#technically all of them are implied and possible to explore more

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Antag & Protag Duos Canon Divergent AU

it's Miu in the locker next to Shuichi so they're the circumstantial friends

and Kaede with Kokichi are almost the classic lead + support except you can't tell which is which (they're both leads and Miu and Shuichi are both antags, gay people win)

I mean, Miu and Shuichi friendship is so chaotic, he could let go and say what he thinks more often, he'd be more rude. Progressively leaning more into the antag role

And their talents combined used for meddling

And working with someone who's being straightforward and friends with her would be better for Miu's state of mind

She was something along of frenemies with Kokichi, but here she's besties with Shuichi and she's in on the planning, equal on the team, so she won't backstab him

And then there's Kaede and she doesn't have Shuichi at her side, hiding behind her extroverted self during introductions and already creating the illusion of leadership and community being built around her. No, she's with Kokichi

And that affects people's first impressions of her

Those two argue a lot, not really fighting but if she wants to do something one way he insists on doing it the other, it isn't even about the leader role, each simply thinks they know better and can't move forward until they reach a consensus and every so often one will tell the other to leave them alone but "you're stuck with me, no way I'm leaving you to your own devices, somebody would end up dead if that happened"

The funny thing is they're right when they say that, it's a joke for them… they don't even know

Protag Kokichi go brrr He's always working, doesn't need to hide it and sneak at night

"Don't strong-arm everyone to work with you, work with me, I am as feral about it as you are, also I don't trust you further than I can throw you (and I couldn't even pick you up) so I am going to keep an eye on you, alrighty?" glowing eyes Kaede: equally glowing eyes and clenched fists "We're going to catch the mastermind"

They're like wild hogs to me (I don't know what I am saying) [this sentence pops up in my head every once in a while and it's so true, the real oumatsu dynamic]

Kaede to Kokichi: you're the most suspicious person I've ever meet, my headache, there's something deeply wrong with you, my peace of mind depends on knowing your whereabouts, if anything were to happen to you, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself

They don't need to trust each other to be the best of friends, it's actually better this way, that's the whole reason they're each other's closest allies in fact

And maybe it does happen, maybe she does lead everyone as a protag to make the decision not to vote after he dies with Shuichi, having agreed to go along with the plan our antags made

Maybe she's grieving and sobbing and self-loathing because when they split up in their plan to figure out antags scheme she chose to pursue Miu for… selfish reasons that make her feel so gross with herself now that he's dead and she doesn't know he agreed to it and that they all betted on her anger to get them this outcome

But I dunno so don't ask me [

[sepublic]

Alright, let's talk about some details from the TOH pitch bible;

A lot of the stuff is what we've already seen and/or in line with the show. What's interesting is that King WAS a former King of Demons at one point, and we would've had an episode where he runs into his old gang and chooses Luz and Eda over them. It makes me wonder if he even had a connection to the Titan in earlier drafts, if he wasn't recognized as one back in the day because he just wasn't big enough, etc. Eda makes a deal to help remove the collar, which IS the source of King's woes, placed by a 'mysterious wizard', I wouldn't be surprised if it was Obron AKA Proto-Belos.

What gets me is that Tibbles originally started off as a friend to the protagonists, while Bump was an antagonist! Coupled with Tibbles being re-elected as mayor after Bump is deposed for corruption. I like the detail of Bump being a parasite controlling a body from the head, because it carried over into his final design with Frewin, and before we got confirmation Frewin was a separate entity, I loved the joke theory that the imp on Bump's head was the REAL Bump!!! Seems that was always the implied story of the design, I love it. Tibbles being the demon fan of human stuff would eventually become Gus instead, so this is technically Proto-Gus too…?

Interesting how Bump and Tibbles' alignments switch completely with one another, and it makes sense that with Lilith no longer the principal in the final draft, it goes to Bump, who ends up being really chill and a subversion in his own right! Interesting, but I do prefer the final Bump we got, and that's fine by me, because when the concepts aren't as interesting as the final product, it means we got the best possible version.

I've already discussed Obron and William in a separate post, and Pupa is someone we've been told about in a previous livestream. Lilith would've been both head of all covens (and not just the Emperor's Coven) AND principal at the same time, and she seems much more of a jerk to Eda in general; She has no qualms with cursing Eda because of a direct order from Obron.

Apparently the curse would've been an AGING spell, which settles my questions on how it would've been portrayed in earlier drafts! This goes along with Eda's older look. Likewise, there would've been a subplot of Eda considering Luz's sacrifice as a way to restore her youth, which likely goes hand in hand with Obron's orders to bring Luz to her, etc. The 'Bloom of Eternal Youth' quest, which Eda and Lilith go through together as their sisterly relationship is explored, feels like a carryover from this past idea.

I think I prefer the final draft; I like that the curse isn't just aging Eda, but also takes away her magic, makes her turn into a beast, etc. I like Lilith being a lot more complicated in her relationship with Eda, instead of just hating her and cursing her without hesitation. The redefining of the curse makes it less about age, and more a chronic illness metaphor, and I like how Eda in the final draft is upfront about having to learn to live with it, deal with it, on her own terms. She isn't trying to find a cure (although Lilith being promised one by Obron feels like a carryover of Eda's moral dilemma with Luz), and that adds another nice dimension to her conflict with Lilith, as well as Gwen. It's pretty frank in its own right about normalizing disability, and those who play an antagonistic role (however brief) are the real weirdoes for making such a fuss about it.

The Bat Queen would've had more of a recurring role based on the description, which saddens me; I always got the vibe she was planned for more, but between all of the other stuff the show had to juggle, plus the shortening, she ended up getting shafted despite being one of the earlier characters. Sashley, Pasha, and Bruno are also interesting, with Pasha in particular giving me freaking Philip Wittebane vibes with his grossness, beard, and anti-demon attitude; He even starts off as a potential friend to Luz because fellow human, only for his true bigotry to show. Makes me wonder if Philip ended up incorporating Pasha, we also have bodily transformation because of consuming magical stuff... P-names.

(Also, I like how in the drawing of typical Demon Realm denizens, I can see an eye demon who resembles a past drawing of Dana's!!!)

Eda was actually a late bloomer, which creates a parallel with Luz in one way, and their relationship is referred to as sisterly (in the final draft it’s explicitly maternal). So Eda wouldn't have been the talented youth, in fact things may have switched between her and Lilith; Lilith's disdain may have partially come from Eda not being as innately talented as her.

Luz and Amity's dynamic seems like it would've had Amity retain a lot of her more stand-offish, pragmatic personality even as a friend with Luz, and this would've come up more; So basically, she'd remain more like S1 Amity. That, or this part of their relationship would've lasted longer, and then we would've seen character development as Amity unlearns a lot of the issues her parents passed on. I also wonder if the Willow who cameos in the pilot was originally supposed to just be an extra separate from ‘Paulina’, but then they combined the two together.

The themes are exactly as I expected, glad to see they're still there, nothing changed! Luz becoming a witch and defying all odds to do so, putting in real work and passion. Celebrating individuality amidst conformity, plus Luz trying to impose her own fictional tropes onto the world, only to have to put that aside... Just like Wing it like Witches. It seems Amity would've had more involvement with Luz's journey to become a witch, though we still do have a carryover of that disconnect with her rant near the end of Covention.

I love the Demon Realm being situated BELOW the Human Realm, way to be subtle about being Hell you guys lol... Apparently portals to the human world are a lot rarer to find and use, which makes me wonder if the pilot's 'dimension port' doesn't have access to the human world; Meaning Amity is Luz's only way back, so her improved relationship with her is linked to getting back home. There's a gag about the Knee having service with the human world, but I can see how that didn't make the cut, for dramatic purposes; It seems like the premise for a S1 episode or at least a B-plot. Would Luz have struggled to communicate with Camila through this, or would her search for wi-fi be for mundane reasons?

Apparently Luz's magic would've required a lot more steps to complete, and I see why the show simplified things down to just glyphs. I wonder if there was always going to be the connection of glyphs as a gift from the Titan, or if the Titan and her story was going to be less intertwined in the overall narrative. There also don't seem to be nine main covens, just the many, many covens, some of which are pretty ridiculous, and Covention's sub-covens seem a callback to that.

Luz's first spell would've been levitation, and THEN she would've infiltrated Hexside, with Amity being a lot subtler about exposing Luz, though in the final draft she does figure that out as the way to go in I was a Teenage Abomination. Yeah, I prefer Light being her original spell, feels so much more symbolic and personal, etc. I wonder if the Titan is even as much of a character in early drafts, and if there's still the whole connection/relationship with the land and learning to respect it aspect. Some of these hypothetical episodes push the idea of Amity as a more episodic, typical popular kid antagonist, though in the final draft, the show goes through her character development and explores Amity's romantic relationship with Luz and its complications.

It seems the idea of the Mirror Ghost was split into Adegast and Vee, with Adegast being the one who offers the easier narrative for Luz to believe in about becoming a witch (only to be a fraud who uses uncanny puppets), and Vee being a doppelganger whom Luz communicates through with mirrors. Interesting how Yesterday's Lie was born from this. We saw the test animation from Spencer Wan for TOH, so I guess we know what Luz's puppet-doppelganger is called! And we can safely call her Proto-Vee. I wonder if she also would've been a sympathetic character, I always thought she reminded me of Lake from Infinity Train (and speculated her to be as such since Enchanting Grom Fright), and now the similarities are even MORE apparent!

Alas, The Good Witch Azura, or 'The Unassuming Princess' seems like it'd have been a lot less dear to Luz's heart, as the pilot also reflects; In the end, it turns out the author is just Eda's ex using her adventures as basis, and including private information. I remember when I once speculated that Raine, before we saw their face, would've been just like this as the author of Azura... Again, I think I prefer Azura as being a lot less mean-spirited in the final draft, and instead a celebration of who Luz is as a person, her relationship with fantasy and fiction, etc. We also would've had a Luz birthday party, the Quincenera we've been hoping for since S1...! In the final draft (and episode) we still get that Human-Demon Realm disconnect, though by that point, Luz is much more attuned and chill with the isles.

There’s definitely more of an episodic, sitcom feel to this pitch bible, especially when you compare Proto-Yesterday’s Lie to its final version. Makes sense, Dana is pitching this to Disney executives, though her statement on Understanding Willow feeling truly like her show makes me wonder if she always intended to push TOH in that more serious, emotional route we got.

[chirpsythismorning]

Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.

After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.

This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.

But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...

Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.

Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.

But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.

One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.

The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.

Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.

Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.

Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.

What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.

While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.

Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.

This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.

Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.

Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.

Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.

We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?

Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…

Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.

It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.

And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.

If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.

This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.

I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.

And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?

I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.

The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!

And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.

While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.

Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.

And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.

Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.

This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.

Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.

The changes don't stop there.

Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.

Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:

And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:

Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?

Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...

I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.

And the changes go on, as they obviously would.

Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.

And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...

If you've made it this far, congratulations.

If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘

[another-lost-mc]

I hate how Mephistopheles has no lore. I'm making an OC that out ranks him and the fucker has no established rank??? Sir your whole goddamn thing is "I'm a noble, goddamn it" and like no rank? No bitches? No nobility??

So I'm picking one (Grand Dutches, technically?) and going with the punches, but how do you fix Solomare's near non-existent lore so well?? This shit is hard! Mad props!

I'm grateful that we got more Mephisto lore in Nightbringer, but like many characters, new info or interactions are few and far between except when it's needed as a plot device. lol

Even though Mephisto isn't a member of the Ars Goetia, he's a Faustian demon or what I call a "named" demon which has important relevance in my personal world building. Other than that, we know that his family has deep roots to the Devildom nobility, are highly influential, and that he was basically raised to be Diavolo's friend. We know his special power now thanks to Nightbringer, but my version of it is a bit sinister because, you know, demons.

Unless you're new around here, my solution to gaps in the game's lore or storytelling is solved by personal headcanons/world building and creating OCs. I knew I wanted to write more about Mephisto, and that meant exploring his relationships and history outside of what the game told us.

Before NB existed, I was already developing his little brother OC because using characters/info only found in the games limits the potential for complexity and drama. Plus, writing an OC for Mephisto's brother helped me develop my own interpretation of Mephisto's character too.

When the game only leaves us crumbs to work with, here's what my brainstorming looks like to try and explore possible ways to fill in the gaps:

Creating an OC for Mephisto's younger brother: Mephisto is a named demon and part of the demon nobility. My thought: his brother is probably a named demon of some importance too.

Naming Mephisto's little brother: After doing some reading, I learned Mephisto wasn't part of the Ars Goetia, but that didn't mean his brother couldn't be. Result: I just picked a name off the list that I liked. LOL

Note: I have friends that have OCs based off other Ars Goetia demons so I purposefully avoided choosing those names because I write about my version the Devildom assuming those OCs exist within it.

Developing Bathin as an OC: Okay, we have a name. Cool, that's usually the hard part. Now we have to build him up from nearly nothing! What I knew about his character before NB released: he was significantly younger than Mephisto (I imagined the same or slightly younger than Luke with a similar childlike appearance) and that Mephisto was a very attentive and doting older sibling. Based on the RAD Sports event in OG, I concluded if he was that protective of Luke, he would be even more protective of his younger brother as well. I also interpreted the events and assigned Mephisto his demonic trait (having a tail of some kind instead of wings). In my mind, demonic traits are something that might be part of the family's heritage, so I decided that Bathin would look similar to Mephisto in his human form and also his demon form.

Identifying gaps/issues with Bathin's character: The main concern I had to address for Bathin was his existence as a demon of the Ars Goetia. Solomon has pacts with all of them, and this implies that he would also have a pact with Bathin - a literal demon child. Oops!

Questions I needed to answer:

Why would Solomon want a pact with a child and how did this happen?

Are there any limitations/restrictions if a pact is made with a demon child that isn't mature/"of age"?

Should I change his name to something else to avoid this issue? Nah.

Solving Bathin's existence as a child in the Ars Goetia: I basically wrote a world building theory about demon death/exorcism and respawn cycles to explain which demons can respawn and which ones cannot. Naming conventions and the impact on existing pacts are part of this theory.

Conclusion using fill-in-the-gaps world building:

A form of the death & rebirth cycle exists for demons.

Using theory, Bathin can exist as a member of the Ars Goetia because he was killed/exorcised as a mature demon. His essence/power exists within the version of him that was reborn later.

Implications and things to continue developing:

Bathin made his pact with Solomon as a mature demon and the pact persisted through death, although as a child the pact is weak and practically unusable.

Demons who respawn usually have no memories of their previous existence, but Mephisto would remember him from before. That can explain why he might be close and very protective of his younger brother. Solomon would also have memories of past!Bathin as well and that could have some interesting effects on how Solomon interacts with Mephisto as well.

Demons that are exorcised and respawned might carry some lingering physical evidence of their death - for example, the power of an angel's grace maiming some part of their body. This helped me visualize Bathin's physical appearance and explain any potential scars or flaws he was born with.

Child!Bathin won't be a copy of his former self, so there is potential for drama/angst as those that knew him best before re-learn the "new" him.

The possibility to explore Mephisto as a child and how his friendship with Diavolo was fostered/pressured by those around him (and Bathin's feelings/attitudes about Mephisto's potential (mis)treatment).

Explaining past!Bathin's untimely demise in the first place and the characters/circumstances involved.

If you ever wondered how I take a random throwaway reference in the game and expand on it to create an OC, here's what the process looked like when I was developing Mephisto's brother. He's very precious and though I doubt we'll see much more of him in the game other than some vague references, I enjoy writing about Mephisto enough that dedicating an OC to his little brother was worthwhile.

I'll end this with a treat for those of you that decided to read through all this rambling:

[liquidorcard]

Only tangentially related but your Harley Quinn post made me so glad that whenever I watch any Batman media, it's with my friend who can point out and explain all the references and Easter eggs. He's really excited for the next RPat Batman movie because of the amount of things set up/teased in the first one (I also really appreciate the first film because of the focus on Batman as a detective, rather than the action).

Also only tangentially related, but every day, I'm a little more grateful that The Venture Bros. is a show about a sad old man and his beautiful and horrible boys. There's nothing there to appeal to Lily, I don't have to worry about her half paying attention and giving the worst takes imaginable about my favorite show.

The 2022 Batman movie is my favorite live action theatrical release yet.

I try to not imply that there's one TRUE Batman interpretation since one of the things I adore about Superheros is that, like Greek myths, they've become so ubiquitous they become excellent means to explore concepts and ideas through many different lenses. A sort of conceptual shorthand, if you will.

"The big three" DC heros have been sort of softly canonized in the comics for a while as representing hope (Superman), truth (Wonder Woman), and justice (Batman.) Out of all three of those, justice is the one with the most baggage to it BY FAR.

I understand why people love the Nolan movies-- but I don't. I don't for a lot of reasons. Yes Heath Ledger's performance was incredible, given all the more weight considering what happened to him soon after-- but a trilogy is more than just one legendary performance. More than Nolan's obvious technical skill with the craft of film making. I take issue with a lot of things with the film, but one of the major ones ideologically is how fundamentally uninterested the films are at challenging the idea of justice. It takes it as a given that Batman (as a representation of justice) is good, that justice corrects the fundamental issues it tries to, and you shouldn't question it. You shouldn't look at it too close. More so in the Dark Knight Returns than the other two, but. Christopher Nolan is very much a romantic in his film making-- and if that's your jam, cool. It's not mine.

Tim Burton wasn't overly critical of Batman as a symbol of justice either, but his films operate more on a kind of fable-ish logic and it doesn't bother me nearly as much. He's a more stylistic filmmaker who likes to tell simple stories through mood and atmosphere. I like that about them, but I'd prefer something more psychologically engaging.

The Batman was the first theatrical love action release I felt really took the time to tease out what it really MEANS to be the symbol of justice. It's why Batman's rouges' gallery is so full of more complex, psychologically challenging enemies. It's why so many Batman stories have him sitting and lamenting the choices he's made. Why he's the darkest superhero archetype. There should be something . . . Disturbing about him. Like, you're unsure if he's really a hero at all sometimes. That possibility that this is all a big cope should be this miasma that flavors all his actions. To me, that's the good shit.

Also, I'm fucking ADORING The Peguin show. Hilarious Lorch was bitching about writers drawing from "the same four comics" with Batman when I think this is the first time we've seen even a loose adaptation of The Long Halloween, outside of the video games taking some mild inspiration from it. It's not really the sort of content you could put in a kid's show outside of a wink and a nod.

Not to be horny on main, but Cristin Milioti is CAUSING ME SOME FEELINGS as Sophia Falcone.

(Oh yeah I suppose Gotham kinda sort of did Long Halloween too. So much insane shit happened in that show I completely forgot about it.)

[lollytea]

Just want to bring up a question about the Grom curse thing, this implies that a curse can be made by can be made per se by strong emotions. This also may have given Belos the idea of "the dangers of wild magic" he could've conveniently corrupted people who posed a great threat to him. just a thought

Oooooh!!

I'm hesitant to call Grometheus' fate a curse because I can't say for certain if that's what it is. TOH is kinda vague about how curses in this universe work or what defines them.

It's never clarified if Belos' problem is technically a curse like he claims or just some stupid shit he did to himself, without considering the possibility that the glyph/palisman magic might be uncooperative with his (at the time) human body.

I don't imagine that what Grometheus endured was a traditional curse like Eda but rather, something more similar to Darius (and maybe Belos a bit too)

Alright so, this is just a headcanon but I've always figured that this talent Darius has for shifting his whole body, flesh, bones and all, into goo mode wouldn't be like. Standard abomination magic stuff. This track is the study of controlling goo, not becoming goo. So, the stuff he's pulling off here is near impossible for any normal witch.

So, in my opinion, Darius is simply not normal. He was born with a capacity for magic that is far beyond that of a normal witch and equates to being extremely powerful. Anyway his mastery over abominations became so natural to him, as simple as breathing that his physical body went through an innate "transfusion" of sorts where he basically became one with his magic.

Cases like these are very rare and usually only crop up if a witch has bonded their soul to one specific area of magic. So if goo is what's making Darius' bile sac overheat, goo is what he's gonna be.

So, for example, another born powerful witch like Eda, who is a jack of all trades, wouldn't have developed something like this (even if her curse hadn't hindered her.) because there's too many spells and techniques being practised but no outright obsession that is being mastered enough to completely dilute her bloodstream.

Well, possibly. It's unknown if a witch can achieve this form with mixed magic. The condition is rare enough that not a lot of data has been collected yet.

Giuls and me have been exploring the same idea with Willow

(There's a lot more in-depth biological details about how this whole thing works but Giuls will probably talk more about all that at some point)

Anyway!! Grometheus!!

So, what I imagine is that Darius is an example of a successful fusion between physical form and magic, while Grometheus was an example of the same thing Gone Terribly Wrong.

See, in Darius' case, he managed to achieve a perfect union between his own sense of identity and the magic that had become part of him.

But in Grometheus' case, that did not happen.

They began as person who collected the essence of others for their research. They hoarded fears inside their own mind for years and years, maybe even decades. That's thousands and thousands of souls that they stole those fears from.

That's far too much for a normal witch to handle. But Grometheus was not a normal witch. They were powerful enough to endure it. Or at least they thought.

It was too much. Far too much. It was like deathly bacteria damaging everything inside of you. A slow and steady rot. Think food that's gone bad that's been there for months. That was the magic inside of Grometheus.

I dont imagine that this corruption was directly caused by Grometheus' negative emotions. But rather, those emotions weakened their resistance to the swarming fear that was consuming them. Maybe if they had been stronger or happier or had people around who reminded them why they were alive, they could have realized what was happening before it was too late.

There still would have been long lasting damages. But they may have been able to find the balance between themself and the magic and kept their identity intact.

But soon enough, the fear ate away at everything else that remained of Grometheus. They lost who they were. They didn't know who they had ever been.

They were no longer a witch who collected fears. They were simply the vessel for fear itself.

It's a little unclear what this ask means but I don't imagine that Belos was the one who corrupted Grometheus, if that's what it's implying. Although yes, he probably would have used this case as effective propaganda.

At the time of Grometheus' corruption, this concept of physical form and magic fusion was unheard of. No cases had been documented yet. So Belos could conveniently twist it as an example of the dangers of wild magic.

However, as times changed and studies continued, this condition became more well known in the Healing Coven as a perfectly natural (if rare) biological evolution.

Sadly, it had not yet been theorized that Grometheus' case was anything other than a reckless use of wild magic, rather than a condition that wound up destroying them because nobody knew enough to help.

The truth doesn't come to light until after their vessel was slain in the Hexside arena, but they were hardly still alive in there anyway. The truth is delivered by Gus Porter, who saw everything through their eyes during that one moment where he dissected them with his amplifier mirror.

So now, Gus has absorbed it all. The thousands upon thousands of fears all melted together into a sickening tarry contamination. Gus inherits everything that consumed Grometheus and now it resides in his own mind.

And that's where we currently stand and now the question hangs in the air. Can Gus achieve a successful physical and magical transfusion the way Darius did? Or is he in danger of losing himself to the rot?

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

I didnt watch rc9gn (sorry), but that question anon asked got me thinking:dont we already have amnesiac boy? *points at rex*?

Anon dont ever apologize for not having watched something, we all consume media/content at our own preference and pace!!! (I speak as a person who as of yet have not watched at least 5 major cartoons/shows of last decades lol) So its totally cool, always!

But YES you are totally right, Rex is another resident amnesiac in accordance to his canon show. It's actually one of the big bonding moments for him and Randy in HoM AU! ;D

However, the major difference between them is that Rex - started his 'hero' career after he lost his memory (the second time) and Randy - will canonically loose his memory at the end of his 'hero' career (or more like it ends his hero career). So you see their similar problems are also wildly different lol.

(um i went on a bit of a random rant about mostly Rex below, so you can read it of u want because im too lazy to delete it, but like, the point of the answer is above, so ye)

Technically Rex's amnesia is supposed to be a sort of 'chronic' debilitation that happens when he 'overloads'/ enters Titan mechabot state lol. But the show itself kind fibbled greatly with it (which annoys me to no end), because it seems that after the Nanite Event he periodically lost his memories so often, he kept a journal (when he was in the 'gang' with his friends) to keep track and later on Holiday and Five kept a close eye on him (i think it was implied he lost his memories at least once more at the care of Providence but i might be remembering wrong) in case his amnesia happened again. So, it seemed that his amnesia incidents got better with time, since we don't touch on the subject of him having another amnesiac episode almost throughout the whole show (and he even recovers several small memories!), until that damn finale.

At the end after the big fight, there was this sort of 'scare' of "Oh no! Rex saved the world but he forgot his family and friends!' but SYKE NO HE DIDN'T! And like... it wasn't completely explained, but i think it was implied that in that brief moment Rex was the Nanite Jesus Deity he somehow cured himself of amnesia i guess?? I was literally so mad about it, we were kind of building up to Rex making an ultimate sacrifice of his 'self' and it would have been such a great idea if he did loose his memory and have been allowed to (at least temporary) retire to his family home (of ex-werewolves) where he wouldn't be viewed as a weapon anymore, but... we get an ambigous 'some major villains escaped and are now at large' and thus Rex is still needed on the job and since he isn't amnesiac we dont even need to coerce him to fight! yay!

(can you tell im a little bit bitter about the end lol)

I mean I know the show was left in this sort of 'nothing changed' ambiguity for (im guessing) future possible continuation and/or for the GenRex brand, but its like my biggest annoyance from this show, which otherwise had such great storytelling! (in comparison to Ben10 AF&UA run lol)

That aside, what's up with Randy is different in a manner that his amnesia is something canonically inevitable and really scary if one thinks about it. 4 years of very life-changing experiences, of being a hero, just taken away would certainly reflect somewhat on him afterwards? I mean Im not sure how exactly mind-wipe work, (i dont remember all the details rn) but assuming it literally leaves you with gaps in your memories, without replacing them or something similar. So one of possible outcomes would be of post- mind wipe Randy feeling that he misses something from his life so keenly that it hurts him. Or perhaps human mind would work wonders of sort of 'filling' the gaps with vague false memories to not go insane, and after Randy would be constantly questioning that part of his life?

Many possiblities, but man I dunno, like, since rc9gn didnt have much in form of continuation so there is no extra info to explore.

But it does give me so much freedom to go completely bonkers in hom au (which i did man i went a really weird route ngl), because who's gonna stop me?? canon?????

...sorry this came out of nowhere, apparently i had a lot of feelings about Rex and his amnesia.

[dors-ee]

veilguard spoilers

So Solavellan... technicalities.

fade as in fade in general? or the prison? He wouldn't be able to do much from the prison 🤔

that includes the lighthouse? The crossroads? And I know, from the lighthouse, rook has ro dream to reach Solas but technically the lighthouse is in the fade... also nowhere was ir said the prison was necessary for the binding to the veil? Or I missed something? For me it just means Solas has to stay in the fade, but that's it... tbh I don't even get why, if his lifeforce is tied to the veil like... he can be anywhere for it to work no? Like Elgar'Nan and Ghilan'nain. They were in the waking world and the veil held as long as they were alive. Like yeah they messed up with it but they couldn't tear it down without a special weapon and all and... argh. It's all so inconsistent. But for me Solas doesn't actually have to be in the prison... but maybe he chooses for his atonement. Cause that's where the blight is and if he wants to work on the blight... idk. Also : I just caught it but wouldn't tearing down the veil like... free the blight? or only opening the prison would do that? It's so confusing. And inconsistent.

Can they use Eluvians? Like the inquisitor can she go out temporarily?

It is implied the inquisitor became immortal right? ... How? If they go into the prison, the prison make them all immortal?

How'd they do for food? Or being immortal makes it they don't need it?

Also a thought... I do hope the fandom will hold on. Like I do more than get, after 10 years, wanting to leave. Also, their ending is -as of now, who knows what future games will pull- very definite. There is aangst in it and some possibilities. But it still is very definite. Fandom doesn't tend to thrive on that, if we observe how fandom works. (Logical, I mean, fandom is there to go beyond. Fill in the holes. Explore the unexplored. Or expand upon what is, if expansion can be done. It cna also dwell into what is, but this tend to offer less possibilities and be over with much quicker. So unconfirmed relationships, or uncertain futures, etc. that brings a lot to use.). I came in solavelann recently, back in september, and I always come in fandom too late haha. If for once I could be in a live fandom, it'd be nice 🤣. I've been in a really fully dead one for a while now and and it's not very fun. I am trying, but still not fun. So well, I am glad solavellan got their conclusion, and people got closure and can move on! Just, personally, hope the fandom will still be alive a little haha.

I don't know how video game fandom works, so I can't predict. But the story and characters are compelling even if what bioware did with some of the lore was... eeeeh. Kind of took away some of the enjoyment for me? Bur also brought on some... Anyway.

The Solavellan romance was also left with holes by bioware, still matter to explore.

To answer my own question higher up, I would like to explore them being in the fade but not the prison itself. Because... well. It seems a bit boring for me. Not at first, and there things to explore here.

It could be exploited, for some stories. Explore his regret, him learning to -like Rook- really confront his regrets within it. Also to work on the blight and for his redemption. There is some matter to explore with this prison. But in terms of stories, and things to explore, it would limit what can be done after a while. There are only so much versions of redemption and learning to be better one can write in the setting of this prison. And I want to give them more so even if it's fully AU in some stories I'll say they can explore the fade and crossroads. I mean, the nature of fanfiction is to be not canon, as in divergent from it and alternate universe. I mean even the ones in the canon universe, by their own nature, of not being made by/for canon, are alternate to it.

Headcanons are a cool thing too haha.

Added later on but I don't have the energy to rewrite the whole post -it was programmed, but I got more info in the meanwhile, but no energy to rewrite the whole thing or not post it at all- : Ok apparently it's confirmed they are in the prison. Eh.

[lavender-wiitch]

If honura is a wiling avatar of the web then she coerced madoka into unknowingly becoming an avatar of the extinction, in this essay you already have

DAMN THAT'S SO INTERESTING WAIT A SEC

(for those who aren't aware this is further exploration on something i wrote based on a @wouldtheybecomeafearavatar poll where some people are categorically incorrect in labeling homura as an extinction avatar rather than a web one)

i began thinking further on what you said, and 1) the nature of madoka's powers, 2) her goals and 3) what would feed an entity through her — makes it particularly tricky to pintpoint which fear she'd serve. i was making an entire essay here exploring the possibilities (mainly through an extinction, end, eye and desolation lens) and my brain hurt.

we know that one of homura's main goals is for madoka to NOT engage with the horrors™ much less become a part of them, but her rewinds inadvertently make madoka more and more powerful each loop, which could translate into madoka being marked by a fear more intensely each time. a fear strongly characterized by inevitability, which is what homura is trying to prevent.

madoka's powers as a god are very intrinsically related to the dichotomies of death and rebirth, hope and despair. the way she finds to prevent magical girls from becoming witches is to welcome them to their end before they get the chance to transform. she absorbs their despair, which could mean feeding off of fear and torment, even if it means taking it away from others and placing the burden on her. paradoxically, since she is also a magical girl, that means she'd have to absorb her own misery, which is what prompts the reinvention of reality. magical girls themselves aren't erased, but witches are technically replaced by wraiths as the beings magical girls must fight. they are distortions of madoka's cause and effect of her wish.

what we also know is that fear entities do not give a rat's ass about bringing the peace madoka wishes for humanity. in one way or another, her wish could be warped for the sake of spreading fear. perhaps, in a TMA world, no matter what entity she'd serve, the implications of madoka's wish are even more tragic (as if PMMM wasn't tragic enough!). her unwilling transformation into an avatar inplies the loss/corruption of her humanity and of the very compassion that she feels for the world and its denizens. her hope, which is something so embedded in her core, could get corrupted into something worse (perhaps an extinction interpretation would imply worse consequences for her actions and what magical girls could end up becoming; and a desolation interpretation would reinforce the law of cycles — creating more hope means creating greater grief to absorb and feed on). maybe it would prompt her to seek out more misery, despair and grief to feed on, even if she doesn't want to be an agent of pain, at least not initially. jon didn't want to become someone who takes pleasure and nourishment from violating people's privacy. maybe becoming a concept means a near total loss of what used to make her human, and her motivations would merely become twisted echoes of what they used to be.

imagine the guilt and pain homura would feel. damn all of this would make an awesome AU.

from this point on we can ask a few questions: what her motivations and struggles are (i.e. granting people hope, comfort and release from further eternal misery in life / feeling powerless to stop the horrors™ from dooming the magical girls' fate) and which fear would she cause or feed off of through her motivation and powers, which would have to be warped in some way for them to work for the main purpose of an entity: spreading fear.

an extinction approach would lean more on the rebirth themes and the aspect of replacing witches with wraiths, whether their creation was intentional or not from madoka's part. a terminus route would touch on her new role as this cosmic magical girl grim reaper/psychopomp of sorts, the comfort she offers being twisted somehow into something horrible. a desolation approach would have plenty of dramatic irony, as it highlights how madokami absorbs despair and grief and would feed on the exact feelings of devastation and loss that magical girls are doomed to feel as a consequence of the hope deposited in their wishes. her self-sacrificial nature becomes her downfall as she carries this burden, burns for the sake of others and becomes the most powerful witch (source of despair and torment) of all.

all of these aspects of her powers could be warped into something in favor of these fears and that could corrupt or destroy her as we know her. the thing would be knowing which one would claim her against her will.

what i'm certain of is that the story that would come out of TMA madohomu would be absolutely DEVASTATING and i am HERE for it.

[dinosquad-central]

Alright, after running this blog for over a year I've decided to make an actual pinned post—complete with a guide to my tagging system.

First off, who am I?

I am the sole moderator of dinosquad-central, obviously. You may call me Dino Mod, and I use any pronouns, including neopronouns that do not begin with x or z.

My Favorite characters are Caruso and Buzz. I don't actually know that much about dinosaurs in general; I just think they're neat. I'm the event coordinator on the Dino Squad discord server. And I love getting asks! (Although sometimes it takes me a day or two to answer them)

I tag posts with #dino mod to indicate that they are either original posts from me, or things I've reblogged wherein I added something to the body of the post, rather than just the tags. So if you want to browse my thoughts on the show, that's the tag to do it.

Now that you know who I am, what's Dino Squad and where can you watch it?

Dino Squad is a 2007 cartoon about five teenagers who can turn into dinosaurs, and you can watch it for free on YouTube. The first episode is called "The Beginning", but the series is episodic, so the order you watch doesn't really matter after that. If you want to watch in in order, there's an episode list on IMDB.

In the immortal words of my original pinned post, reblogged from @/deerlyloved: "Dinosquad is so bad please watch it forever 😌"

If you already know Dino Squad and want to hang out with other fans, we have a discord server! Anyone is welcome to join.

Is there anything else you should know?

Yeah, a couple of things, actually. But this is already getting long, so I'll continue under the readmore.

Firstly, I need to give credit where credit is due, and make sure y'all know that the person who made the banner I use for this blog, which is also the quintessential "there's like five of us" dinosquad fandom meme, is @scoutbot. Everyone say "thank you, scoutbot!"

My profile pic, on the other hand, is lifted from official Dino Squad promotional material, but if anyone wants to draw me a new one, I'd be willing to trade you a fic for it—DM me if interested.

Secondly, there's one type of tag I don’t list in the tag guide, and that's the type I use to fawn all over everybody's Dino Squad posts. In such a small fandom, every time someone makes something new for it, they do so knowing it won't get much engagement, so I want to make sure they get at least one person who with enthusiastically give a kind, thoughtful, personalized comment on their post. Creating for a small fandom can feel thankless, but I want to mitigate that as much as possible by saying thank you thank you thank you for hanging out with us and participating in our fandom.

I'll mention it a few times in this post, but as long as you tag a post with #dino squad (as one word or two) I am basically guaranteed to see it, and I'll reblog almost anything in this fandom. So if you want more of the stuff you like, I strongly encourage you to create it! I love to see new takes and new faces in this fandom, and I will always lift you up.

I think that’s it.

Wait, didn't I say something about a tagging guide?

Buckle in, because my tagging system is extensive and thorough.

Lets start with Basic Tags.

Every post about the show (which is 99% of what I post, since this is a Dino Squad blog) is tagged with both #dino squad (two words) and #dinosquad (one word).

In most other tags that feature the name of the show, I use the one word version, for consistency. More on that later.

Posts that are not about the show, usually either dinosaur/paleontology related posts, or occasionally technical information about this blog itself, are tagged with #not dinosquad. For cool dino fun facts and art, this is the tag to explore.

Every post on this blog contains at least one of these tags.

Next, how about some Character Tags.

Whenever a character is mentioned or very strongly implied in a post, I tag it with their full name, similar to AO3's character tags. You can follow any of these links to read every post featuring that character.

#Victor Veloci—That's his name, don't wear it out!

#Joanne Moynihan—AKA Ms. Moynihan, beloved mentor of the squad

#Rolf Maxwell—AKA Max, the squad's fearless leader

#Fiona Flagstaff—The Girl™

#Rodger Blair—Smartest kid in school

#Neil Buzzmati—AKA Buzz, the one who likes "punk stuff"

#Erwin Caruso—Yeah, his first name is Erwin

#Peter (Veloci's Assistant)—Remember him? Appears once in the first episode and never again?

#Rump (dinosquad)—The squad's pet dino-dog

#Liam (dinosquad)—Fan favorite autistic character

#Terri Flagstaff—Fiona's sister

#Winifred the Snake—Buzz's pet python

Obviously, some of these characters are going to have more posts in their tag than others, simply because people like and post about some characters more than others. If you want more post about your favorite character, Make Them. As long as you tag your posts with the fandom, I can basically guarantee I'll find them and reblog them to this blog.

That's not all, though, because there are also a lot of original fandom characters, and I tag for those, too.

If you want to see all of them, I use the tag #dinosquad oc on every post that features one, but I also tag them with the OC's name, in case you're curious about a specific one.

#Vega Veloci—Teenage transfem lesbian clone of Victor Veloci, created by @prometheus-adam

#Violette Veloci—Another female teenage clone of Vitor Veloci (though which one of them is trans is left to interpretation), created by @ufolvr

#Valentino Veloci—Male teenage clone of Victor Veloci, created by @al-gay-tor

#Iggy and Chloe—A pair of OCs by @musekicker who will be given individual tags when they have full names

#Gyrian Maelstrom—Buzz's dad who works for RaptorDyne and is also a dinosaur, created by @ufolvr

#Moss 'Rat King'—RaptorDyne employee self-insert, created by @hotratking5592

#Thysbe Ginko—RaptorDyne employee favored by Victor Veloci, created by @boysiinberry

#Miss Disma and Mouche—Head of PR at Raptordyne and her assistant, created by @boysiinberry

#Kalyeen—Raptordyne grunt, created by @boysiinberry

A lot of people seem to think that Veloci would be into cloning—can't say I would argue with them lol. On the discord server, people have shared way more OCs than this, but I can only reblog the ones that get posted about on tumblr. I anticipate this list will grow.

Ship Tags are a subset of character tags

Like with characters, if a ship is explicitly mentioned or strongly implied in a post, I will tag it with a ship tag in the format of characterA x characterB where A is the character whose surname comes first alphabetically. Posts about ships are also tagged with #Shipping.

#Rodger x Max—Those who like this ship often cite S1E2 "Growth Potential" as one reason

#Buzz x Caruso—Those who like this ship have cited S1E12 "Not so Great Outdoors" as one reason

#Moynihan x Veloci—A ship that is much more popular on the discord server than on tumblr

#Peter x Veloci—Remember Peter? Appears once in the first episode and then never again?

#Fiona x Vega—Ship between Fiona and @prometheus-adam's OC, Vega Veloci

#Caruso x Max—Those who like this ship have cited S2E10 "Scents and Scents Ability" as one reason

#Ginko x Veloci—Ship between Victor Veloci and @boysiinberry's OC, Thysbe Ginko

Most of the ship tags are pretty lightly populated, some only have one post. Suffice it to say, shippers are a minority in this fandom, but I still dutifully tag ships when they appear. If you want to see more of your fave ships, or have an idea for a ship not on this list, Create for it! I will happily reblog any ship for this fandom.

Now, let me tell you about my Categorical Tags

If you're looking for a specific type of post, for example, if you just want to scroll through all the headcanon posts, or all the fanart, that's what the categorical tags are for. These tags are usually accompanied by the word 'dinosquad' somewhere in there, and many of them are listed as featured tags on this blog as well.

#Ask—Someone sent me an ask to which I decided to post a public reply

#Character Analysis—These posts will always be tagged with the character being analyzed as well

#Crossover—These posts will always be tagged with both the other fandom in the crossover, and the primary character(s) from the other fandom that feature in the crossover

#Dinosquad AU—Posts about the Dino Squad characters or concepts in an alternate universe, whether it's completely different, or just minor canon divergence

#Dinosquad Fanart—Also tagged with #art and #fanart, in addition to the fandom specific tag

#Dinosquad Fic—Fan writing, typically, but not always, in the form of a link to Archive of Our Own

#Dinosquad Headcanons—Posts containing either a single headcanon, or a list of headcanons regarding the characters or world of the show

#Dinosquad Meta—Posts about the technical aspects of the show, like animation or writing, as opposed to the plot/characters/etc.

#Dinosquad Theory—Theories about the show, both in regard to the plot/characters, and the production (but usually the former)

#Episode Review—Posts in which a specific episode of the show is being analyzed, summarized, or otherwise reviewed

#Incorrect Dinosquad—Also tagged with #incorrect quotes, in addition to the fandom specific tag

#Poll—Posts that have at least one poll in them

#Prompt—Idea(s) meant to inspire the creativity of the members of this fandom. General prompts are distinct from the Dinosquad Monthly Prompts in that anyone can post them at any time. (more on the monthly prompts later)

#Rereblog—Posts that have been on this blog before but I'm reblogging again, either because something new has been added to them, or because there was nothing new for me to post, so I picked some old favorites to pad my queue. This tag stands in the place of all the things I originally tagged the post with, so when I use it I'll only add tags that apply to the new reblog

Most of these tags are self explanatory. Many have sub-categorical tags, which I've included either in the descriptions above, or in the Content Tags section.

After that come the Content Tags

Content tags tell you what's in the post, aside from characters, obviously.

#From the Dinosquad Discord Server—Posts containing content which was screen-shot or copy/pasted from the fandom discord server

#Dinosquad Monthly Prompt—The monthly prompts are part of an ongoing, year-round event hosted by the fandom discord server. Posts in this tag include not only the monthly prompts themselves, but also art and fic created to fill the monthly prompt. Members of the fandom server can DM me on discord to suggest prompts.

#Dinosquad Secret Santa 2022—We did a fandom holiday gift exchange in 2022 and posts with this tags are the gifts created for it

#Digital Art and #Traditional Art—Two self-explanatory sub-categorical tags for Dino Squad fanart

#Feathered Dino Forms—Posts wherein the characters' dino forms are described as or drawn having feathers

#Overheard at RaptorDyne—Posts about working at RaptorDyne, mostly incorrect quotes.

#Max Gets No Respect—Posts about the squad disrespecting Max, also mostly incorrect quotes

#Morally Gray Ms. Moynihan—Posts talking about the possibility of Ms. Moynihan keeping the kids dinosaurs on purpose, or similar theories/headcanons/AUs/etc.

#Trans Buzz—Posts regarding the popular headcanon that Buzz is a trans man

#LGBT+—Posts containing queer content, such as sexuality/gender identity headcanons for characters

#Trans—Same as above, but for specifically trans-related content

#Screencaps—Posts containing screen captures from the show

#Memes—Posts containing memes either related to the show or otherwise

There are probably a few more character-specific ones that I have forgotten, but I'll keep updating this tag guide continually as needed.

There is no #Gay Caruso tag because... well... Caruso. That would be every post about him lol. Maybe one day I'll go through his character tag and add it to every post where it's relevant but it'll have to wait until I'm really, really bored.

Lastly, I have Warning Tags

I don't really have warning tags for things that were in the show, like I'm not gonna have a warning tag for sharp teeth or carnivorous eating habits, because... well... it's a show about dinosaurs. If you had a problem with that kind of thing, you probably wouldn't be here. I also won't use the CW tags for passing mentions—my thinking is that if something's not really in the post I don't really need to tag for it.

#Cursing—I know most people don't have a problem with explicit language, but this blog is technically for a kids' show, so there it is

#Blood CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of blood

#Injury CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of one or more injuries

#Death CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of death

#Body Horror—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of body horror (excluding dinosaur tranformations)

#Long Post—For posts that are more than two screen-lengths on mobile. I will not tag something as a long post if it has a readmore, unless the part before the readmore is longer than 2 screen-lengths.

If there is anything not on this list you would like me to have a warning tag for, or if there's a post you think should have one of these warnings, but I forgot to add it, just shoot me a DM, or an ask, and 99% of the time, I will gladly add a warning tag.

Well done making it to the end! GOOooo GO DINO!

[voidscreamintheories]

HtP Theory: Blue Man in a Pound Land 1 of 2

Spoilers for Hunter the Parenting This is part 2 of a series exploring the potential identity of Big D, and what we can do with that information. Part 1 here

The Blue Man. Who is he? Well, obviously HE IS THE BLUE MAN. And also an allegory for capitalism. As I understand it there are organizations in WoD who are big capitalist nightmare companies that are either ran by demons/devils or they try to shove demons into their products to get demons into the heads of their customers (maybe both at the same time!). So it would not be out of the realm of possibility for “Line must go up” Blue Man to be a demon of some variety. The whole interaction about GROWTH and inevitability is obvious capitalism satire, yes, but I think also points towards the Blue Man as being only part of a greater whole. Perhaps similar to a branch of a chain. Though in this case the corporation is some evil cabal of demons from hell. The suggestion to “invest” may have been a classic “join us and experience great power” villain trope. Similarly “We are coming soon” implies that this group of demons is planning to break out of hell soon.

“If he’s a demon doesn’t that mean he is a fallen angel like D? How come D needs to inhabit some frail old guy to be on earth? Didn’t you say that demons might need a bunch of magic users to call them up?” Great questions all, and ones that I think actually help the idea of him being some kind of fiendish being. If he is the same type of demon as what I theorize Big D is, a fallen angel, then he doesn’t have to be a good one like D. Some of the fallen decide to roll with the punches and just lean into being evil bastards, perhaps the Blue Man is one such high torment being. Or perhaps he’s another kind of malevolent entity that my unawakened mind calls “demon” because he fits a lot of criteria that I associate with those creatures, even if he is something else. One example here is the possession of a frail body/soul: On one hand, maybe the old, oxygen deprived body we see IS the host of the Blue Man, an aged and hypoxic man. On the other hand, and what I believe to be the case, maybe the Blue Man doesn’t need to be fully over the threshold and on earth to do whatever it is he wants to do, and that leads into who might be calling him. At the end of the audiolog we see the manager call up the Tremere regent and she informs her that D found the pit, which she calls the “entrance”. So if the Blue Man was called by a group of magic users, I think I know a certain bunch who would fit. However, let’s discuss that at the end of this theory.

I think it’s made clear to us by the end of D’s part in the audiolog that the encounter we witnessed was not happening in the flesh and blood real world. The distorted sound during the encounter, and the evidence D himself notes indicate it was some kind of mental/spiritual encounter. BUT D does get a physical blender, and a very nice one at that, so what does this mean? I think the Blue Man and the 99 pound shop represent a classic Faustian bargain. A deal with the devil where you get precisely what you want, and it might even seem like a good deal on the surface (a very expensive blender for only 99p!), but the REAL price is more than you thought you were bargaining for. In this case that may have been literal, D’s horror at being in a 99 POUND store instead of 99 pence, but I also suspect figuratively. There is no way D just gets that blender and walks away, there will likely be some devil-deal cost somewhere down the line. HOWEVER, D didn’t pay the full cost of the item. Giles spotted him a pence because he was one short. I don’t think this moment was put in as a throwaway. Either this means D has a way to wiggle out of the deal and associated cost on a technicality: He didn’t pay the full price and thus the deal didn’t actually happen. This would fit with some of D’s behaviour around legal dealings, such as not TECHNICALLY being divorced from Occam since D never signed the papers. Back to Giles though, there is also the potential that him chipping in to paying for the blender means he is now roped into whatever punishment is coming D’s way.

Have to split this post up again, too many words, second half here

[shadowgast-recs-weekly]

This week we have twenty-three amazing fics to share involving Essek and another member of his family! Due to the nature of this theme, we have expanded our list this week to include some gen fics, along with fics where shadowgast is technically the secondary pairing. Read more under the cut!

what luminous worlds await by essektheylyss (midnightindigo) (178674, Mature) Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, tags include: Violence, Minor Character Death,Implied/Referenced Self-Harm Set a milennia after c2, Essek-the champion of the Luxon-wakes up to a world he's not familiar with anymore. But he's not facing things alone and may just find possibilities he does not expect. Reccer says: Specific to this week's theme: inclusion of a wonderfully complex Deirta in particular! As well as Verin who helps Essek on his journey. Overall a wonderfully touching story with complex characters and relationships, countless gorgeous scenes and a wonderful flavor of shadowgast

A Family Affair, or The Arrival of Verin Thelyss and All That It Entails by Dragonslaeyr (21471, Teen) Warnings: None 5+1 times Caleb encountered Verin Thelyss, and maybe misunderstood who he was to Essek Reccer says: Absolutely hilarious misunderstanding and mutual pinings fic

Get Help by professor (515, Teen) Warnings: no warnings Post canon, the M9 have been captured. Essek enlists his brother Verin to help rescue them. Reccer says: It's a meme shitpost in ficlet form but I always laugh when I read it.

some things time can't fix by Chrome (25930, Mature) Warnings: None A Daemon AU, Essek is captured by the Dynasty, Caleb manages to rescue him before they execute him, but not before Essek gets severed from his Daemon. Caleb has to race to find a way to reconnect Essek and his daemon before they fade away and die. Reccer says: Another wonderful, heart-rending hurt/comfort fic by Chrome; it's also maybe the only fic I've ever read that depicts Deirta as 100% a good and loving mother to Essek. It's not the main focus of the fic (she doesn't show up until the last chapter) but it's a refreshing change of pace after reading a billion Bad Mom Deirta Thelyss fics.

the last true mouthpiece by hanap (35722, Teen) Warnings: None Essek has been chosen by the Luxon, but all Verin sees is his brother being corrupted by the light Reccer says: Heartrending take on the Thelyss family relationship and Essek's faith

No One by that Name Lives Here Anymore by Operafloozy (13138, Teen) Warnings: None Caleb and Essek run into a reincarnated Essek's Father in Uthodurn. Reccer says: It's a beautifully written fic about a complicated relationship that delves into what consecution might be like. Comes with a commentary track and a sequel I haven't read yet.

The Secret Romance of Essek Thelyss by Cardinal_Daughter (18629, Explicit) Warnings: None Essek wants to celebrate his and Caleb's anniversary and his mother has other plans. With a sprinkling of Verin at the end. Reccer says: I love this and the fic it's a sequel for (you don't have to have read the first one but they're both great)

Rendezvous with a Ghost by kaeda (12344, Teen) Warnings: None Verin thinks Essek is dead until he shows up to invite him to his wedding. Verin spends most of the fic confused. Reccer says: Nothing

the wreck of all we burnt by essektheylyss (midnightindigo) (6617, Mature) Warnings: None Essek's mother has died and Essek has never learned how to mourn Reccer says: a wonderful exploration of grief or lack thereof

OPERATION: HOT BOI LIBERATION (or: How I Spent My Spring Break in Rexxentrum, by Verin of Den Thelyss) by CatgirlTheCrazy (6404, Mature) Warnings: None Verin thinks Caleb is holding Essek hostage, chaos ensues Reccer says: Verin discovers what a cat is

interim by vagabondfirefly (995, General) Warnings: None Verin witnesses a private moment Reccer says: It's so soft your honour

The Governess by Professor_Rye (13826, General) Warnings: None Essek and Verin's childhood through the lens of their nurse maid Reccer says: So sweet and touching it made my heart ache, I fell in love with the boys alongside their nanny

That's why it's hotter under the water by professor (3231, Teen) Warnings: no warnings The Thelyss brothers find out firsthand that sometimes genetics are really fucking weird. Reccer says: So many hijinx and shenanigans. Verin is peak himbo, and Essek is facepalming forever.

jam and noodles by royalgreen (allyoop) (2578, General) Warnings: No warnings A magical mishap brings two brothers closer together. Or, Essek runs afoul of some Aeorian magic, and the M9 call in Verin for help. Reccer says: Excellent brotherly bonding, the chaos of Verin meeting Jester, and a fun cameo from Long Essek.

The Chosen AU by Anonymous (90296, Explicit) Warnings: Incest, cannibalism, violence, mental illness and trauma A dark AU where Essek is the chosen of the Luxon and Verin is a paladin. They have left the dynasty and found a home in Port Damali. There they meet friends, both OCs and the M9. Caleb soon becomes a part of their relationship. Reccer says: The language and storytelling is smart and witty. Both horrible and cute things are described with a raw and unforgiving tone, in a way that makes me hungrily gulp down the text. Essek's powers are horrifying and mysterious and the story is told non-chronologically in a way that really works. The glimpses of calm, love and friendship are so sweet when they come. A warning though: the brothers have a sexual relationship. However, it's not overtly explicit.

Family Resemblence by firefright (1289, General) Warnings: None Verin meets his niece. Reccer says: Tooth-achingly sweet, this fic is an adorable look at shadowgast and their family post-canon.

the loudest voice in my head is my mother by hanap (2800, Teen) Warnings: None A pregnant Essek is visited by his mother and has to face conversations he tried to avoid Reccer says: Delicious choice of a POV that will have you rereading the fic to catch all the subtleties

and after the scripture (your mother beside me) by SaltCore (9531, Mature) Warnings: Canon typical death and resurrection, grief/mourning Essek has died, but don't worry, he gets better. When the m9 goes there to get his body they meet Dierta. Reccer says: This is the best Dierta I have read. She is incredibly complex and human, in a way that made my heart ache.

the edge of the blade by jaskofalltrades (56205, Teen) Warnings: None Essek and Caleb are forced to fake an engagement, to get out of one Deirta had arranged. Reccer says: Very interesting read, the political machinations make the story very tense, and the oining between Caleb and Essek is delicious!

And two recs each for

how language fills the cracks by hanap (5027, Teen) Warnings: None Essek discovers he's an uncle, to his shock. Reccer 1 says: It's very sweet, for a lot of reasons, and keeps you surprised! Reccer 2 says: It's so sweet.

All Things in Perspective by firefright (20729, Mature) Warnings: None Verin has a lot of questions about the supposed "death" of his brother in Eiselcross. He eventually finds the Mighty Nein and gets the answers he's looking for, but some are a lot harder to swallow than others. Reccer 1 says: This fic is perhaps my favorite "Verin meets his brothers new friends and finds out what he did" fic of all time, and written by one of the best Verin writers in the whole fandom. Verin is the peak Lawful Good himbo to complement Essek's formerly-neutral-evil-war-criminal, and they are the perfect balance of "would die for each other" and "constantly give each other shit." Also uses outsider POV brilliantly to highlight just how drastically the Mighty Nein changed Essek. Reccer 2 says: It's heartfelt, it's comedic at times and the brotherly bond feels believable. Bonus points for Verin's POV - we get to see his reactions to the Nein.

Lay Your Bones by LadyOrpheus (53587, Teen) Warnings: Small, nondescriptive flashback to a miscarriage After Essek is captured and turned over to the Dynasty, Verin has to pick up… the pieces? No, not quite, but he does have to pick up Essek's daughter. A race against time as Verin tries to save his brother's life. Reccer 1 says: This is THE verin fic for me. You fully buy into his anger and his forgiveness. Dierta is also so complicated and tasty. Reccer 2 says: Lovely Verin-centered fic with incredibly cute moments with Essek's child and a lot of interaction with the Nein

And then three recs for

path of the traveled sun by mousecookie (6008, General) Warnings: None Verin is invited to Rumblecusp with the Nein and Essek, and is amazed by how much Essek has changed. Reccer 1 says: SOFT. Reccer 2 says: It's incredibly warm, but it doesn't shy away from complicated feelings. Nice characterisation. Cute baby. Reccer says: Nothing

Aeor is for Lovers is an 18+ Shadowgast Discord server. The above fanfic recommendations were pulled from our community for this weekly event. All fics, unless otherwise specified, will primarily feature Shadowgast.

Have any questions about what this is? Check out the FAQ! Next week's theme is Scourger/Evil AU, so stay tuned!

[mitsuki91]

Honestly, why I can see why some might find Katniss/Snow not their cup of tea, I do find it really interesting since I personally believe in one of the theories that Snow hated Katniss so much not just because she reminded him of Sejanus and/or Lucy Gray, but because she also reminds him of himself if he'd actually made different choices and chose love over power, if he hadn't chosen to record Sejanus or just deleted it, if he'd just ran away with Lucy Gray, and I find that so fascinating. Plus, Katniss also technically was a bit bitter and immediately mistrusting of others and assuming the possible worst of the people around her at first, too, in her inner monologue, so I like to think they are a little alike (young Coriolanus, I mean, since I do agree that despite there still being those hints of the person he might soon become, he was pretty much still at that stage where he really could've gone either way, but he ultimately chose at the end after all that happened to cross that line). Even in the trilogy timeline, their dynamic is already very interesting with what TBOSAS implies Katniss represented to Snow, and I really wish there was more fics on the ship between Young Coriolanus and her that could explore that

I know anon I feel that too!!! 😭😭😭 They are a couple with so much potential. So so much. I am still in that rabbit hole but all the plot in my mind are only half-plotted and as you and everyone can see I have zero time to write. Zero. (Because I wanted to at least finish some of my other stories but I am so slow =___=).

Anyway the ship has so much potential expecially in my opinion when he can still change and be better... But as usual for me I feel so alone in my corner, now. I mean I found another author who write about them and who write good but the stories are about old Snow and while I am fascinated about it the dynamic is completely different.

(Also you remind me I have yet to write the last tiny chapter in Peeta's pov for my fic. Sigh. The headcanon that all of their life are tied together in this time travel mess are too good for me now and I can not see anything different).

I agree with you about everything 💖 Thank you for the ask, it's good to see other niche ship fan 💖🥰

[rhineposting]

So is the implication from that headcanon is that Belos sexually a*saulted Hunter? If yes, why did he do it? Is it like a chain of harm thing, like he himself was abused as a child, or was it just to be a prick?

The short answer would be yes, but the long version is a bit more complex than that.

More in-depth, but possibly triggering answer, below the cut

Okay, so. I'll begin with a disclaimer again.

The Belos pictured above is not canon Belos, and never was supposed to be. He exists solely as a device to explore an alternative scenario that would not make sense for canon Belos, as well as the weight behind it.

The main difference between this Belos and the canon one, is that he does not perceive Hunter as his nephew - to him, he was simply the boy he made specifically for being available at the snap of a finger. The abuse depicted in canon was clearly based on familial bonds, so I wanted to stray from that.

Disclaimer over.

So. Let's begin with Hunter.

While he is certainly a victim, assault isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe the specific type of sexual abuse he had gone through. To me, assault always implied something sudden, violent and unwanted from the get go - you know it's wrong from the start.

And that's precisely the opposite of Hunter's situation as depicted in the fic.

He's what I like to call an Unsympathetic Victim - the kind that most people doubt when they describe their story, the kind that doesn't fit into the convenient, tasteful or sometimes fetishized box of what being a victim means. Sucks, but unfortunately, it still happens everywhere. Those people, though their experiences and feelings are viewed unsavory or even sometimes disgusting by society, are still just as valid as those approved by it. Trauma isn’t a fucking measuring contest, and that’s that.

As for what that exactly entails...

Hunter, due to being isolated from peers and other adults, ended up developing an unhealthy infatuation with Belos, which resulted both from him being the only "good" adult in his life, as well as intrusive thoughts based in his already existing trauma, on top of teenage hormonal changes. Of course, he had no idea that it was wrong. He had no reference points whatsoever on what was right and wrong.

At some point he had admitted to those feelings and normal for his age desires - which, unfortunately to him, Belos decided to entertain. I won't go too much into detail, but eventually, Belos and Hunter's already awful relationship ended up gaining a sexual layer to it.

Here is where the "unsympathetic" part starts :

Due to his lack of proper education and severe emotional manipulation from Belos, Hunter never considered himself a victim. Right up until he started watching that movie with Luz, he thought it was perfectly normal for a teenager and an adult to be in a sexual relationship. Of course, for him the adult in question turned out to be a genocidal maniac and narcissist, but he never hated those more intimate parts. If anything, he was always happy to participate as he did enjoy it, as ugly as it may sound.

Of course, his logic skips on the parts where Belos guilt-tripped consent out of him, or that he was afraid of the disappointment that would follow after openly saying no, which as we know resulted in physical abuse in canon. All he knew was that he trusted Belos and that the act itself was physically pleasurable for both of them, so it couldn't have actually been something wrong. That it couldn't have been abuse as well.

That is, again, right up until he was proven otherwise by Luz, to which he reacted with brief panic then shutting down. Not only was that last illusion of normalcy taken away from him, now he believes it was his fault for having those thoughts to begin with. If there was one thing Belos taught him well, it was the art of self-victim blaming.

But in shorter words...

No. Technically speaking Hunter was not assaulted - rather, he was groomed and coerced, and mayhaps gaslit. While those two situations are both sexual abuse, they are two different kinds of it and that kind of distinction is important.

Now, as for Belos...

I personally do not like writing him with a "chain of harm" trope, as likely as it might've been, because I feel like it defeats the point of him consciously making the decision to do the wrong thing for over 400 years.

However, reducing it to him just "being a prick" misses the point as well.

Canon Belos first and foremost, wanted to have complete and utter authority and control over Hunter, while also demanding devotion, adoration and loyalty from him - which applies to This version of Belos as well.

So, when Hunter ended up coming forward with his intrusive thoughts and desires, to Belos it was an opportunity for two things :

Truly becoming Hunter's number one everything - further preventing him from finding someone else to possibly prioritize over him, which is why in canon he detested the sight of Flapjack so much, on top of him being Caleb's/Evelyn's palisman. Anyone from the outside of his influence was a threat to his control over Hunter. So, with him being Hunter's God, mentor, caretaker, superior and then """lover""", he was This close to stopping the redemption arc from happening. Alas, Flapjack and Luz still came around.

Satisfying physical urges without having to look too far, and without the risk of landing with someone who could stab him in the back. Hunter just so happened to be the perfect fit : willing, obedient, not ugly and always available. Sometimes, that's all there is to it with abusers.

In shorter words, again : 

It was more about asserting his control and blowing off steam while at it, not just being an asshole.

Again, I cannot stress enough that this headcanon/interpretation/whatever is NOT meant to be in any way titillating or romanticizing sexual abuse. It is, first and foremost, a character study that’s based and inspired both by personal experiences and observations of both fiction and real life - in hopes of partially bringing light to often overlooked or stigmatized effects and types of trauma. In case you were wondering, no I am still not a therapist or any other kind of licensed professional, so do Not take my word as 100% credible and without fault as I am only human. That will be all for now.

[pampushky]

Pam's A/B/O Encyclopedia!

Hi! Just gonna leave this here for some specific stuff to elaborate on with my specfic au's, especially for my Brutus series. Forgive me for possibly going too hard into world-building, but I was an Anthropology major who focused on the biological & cultural subfields, so I'm probably gonna be more detailed than needed!

General Information!

Canine- The wolf form that all humans in this universe can take! there are a few bits of sexual dimorphism related to the overall size, but mostly centered around the secondary sexes! Betas are average-sized wolves, but are quicker than both Omegas and Alphas. Alphas can be described as the tanks of the group, large, lumbering wolves. Omegas are the smallest of the bunch, but are often the most stealthy and agile. The smallest known canine in omega form was around the size of a large Shiba-Inu (35 pounds).

Dam- Used to refer to the omega who claimed/raised/birthed someone. Similar to mother, but specified to omegas!

Prime of a Pack- The generally accepted leader of a division within a pack. Usually, there are three primes; the prime Alpha, Beta, and Omega. These three are meant to work together to ensure that all of the pack's needs are met, representing each of the different secondary sexes, with all three holding equal sway and respect amongst the pack members. Presentation- After the intial, human puberty is done, the body starts to prepare itself to present the secondary sex. All three have unique aspects that give them their own advantages! This includes the growth of a knot and start of rut cycle in Alphas, as well as the start of the estrous (heat) cycle in omegas. Betas cannot be swayed by the scents of others, but they can make note of them and track them, even in human form. Omegas can often calm others down rather easily with their scent, but can also cause distress if needed as a self-defense mechanism. Alphas are known for being able to use their 'Alpha Voice' which can affect omegas and certain Betas. Scent glands also start to grow at this point, with each person having a unique scent that is often reflective of the place they grew up and their pack. (yes, even betas have scent glands in this au ehehehe)

Secondary Sex- The secondary sex of a human! Usually referred to as the secondary gender in other fics, but that never made sense to me (speaking not only as an Agender/trans person but also an Anthropologist because sex and gender are two very, very different things, yet both technically exist on a spectrum, and ascribing a social presentation/title to a biological aspect of the body always seemed so silly to me, because it then implies the existence of trans-secondary-gender people. Which i think could be so fucking cool to explore and see what that could look like, like could a Beta take hormones and transition into an Alpha? Could an Alpha transition into an Omega? What would that look like? IN THIS ESSAY I WILL---) There are three secondary sexes that a human can present with after they've fully gone through their initial puberty. Around 60 % of the world appears somewhere in the Beta spectrum (normal, biological human, as normal as a biological human can be), while the last 40% are split between Alphas and Omegas. Betas can reproduce with each other, Alphas, and Omegas, but beta-beta relationships have a nearly 100% chance of producing betas in offspring. Omega-Beta or Alpha-Beta couplings are shown to have a 50/50 chance of producing a beta or the other parent's secondary sex. Alphas are usually (with exceptions in some rare cases) incapable of carrying a pregnancy to term if they possess a uterus or womb. Alphas can reproduce easiest with Betas and Omegas, but Alpha-Alpha couplings have been shown to very rarely produce healthy pups due to medical advancements. Omegas are the most fertile of the three divisions and technically the least frequent, just slightly below the Alphas at 18% of the population fitting somewhere on the omega spectrum. All omegas (with the exception of medical issues) are capable of carrying a pregnancy to term and producing pups with Betas and Alphas. They cannot produce sperm to impregnate their partners, and as such, are almost always the carriers of pups. Sire- Used to refer to the alpha who claimed/raised someone. Similar to father, but specified to alphas!

[fuyyu]

so, i have this little piece of analysis on the world building of winx club's original run. it was meant to be part of kind of a rewrite based on fate's tv show fumbles and i have contemplated the idea of making a video essay on it but since it will most likely never happen, i am posting here a snippet of the perspective i was the most salty about.

✨ technical spells ✨

(or whatever the english adaptation used to call them)

there are many aspects of the workings behind magic that are never explicitly stated in the series, but through the shows events we can deduce them. for example, witches use magic thanks to negative energy or something akin to "waves", elements that aren't necessarily spiritual. all witches seem to focus on mind control or natural phenomena and they don't have access to transformations (or they can access transformation-like powers without it); on the opposite side we see fairies who use positive energy or spiritual/conceptual powers (that's why we can have some kinda bs-y powers like "technology"): they are the most powerful when they transform. we know also that witches, if they so wish, can become fairies (just like mirta did) so it's really more of a choice than anything else.

what they all have in common is, evidently and weirdly, that they are female magic users. considering the context in which winx club was first released, i won't tap (too much) into gender identity matters for this post, so every time i talk about women in this post i am (unless specified otherwise) refering to cis gender women, as i could expand on trans perspectives but i prefer to refer to the canon for now.

in the second season, this phenomenon is tangentially but subtly explored. how, might you ask? this the season to be jolly, because an interesting character is introduced to do so: professor avalon. he is an expert of ancient magic, assuming the teaching role for a brand new class in charmix, which focuses on "technical spells".

what are they? avalon states that there is a significant difference between magic that fairies use in combat when they shout out random names and recited enchantments. so, technical spells seem to access a different magical source which can be taken advantage of through these very specific formulas and rituals engineered over the centuries by knowledgeable fairies, witches, enchantresses, wizards and so on and so forth.

this is extremely relevant.

not only it appears most of the witches magic is perpetrated through rituals of sorts, making them probably the primary technical spells user-base, but in this instance avalon says that the magic fairies usually use when transformed is somehow invoked from their within, and it's spontaneous. this is proven true in many episodes when the fatigue in battle derives from depletion of one's magical energy. and we know witches can achieve this ability, too. there is an internal and an external energy source. what is the origin of this internal magical capability?

we can point at various possibilities. but before we do that, i would like to explain why i think these may be the options.

up until the 3rd season, which is the original run, we never see (human) men using magic without any kind of aid. men (or men presenting, in some cases) who use magic are:

valtor, a demon made by trixies' foremothers

nabu, who needs a sceptre to use magic

dark circle's wizards (s4), who are implied to use in some measure earth's fairies magic, captured through millenia

saladin, a light's company/alliance member, uses a sceptre like nabu

wizgiz is a leprechaun

palladium is an elf

avalon too is heavily implied not to be (totally) human, because of his paladin form

men, in this status quo, have to either spend a great amount of effort, time and resources to master magic (but basically never master it like fairies do) or become a specialist. and here is the catch. in season 1 we learn something that basically confirms (or at least, so i see it) magix a women's world, as opposed to the world bloom comes from: specialists can be women as well.

while there are no male fairies, no male witches, and all male magic users are non-human or aided by external sources (magical objects and technical spells), it's implied there are, indeed, female specialists when darcy enters a specialists' bike contest and the announcer immediately identifies her as a woman. this alone doesn't confirm that female specialists are a thing and if they are they are probably very scarce, but the announcer let us deduce it by being taken aback but not commenting on how that shouldn't be possible in the first place. somehow, it's let to be understood that a female uniform exists as well. this may vary from adaptation to adaptation, but in italian there isn't much of an objection to her participation on the spot.

so, we can safely assume that there are no gender policies on academy enrollment in any of the schools. it's just not possible for men at the current state of affairs to enroll in alfea or torre nuvola. but women can enroll in insititutions like fonterossa.

❤️‍🩹 why is that? ❤️‍🩹

(or better put, why could that be?)

here the rewrite is heavy handed, but this can be a very fun and interesting thought. maybe magic is, at it's core, creation. magic is the ability to not change reality, but to make thing exist in reality. let me explain.

when flora makes dying plants vigorous, she isn't changing the plant's structure, she is creating the nutrients ex novo and providing essentials (such as sunlight previously absent) and making it so that the plants feels the benefits of those new things.

traditionally, and in the winx club world view, women hold this power. women have the miracle of birth on their side. and the power to make a new life has to, somehow, be the same that allow magic to flow. it could be whatever, you can call it life force or whatever.

so, magic could be inherently tied to one's fertility (and here various conversations could be started, as to "would a transmasc still be a fairy?" and "are sterile women capable of magic?") or the potential of it. faragonda is a great fairy, but she doesn't transform anymore and that might be why. she can still use powerful magic, though. most of it is relatable to technical spells, if we want to force this point of view, but i will let that to you.

another option is chance. at some point magic just happened and women are the one who got it for cosmical possibility and their appearance, as well as other invisible characteristics, are results of that magic and not viceversa as previously theorized.

or again, it's hormonal. maybe progesteron and other typically female hormones are tied to magic. or a fictional hormone is. this would allow men to use it too, in limited quantities and enhance it through external sources (accessible through previously stated magical tools).

this was, in my humble opinion, a great starting point for a hypothetical winx tv show. it could elaborate on a complicated world building while tapping into social aspects that, being the kids' cartoon it is, the original show couldn't. it could give a definite structure to the magic world and open up infinite possibilities for the earth's narrative that apparently lost all of his magic (but we know it didn't really), investigate new storylines and give some fairies god-like status (thinking about dafne and bloom rn). also it could be a great trampoline for so many environmental details, like people in the background using casually magic only being women and men rarely doing so.

it could also be an amazing way to explore complicated gendered issues of the real world, through a meticulous deconstruction operated in these new lenses.

why am i salty about this? 2 reasons. the live action didn't pick this up and THE ORIGINAL CARTOON FORGOT ABOUT TECHNICAL SPELLS AS WELL!! they are never brough up again. damn you, winx club.

(finally letting this thought go and if you want to expand on this please do)