#so i thought it would be neat to impliment

[clone-wars-retteyo-au]

#Man I want a clone language #Something similar to amatakka or something #Please someone teach me how to create a language #And a culture #I beg you #All I want is big brother rex sing to his adorable little baby brothers in a super cool clone language <- OP's tags

Me: *Breathing heavily, shaking with anticipation to talk all about my ideas for a clone Galactic Basic-Mando'a Creole language with hundreds of words and phrase unique to clones that could not easily exist in other languages and is clone culture specific*

Me: *Remembers my pages of notes on an original clone sign language that becomes one of the main languages used in clone society in my AU and is a part of everyday language and I'm so proud of it*

Me: *Shaking like a maraca*

Okay, so I've read lots of fics where the clones speak mando'a, and actually I kind of liked the idea. But it's come to bother me that I get more and more of the feeling that the clones are presented as mandalorians and not their own culture.

The main problem I see is, that the clones aren't viewed as sentient life by most people, especially the kaminoans and their trainers, who, at the beginning of the whole cloning process, were nearly only mandalorians. Of course there were a few people like f.e. Kal skirata, who, if I remember correctly, actually adopted a bunch of clones, but let's be honest, that's not the case with most of the other trainers and especially not the kaminoans.

So, I've thought about it and I believe that it's not that improbable that the clones actually picked up quite a few words of mando'a. Maybe a few of the older clones were even thought a bit by some of the nicer mandalorian trainers. And imagine a few little clone cadets hearing those mandos talk in their own language - of course they'd want to learn it and share it with their brothers.

But most mandalorians that are on kamino don't even like the clones and definitely don't accept them as some of their own culture. So using mando'a in front of them could be dangerous and be punished. Talking your mind freely was dangerous enough as it is. The clones weren't supposed to have too much of their own free will, after all.

So they start developing their own words, their own language. It could be inspired by mando'a, but not too much. Because they weren't mandalorians, they weren't accepted by those people. They weren't accepted by anyone but their own brothers.

Not to mention that it was something of their own. Something they could claim and cling to and that belonged to only them when not even their own bodies and especially not their future belonged to themselves.

So in the middle of the night, after a too long, too painful training session, the clones would lie side by side with their brothers and comfort each other with their own words. Words that weren't used day by day to make them feel small and helpless, but words that were spoken softly and in a comforting and loving way.

The clones would also start developing their own sign language very early on. Not the classical military hand signs or something like bsl or asl or something, more like little movements of their heads and fingers. Maybe they'd use something similar to morse code as well.

They were mostly supervised and talking in your own language would be the worst thing you could do. None of the nat borns, especially none on kamino, could know, how much of their own free will they had. They'd risk being reconditioned for it.

So the clones would mostly communicate with very subtle signs. They grow more and more perceptive, especially when it comes to their brothers. For outsiders it might even look like they're barely moving a muscle while they have a full conversation going on.

The spoken language would be reserved for the few times they aren't directly supervised. Maybe older clones would cheer up the younger ones, that they find secretly crying and grieving, after yet another brother has been decommissioned for a stupid reason. They'd whisper softly to them in their own words - not the nat borns words. Never.

Some of the bolder clones might whisper in secret while in the mess hall and eating the same tasteless rations they've eaten for all of their cursed existence.

They'd develop stories to tell each other whenever possible. Stories that are of parents and their children, of flowers and trees, of funny animals that run around on wide fields and high mountains, stories of freedom. Of all the things they didn't have, but wished they did.

[squeiky]

METAL SONIC X CHAOS ZERO!!!

IN ALL THE CHARTS I COULD FIND!!

Some of the charts got repetitive, so i cropped it.

NOTES: there may be someee minor inconsitences as sometimes id change mind my across one chart to another.

If you want an expliantion for ANY of my choices here, please ask! I am starving for conversation about this relationship- so please please please ask my questions- or just tell me your own ideas! Idk! Communicate! Your words and thoughts are not dumb!! They are very important to me and must be shared!!!

Also, some more of my thoughts + notes after the cut:

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I think my favorite charts are the first two, since the first one was pretty thourghough and easy to get whilst also including intresting and unique questions to the relatio ship dynamic. the second one i added a bit of character interaction so its really cute, and thats practically why i like.

---

I particularly like the touch chart, as i really had to consider wthe physicality of these two, and the custom model was fun to make (look they're even holding hands haha). It was a bit tricky considering i had to figure out what touches where welcomed and what weren't based on previous canonical interactions, and my own theories/speculations.

---

Oh, to explian the "lends clothes" and "borrows/steals clothes", i always found the neat detail of Neo Metal Sonic's wardrobe possesing a kind of.. arm warmer/bell sleeve? As well as its pants(?) Being a bell bottom.

Without the belt/butt cape, it does make metal sonics limbs somehwhat resemble the sillouette of Chaos' body, so obviously- i just figured that Chaos, if he were to wear any clothing, would probably be stolen by Metal Sonic since it already seems to be fond of that particular look that Chaos naturally has.

--

Oh, and Metal and Chaos being somewhat organized is due to thier jobs and enviornment they grew up in. Eggman, being the opposite of Sonics carefree, chaotic attitude, would likely prefer more cleaner, organized or "controlled" enviornments. Thus, i feel that Metal Sonic may have picked up a few tidying or cleaning habits that were a cause of eggman simply teaching or implimenting features in his bots to prefer the "clean up" of "dirty" or "messy" areas.

For chaos, i do recall reading something (perhaps on the chao wiki) of him purifying the Altars water and keeping it relatively clean from debries and such. Furthermore, having to be sole guardian of little children chao, the altar and the master emerald, requires a lot of responsibility and- if anyone has worked with children before- it can get very messy very quickly. So its mere speculation, but i do think Chaos would have picked up many cleaning habits as well, as well as cooking/harvesting skills due to him having to take care of large batches of critters.

Surprisingly, for a creature named "Chaos", the name only truely applies to the singular instance in which he is "Final Chaos" (as thats likely what the echidnas called him during and after that time.) Turns out, Chaos is way more controlled and responsible than chaotic and carefree.

So to segway, out of the two, Metal Sonic would be way more chaotic considering its nack for stirring up trouble (CD, Sonic Heroes, Chaotix.. ect) for the heroes, as well as it not really having major responsibilites outside of its purpose to "destroy sonic" and occasionally obey whatever task eggman requires of it.

Thus, is why in the driving promps, i title it "a speeder".

---

To explain the "Cognito Egro Sum" (aka. I think therefore i am) and the "infinty symbol" for the ages, er.. Metal sonic is a robot, and Chaos is an immortal being. If your being technical with it, you can say they're both relatively young, considering Chaos chao can't age and are often stuck in the form they were hatched in- despite the fact that chao do infact change as they age-

One can consider the idea that Chaos, for all intensive purposes, looks and probably is pretty young- if we apply chao logic to him.

Though one will argue "but Chaos is ancient" which is true, but his case is similar to Shadow's as he was trapped in that Master emerald for... millions of years............. so, similarly to how shadow was stuck for 50 years yet remains a teenager both inside and out, Chaos- for whatever age he was before he got trapped, probably still thinks and acts like that, as well as Tikal. Except now they probably need a LOT of therapy.

^hence why i put chaos's sleeping habits as "sleeps poorly" and "sleeps to little". In hindsight, being trapped in a emerald for thousands of years, with your freind of who's father killed your entire* family and burned your house (altar) down and tried to steal your most precious item (master emerald) and being the girl whos stuck with your freind(?) who killed your entire bloodline and basically genocided your entire community- stuck with him for THOUSANDS OF YEARS- is.....is going to require a lot of therapy.

So y'know, bad sleeping problems. Also probably why i depict Chaos hugging a lot + being affectionate, since being deprived your community that is entirely reliant on the concept of "caring, loving, and nurturing one another" (cause.. the opposite of that means chao will basically die upon reincarnation), for thousands of years is... a good recipe for touch starvation and a need for attention.

^hence why chaos is also on the attention side of some charts.

----

^ just conintuing off of that previous statement, i did move Chaos closer towards "extrovert" in the "extrovert or introvert" prompts, as since Chaos, unlike Metal Sonic, deals closely with many chao, and often is surrounded by a crowd of them, i do believe that Chaos would have to atleast gain some energy from social interaction in order to surivive that every day, without burning out.

----

The whole "who talks more" thing is kind of funny because, technically, its metal sonic (see Sonic Heroes + Sonic Free riders) who has more lines than.. Chaos's total of zero!

Meaning that, if anything, the "he said no pickles" meme would probably mean that Metal Sonic would be at the counter whilst Chaos is sitting in the back.

Though, compared to MANY other characters, these two are practically dead-silent, and would most likely rely on non-verbal ways of affection than verbal.

---

Oh and the "ethical v. Immoral thing" where i emphasized that chaos was "neutral" was because by compsring him to "chaos chao", theres a dark side, good guy side, and then neutral. Considering Chaos's history of amazingly goodwilled to horrendously incidous, one can conclude that he practically in the middle in terms of ethics or morality.

Metal sonic is definetly on the more immoral side, though i wouldnt put it all the way, as i do have considering enviornmental aspects to its behavior (such as well.. being a badnik, and being constantly exposed to eggman's immoral behaviors). So, other than like, unnesecarily abusing animal freinds in CD, and throwing a ship probably full of people at sonic (Sonic heroes) there aren't many instances in which Metal Sonic does something completely immoral and unjust- without any context regarding eggman ordering it too, or simply it just doing its job as a badnik.

However those actions are prettt bad on its own- though compared to... killing out an entire species... drowning thousands of people in a city and attempting to kill eggman with a giant laserbeam... and to whatever hyjinks eggman gets up too...

Its actions seem.. relatively small (though not obsolete.)

So like, theres not going to be many issues regarding "metal sonics gotta be a good guy"/ "i can fix him🥺" mentalities, since its kind of hard to do that, when you have a kill count of a 100+ whilst Metal Sonic is still on the "i'm needlessly harming animals, and threw a boat"...

Then again, i like to think the leiniency allows for them to work on themselves together, rather than tear eachother down or hate eachothers guts.

---

Transgender - both for my headcannnon, but also a refrence to it literally going "i transformed myself with my own hands" and well, i cant resist a pun/play on words now can i?

Agender- chaos dont have.. genders.

However, i thought this would change when introduced to concept of feminine and masculine models of the ancients in frontiers, but looking at Chaos, he doesnt resemble either one very much (tbh, in Sonic Forces, his model actually looks more akin to the fem version, than the pointy and sharp masc ones) and looks more akin to that of the children, if anything.

Plus, being masculine or feminine isnt really and indicator of gender anyways.. so like..???

So what? Does Chaos, gender? NOPE! Chaos isn't an ancient (thats his ancestor) and is a mutated chao. Chaos are genderless, or atleast out of that particular binary.

If Tikal showed up one day and started calling Chaos a "he/him", its likely that Chaos could've just.. adopted that. Assigned pronouns by random. Amazing.

So agender, as i can't think of anything else.

---

Sexuality -idk. Look, i dont consider whomth one likes. The knowledge of my characters, or other characters sexualites comes upon me in the way preists suddenly hear the words of their gods.

I dunno, until suddenly i know. Thats just how it is.

---

Ending it here cause im hungrt and cant think of anything else to chat on.

[popculturebuffet]

Tal'Dorei Travelouge: Season 2 Episodes 4-6: Creed: The True Threat to All of Tal'Dorei

Hello all you happy people! It's week 2 of Tal'Dorei Travelouge, my weekly look at Legend of Vox Machina season 2 as it comes out and this was both popular enough last week and not as much time out of my schedule as I thought despite being utterly swamped. So we're back for this week as we get something close to a beholder, Vax makes a bargin with death because surely those always end well, Keyleth passes through fire, and Scalan sings for a Sphinx and lets us know creed exists in this universe. All this and more under the cut, full spoilers for this weeks episodes.

Those Who Walk Away: So we start with the second half of a two parter.. and while I expected the secret origin of Trinket at some point, saved by Vex by trappers and thus bonded to her for life. What I didn't expect was for it to gut me so much, as not only does Vax have to mercy kill his mother but he watched. That poor baby bear. Anyways this week we more suprises as when they rejoin the party with us.. never finding out what happened in that hallway apparently, Kashaw reveals ressurection magic STILL EXISTS.

I assumed it'd just be sidestepped completely, with any near deaths just being severe injurys, but it's nice to have as , without spoiling when how or why, there are some pretty sizeable death scenes i'd love to see adapted i've heard of one genuinely dramatic, crushing and leading to a fairly brutal payback.. and the other being entirely stupid in the best way possible. That said they impliment it well, in a way that's less dragon ball z "DEATH DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE YOU GET A FREE SUNDAE", and instead "It's possible but VERY unlikely it'll work and takes expert skill to pull off", throwing in the fact that our main healer PIke.. has never done one and only does this one with Kash's help. There's also the fact this one.. very nearly dosen't work until we get a line i'd heard of thanks to some fan art.. and that is utterly awesome "Take me instead you raven bitch". In one act Vax sacrfices himself. And i'd like to , thanks to said world of critical roll book, if I may, share the real world story for this as it's utterly fascenating. So when Liam O'Brian did this.. he had NO expectation Vax would live. None. He wanted to save his close friends character, and figured "Well this is done, i'll roll my next character, it's a big sacrifice but it's worth it". Matt... didn't let him off so easy and instead had her take it in another way: Vax becomes the Matron of Raven's champion. As you can probably guess little good can come from this in the long run but in the short I do like that it gives Vax some new heads up: it gives him visions of the calamity allowing him to figure out where the sphinx is.... and he now has instinctual knoweldge of said events.. he dosen't know how he just does. That dosen't come into play until our third.

This also means he has to do a test.. and at a bad time as Zahara decides to go full on antagonist and dump a legally distinct from a beyonder creature on them, nearly killing everyone, all because she assumes the take should have the Deathwalker's Ward.. despite it MANIFESTING on Vax's chest.

Kash naturally nopes out of this and eventually helps, but it's a very tense, very awesome fight as one by one our heroes fall, and it's left to Vax. Vax's trial is also neat as he fights Perve On ina battle.. only to realize it's one of those "don't fight it" tests, to accept death so to speak. So as a result Vax gets a fuckton of neat new abilities I love> one is a nod to the stream: in said stream Vax had some kickass boots that were horribly broken as Matt didn't think about the fact they basically gave him super speed when he ported them over from Pathfinder. IT's one of the things I loved about finding out more of the show from the book: Even with an expertly crafted world Matt is just as prone to mistkaes. Purvan's name was another one of those. He may still be a genius who fucking crafts entire battlefields with expert percision... but he can still goof up.

So to compromise, the ablities are now part of the deathwalker's ward instead, which makes more sense and thus makes vax a combo of the flash and spiderman, able to dart around, easily dodge the creature, then throw a knife in it's goddamn eye. Just like the green goblin and his famous catchphrase "OH GOD THERE'S A KNIFE IN MY EYE WHY IS THERE A KNIFE IN MY EYE".

Kash and Zahara leave the party, and it's clear Vax feels dammned by this.. and while I didn't notice it at first, his personality changes a lot after this: he's no longer as happy go lucky, snarky ... he knows something's wrong with him, he's bound to death and he can't escape it, and he almost lost one of the two people he can't afford to loose. It's easy to see why he shifts but it's heartning to see a guy who while dour was at least happy so miserable and serious. He also punches Percy in the gut for trying to apologize. Granted it's realistically done: Vax simply says not now and CLEARLY isn't in the mood to accept it and Percy at least means well: he's clearly not trying to justify it he just.. feels terrible he nearly got the woman he loves killed and wants to apologize. It's clear the party isn't in a great place and it's not going to get much better.. well for most of them anyway. It also brings up something I like about this season so far: the character focus. Last season had a few arcs for everyone: Keyleth got a better grip on her anxiety, PIke came to terms with who she is, and Vex realized what a bitch she'd been to keyleth... but Percy was the clear center: the briarwoods were his mission, his purpose and letting go of his vengeance was his cross to bear. This isn't a bad thing: Percy is a great character and everyone still had plenty to do, and they were ultimately limited by the story itself: the first major arc they needed to do was Percy's so he got the lions share of the focus. It was also only two stories really with the pilot being more setup and the rest being the long war between our heroes and the briarwoods and between percy and his desire for vengance.

In contrast season 2 is a bit more episodic: there's still a clear main story in the conclave and the vestige hunt, but each adventure is it's own thing for the most part. Even though the first two episodes are back to back in how the story is they feel like two entirley diffrent stories that build up to the larger one. only the Sunken Tomb and Those Who Walk Away has felt like one huge episode, and that was fair given everything that happened.

And honestly.. I like it. It reminds me of when Final Space did a similar thing with it's second season. The one big story approach isn't terrible, it works for plenty of shows, but to me having little stories within the bigger one allows for more character and world stuff between the bigger plot moments and lets the subplots breathe: we got ample build up to where the twins are now, and plenty of background lurking of Grog and his growing dependance on Craven edge, who continiues to hunger. It allows the season to really build while letting everyone shine. So far we've had major arcs for Grog, Vax, Vex to an extent , Pike tagging along for grog's, and now ...it's keyleth's turn

Pass Through Fire: Pass Through Fire is a great example of this, as while it's an okay episode overall, it really does add to the season. It also shows me the team learned form last season as in hindsight, like I said, the focus was pretty percy shaped, with just enough else for it to not be a problem. So it's clear the team made sure with this season and it's wider scope everyone gets a chance to really get fleshed out.

In this case Keyleth deals with the fact her mom never came back from her armante, and allows it to explain why said Armante.. wasn't at all important to season 1 besides a passing mention: Keyleth has been actively avoiding finishing it as she's scared of both leadership and ending up like her mom. It adds layers to her anxiety, which was already relatable enough to me being someone who also suffers from it: part of it is just being afraid she's not good enough, something I painfully feel all the time. We also get Scalan singing while he thinks Grog is taking a dump and Grog trying to hide his talking new murder friend sword from everyone. It's not deathly important but Il ike the building tension: the sword wants blood and he dosen't care who he gets it from. Which wasn't a problem with Sylas: if his sword got hungry he could just go stab a dude and share a meal with what I now assume was his best friend. Like .. they went on picnics and stuff. He sang at Silas and Delilah's vow renewal. They were tight.

Point is it's nice to see her get this focus and to bring up a valid condrum, as while she considers visting the fire ashari since their close, it goes from a passing curosity they don't have time for.. to a deadly danger they dont' have time for as the volcano their in errupts. And it normally dosen't do that. It also nicely shows how badly Vax is rattled by events as he's so focused on the mission he snaps at Keyleth they don't have time and she storms off.. well Mighty Hawks off

And the rest all give him a what the hell and go to save her. The ensuring fight is decent, though the visuals can get chaotic. Long story short someone opened a portal to hell and Keyleth's dad needs her help closing it. He's of the air ashari, a group of nomads of various races, mostly elves, who help people, each one coresponding to an element. And if your wondering "That kinda sounds avatar the last airbender".. your exactly correct as Marisha was a fan of the show, had just watched through it and wanted to do something like that. It also nicely built in a reason for her character to gradually get stronger.

We also get Kim and Allura and the reunion feels off: i mean the gang being happy tos ee them alive, if baffled is nice.. but they really never bonded or antyhing the way they did with their stream counterparts, so it feels like their just writing them the way that's easier. It does make some sense as the group did save Tal'Dorei. As for how their alive Allura teleported them in time, they investigated this, and as it turns out it's their fault: like in the stream Allura was also part of an adventuring party once with Kima, and they fought Thordak. There's even a nice easter egg of one of the party being a dragonkin, as sir not appearing in this cartoon Tiberius Stormwind, played by Orion Akaba, was an early party member and also kind of a prick, but WAS close to allura, so ti's a nice nod to that and shows that despite how the parting wasn't the best even if it was likely for the best the gang hasn't forgotten where they started.

Point is Keyleth has to as you'd guess overcome her difficulties to pass through fire, that's the title, and gain control of the fire elment, sealing the portal, kiling the fire drakes and saving the day. I don't have a ton to say about this one: Keyleth's character growth is really nice, her new outfit is lovely, and of course i'm always going to support some Vaxleth ship tease and kima and allura kissing, with both planning to head to whitestone.. though we get some foreshadowing as the elven city seemingly.. vanished. And given we're going to the feyrealm next week, there was a sudden vanishing and the twins dad is a known asshole they have some issues to unpack with... yeah I can see exactly where this is going.

Into Rimecleft: This was easily the week's best , and that's not downtalking the rest: Pass Through Fire was fine and Those Who Walk Away was truly excellent. Neither are bad.. this episode was just esepcially good as it went. The starting nightmare helped: Prime Video picked THIS as the preview clip some reason despite not only showing Vex survivies, which isn't a huge twist but still maybe don't tell people who don't know critical roll that, but a fairly brutal scene. Still said scene is effective showing that Grog, despite badly clinging to craven edge, is deeply afraid of what Craven Edge means for him and sees where it could go and the image of PIke reaching out to him wondering why he killed her is TERRIFYING. We then get a nice tonal shift as we go from the deeply terrifying opening, to Pike genuinely trying to get grog to open up.. to one of the funniest jokes in the series as while Pike TRIES to get Scalan's help on this his response is to do his best creed impression and say "Dosen't every man play with his sword a little?" I fucking lost it and I kick myself for not repeating it a few times like Purvan. IT's pure comedy gold, and I didn't expect Sam to pull an OSW, but here we are and it was brillant. I want a full version of that song. I also want to know of Creed exists in Emon. LIke.. Scanlan is basically Eminem, long story, so it's probable but i'ts rife with terriffying implications, like that the infection has spread to alternate planes of existance, that Scanlan might one day form creed, that maybe the dragons shoudln't be the thing Vox Machina wipes out first. Just saying Dragons come and go but creed will linger like a wet fart for a decade unless they stamp that shit out NOW.

Anyways onto the important stuff: Percy gave Vex his jacket. Damn that was cute... not only her taking it but him blushing. percy fucking blushed. I didn't know he was capable. He's so pale and british but it happened. It happened and i'm glad. The real treat of the episode though is Tony Plana as Kami.... i'm using Scalan's nickname on the ground there is no way in whatever Tal'Dorei has that functions as hell that I will be able to spell that correctly multiple times. Plana is one of those actors you see in a lot of stuff but generally not starring, though he's voice acting royalty for starring in a game i'll likely cover at some point, Grim Fandango. At any rate he's gold here as he offers vox machina your usual challenge: defeat 70 death gorgons, survivie the labyrinth of misery or wound Kami once... which no one has ever pulled off. Yeah unsuprisingly our heroes pick the last one, aka the dumbest option.. well okay everyone but grog picks that one. Though what I like is while ti's an obvious trap.. it's also a nice show of how off his game Vax is: While he can be impulsive, normally he's one of the group's cheif strategiests, alongside his sister and percy. But here he's just like "I THINK ONE OF US CAN SCORE A DAMN HIT". The line sounds like him but the actions aren't.

So unsuprisingly it's quickly down to Scanlan, and what he'd do to solve it was blindingly obvious to me: he'd never been wounded, you can't hit him.. but he never said the wound had to be physical. And he just so happens to have a mate he hadn't seen in centuries. What makes this show, this character and this moment special though.. is the how. Scalan singing a song is obvious, he's a bard.. but him singing a fucking power ballad, along with a projection of osisya, and the entire sequence being as stunning as it is heartbreaking, that is what makes this show magic. I also love the heart to heart after, wtih Scanlan admitting he knows romance well enough, but has never actually been in love.. something I painfully relate to, as I do just chasing and chasing it. Kamoji's advice really hit

As a result the rest of Vox Machina are restored, and have a hearty group "the fuck" when they find Scanlan has a new pal. But eh it gets Scanlan a neat new sword, mythcarver and the location of the next two vestiges: one is in the feywild, which Keyleth might be able to get to, so it's no problem. The other.. is in westrunn. And while our heroes didn't know it till now, we've been seeing it ocasionally as Umbrasyl has conquered it and gotten the help of the local goliaths... including Grog's own Uncle.. and what I like is while Pike chalks up his reluctance to face him when he finds out his gauntlets are a vestige as his behavior.. we can tell it's NOT Craven Ed. I won't spoil whu for those who haven't seen the campaign or like me seen campaign spoilers, as we'll likely dive headlong into Grog and PIke's backstory next week. For now instead.. it's time for something series original. See part of that westrunn footage.. was giving Dr. Ripley a bit more of an active roll as she has some sort of magic Jareth ball that allows her to see what's going on.. and thus uses that as leverage with Umbrasyl, getting him to go after vox machina. As such our heroes meet the final boss of the season early and Kamy does his best to help. .but ultimately it's not enough. It' sa great battle.. but our heroes simply aren't ready as they have all of one vestige after Umbrasyl steals Mythcarver and while Kamy does his best.. he's simply not up to dragon level and has a very tragic death saving Scanlan. The entire fight is just brutal and hopeless, with Grog being the only one to put up a fight.. and it's not a good thing as Craven Edge fully posseses him to give him the

But also casues one of the most brutal scenes of the series as Grog FUCKING STABS PIKE FOR REAL, something I was not prepared for..l nor I was the twist of the party getting scattered: Keyleth, The Twins and Percy end up in the Feywild and Scalan, Pike, Grog and Fucking Asshole Sword Man end up in Westrunn i'm guessing, hence forth known as Team Double Date and Team Stabbed in the Gut. What will happen to these valient teams/ We'll find out next week. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I think I forgot to mention it but NEIN NEIN! I'm super excited about this deal as it not only means seasons 4 and 5 are in the bag, but spinoffs a plenty are all but assured, as is The Legend of Bells Hells in a few years when that's finished.

[writing-with-olive]

Hey! This is a weird question but, how do you write a character with a Robin Hood like persona? I want to pull it off well!

Hey anon!

Neat question! This is something I have not previously put a lot of thought into (for fairly obvious reasons lol), but hopefully this will be helpful and/or give you a starting point.

First, there have been many versions and adaptations of Robin Hood, given its popularity and how long the story’s been around (a similar situation is true for most stories that fit this criteria). Because of this, it’s going to depend somewhat on what version you’re basing your character on.

However. In pretty much every telling of the story, there’s a few core elements that seem to be fairly consistant.

[id: a gif that's a clip from Disney's Robin hood in which Robin Hood shoots an arrow at a pan, and it bounces off and goes right through the hat Robin Hood takes off his head and throws into the air, to the astonishment of the others. /end id] 

1) The whole “take from the rich, give to the poor” thing

This is pretty much the thing he is most well known for, and how you impliment it in your story specifically can vary, including what is being taken, what qualifies someone as rich, etc. It might be literal wealth, maybe it’s opportunity, maybe attention - whatever it is, make sure it’s consistant throughout your story, as it will impact the overall structure of your story, as well as your character’s persona.

(more points below the cut)

2) Compassion

This is another big one, and it pretty much acts as the drive behind his redistribution of wealth gig. Basically, rather than being drawn to people for what they have, Robin Hood was more drawn to people based on their own merit, and would judge them accordingly, as opposed to using first impressions as the end-all be-all. 

3) He was damn good at archery

At least in the stories I’m most familiar with, he didn’t start out good, but rather it was a learned trait that he used to full advantage. Whether you choose to show your character with a fully developed and useful talent, or show them as it’s still a work in progress is up to you, but definitely show your character falling back on it at some point - especially to get out of sticky situations.

4) Easy-going-ness

Despite being very competant and knowing full well how skilled he was, Robin Hood was pretty laid back most of the time, unless he was actively facing those who were attempting to hurt those he was protecting. If that was not actively happening, he would intermingle with those around him, and if he didn’t know someone, would be potentially suspicious and a little wary internally, but wasn’t going to be super aggressive or guarded on the surface.

5) He was sneaky and clever

Basically, he didn’t always take the most obvious or brute-force method to solving a problem, and would often try to work around it so he could play on his terms, rather than the terms of those who would naturally have a significant advantage in most circumstances. This could mean moving around quietly, setting traps, using decoys, etc. 

Hopefully this answers your question. Happy writing :)

[jhindraven]

okay now that issue 6 is out and ive read the thing like 3 times, im gonna do my full review/breakdown of the zed comic and allll my thoughts on it.

no screenshots bc i dont want this to be longer than it is already, and also im not gonna talk about the art itself either. this is simply about the characters, the story, and how that relates to the lore of league itself.

all of this is my opinion, you can agree or disagree with me whatever, yadda yadda lets begin

ISSUE ONE

Probably the best one? In my opinion. The lack of expectations really helped this one not suck. Also the most consistent when it comes to characters personalities, comparing them to the in-game voice lines from league and the card game.

There are scenes in issue 1 that almost foreshadow, or at least reference, the events of Issue 6, specifically Zed looking up to the statue of Kusho, and how Zed kills Althon vs how Zed kills Kusho later on.

The dialogue between Shen and Akali is.. a little clunky? Shen’s dialogue is just a little. formal. but to the point that he sounds like he’s lecturing a stranger, not talking to a former student.

Jhin giving Zed his scalpel from 19 years ago is a neat detail that I wish they used more in the story. Sure, we can assume now that Jhin probably only got it because Kusho gave it to him at some point after releasing him- which means that the scalpel is one of the many wasted plot opportunities I’ll bring up here. Part of the appeal of that scene, if only just for me, was the idea that Jhin stole it from Zed while he wasn’t looking. I remember people pointing out background characters and being like “but what if that’s Jhin there! what if he was there all along!!”  But that has now been thrown out the window.

A thing I wish they did was shown more of Jhin’s ‘performances’, even if only in a montage. To show more of the impact this had on Zed and Shen, the strain it put on them mentally and emotionally, and how it affected their relationship. But I understand time and probably page restraints. So whatever about that.

Again, I think this was the best one. Set up the story well, showed why everything happening is important for the character. Neat, cool. Let’s move on

ISSUE 2

Seeing the bodies was pretty fucked up, but tbh? That shit vibed. It’s one of those things I hoped they were gonna do and they did. The bodies looking like porcelain with gold blood?? And the peacock feathers???? Thats fuckin cool as hell.  Then they never did it again.

In the flashback comes one of the worst fucking things in this comic. Yevnai.

Listen I adore Yevnai as a character, one of my favourites to come from the comic. You know, in the ONE ISSUE SHE ACTUALLY SHOWS UP IN????? She shows up as simply conflict between Shen and Zed (which never actually comes up mind you), as bait for Jhin, and for? Zed to show that he can sense magic from her kids to show that she’s been cheating on her husband with Quno the vastayan servant (bc we know Zed hates vastaya i guess?). oh and Guess What? the sensing magic thing also doesn’t show up again. 

Oh and Jhin follows Zed to Yevnai’s place. But nothing happens from that.

Issue 2 was good, but just a total waste imo. A lot of plot points set up only to never happen again. Best things about it were dead bodies, Jhin’s tiny Zed and Shen puppets, and the knowledge that Shen still writes letters to Yevnai :’(

ISSUE 3

I got so fucking pissed when this issue came out, no shit. They took the events of The Man With The Steel Cane and just. Threw it out the window. I did a whole other post about my issues with it so I won’t just rewrite the same shit twice. But I had to actually stop reading and pace angrily for a bit. I HATE issue 3 bro.

The scene with Kusho :) . Good to know that was now a waste of misdirection because EVERYONE seemed to call that Kusho was still alive. What bullshit. But I’ll get to that.

The inconsistencies in character really show in this one. And that connects to it being a shitty rewrite of The Man With The Steel Cane. They probably wanted a fight between Shen and Zed by this point, being halfway through the comic, and just shoved it in there. Doesn’t mean I’m not mad about it.

Akali and Kayn’s dialogue was probably the best thing in the entire issue. I don’t vibe with Akali/Kayn as a ship personally, but it got a giggle out of me im ngl.

Akali attacking Zed. I guess yeah sure she would. Fits her whole “fuck you i wont do what you tell me shen” vibe. But SHEN? calling off the armistice between the yánléi and kinkou due to the actions of one of HIS ex-students?? Shen would never. Let’s add another point to the ‘This Is Really Out Of Character’ board!

The sworn and witnessed scene was nice, it’s what Kayn deserves. Finally knowing the Kashuri Faction was nice, too bad they never get fucking mentioned ever again I guess.

There’s so many references to The Man With The Steel Cane that they could’ve implimented so much better, especially dialogue. I can’t read the original story without feeling cheated out of what it was before Issue 3. So more wasted potential I guess.

Issue 4

This was a big step up from Issues 2-3. My personal favourite, but not the best (if that makes sense). But there isn’t too much to talk about here? Jhin sets off his bombs from the last issue, it looks cool, but there’s no real story to talk about here. There is a lot of character stuff to talk about though.

Zed choosing to save Shen over getting Jhin is fucking HUGE for Zed as a character. For a character so hellbent on vengence throughout the entire thing choosing instead to save his "hated enemy and closest friend” ?? im sobbing.

This whole comic was emotional as hell, and the most character development we ever fucking saw in this thing. From Zed’s daddy issues to the realisation that Zed’s shadows are shades of Jhin and Kusho (which is now fucking hilarious and makes no sense after Issue 6).

There was a lot of setup for plotpoints that actually did show up later for once, like Kayn being the temporary leader and all that jazz. What it had in emotion, it seemed to lack in real story progression until the end. 

Issue 5

This issue was weird for me. Like there was a lot of plot and a lot of character shit that seemed so condensed that it felt like nothing. Zed’s confession in the cell-wagon and the information that Shen was out fighting Noxians too? Alright, sure okay. 

Shen still seems wildly out of character for me, since we mostly know him as this beacon of peace and calm- he’s so violent towards Zed all the time it’s strange. Like he points a sword at Zed while saying that he isn’t allowed to kill Jhin, wtf

The callback to Awaken is fucking superb. Really solidifies that video into the lore of the game. Camille being mentioned had me like :hearteyes: This is a nitpick- but I wish we knew what happened at the end of Awaken. Is Camille okay? Did Jhin get injured? It was a week ago, if he did get injured- where and how did he recover so fast? Little details  that I wanna know, not really for any real story purposes.

Rhaast finally showing up :hearteyes:, nothing else to add bc nothing else happened with him.

Jhin making the most of Piltoven technology is really cool, and its a scene that made me go “OH YEAH he was a stagehand for a good period of time!!”  That’s what we call Tying In Pre-Existing Lore fellas.

Jhin just really shined in this issue. Really set him up to be The Big Bad of the comic, like he had a monologue and everything! Once again, though, that gets absolutely wasted by Issue 6.

Issue 6

Where do I fucking start?

Let’s start with Jhin. I don’t know about yall, but since we spent a solid 5 issues chasing after him I expected more of a dramatic fight. More like the explosions in Issue 4. But uh we got. Some fancy prop work before he got punched in the face twice and thrown on the ground. It’s What He Deserves but like you know, he deserved worse.

As much as I didn’t want it to happen, I’m disappointed they didn’t unmask him at all. His mask was still fucking pristine by the end of the fight!! Not a scratch, not a chip!! But to be fair I think we got maybe 2 pages worth of a physical fight with Jhin so,, sure. Whatever. Out goes 5 issues of setting up? Not to downplay the conflict in that scene of course, I think it was pretty cool. It was just so anticlimactic at the end like wh-

Kusho! Haha they got us good!! The dead dude is actually still alive oooo~ [heavy sarcasm]. Why. It wasn’t a good twist! It was a “oh. okay yeah sure” twist. This might be my heat of the moment response but I have no words for how cheap and absolutely horseshit that twist is. Good thing we only have to think about it for 10 pages because HE FUCKING DIES AGAIN. WHAT A WASTE!!

Whatever, whatever, thinking about it makes me so mad because they set it up barely in Issue 5? I’m just tired this actually drained me irl.

At least we have baby Kayn and good dad Zed at the end to cleanse us of that.

HEY actually did you know that they thought that Good Dad Zed was considered contoversial by Marvel’s editors?? HUH????

whatever, whatever. i’m pissed. 

BONUS SHIT

So Jhin’s lore has now had an update to connect with the comic. And it’s fucking weird. Now suddenly Kusho didn’t care about catching Jhin after he found out it was just a human person murdering people? And that it was essentially Not Their Job anymore??? excuse me??

CONCLUSION?

This comic started with a good beginning and a lot of potential. It brought up so many new theories and so many new headcanons. But all that potential and all that interesting story got washed away with unconnected plot points, ‘important’ characters that show up once, and a cheap twist ending that simultaneously came out of nowhere and was easily predicted (in the bad way). It was a fun read for a while, but the ending has soured the experience I had reading it.

Some issues may come from time + page constraints, and the limitations of the medium. But those were mostly minor issues. I wanna give the artists and the writers the benefit of the doubt, maybe blame Marvel as I like to do. But...

6 months worth of waiting for an ending like this? I’m just disappointed.

[theshapeshifter100]

Fort Stiofán

(Day 7 of @thewatchau‘s prompts)

Yarra huddled underneath his borrowed cloak, watching the world go by. The green cloak belonged to the woman driving the cart, and he was sitting in the back, nervous about taking up space. He adjusted his gloves, making sure they were firmly on.

Houses and fields passed by, people talking about, raids? What kind of raids? People at the Outpost had been talking about it too, although, it seemed like it was over?

He didn’t know, and didn’t really want to think about it. Not for the first time, he wondered if leaving Tandeli had been such a good idea.

A shadow came overhead, and Yarra looked up to see that they were passing through a gate between some stone walls.

More people in green cloaks were milling around, and the cart was pulled to the side, and then to a stop.

“This is our stop bud!” Eve called from the front. “Up and at ‘em!”

Yarra moved, shuffling out of the back of the cart and dropping down onto the ground, grabbing his bag and making sure that his hair still hung over his eyes a bit. He walked around to where Eve was standing. He stood a little shorter than her, and she looked down at him, still smiling. She did that a lot.

She put an arm around his shoulders and began to steer him towards a pair of double doors between two towers.

“Let’s let ‘em know you’re here,” she said. “I’ve already sent a message saying you were coming.”

That put a cold pit of fear into Yarra’s stomach.

“I, why?”

“T’ make sure they’ve got a bed for ya!” sometimes Eve’s accent got a bit thick. “You can relax you know. These are good people.”

That did not help him relax. At all.

Eve noticed and gave his shoulder a little shake as they went through the doors.

Inside was a spacious stone and wood room, with stairs to the left and right heading up into the towers. Corridors led off both sides, and Eve steered him slightly to the left, half towards a fireplace that had a small fire glowing to itself.

They approached a seemingly random person, who got up her chair. She was about the same height as Eve, if a little rounder and with longer hair. She had a warm face, with soft eyes that glittered in the firelight.

“There you are Eve!”

“Hey Gwen,” Eve responded. “Here he is.”

Yarra wanted to sink into the floor as this newcomer looked at him. He was supposed to talk to her, but it never seemed to want to work with people he didn’t know.

“Well hello there,” this Gwen spoke. “What’s your name?”

Surely, surely Eve would have told her in that message. Why was she asking?

Yarra licked his lips, eyes flicking up through a curtain of red hair and back down at the floor. “N-Northern Fox.”

Gwen glanced at Eve quickly, quickly enough that Yarra was certain that he wasn’t supposed to notice.

“Ah, from Tandeli, right?”

Yarra nodded, mentally kicking himself. They don’t do chosen names in Duilintinn, but saying his given name to strangers just seemed so wrong!

“Thought so, you’ve got the accent.”

That was why she asked, not the name?

“Aren’t you boiling under that cloak?” Gwen asked kindly, and Yarra shrugged a little bit, before shucking it off and reluctantly handing it back to Eve. He felt more exposed without it.

“How old are you, Northern Fox?” Gwen was going along with the name, that was something. Also, was that a trick question? He was less than a year old! But, he didn’t look it.

“Um, th-thirteen?” it seemed about right.

“Shy one, aren’t you?” Gwen smiled kindly. “How about I show you to the room you’ll be in?”

Yarra looked back at Eve, who nodded enthusiastically at him. He looked back at Gwen, and gave a small nod.

“Okay, come with me,” Gwen began to lead the way, and Yarra looked back at Eve, alarmed that she wasn’t following.

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” Eve said. “I’ll see you later,” she added with a smile.

Yarra tried to smile back before following Gwen. They went up a few floors before taking a right and walking down a corridor with doors on either side.

“We try to keep the children staying here in roughly the same area,” Gwen explained. “People your age have joined the Watch before, but I assume you don’t actually want to join?”

Yarra shook his head.

“That’s fine. We can help you get on your feet. Here we are, I hope you don’t mind sharing,” Gwen knocked and pushed open one of the doors.

Inside was a room with three beds, two a bit messy and one behind the door, which had a filled and neat mattress with a folded green cloak on top of it.

“Alright, the other two in here are about your age. You have any problems, come find me and we’ll see if we can sort it out. Your bed also doubles as a storage chest, if you want a lock you’ll have to go to forge. We usually get everyone down for dinner at about 7 o’clock, and I’ll talk about it more then. Don’t want to overwhelm you just yet.”

Yarra took a step into the room, looking around a little.

“I’ll leave you to it. See you downstairs later,” Gwen closed the door, leaving Yarra stood awkwardly in the room. There was more space with the door shut, but not a lot.

There was a washbasin and a stool in the room, along with a desk along the wall, and that was it really. A single candle burned on the desk, since there wasn’t a window.

He dropped his bag on the floor beside the bed, and then sat cautiously on it, feeling the solid wood below if he moved about a bit. It was basic, more basic than he’d had in Tandeli. He was just going to have to get used to it.

Flexing his fingers, he glanced at the door, and whipped his gloves off. They got sweaty under the leather and felt, and it felt good just to have them out in the air for a little bit. His black claws caught the candle light, and he wiggled his fingers, watching the light dance.

There was a pounding outside, like someone running down the hallway, so Yarra yanked his gloves back on, just in case. The running went past his room, and he relaxed, a little bit.

He took the cloak from the bed, shook it out and wrapped it around his shoulders. It felt better, but still nerves tangled in his stomach. New place, new people, who he’d have to talk to… Why oh why did he leave?!

You freaked out about other people finding out you are a Changeling. His mind helpfully provided. Of course, Duilintinn might be worse…

Yarra groaned and buried his head in his hands. He hadn’t thought of that! Why did he only think of that now!? When he was already here! It was too late!

He tried to breathe through his nose. It would be fine. It had to be.

(I haven’t got a solid date for this, summer 1612 certainly, haven’t decided on the exact month yet, although it’s likely to be early summer, May/June time.

To explain a few things, mostly the name. Northern Fox. Given that Tandeli’s based on Thomas Sanders and Sanders Sides, I needed to impliment and find a reason why everyone would go by descriptive nicknames. If you’ve been following the Tandeli posts you’ll have noticed that there’s different slots for Chosen names and Given names. There is an explanation in the queue, but to sum up, your Given name is what your parents give you, your Chosen name is the one you pick and strangers go by. This name can change as you get older as it’s usually based on personality traits and/or physical features.

Why Northern Fox for Yarra? Red hair, yellowish eyes, claws, these are the features of a fox, but not a fox found in Tandeli, their foxes are more like Fennec foxes. I would assume Duilintinn has a species similar to the European Red Fox, Duilintinn is north of Tandeli-Northern Fox.

Finally, I have not gotten as far with Yarra’s backstory as I would like, so haven’t decided if he got picked up at the Beacon or the Outlook.)

[fratesblog]

My thoughts on pro wrestling and why it should be viewed, rather than scorned upon.

With the recent launch of AEW(All Elite Wrestling), coupled with relocation of Impact Wrestling, formerly known as Total Non stop Action(TNA) to Canada and it's boast about the fact that it is the "hottest promotion in Canadian history". I thought of focusing my first blog on the reasons that make pro wrestling so special to me as a fan.

Instead of explaining the territorial system, I am going to cut the chase and focus on the time period that experienced boom in the industry that I love and I am quite passionate about, 1984, thats right! In the year of 1984, a youthful Vince Mcmahon along with his wife Linda, who currently serves in the Trump government, decided to take over WWWF(World Wide Wrestling federation) & convert it into WWF, Vince foresaw a period where the name would appeal to the masses and decided upon buying small indie territories( companies that cant get national exposure via telivision) and WCW(World Championship Wrestling), in order to convert his company into a Billion dollar conglomerate that it is today!

WWE.inc, as we know is not only booming in stocks, but is also knocking on the doorsteps of Hollywood and entertainment via the movies that it originates thanks to WWE Studios. Its WWE network enjoys a whopping 1.94 million subscribers, with subscription amount being £9.99 per month. Couple it with their Saudi deal and there is no way in hell that WWE is going to lose its place as no 1 company in Sports and Entertainment.

But coming back to the title though, why pro wrestling? What makes it so special? A sports/ entertainment feature that was nothing more than a stupid segment in circus, why does it enjoy an audience like any other pro sports? Both, casuals(marks) and hardcore(smarks)?

Here are some of the reasons that it is and always will be fun to watch:

1) The characters: Every Romeo/Julliet story needs to have "over the top" characters that make it enjoyable for an audience to watch. Pro wrestling does just that, with its heel(bad guys) and faces(good guys), not only does it build a hype around a match but also gives the audience something/someone to cheer for, unlike ufc these matches are usually 20 mins blood bath/ brawl, with the heel usually dictating the pace of the match and baby face dictating comebacks. The most recent example being Cody vs his half brother Dustin at All Elite Wrestling's Double or Nothing. The build was real, the emotions were raging high, fans were crying while reminscing 'American Dream' and all in all, the action didn't dissapoint with a very neat ending of Cody cutting an emotional promo of booking a tag team with his brother. The match had every factor which made it into a 5* classic. The implimentation of real into reel is something that made it a clasic feature, which the watchers would cherish.

2) Booking: Along woth characters, what makes wrestling special to me is booking, the promoter should book his show in such a way that most of his matches are there to protect the mainevent, the mainevent, should be the main feature of the show because thats what the kids are going to go home and talk about. The promoter should promote or book his matches in a way that gives special moment to the fans.

3) Announcers: I have grown up as a wrestling fan watching the legendary pair of Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler, while the king was a class heel act, Jim ross sold the match with genuine sincerity in his match and thus made him a voice of WWE for over a decade. While Jim Ross is still calling shots in AEW, Josh Matthews of Impact Wrestling is a real class act, his mere name uttering sets the audience off into a frenzy of boos. The beauty of pro wrestling is the fact that you don't have to be a wrestler in order to enhance the product, all you need to do is know your role and portray it to the best of your ability.

4) Pay Per Vews: With build up of each match, there are monthly pay per views which are filled with a stacked card with matches for that particular promotion, these matches include dream matches with superheroes that every kid idolises.

Since this is my first blog, I would rather keep things simple, these are some of the reasons why i feel that pro wrestling is enjoyble, I mean, it is no different from a movie or a theatric play, just because it is a sport with a scripted pace, doesnt mean that one can't/ shouldn't enjoy it. I hope you have had a nice time in enjoying the blog, it is a bit random and not well structured, but I am positive that I will get a grip of things.

#ProWrestling #AEW #WWE.