#the s2 promos for them are so 😍😍

[bosesmikas]

Jeia + looks of love (pt 11)

[softsnzstuff]

OF/MD - Kraken!Ed with a Cold

Based on this post thread. Have a snippet of what myself and @snzsnchillz-afterdark think menacing Kraken!Ed would be like when he’s got the worst cold and is trying to still be threatening. This one goes out to my OFMD buddies - @friv0lite @peach-plumb-pear2 @sniffles-and-tickles @softersteve

Based on the new promo pictures because Taika could choke me and I’d thank him Ed looks so good 🫡😍

Set between seasons 1 and 2 (before canon S2 has come out if anyone finds this post 10/05/23)

CW: intentional contagion

The crew of the Revenge were well used to Ed’s overnight personality changes at this point. At first he’d been all weepy and switched to being one with the Earth and musical and personifying his soul…whatever that meant.

The second switch happened a few days later. Over night. When he had reached the point in his breakup that condoned anger and violence. He’d cut off Izzy’s toe and fed it to him in the night, also tossing plenty of Stede’s things overboard - partial crew included.

He’d been in full swing as Blackbeard for a couple of weeks now - ravaging ships, looting them, and leaving men for dead in ways more unimaginable than skinning them with the snail fork.

This third personality shift happened when he came down with the cold from Hell… or rather - tried to convince everyone that he hadn’t.

Ed had been up Izzy’s ass the the last day, quite literally screaming orders in his ear, pausing occasionally to cough wetly. Izzy would just close his eyes and force a smile before responding with, “Yes, Captain.”

This morning, Izzy had awoken the crew early - somehow managing to be both yelling at them and quiet as not to wake Ed.

“Alright listen up, dogs! Blackbeard is… under the weather… and is more irritable than usual.” Izzy started. “I want you lot to just do what he says and try not to fucking upset him.”

“Why is that our job? He’s the one being a dick.” Jim muttered, twirling their knife.

Izzy sighed, having known Ed the longest. “Because the sooner he is well again, the sooner he stops being a cunt.”

“Yeah, that’s a good enough answer for me I feel.” Frenchie looked around for agreement. Everyone stayed silent, but Fang gave a single nod in solidarity.

“I want you all to keep your heads down and stay out of his fucking way. If he asks anything, you say ‘yes captain’ and fucking do it. And you-” Izzy points to Frenchie, “I want you find what’s left of any medicine that Bonnet left on board. Is that understood?”

There were some silent nods.

“I SAID IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!?” Izzy screamed.

“Yes, fucking Christ.” Jim grumbled, bringing some hands up towards their ears.

“H’iszzzSCHEW! K’tCHuh!”

Just as they were finishing up, Ed kicked the door in, sniffling thickly against his gloved hand.

“What the fuck are you all doing down here???”

Izzy quickly came up with a lie, “I was just telling these fucking idiots that it shouldn’t take this long to clean the floor!”

Izzy shot Frenchie a glance and he immediately dropped to his knees, using a piece of his shirt to scrub at the floor.

“I’m sorry captain Blackbeard sir, it’s just hard to clean the floor without any.. water?” He tried to play along with the charade.

“Hmm. You’re right.” Ed hummed thoughtfully before spitting on the floor right in front of the younger man. “There. Now you’ve got something.”

Frenchie held back a gag as Ed stormed out the other door to the deck of the ship, Izzy and crew following behind. Jim have Frenchie a hand up and he scurried off to go find Stede’s medicine stash.

*****

One thing about the gentleman pirate is that he was bound to have loads of the unnecessary - books, fine fabrics, and medicine. It only took a few minutes for Frenchie to find the bottles in the Captains’ chambers bathroom, but seeing as he couldn’t read, he just grabbed everything and shoved it into a crate to bring to Izzy on the upper deck.

Hands full of different bottles and vials, he turned on his heels to leave the Captain’s chambers. Slamming into the chest of the captain��

“The fuck are you doing in my room?!” Ed hissed, looking the man up and down.

“I uh… you see Mr.Blackbeard sir… I just.. I was…”

Ed’s scowl gave way momentarily to something more relaxed. He turned to the side out of habit, sneezing openly at the air.

“Eh’tSZzZiew! Snlrff”

“Shut up! You’re fucking taking too long.” Ed held up a hand, making Frenchie stop.

The crew member was frozen, staring wide eyed, his eyes locked on the small trail of mess leaking down Ed’s upper lip.

Ed had him pinned against the wall. “The fuck are you staring at?”

“You’ve just…. You’ve got a little…on your face…” Frenchie stammered, gesturing towards Ed’s nose.

He watched in horror as Ed’s nostrils flared once again right in front of him. He squeezed his eyes and hoped for the best.

“H’ekTSZZZuhew!”

Frenchie scrunched his face as he felt droplets hit his cheek.

“Well now you’ve got a little something on your face too.” Ed released his grip on the man, throwing him against the wall and rubbing his own nose again.

“This is so unsanitary.” Frenchie whined quietly.

“What was that???”

“I said uh… sanctuary! Thank you for providing us with such a great… sanctuary….” The fake enthusiasm trailed off at the end before he scurried away to the upper deck.

When he arrived topside, he looked like he’d seen a ghost. Jim was standing at Izzy’s side.

“Jeez what the fuck happened to you?” They asked.

“Here’s your fucking medicine.” Frenchie aggressively dropped the crate of medicine on the barrel in front of Izzy, pausing to wipe at his face and swiping one of the bottles, “this one’s for me now.”

Izzy huffed a knowing sigh and rubbed at his temple. “He sneeze on you?”

Jim made a face of disgust as Frenchie nodded. “Yup…”

“He’s worse than I thought.” Izzy groaned. “Never thought I’d say this but we need Stede back.”

[questionablecuttlefish]

Timebomb and Lightcannon (and why we're tugging at the same oar in the same boat)

Okay, this is good, let's talk about this too. I think this raises some interesting points.

Starting with the end here a little bit, yeah, looking back, the fact that she jumps is interesting to me. I've seen it interpreted as her both trying to avoid hurting him more and as her trying to circumvent whatever he's doing to stop her by getting farther away, but I lean more toward the first point. It's subtle, but it is an interesting point.

She was still fine with blowing him up at least the first few pulls, though, so my point still stands, too.

I would caveat that I don't think their stories taking different directions would be 'throwing out the groundwork' at all. Because all of that groundwork is character development, too, and, together or separate, both characters carry that with them, wherever they happen to go from here.

So an Ekko/Jinx reunion and romance could build on that, yes, but so could a return of the Powder AU (I get a nagging sense we haven't seen the last of AU!Powder, her knowledge of the Z-drive, the art Ekko made of grown-up Vi and the gems in her drawer feel like a whole battery of unfired Chekov's guns), so could future relationships with Lux, Ezreal, or Zeri, whatever those might be, and so could non-romantic, non-shippy storylines of Ekko growing into his own as a Zaunite leader and Jinx going on her journey of self-discovery and self-redefining.

It's all valid and possible from here.

Moving on though, i think it's interesting what you said about the "had a crush" line because this takes me to another thing I Feel Strongly About which is: the relationship between Timebomb and Lightcannon.

Because y'know we're in the same boat, right?

Timebomb had "I had a crush, until you started talking to the gun" and "Powder..." and "I miss you" in LoR. And more recently that Wild Rift trailer of them fighting together. And Chroma Crash!

...but meanwhile, Lightcannon had "Lux makes even boring beautiful" and "don't forget to miss me, Lux" and "This almost breaks my heart Lux" and a bunch of others in Star Guardian. Lightcannon also had a whole ass sapphic music video:

Lightcannon also had this:

And this:

And even this:

Which was one of the first teasers for the mysterious new punk Zaunite champion and apparently the first thing that inspired/teased the Jinx/Lux ship before Jinx was even released as a Champion.

So it's not only an older ship than timebomb, older than Ekko, it's older than Jinx, and that's freaking nuts.

At one point we even had an official Riot artist (who still works there) drawing off-the-books comics and art with Lux and Jinx kissing both in the SG and mainstream universes.

But my point here is not to try to 'gotcha' Timebomb or make it seem like Lightcannon is more legit. It's not. We are talking about ships from league of legends here guys.

I'm pointing out that until Arcane S2, we were both in the same boat. We were both non-canonized crack ships based on a couple of voice lines and a few ship teasy bits of promo art and videos.

And in some ways, we still are, because of where S2 left Timebomb off.

So you'll have to forgive Lightcannons for being a bit cynical when people come at us about 'canon'. We've been at this for ten years. We've had our thing teased and yanked away and teased and yanked away from us by Riot, again and again.

Star Guardian, yay! Burning Bright, they're childhood friends turned comrades turned rivals, tsundere Jinx who took the oath to protect Lux leaving the team and Lux pining for her until she returns to save the day!

Next SG comes out, suddenly Ezreal.

And they never share a skinline again until - but we'll get to that.

Oh wait, there's Wild Rift! Look at the two cuties adventuring together! Jinx rescues Lux from her boring life and they're running and fighting together and Jinx watches Lux unleash her light with 😍

Oh they're releasing all the Timebomb/Ezlux skins on Wild Rift? Oh okay. Valoran Town, Jinx is Lux's only friend, she's helping Lux sneak away from Demacia to move on with her and THEY WERE ROOMMATES and they're hugging and Jinx is on Lux's phone background screen and they're so cute toget-oh there's Ezreal again.

Oh, they're sharing a skinline again? Oh, it's Lovestruck? Oh, it's another Ezlux/Timebomb skinline, with paired hetero valentines skins? okay.

The biggest difference between Timebomb and Lightcannon is that Timebomb has a champion. Timebomb has Amanda Overton. Let's not be blind here, until she decided it was her ship and she was going to make it canon within Arcane, Timebomb wasn't 'canon'. Ekko's spinoff game, his comics, his short stories, never had a whiff of timebomb in them, even the boss fight in Convergence and that's the only time in the pre-Arcane lore he actually interacts with Jinx outside of the voice lines, and his line there is: "We interact a perfect amount, Jinx! Never!" Before Arcane, timebomb was in the same boat as Lightcannon. Just a fun cracky ship based on a few crumbs and a couple of voicelines.

That's where Lightcannon still is. We don't have Overton, we don't have a champion trying to tell our story. In fact, call me cynical, but to me the above evidence suggests someone at Riot actually hates our ship, or is afraid of it getting in the way of Ezlux, despite their bizarre avoidance of actually making Ezlux in any way a legitimate romance and not a weird one-sided stalker crush played for laughs.

But they don't hate us enough not to string us along. Not to give us Star Guardians and the WR trailer and Valoran Town and even to make those new Lovestruck skins actually kinda match each other's partners more than the hetero pairings.

Why? Well we're still a demographic, we might make them some $$$. They don't want us to leave, heavens no.

So you'll have to forgive us if we look at the new crop of Timebomb fans screaming and crying about not getting their endgame and tiredly thinking:

"You got most of a 40 minute spinoff episode, a dance sequence, a French love song on the soundtrack, and an onscreen kiss? And one of the showrunners loves you? And now you're getting future spinoff teases, a bunch of voice lines in the $250 Jinx gacha bullshit and a Valentine's skin?" "And it's not enough? You think you're hard done by....? Really?"

We survived a decade on crumbs and spite, and you won't let us have the faintest, slightest possibility that just this once, just in one universe, Jinx might even meet Lux?

Because make no mistake, Lightcannon shippers are only dreamily sighing at possibilities when we talk about the airship going to Demacia.

Now would be the perfect time, Demacia show on the way, Jinx on her way to new horizons, a calmer, sadder Jinx in desperate need of healing, a Lux unsure of her place in the world, a beautiful bond possible between two young women struggling with their identities in a world that hates them.

It would be perfect. Now or never.

But we don't have hope. Not really.

Because Riot has burned us, over and over again, Riot has lined up that football and yanked it away

Timebomb has Overton in its corner, so we will very likely never see our thing. We're most afraid of course of someone getting pilled on the "Game of Thrones" possibilities in a Demacia show and forcing Sylas/Lux canon, despite them being only a broken platonic friendship turned enemies in the existing canon, and the truly messed up age / power dynamics inherent in that ship.

To be Lightcannon is to suffer. Old Timebomb fans understood this. The new ones cannot comprehend. They've been indulged and inundated and then had the slightest taste of disappointment and can't handle it.

But we get it, we do, because we've lived it for ten years. Welcome to our world, even if you're just passing through.

We'll still be here.

But that doesn't mean we're not still together in that boat, for now, with one hand each on the paddle.

Maybe we can even listen to each other while we're at it.

Okay Fine Let's Talk Timebomb and Season Two.

I do want to talk about this because I have a Lot of thoughts and feelings and it has been building up and building up, not only based on what's happening in other social spaces, but what people keep bringing into mine despite my best efforts to avoid it.

This isn't any kind of hatepost, I don't think I could hate Ekko or the ship if I tried, I just want to explain my very mixed feelings about the whole thing.

My likely-to-be-very unpopular take on Season Two's Timebomb romance is that it left me feeling uneasy and uncomfortable.

Not with what was in the show itself, I feel like that was perfect. Powder and Ekko sold me completely. They made me feel things. I even liked how Ekko and Jinx's story ended. I think it was beautiful, poignant, perfect...

...until.

'The Discourse' since, the way the fan culture has exploded around it, and particularly some of the creators' commentary on it, has made me sour on the whole thing.

It feels like I'm suddenly part of an increasingly small subset of people who saw what they did with S2 Timebomb and applied our media literacy to what was on our screens and got something very different to what the fandom consensus seems to be.

For context, I semi-shipped TB before this. Though I've always been Team Lightcannon, I had a lot of respect for timebomb, I understood it, I had read a few very good fics, I was just in the space of "Jinx has hurt Ekko too much for him to ever fully forgive her for murdering his friends, they might come to an understanding, and there will always be a silent undercurrent of love beneath the hurt, they may fight together on the same side again someday, but whatever bond they had as kids is broken and they can't go back, and both know it."

I respected, and still do, people who shipped them romantically, but I've always seen them as a broken childhood friendship being a much more interesting dynamic, and being hot for each other lessening that to an extent and not really adding anything to it.

All of his interactions with Jinx in season one are violent; she murders five Firelights point-blank in front of him in her intro scene, and Ekko reacts particularly upset to the pink-haired girl, Eve or Eva, whom Jinx shoots in the back. It's clear this isn't even the first time she's fought them. We don't know how many of Ekko's found family she's put on the Memorial Wall or how close he was with any of them.

Ekko is clearly convinced that "Powder" is gone, and the person who replaced her is a cold-blooded killer who can't be reasoned with. Leading to the Bridge confrontation, and this:

This is the first time Ekko catches a glimpse of "Powder", yes, but more importantly, this is the first moment he recognizes Jinx's humanity. He's hurting her, killing her, and he can't do it.

....and she knows he can't do it.

So, to save him the weight, she pulls a grenade, with the intent to kill them both, foreshadowing quite neatly where Ekko/Jinx (but not Ekko/Powder) is going to go in S2.

Fast forwarding from Season One here, Ekko disappears for 2/3rds of the second season, completely offscreen.

When we catch up with him he's woken up in the S2E7 AU; the Powder Timeline.

Here's where I start to get a little confused by the fandom take. Because, you know, I've seen enough Star Trek and Stargate and Supernatural and Batman the Animated Series and Quantum Leap to know exactly what this is.

This is the 'bottle episode', this is the 'Perfect World' trope, where the protagonists find themselves in an alternate universe - or trapped in a dream - or they've died or think they've died and this is their 'heaven' - where they have everything they ever wanted.

This is familiar storytelling and E2 follows a familiar pattern, the protagonist struggles to adapt to the surreal new circumstances, they are seduced by the illusion, particularly falling in love with someone in the Perfect World, but eventually, they start noticing something incongruous - something isn't quite right - (In this case, it's Vi's death, and Powder holding back her genius and hiding her grief to be support girl for others) - that reveals the Perfect World to be not as perfect as it seems.

And the hero has to choose to go home, because he realizes that this isn't real, it doesn't belong to him, he doesn't belong here.

Which is exactly what happens with Ekko in E7.

Which brings is to AU!Powder and Jinx.

And here's where I really start to struggle with the seeming consensus that the romance between Ekko/Powder automatically leads to Ekko/Jinx, like you can just transfer the one to the other.

I'm sorry, fam, I thought my basic media literacy was telling me that this girl:

Is not the same person as this girl:

....and I am not getting into any debate about "Jinx" vs "Powder" as identities within our current Jinx. I'm talking about Powder in the E7 AU.

AU!Powder is literally a different human being.

She may have been the same person up until the explosion in Jayce's laboratory, but from that fork in the timeline, she becomes a FUNDAMENTALLY different person to Jinx, shaped by different experiences, different relationships, different life events.

Powder's physicality with Ekko, as you can see in those GIFs, the casual intimacy, the clear affection, the way she touches him, looks at him, her awareness of him in her space, is so utterly opposite to the way Jinx interacts with him that if anything, it nailed home to me how savagely absent this kind of feeling is from his relationship with Jinx.

Powder loves Ekko. She leans on him, snuggles into him, touches his hands, dances with him, kisses him.

Jinx cares so little about him she barely makes eye contact and would casually kill him without blinking.

And I thought that was the point.

I really thought that was the whole point of E7. Being in the perfect world, getting his perfect love story with his perfect Powder, the girl Jinx could have been, but can never be, drove home for Ekko that his feelings for Jinx, both romantic and resentful, were tangled up in his illusions of "Powder", and it took living those illusions as a physical reality for Ekko to see his mistake.

To be true to himself, and true to her, Ekko had to let that go and go home.

To face his world's Jinx, and be there for her in her darkest moment, even if it meant giving up the love he'd found with Powder, a love that belonged to a different Ekko, for someone who could never love him back.

To me that was Ekko's most heroic moment, an act of selfless sacrifice. But that's what it was - a sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Season Two Jinx is not aware of any of this. The last time she saw Ekko was on the bridge where she nearly killed him, and for all we know she might have thought she succeeded.

She never talks about, thinks about, refers to, or even has scribble-nightmares about Ekko, not even once.

Season Two Jinx is, instead, having a love story of her own.

And Isha was and is a PUZZLE to me. Because she's more plot device than character, she isn't necessary except as a way to give Jinx a villain-to-hero arc and a way to reconnect to her humanity.

But she could have been Ekko.

If they really, really wanted us to have Timebomb Canon, instead of confining the entire arc to a bottle episode in an alternate timeline with a literally, physically different girl, they could easily have given all of Isha's considerable screentime to an Ekko and Jinx romance.

I'm sure Amanda Overton would have been on board with that. But that's not what we got. It's almost like reading two different fix-it-fanfics for the same character, put into the same show and running in parallel.

I'm not crazy, this is what's happening for Ekko in s2;

While this is happening for Jinx at the same time.

But Jinx's love story, too, ends with a tragic sacrifice.

And here's where the two stories finally intersect.

When Jinx is in her darkest moment, her absolute rock bottom, Ekko comes back into her life, a miracle, impossible, a Boy Savior.

But she's still ready to kill him.

Because she didn't dance with Ekko. She didn't invent a time machine with him. She didn't sit and watch the city lights with him and share a tender kiss and a heartfelt gift.

That was Powder.

Jinx and Ekko are resuming right where they left off on the bridge, right back to "I pull this pin and we both blow up".

They've both loved and lost, but their stories are absolutely unknown to each other. Ekko Doesn't Know About Isha. Jinx Doesn't Know About Powder.

It's only when Jinx (a genius, a reminder here) sees monkeys of her own design inside the Z-drive - recognizes her own handiwork, but knows SHE didn't make those - that, I think, sheer curiosity stirs her out of her darkness.

She has to know what that was about. She hesitates, just long enough for Ekko to speak. And, though offscreen, he tells her his story, and maybe she tells him hers.

And it's enough, just enough, to set Jinx back on her Redemption Arc, to become the hero Isha always saw in her.

Maybe even the hero Vi and Ekko saw in her, too. Her new costume is full of references to all of the people in her life who never gave up on her.

(side note, the yellow stars and crowns puzzle me, though - they're quite prominent, but who are THEY for? Isha? Maybe? Yellow isn't a color associated with anyone in Jinx's life, but that crown's identical to the one she scribbled on Demacia in Fortiche's map, is... this a very subtle future Lightcannon tease? Nah. I'm not that crazy.)

I mean her costume is also almost literally both a Fishbones and a Fiddlesticks cosplay, with her hair as Fiddle's tongue, so take from that what you will.

It's clear Jinx and Ekko war painted each other for the battle, but the Firelights are also similarly painted up, and (with Linke even confirming this) there really wasn't time to develop anything else, guys.

And I am, honestly, fundamentally angry at anyone who would suggest that, even if she'd been in any space to want it, our boy Ekko, one of the most genuinely good men in recent fiction let alone in Arcane, would take advantage of a girl he just talked out of suicide.

Moving on. During the battle, Ekko is knocked out and lying not far from Jinx. She doesn't even look at him, she leaps up to defend Vi instead.

And that's their final interaction on the show.

Instead of returning to Ekko, Jinx chooses one final act of sacrifice.

Ekko's final shot of the show is this.

He's sitting, alone, burning a mourning paper, where he sat with AU!Powder - where he and AU!Powder kissed - a place that has no significance to himself and Jinx, whatsoever.

It's little wonder who he's thinking about here, and which name he's burning on that paper. The girl he truly loved and lost.

For all he knows, Jinx is dead. But it's not only her he's mourning.

Or maybe he does know, or suspect, she's alive.

But either way, he's making one final act of sacrifice, too, with that paper burning into the breeze.

He's letting her go.

He's choosing his own story.

He's staying where he belongs.

Jinx may have become a symbol of the revolution, but it's Ekko who is, and always will be, the true hero of Zaun.

And this is Jinx's final shot.

Because let's face it, we all know she's on that airship.

She's "breaking the cycle". She's "walking away". She knows that Jinx has left too many scars on the people she still loves - on Vi, on Ekko, on the cities of Piltover and Zaun - for her to pick up the pieces.

She knows that if she's going to find out what "Jinx" might stand for now, she has to go very far away from everything and everyone. She has to leave it all behind and find something new.

Maybe even someone new?

And ultimately, that's why I feel the Timebomb we got was perfect, they shouldn't touch it, they shouldn't try to force it to be "Endgame", not because it couldn't have worked, but because that's the opposite of the story they told.

For the rest of my analysis, lol, this got a bit long but i have FEELINGS.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't buy Jinx and Ekko as a love story if they had actually told that love story. But they didn't. It had no screen time. They have less interactions in S2, maybe even in both seasons added up, than Vi and Loris. Let that sink in a bit.

We know it's Amanda's favorite ship, so she may have intended more, and may even actually give us all more at some point, but please, dear god, let's stop pretending they fucked or kissed or even held hands offscreen.

That's honestly a bit insulting to both of these characters, to insist hell or high water that this very important milestone in their relationship happened, but they just didn't even bother to depict it. That an entire love story (because it would be a whole one, remember, Ekko and Powder had a romance but Jinx did not experience any of that, she and Ekko are back at Square One) would just be cut for time.

They both deserve better than that.

Let's stop pretending there was some grand, horny, Forever Love story with 60 minutes of cut footage, all of it timebomb content, somehow left on the cutting room floor of an animated show where every single frame has to be deliberately hand painted.

Because if in some insane universe they had written, storyboarded, voice acted and animated an entire 60 minute additional timebomb storyline and then cut it from the show, that would itself be a searing indictment of the quality of the storytelling in that imagined arc, but that's not what happened. Anyone who knows how filmmaking works would shoot this one down, and the showrunners already have, so let's leave it behind.

I know Timebomb blew up hard, and I get it, but what we got on the screen is not confirmation that there is any relationship at all between Ekko and Current Timeline Jinx. If anything, Ekko and Powder's beautiful romance only highlighted the tragic 'never to be' of Ekko and Jinx.

And it's absolutely fine to look at the art book, look at the creator comments, and imagine what could have been. Draw the fan art, write the fanfic, imagine the what-ifs and the fix-its, those are all beautiful and valid expressions and deserve their space.

But don't go insisting it's "the canon" and going after the shippers of other ships for these characters as "not canon" or somehow offensive theirs, some ships that, yes, have been around much longer than timebomb, is uncool.

I think this is mostly people who are New From Arcane, it's Baby's First Ship and they don't know how to share space. The timebomb fans I knew pre-season two didn't do this, at least not often enough for me to notice or care.

But I'll just say to them, if a Timebomb follow up happens and they actually tell a good love story for Ekko and Jinx, I will accept it. Grudgingly, because I think Lux/Jinx is an untold, untapped story full of incredible character dynamics that would complete Jinx's story in ways that as much as I love Ekko, he's too tied to her past, he can't.

But I love Ekko, and I love Jinx, and I will accept it.

But I'll also say to them, if the followup doesn't eventuate, if things take a turn you don't expect, if Jinx's airship is heading for Demacia, maybe they'll have to experience just a taste of what it's been like for Lightcannon fans for ten long years.

And maybe that's healthy. Maybe that's okay. Maybe our endgames don't need to be 'canon' to have value and that's a lesson we should learn.

Maybe there's a new Light on her horizon, and that's okay too. Maybe Ekko won't be alone forever. Don't forget - until Arcane - his story had nothing to do with Jinx, and there was a whole lot of it.

More with the firelights, the lost children of Zaun, his inventions, his parents, all could yet be in his future. Who knows? He might find a way back to AU!Powder - or she might rebuild what they worked on together, and come to him, no matter what butterfly effects that could set in motion...

But if Jinx is heading for a Light on her horizon, maybe Ekko might Explore some of his possibilities. Find a new Spark of connection. Just saying. Jinx isn't his only ship, either 😌

And it is okay for people to move on, and let go. Maybe, for two characters whose themes are letting go of the past, living in the moment, redefining their identities, and moving on, that's what their story should be.

[insomniactalks]

Okay. Can we just start by saying HOLY CRAP THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD?! 😍 Ricky looks adorable in his hoodie. EJ looks so handsome in a more laidback look/hairstyle. Gina is, of course, the fashion QUEEN. Ughhhhh. I love them. ❤Their summer looks are gonna kill me. 😩 Even more excited for S3! (I have no idea where this pic is originally from so can't credit it 😅)

That being said, I know ppl are already freaking out (for good and bad reasons) because that's just the life of a fandom LOL 🤦🏽‍♀️ I figured I'd attempt to shed some light on the matter because why not? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Let's take a look at the previous Core Four posters for the show (S1, S1, and S2) found on Google:

It doesn't matter if each actor had separate pics taken and photoshopped together later on, the point is the above pics are group shots of the mains. That's how the show released these pics and that's how the viewers are to take them (as group pics of the Core4). The latest behind the scenes group shot of the now Core 3 (since Nini is recurring) is definitely just one of probably dozens maybe hundred of shots taken during the photoshoot. I have no idea if they’ll even use this particular shot for official release, we’ll just have to wait and see. BUT if they do use the first pic as one of the official images of S3′s leads, I’ve got a few thoughts.🤔

Whether you ship Portwell or Rina, we have to objectively agree that another love triangle involving Ricky and EJ is repetitive and bad writing. They’ve already played the love triangle angle in S1 (placing Nini in between EJ and Ricky in above posters) and S2 (placing Ricky in b/t Nini and Gina b/c he was central to both girls’ storylines in that season). While S2 wasn’t as obvious of a love triangle as S1′s EJ/Nini/Ricky, Gina’s feelings for Ricky and dealing with the aftermath of her confession to him was an important part of her story in S2 (so it was love triangle-ish 😅). After all the character growth and acts of redemption EJ has had (he’s quickly become a fan favorite in S2 with general audiences), I doubt the writers are aiming to throw these three into another love triangle. We’ve seen that love triangles on this show usually get Gina and EJ the short end of the stick b/c they’ve been picked over (since Ricky chose Nini and Nini chose Ricky). 😔 What stands out to me from these 4 pics is something else entirely. 

IF, that’s a big IF, they do end up using the first shot for S3 promo, I wanna point out the fact that Ricky’s holding a guitar. He’s never done that in any Core pic before. He’s standing on his own and seems comfortable with a guitar in front of him, indicating music will play an important part of his arc in S3 (since romantic relationships were at the core of his arc in S1-S2). Would it be such a bad thing for Ricky to spend at least one season just focusing on himself and not being/wanting to be in a relationship? Couldn't he just spend S3 realizing the depth of his love for music (and how therapeutic it could be for him)? I don’t think Ricky’s played any of his own music in front of the group before, so maybe S3 could have a scene like that (he’s played Nini’s song for him (1.01) and music from the musical in front of the group (1.07/1.09/1.10/2.01 etc), but never his own original song in front of all the Wildcats). Not that I can recall, anyway.   🤷🏽‍♀️

In the second S1 poster, you can clearly tell EJ and Gina are up to no good. There’s trouble brewing because their scheming days are still ahead of them (which indicates how we meet their characters at the start of S1, as the show’s antagonists). I’m assuming the official posters for the show are released prior to the season’s premier, so the show wants you to know that while Ricky and Nini (who’s hands are holding EJ) are warmly looking at each other, Gina and EJ are scheming behind their backs (literally LOL. 😂 Rini’s backs are to PW in that shot! 🤣) 

In the latest BTS pic, you can see Portwell posing as a power couple, with Gina (the only one fully on the step) leaning on EJ’s shoulder, while EJ has his arm around her. It’s a classic pose for a couple who’s dating (which, let’s face it, is where PW will start the season. They are maybe one convo away from making their relationship official. S2 ends with their first kiss but they aren’t dating...yet). 😁However, since they are posing like a couple, it’s safe to say S3 will be PW dating. There’s no way around that considering they were the cliffhanger of last season. The audience is expecting some payoff to the the buildup of their relationship, which is why the show left us with PW’s first kiss as the cliffhanger. 🥰

There’s a strong possibility that this pic could just be a group shot of the leads (since their schedules allowed them to shoot together). So maybe we aren’t supposed to take it any other way until the official posters are released. Who knows? 😅 Just wanted to share my thoughts cus I’m used to the fandom freakouts. LOL Just enjoy the new content, y’all! I know I am. 😚        

[alrightsnaps]

EW is the Royal of fandom photoshoots, literally they have the best photoshoots for couples (if you have a chance look at the outlander ones, some are on fire, The Great was amazing too) it was their chance to do something amazing with the leading couple with they totally wasted it, and yes they are promoting Penelope way too much that I felt it was promo for S4 rather than S2, it's the Polin show at this point

OMG THOSE OUTLANDER PICS ARE FROM AN EW PHOTOSHOOT?? I've seen them before, just didn't know which publication they were from. They're simply magical! 😍

I wasn't all that familiar with Entertainment Weekly, pretty much the only photoshoots of theirs I remember are from the last seasons of Game of Thrones and I wasn't crazy about them (but this probably had more to do with the show's decline by that point, costumes and hairstyles/wigs included lmao. Or Kit Harrington as a male lead next to Emilia)

After checking out the Outlander and The Great photos I get what you mean, they look incredible. The Bridgerton ones were too pretty for words as well, setting and costumes wise, I can't believe they wasted it on Luke freaking Newton of all people. I agree about the focus on Polin too and it's so annoying.

Last season it made sense to shift the focus to Anthony as a secondary character, because he'd be taking over immediately afterwards, and still he never overshadowed Regé and Phoebe. What's their reason for having Luke Newton, Nicola and Claudia dominate the promo of Kate and Anthony's season by being at the centre of some glamorous EW photoshoot?! If they were so cowardly as to avoid the romance angle they should've picked the Sharma girls, with Simone at the centre of it.

I'm hoping for a Kathony Vogue cover though, I adored that Emma photoshoot of Anya and Johnny in 2020 (I didn't know where it was from before googling it, but I did strongly remember the photoshoot itself cause I fell in love with the pictures at the time 😛) and I'd love to see something similar with Simone and Jonathan.

[bright-whump]

Oh please DO post the picrews! And I would love to discuss the boy! There's just so much whump potential in him 😍 (and canon whump of course) I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on drowning! It's the catalyst of one of my favorite tropes which is CPR (and as a nursing student, I know it's super inaccurate in most things but it's just. So. Damn. Good.)

I. LOVE. DROWNING. WHUMP. It's literally the best thing ever FUCK man. I wanted it for Malcolm so so much WHY DID THEY TEASE ME SO CRUELY, the promo they released even before S2 premiered had him falling into the pool teasing some sort of water whump and I just ;_; I got nothing...we got nothing...we were robbed...

I LOVE. IT. The CPR is also good but that's not the specific parts I like, I like the struggling and the bubbles escaping their lips when they're trying to hard to wait just a little longer, the panic and flailing...and then when they get up, all the panic of the friends/team/caretaker! Their little "Please, please, come on, breathe, you have to breathe--" and then AGH, the sputter of water from blue lips and then the coughing up more and the caretaker pulling them onto their side or, even better, up against their chest so the whumpee's head is over their shoulder as they cough and gasp so pretty...heck...I love...drowning whump...please...I was hoping they would kill me with Malcolm drowning whump...and they did not...they didn't even make it a longer scene where he WAS underwater...cursed... (but I wrote it here if you wanted 👀)

THERE REALLY IS. I'm gonna add my picrews on another post separate to this one. Some of them are so cute and the others are...well 😌

[peskyfirefly]

CHEEEEESSSYYYYY !!! so good to see u back in my notifs<3

awe im so glad ur thanksgiving was fun! yesss i love the holidays too!! its just a time thats so full of warmth and love<3 im sorry urs felt off tho ): screw the calendar, u celebrate whenever ur feeling in the spirit bestie 😤 also that sounds like a such a lovely time with ur friend o: what movies did u watch??? what are ur faves??? i watched a few silly netflix romcoms for christmas last year and honestly it was kind of a vibe hehe. sometimes u just need to watch something fun! :D my holidays were very chill this year. my parents got me lotr in 4k which is AMAZINGGGG and i got to hangout with my friends and they bought me BOOKS!! i love books. ty for asking 🥺 wbu? what did u receive!!

omg has ushijima come out as the hq fave front runner ?? i love that we all have one hq favorite to takes up all our brain space. u cant help but love most of the cast i feel like. BUT THERES ALWAYS ONE WHO JUST sits on top of ur brain and constantly pokes at it like this cat who wants attention

now what kind of ushijima thoughts are u having bestie whats taking up ur brain share pls!!!!! 👀👀👀👀 i wanna KNOWWWW

ALSO A LIL PIROUETTE?? UR SO CUTEEE 😭omgggg ok i havent had wedding thoughts yet but now its definitely gonna be ruminating in my brain... also sorry but he would nottttt give a shit about u disliking him. or anyone else for that matter! and i love that about him<3 ill throw hands about it tho (but not with u.....everyone else tho better watch it !!!!!!!)

wanting to consume everything u know about the hq fellas is SOOOO REALLLLLL. stoppppp timeskip!suna......... its a good thing suna is always on his phone bc we can just text him while we're speechless. like ya i cant look at u and ur pretty eyes and ur stupid hair and ur fucking hot smirking face but i WILL send u a meme about how bad i want u 😩

that would just be my own personal strategy of course. he will fall in love with me thru my usage of memes i will make him 😤 he will reply with his own memes. itll be like our own meme mating dance...

ugh i really wish they would adapt the full rest of the manga bc ur right, u will miss a lot of things. although the movie they released last year did hit a lot of the Big Moments from that arc...i dont think it would quite feel the same for people ONLY watching the anime bc u miss so much of the buildup ??? like those are the big moments bc of everything that led up to them !!! and ughhh they just announced the second movie is in the works too. how can u adapt half the manga and then just drop the ball so hard with the rest of it ??? esp when its clearly popular and doing well ?? give the fans what tHEY WANT !!!!

and omg thank u for ur kind words on my colorings, thats so sweet!! i appreciate U<3

man i really do gotta reread and catch up with kn8. im just soooo bad with ongoing manga. i never keep up with them 😭

hOW CAN I BE EXPECTED TO CLAIM A FAVE? sorry im full of love and desire and yearning ????? ( <- basically contradicting what i said about having One fave earlier. dont worry about it. maybe thats hq specific ok)

u and me have to hold STRONG on switcherland. also thank u for having me here its very nice and beautiful

ALSO i did see the s2 promo. lowkey could not believe it. like ok u fixed him maybe BUT WHY IS HE SO FAR AWAY?? BRIN GHIM CLOSER?? LET ME LOOK AT HIM U KNOWWWW THATS ALL I CARE ABOUT

wait omg id love to hear the song send my way pls !!!

"literally nobody in bluelock likes him. he doesn't get along with anybody. he's such a dreamboat. 😍 my man." has me GIGGLING i love it i support u two may u be very happy (unhappy?) together

of course ur so welcome!! im wishing u such a joyous 2025 may it be full of only kind things for u darling<333

also i got so much art.... ;]

Mishmish!! Who are your hq faves, and do you have any bluelock faves?

Also I never confirmed this but are you perhaps just sliiightly more narumi nation than bowl cut island?

hiiiii cheesy!! :D

im sooo sorry im normally faster at responding but unfortunately ive been SICK with covid for the past several days ): but thankfully i just started feeling better today so now i can replyyy (:

TSUKKI WILL ALWAYS BE MY NUMBER ONE HQ FAVE<333 🥰

i love everyone tho and my answer for favorites might change slightly here and there bc of that but. i also rlly like nishinoya, THE MIYA TWINS!!, sugawara, iwaizumi, and kuroo

oikawa kind of took a seat in my brain a few months back and hes just been chilling there so idk maybe him too asdfghjkl

i need to do a full reread of hq !!! maybe itll change more...or maybe theyll stop rotating around so much asdfghjkl....everyone is just so good and lovable!!!!!!!!

also that is a TOUGH question. i think right now i would have to say im a lil more part of bowl cut island 🫣🫣🫣 i mean the anime came out this year and i got to fangirl over him so much publicly (im so sorry everyone who witnessed that..). aND FUJI WAS KEEPING US FED WITH SUCH GOOD HOSHINA FICS. AND SHE EVEN USED MY NICKNAME IN THEM SO LIKE. YEAH IM OBSESSED.

maybe its just recency bias. idk ask me again whenever the next season comes out and they hopefully fix narumis design 😭

but i LOVE them BOTH so much

aND AS FOR BLUE LOCK. ok i read a little bit of the manga like 3 yrs ago ???? and i dont remember having any standout faves ): i dont think i read enough of it to really have one tbh!! i have thought about revisiting it at some point though....

tell me about ur faves tho!! ur hq faves and blue lock faves and whether u are more narumi nation or bowl cut island 👀

[wikiangela]

okay, watching 911 lone star 3x18 😍

spoilers!

oh my, we have to relieve the building collapsing 😖 I know Judd's gonna be fine but I'm worried anyway lol

Gwyn omg 😭 I almost didn't recognize her haha I miss her so much 😭

oh no, Owen 😢 I feel so bad 😢

seriously, how the fuck TK - the guy who almost dies every season - doesn't have a will?😂

I agree with what Owen told TK - but tell him about your possible cancer asap!

oookay, and now I'm crying - Wyatt calling 911 was already emotional but when he told Grace that Judd's inside, tears spilled lol

oh thank God Judd's alive - but god, his leg is gonna limit him so much in this situation

oh my god Grace is in Judd's phone as "my heart" MY heart 😭😭❤️❤️ why are they the cutest

"911 called him? I'm sticking with that guy" 😂😂

God this is so stressful, but I love this episode so much

I've seen the promo, but Istg Owen better be okay - I really started to like him this season hah

what is it with injured firefighters still finding themselves in the middle of the action? 😂 first Buck in the tsunami, now this 😂😂 (and I think TK in s1 finale when the solar storm happened when he was recovering from getting shot and he ripped his stitches or something? 😂)

OMG OWEN 😱😱😱

oh, he's awake, that's good - but fuck, I'm stressed out 😂 oh, at least he found the guy!

oh shit what the fuck, he has a 9/11 flashback 😳 what a twist 😂 that one got me tbh lmao, didn't expect that 😂

Gwyn!!! I'm so happy to see her, even if she's not really there lol

oh thank God they found him! and he's alive!

"I take after my son" 😭😭 (and I'm crying 😂) I miss them interacting, I feel like it's been a while since we've had a moment like this (only maybe not with one of them in the hospital bed lol)

"I can't lose another parent" 💔💔💔

Carlos! it's the middle of the night wtf 😂 if you woke me up like that I wouldn't even turn over istg 😂😂

"Marry me" oh. my. God. 😭😭😭😍😍😍

he called him Tyler i can't 😭😭

THEY'RE ENGAGED!!!!!

I loved that scene so much, it was so sweet and intimate, just in bed in the middle of the night, no big thing planned, it was so perfect and sweet and I'm crying 😭😭❤️

Judd being the next Cap feels very very right, good choice Owen 👌

I love how the team (aside from Mateo) just firgued it out lmao that was so funny 😂 I was kinda hoping to see TK tell his dad too, or Carlos telling his parents tbh - let's hope we'll see that in s4 😂

aww and Owen doesn't have cancer!!! aw I hope we see more of Owen and Tommy as friends next season

that ending was so sweet aww

I'm gonna say it: I liked this finale more than 911 s5 finale

it was so tense, and emotional, loved every storyline - like I said above, the engagement was everything, it was just so intimate and private and just perfect 😭😍 and I'm so happy it happened - loved Owen's story too and I gotta say, I really did enjoy him a lot this season which I keep repeating because it's been a surprise after last 2 (esp s2) - and I loved to see everyone being happy at the end, that was so sweet and heartwarming and I seriously can't wait for the next season (tarlos wedding???😂😂)

[insomniactalks]

Feel like it would be fun to keep the asks going 😊 so, if you had to pick one portwell scene as your favourite what would it be and why?

I think mine is probably the couch scene in 2.08, it was so sweet how they were hyping each other up and making each other smile 😍 also i love that they took the time to listen and understand each other's way of looking at the world even though they couldn't immediately relate to each other (kinda a bit like us lmao)

Lmaoooo at that last bit! And ur totally right about us, Izzy. 🥰❤ There are so many great Portwell scenes to pick from in S1 and S2, so this is a hard one.😅 I was a Rina stan for all of S1 and most of S2 until the scene you just mentioned LOL (great minds think alike!🤯) I remember watching the promo for 2.08 before it aired and thinking it's exciting to see EJ open up to Gina about Duke, but I was fully expecting the show to keep them platonic (and the conversation short) simply b/c my Rina stan heart thought the show wouldn't go down that route and would only use PW as a plot device. I saw the little PW moments in 2.05 and deff didn't mind it, but I was too scared to get attached b/c I didn't think anything would come of it. BUT then the 2.08 couch scene happened and it was better than anything I could have ever imagined. It was actually the moment to fully convert me into a Portwell stan (mind you, I rarely change my mind about my ships. But damn they got me when Gina slipped up with "The way that I- we all see you" 😭😂). Thanks for the ask boo! 🤗❤