#sort of making a lot of alt versions of her

[anilec-dragon-art-and-stuff]

Alright next character, here we go. Yes its been a while. But i havent been really motivated to do another one of these until now, sorry.

General Information

• Name: Cylieria Esper

• "Nickname": Esper (Most of the time the group calls her by her last Name. Elari started it, as it was easier to remember/pronounce and now they all do it)

• Age: 73 (the "human equivalent" would be somewhere around 19)

• Race: High Elf

• Class: Rogue

• Pronouns: She/Her

• Romantic Orientation: Biromantic

• Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Physical Appearance

(As always, you can check the included picture)

• Eye color: Blue

• Skin color: Very slightly tanned

• Hair color: Black

• Height: 1,62m

• Weight: 65kg

• Body type: Slim build with no clearly defined muscles

• Scars/Birthmarks: Almost faded slave brant on her right hand, its barely visible anymore

• Other distinguishing features: (Later on as the Story progresses: Her left arm is replaced by an enchanted wooden prostetic)

• Disabilities: Missing her left arm (happend during the Story, so thats why there is no pic of that yet)

• Fashion style: In casual situations goes for a simple clothing style. In a more fancy setting or a night out, likes to wear more elegant, often pretty revealing clothes

Drawing by me

Psychological Traits

• Personality: Cocky and way too full of herself. Overly confident in her own abilities. Often times flirty all the way to indecent.

• Temperament: Hard to get a rise out of her, she usually just counters with a stupid comment

• Hobbies: Later on picks up wood carving

• Morals/Virtues: She tries to help others if she can but wont always go out of her way to do so

• Phobias/Fears: Fear of losing the people she cares about due to her not being able to save them

• Bad habits: Very rarely takes things seriously. Will often make stupid or inappropriate jokes even in serious conversations

• Secrets: During the begin of her travels she keeps her life before adventuring a secret, including where she is from, what happend to her former best friend and why she left home. But as the "story" moves on, the others will learn of this.

• Regrets: Convincing her former best friend to the coming of age "challenge" that got them killed as well as letting them go in alone

Abilities etc.

• Physical abilities: Very dexterous, incredibly good at climbing (even with only one arm she is the best climber out of All of them), good at wrapping people around her Finger with her words, pretty convincing liar

• Magical abilities: No inherint magical abilities, but the prosthetic that she gets later on is magical, so that it functions like am actual part of her body

• Languages known: Common, elvish

Relationships

• Partner(s)/Significant other(s): During the events of the "story" none (but their might be some small things written after the adventure which might include a romantic relationship)

• Parents/Guardians: Cora Esper (mother), Rami Esper (Father)

• Children: none

• Best friends:

Former: Adriella (deceased)

Current: Elari

• Friends: The rest of the group

Short Overview of Backstory

She Was born in a small elven village near a "cursed" forest

In said forest there is a cave where something (no one really knew what) lived, that usually kills anyone who gets to close, any attempts du kill it had failed and so the elders of the village declared the area of limits (they didnt move away as the thing never seemed to leave the forest)

However over the years it became a test of Courage or thing among teenagers, to go over to the cave and have a Look inside (some came back, some didnt, that still didnt stop others from going)

When Cylieria was about 50 years old (human equivalent would be around 15) she decided she wanted to try it as well and wanted to take her best friend of the time, Adriella, with her

Adriella originally didnt wanted to go, but Cylieria was always very good with her words, very charming and convincing, so she managed to change her friends mind

They snuck into the forest and when they reached the cave, decided one should stand guard in case some of the adults were patrolling the area to stop teenagers from coming here.

It was Cylieria who would stand guard, Adriella was the one who went in

Tho she didnt stay in very long, instead she came running and screaming towards the exit but before she could escape the something pulled her back into the darkness and that along with the abruptly cut of scream was the last thing Cylieria ever saw and heard of her friend.

She ran back home, but completly in shock it took everyone a while to figuew out what she Was talking about had happend

The events caused her to fall into depression, since she heavily blames herself for the death of her friend. Her parents were very supportive and tried to help her out of it, but eventually she couldnt stand it anymore and in a fit of guilt, ran away from home, without telling anyone

So for the next 20 years she traveled the World, never really staying somewhere too long, since it was the thrill of New experiences, that allowed her to surpress her guild and memories of the events.

Her charming and laid back behaviour is now often used as a mask to fool others but mostly herself, into believing that everything is alright

She got into trouble with a criminal originisation tho in one of the cities, which let her to eventually meet Rúnya (so thats why i will write that properly at some point)

And from that point on she travels with the group so thats the point where the "story started", so thats as much as i will write in here for now 😅

[catwyk]

nana glass grandmother of the year zero years running (alt versions + comments below the cut)

version without fishhooks and an wip version i rlly rlly liked :p!!

in terms of design notes i dont have a lot to say but i do want to add some stuff:::

i went for a sort of gibson girl thing w her hair. i wish i could say i chose it to make her seem like shes a little outdated atp, like her time to pass the torch has come, while reflecting her practicality anc messiness, but i really did not LMFAO. i chose it because it fit how i saw her and i think it looks cool

her outfit is very simple IM SORRY OK i want it to be more complex and detailed BUT shes wearing that shit regardless 🔥🔥

i DO have vague ideas for better clothing designs for her but tbh theyre too vague rn and this pose SUCKS for design purposes. her FACE is the point maybe i need to work on composition

anyway. some day nana glass true fits will be real but not today

[raileurta]

So @gyancastle had this idea and made cool art that when the apex armor is piloted by a human they turn into a cybertronian. Miko also gets this sick battle axe! Here's the link to the post(s) if you want to see it. So anyways I'm yoking that idea.

After Miko gets the apex armor instead of taking it away from her the team decides to let her keep it. They train her in self defense, strategy, Cybertronian's martial arts, and how to use her axe. She becomes quite the force in the field.

One day in battle a weird ground bridge is activated but it looks nothing like a standard one. It's huge, a distorted look to it, and a deep yellow. It starts sucking everything in which of course includes Miko. When she's spat out she's millions of miles in the air, after falling for a bit she crash lands in a forest. Distorted she walks to the nearest body of water near which is a big lake. Washing herself off of tree branches, leaves, dirt, and other kinds of debris Miko hears a crunch. Turning around with her battle axe ready she comes to a strange sight. It's Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet and a random human girl??? But there's something wrong with them, first of all they're comically much smaller and look different. (This during season 1 btw because I haven't finished the series yet but will be reconed in the future probably)

Miko demands to know who they are which they of course give their names which makes her more confused. Falling back on her training she realizes she needs information. So she decides to go along with whatever is happening. They ask for her destination which she responds "joyride prime" because Miko is still Miko she's going to do some trolling. She looks weirdly similar to her own Optimus when she's in the armor, plus Miko doesn't think she could handle being given orders by a fun sized Optimus. She barely tolerates orders back home!

Anyways she goes with them and when they ask what alt mode she wants. Miko has to awkwardly talk about how she can't transform. Miko "explains" that her t-cog was removed a long time ago and she can't replace it for whatever reason. The bots are horrified but she just plays it off.

They go back to base and Miko hangs out with Sari for a few minutes, she finds it really neat that this kid is like a mini her. Miko finds the other bots very charming as well; they're like a softer version of her own autobots. Especially Optimus, he actually shows emotions here!

Then a alarm goes off; decepticons are causing trouble of course and Miko goes along with them to fight. She hitches a ride with Bulkhead since you know she can't drive there. It's starscream doing whatever plot he's doing, he starts monologuing and Miko is like fuck that. I already get enough of this from her own decepticons. She throws her axe and cuts one of his arms off. When it spins back to her Miko starts rocking this twink's aft. It's like embarrassing easy to her; yeah starscream was a little incompetent in her universe but at least he could fight. The fact this one was much smaller and hasn't been fighting a lot, so yeah an easy win. When Miko goes for the kill she's stopped by Optimus. This dude has such a horrified look on his face that it stops her in her tracks. This gives starscream enough of an opening to escape. She's pissed™️ and asks why he stopped her? Optimus is also a little mad because wtf, we don't kill! They then head back to base to continue their argument there. It's really messy because remember in Miko's universe it's more violent and death is sort of normalized. So she doesn't get what she did wrong!

Miko storms off somewhere. Sari tries to follow her but is stopped by bumblebee. He thinks this new mech is a little too violent and dangerous for her to be around. The young girl doesn't listen and goes after our wrecker anyways. Sari finds the older girl brooding on a random donut shop. They have a talk and Miko accidentally reveals she's not a Cybertronian. She decides since the cats already out of the bag she tells Sari everything over donuts and go back to the base.

Everyone is a little mad at Sari but glad she's safe; Miko is a little offended. Yes I did just try to kill a guy but I'm not going to hurt a little kid! Sari tells them about how Miko is from a different universe and the war. (She leaves out the being human bit) . Now knowing her situation the bots better understand her behavior. The autobots set off of trying to figure out how to get Miko home.

Meanwhile the prime autobots are freaking the fuck out. Miko's been sucked into a whole other dimension being subjected to who knows god what!

--------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile with the animated bots:

Miko: Then my Bulkhead ripped that venhcon's whole guts out! I practically felt the sparks on my skin!

Everyone: 😨

Optimus covering sari's ears: great........

--------------------------------------------------

If we're being completely honest Miko is terrorizing this universe not the other way around.

[inbarfink]

Goddam, just seeing Simon in these last two episodes is really flooding me with so many conflicting emotions.

Because, on the one hand, after his lowest point in Episode 4 - resigning himself to death in the hands of the Scarab - he’s clearly finally doing better. Just look at him making plans

And showing off his smarts

And finally genuinely smiling and feeling happy

And being so glad to meet the alt versions of his friends

And getting excited about his nerdy shit for the first time in glob-knows-how-long

And cracking goofy geeky jokes

And offering others the same grace and kindness he was given when he was trapped under the curse of the Magic Crown

And trying to be comforting and fatherly and give Fionna advice and cheer her up

He’s so clearly doing a lot better now, he’s rediscovering aspects of himself that his depression has torn away from him, he found a meaning and purpose in his life again. And it should warm my heart, and on some level it does....

But it also sends a chill down my spine knowing that this purpose that brought back the light into Simon’s eyes, the purpose he finally found is sacrificing his mind and identity again for the sake of Fionna’s happiness and her world.

He’s throwing himself right back into the miserable existence and the trauma he tries so hard to move forward from. He’s dooming himself because he honestly believes now that he’s always going to be miserable and lonely and fucked up so he might as well have be the kind of miserable and fucked up that is not lucid enough to know how miserable he is all of the time. The kind of misery that at least fits into his world.

Because he started to romanticize being the Ice King in a twisted kinda way, and now he has found the excuse to turn it into a selfless, noble act. Because the only way he feels like he’s useful and like he has worth is by protecting and helping and sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

(And like, especially in light of how he was trying to resign himself to death just moments before coming up with his plan. Not to get extremely dark, but.... suicidal people often seem to ‘get better’ just before the try to kill themselves. Because they feel like they’re finally ‘doing something’ and their misery is almost over. That kinda feels what Simon is going through right now? Becoming the Ice King again is not literally death, but it is a sort of death for Simon Petrikov’s identity.)

And this new sense of purpose in saving Fionnaworld by dooming himself is clearly blinding Simon to so many obviously telegraphed signs that this is a horrible idea.

He saw hints of just how badly Farmworld Finn has been dealing with his own Magic Crown Related Trauma

and maybe if things would’ve been different this could’ve been something they could have commiserated over. Simon could’ve had someone who understood a bit of what he has gone through, and seeing a version of Finn, of all people, face similar struggles - maybe could’ve helped him feel a little less Uniquely and Irredeemably Fucked Up. (For bonus points, they're ALSO both dealing with the grief of losing their Significant Other)

But his newfound obsession that Everything Will Be Better Once He’s Cursed again was making him totally ignore all of this.

And then there’s their little adventure in the Winter Kingdom. Which had both the Candy Queen/Princess Bubblegum as a perfect reminder of the suffering and pain involved in being trapped in the Madness of the Magic Crown

And the Winter King as a reminder of the harmful and twisted things he was capable of doing as the Ice King.

But instead he basically refused to learn any lesson from that Universe that’s not just ‘Fuck That Version of Me Specifically’ and tried to advice Fionna to do the same.

But well, while I am still worried about Simon’s mental state, his improved disposition does give me a little bit of hope. Hope that maybe he himself will notice that he is doing better and won’t be quite so eager to sacrifice his own sanity. Or maybe more likely, hope that now that he’s not just a miserable sadman screaming at their faces

Fionna and Cake are growing to appreciate Simon Petrikov for who he is and will simply refuse to let him sacrifice himself for their sake. Because, yeah, Simon tried to tell Fionna to not worry about all of that Winter Kingdom stuff, that it was just that Simon was ‘messed up’ - but since when does Fionna Campbell do what she’s told?

[21milespastblue]

this is pondering mostly onto myself but im little confused by the role of alternate universe powder in act 3. she serves to reconcile in ekko his perception of jinx, to remind him of how good she might have been, remind him of her potential in a way? a jinx that grew up far more supported and less spurned by the world is the best of every merit we've seen in jinx, her creativity and genius, her ability to connect, her compassion for the people she loves (however that may manifest).

something im seeing a lot of the online discussion about this to me is that ekko leaves, mourning somewhat this perfect life that could have been. i believe that as he makes the hard decision to leave that is definitely an aspect of everything that's going on in his head. but the greatest contradiction to me is that i don't think that ekko *personally* loved for alternate jinx. as much as i love me alternate versions of a character, im of the school of thought that loving this alternate person/version is the same as loving your own version. that's not to say that ekko didn't have any affection for her, he showed a great deal, but one can argue that these affections are as much a manifestation of his feelings for his jinx as they are a reflection of his feelings for alt. jinx. ekko's return and reaching out to jinx symbolizes that to me in a way; alt. jinx was a prompting to remember everything about her that's good not in spite of what makes her so complicated complex and difficult to categorize morally outside of grey but because of such. his jinx may have lacked the support that alt. jinx had in the wake of tragedy, may have had her life go to shit in a way that alt. jinx's life quite didn't--but he is reminded she is still very much capable of so much good, to be so much more than she thinks she is.

seeing that any universe i think that jinx is self-doubtful in a sense, not aware of how much value she truly has is an important aspect of the takeaways for ekko's dimensional adventure. aside from a display of his boundless determination and strength of character, ekko is able to fully realize the bulk of who his jinx is at her core. he tells alt jinx he "doesn't want her to change," thanks her for everything. at this point, i feel myself repeating the show; ekko monologues that in getting consumed in all the days the undercity wasn't, he forgot what it was, what it is--that same idealogy applies to his jinx.

to approach redundancy,

ekko: "I gave up on it. Gave up on you."

this was written to appease my own mind! and relate back to my earlier point that alt jinx simply reminds ekko of all the affection he used to and still has for his jinx. i think he loves her in the same way you may love any alternate version of someone you love, but he knows they are not the same. this is sort of response to all the people calling ekko the goat for leaving behind a perfect life with the girl he loves and the world substantially better (he still undisputably is!). but it's just a little different to me, not so much in that he's leaving behind this "perfect" jinx--she isn't his jinx and he's still very much leaving behind an almost ideal reality to his own--but that he's leaving emboldened to "save" our jinx. this relates back to what arcane asserts to be one of its major themes in the series finale. jayce languishes (platonic/romantic/3rd catergory love? sure! not love? no way) to viktor in a way that perfectly encapsulates it; "flaws" are irreparable and important parts of the people we love and are not barriers to love, but its cause. we love people because of who they are, warts and all, and not bc of what they lack.

TL;DR: i think that alt jinx wasn't supposed to be a "perfect" jinx for ekko to leave behind to show how badass he is (purely, still plays that role in some aspects), she's meant to remind him that his jinx, flaws and all, is worth loving and "saving." we love ppl bc of all their fucked up little bits and pieces not in spite of them

[windcarvedlyre]

I'm gonna turn that meme around on you: Venti and Jean? :>

(ask meme)

Ty :D

Honestly my answers will sort of be an inversion of yours: Jean as someone I really appreciate but I'm not actively into and Venti as unhealthy obsession and fandom bicycle. (Thanks for introducing me to that term, lol.)

Jean

How I feel about her: I don't brainrot over her for her own sake, but as my de facto main in co-op, the permanent healer in my overworld team, and one of Mondstadt's most important characters I'm very fond of her. She deserves more breaks. So so much.

Her design fascinates me too; if you use the alt version of her default outfit it looks very modest and like everything's covered when she's standing still, only for more skin to be exposed on her upper torso when you run or otherwise move around. It feels like a visual reflection of how she hides/suppresses the more human, emotional parts of herself to perform her role.

Romantic ships: I'm not actively into any but Jean/Lisa just makes sense to me. Lisa is such a fun character to bounce off her. You've got me intrigued about Jean/Eula and Jean/Kaeya as well, and I should look into Jean/Diluc too.

I s2g her voice lines make her sound like she's starting to have a crush on Traveller too. That could be really wholesome; they could periodically show up in Mond, speedrun solving a ton of citizens' problems, and whisk her off to beautiful corners of Teyvat she'd never dream of having time to visit otherwise. And they both have sibling issues... I'm selling myself on this as I type it, dear lord.

Platonic OTPs: All of the above are also wonderful platonically. Also Jean and Venti!! God!!! I neeeed more interactions between them; it's a massive shame the game never showed us Jean or Diluc processing the Venti-Barbatos reveal and the religious crisis that would definitely cause. Especially for Jean! I wish this oneshot was a longer multichapter so badly.

I'm fascinated by the idea of them having a lot in common under the surface, especially if we compare Jean to how Venti may have been in Mond's cultivation period. Even their outfits have a lot of design elements in common!

Additionally, considering her parallels with/idolisation of Vennessa, I love the idea of Venti having unresolved guilt/unprocessed trauma about whatever happened to Vennessa in the end + maybe her overworking herself for Mondstadt until her death, and him screaming internally watching Jean go down the same path. I can't get enough of fics where he helps her relax for once. The two of them should go on some long field trip where they coax each other into acknowledging they're people that feel things.

Unpopular opinion: Not sure I have any! I'm not familiar with general fandom opinions about her but I'd be surprised if I saw someone severely mischaracterising her, tbh. She doesn't feel like a difficult character to grasp. Maybe my perception's skewed since I tend to obsess over human dumpster fires, though.

Something I wish would happen: mainly (gestures at the platonic section), but seconding you that we need her to make progress with Barbara too. I'd love to see her be dragged into more shenanigans with Diluc as well, though I'm biased as a combined-Diluc-and-Jean main.

Venti

How I feel about him: I probably need help with the amount I think about this goddamn character. I didn't truly understand the term 'comfort character' until I started obsessing over him. I project onto him a bit too much and I want to emotionally smash him to bits and scrape him together again.

Even without the brainrot, he's just fascinating; he's clearly a significant character that will almost certainly be tied to massive lore drops later on, and the vague hints about him having time powers mean that even the way he fundamentally experiences reality can be theorised about with wildly different ideas being equally valid.

He has me freezing up at every damn mention of wind and/or time and/or music in this god-forsaken game. And there are a lot of them.

Romantic ships: as I said, he's the fandom bicycle for me. Everyone gets a ride. I especially love zhongven in multiple permutations, and their longevity means fanworks for other Venti ships can easily slot in past zhongven as well. Otherwise I really like kaeven, I used to be more into diluven but kaeven has completely eclipsed it for me, and I'm really intrigued about the potential of furiven as well (though I usually approach that platonically).

Non-romantic OTPs: any of the above if not being done romantically, plus Venti+Jean and Venti+Vennessa (see Jean's section lmao) and Venti+everyone in old mond- especially NB and RHW. And I really really want to see him interact with Furina. There are so many people he either has a fascinating relationship with already or has potential to.

While it's not a ship, I find the idea that he's slept with the Tsaritsa at least once pre-fallout very funny.

Edit: Venti having a non-reciprocated crush on Vennessa is interesting as well.

Unpopular opinions: I'm not sure I have any in a tumblr fandom context? Maybe that any ships between him and a mortal who's grown up worshipping him (like diluc/venti, jean/venti, etc) would be a lot more of an emotional minefield for both parties than people tend to explore, with the mortal having to go through a religious crisis while Venti clearly just wants to be treated like a person + could be paranoid as hell about whether their consent to anything is genuine.

That's not a criticism of those ships, though! The opposite, actually. I'd love to see a long fic that really digs into that.

Something I wish would happen: ...there are so many things I could put here. The main ones are a) a Venti-is-Barbatos reveal (and maybe a reveal of his darker secrets, like any abyss ties) to all of Mondstadt, forcing him to stop avoiding his problems for once, and b) for Venti to be pushed into a corner and/or go apeshit and reveal just how much he was lying about his power level.

I need a Vennessa-Venti reunion as well. Please please please.

[bananasfosterparent]

Playthrough Updates #4

(is it actually #4? I honestly don't know lmao let's say it is)

🌊Silkina the Waveservant Bard

Silkina has gotten to the Underdark safely and is currently on her way to visit the mushies! Nothing super exciting has happend that's worth mentioning, but I did finally do a photoshoot with her and Wyll which was very fun. I also downladed a pirate outfits mod and so she has a few new outfits and accessories that are ocean themed! I also changed her outfit to the wavemother dress but an alt version of it. I wish it didn't clip weirdly at the arm pits, but what can ya do?

✨Solenia the Drow Cleric of Elistraee

Solenia and Silkina are in the exact same spot lol Well, Solenia is a little further along and at Grymforge!

The biggest change is that I decided to have fun with Solenia's hair lmao I have a cool anime-ish, Final Fantasy-esque hair mod that had this spiky pontail situation and I really wanted to use it for someone. Solenia felt like a good choice lmao She's still not exactly romancing anyone atm but she'll probably go for Halsin depending on how that all goes!

She's very adamant about saving the slaves in the Underdark and helping the gnomes and it's my first time really doing that, so woo! Oh she also saved Bolen which was a first for me lmao Usually Efenity just blows up the whole area and steals the stuff that was in his bag 🥲

🌩️Efenity the Storm Sorcerer

Changed her hair and outfit YET. AGAIN. I just have to accept that I will never not change it every couple of days lmaooo

Anyway, she's the furthest along out of everyone because she's my comfort Tav and I get lost in her playthroughs 🥲yes the playthroughs with my Evil Tav being the worst person alive are somehow my comfort playthroughs... I don't get it either. Plus, I kinda follow a "routine" with her since I have a storyline she goes through, so it's familiar after doing it 6 times and still never getting past the final fight.

She has gone through the gauntlet of Shar, the whole shadow cursed lands, fought and defeated Yurgir and his minions, and I left off with her and Astarion getting the news about his scars from Raphael.

I love this conversation because it's one of the first moments Efenity's perspective on Astarion's situation can be directly acted out/spoken. She's always like "SO... there's a way to become a living vampire. Jot that down cause we are coming back to that. Cazedor is a POS and we gon' take him down."

🍃Enyana the Dryad (wood elf Druid)

Enyana's a little behind the others, but she JUST got to the Underdark! And I mean JUST got there.

She saved Halsin and I've been enjoying her and Gale a lot.

There's a sort of timid but curious vibe between them (at least, in my head lmao) that makes me happy. Can't wait to get to more romance scenes with him!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Narngreg

All right, time to look at this week's critters. (Sorry it's a few hours later than normal, it's been a busy few days and I'm behind on everything.) This one is not only breaking the bird streak, but it's also one of the handful of animals that gets a color scheme. The entry our artists are working from is here, if anyone wants to check:

As per usual, the art is under the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has again demonstrated their ability to create these with an impressive turnaround time: this went up the same evening I posted the entry. I like the design -- the high, muscular back there gives it a good silhouette and a threatening appearance, and the way the black fur is patterned looks really cool -- but what really caught my attention was something in the linked post's description of their design rationale. Apparently binturongs smell like buttered popcorn?? Learn something new every day.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has given her Narngreg an interesting low-slung design, like if you built a hippopotamus on a crocodile frame. (She's also provided her own alt text, thank you.) We can see the characteristic claws, and also the fun decision to give the creature an extra-large mouth for its scented breath.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again done some fantastic medieval stylization. I really like the decision to go literal with the "eye-shaped circles" description -- makes me wonder if this fur pattern just coincidentally looks like eyes, or if it's meant to ward off predators. Which raises the question of what this friend-to-all-other-animals, dragons-are-scared-of-it beast is trying to ward off. Also, if you check out the linked post, in addition to discussing design decisions, coolest-capybara has another version of this art where a number of the other beasts they've drawn for this project are indeed gathered to follow the Narngreg's scent -- except for the Choglaem, which is hidden in a cave in the earth.

@karthara (link to post here) notes that big cats are probably the sort of beast that can hold their own against dragons, and they fit the physical elements of the description, so here's a big cat species for you. I really like how the coat pattern turned out; the stripes on the end of the tail are a nice touch. Excellent cats all around.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taken an interesting (and very cool-looking) direction here. (And has also provided alt text, thank you.) In their explanation of their design decisions, which is quite detailed and worth checking out in the linked post, they explain that a lot of the influence on the design came from trying to reconcile "gentle animal" with "dangerous claws". What kinds of animals have large claws but aren't predators? Well, there are a few, but the ones they are primarily drawing on are the extinct chalicotheres and ground sloths -- large herbivores that nevertheless possess sharp claws. I think it's a clever direction to take. Additionally, I appreciate the stylized eye spots. And the mane-plus-goatee situation. They've also included some previous Beaſts following the Narngreg's sweet breath, and the Choglaem hiding from it in the upper right there. And, of course, Stylized Plants that they made sure to point out to me. :)

@pomrania (link to post here) had a similar thought to cheapsweets: what creature is gentle but has large claws? a sloth! And since there's no mention of it being arboreal, it can be a ground sloth. (Ground sloths are cool and I like that they came up more than once here.) This little guy is frankly adorable; I love the ear tufts and mane. I can see why other animals would be friendly to it -- it just looks like it would be pleasant to be around. There are a number of non-sloth influences happening here, which pomrania lays out in detail in their post, so go see that.

(P.S. Pomrania: I have no idea what, if any, pattern there is to whether the bestiary authors cite sources for a specific fact. I kind of suspect that the difference is "whether they know where that information came from" and possibly "whether they think a particular source is prestigious enough to be an impressive citation".)

@strixcattus (link to post) is also of the opinion that the Narngreg is clearly a feline, or at least similar to a feline -- they also note the "sleeping in caves" thing as inspiration for the "feline equivalent of bears" approach they took, so we might be drifting back to the binturongs again. Anyway, let's all take a moment to enjoy the incredibly cute scene here. Now, go read the linked post. Strixcattus's practice of turning the bestiary entry into a realistic modern naturalist's description of the animal is on point as always, and you owe it to yourself to read this and the other entries they have written. They're fascinating, especially in the context of the Bestiary Telephone situation.

They also express a suspicion that the cave thing is a Biblical allegory, and... ding ding ding!

On the third day the [Narngreg] rises from its sleep and gives a great cry, emitting a sweet odour, just like our Lord Jesus Christ, rising again from the dead...

Granted, bestiary authors turn pretty much everything into a Biblical allegory. You may also be interested to know that dragons retreat from it because the dragon represents the devil.

Anyway, the Aberdeen Bestiary version, which I have to say is particularly nice this time around:

Yep, this artist had the same idea as coolest-capybara and cheapsweets: the drawing should show other animals following it and a dragon... um... hm. Let's just assume that dragon is supposed to be hiding in a cave.

(I assume the critter is blue in this image because painting it black would make all that shading more difficult, so we're using a dark blue to indicate "black".)

And everyone who thought "feline" was indeed correct, because this is the panther.

Some of you may be thinking, "hey, I don't remember learning any of these facts about panthers."

Some others of you, who are up on your taxonomy, may also be thinking, "hang on, panther isn't a species. what animal did the medieval bestiaries think they were talking about?"

I am delighted to inform you that the answer to that question boils down to Bestiary Telephone! See, classical authors wrote about leopards, as you might expect from people who were kicking around northern Africa and southwestern Asia back when there were still leopards there. But Latin had two different words for "leopard", and as a result people from Europe assumed those were two different animals and panthera must be a separate, non-leopard thing. (How would they know, after all? It's not like they have any Leopard Experience.) The confusion created by this simple mistake continues to reign even to this day: the existence of a "panther" as a distinct species of big cat remains a common misconception, and I bet at least one person reading this was in today's lucky 10,000.

(This is not the only etymological absurdity that comes out of medieval Europeans dealing with What Is Big Cats, but we'll get to that when we get to it.)

[missterious-figure]

Know what? Have another dragon! Gacha version!

Consider what she wearing an alt outfit or something

Anyway, I like imagining Gin would enjoy eating rose quartz with Sun, not to the same extent as red gems but still like them quite a bit. And I sort of imagine her clocking Sun and Moon as not human or elves due to their sent. Like, yeah, it is not noticeable to the normal nose but dragon noses be strong so she may be able to make out Sun’s earthy, golem scent (much different than the scent of humans covered in dirt, it actually comes from his body) and the sea scent that comes off Moon’s body. She wouldn't exactly know what they are but knows they not human. Or elves.

More facts:

• In some other versions of mine, she able to separate into three separate beings. • In half dragon form, she is like 7 feet tall • Has very much sold her scales as jewelry or something after she sheds a lot of old ones • Her favorite meat be chicken (salmon be a close contender)

• She would either eat them raw or cooked, doesn’t matter to her as much as she can go feral on it • Favorite gem be red diamond (goes feral cause it be so damn tasty) • She loves headpats and chin scratches, she like a cat but a ✨reptile✨ • She has a sweet tooth • Has eaten metal before • Her smol form be very holdable • She likes showing off her flames a lot • Body heat is pretty high cause dragon and likes to lay in the sun sometimes

I feel like Sun and Moon would actually see her a lot in different towns since she is always traveling but it would be a long while before they properly meet each other. (heheh, Sun probably tried to approach her once but she was going feral on some chicken and so he backed away… very slowly)

Makes sense she could tell they're not human/elf because of their scent! And nice to have even more little tidbits!! Again, the colors are very pretty! Thank you for sharing!

[vanhelsingapologist]

I am requesting goth country music recs!

You got it! Now, obviously goth is its own thing. Has its own sound. In my post, I meant more than there are gothic themes in country music, so you won’t find like, Sisters of Mercy wearing cowboy hats. Some of this is Southern Gothic, some of this is simply alt-country music with dark themes. You’ll also get bluegrass and Americana (which is sort of where rock and country meet). I tried to keep this mostly country since that’s what you asked, but I overlapped a lot and I tried to keep the sound diverse!

• Old Number Seven by The Devil Makes Three. The Devil Makes Three is a band based out of California but Bluegrass and Country make up a majority of their discography. They also have I Am The Man Thomas.

• Decoration Day by The Drive By Truckers. They’ve also got a great one called Where The Devil Don’t Stay. This is alt-country and rock. This particular one is sung by Jason Isbell, who’s my favorite country/americana artist. He’s from Muscle Shoals, Alabama and has a song that got pretty popular called If We Were Vampires.

• Hypothermic by Goodnight, Texas. I wasn’t sure if I should put this on because they verge on folk, but I’ll be real, there’s so much stylistic overlap that folk, Americana, and country are like triplet sisters by this point. A better example would be Jesse Got Trapped In The Coal Mine, and Tucumcari on account of their twang. They’re from North Carolina.

• E. Watson by the Decemberists. The Decemberists are from Portland, Oregon and are pretty well-known for their indie folk. That being said, E. Watson is a murder ballad and is sort of undeniably a country song.

• Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars. They’re a group out of Nashville, famously collaborated with Taylor Swift. Nice balance of male and female vocals.

• Appalachian Witch by Gallows Bound. Virginia band known for using punk influence to play bluegrass. It’s pretty sick.

• Highwomen by the Highwomen. They’re supergroup of country music singers, all of which have some kickass discography, but this one is darker. My personal favorite in the group is Amanda Shires, who has a great song called Hawk for the Dove. She and Jason Isbell also did a cover of the song I Follow Rivers and made it pretty country!

• Ain’t No Grave by anyone. I like the Johnny Cash version, but I also like Crooked Still. I think it works best with female vocals, I don’t know! It’s an OLD gospel-blues folk song.

• While we’re on the topic of old folk songs, House of the Rising Sun and all its covers. Gothic as bats. Wayfaring Stranger by Rhiannon Giddens is also fantastic.

• Graves by Whiskey Shivers. They call themselves a ‘trashgrass’ band and they’re based out of Texas. One of the best country bands out there in my opinion. Real dark material, sometimes, too.

• Magnolia Blues by Adia Victoria. Honestly, her entire discography fits that dark gothic country style. She’s one of the more talented artists I’ve heard in a while. You Was Born To Die is great too.

• Up The Devil’s Pay by the Old 97’s. This is an alt-country song by an alt-country band from Texas. They also have a song called Am I Too Late? which is a song about being in love with a corpse. I Don’t Wanna Die In This Town and I’m Good With God is a great contender for this list too.

• Bury Me In Georgia by Kane Brown. Some people miiight categorize this as bro country. I disagree, but it’s definitely more in line with what you’ll hear on the radio. Kane Brown is from Tennessee and he honestly kicks the hell out of any song he’s in.

• Alabama by Bishop Gunn. I think they’re from Natchez, Mississippi. More death, more problems, more religion, more rotting in the South.

I hope this is helpful! It’s mostly modern stuff, but if you want older, I have that too.

[lochrannn]

Sending this ask to a few tua accounts!

Diegolila is probably my favorite ship in the show, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. What would you change about their relationship in season 4? Obviously they're not in the honeymoon phase anymore, and they have three kids, so I feel like naturally they would go through a rough patch. But what made me sad in season 4 was that none of it got fixed. The five/lila relationship aside, it was weird to see Lila be just completely disconnected from Diego and not come to any realizations about her relationship with him, especially because she IS a deep character and she really does love him. Plus, I don't completely agree with her being a housewife either. It hurts to see them fight and stuff because I feel like they're 2 characters who are really in sync with each other and who make each other better people, but it hurt a lot more when their arcs ended in them basically not really loving each other anymore.

TLDR how would you rewrite their relationship in season 4? Would Lila still be a housewife/Diego a delivery driver? Who would try to fix the relationship first? Why would the relationship go through the rough patch in the first place? Is it because they're both just tired of each other/suburban life/kids? Or is it something else? Would they try to fix it in the first place?

Sorry this is a really long ask, but I love all your tua takes and I feel like they ripped off Diego and Lila in the worst way this season. Would love to know your thoughts.

Sorry, this took me a while to get to but it's an interesting ask!

There is a small issue I'm having though and that's that I'm sort of answering some of that questoin in the fic I'm writing, and, while that might sound self-indulgent, I don't wanna spoil it XD

That being said, I think I can definitely think about some of the specifics you're asking about.

In terms of how, in general, could one do something with the fact that after 6 years and 3 kids with no fun up relationship in which they could have properly got to know each other ahead of time and that probably causes some issues down the road, I had actually started planning out a fic about a year ago and then never wrote it and now won't as I'm using some stuff in the fic I am writing.

My initial plan also included Lila starting to sneak and withdrawing but instead of cheating it turns out she's been drawn in by the commissoin, some alt version of the Handler who has her convinced that the Diego she's living with is not her Diego... listen, I was going to work out the time travel/time line mechanics later, basically I was trying to get to a Mr & Mrs Smith (the movie) style blow out fight that ends with them smooching.

What I'm saying is, with how volitile their relationship has always been, making them not be all functional is a logical step in the story telling, I take no issue with that. But previous precedent had always been that they care enough to try and find a messy way back to being together, that whatever else, that's more important to them, and just taking that completely away is what bugs me most.

Anyway, to your specific questions: there's a lot of people headcanoning Diego as a stay at home dad, and I guess, yeah, possible, but I think he's a bit to feral for that and on that note, so i Lila, so I would have them both have meh jobs that they hate their bosses at and part of what has caused strain on the relationship is that they are both endlessly busy and find no eral time for each other. (Which also leads to a way to resolve this issue in decent communication and them making an effort to be a couple again).

I have in the past written some fics where I immagined them as a family living the suburban life and Lila finding it...trying... but in my head, she would treat it like a mission, do both the best job she can at it, while basically trying as hard as possible to infiltrate every element of this unfamiliar world and then for some shits and giggles, sow some benign chaos.

Diego being Dad with a mustache and too much care for his van and telling people to take their shoes off in his home tracks. I have no notes. Other than the weird bits where they made him say the words claiming he resents this life but then make him good at it and seem pretty happy, I think they nailed Dad Diego. Shame they made him miserable on puprose, but I digress.

I really enjoyed the first four episodes because I was convinced Diego and Lila would both learn something and want to be together again, I don't think that is trite, I think that is how adult relationships go some times. Lila.... well....

Thanks for the ask!

I haven't been posting much about my thoughts on the season because they are quite jumbled and I'm not pushed to go back and watch it again (which is a real fucking shame, but here we are) to try and sort some details out.

What are your thoughts?

[danthediamondminecart]

After reading your answers from the last post, I am now more hype to ask even more random questions! So I, the anonymous, hereby present to, more questions and some other stuff that (I swear, I promise) won't be all about TanqR and PinkLeaf :D

1) What kind of hobby do each of the RB Battlers (and the Hosts) have?

2) Remember, from the RBB season 3 trailer, when Mr Boringsworth once said, "In fact, I have some extra gold laying around from the previous seasons", "I have enough to create 10,000 gold versions for each of the bits." I always wonder... HOW THE HELL IS HE THAT RICH AND WHERE DID HE EVEN HAD THE SPACE TO KEEP THAT MUCH GOLD IN HIS LAB?! *clears throat* sorry, had to let it out.

3) Has Bella ever gotten into troubles for her recklessness? What kinds of troubles were they? How many times did her friend/friends have to get her out of that trouble?

4) How's Kreek's relationship with Kayla? That's one simple question by me, I just wanted to know if he's alright, he seems more like a 'burned out' guy to me :D

5) How did the Hosts get their swords? I want more backstories to calm by god damn brain.

6) What do each of the RB Battlers do to feel a peace of mind or just calm, relax and cool their mind from the chaos of the world.

7) Have you ever imagined , what it would have been like if TanqR and PinkLeaf were friends. Yeah! I know I know, I said I won't talk about this two fellas' but I just can't, they are my favourite :D

8) What kind of song/songs do each of the RB Battlers (you think) will like cuz I imagine TanqR liking intense rock and heavy metal.

9) Are there any RB Battlers without any trauma? How many RB Battlers are there WITH trauma.

10) What kind of food do each of the RB Battlers like?

Ok! That's all my questions. This time I decided to ask questions related to all the RB Battlers because I want to know more about them :D

As for usual, answers under the cut~

Q1) I’d like to think that for a lot of them, their ‘jobs’ are their hobbies - because a lot of them are celebrities in-universe, the stuff they got popular for is the stuff they originally considered their ‘hobby’. Terabrite + Russo were originally a band and still love making music, Tanqr has so many alts because he just loves playing fighting games even when off the clock. As for specific hobbies different to their jobs: Jack is an animator outside of being a mad scientist, Devoun is primarily a newscaster but enjoys puzzle games with Kreek and crew, Albert’s hobby is causing chaos, Denis often helps out with cats at local animal shelters, the likes.

Q2) I like to think that, before he was a teacher, Mr B was an extremely talented scientist who had multiple high-tech discoveries under his belt, such as the building of sentient robots and understandings of time travel and timey wimey stuff. (As well as being able to build an artificial sun). So basically an extremely smart physicist who companies all over Robloxia would hire to make them robots and helpers, allowing Mr B to eventually retire and settle for his true passion with enough money to spare - teaching.

Q3) Oh so much. Usually it’s her playing pranks on the others and then the receiver of the prank getting back at her either by trying to kill her or retaliating in a worse fashion.

Q4) They’re very close, obviously (bc they’re dating). They’re sort of opposites in a few ways - Kreek is a workaholic but Kayla is very laid back (and a bit of a procrastinator), so Kreek reminds Kayla to do her work and Kayla reminds Kreek to take care of himself. Also, Kayla’s a bit of a loner, and while Kreek loves the spotlight he has to keep up an act within that spotlight, which tires him out a lot. So they like spending time with only each other, where they can both relax. As for your second question - yeah, as I’ve said, my Kreek is a perfectionist-workaholic combo, which doesn’t go well when he overworks himself and gets burnt out. Which happens less often than you’d think, mainly because of Kayla. Actually, you may have noticed that in any AU where Kayla isn’t present, Kreek tends to struggle with this a lot - for example, in the TMA AU, no one being able to pull Kreek back from overworking himself causes his spiral into the Hunt’s clutches. (While certain elements of Kreek’s character will change, I tend to keep the idea between AUs of him being a workaholic with an act up to varying degrees)

Q5) Now, I won’t go into full detail about this just yet, because it’s a long story. But to summarise, they were a band, they needed a new concert hall, Russo found the abandoned remains of the S2 lobby, he finds the sword tucked away, is magically drawn to it…and soon enough Becomes a god, and the other two Became when they went to find him. As you do.

Q6) I like to think that most of them just rest, watch a movie, play a few games, whatever. For specifics, I’d like to think Tanqr beats up people to let off some steam (aka plays More Fighting Games), Pink plays a few obbies to feel the wind in his face, Kreek just straight up sleeps, Albert ruins some random Robloxian’s life…the works!

Q7) I’ve considered an AU where Pink and Tanqr teamed up in S3, but that didn’t stay too friendly for long - it’s more them both planning to betray each other eventually while pretending to be good buddies. I think if they were to become friends, they’d both just sit and shit-talk everyone around them.

Q8) Russo is a theatre kid who listens to musicals on a regular. Sabrina and DJ both love heavy metal and rock. Tanqr both seems like he’d listen to heavy metal or just not be a music listener at all tbh. Megan is definitely the equivalent of a Swiftie in Robloxia, whatever that is.

Q9) I find the use of the word ‘trauma’ here subjective. Because, like, not all of them have ‘tragic’ backstories. And some of them (cough cough Kreek) don’t realise that their pasts would be considered ‘tragic’ by those around them. Some of them have done things that they wouldn’t consider ‘trauma’ but are absolutely horrifying (like Jack experimenting on himself). I’d say the person in RBB off the top of my head that I think has the most Normal backstory would be…Megan? I’m going to tentatively say Megan.

Q10) Some specific notes:

Kreek really likes pop-tarts, obviously.

Albert has probably swallowed fish whole at some point. Calixo has joined him but scolded him for not chewing.

Think likes noodles, BigB likes cookies, this is a given. A slightly less given is that Think is also a coffee addict, alongside Hyper.

Tanqr has really bland food taste.

PinkLeaf, on the contrary, really loves spicy food. (Kreek is in-between, he can handle up to a certain amount).

Jake has a preference to meat. Booshot is a carnivore.

Thanks for asking!

[theredpharaoah]

I think the writing for this was really sloppy. A lot of it didn’t make sense at all and they didn’t clear anything up at the end. The pacing was also bad. Everything happens in the last chapter, and the chapters after Chapter 7 go really quick(Jaime died trying to save Chris for me). Like Chapter 11-13 were literally just cut scenes.

From what I can understand; Augustine was part of some cult that worships the entity. She was a psychiatrist or therapist and had Frank Stone as a patient. I’m assuming that in order to get the entity to come to your realm, you need to essentially create a trial. 4 survivors, a killer, and some form of isolated environment. I think the survivors and the killer also need to be connected in some way, and maybe something with objects of power? I’m not understanding why she needed the timelines or how Frank Stone even made that portal though.

My best guess is that bleeding timelines somehow makes it easier for the entity to enter,

I understand DBD’s message is that there is no escape, but they had a chance to make sure this didn’t happen. With the time portal right there, you’d think they would’ve started trying to figure out how to use that to change stuff. If they could’ve stopped Frank Stone’s killings, he wouldn’t have been a prolific enough killer to draw the entity to our world. Sam not telling them what was going on seemed nonsensical. For a huge chunk of time they just weren’t doing anything in the 2024 timeline. And Sam said something about how he didn’t want to tell her so he didn’t tell her…??? It made no sense and was just and storytelling. You’d think Sam would tell them about the timelines. What’s also annoying is that the characters got information and just didn’t use it. It’s really not hard to see all the different universes’ versions of Murder Mill, Alt timeline Sam, Chris come out the portal, and deduce that time travel or at least some form of time manipulation is happening. And then Madison heard a recording of Augustine literally saying she was trying to bring Frank Stone back and just didn’t say anything or try to connect that to anything else. A lot of it feels like it was trying to tell a very messy and convoluted story to the viewer and the characters were just a means of doing that. The Characters themselves didn’t seem to act like real people; they were means of achieving a very confusing lore dump.

I’m assuming the reason Claudette and them don’t speak at the campfire is because they’re just so depressed from being in the Entity’s realm for so long. Based on Linda and Chris’ dialogue for some endings, it’s outside of time. Linda seems like she’s already been there for a while by the time Madison arrives. My issue with this is if there truly is no escape, why are the survivors and killers even trying? If in forever cursed to be hunted and killed, or constantly fighting for survival with absolutely no positives to my existence; I’m not gonna keep doing shit. I would literally enter the trial and just stand there because there’s no point to doing anything. Even if I win some trials I’m guaranteed to lose others. Pain is guaranteed and so is death and resurrection. I don’t think it makes sense that they continue to play the Entity’s game. And I don’t think the Entity would get any joy out of possessing them and forcing them to play. Whatever pain they feel they would’ve long since grown accustomed to. In other words: the entity’s realm doesn’t seem sustainable. I don’t see anyone participating for longer than a couple of months.

I’m also inclined to believe that if there’s an evil entity then there must be some good Higher Powers too. Even if the entity is the creator of the boons and survivor offerings, I don’t think it would be the creator of our world. I personally would’ve used this game to set up some sort of opposition to the Entity. If you wanna stick strictly to the “No Escape” thing, then have it be that this other being and it’s followers try to intervene and stop the entity from kidnapping people or sealing up the means by which it accesses different worlds. I personally would have it be something that breaches the entities’ realm, and that it or any number of other higher powers are responsible for giving Survivors things like Boon Totems and Invocations. The entity gives Survivors things like tools, but the point of the entities realm is to be killer-sided so it can feed off of the pain and fear of the survivors. I think the trauma that drives most of the killers is the pain the Entity feeds off from them. It just makes no sense that the Survivors would keep on doing trials if there’s no hope of ever getting out. They need to introduce something in the lore that gives them hope of escape to explain why they keep fighting. Even something like “they survive so they don’t get devoured by the Entity” wouldn’t work because they’ve already been devoured by the Entity. And if they’re just in its realm but haven’t been consumed by it; the anguish they feel would most likely make them accept such a fate if it put an end to it. If being consumed would mean eternal anguish; they’re already experiencing that anyway. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

[pikagatogirltits]

Magic x Marvel: Idle Speculation

I have a lot of random thoughts about the upcoming Magic the Gathering x Marvel crossover, and I thought it would be neat to just ramble about them in a post, especially so I can hopefully find that post again later when the sets release and see how much I was right about. I'm just gonna bullet point this because this is kind of a stream of consciousness sort of deal:

We know that we're getting multiple "tentpole releases" a.k.a. more than one full set for this particular crossover. I'm thinking at least one is going to be a straight to Modern draftable set similar to the LotR set, but I don't think they're necessarily just doing that for all the sets. I speculate that the other (or one of the others if there's more than two) set is going to be a gimmick draft set, such as 2-Head Giant or Commander draft.

I personally am hoping one of the sets is a Commander draft set, and that our partner variant for the set goes the Stranger Things route and just creates a subset partner variant. I propose the name Team-Up, to represent the ubiquity of team up storylines in comic books. (I actually made an entire post about this but Tumblr's wonderful search function is choosing not to find it on my blog.)

Ooh, if they do go the Commander draft route they can make the Prismatic Piper equivalent a Skrull or something

I really, really want a Squirrel Girl card that makes squirrel tokens that I can jam into my Chatterfang deck. Squirrel Girl is my favorite superhero and I just want her on a card so, so badly.

I think it would be cool to have a Mjolnir equipment that in addition to its other effects also has a bit of trinket text along the lines of "equipped creature is a God in addition to its other types."

Thor and Loki and any other Asgardian that represents an actual god should have the creature type God. It already exists. Like sure, we could make Asgardian a creature type if we wanted to, but that's the coward's route.

I saw someone make a comment on Reddit about adding Hero and Villain as creature types, but I really, really hope that doesn't happen. It runs the risk of making the creature types in the set super repetitive, and we're already gonna see a lot of that from the sheer number of human characters. Sure, we'll have some mutants and aliens and robots to occasionally break things up, but it'll be much worse if the class types among cards aren't varied.

Like seriously, let's use the movie Avengers lineup. What's better...having four Human Hero cards, a God Hero, and whatever we do with the Hulk...or a Human Soldier, Human Scientist, Human Archer, Human Rogue, God Warrior, and whatever we do with the Hulk

Yeah, actually...what are we gonna do with the Hulk and related characters? In a vacuum, I would probably type the Hulk as Mutant Berserker...but for IP reasons I wouldn't be surprised if the Mutant creature type is reserved solely for characters with the X-Gene. I don't have an answer for this, just wondering...

Oh, and since I mentioned the MCU, I do want to say one thing, if they're smart they'll base the sets on the comics and not the MCU. Gives them a lot more material and characters to pull from

Booster fun treatment should lean into this and be comic book themed, but I think they would also be smart to offer some Secret Lair drops featuring alt art versions of the characters based on the MCU...if they're willing to deal with the likeness rights and whatnot.

Multiple tentpole releases does mean multiple commander precons. Some themes I could easily see them basing decks on: the Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man/Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy+other space themed characters, a deck for a bunch of the more mystical Marvel characters probably led by Dr. Strange, S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., Villains in general (from my memory Marvel doesn't really have a singular Legion of Doom type team up of its iconic villains, but I'm definitely picturing a Villains deck that tosses a bunch of iconic villains together in one deck...you could call it the Masters of Evil as a deep cut though.)

If Gambit gets a card, he should have an ability that lets you discard cards to deal damage to a target to represent Gambit throwing cards at his enemies. (This is the kind of wink at the camera stuff I love in UB products.)

Koi Boy should get a card purely because he's a canon trans man and Magic really needs some trans masc representation.

[griffincloud]

Although she had a reference already for ArtFight, I decided to make a new one for my first ever WCOC, Stormstar

I also made a concept sketch of a possible more monster-y form for her since she can turn into a monster

Back when I first created her in 2014, she was a pretty generic villain who came into power by killing other cats and had an affiliation with the Dark Forest. But by late 2014, I got into MAPs (Warrior Cats ones and OC ones) and I remember seeing a lot of OCs in OC MAPs who had some sort of ability to transform or were transformed later in their life to some sort of monster and I loved it as a kid

So (I kid you the fuck not) had Stormstar go into a pool of neon green toxic sludge/acid since the Dark Forest had told her to do so and it turned her into a monster. In her original monster form, she had skeleton paws (since the acid had burned off her paws... a little graphic I know...), horns, and bat/dragon wings

I would like to do a sketch of her original monster form but I did one that was actually inspired by the Marshal Dear Mapleshade MAP (very specifically from 2:24-2:30) because after I saw that MAP/those parts, I drew Dark Forest cats as kind of goopy for so long (up until 2017 I think?) so I wanted to go do that again. I feel like I probably drew her as a kind of goopy cat at one point back then, but by the time I started doing that, it wouldn't be long until I stopped using Stormstar in favor of Lavenderpelt in mid 2015. I'm also just trying to see what I want to do for a monster form for her current story and I thought it was a good start

I did one sketch based off of her current story where the goop is a black liquid as she walks into a mysterious dark pool that was connected to the Dark Forest to become a monster. She can go back to being a normal cat this time though but just with dark spots (see the kit version of her for her original spots). I do remember a version of Stormstar back then with lighter spots that turned darker as she got older, but I think that was me trying to symbolize being corrupted by the Dark Forest and not powers since she got the powers once her spots were already black. But I also did do an alternate version that was based off of the original toxic sludge that I thought was fun. Might keep the second version as an alt when I'm not drawing her in a story context

[randomnameless]

As someone who loves both Grima and Anankos I don't think Grima took Anankos's backstory at all, Grima's view if anything was stolen from Mewtwo. Lab creation, used in some matter, screw humanity. I would not be shocked if that ended up being the inspiration for the backstory FEH made up (because yeah they made it up but it's a canon property so it's canon backstory now) Mewtwo is one of the most popular Pokemon of all time and you can't deny making a god vs making the world's most powerful Pokemon doesn't have some parallels. And even so while I could see them inspired by Anankos betrayal compared to him nothing about Grima is tragic, he's just bitter. He's fully aware and lucid of everything (despite lacking ancient memories) he's pissed and wants everyone to suffer and it's also fun for him. Nothing much more to him despite how much my fellow Grima fans would like to argue; lab created angry betrayed murder dragon is all there is canonically. But as Grima was once meant to be a Loptous expy before he became FE Mewtwo there is now a lot in Awakening that doesn't make sense due to these retcons.

Anankos though! Oh Anankos is hella tragic following the theme of Fates really. A really good guy. Cared about his people did everything for them, loved them stayed longer than he should have and fell to degeneration. Basically got so old he got dragon dementia nothing like who he used to be due to this disease and since his functions are now failing he's full of rage all the time memories are warped he loses sight of who is around him and more, this rage causes him to go berserk and he's unable to understand why those he loved turned on him then he kills his best friend he keeps spiraling, going mad following and giving into his delusions about being betrayed, I wouldn't be shocked if he made up events that didn't happen in his messed up state of mind. Unlike Grima he is not lucid, it's true he also has a hatred of humanity because he was betrayed and his goal, like Grima is complete world annihilation but his betrayal wasn't a true betrayal either, and technically he betrayed humanity first but unknowingly because he is no longer the same person he was. Anankos is so far gone he's insane. Grima is perfectly sane and still wants complete world annihilation, either because he's angry or because he's just that bored (one of his lines also mentions wanting to start a war because he's bored) because of his betrayal he sees everyone as beneath him mere playthings. Anankos can't see anything he's gone *gone* all that matters is fulfilling his goal.

Sorry for rambling I just really love both of them and feel like calling one a rip off of the other isn't fully correct. Anankos is a crazy deep character (non corrupt Anankos when FEH it'd be a great mythic) and that's why I love him and I love Grima because of how little there is and it's fun to give him more with the little we have, I uh don't like the girl version because she's lets make her sexy and sell to horny men don't we have enough of those!! but the boy version is nifty

Hi!

FEH's canonicity is always going to be questionned, like, I'm the loser who will claim to the world Rhea bakes cookies because her FEH alt bakes them when her Fodlan iteration doesn't bake sweets - but it's all about the thin line, imo, between what in a fanfiction would be called IIC and OC.

Grima claiming that humans only worship him to later turn against him is... backed up by nothing, let it be in FE13 or FE15. Hell, in FE13, his human followers are, uh, sort of brainwashed to come to the dragon's tarble, and end up as his own snacks (he consumes their lifeforce à la Medeus?) - they didn't even had the occasion/chance to ask him something and then backstab him, no, they ended up in his stomach.

(something Loptry doesn't do at all, so what was the point of having this mentionned? "Remember Medeus? Here is the copy of what he did to those 4 ladies!")

In FE15 we got his backstory - where I agree with your mewtwo parallel (even if the franchise had no qualms stomping the "strongest pokemon ever" nonsense which had them release two megas for him - and even then, M-Ray, U-Necrozma and the later legendaries wreck him in half!) which is why they could have used this as a backstory : Grima was rejected by his creator who sought to end him because he "couldn't control him", he was rejected by the dragons (and maybe FEH could canonise the fact that Duma's visit of Thabes happening when Grima was conceived was just not a coincidence!) so in a traditional mindset, if the world hates him, he'll hate the world but with a special hatred for humans (GG Forneus) who "condemned him to live a life of hatred and despair"...

That's where the bitterness angle would come, but where I call this backstory the Anankos expy, it's because Grima's trusted and fellow humans never... turned their blades at him? Unless we're only talking about his Creator Forneus?

FE13's worldbuilding is wonky, but I thought Plegia was a nation where people worshipped him (which led Chrom's dad to war against them!) - so unless Grima suggests the First Exalt (Chrom's descendant) was one of his BFF who turned against them when he tried to do Grima-things which are, in FE13's canon, destroy the world and kill everyone, I really wonder where this "betrayed by humans" angle comes.

As you pointed it out, Anankos's story is more "tragic" because the man had been benevolent, but refused to "move to the astral plane" so he was degenerating, and humans being their human selves turned against him.

And doubly agree, maybe FEH's writers slapped this story on Grima to have someone, who still has some agency and isn't fully consumed by madness (not Anankos then) explain this backstory... FEH most likely didn't came up with Ascended!Heroes already - aka Heroes who are in the best versions of themselves (Idunn becoming a chicken again!) so they couldn't come up with an Anankos who, after being defeated by Corn and somehow surviving, explains his past and stresses the importance of bonds.

Instead, they had to craft something about Grima's backstory because between FE13!Grima wanting to destroy the world and its people in angry red capslocks and FE15!Grima being an eldritch abomination that was rejected by his creator at birth there was a gap they needed to fill and Doylist wise, since Anankos couldn't be released (what would be his lines if he's his insane self? - 2018!FEH couldn't have came up with kid!Soren as a unit lol) it was "okay" to copy part of his background and give to Grima - even if it doesn't make sense at all given FE13 - to explain the behaviour he has in FE13, since the mainline games didn't bother.

But doing so, as you said, retcons FE13.

Rhea baking cookies doesn't retcon FE16 or Nopes because the games (more Nopes than FE16 but that's player pandering for you!) showed/depicted her as someone who cares about people/plays with children when she can, but Grima blaming humans for shunning him when the humans who worship him got what they desired? What is he even talking about? He is the one who devoured his followers in FE13, as they were mindlessly marching to their doom, what/who is the talking about? Forneus? But Forneus never asked him anything, but he tried to get rid of him while he was still in his test tube.

At this point, I realise FEH!Grima is basically, especially as he is retcon to his canon games, a FEH OC lol.

Don't apologise for rambling lol, I always ramble!

I get the appeal of coming up with backstories and writing about characters who have no background, I spent years connecting dots between multiverse about Saias lol and Willy's basically became my OC since canon!Willy is just a name and a statue lol

But yeah, it's a damn shame FEH pretended to care enough about Grima to give them a new background/reasons/plot, but now only sees them as occasions to sell horny alts (Halloween!M!Grima had the same T&A pose than his female counterpart!) even if F!Grima has it the worst (my fwend @crushednugget made a beautiful edit of Rearmed Grima but with Valdar instead!).

But we know what FEH prioritises : horny > plot and relevance, remember Karla and her 3 alts?