifespan shorter to give them her soul fragment. Maybe she wasn’t so indifferent after all.

Raskreia: Her daughter. While Raskreia was the result of Desdemona simply donating her own soul fragment to PL as a friend, and not a child born out of romantic love, Desdemona still viewed Raskreia as her daughter, and loved her like one, though it probably wasn’t obvious on the outside. Just as Desdemona constantly made the conscious effort (and not out of intuition) to be affectionate, little Raskreia could sense that her mother’s actions were unnatural. Forced, even. Perhaps that was what it felt like from a daughter’s perspective. The sudden pauses, and the stiffness in her mother’s movements. Perhaps Mother doesn’t want me here, she thinks. And it doesn’t help when Desdemona’s home is all dark and gloomy. Raskreia dreaded when it was her mother’s turn to watch her, because she’d bring her back home and it was nothing but scary to her. In general, her mother was just creepy. Little Raskreia wasn’t trying to be mean, her instincts were just telling her to avoid these things at all costs. So one time, Raskreia decided to tell her father PL that she didn’t want to be at mom’s anymore. To Raskreia’s horror, her mother was there and heard the whole thing. Desdemona’s only reaction was basically “Hmm, okay. I’ll peace out then.” And simply just. Left. Desdemona didn’t mind at all, actually.

Yes she loved Raskreia but she also understood that if her daughter didn’t want to be in her presence, then she shouldn’t force it because letting things fold out naturally is the way to be. That was the way she loved her daughter…to just let it be. Desdemona’s not against Raskreia returning to her voluntarily if she’s ready for it again or somehow wants to stay in contact, but she doesn’t mind if Raskreia never comes back. In her mind, she already did her part as PL’s friend and maybe she wasn’t needed anymore, and that’s fine too. She just never actually verbally told her daughter that she’s welcome at any time. Raskreia misunderstood it and took Desdemona leaving as a sign of her mother not wanting her as a daughter either, which is not true. This causes little Raskreia distress and their relationship changes permanently, and they never clear up the misunderstanding. Desdemona since then was out of the parenting picture and Raskreia was basically raised by PL. Prior to PL’s death, he asked if Desdemona wanted to stay behind to see the world after him, and with nothing better to do, she agreed. After adult Raskreia succeeds her father as Lord, Desdemona is still lurks in the shadows just like she has always done so. Raskreia usually still avoids her mother, but whenever even her advisor Gejutel couldn’t offer her a solution to things and she’s desperate for guidance, she reluctantly visits her mother. Then they would have a very formal exchange. Desdemona would salute her daughter and address her as Lord. Not my daughter, not Raskreia, just Lord. Which bothers Raskreia a lot because she wonders if this is her mother’s attempt to tell her she still doesn’t see her as a daughter, by refusing to call her by her name, which is not the case at all. In truth Desdemona really is just showing respect to her Lord as a citizen of Lukedonia, even if this Lord happens to be her own kid. It’s the standard procedure, and she is merely adhering to it. To Desdemona, Raskreia is her Lord before she is her daughter, therefore she acts accordingly. Nevertheless, Raskreia takes it personally, though she never shows it. Then Raskreia would ask for advice, and after she gets answers, she leaves. There is nothing more to their exchange. No more words. No questions of how are you doing, is everything alright, I’ve missed you, etc. None of that. Raskreia secretly hopes that there will be something more to their interaction, only to be disappointed each time. Sometimes she would even hope that her mother would scold her a bit, just tell her that her reign is ineffective, as it is. But her mother never says anything, just as silent as ever, only answering questions being asked of her. Nothing more. Desdemona in fact does believe that Raskreia’s reign is a shit one, but as usual she doesn’t care about Lukedonia’s drama so no reason for her to say so. The general silence from her mother just tortures Raskreia even more, but with her own sense of pride, it is hard for her to bring up any of this. If Mother doesn’t make an effort, then neither should I, she thinks. In general, their mother-daughter relationship is a really unconventional and strange one. They obviously care for each other, but the way it manifests just leads to misunderstanding and a lot of guessing, especially on Raskreia’s part. Their relationship remains the same way throughout the storyline of my Millennium AU. Cold and ever so distant. Nothing less, nothing more. P.s. To this day, Raskreia is bitter because she suspects that her mother definitely had something to do with Reiner suddenly leaving Lukedonia, because her son is not the type of person to come up with that by himself, and someone must have given him the idea. But there is no proof. Out of respect, she does not mind-read her mother, but she is definitely suspicious of her.

Reiner: Raskreia’s son, and her grandson. Now this is where things begin to get interesting. Desdemona was fairly uninvolved with parenting Raskreia (well, Raskreia thought her mother was creepy so) and the total amount of time they spent together all added up wasn’t much honestly. But with her only grandson Reiner? She was very much involved in his life, and at a very a young age too. You see, Raskreia was often busy as Lord and didn’t have much time for little Reiner. During the time they did interact, she was always very strict on him, treating him more like her heir and subject rather than her son, a child who needed affection and attention. And Reiner’s other parent Razark just… didn’t really do anything about Raskreia’s relationship with their son, because being the blindly loyal husband he was, he believed that whatever Raskreia’s doing, was the best, and he had no reason to change the way things are done. In a way by not intervening (like he really should have) he was practically enabling Raskreia’s not good way of raising their son. While Reiner does love both of his parents (in a mildly twisted and unhealthy way), he isn’t sure about whether he trusts them. But with his grandmother Desdemona, he both loves and fully trusts her. She’s actually the only person to whom he feels this way in the entirety of Lukedonia and the Millennium AU in general. Their initial grandmother-grandson meeting was a completely unintentional one. When Reiner was born, Desdemona had the news delivered to her by another noble so she was aware of the birth of her grandson. She didn’t make an active effort to meet him though, as whatever happened out there still wasn’t any of her business, even if it was the birth of a new family member, someone who shared her blood.

When Reiner was old enough to wander around on his own, whenever he got tired from his momlord’s suffocating strictness and his father’s blind loyalty and enablement, he would walk around Lukedonia’s territory by himself to get a breather. By chance, he happened to stumble upon Desdemona’s home. It was dark and empty, with the only light source being the light that shone through the beautiful stained glass panels. Normally people would find this to be eerie but to Reiner, it was strangely comforting. He would calmly sit in the darkness and observe the globs of colorful, dim light on the ground that moved around slowly as the angle of the sun changed. There was no company for him here, but at least there was no one to tell him he’s a disappointment either. Turns out, there was someone lurking in the dark. The owner of this place. The silhouette did not move though, as if it were trying to not disturb him. Reiner would then greet the figure in the shadows with a full introduction of himself and apologize for intruding their home. Curiously, the figure stepped forward and revealed itself as a mysterious woman. Reiner had never met her before, yet he felt a sense of familiarity to her. She first asked Reiner if he knew who she is, to which he answered no. She then asked him if he would like to know who she is. He answered yes. That was how Desdemona revealed to Reiner that she is his maternal grandmother. Reiner was just. Shocked because his parents never told him he had a living grandparent. But at the same time, he was happy. Because now he had a new family member, and family is what makes you stronger, just like what his Kertia father had always been telling him, right…? Then Reiner remembered that he should be home now, and hurried away. But not before cheerfully saying, “Goodbye, Grandma Mona!” to a now very intrigued Desdemona. He also promised to come back again. Desdemona didn’t take this seriously and thought Reiner was just saying that to be polite. Though she didn’t pay too much attention to him, she found that this “Reiner” kid kept appearing on her mind once in a while for some reason. Perhaps this was fate. To her surprise, he did come back, and very excited too, to talk to his new “Grandma”. The occasional back and forths became a regular thing, and fast forward to Reiner as an adult, they’re basically best friends. Grandma and grandson. Truth be told, Desdemona had never been so close with anyone in her entire life, until now. Not even PL, her childhood friend, and of course not her daughter Raskreia either. And neither was she this close with her ex-lover, and all of her other friends whom she spent time with back in the day. For the first time in her life, she felt the feeling of “I love this person and I am willing protect them with my life” which was very surprising to her. For the entirety of her existence there had never been a single exception to her philosophy of being completely uninvolved and impartial to the world, but it seemed like that has changed too. And that person is her precious grandson Reiner. Reiner loves her back. He would confide in her his woes, family issues with parents, feeling like a disappointment, being extremely burnt out from the pressure of maintaining himself as the perfect prince… etc. and she would feel sad for him. The neutral Desdemona is actually sad on someone else’s behalf. Reiner doesn’t even know that this type of reaction from her is the rarest sight ever. As time goes by and Reiner’s mental condition worsens, he asks his grandmother for advice. And…. Boom. That’s where everything started, where the idea was first put into his head. She suggests that he leaves Lukedonia. If this was the source of his pain, then leaving everything behind and going to somewhere else for a fresh start, is the best idea. Reiner brushes it off at first, not even thinking of it as an option, but it slowly becomes a reality for him. Maybe grandma is right.

You could say that the three of them are so eerily similar, with each of then so stubbornly loyal to their own beliefs and world view. That being Desdemona believing that everything should be left on its own to fate in a strong-eats-weak world, Raskreia believing she needs to reign with absolute control because stability is of upmost importance, and finally Reiner believing he needs fo free everyone in Lukedonia and make it a democracy where everyone has equal input in deciding how to live. Reiner’s final attempts to change Raskreia’s views fail, and feeling utterly exhausted and defeated, he decides to leave Lukedonia forever. But not before visiting grandmother one last time. They say their goodbyes, and Desdemona wishes him the best of luck. Strangely, she takes off her ring and gives it to Reiner, instructing him to wear it and never take it off. She doesn’t tell him why, but he could tell that she is serious. So he reassures her that he will, and that is the last they ever see of each other. What Reiner doesn’t know is that this ring has a special, single-use protection spell imbued with it. In the distant past, Desdemona had worked with one of her fellow nobles, a Clan Leader, to make this charm and only succeeded in making a single one after many, many years of trying. Desdemona correctly predicted that Raskreia would deem Reiner a traitor and go after him. The ring’s spell will protect Reiner from one single fatal blow as long as he’s still wearing it. To be precise, it will transfer the damage and fatal wound Reiner receives to Desdemona herself. Should Raskreia really land a fatal blow on Reiner, he will survive, and Desdemona will die. Desdemona on the other hand sees this as the last gift she can give to her grandson. She is willing to sacrifice herself for this child. While she hopes that this day will never come, she is fully prepared for it. She never told Reiner the truth behind this ring because then he would be heartbroken and not wear it. This is the only exception that Desdemona ever makes in her entire life, to go all out to save someone. And to her, it’s worth her everything. Grandmother and grandson both miss each other very badly, and they both know they will likely never see each other again. A beautiful yet tragic relationship.

Leona: her ex-girlfriend. Desdemona and Leona were on-and-off lovers, before Leona left for her mission. Leona adored her Moni for her weirdness and her very unique, clear-cut world view, and Desdemona appreciated her Leonie for her dazzling energy and ability to consistently switch between being super unhinged to being in total control. Their energy levels were completely different, with Leona being the very active and energetic one while Desdemona was the quieter and more passive one. The bright sun and the dark shadows. But they worked out somehow, and even though they weren’t together all the time, it was a time of happiness. Before Leona departed for her mission, she formally broke up with Desdemona. Even though Leona didn’t give any details, Desdemona knew that this was a serious thing. So she expressed her understanding, Leona thanked her, and they part from each other on good terms. Leona is one of the few people that Desdemona cares about. She is part of her inner circle. (apparently Leona’s type is tired people lmaoo)

Zephyrus: her old friend. And the secret person whom she worked with to create that magic ring she eventually gives to grandson Reiner, prior to his departure from Lukedonia. The Volo soul weapon’s ultimate skill is transferring a fatal blow from one ally to another, and after many years research, the two of them were able to replicate this skill onto a one-time artifact. This was long before Zephyrus and Leona departed for their mission. Desdemona’s instincts told her that she needed to do this, to make an artifact with this exact protection spell. And she was right, as she eventually gave it to Reiner. To this day Zephyrus honors his promise of keeping this ring a secret between the two of them, and not even his family knows about it. Zephyrus is one of the few people that Desdemona cares about. He is part of her inner circle.

Roctis: didn’t care about him. He was her relative, but that doesn’t change anything because she abandoned the Kravei surname long ago, so to her he was just like any other noble. As kids they did bump into each other more often than members of other clans. She never made an effort to get to know him, though.

Lagus: didn’t care about him. He was a frequent visitor who asked for her advice, before he betrayed Lukedonia. She actually put a lot of ideas into his head, as she would always answer honestly when asked for advice, even if the nature of the question is intended for evil. Lagus actually told her about him planning to take over Lukedonia one day, because he knew that she didn’t care and wouldn’t tell anyone else either. She just nodded and told him to do what he wanted, and if he succeeds, then that is because he is stronger than them and so be it. Lagus had planned to make her his advisor once he takes over Lukedonia, but that never happens because he died so.

Urokai: didn’t care about him. He was her relative because she’s also part Agvain. She never paid any attention to him but for some reason he was very, very scared of her. He believed that if he stared into her eyes, she would suck his soul out. Gave him quite the chills.

Zarga: didn’t care about him. Just like Lagus, sometimes he visited her for advice. She was the one who suggested that he should follow Urokai, when he asked what he should do about Urokai wanting to leave Lukedonia.

Luzia: Claudia’s daughter and the heir to Tradio. Desdemona is the only person in the entire Millennium AU to know about Luzia’s special secret underground lab, where all kinds of creepy illegal experiments are being done. Because Luzia willingly tells her about it, asking for advice on what kind of shady experiments to run, forbidden material to collect, etc. Luzia somehow just knows that Desdemona won’t share this with others, because the latter literally doesn’t care about what anyone does. This is the same correct prediction that Lagus made back then, when he consulted with Desdemona about his plans to take over Lukedonia. Same mindset. In a way, Luzia truly is Lagus’ granddaughter. And Desdemona is a surprisingly knowledgeable on shady topics. From there you can assume what their conversations are like.

Azurine: Zephyrus’ daughter and the heir to Volo. Same deal with Luzia, except Azurine comes to Desdemona with the intention to gain knowledge to help the world. As usual, Desdemona doesn’t care about whether you’re doing good or evil. Anyways, Azurine is here to ask questions like what poisons she should take next for her antidote research, how to increase her own poison tolerance etc. etc. Stuff for the good for of the people. Desdemona gives great advice on that too, which Azurine appreciates, but the latter just can’t help but wonder how the former even knows so much about things that are supposed to be the Volo’s specialty. What Azurine doesn’t know is the fact that in the past Desdemona had worked together with none other than her very own father and Clan Leader. To make a magic ring, or something. To this day Zephyrus honors the promise between himself and Desdemona, to keep it a secret between the two of them. Not a word to anyone, not even his own daughter Azurine. Azurine, and the rest of Lukedonia, would continue to be oblivious to this piece of knowledge.

Cordelia: the current Kravei Clan Leader, and the youngest of the fifteen nextgen nobles. Desdemona is very fond of this girl, to everyone’s surprise. The eccentric, aloof Desdemona who doesn’t even show much concern for her own daughter Raskreia, is being extra nice to this little Kravei girl. Perhaps it’s because Cordelia’s a fellow Kravei, but Desdemona abandoned her own surname a long time ago. Perhaps it’s because Cordelia looks like her grandson Reiner, but Desdemona isn’t the type of person to favor a someone just because they look like a familiar. No one knows exactly why. You could even say that Desdemona dotes on Cordelia. Cordelia is a bit confused but she appreciates this weird Lady who is seemingly even willing to take care of her. Cordelia is part of Desdemona’s inner circle. Though this affection indirectly puts Cordelia under immense pressure because the last time Desdemona was ever this nice to someone was when she was with Reiner, and Reiner ended up leaving Lukedonia. This leads to Raskreia (no so discreetly) keeping Cordelia under extra surveillance, because in her misunderstanding she suspects that Cordelia is up to no good either, because that woman is fond of her. Poor Cordelia.

…and that concludes relationships for now!! Yayy!! Maybe I’ll do the other characters in the future.

And in general a few quotes from Lady Desdemona, the great and terrifying:

1. “…Who am I, you ask? Good question. I don’t know either. Perhaps you can tell me.”

2. “Good and evil… the classic duality of nature. They are merely words people use to label and justify their actions. Such a concept simply does not exist to me. Do not associate me with such shallowness.”

3. (to PL) “A hug… that’s what you call this, correct? When I put my arms around someone’s body? I’m still learning it. How long do I leave them there? When do I pull them away?”

4. (to Raskreia) “That is correct. ‘Mother’ is the word people would use to objectively describe me, in relation to you. There is no need for you to address me as such, if you do not wish to.”

5. (to Reiner) “Go. Go now. Fly away from this place, and be free. Do not force yourself to linger here, where the only ending that awaits you is misery and madness. Leave before your soul withers here, where no hope is found. Or, you could stay here, if that is what you wish. Then I will be right by your side, and we shall witness the end of this world together. …Do not fret, child. There is no need to worry about me, or any of the others. The only person you can betray is yourself. Follow your heart. Set yourself free from this prison, or stay in it. The choice is yours…my little one.”

6. (to Leona) “Leonie, dearie, please come down. We can dance together somewhere else. Just please refrain from jumping around on my unfinished piece of stained glass. Hey! I can see a crack already!”

7. (to Zephyrus) “Thank you. Thank you accepting my unreasonable request in the first place. We really did it. You’re the only person I could trust for this. I will keep this ring safe with me. I have a bad feeling that I will need this one day.”

Aaaand that’s it for now!! I’m so excited to draw her again lol. Thank you for reading and see you next time!

[queenofthieves]

amaryllis, forget-me-not, iris + nadya? 💚

thank you, dear!! <3 oh Nadya, my beautiful necromantic spy, lets go:

amaryllis :   what is something or someone that your muse takes pride in ?   how do they express that pride ?  

She takes pride in her appearance, her mind, and even the fact that she’s just a little off putting. Nadya’s more overtly prideful about her appearance and oddness. She finds herself to be extremely beautiful but part of being like “I’m gorgeous, I’m the best” is that it’s a bit of a shield, some people aren’t going to poke deeper at you if they think you’re shallow and full of yourself, so she feels it can ward off people from being interested in whatever the fuck is going on internally. She doesn’t mind people having the wrong idea of her and thinks that it can often be beneficial. 

Being off putting is something she takes pride in because she thinks it both adds to her attractiveness and offsets it. She also gets a kick out of making people uncomfortable so being open about her ‘weird’ interests allows her to 1. Talk about stuff she enjoys and 2. Push people’s buttons for her amusement, or if someone isn’t uncomfortable there’s also some weird enjoyment in that.

Her mind (maybe her nature? Talking about both spellcasting and tendencies to lie, etc.) - is something she takes a lot of pride in. I guess she is overt about the lying part, in the sense that I think she plays it up, but that kind of goes into her preferring people believe she lies a lot more often than she actually does. The way that she is prideful in this trait isn’t really something she displays like the two above, and the way she’s overt about it is in a way that she thinks is potentially misleading. She would rather people come to recognize what it is to her on their own. Nadya really loves the traits that others may feel are ‘less desirable’ and for her they’re a very important piece of her - these things being important to her are why she’d rather not be quite so direct about it, she’s honestly probably been burned by that in the past hm. Part of why she chose the career path she has is that she can use her, uh, ‘non normative’ traits in a way that other jobs might not be as accepting of while also getting to be helpful and useful, which she loves. I think she’d lose her mind - in a positive sense - if anyone were to recognize that part of her in a way that she feels is accurate and makes her feel seen in truth (something something spies and their fucking praise kinks). I’m sure it has been recognized to some degree previously, but being seen in that way is both something she craves and something she feels she shouldn’t care about lmfao.

And the other part of her mind is her casting/intellect. Nadya doesn’t lead with that, she’d rather people recognize that on their own. Both because it’s more meaningful to her if she doesn’t have to spell that out to someone, and because she doesn’t feel like everyone needs to know her capabilities. She’s not dumbing herself down, but she directs attention elsewhere, and she's not going to be seen as a potential threat if her casting isn't known. Nadya will be upfront about that or other abilities if she needs to for work or academically, but those are the only times she truly cares to come off as impressive.

forget - me - not :   has your muse ever forgotten something that is or was important to them ?   are they afraid of forgetting things like that ? 

She has not forgotten anything important as of yet, which is maybe a miracle with some of the memory shit going on in the campaign. Nadya is terrified of forgetting many things. Any of the memories she holds dear with her uncle Dima, anything from her group back in the living world - the Bleeding Hearts, forgetting any of that would be like forgetting a part of herself. Due to paranoia with what her field is, she’s afraid of being forced to forget things. She has a - maybe irrational - fear of forgetting her studies. Part of the choice to learn casting the way she does is so that it’s hers and can’t be taken from her, but there’s always the potential for that no matter what. 

Since part of the goal is returning from the dead back to her old life - she's developed a fear of forgetting the Underworld, probably due to recently forming some attachments, that will likely only grow. rip to her tbh

iris :   if your muse could convey one last message to someone they have lost or left behind ,   what would it be ? 

Okay ouch. I think she has to go with one last message to the person she knew as her uncle Dima, with the knowledge she now has. I think it’d be something like:

“I miss you. I spent so long convinced that you can’t be gone. I met Dima. When I first found out, I struggled a lot imagining the possibility that the time we knew each other might not have meant as much to you as it did to me. But, I don’t think those anxieties and initial fears can be accurate. They rely on the idea that we need to know everything about a person to actually know them. I got to know Dima. I got to know the parts that you filled in, everything outside of the blueprint you were given, I got to know you. If it didn’t matter, then I can’t imagine you would’ve stuck around so long.

I believe that I am lucky to have been loved twice over by Dima and to have been loved by you, Nox. 

Considering my circumstances, it is probably awful to hope that I find you. If you’re not where I am already, then I hope it is a long time before we cross paths. But I do hope that our paths intersect once again. I have been lost without you in my life. I hope there is more time.”

[sharkiegorath]

ok I read the whole Forgotten Realms Avatar series and at the start it's not what i'd call good but it’s entertaining. the third book is decent and fun. then the last two books are suddenly very good and i am scurrying like a rat

from the start I was struck by how similar the mortal Midnight was to Gale: Mystra’s Chosen with a volatile magical item grafted onto her chest, indignant about the gods but determined to finish her duty even if it's certain to kill her, arrogant and reckless but so good-natured it doesn’t really show until the stakes escalate, probably falls in love too easily, purple seems to have been her favorite color... also love the irony of how widely hated Mystra is by BG3 fandom, because at the start of Midnight’s tenure as Mystra she is THE god breaking rules and making divine enemies to try to help mortals and minimize damage. In Prince of Lies she even has an arc about struggling to convince other gods and concluding that godhood is a type of single-minded insanity but thankfully she won’t lose her sense of humanity hahaha ha ha. I need to read the later Elminster books to see exactly how the personality merge worked, but the way it’s described on the FR wiki and cross-referencing BG3 and this series, I assume Midnight is still a strong element of current Mystra. (ok confirmed by Ed Greenwood but i need to talk about this more in another post bc it's giving me extreme brainworms)

Shadowdale is meh but not the weakest book. Adon and Cyric had interesting enough arcs. I think Midnight and Kelemvor do have chemistry based on their banter and basic dynamic, it’s just rushed and bogged down with standard straightmalewriteritis. Kelemvor is a blatant misogynist to drum up initial conflict with Midnight, a trait completely discarded and forgotten in the subsequent books; they somehow missed the obvious hook that maybe Kelemvor is wary of female mages because of his family curse. I did like how by the end of Shadowdale he was about to go to battle and he was staring at puddles thinking “if my situationship was here she could do magic and turn them into steam :(" And I was pleasantly surprised by the ultimately inconsequential character arc of Bane relearning mortality and bonding with a follower, only to accidentally kill him, because magic is unstable because of what Bane did. 

Tantras is largely irritating besides Midnight and Adon's friendship and Cyric's series of successful deception rolls. The underlying plot actually isn’t bad but there are way too many characters holding the idiot ball and not communicating for contrived reasons. In Shadowdale, almost every newly introduced sympathetic character ends up dying shortly afterwards, like they’re just lining up to speedrun emotional investment; it's even more obvious in Tantras. Worst of all, there's very little buildup to Cyric’s villainy after his heroism at the end of Shadowdale. It's frustrating because his corruption could make perfect sense but it was so flat and clumsily executed. Then Kelemvor's curse is resolved anticlimactically. I vaguely recall the story getting better towards the end, when Torm appears, but nothing gripping. There was one cool perspective trick where the story rewinds to show the same mundane scene from Midnight, Kelemvor, and Adon's eyes before they go off on mini solo adventures.

I like Waterdeep, but my opinion is probably improved by comparing it to the previous books and knowing it was written by a different author. There’s still an overuse of epithets, but there’s a noticeable improvement in characterization and narrative logic. Cyric acts more like ‘himself’ in his first scene compared to any point in Tantras. Midnight, Kelemvor, and Adon actually act like friends. I appreciated how they grapple with the ethical consequences of removing Kelemvor's curse, though their Cyric debate feels drawn-out. Waterdeep is also much better at introducing secondary characters, giving plenty of space between their introductions and deaths, and surprisingly making the deaths meaningful later on. The ending manages to make Midnight's ascension feel more tragic than triumphant.

Prince of Lies is great. There's a sharp improvement in how it utilizes POV and weaves a complex story. It might even work as a standalone, but I appreciated it more because I already knew the backstory and characters. There are multiple storylines satisfyingly coming together; all of the new POV characters hold up to the originals; the prose is good; the dialogue is engaging; everything about Cyric is appropriately unsettling and he largely manages to not feel like a cartoon villain. I've already mentioned how I enjoyed Mystra's ominous idealistic arc in this book and I was surprised by how invested I was in the other gods, especially Torm, Oghma, and Mask. The only things I actively dislike are the casual fatphobia throughout and the conclusion of Mask’s role. Now that I think about it, Cyric's arc throughout the whole series and Mask's involvement would've been better if we ever, ever acknowledged that in PoL Mask was basically Cyric's lover (non-physical) (fake cursed sword) for ten years. like what was up with that. hello

I spoiled myself for over half of Crucible because I was getting fatigue from this series fsdoufsdifas. I was hesitant about the start, because it seemed so different from Prince of Lies, but it quickly won me over with the unreliable narrator and scope. At its best, it’s the exact kind of artsy metaphysical fuckery I love from The Elder Scrolls. Cyric genuinely believed in the propaganda version of himself, subtly recontextualizing everything he does until the end! He does a freaky heart swap with his tragicomedic best follower ever! He drinks his not-exes' breakup tears transubstantiated into their last pieces of humanity!

The trial plot is clever, but it stumbles with Mask's involvement - disappointing, because he was a fun character for most of PoL, but he keeps tripping over his own plans and doesn't have meaningful enough connections to the main characters. Overall, though, I love it. It explores why a good person would be a bad god, demonstrating exactly how it disrupts 'balance' instead of leaving it as a vague abstract concept. The ending is brutal, without violence or death or straightforward fates worse than death. It's theological horror, something similar but distinct from eldritch or psychological. It upends the earlier high fantasy and B-plot romance to tell a bonkers story where the biggest betrayals come from within. For all of Cyric's gore and insanity, it's also horrifying to watch Kelemvor systematically closing himself off (even if it's for the greater good), and to see Mystra trying her hardest to be a 'good' god but having her compassion warped through her power and responsibilities.

The thing is, Crucible wouldn't hit as hard without the previous books, including the first two. Midnight and Kelemvor frequently clashed over morality as vulnerable, desperate humans. They developed and matured as people, but it comes full circle as gods. Their friendships with Adon demonstrate how far they come and what they've lost by the end. More controversially, I think I had so much fun partially because the first two books were janky and the third was only kinda good. It was fun seeing the quality go from mediocre generic sword and sorcery pulp to occasionally poetic and absolutely bonkers. On an unintentional metatexual level, it reflects how the characters and their world changed for the better - so the emotional bus crash at the end of Crucible felt more tragic and earned. If the series had been obviously good from the start, it would have to maintain that quality, and the last book would have to work harder to land.

tl;dr i love divorce and that "truly great TV is 200 episodes and 40 of them are the worst you've ever seen" post is onto something

[paragonrobits]

tbh i think the whole ‘Midna’s true form doesn’t look enough like a gremlin so her imp form is better’ is kind of a ground zero for a particular type of discourse in character design that ultimately boils down to a single question:

should a character’s design be a visual summary of their personality?

there are pros and cons to this thing. on the one hand, i always appreciate a design where a single look at it goes ‘oh yeah you know EVERYTHING about this person’. a lot of the most iconic villains really lean into this (though a lot of heroes don’t, for a particular reason), and these designs are a very effective way to instantly communicate character.

The flipside issue of this, though, is that while it doesn’t INHIBIT nuance, it does make it harder to convey it, or at least if you assume that a design should always communicate the fundamental facet of this character, it also means that by default those facets will have greater significance to an audience than more subtle or less obvious traits revealed through characterization and plot. For example, if your character is a huge and brutish monster with a soft side, and the former is what their character design communicates (because the soft side is a subversion), than this approach to character design can be more of a hurdle.

Character design as character thesis also creates a problem with audience response; if the audience overwhelmingly makes assumptions about a character because of the way they look, even if that’s not at all what you intended, they can and probably will warp that character to fit their preconceptions. (For instance, all the male characters who happen to be attractive by the standards of the audience and get reimagined as brooding bad boys whose pragmatism and ruthlessness is them being dark and mature, even if the actual character is an explosive dumbass with zero maturity and too selfish to consider that other people have goals independent of what they want.)

This is where you run into another big issue with this whole idea: remember when i said that heroes and protagonists often tend to have less interesting designs, or at least that their characters are not often communicated as well? This largely boils down to a desire to have characters that you WANT people to like to be broadly inoffensive; if you’ve ever created OCs and you shied away from a particularly unpalatable character trait or design feature because you thought it would turn more people away, than you know EXACTLY what i mean. Heroes are often compelled to be more broadly likable, but this also means flattening out their potential concepts in favor of something more... marketable. Which sucks. It fucking sucks. Its why so many heroes come off as boring compared to villains, and while you can get some fun ideas by making your heroes just as extreme as villains, its very easy to screw it up and create unlikable characters. (You can honestly study a lot of discourse this way.)

Going back to Midna, she’s actually a prime example of a heroic character that does this right, but the thing about her is that while being a gremlin is a big part of her character, it isn’t what defines her. She is, after all, the protagonist (though not the playable one) of this game, she is THE titular Twilight Princess, and this role is ultimately what defines her, and her growing into her responsibility. She may be a gremlin, but its not the sole aspect of her personality.

Personally, I’ve always liked her true form more (though to be honest, she would probably have more facial elements from Imp Midna if she appeared in more games especially now, since the highly mature and regal look of her true form is kind of a stylistic element exclusive to Twilight Princess, while she’d probably look more like Imp Midna but Gerudo-sized and proportioned if she appeared in Tears of The Kingdom), not least in part BECAUSE its such a contrast to her actual personality. It’s very fun to get a character whose design expects you to think one way of them, but they turn out to have a radically different personaltiy, while it does seem limiting for a character’s design to indicate who they are. It might communicate things easier, but it also leans towards a much flatter character; if you convey everything that way, what’s left to tell?

for Midna, when we see her true form’s contrast against the gremlin cursed form we associated with her, its essentially the story of her character development and the depths of who she really is told in reverse.

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

So I saw a really well made analysis on why splinter and raph are similar

(Please read it btw it’s well made)

So I wanted to explain why I think two other characters are similar.

Who are they?

Yup.

Lemme explain.

For starters, personality traits they share

Determination

Both put their all into any goal they want to achieve.

For shredder, this is killing splinter

For Leo, this is being the best ninja

This determination can be a bane and a boon, making both goal driven.

Both can also be extreme when these goals aren’t met.

See

Leo becoming extremely doubtful of himself/lashing out when he believes he can’t be a good leader. Whether it’s cause his brothers don’t respect him or he’s severely injured.

For shredder, he also severely lashes out when he can’t complete his goal. To the point he was willing to mutate himself to reach this goal.

Destructive anger

While splinter and raph have more obvious anger issues, Leo’s and shredders anger, when unleashed, is far more destructive.

Using two examples that are similar.

Shredder has killed many in his rage and destroyed the lives of many others. He doesn’t handle failure well at all. Shredders whole character is based on him being so stuck in his own anger he doesn’t think about the fact that what he’s doing is horrible.

While Leo tends to get stuck in his own head when he’s angry. Doing things like trying to take out a mother ship with a scout ship when his home planet has less than an hour left before being destroyed. Why did he do this? He was angry at fugitoid for not telling them something and got so caught up in that anger he didn’t think through his actions.

Hypocrisy

Shredder

“Mutants are vile creatures”

Turns himself into a mutant

“Karai. You are my daughter and I love you”

Constantly finds ways to mentally torture Karai for his own gain

“It’s your fault Karai is a mutant!”

Was the one who cut the chain

I could go on

Leo

“Donnie you can’t kill viziozo. It’s wrong”

Beheaded shredder

“Raph you can’t be this nightwatcher vigilante going off by yourself. We’re a team”

Goes off with Karai and shini to stop shredder without telling his team despite the fact that they would want to help.

“Mikey leatherhead is dangerous. Don’t try to be friendly with him”

Is constantly trying to get a known foot clan member on their side.

Idealism

Shredder sees himself as a victim who’s trying to protect his daughter and avenge his love (ok this is probably moreso delusion)

Leo sees himself as a true hero like captain Ryan and does everything he can to be like that.

Honor

Shredder is not an honorable man, but boy does he think he is. Shredder puts a lot of emphasis on what he thinks honor is,

Just like a certain blue clad turtle.

Black and white morality

Both of their moral systems lack nuance and complexity.

“I’m the hero for taking hamato yoshi out of this world”

“I’m the hero cause I let this mugger who beat up a blind man go”

“This person is evil cause they’re against me”

Taste in women

This is gonna sound weird but

Both seem to be attracted to women they know or at least, should know they shouldn’t be with.

For shredder, it’s Shen. A married woman. A woman married to his brother. He knows this, yet still tries to pursue a romantic relationship with her.

For Leo, it’s (Blegh) Karai, a foot clan member he thought was shredders daughter for a bit (so his cousin) who he then found out was his sister. Does he stop pursuing her after finding out she’s splinters daughter? NOPE. Even in season FIVE he was trying to flirt with her. Even Donnie and Casey stopped being weird towards april by season 4.

They also seem to want women they can save.

Shen is unhappy with her marriage at the moment and wants to move to America? I’ll give her that. I’ll get her away from her awful husband and save her!

Karai is a member of the foot? I’ll redeem her! Karai is splinters daughter? I’ll do whatever it takes to save her and bring her home! (That one’s not bad) Karais trying to lead her own foot clan? I’ll save her from herself!

Now. Here’s the big question.

Could Leo become like shredder?

HELL NO!

Why?

Splinter and his brothers. They could be d••ks to Leo and put too much pressure on him, but they make it clear to Leo that they love him and appreciate him for what he does and sacrifices (eventually)

I don’t think saki had that. His father didn’t seem to love him much and then there’s the whole “genociding his biological bloodline and then lying to him his whole life”

Leo and shredder may have similar traits, but just like how, despite being similar, raph would never become splinter, Leo would never become shredder.

This probably isn’t that well explained but my brain wouldn’t leave me alone until I made this analysis.

Hope y’all enjoy!

Feel free to add any parallels y’all have noticed!

[kyriat-sims]

I got one of those asks (thank you @taanoir and @sims-half-crazy ❤️) that said: “List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore ❤️” Since I’m so late to the party and most of my friends have done this already I’m not going to forward it to anyone. (But if you want to do it, just go ahead!)

It is tempting to do one of the active characters in my running story, but then I would have to disclose what will happen, and I absolutely don’t want to do that!

So I chose to do Won Ngo, a side character from previous chapters, and uncle to Noor and Eira, the present heirs and main characters. One reason why I chose him is that I was really tempted to let him be the main focus of the story, but that would have been a totally different story of course. 😊

So, here we go

He never got to explore the jungle, which was his great dream (ambition) in life. He chose to stay in Oasis Springs in stead, and build a new camp with his childhood friend Lea. It is not very often that Stone Age cavemen chose love over their personal interests and drive, so that says something about how special he is. The fact that he also has the noncommittal trait, makes his “sacrifice” almost unbelievable

He is one of the best hunters in Oasis Springs. His talent was apparent from childhood. One of the reasons for his success would probably be his exceptional listening and observation skills - which he also uses in his relations with people.

He doesn’t like to brag about his own achievements, nor talk about personal views. He is very polite, discrete and friendly, but still very firm when decisions are to be made. If he lived in modern times he would be the perfect diplomat or ambassador.

He went through a depression that lasted for years, that not many sims know about. It was set off by the grief over many miscarriages and children’s deaths he and Lea experienced. In this period of his life he came extremely close to his eldest daughter Bils. She has the spellcaster gene like her mother, and I believe she healed and helped him through this difficult time, in a way that nobody else could have done.

He really dislikes parties. Out of politeness he will always come if invited, but probably leave as soon as he can. Unnoticed, of course. He is very charming and witty, so people usually flock around him at social events, whilst Won himself prefers to be alone, or in quiet surroundings with his wife and kids. 

Thank you for reading! ❤️

[peachypede]

😶🐯🍯🔐 for Pecha and Rawst?

Ask meme is here

Pecha

Tbh she doesn’t have a lot of control on what her face is doing. It’s a trait she inherited from her dad. When she tries to show an expression, such as smiling, it looks forced even if she is genuinely happy at the moment. She tries to keep a smile on her face most time because she doesn’t want to chase people away.

Often her face blanks without her realizing it. She’ll space out during a conversation and become very stoic faced or bored looking without meaning to. When she’s concentrating hard, her face goes between blank to glare that can kill. So during pokemon battles she either looks ready to murder you or completely unfazed by the battle…works in her favor though since it makes her hard to read.

Rawst

Has the same thing as Pecha and his dad, though he doesn’t try to force expressions. He doesn’t care if people have a hard time reading him or if he seems unfriendly. He believes it’s up to people to not make too harsh of first impressions of him.

He’s extremely blank faced while watching horror movies or playing horror games. His deadpan humor and inability to be phased by even the scariest of jumpscares is what attracts people to his streams and let’s plays. It’s hilarious watching a guy react to a creepy monster by saying “oh you silly little rascal! Come here…”

Pecha

When she used to have a battle training schedule, her first song on the playlist would be Kick in the Door by Xenia Pax and if her Pokemon hear this song they instantly go into battle mode. (From sweet house pets into battle machines lol)

Nowadays, she needs songs that get her into creating mode. Oresama- Morning Call has a nice snappy feeling to it that helps her focus on her work whether it’s making concept art or actually creating the pieces.

Rawst

He prefers soundtracks over songs with words, especially since he’s mostly trying to get pumped during a stream. Lights, Camera, Action! from Sonic Mania is a nice one to start off the stream. Any royalty free 8-bit music would be nice as well.

For more chill, just chatting streams some soundtracks like Lori M from Night in the Woods has really nice chill vibes to hang out to. (tbh I feel like this also would be kinda Rawst's theme as well. Mellow and chill.)

Pecha

Has a weakness for sweets but also a very sensitive tummy so if she overindulges, she's in pain town. She loves cakes, pies, cookies...especially home baked goods. Since she was taught by her tita to bake, it's kinda hard to avoid temptation when she knows she can just whip up her own cake or something.

ice-cream though has to take the top. So many flavors! So many toppings to add! Also romantic in a way cause you can share a milkshake with someone all cute diner style~

Rawst

Junk food eater. Eats a lot of candy. Also a freak though so his favorites are probably the extreme sour candies that would make a normal person pucker but with Rawst he has some extra citric powder that he adds to them to make them even more sour. (which if you consider that he ALSO has a sensitive stomach, he is always in pain and feeling like shit because of this)

His all time favorite is the sour gummy worms. He rolls those in the extra citric powder and eats a whole bag. Gremlin man.

Pecha

Her closet holds a secret...she has a furry suit. It's her own original character called Webby whose a Galvantula. She's got sparkles in her eyes and the main arms connect to a second lower pair of arms , having four arms like a Galvantula does. And yes. Pecha made this herself after watching tons of tutorials. She's remade and redone it for years until it looks really well made. And yes. She goes to convention incognito with it. She just likes furry stuff and thinks they're super cute! All the colors! All the cute mascots!

She doesn't like showing people due to all the stigma. If a friend or lover stumbles onto it, she'll get very embarrassed...

She really wants to make a Ribombee character next, though.

Rawst

He writes songs, poetry, and also draws people he thinks are attractive. All these journals are kept in one of his drawers at his computer desk. He's only lately started sharing some of his music online, but he'll never show off his poetry or drawings to people. They, um...hold his secret feelings for some certain people that he doesn't like to show

Might someday sing a song for his lover but that might also be something he keeps hidden away forever...

[crystalelemental]

“alphakuriboh: To be fair, her design isn’t great and she’s a chairman character after two straight generations of the chairman being the main villain. So. That’s a thing. Plus her ace is mostly prevalent in the late game limited access area, which is a bit of a Hmm. I don’t personally trust her myself lol.”

Isn’t it technically three?  I guess Lysandre wasn’t really a chairman specifically, but major company owner.  It fits.  I do love that they set up the idea that Geeta found her Glimmora down in Area Zero, though.  I want a bit more of that, but I’m not quite sold on it being an antagonist thing, so much as...Geeta’s been down here.  The only even implied connecting point is that the professor mentions securing funding from someone and doesn’t really specify who.

“megazardx2: I think it stems from her 1) having Glimmora as her ace, and 2) not having much of a character, and the one key trait she does have (which is that she’s kind of a slave driver) makes many of her colleagues hate her. Plus, her design feels very…ethereal, in a way?  I’m not 100% on board the “Geeta is gonna be the antagonist for the DLC” train myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”

And to be entirely fair, I wouldn’t mind.  It’d be more interesting than how she is, by a mile.  But when I mean she’s vilified, I don’t mean as in, people think she’s secretly an antagonist.  I mean people kinda ascribe negative traits to her that don’t...track with anything?

Like, the slave driver one is a good example.  Head of a company, always going to be a component of that, but the only two that ever indicate there’s anything significant to that are Larry and Penny.  In the case of Larry, we have things like his general put-upon nature and known tendency to work tons of overtime and crunch, but also the order to use a different type while acting as an Elite Four member.  But after his rematch, he does express that there was some validity to the idea of switching up your usual every now and again, and that his boss told him to stop taking so much overtime, and that he’s taking the rest of the day as a result.  That...isn’t strictly the mentality of a task-master, and is honestly a pretty positive quality that implies Geeta’s looking out for her people, and doesn’t want them overworking themselves, or becoming too stuck in routine and depressed.

As for Penny...the only reason Penny’s working for Geeta at all is because Geeta didn’t pursue legal action for hacking their system and stealing funds.  Geeta offers a job instead, looking to cultivate what Penny’s good at for something that isn’t criminal activity.  The only time Geeta’s ever extreme is honestly my favorite scene of hers, where she just kinda brightly pushes “Thanks in advance” on Penny’s attempted refusal.  Which isn’t really a bad thing, in my book.  Like, Penny, sweetie, you do in fact owe her.  When she tells you that it’s time to start on that job she hired you for, the answer is, decisively, “Yes ma’am,” not attempting to complain that you wanted to just watch anime all day.  That’s not even Geeta being a task-master, that’s just having a job.

The only other character I remember expressive dislike of her was Ryme, which was really more about feeling disrespected that Geeta sent you instead of coming herself as initially promised.

And I dunno, I think people latched onto the idea of Larry being depressed as Geeta’s fault because she’s the direct superior?  Despite having proof from Larry himself that she at least tries to make him take time off?  And it feels like it’s extended outward, because I saw a take that Geeta’s just using Nemona for her talents and would toss her away at the first chance, as if Geeta hasn’t been hopeful that you’ll keep up with Nemona solely for Nemona’s sake and is like...actively happy for the kid and helps cultivate a really meaningful memory with the whole “pick a good battle stage” thing?  Geeta...really doesn’t ping as a bad person.  And I feel like some of the takes starting to go around about her just don’t mesh with how she’s been shown to be in really odd ways.

[hologramcowboy]

Hi! I hope you have a great weekend!

I have a few questions for you, if you’re willing to weigh in.

Do you think Beau will actually end up with Jenny on Big Sky? Or is the show only going to hint at a romance enough to try get people interested? Also, have you noticed Jensen leaning into his character having feelings for her before, potentially, the most recent episode?

Also, this is not related to BS but, I see Elta as the embodiment of a “Mean Girl,” do you think that is the type of woman Jensen actually likes, and is he just a “Mean Boy” behind the scenes? It doesn’t totally sound like it from what coworkers say, but he does throw shade people at times. Did he get duped by D and now he’s just stuck, or did he never care about her personality because it was always just an arrangement for him?

He seems like he’s changed a whole lot from his early days in interviews and such. He used to talk about his family often and seemed more truly humble. Now, he only seems to see her family, seems to feel the need to brag and be constantly craving a drink. People crow about his confidence now (like when he’s on stage singing) vs his shyness before. But I think I liked his earlier persona more.

Thank you for the beautiful wish, hope your weekend is lovely and full of magic.

Thank you for the beautiful ask as well. 💕

Big Sky confuses me on a lot of levels because the writing is extremely weak, I will be honest and say that I have no clue if Jenny and Beau will get together or if the writers are stringing us along and that's because they failed to earn their connection, no momentum was built so I genuinely wonder whether they are baiting us or not. Last episode Beau suddenly showed signs of having feelings for her. Like Boom. 🤣 No credibility whatsoever precisely because that connection was not earned. I think they wanted Jenny and Beau to be the it couple people rooted for but failed to deliver due to the writing.

I see Elta as the embodiment of the Mean Girl, I do mean girl because she clearly never evolved past high school mentally. Her image is my biggest issue with Jensen, everything about him made sense up until he chose her and then alarm bells went off. Why would someone down to earth, honest and deep choose someone like Elta for a spouse? It doesn't really gel with his image. He does throw shade but I think he models her, in the past he never displayed behavior like that. Then again, he was very private previously, too private and then you hear him say things like "Jessica Alba is a bitch" and it kinda makes you realize he's not the angel you thought he was. He seems to have taken a lot of pages out of Elta's book, especially with the self aggrandizing, arrogant comments, unflattering, almost bully like comparisons, it's all very her and he clearly is influenced by her heavily. I would say they are quite similar now.

Jensen is extremely hard to read because he is very cryptic and also carefully crafts and projects a persona. Could he be a "Mean Boy" behind it all? He has displayed some narcissism traits as of late so it's a possibility. Birds of a feather flock together. Clichè but very true.

I always thought Danneel duped him and that's why he's so unhappy now, she pretended to be his ideal and then reality crashed all around him when he discovered she was not what he thought she was. But I have to answer your question honestly and add that, at this point, I'm leaning more towards the possibility that he's always been like her but I've just been blind. Because there are too many inconsistencies in his stories, his behavior, choices, body language all clash and his image is all over the place. He is being inauthentic and impossible to read, while Elta is clear as day. If that's the person he chooses as a partner then he couldn't possibly be the humble, kindhearted person I thought he was.

This is just my impression, of course, so please discard anything that doesn't resonate. ♥️ Maybe time will prove me wrong, I hope it will, I always do but right now I tend to think he is extremely similar to her or, at least, emulating her heavily.

I too deeply appreciated and admired his previous persona and though it was clearly still just a crafted persona, I resonated with it deeply.

Despite everything I've written above, I feel a pull towards all the endlessly beautiful emotions I've felt thanks to Jensen and I must believe that something about them is real, that something there is authentic or he wouldn't be able to inspire such emotions. So I hope that he will bring out those incredible qualities that made him unique and drop the toxic patterns he's acquired. He is blessed is so many ways and he can connect deeply with people so I often wish to see him fully step into that leadership role, I also think that's going to create the inner shift required for casting to view him differently because Hollywood runs on energy. It's very important to embody the ideal energy (for the roles you want to have) and I think Jensen has so much potential, I would love to see him fully embody that rather than get caught up in Elta's low vibration patterns.

[redjadethewriter]

Learn To Separate The Person From Their Work: It Will Spare You From Future Disappointment (Creative Careers)

Today, I want to discuss the topic of separating the work from the person. As someone who creates things - whether it be art, fantasy stories, poems, or anything else - I believe that the work I do is distinct from who I am as a person. The reason I bring up this topic is that of the revelations surrounding many artists and their dark secrets. These individuals, known for their work and influential movements in art, music, and other fields, have faced exposure for committing horrible acts, some more sinister than others. Even certain members in the mental health and science field are not the best human beings and they do horrible things, especially to the people in their lives. Some even display psychopathic traits, yet they are globally esteemed figures all over the media. It blows my mind how people fall into the traps of these predators. I think because I’ve met so many predators in my lifetime; I have a sixth sense for them now. But let me move on from this because this would become a 100-page essay if I went in-depth into it.

Storytime:

During my childhood, my grandmother, a war survivor, imparted to me the most important life lesson because of her immense love for me. It was at the tender age of 7 when she advised me not to trust people so easily. At that time, I didn’t fully grasp the weight of her words. However, as I grew older, I began to understand the significance, especially after hearing my mom’s stories about men dressed in stereotypical mafia attire frequently visiting my grandfather and other unsettling issues within our family. I have a sense that my grandmother carried many dark secrets to her grave. These revelations made me appreciate the value of her advice even more as I encountered various situations in my own life. After all, one can never truly discern someone’s true intentions.

This is why I question a lot and I don’t overlook the details in anyone’s character.

But back to separating the person from their work.

Personally, I have never been star-struck by meeting celebrities, famous writers, singers, or artists. While I appreciate their work, I am not a fan of them as individuals. In fact, I’m not a fan of anyone. Even in school, when asked about my most inspirational figure, I struggled to answer truthfully. Instead, I would give the stereotypical response of “Oh, my mother” or “Oh, my father” because, growing up there was really no real role model to look up to, because a good portion of the people I've known all my life have their skeletons.

The exposure of certain famous painters as predators did not surprise me. In fact, I felt a sense of satisfaction because it meant that people would no longer hold these individuals in high regard. However, there is still the matter of the work they have created. Despite their personal flaws, their work holds significance.

In today’s world, people often go crazy over musicians, actors, and influencers from social media platforms. However, I find it hard to understand why they see the person and their work as one entity. While they can do amazing work, it doesn’t mean they are amazing once the cameras are off. I’m going to use the Thai GL’s I’ve been watching as an example. Recently I watched the show called “Blank The Series.” The performances of the two actresses truly stood out, and it was the reason I enjoyed the series and the written work. But I question a lot on why would the original writer write about a major age gap, especially in the novel, the actual age of the characters was 18 and 34, I might be wrong, but in the show they increased the age to 20 and 36. Don’t get me wrong, as long as its two consenting adults entering a romantic relationship fine, but I do question it no matter how good or popular the story was. Even with Fifty Shades of Grey, I question a lot, because the character Grey was an extremely abusive and possessive character, and what inspired that book was Twilight, which Edward was an abusive and narcissistic as well. Let me tell you, writers have their major flaws like anyone else. Even in my stories, I openly admit, I’m writing characters that are people that do horrible things and make huge mistakes.

But back to actors in Blank The Series, regardless of their personal lives, they bring believability and entertainment to every scene. I’m impressed. Despite this, I know nothing about the personal lives of these actresses, yet people go crazy shipping them together in real life. I laugh about this a lot and think, do you know how long actors and film crew have to work together? The lines get blurred, but once the work is done, they separate and that’s it. However, I can understand the chemistry between Charlotte and Engfa in the show “Show Me Love,” even though their acting skills may have not been the best, but their actual personal chemistry saved that messy series. However, it doesn’t mean they won’t improve their craft over time, while exploring different fields. It’s important to recognize that a lot of their public appearances, especially with other Thai stars or even in the US entertainment industry, they are just acting for marketing purposes. Even actors with social media accounts are constantly promoting something because that’s their job. So, we don’t really see who they truly are as individuals. Some celebrities come across as arrogant, while some famous comedians may have hilarious stand-up acts but reveal themselves to be absolute assholes when you delve deeper into the context of their skits. Nevertheless, we still enjoy their work in films and shows, which are all fictional. It’s a conundrum because, many of these individuals their involvement in things is questionable. Yet, we continue to appreciate their work.

Now, I have to admit that some of the Thai actresses from GL’s seem incredibly sweet. I don’t want to delve into scrutinizing them as individuals, but focus on reviewing the characters they portray and their performances. The shows I’ve watched have been delightfully light-hearted, which is refreshing for once. I prefer if the universe keeps their personal lives and potential skeletons in the closet, and stays locked in there until I’m tired of watching Thai GL. Although that may not be soon, though. For once in my dang life, I feel sorry for these actresses, who are subjected to the dark abyss of obsessive fans, but that comes with the territory. Regardless, they might eventually get ripped apart mentally and emotionally from it all, and that saddens me. Oh my gosh, I have a heart. Dang! The coldness has thawed because of Thai actresses. That’s fuckin’ new to me… Ok… Fuck… I guess I’m a fan now, and I’ve totally contradicted myself into Thai GL oblivion. Stoic mask, don’t fail me now. ***Just kidding***

While I’m still on the subject, I think most of the actors in LA are stark-raving mad as fuck. They are so detached from reality. Speaking of which, I still find it amusing how Swifties defend Taylor Swift fiercely. It’s mind-boggling to think that anyone would dare say or do anything negative towards her. I’m convinced that those who do so would risk losing their entire careers and perhaps even have to move to the moon. It’s quite hilarious, really. However, to conclude this blog post, I believe it’s often best to separate the work of an artist from the person themselves. This approach saves us from potential disappointment down the line and if they were to discover that the artist has committed terrible acts and so on, it won’t be so cruel on our souls.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t place anyone on a pedestal; these artists, actors, musicians, writers and so on, are simply human beings like the rest of us. They have flaws, darkness, secrets, traumas, and who knows what else. I hope you understand what I’m trying to convey.

Later.

[nevertheless-moving]

Imagine Luke and Leia ending up in the clone wars era but all of their force abilities are “what the actual fuck?” levels of bullshit, and neither of them ever realized that the things they could do with the force were considered extremely high level techniques.

that is one of my FAVORITE things to imagine yes. To me this is less about ‘Skywalker bullshit’ (though there is some of that) and more about the training they (didn’t) receive.

The high-Midi-chlorians-actual-descendents-of-the-force thing makes it easier to tap into the force, makes it more possible to do so without accidentally exhausting yourself. But, in universe, under the right circumstances and with the properly channeled belief anyone can do anything. That’s why Palpatine had to make the galaxy want an empire, why his first strategy was misdirection and his top priority was crushing hope. Chirrut was supposedly force-null and he walked through an army. Han navigated that astroid field because he had to. The force is everywhere. 

In an amusing but possibly unintended turn of events, 6-12 weeks of training in a swamp with an elderly frog who only talks in riddles without ever being exposed to Jedi culture except as a myth is actually IDEAL if you’re looking to maximize a Jedi’s raw strength. Most Jedi training that we see in the prequels is explicitly designed to put the breaks on a force-users raw power (for honestly very valid reasons). Channeling all violence through a single weapon that will start screaming if you get too violent, training to use it defensively, is definitely the soft-ball alternative to just squashing people like meatballs. 

Meditating, wearing beige, the code, shunning attachments, all that stuff is built around making sure force users never run above first or second gear even in stressful situations (again valid, when you run your jedi in the red sometimes they become murder monsters). The downside of this is that when they’re forced to maintain that placid pace for years at a time (i.e: prolonged war), they’re much more likely to burn out.

When Yoda told Luke do or do not, told him a luminous being was he, told him size matters not, the amazing thing isn’t that Luke believed him. That was karking objectively provable. Yoda lifted a spaceship, so now Luke knows he can too if he just thinks he can. So he does. Vader and Palpatine conquered a galaxy. Luke believes he can stop worlds, crush armies, conquer planets and so he can. 

The incredible thing about Luke is what he doesn’t do despite being tapped into the Force utterly free of mental restraint. Luke’s op character trait is his compassion, not his strength.

I assume at some point Luke puts Leia through a similar 2 month meditation class where he convinces her that her only limitations are the ones she imposes on herself. She has a complete meltdown when she realizes that she actually could have boiled Tarkin alive with her mind and saved Alderann. This causes a volcano to go off, devastating the ecology of a small moon. On the flight home, both of them slightly charred, she tells Luke that she wanted to focus on politics and didn’t really want to be a Jedi anyway. Luke nods quickly, supporting her decision, and resolves to seek out some Jedi texts about how to teach people they can do anything but also...maybe...not...anything.

And thus the Jedi order is reborn.

- - -

In the time travel version of this, it means that Luke is assuming that all of the Jedi are restraining themselves like he is. And they are, but they also aren’t, because their breaks are subconscious, built in since childhood, and have a lot of failsafes so even if they turn darkside they still restrain themselves pretty good (a la Dooku). 

Leia is, again, less interested with the Jedi-specific aspects of the war (especially now that she doesn’t have to feel guilty about being one of the only people who can pick up that mantle) and more interested in the diplomatic side. Again, Palpatine can only succeed if the galaxy at large accepts this, and from where she’s standing they’re fucking moving in that direction. If being a Jedi is tapping into the mystical energy field that binds all living things together to channel it through one specific person in one specific place, then politics is manipulating that same power for a diffuse impact on as many people as possible. 

This status-quo lasts until a major clone wars battle where Luke’s like ‘wait- the entire other side is sub-sentient droids? No living beings, and no droids with complex personality matrices? And they’re currently, actively killing living, sentient humans? Well kriff, come on! This is a no-brainer!’

Luke takes a deep breath. The air- it doesn’t disappear or anything- but it- it stops moving. It’s hard to explain...but breathing has an odd...resistance. The hair on the back of every clone’s neck stands up. Several get vaguely sea sick. One pukes a little. Plo Koon stumbles back, head ringing and afraid.

Luke Skywalker stands up and clenches his fists. 10,000 droids crumple like flimsi in the hands of a child. The battlefield is eerily quiet for a moment, then that imperceptible hum (which no one noticed until it stopped) fades and the air returns to its normal density. A few of the shinies start whooping, then the whole battalion is cheering.

Luke massages his temples, smiling wryly at Master Koon. “I guess I can see how that would get exhausting if you were doing it everyday.”

Plo Koon just stares.