#spiked em

[rogdona]

[loopnoid]

scoobies + a little spike i left in my little sister's sketchbook >:)

[salllltie]

Day 16: Favorite Mutant

Raph is a mutant and my favorite, it was gonna be obviously him. but i thought the prompt was probably for all the other mutants and Slash is cool af

[hyper-cryptic]

Sonic channel? More like Sonadow channel, am I right guys heheeehee

-> Official artwork I edited this from.

[ria-starstruck]

signalisheads. ninesolsheads. ive swapped your tragic doomed yuri. they're getting enrichment i swear

[emeryya]

I will forever wish for a scene of Buffy & Spike dancing together. I can only presume the writers/producers/whatevers (read: ugh, JW) didn't give us such a scene because SMG & JM's chemistry would've been just too much for prime time, non-HBO television.

[pyrotation]

🎃 this pyro has its birthday right at the start of scream fortress season 🎃

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

shoots her with creature beam !!! i think qmouse can shapeshift so actually i can draw her however but i thought it would be fun to give her some extra demon features

[3x0t1clibra]

Idea for drawing: G1!Spike, Sari, Charlie & Sam teaming up to beat the snot out of IDW!Spike.

Bonus: Skybound!Spike (2023 comics) is standing off to the side, confused af.

thisall was a pain to draw but finally!!! after like 5 months-

but!! bumblebees protection squad

BEAT EM UP!!! BEAT EM UP!!!!

[chocoloom]

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I need more crossover fanfictions in my life man there like. My favorite kinda of fic.

I like seeing characters getting thrust into wildly different situations and conflicts than what they’re used to. I like seeing characters react and compare differences between the world they’re from and the world they’re in. I like seeing characters with similar struggles getting to interact when they wouldn’t otherwise because they’re from two different worlds. I like seeing characters from different media clash with each other because they have differing perspectives on something, or seeing characters from different media learn from each other by interacting. I just feel like we need more of those, for funsies y’know?

For example, what if Edward Elric ended up in Dungeon Meshi. How would he react upon witnessing or discovering Falin’s resurrection and finding out that it worked. Other than absolute anger (which is a given with Ed’s temper), would he be jealous, just a bit, because Marceille succeeded in bringing back the one she loved? Why did she succeed while he and his brother failed and said failure has horrifically impacted their lives? How would learning about a SUCCESSFUL resurrection impact the actions he takes in the future? Would he relate to Laios, as both of them are dedicated older siblings who feel responsible for their younger siblings? Especially considering both of them feel directly responsible for their siblings becoming horrifically altered due to their actions. How does he interact with Senshi? Do they bond over similar views on seeing humans as small, but vital parts of the world’s ecosystem? I bet Senshi would love Ed’s appetite, what with him having a bottomless pit of a stomach (due to human transmutation shenanigans).

I dunno, I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential in crossovers, both in terms of angst and in terms of just, general chaos and comedy. Like, imagine Sailor Moon in one of the Souls games like Elden Ring. Or putting Kirby in Disco Elysium? Can you imagine the insanity?! Cuz I can, it’s hilarious.

[empyreansentinel]

liking baron flynt is so embarrassing. this might be the worst outfit in borderlands history.

[spikedfearn]

Imagine factiming spike while he's away filming Romulus :(( you're in yours guys' flat in the UK and the time difference means you're sleepy but you have to see him before bed, he promised to call every night! - ✨

You're lying on his side of your shared bed, lashes fluttering closed as you inhale the familiar scent of his pillow when you feel your phone vibrate next to you.

The skin between your eyebrows pinches together, confused, wondering who'd be calling you this late until you see the contact name "Baby 💕" display across your screen, immediately accepting the call.

It takes a moment for it to connect, your boyfriend's face slightly pixelated as he leans the meat of his cheek against a loosely curled fist, looking somewhat annoyed, like this isn't the first time he's tried contacting you.

He lifts his head up when you answer, whooping, "fuckin' finally" as soon as he sees your face, the biggest grin breaking out across his face, "Hiya love! Thought my connection was goin' mad when I couldn't reach ya' earlier!"

You mirror his smile, albeit a bit more tiredly with the time zone difference, rolling over onto your stomach so you can look at him properly, "hiya baby. How's Budapest?"

"Better now that I can actually talk to ya'!" He responded, audio lagging a little behind the video, "was getting ready ta' bitch ta' apple when I thought my phone was actin' up."

You laugh in response, taking in his appearance. He looks good, healthy, which is awesome, quelling any worries you might have while he's filming overseas. It's a Hollywood production, so obviously he'd be taken care of, but it's still a relief to see him in good spirits, telling his temporary bunk mate Archie to get bent when he makes a joke about "reporting to his lady."

You're just happy to see his pretty face and excited blue eyes, slowly growing out facial hair you're not quite used to but hoping he keeps because it frames his face quite nicely, "well I hope you have fun. Thinking about you."

[startistdoodles]

Dark Sidia is the result of being stranded for many years and slowly corrupted by Dark Mind's power after he took control of the Mirror World. He's an aggressive, spiteful guy who's angry at the world and everyone in it. He believes no one had any care or thought that he was lost, so he is better off alone anyways.

He keeps to himself most of the time, and pushes away people who try to be close to him. There may be some cracks in his armor though, particularly for those he cared about deeply before his corruption...

[froggybrainz]

Just so yknow that there's a certain Werewolf oc I've been wanting to draw, but I just gotta find the right refs for em

The sketch I have planned for em is kinda body horror themed cause i still have the Thing on my brain, so...

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they’re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

[emeryya]

It's a shame Spike was (presumably) not that fleshed out during Something Blue, because he & Buffy were certainly insufferable enough to have started writing their own vows at some point.