#the titans that he controls are literally shown surrounding and LOOKING at it

[persephozee]

do NOT get me started on this from the season 2 opening

[rhpsdys]

talie (they/she) && amair (he/him), the first two heads of the bard coven !!

( keep in mind reading ahead that these two were developed with @titanomakhea’s lore in mind, which is very canon-divergent; that is what you are about to read here. while they also exist in the “canon” version of events, their relationship to belos, the throne, && the coven system as a whole looks a bit different there. )

as belos' power && influence on the isles grew, he built his citadel around the bardic library, having seen first-hand how powerful bard magic could be. with proof of his ability to speak to the titan, && sensing divine influence, they welcomed him. belos && the bards had a close relationship, with the bards serving as many of his close advisors in the beginning. he understood && respected their music, && they in turn offered hospitality in the sanctuary of their library.

a bard named talie was among those most trusted, for their ability to quiet his restless mind with their lyre was unmatched. he in turn shared the secrets of his existence with her, the full power && form of a primordial god. belos forbade talie from revealing this to anyone, && she kept his secrets willingly. the two were very close, often seen talking or playing music/singing together, though no one seemed to realize that belos was at his happiest around her, or that talie's music improved greatly after meeting him, as if they'd found a new muse. talie herself was fairly private, && their written records were coded && sealed behind magical wards. though talie had sworn not to speak of what belos had shown them, he never said they couldn't sing about it, && so talie wrote a vast repertoire of lyric poetry, kept vague through metaphor && symbolism ; though there are some historians who have attempted to decipher these songs' meaning, no one has ever correctly interpreted them. (in the modern day, talie's music has to be translated from its original dialect, && all references to belos are mistranslated as "god of music", leading to the incorrect interpretation of these songs being about qhorhas. however, the more accurate translation is angel of music. as a result of this, && talie's privacy, almost nothing is known about them.)

when the time came, belos appointed talie to be head of the bard coven. talie later took on a young witch name amair as her apprentice. amair was exceedingly talented: he played the piccolo, && his music was so resonant, you could literally see the sound he produced ; even his speaking voice had a melodic timbre to it. he was a devout follower of qhorhas && believed in the extensive mythology surrounding the titans, but didn't buy into the whole 'the emperor thinks he's a god && can speak to the titan' thing — even though, actually, most of that was true... just not in the way belos advertised. still, talie had sworn not to tell anyone the truth, so amair remained in the dark.

eventually, when talie ceded their position to amair, && he became the next head of the coven. though he carried out his duties as assigned, && represented the bards well, he was very suspicious of... everything, especially as it became harder for belos to contain his real form. amair was much more skeptical about the suppression of magic within the coven system, && it was him who catalyzed the sequestering of the knowledge && power of bard magic, to ensure that belos never got his hands on the full extent of their magic — to use it or to take it away. it was instilled in future bards to publicly downplay their abilities, && following his time was when bard magic began to get a reputation for being weak && 'boring'. the bardic library remained a sanctuary for everyone on the isles... except for belos. he still controlled it, but he no longer was given the warm welcome he had been in talie's time. the bards had turned their backs on him, && that betrayal was just one more in a long list. much of the early history && documentation on elemental && wild magic was sealed away in a restricted section that only the library guardians && belos himself could access, further limiting the influence the bards could have on the people of the isles, but they were clever. no power of heaven or earth could stop storytellers from spreading knowledge.

[randomposterofstuff]

On the change of dynamics of Mikasa’s relationships with Eren and Levi

Author’s Note: Hi, all! I just wanted to share my personal analysis of two scenes that involve Eren, Mikasa, and Levi. The idea for the analysis just occurred to me randomly. And it made me think that these two scenes illustrate how much the dynamics of Mikasa’s relationships with Eren and Levi have changed over time. I don’t know if anyone has already made an analysis of this. But I just wanted to share my take on it. Haha. Fair Warning: This post is lengthy. Hahaha.

This is an analysis of two paralleling scenes involving Eren, Mikasa, and Levi. The first scene that will be discussed is the one where Levi beat Eren during the latter's military trial in Season 1. The second scene involves Levi striking Eren after the Raid on Liberio in Season 4. In the analysis of both scenes, I focused primarily on Mikasa's reactions. And at the end of the main analysis, I also posted my thoughts on what all of these could mean for Mikasa's relationship with Levi.

Also, SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't read Chapter 138 of the manga yet. While this post mainly analyzes the two scenes mentioned above, I also included some tidbits from Chapter 138 at the end to tie things up as neatly as possible. Hahaha.

So, anyway, here it goes:

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Season 1: The Trial

Back in Season 1, during Eren’s military trial, he was physically beaten by Levi. We all know that he did this to ensure that the Scouting Regiment/Survey Corps gets custody of him. The display was necessary to emphasize and prove that Levi, who is widely known as "Humanity's Strongest Soldier", is best suited to subdue Eren should he lose control of his abilities. Because of this, the Scouts were able to convince the Military Police and Premier Zackly that they should be given custody over Eren.

One of the most notable parts of this scene is how Mikasa was enraged by Levi's actions. Had Armin not stopped her, she would’ve probably lunged at Levi and struck him. At the time, Mikasa was gravely concerned about Eren’s well-being and was perhaps too furious at Levi to think about anything else. Because of this, she probably did not immediately realize that Levi had effectively secured Eren’s relative safety at the end of the day. 

During the trial, the MPs spoke of planning to dissect him, among others. Conversely, the Scouts proposed that he participate in an upcoming scouting expedition to determine whether he is a threat or not. They also suggested that Eren be placed under Levi’s direct supervision so that he could be subdued in the event of an incident. While the latter proposal still entailed some degree of violence, it was far less hostile and more beneficial to Eren than the MP’s proposal. 

Screenshots taken from Season 1, Episode 14 of the “Attack on Titan” anime

It is also worth noting that her primary concern during this time was Eren’s well-being. Mikasa is not cruel or heartless towards others. But it is worth noting that she was more concerned about Eren than the fact that he could have been a grave threat to so many innocent people. During this time, humanity inside the Walls was still ignorant of the truth, so the apprehension and fear directed towards Eren’s powers were justified and understandable. Yet, despite this, Mikasa was mainly singularly focused on Eren.

This is one of many instances which illustrate how she allows her affections for Eren to impair her judgment. She cares about him so much that sometimes her emotions get the better of her.

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Season 4: The Aftermath of the Raid on Liberio

Now, flash forward to Season 4 during the Raid on Liberio. When Eren was pulled onto the airship, Levi expressed his disgust and disappointment in Eren’s actions and behavior. He drove his points home by kicking Eren again. When he did so, Mikasa, probably out of habit and instinct, moved to intervene before Armin stopped her again. The difference here is that this time, she did not express anger towards Levi for beating Eren again. Instead, she had a sad and torn expression on her face.

Screenshots taken from Season 4, Episode 8 of the “Attack on Titan” anime

This is an indicator of growth and change on Mikasa’s part. While she still had the urge to protect Eren, she knew that because of what he did to the citizens of Liberio, Levi’s anger and disgust were justified. As a matter of fact, she herself was distraught when she saw the bodies of innocent civilians and children scattered on the battlefield. And what distressed her even more was the fact that Eren – her childhood friend, adoptive brother, and literal savior, was the cause of all the destruction.

Screenshots taken from Season 4, Episode 7 of the “Attack on Titan” anime

During this time, Mikasa had already begun to notice that the Eren she once knew was no longer with them. However, probably because of personal sentiment and their shared history, she still cared for him. It is likely that Mikasa still hoped that he would change for the better during this particular time. Even so, she is now wise and mature enough to not turn a blind eye to his terrible actions.

It can also be said that Mikasa is now better able to properly analyze the situation as a whole instead of just focusing on Eren. She understood the gravity of the problem and therefore acknowledged that Levi was in the right for feeling disgusted and disappointed. And maybe it can be said that she couldn’t blame him for kicking Eren again. (Lol.)

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What This Means for Levi and Mikasa's Relationship: Having Common Ground

As for what all of this means for Mikasa and Levi's relationship, I think that it can be said that Mikasa now has more common ground with Levi than Eren. 

The affection she has for Eren is rooted in a shared history and the kind of person he used to be before he became their ultimate enemy. Before the truth about the world and Eldians was revealed to the inhabitants of Paradis, Eren and Mikasa were long-time friends who worked hand-in-hand to achieve their common goals. The first was to keep humanity within the Walls safe from the threat of the Titans. And the second was to uncover the truth surrounding the mystery of the Titans. However, their relationship began to deteriorate when they finally learned of the truth, and when Eren gained access to his Attack Titan's ability to see the memories of its future and past inheritors. Over time, Eren began to slowly but surely drift away from her to the point that they had completely lost their common ground.

Conversely, her connection to Levi is based on trust and comradeship. Indeed, there aren't any explicitly romantic interactions between them (not yet, anyway. Lol.). However, it has already been established that Mikasa trusts Levi as a leader and as a fellow soldier. In the same vein, Levi also has faith in Mikasa's abilities. More importantly, it has been shown that Levi is capable of great empathy and that he has the best interests of humanity as a whole in both his mind and heart. This is another thing that he has in common with Mikasa. While she was heartbroken at the fact that killing Eren was the only way to stop him, she ultimately chose the rest of humanity over him and her feelings for him. She was even the one who dealt the final blow in Chapter 138. On this, I think that her act of choosing to kill Eren and actually seeing that choice through was her way of finally letting him go and choosing to move on from him. It's true that she said that she won't forget him, but then again, it's possible to move on from someone without forgetting them.

In relation to this, I think that it's symbolic (and perhaps even foreshadowing of events to come in Chapter 139) that Levi was the one to help her kill Eren. It's symbolic in the sense that by helping her kill Eren, Levi was the one to help Mikasa move on from him. It's also worth noting that when Mikasa declared her intention to kill Eren, Levi seemed to look awestruck and proud. He followed her lead - meaning that he trusted her resolve.

Images taken from Chapter 138 of the Shingeki no Kyojin manga.

This is particularly significant because, in the past, Levi (along with a few others) nearly always had to placate Mikasa whenever a dangerous situation involved Eren. Levi was completely aware of how reckless she could be whenever Eren's safety was in jeopardy. Even in the events leading up to the final battle, Mikasa still protested whenever anyone suggested that they kill Eren. However, when it came down to it, Mikasa decided that she would be the one to kill Eren. And when she asked for everyone’s help, he did not question her. Instead, he chose to trust her and believe her.

Perhaps this will lead to a deeper connection between them in the aftermath of the battle. Maybe this can be a foundation for the relationship that they will have in the future.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope that this post makes sense. Haha. I'm sorry if it's a bit convoluted and messy. Lol. Let me know what you guys think!

[tamhrayis]

As a person, who really enjoys reading commmets on different videos and posts, I often see that people still believe that Mikasa is an “yandere Eren simp”, who has no character on her own and she is annoying.

I understand where these type of thoughts and opinions come from, because some people usually watch/read anime/manga for entertainment purposes. It’s totally understandable and we have no rights to criticize them.

But there’s a difference between watching/reading manga/anime for fun and understanding characters’ behavior and imposing individual opinions as the only valid point. Of course, such people exist in every fandom, but disregarding character’s growth and personal beliefs in stories as AoT, where plot mainly functions because of characters’ motivations, is both disrespectful to author and story itself.

But I digress...So I collected some views surrounding Mikasa’s character.

1. Mikasa is way too overprotective of Eren

Okay, starting with the most common one. Yes, I agree with the fact that Mikasa sometimes looked a bit way too protective of Eren, but where this overprotectiveness comes from?

Let’s be honest, Eren used to be such a hotheaded and reckless boy, because of the trauma he experienced back in time. He didn’t know how to deal with his feelings, which caused him to get really aggressive and get into fight with others (for example, Armin’s bullies and Jean).

However, under his anger issues and trauma, Eren always had some sort of...suicidal tendencies.

At that time his suicidal behavior wasn’t that obvious, because well...it was portrayed as an urgent feeling of saving others and risking your own life for greater good. In other words, his behavior was shown as a quality of a real solider and was overlooked by others, because it’s a common thing for soliders to do.

But Mikasa knew that Eren is ready to literally sacrifice himself, because the person who he cared the most about is now dead and he was doing that to get revenge on titans.

Mikasa values safety and life as any other person in the series, because she knows how it feels like to be almost killed and enslaved by people. Mikasa simply wants to live and she truly knows the real value of being alive, while Eren doesn’t. He does value others life, but not his.

So the real reason why Mikasa was protective of Eren is that she simply didn’t want one the most dearest people in her life to die. She is scared to lose her loved ones and since that day she has been trying to make sure that Eren and Armin are alive and breathing. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your loved ones to live and be with you.

It’s not a flaw to care about others.

2. Mikasa didn’t get a character development

This is the debatable one, because Mikasa is not the most obvious person when it comes to character development, because she is quite introverted by her nature.

Mikasa is clearly an introvert, often soft spoken and calm person, who also can be cool and bada$$. But despite of her characteristics, Mikasa does have a character development, but a very subtle one.

We can’t deny the fact that Mikasa’s character development revolves around her childhood trauma and letting Eren go.

In the beginning of the series Mikasa constantly tried to secure Eren from fights, problems and simply wanted him to be next to her, because she would know that he is alive.

But every occasion that happened after them joining military tested Mikasa’s views on safety, because apart from Eren, she couldn’t even 100% secure herself from danger and possible death.

This situation really helped her to understand that in the cruel world, you always face danger no matter what and the only way is too fight for your own survival. She can’t secure Eren and Armin from possible danger. Especially, since they are soliders fighting for humanity.

Later on many occasions debunked Mikasa’s urge to secure her loved ones and she kinda learned to let Armin and Eren act on their own. Of course, only if she knows that they will be safe afterwards.

World is cruel, but it has light in it. To see that light you need to fight.

3. Mikasa is obsessed with Eren

There’s a difference between obsession and love. Obsession is an unhealthy pattern of behavior, when a person wants 100% control over someone/something and wants them fully to themselves only.

Love is a pure feeling that also intertwines with terms such as care and support. Love can be unconditional. Love is about caring your s/o’s well-being and giving them space, when it’s necessary for them.

Keeping this in mind, Mikasa simply loves Eren. She is a young woman, who happened to fall in love with a hotheaded suicidal boy.

If Mikasa was truly obsessed with Eren, she would actually join yeagerists/jaegerists and would become the leader of Eren’s fan-club (Floch? Idk him). But surprisingly, she didn’t. She is against Eren’s plan. She doesn’t want the boy that she fell in love with to become a massive murdered and end up killing himself on the way of freeing Eldia from years of oppression. She just wants to see him alive as she always wanted to.

Even if on that evening she called him family

[the-omni-princess]

Sleeping Beauty (Soulmate!AU)

Author: @the-omni-princess​

Summary: Soulmate AU! No one can wake up Bucky from Cryo… well, except theoretically his Soulmate.

Prompt: “OH GOD I WASNT CHASING YOU!!! IT WAS DARK, AND I WAS SCARED PLEASE STOP SCREAMING.”

Word Count: 1K

Pairing: Bucky x reader

Warnings: Not canon-compliant, canon diverge, they won Infinity War whoops, and not TWS compliant either, cursing, implied drinking/tipsy!reader, I think that’s it, hit a girl up if I missed anything

A/N: written for @geosaurusrrex​ ‘s #seasaur’s2kmilestone , Congrats bby <3

Prompt is bolded <3 

-

[Masterlist]

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How you found yourself in the medical wing of Stark Tower, you couldn’t say. The events that led to this moment were honestly a bit blurry.

You’ve been an Avenger since Hydra’s defeat, and even now, a year after the Defeat of Thanos at Wakanda and Titan, you have never seen this part of the medical floor. You heard rumors, that Steve’s best friend, the one and only James Buchanan Barnes was found in cryo-freeze following the defeat of Hydra. And that’s where the current problem lay.

Once Tony was in a better mental state and forgave Bucky for the things he had no control over as the Winter Soldier, he had started trying to help Bucky in any way he could. A few years later, with the help of Shuri, they erased the trigger words, but still, Bucky didn’t wake up. Suspended. Frozen in time. Stuck.

Steve never would admit it out loud but seeing his friend unable to wake up was slowly killing him inside. In a world of Soulmates, some doctors hypothesized that it would only be Bucky’s soulmate that could wake him. You found that a little ridiculous, but Steve, usually hand in hand with his own soulmate, Sharon, kept hope that maybe that would be the key to saving Bucky. Touch was very important to soulmates, as everyone was born with small collections of freckles where you would touch your soulmate for the first time. Some people had their entire hands lit up in freckles, yourself included. Which sucked since you could never be sure that anyone you shook hands with was your soulmate. Some were unique, such as your friend who had her mark of freckles on her butt cheek.

Now you found yourself in the dark, chilly back corner of the medical wing. On a dare. It was another Stark party, but you played Truth or Dare with the newer recruits. As the drinks kept flowing, it became clear that was a mistake. You were a little tipsy and stumbling upon the one floor with all the dangerous chemicals seemed like a fantastic idea.

Shivering chills running up your body as you walked deeper through the floor. “’Just go explore the West part of the Medical wing where we keep frozen soldiers,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said,” You grumbled, using your phone as a flashlight as you moved deeper into a newer, and much colder room. You froze - ha, pun – the light shining upon the clear tank in front of you. “No fucking way,” you moved closer to get a better look, but sure enough, there was James Barnes, a small sheen of ice covering the glass. Despite that, he was shirtless, leading you to see his soul mark. A palm print of freckles on his chest, directly over his heart. Well, that’s cliché.

“Well that would explain the theory,” you shrugged, deciding it probably be best if you left before you did some damage to something important. You stumbled a bit towards the door, quickly grabbing onto the nearby desk for support. In the process, you also pressed a big green button. “Well fuck.”

Smoke started to pour from the chamber as the glass covering lifted. You yelped, trying to move away again, you definitely fucked up. A soft sire made you jump, the Avengers downstairs no doubt being alerted.

As the glass finished ascending, the chamber beeped, making you jump in a yelp. You tripped again over the wiring surround the chamber, this time falling towards the now open chamber. As time slowed and you tumbled, your only thought was “Well, Steve’s gonna kill me.”

Your hand fell onto Bucky’s chest, and you finally found your balance. Well, not really. It was the still cold arm around your waist that caught your balance. Wait, that wasn’t right.

You looked up slowly, confused. Just to see an equally confused – and awake!!!! – James Barnes staring down at you. “Where … am I?” His voice was raspy, your new focus being that voice instead of the now multiple sirens going off – along with the Kill Bill sirens going off in your head. Oh God, he was awake. Oh God, you woke him up.

You yelped, jumping backward as your brain finally connected with your body. This can’t be happening. No. This shouldn’t be happening. Fight or flight response started to kick in your head, making you do a very stupid yet the only thing you could think about since you stood absolutely no chance fighting against him. Run.

He tripped after you, managing to grab onto your wrist before you could run off too far. You screeched, absolutely terrified. No one quite knew what he would be like when he woke up. For all the medical team’s troubles, he might still wake up as the Winter Soldier and not Bucky. You had fought against the Soldier in the fall of Hydra, and you weren’t looking for a repeat.

You thrashed in his arms as he pulled you against him, trying to escape. “Don’t chase me! Let me go!” You kept squirming, but even with his metal arm deactivated and only one – now very warm – arm around you, the super-soldier was much stronger than you.

“Oh god, I wasn’t chasing you!!! It was dark, and I was scared please stop screaming. I just woke up please-“ The former assassin was rambling, mind a little too scrambled to respond correctly.

He did, however, let you go, just as you stopped screaming. “Do… do you know who you are?” you tried in a soft voice, still on edge. Where the fuck was Mr. Star Spangled Ass?

“Bucky… My name was Bucky,” he whispered softly, now looking down at his chest where his mark had deepened in color to darker freckles, easily shown on his light skin.

Your eyes widened, looking down at your hand, your own freckles became more pronounced as well. “Holy shit,” you mumbled, just as Steve and Tony burst through the door, making you both jump.

“Bucky?” It took him less time to recover, now noticing both of you skimming your marks with your hands in shock. “Wait… are you two…?” His eyes glanced back and forth between the two marks.

You looked up towards the Super Soldier, unsure how to really explain the dare that tossed you at your soulmate. “Um…. Hi… Soulmate?”

-

[Read the Sequel Here!]

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[robbyrobinson]

Gods Awaken (XX)

“So you’re telling me that even though you destroyed that book Nyarlathotep got his powers back anyway?”  

“Yes, Eda, that is what happened,” Luz answered solemnly.  

Eda sighed. “Well, I guess that means we’re dead then.”  

Luz’s eyes gleamed. “We can all agree that it is worse than my realization that my Mom wrote the Good Witch Azura books and that I’m Emperor Belos’ granddaughter.”  

Eda nodded. “Yeah, that is ba-wait, what was that last part?”  

Luz chuckled. “Yeah, that was my exact reaction as well.”  

“Makes sense now that I think of it,” Eda noted, “but isn’t it kind of...”  

“Cliche?” Luz added onto her thought.  

“What is a cliché?”  

Lilith interjected. “This is not the most appropriate time for a conversation of this caliber.”  

The Owl Lady and the human girl nodded deciding to speak more about the revelation at a later time.  

The witches of Bonesborough scrambled to obtain a state of control over the sudden wave of dark magic that rocked the town and desecrated their buildings. Houses built alongside the body of the Titan crumbled; stores were wiped clean. Most of the witches set their differences aside to use their magic to prevent debris from falling on them.  

The streets were alive with the sounds of ceaseless chattering and raving over the events. Elder witches overexerted themselves with trying to use their magic spells to keep falling columns of buildings from flattening witchlings. From the destruction wrought, the sky darkened from a sudden storm. It thundered loudly as though it were a living creature. The light from the sun completely absorbed into the vast blackness of the insidious clouds.  

“What is going on!?” one of the male witches yelled.  

Thick, sickening black clouds rolled in silently with the currents. Due to the Boiling Isles’ equivalent of weather being a series of plagues, the witches were already dashing here and forth to get under some scrap of wood or a crude assembly of broken rocks to avoid their skin getting scorched by the acidic precipitation. The cloud loomed over the town for a couple seconds. The cloud swirled and writhed in sickly fashion until they merged together to create a large figure.  

It towered over the town with its ghastly size and boding physique. It was a man, swathing with blackness even darker than the darkest of nights. He resembled a man of some high status perhaps one of the elder kings. The man had some aura to him that made the witches freeze in place out of bewilderment.  

“Children of the Isles,” he announced, “it has been far too long, has it not?”  

The witches looked at each other befuddled. They could sense that there was a twinge of hostility he had with the declaration.  

“I see that your scholars had successfully managed to completely blight my name from the records of the Isles.”  

He snapped his fingers. A large slab of rock emerged from the ground and was crafted into a throne for the large being to sit down in. He flicked his fingers drawing a huge chalice filled with apple blood. He took a large swig of the sweet nectar before speaking again.  

“It is disheartening that this is the state that I left the Isles in thousands of years ago; after literally drawing into my very being and giving your ancestors magic, this is truly the gratitude that you would give me?”  

After taking a long drink of the apple blood, he tossed the chalice away blissfully ignorant of the explosion it caused. “All of you are ungrateful; that ungratefulness lasting from generation to generation. Well, no more.”  

Massive claws surged and bubbled on the Dark Man’s fingers. Before their eyes, he tore open a portal in the space-time continuum. The way in which he tore away reality with such ease amazed the witches but also filled them with despair. Never had they seen something of this caliber in the long history of the Boiling Isles. The sheer raw power that this tall man possessed was unnatural.

Droves of crustacean-fungus like anomalies escaped the rip in space-time. Like locusts, swarms of these creatures blotted out the sun. They came upon the citizens of Bonesborough in such frenzy and lifted them into the air. Swarm after swarm arrived to abduct more citizens and fly them to an uncertain fate.  

Smirking, he opened another portal and withdrew his scepter.  The large gem in the middle of it glowed and began to twist and pull reality around it. Portions of the Boiling Isles started to fade out of existence. The fabric of reality was further ripped down to the seams exposing the backdrop of the pure darkness of the void. Strange masses of tentacular monstrosities fizzled from the darkness of the void.

Before any of the witches could react, those that were captured by the winged anomalies were seized and suspended in midair. They fought against the invisible forces holding them in place, but all they could hear was the deep, sinister, shrilled laughter of their tormentors. Invisible, inky tentacles wrapped around them contributing to more frantic movement. With each movement only strengthening the monster’s grasp, sharp suckers stabbed their way through their bodies. Splintering pain flowed through their bodies as they heard the maniacal laughter of the obscure beasts and the hideous sound of their blood being greedily sucked away. Blood was visibly getting vacuumed through the tentacles of the beasts who now were shown as having no visible face rather a large mandible surrounded by endless numbers of appendages. They were becoming bloated from the blood.  

The tall man looked at the chaos with a lack of interest. Stretching his arms, he drew from the ground again and mentally crafted it into a chariot. Once the chariot was made, he summoned more creatures from the void. They resembled birds, larger than the ones typically seen on the Isles roughly the size of an elephant. And yet instead of beaks and feathers, they instead had heads calling to mind a majestic horse; in the place of their feathers were slimy, oily scales of a reptile. They flew in a galloping fashion neighing in the presence of their summoner. Legions of these bizarre horses stopped in front of the chariot and were strapped in ropes. He got up from his makeshift throne and perched his large frame in the front of the chariot.  

“For thousands of years ever since your ungrateful ancestors locked me away, the one thought consumed my mind; that being vengeance.”  

He stared over seeing Belos’ empire at a far distance. “You are all cordially invited to a party.”

They looked at the peculiar man with worried expressions.  

“Before this day is done, the Boiling Isles will be torn down brick by brick, to its smallest atom and from that level of devastation will birth a new age. Out of the ashes of the fire, I will build a new world where my acolytes will not know of what came before them and will pledge their allegiance to me and my alone.”  

The witches screamed in unison again. “What do you want from us?”  

He held his scepter out and twirled it at them. “My star protégé will be taking on one of your witches; consider this a good show that will satiate my boredom long enough to temporarily withhold the destruction of your world.”  

He took his scepter and smacked it against the rim of his chariot. The horse monster, now recognized as being his shantaks, squealed and began to flap their massive wings. With a galloping motion, the legions of winged creatures lifted the heavy chariot off the ground and into the air.

“Come on, put your back into it,” a teacher yelled.  

One of the teachers used their finger to create the illusion of a battering ram. With it, he sprinted for the entrance only for the device to fail when the dark magic holding the barrier in place rebounded on him. He was flung back landing where the guard that Nyarlathotep merged with the lockers was located.  

The Abomination Teacher ordered his abomination to use its fists to punch a hole in the barrier. Like any other abomination, it followed his command, but the result was always the same. The magic wall was reducing the abomination down to the stumps of his hands forcing the abomination to temporarily become undone and then reassemble itself to try again.  

“Are we going to die in here?” a student whimpered.

Principal Bump put his finger against his mouth. “Now, now, calm down, everyone: we are not going to die.”  

None of the students were truthfully convinced by the Principal’s words yet they were trying to grant themselves a little sense of normalcy. The Abomination Teacher called his abomination off and he looked at the school’s principal. “Sir, is there something on your mind?”  

“Could we discuss it by ourselves?”  

The Abomination Teacher ordered for his servant to keep guard of the students and walked over to Principal Bump. Sternness manifested through his eyes. “What is actually going on? Who was that man?”  

Principal Bump sighed. “There is so much more behind the history of the Boiling Isles that was expunged from the records; one of them involved a figure who was probably one of the most evil beings I have ever encountered: now I fear he had returned to his full power.”  

“Well, what can we possibly do about this...man?”  

Principal Bump shook his head. “The magic barrier he made was designed using a powerful, dark otherworldly spell that I am afraid no ordinary witch can ever hope to make as much as a dent in it.”  

Eyes widened, the Abomination Teacher spoke again. “B-but if the students find out-”  

“Hush!”  

Principal Bump looked behind a corner making sure that none of the other students were eavesdropping on their conversation. “We should probably keep the students occupied for a while to keep them from inciting a hysteria.”  

The Abomination Teacher also gave a passing glance behind the corner. “And there is nothing we can do?”  

“Aye; either Nyarlathotep returns and removes the enchantment spell he placed on the school, or”  

“Or?”  

“Or we could get lucky and have an Elder God come to our defense and destroy the barrier.”  

The Abomination Teacher squinted his eyes. “An elder god?”  

“It’s going to be a long discussion,” Principal Bump emphasized, “so listen carefully.”  

Skara and some of the popular clique took their text books and slammed them on the outside. The books returned at full force towards their owners. Only Skara was able to narrowly avoid getting creamed by the books by ducking, but the same could not be said for the other girls.  

“What kind of magic is this?” Skara asked aloud.  

Gus scratched his chin. “Looks like something you’d see being made by the construction coven.”  

He placed his hands against the wall of the barrier, pressing his palms. “Something tells me that this isn’t even the native magic common here.”  

“I am getting really concerned for Luz and Amity,” Willow said. “There should be some way to contact them.”  

She drew a circle in the air and retrieved her purple scroll. She tried to login to her Penstagram account, but the connection was not getting through. A few more of the students saw what Willow was doing and they to took out their scrolls to call for assistance. However, much like before, the connection was terminated.  

“Somehow the magic barrier had cut us off from the outside world,” Willow observed, “we’re sitting turtle ducks now.”  

As she turned away, she caught something in the corner of her eye with her peripheral vision. One of the students had a potted plant that was pitched at a window prior to their imprisonment. It appeared to be a cross between a Venus flytrap and a tomato plant. For whatever reason, likely because of it being almost tossed out the window, it had its large mandibles wrapped around a piece of the magic barrier keeping the shield from completing.  

“Willow, squeeze yourself through the opening,” Gus said.  

Willow looked carefully at the escape route that was seemingly pre-ordained. She then looked at Willow and the others. “Don’t worry; I’ll tell Luz what happened and maybe she and Eda can help us.”  

Taking a short breath, Willow cautiously slid herself underneath the opening while ensuring to not catch the wrath of the sapient plant. Her head and shoulders successfully slid under the barrier followed by her torso. Squeezing her ribs under, she froze for a moment upon hearing a crackling sound. Purple sap was dropping onto her abdomen. Looking up to her horror, the dark magic was slicing its way ever slowly through the potted plant. It still had a strong grip on the barrier, but for how long, Willow could not say. Scrambling, Willow’s forearms bent and nudged the grass.  

Grunting, Willow ben her body in a backward motion practically falling out the school with the back of her head. Now with better maneuvering, Willow quickly drew in her legs. The barrier sliced through the plant’s mandibles like a guillotine splattering its sap on the window and its sill. The school was now completely devoid of any alternative sources of escape. Willow got up on her feet and wiped the dirt off her clothes.  

“Don’t worry, guys, I’ll be back!”  

[dayofunity]

Echoes of the Past, Emperor Belos, and the Day of Unity

Spoilers,  please don’t keep reading if you haven’t watched this episode yet. The post is kinda long, so I’ll include a TL;DR at the bottom! Enjoy!

It’s five in the morning and I’m trying to get all of this out so I have bragging rights when Rebecca Rose puts all of this together in her reaction video, so sorry if it’s jumbled and incoherent. That’s just how I do- I made a Tumblr specifically to share this so I hope you enjoy! First of all, holy shitaki mushrooms, what an episode. This is exactly my favorite type of episode, the episode you’ll know you’ll watch later and know exactly what everything meant. I know we don’t have all the puzzle pieces yet but you can bet I’m going to try to put them together now. So, in this episode, they were clearly drawing our attention to this big mural. I have a lot of thoughts about this thing in particular. 

While I also have thoughts about the guy on the left, I’ll save that for another time. Let’s talk about the figure on the right. I think this is the Titan, or something related to the Titan.  Let me walk ya through why, because it’s for more reasons than “it’s big”.  First of all, look at the hand.

I know that there’s a finger difference, but that fourth finger could be hiding in the angle of the pose. It’s also worth noting that another depiction of what is presumably the Titan’s hand in the Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles (top left illustration) gives the hand a completely different look and five fingers, so there are already inconsistencies in illustrations. Take this with a grain of salt. 

Another thing worth noting is that symbol on the figure’s chest. We have seen this before, in an incredibly interesting place. 

This is the top of Emperor Belos’s castle. Right before this shot in Agony of a Witch, Willow tells Luz that the castle was built as a “symbol of unity”. Considering that this castle is built in a chasm surrounded by bones, it doesn’t seem very... unifying. However, what if it’s literally a symbol for unity, an important structure for the Day of Unity? We don’t really know much about the Day of Unity- if memory serves, all we know is that it is the focus of Emperor Belos’s plans, that a date for it is fast approaching, that he needs wild witches to be “dealt with”, and that he needs the portal for it. Working with this limited information, it’s hard to figure out what the Day of Unity is. However, this new detail may shed some light on it. Stick with me here. 

Look at the way the tower was built, opposed to the rest of the building. It’s different, clearly added on later, as is shown by the fact that it’s sprouting from ruins. A bluish pipe- or vein, it’s difficult to tell with this show- runs up the tower, piping something in or out from whatever’s combusting at the top. Now, it’s hard to tell where Emperor Belos’s throne room that’s shown in Agony of a Witch is, other than the fact that it isn’t on the first floor, but for the sake of the argument, let’s say it’s at the base of this new tower, directly under it.

Above Emperor Belos’s throne is what we can assume is the Titan’s heart. Attached to it is a blue tubing of sorts. Obviously this is all speculation, but if that is the same tubing, then the Titan’s heart is connected directly the tower- the “symbol of unity”. I find the placement of this tubing on the heart rather interesting as well, as it is pretty much lines up exactly with where a witch’s bile sac is located.

I’m pretty sure we were already assuming- at least I was- that Belos was using the Titan’s power, not just communicating with it, as the powers he has displayed are unlike anything else we’ve really seen. We know that all magic comes from the Titan’s original magic- KIng alludes to it in the beginning of Young Blood, Old Souls (” [The Titan's] original magic was so potent, all life on the isles evolved to wield magic too”)- so we can assume that the Titan’s got a lot to work with.  Now, we circle back to the mural. The symbol of unity, as I’m going to refer to it, is seen in the center of the creature’s ribcage, right around where a heart would be. Emperor Belos’s castle was built in the Titan’s chest cavity, also where a heart would be.  So. What if this Day of Unity is a unification ceremony between Belos and the Titan, and with the power he has harnessed with this heart, he has made his entire castle into a glorified bile sac.  Think about it. The Day of Unity requires all wild witches to be “dealt with”. That means that they are either petrified or in covens, locking up magic into controllable channels. Magic originally came from the Titan. What if Emperor Belos is trying to gather all magic into his coven system, leaving all magic at his command, and what if this is necessary for the Day of Unity? He needs to return magic to the Titan, and he couldn’t do that when witches were harnessing magic for themselves without his control. So essentially, the figure in that mural isn’t just the Titan, but it’s the Titan after the Day of Unity? Not physically the Titan as in the bones the entire Boiling Isles is made of, but its spirit manifested and able to wield magic? Or maybe it IS its physical form, and the Boiling Isles is just doomed by this process. This would bring in the portal. While Belos is a... goal oriented dictator, maybe he doesn’t want to entirely doom a whole bunch of people? So his solution would be simple: bring witches to Earth- relocate them  It’s a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit it. But I can’t think of any other way to include the portal, and I wanted to address it in some capacity. He clearly needs it, after all, and I don’t think he’s human or trying to take over Earth.  Maybe he needs the myths that have spilled out into the Human Realm (i.e. giraffes) to come back to the Boiling Isles? I’m just spitballing now, so I’m going to move on. 

There’s another possibility to consider. What if that figure ISN’T the Titan? Now, I know, I just spent too long trying to prove that it was. I finished watching this episode two hours ago, I’ve already sunk a lot of time into this, so I’ll make this quick.  We don’t know much about Emperor Belos’s communications with the Titan. We’ve never seen it happen, and he’s apparently the only person that we know of that is capable of doing so. Now, he could easily be lying about this, but let’s pretend he’s telling the truth. This episode already played with the idea of a king truly believing a lie he’s been led to believe, with King believing he was the King of Demons. Emperor Belos being lied to about being a chosen figure, able to communicate with the Titan itself would mirror things in a way that I just LOVE. (Also they both have things over their faces with two horns, King has a crack on his horn, Belos has a crack on his mask, both Belos’s castle and the King’s guardians have a... fleshy quality to them, let’s say? These just feel like they’re Something but I don’t know what so) We’ve already seen a weakness in Belos’s ability to account for personal motivations. He believed that Lilith would continue to serve him after refusing to heal Eda. What if there is another entity out there, an evil one, that is looking to gain a physical form, and is using Belos to do so? I don’t have a lot of fact to back this up, other than the discrepancies mentioned earlier with the “Titan’s” hand, and the fact that the Titan’s skull looks different from the head shape of the figure, from what we can see, but it would be an interesting thing to see play out.  Anyways, all I have to say is that I have the feeling that if the mural wasn’t chipped on the head of that figure, we’d see two horns looking suspiciously like Emperor Belos’s mask. TL;DR: The figure on the right in the mural (top picture) is an entity, likely the Titan, that Emperor Belos is looking to merge with or gain control over on the Day of Unity. The symbol on the center of the figure’s chest matches the main tower of Emperor Belos’s castle, which is referred to as a “symbol of unity”. I throw a bunch of other stuff at this idea but if you’re in a rush, these are the two main takeaways.

[hopeymchope]

So, I'm trying to understand this, from a person who has next to no knowledge on the series. What exactly is going on with Attack on Titan? And I'm more than willing to read a long rant if it means I get an explanation.

If you’re wondering why the tag for the manga blew up in recent weeks, that’s one specific thing - a character “death” (or at least, character-serious-injury) that’s got fans freaking out.

If you’re wondering why everything has been sucking for like two straight years of manga and people like me keep making very salty posts about it, that’s a whole other topic.

And that’s what I’m gonna cover in this rant: How Attack on Titan has been shitting its own bed for more than a year now.

Basic Setup: Attack on Titan takes place in a world where the remnants of humanity live in a walled city. The city’s walls protect them from gigantic, grotesque “Titans” who attempt to devour people on sight.

…but naturally, as the story went on, it got way more complicated.

Most of the problems with the manga began circa the time-skip (which is also where the Anime is going to catch up to once the current season 3 is finished). Rarely has there ever been a time-skip in fiction that’s been wonderfully received, but the four-year gap between “Return to Shanganshima” and the “Marley” arc has to be one of the worst.

But the whole crash-and-burn kind of starts right before the time-skip, when we first learn the name “Marley,” begin to learn the true origin of Titans, and uncover true enemy opposing our heroes via a forced flashback. For the purposes of this little essay, let’s just put all of the Marley-related information into one big collection - I’m not gonna separate the last couple chapters pre-timeskip from all the tons we’ve had afterwards. All things dealing with the aforementioned “enemy” will just go into one big fuckpile.

SO. The time-skip jumped forward fouryears into an arc that lasted almost a year without letting us see any of our established protagonists. Instead, we follow… the enemy I just mentioned.

And since Attack on Titan begins and goes for most of its duration without any clear enemies outside of “TEH TITANS” and “general assholes within the system,” this is where I have to put a spoiler cut.

A Rant on Titan

So the enemy of the characters we know so far is Marley, the actual source of the titans. The world isn’t destroyed at all, naturally. Our heroes just live in one isolated place on the planet, which is forced to be surrounded by Titans because Marley shoved them into that walled city and then created Titans on the regular.

Marley is a nation of………………

…*SIGH*…

okay, look. I could try to call Marley  a “Nazi Germany allegory,” but the allegory is so thin that they’re basically just incredibly overt Nazis. They’re a military-focused nation of incredible genetic pride where purity is celebrated and where one particular race - a group of both different genetic descendancy than them AND of different religious beliefs - are treated as inferior garbage. The Marley government sees “Eldians” as disposable. They are forced to wear armbands with stars on their arms (YES, REALLY) to identify them in public, and they also make them lived in fenced-off, separate communities.

Marley’s science experiments on Eldians (yup, they tossed that in, too) resulted in the creation of the TITANS. It turns the Eldians into mindless prisoners of their own bodies who grow in size, deform, try to eat people instinctively, and long only for their own deaths.

If they made a third AOT video game, it’d have to be something like this. …. So maybe we shouldn’t.

ANYWAY. During this Marley story arc, we mostly follow child soldiers. They’re of “low birth” because of their race. They chose to enter military service in exchange for having their families treated like regular human beings one day, if they earn their way to become titan-shifters. Nevermind that titan-shifters all die within seven years because of the power of turning into a titan - it’s worth it to raise their family’s status beyond just your regular Jews Eldians, right? Nevermind that they’d never really be seen as equals. Even those who have elevated their own rank by becoming shifters are shown to still be subject to some snark and disdain,but yknow - you were just born that way, so you’re shitty regardless, right?

Through this horrific scenario, we follow a few kids in particular - most notably Falco, who is gradually seeing reality and realizing how they don’t deserve to be treated like shit and that this is all a work - and Gabi, who is becoming increasingly militant and more zealous over time.

RELEVANT SIDE NOTE: Gabi’s character design is based upon a sketch Isayama once did of a gender-shfited Eren Jeager (Eren Jaeger is the main protagonist of the series). For that reason, you might be inclined ot think that Gabi is some kind of alternate/parallel Eren.

Except that’s fucking ridiculous, of course!

Gabi is shown to only care about her own rage against the people within the walls of “Paradis” (the sarcastic name for the walled city where all of our heroes come from) above ALL else. She doesn’t care about her family at all, never noticing her brother’s suicidal tendencies and pain even as Falco is acutely aware of it. The fact that her parents are pained by her following her brother’s dark path to becoming a shifter. She doesn’t notice or care. The more evidence that is put in front of her that the other side might not be as evil as she thinks? That just makes her want to commit murder MORE.

Oh, and she DOES murder people. And try to murder more. A lot. She even successfully murders a fan-favorite character - a character who shows her mercy by pointing a gun at her, seeing she’s only a child, and opting to let her live. Gabi repays this mercy by shooting that character in the back later and boasting excitedly about it to anyone who will listen for multiple chapters in a row.

She then tries to top that by attempting to murder that character’s little adopted sister, who is like, maybe 10 years old, tops? Gabi is then protected from harm by Mikasa and now seems to be on the path towards some kind of “redemption arc” because… uh…………..

………………..because Isayama is shitty?

By contrast, Eren struggles throughout the ENTIRE NARRATIVE to bring harm to people who betray him/those he cares about or those who try to kill him/those he cares about, but often runs into incredible challenges when fighting these douchenozzles. The entire time we followed Eren up until now, he always prioritized his family and friends above EVERYTHING. He would risk ANYTHING to protect them and his comrades in the Paradis military… this was true from when he was a young boy at the start of the story up through him being a young man at this point. And he is ESPECIALLY intense about protecting his closest friends, Armin and Mikasa, who he’s known for nearly his entire life. They grew up together.

That’s set in fucking stone for like 90 chapters, so we’re good. Yeah?

Oh, sweet summer child. Perhaps you were so unprepared for Isayama’s Nazi mallet that you didn’t see his secondary weapon coming?

See, the post-timeskip Eren treats his friends like shit. He lies to them, betrays their trust, runs off and starts a literal war on his OWN, and then tells them how much he hates them. Claims he always hated them.

So in the course of just a couple chapters, he goes from saying this:

To swiftly saying THIS:

Note that devastated look in her eyes. Wonderful.

And yes, he’s GOT to be lying, because I don’t think Isayama would juxtapose those two scenes so closely together in some unwitting fashion. But he’s doing so much damage to them by now that I honestly don’t even know if it matters?

Take Hange.

She’s the intelligent leader of the team, the one who always has a wild, unlikely plan. She’s a science whiz and comes up with longshot plans that always seem to weirdly… work out.

We’re told that, three years ago, she was presented a plan to overthrow Marley by Zeke - a fucking bastard who is clearly a member of the enemy, he’s lived with them his whole life, as a child he betrayed his parents to them and had them executed for being disloyal to Marley, and he’s killed COUNTLESS comrades of our heroes - and Hange decided Zeke’s plan was the only possible option and came up with no alternatives for four years. So she made them ally up with the least trustworthy person IMAGINABLE for a terrible plan,b because Hange’s… a stupid sucker now, I guess.

And why is it a terrible plan — aside from the fact that there is literally zero reason to ever believe anything Zeke says to you, since he’s the most evil fucker in the world? Oh, because it hinges HEAVILY around forcing another member of the team — Historia — into a pregnancy to churn out a baby they intend to use for the country’s gain.

Historia’s big character arc in “Attack on Titan” has been her coming to terms with her own identity and OWNING it. She’s been hiding under another identity or been controlled by other people much of her life. She finally comes out under her true name, declares that she’ll never leave in fear or be maniuplated ever again, and then—

… oh wait.. she’s manipulated into being barefoot and pregnant against her own wishes, because their greatest enemy asked for it.

There’s a lot to hate about the post-”Return to Shinganshima” Attack on Titan, in short. From characters becoming inversions of themselves to full fanatical Nazis being treated like redemption babies to complete destruction of self-actualization of other characters and the fact that, even if this is part of some larger plan being manipulated by multiple players (which seems likely), it still won’t really make up for much of the damage… and for that matter, how plausible would it even be?

But basically, there’s going to have to be quite an 11th-hour ass-pull to make this turn out decently in my eyes by now. And that’s not IMPOSSIBLE.

But it’s looking pretty unlikely.

[raeynbowboi]

My Two Cents on Female Characters in Animated Television Shows

Recently, while discussing my disappointment with the lack of development for the girls in My Hero Academia, I received a rather pointed response that accused me of not caring about female characters at all. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as often girl characters are usually some of my favorites in most shows, but where I think this person got confused is that they mistook my criticisms for contempt. You can criticize something without disliking it. Although I laughed and rolled my eyes at the accusation being the staunch feminist that I am, I figured it was a worthwhile topic to discuss: the portrayal and characterization of female characters in media. Particularly, animated television products.

Even though I wasn’t alive at the time, let’s rewind the clock back to the 1980s. During this decade, most animated television series were more focused on selling toys to go with the product than telling a good story, and this was also the time when gendered products exploded. Boys watched He-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Girls watched My Little Pony, the Care Bears, and Jem and the Holograms. The biggest shows usually had a gender division, though there were some shows that catered to children as a whole. What we usually got out of the boy shows is a cast almost exclusively male with maybe one or two female characters, such as with the 80s Voltron series were Allura was the only female character on the side of good. Likewise with girl oriented shows, most of the cast was girls with only a small handful of boys, though the Care Bears was an outlier due to having a rather fine mix of the two. During this era, if a girl was on the team, she usually didn’t do much. She was the damsel to be saved or the love interest to be smooth talked. She rarely had much more personality than “is a girl”. They were just kind of cookie cutter stereotypes who existed to be saved and supported by the real heroes. Some shows however did focus on strong warrior women such as She-Ra and Spider-woman. However, both of these were female spin-offs of boy shows and were again gendered products aimed only at female viewers.

The 1990s saw the emergence of shows with female leads that weren’t necessarily aimed exclusively at girls, but more often than not, it was more of a case of shows aimed at girls that just happened to attract a male audience. This happened with shows like The Powerpuff Girls or Daria, with Daria being a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead created to give MTV a female icon to draw viewership, as well as serving as a feminist icon and a voice of the disaffected nihilism of 90s teens. Shows aimed at a broader audience like Recess, The Magic School Bus, and Captain Planet started a trend of including more female characters, but it was still very common for the ratio to be tipped in favor of male characters. And this trope still remains at large to this day. This ratio is usually about 3:2 or 2:1 in a smaller group. Unless it’s aimed at girls or designed specifically to appeal to both genders, most products have more boy than girl characters.

Now with the 2000s, this is when my earliest childhood memories come back to me, and it’s the girls from this era of media that turned me into a feminist. I grew up on shows like Teen Titans, Avatar the Last Airbender, Kim Possible, and Totally Spies. This is when I would argue girl characters were really starting to really leap out and become actual people, though there were shades of this in the 90s as well. They were far more deep and complex than girl characters were in earlier media. Katara was still a maternal figure and a healer, but she had pride, a temper, and could be bossy. Starfire was a beautiful alien princess, but she was a warrior princess who was just as good in a fight if not better than her male teammates. Kim Possible was a super popular cheerleader, but she was also an honor roll student and a kick ass secret agent who retained her humbleness about it most of the time. While Clover was totally boy-crazy and fashion obsessed, she was balanced out by the academic Sam and the sporty Alex, and all three spies had episodes where they were the one saving the day and figuring out the problem. Fortunately, the 2010s have continued this trend of fleshed-out female characters, as shows have allowed female characters to exceed the normal parameters or expectations of their genders to treat them more like people, such as Flame Princess in Adventure Time donning very traditionally masculine clothing when she raps, both of which are not stereotypically feminine.

However, where Western Animation has progressed greatly, Shonen Anime has fallen majorly by the wayside. A common criticism of Naruto is that Sakura spent most of the time standing around doing nothing, and this sadly applies to all of the women. Kurenai is a Jonin level ninja, but she’s only ever shown in a single fight against Itachi and Kisame where she uses exactly one technique, and it’s used to show off how strong and cool Itachi is because he could counter her illusions with his own. Hinata is driven to become stronger due to being inspired by Naruto, but barely gets any screen time or skill improvement, and her only notable fight in part II is against Pain where it was a vehicle for her confessing her feelings for Naruto, and then triggering Naruto’s 6 tailed form so that Naruto could win the fight. Heck, Ino was standing ten feet away from the wanted terrorists that killed her teacher and she did nothing the entire fight. It’s not like she had mind control powers that would have been useful or anything. Sure the arc was for Shikamaru’s character growth, but even Choji did something and Choji sucks. And Tenten... Well she doesn’t matter. You could literally replace her with a lamp and nobody would be able to tell the difference. She’s just there because every squad must have a girl character.

So, now it’s time for the big feelings ouchie word: Strong Female Character. When people hear this they assume it means a character like Calhoun in Wreck-It Ralph, that tough as nails no bs cranky type of female who don’t need no man and yes, Calhoun is a Strong Female Character. And so is Katara. And Sadie Miller in Steven Universe. And Quinn Morgendorfer from Daria. Being a Strong Female Character isn’t about being tough or being a walking tank. Strong Female Characters simply have strong characterization. They’re well-constructed. Katara lost her mother when she was young and she had to take on her mother’s responsibilities, causing her to become very mature at a young age and to feel like anyone in need of help should get it because that’s her ‘job’ in a sense. Taking care of others is what she’s done since she lost her mother, it’s become her identity, and she could never reject that self-appointed duty without losing who she is as a person. Raven from Teen Titans pushes people away because she’s destined to destroy the world, and she hates herself for what she was created to do. She views herself as a living curse, and she doesn’t want to let people get close to her because it’ll hurt that much more when she has to fulfill her destiny and hurt the people that she cares about. Sadie Miller has only ever poofed one corrupted gem, but there’s a clear personality at play. She has low self-esteem and puts up with people telling her what to do because she’s a pleaser. She likes to make other people happy. Quinn is as classic girly girl as you can get. She’s shallow, vain, and bows to peer pressure. However, she voices that she doesn’t always like having to be like this, but that if she didn’t, she wouldn’t have anything in common with her friends. She’d rather be a shell of her real self surrounded by friends than her true self and alone. As Daria points out, Quinn wears superficiality like a suit of armor because she’s afraid of looking inside and finding nothing. But in later seasons, she begins to embrace the things that make her stand out by becoming more openly invested in her studies regardless of what it makes people think of her, and honestly, nobody really cares. A Strong Female Character doesn’t have to lead an army to be strong, she just has to be a fully defined person. So, now let’s bring the discussion full circle back to My Hero Academia. Earlier I mentioned the standard 3:2 ratio for larger groups. That is to say, if there’s an odd number of main characters, expect one extra boy for every boy-girl set. Too bad in My Hero Academia, it’s a 2:1 ratio of 14 boys and 6 girls. That’s 30% of the class size. They barely make up 1/4 of the class. And of those six maybe three of them have strong personalities. Tsuyu Asui, Momo Yaoyorozu, and Mina Ashido all have very distinct personalities, stand out in the class, and and have been given noteworthy character traits. Tsu tends to favor logic over emotion but doesn’t always like that this is her go-to response because she’s afraid people will think she’s heartless. Momo has high expectations for herself, and had a whole arc dedicated to her disappointment from the tournament arc. And Mina has a clearly defined personality, flaws, and tends to speak the most of the girls in the class. While Jiro’s not necessarily flat, we know less about her than the other girls. Uraraka’s character is so fixated on being the cute love interest that she doesn’t have any other personality traits. And Hakagure’s only real gimmick is that she’s invisible, but other than that is just a stereotypical girl. There’s nothing wrong with a female character not being a central figure in the narrative. What is wrong is when female characters are left to being window dressing. Jiro’s parents are both musicians and Jiro seems to like music too so why is she trying to be a hero? We know next to nothing about Hagakure. Sure, there are boy characters we don’t know very well either. Shoji, Koda, Sato, and Aoyama are still largely underdeveloped. But see, it’s problematic not only because the ratio is so heavily slanted, but because the girls that need character development don’t get much screen time. Uraraka has used the disarming training she got from her internship a few times, but that’s not a personality or a character development. And what happened when she went to the Yakuza secret hideout? She got left outside with the rest of the girls while most of the plot happened inside with the boys. Heck, Nejire who is part of the Big Three, we saw the backstories and training for both Mirio and Tamaki, but Nejire was just sort of ... present. She wasn’t given a character. Now, does that mean that I hate the girls in My Hero Academia? Of course not! Tsu is one of my favorite characters, and I like Jiro. She’s cool. But that doesn’t mean that I’m happy with the level of development and focus they’ve gotten. They’re characters too and they should be allowed to be more fleshed out in the story.

[afreakingdork]

So this isn’t really a review as it is more a rant. I had a reaction last year that was very dangerous and it has taken me a long time to recover. When I am not feeling good I love turning to cartoons because they represent low stress and easy on the mind entertainment when everything else seems out of control. I cut the cord with cable years ago and I only have Hulu and Netflix to turn to for entertainment. I am a huge buff when it comes to cartoons in general and I even ran a club back in my college days dedicated to teaching others about the joy of cartoons, but recently I took on watching Twelve Forever on Netflix, a show that if you remember was posted as a short back in 2016 for Cartoon Network to pilot test new shows (a practice they have been doing for a hot minute now). Now I am going to put a majority of my rant under the cut just in case people don’t want to look at the text but I will simplify my point here (feel free to stop reading if you disagree). I don’t like the message that this show portrays about vices and growing up...

Now I have done the basic research and I understand the creator’s past issues with alcohol. Now because of that fact I would assume this was a direct correlation in a show about escaping the real world, but instead we are left with 25 episodes where Reggie doesn’t really learn anything. Reggie is a selfish character and an outcast. I totally get it, I was a wild child myself and I couldn’t care less if I had friends or didn’t. One time my mom tried to punish me by taking everything out of my room, but my imagination was so strong that I was having a blast playing with literally nothing. I see myself in Reggie in so many ways, but there are many ways I don’t. She is incredibly selfish as Todd kindly points out. She is so selfish that it manifests in the show via the fact that Ester is constantly trying to put some meaning into Endless. It takes all the way until the end of the series to even find out how Reggie made a way for herself to enter even though Ester has been asking those questions all along. Reggie constantly just brushes any comments about Endless away with an ‘I don’t care’ or ‘It’s more fun to accept Endless the way it is,’ which is awful considering how dangerous Endless actually is. 

A big departure from the short is the added gross-out humor that wasn’t necessarily as prevalent in those first 8 minutes. I was jarred in that first episode when they started to lean heavily on creepy or downright gross comedy as I wasn’t expecting anything like that from this supposed fun and magical world. Instead we have an entire episode where our trio plans to spend all of spring break on Endless only to have Reggie removed from the equation due to appendicitis. Ester and Todd LITERALLY lose their minds due to their prolonged stay on Endless and when Reggie can finally make her appearance to save them, she has to physically force them out. They regain their memories and are visibly scared by what has happened to them, while Reggie is just mad that they ‘ignored her’ when they were clearly under some sort of spell. She doesn’t care about their well-being and instead chooses to go back into Endless alone because she missed her time there and her friends are just disrespecting her. The episode ends with Reggie lamenting that her fictional friends are her real friends. This ominous ending is just that and this idea never really comes to fruition further. 

This idea is expanded on further when we meet Elmer who is a child that was orphaned and decided to move his life into Endless permanently. We are shown that he has not only lost his mind, but his humanity. While Todd and Ester are scared by this proposition, Reggie is instead spurned on. She still wants to live her life on Endless and believes she is stronger than Elmer in that she won’t succumb to the same fate. I see how this can be a definite parallel to addiction, but with 25 episodes the story that is told doesn’t even get close to showing how this mentality is a bad thing. Are the writers just assuming they are going to get another season? More story progress was had in the 10 episode arc that was Over the Garden Wall than this and I find that totally appalling. One of the main reasons I stopped watching Teen Titans Go! was because the episodes started to become moral-less.Let me clarify that I don’t expect kids cartoons to have morals! I mean I watched Adventure Time and I can totally get down on a whole episode that amounts to nothing but a fart joke. The issue i have is when you set yourself up for something real, something that can impact that life of a child, that you are doing a disservice to a very impressionable target demographic. I am worried about the kids that will watch Twelve Forever and think that this type of escapist attitude is alright in the world. This is why ensemble casts are so important in cartoons. It’s healthy to surround yourself with other people. Not caring about others isn’t cool just because you want to be weird and quirky. There are other weird and quirky people out there that will love and support you. You shouldn’t just be the way you are so boldly that it alienates you from everyone else. I’m not saying to not be yourself. You should always be yourself boldly, but human beings are inherently apart of society and it’s healthy for them to interact. 

Now this idea leads into a larger concept about the infantilization of millennials and I am a millennial that is well into their 20s who loves watching cartoons. I know that this idea of nostalgia is ruling media right now and I am happily apart of it.  To people who tell me I am too old to watch cartoons I of course say they are being ridiculous and cartoons have always been created for kids with the parents who have to ‘suffer’ through them in mind. Parents are always in the background of creators thoughts because they will always been inadvertently watching the cartoons also, but this message of  infantilization in Twelve Forever scares me. I am scared for Reggie that she will never grow up and will be lost to Endless forever because she was never encouraged to grow emotionally for the sake of her friends. The whole reason she made it into Endless was as an escape because she can’t deal with her emotions and no one is trying to help her. This brings me to the characterization of parents in Twelve Forever. I find the parents in the show to be downright horrifying. 

Reggie’s mom, Judy, genuinely thought it was a good idea to give her daughter a bra on her 12th birthday full well knowing that one of her party guests was going to be a boy. Just typing out that sentence I can feel the second hand embarrassment. Judy believes she is doing the right thing by shoving make-up at her daughter because that is what she liked at that age. It doesn’t matter to her that Reggie is an obvious ‘tomboy’ who even asked for a specific new action figure for her birthday. She can only see her daughter through her own eyes and does nothing to try to get closer or understand her on any emotional level. Now you can of course say that she is working as a nurse and those are undeniably grueling hours, but Reggie is straight up honest with her mom and her mom blatantly ignores this. Judy even has a friend, Kathy, in the show who is an archetype for a less than feminine woman. She takes no cues from Kathy when it comes to raising her own less than feminine daughter and instead just exasperatedly can’t understand why Reggie is the way she is. Now I was a ‘tomboy’ (it’s in quotes because I don’t care for the phrase, gender roles are bullshit) who grew up after my mother refused to even dress me in girls clothes. My mom was so frustrated with unhealthy depictions of women that I wasn’t allowed to have Barbies and I didn't mind this, I could crash my Hot Wheels all day and make a parade float out of Beanie Babies without a care, but when it later came to choosing my own clothes my mother never intercepted. It was always my choice, because expression is important, but Judy can barely meet Reggie halfway in the episode where they go to the mall to pick out an outfit for Reggie to wear to a wedding. She ends up forcing Reggie into an uncomfortable and ill-fitting purple dress and tries to make up for her actions by letting Reggie pick out equally ill-fitting big ole’ red boots. I don’t find this to be compromise, this is nothing but simple placation. Judy knows what she did was wrong, but she refuses to see any other way to move forward on the matter and the show thinks that this is a heartfelt way to wrap things up to which I wholeheartedly disagree.  

Another failed parental image that scares me is Todd’s dad. This is a man we see only once and can only imagine through Todd’s eyes. This is a man that is in the midst of some mid-life crisis and has somehow gotten custody of his kids in a divorce. He has a new wife(girlfriend?) who he pours so much money into making her happy by taking her out constantly and doing what she suggests (dying his hair) that he can barely pay his bills and is shown to be repeatedly selling off Todd’s objects to make ends meet. Todd even tried to hide a coin collection only to have it inadvertently found by his little sisters, who are wild due to lack of parenting, and then sold immediately by his dad for cash. This unhealthy situation is of course what leads Reggie to showing Todd Endless, but the show again puts no effort into illustrating that this is a horrible situation for Todd. Instead it is just his circumstance to give some semblance of meaning to the fact that he wants to escape reality. This paired with everything else is exactly the reason why Twelve Forever scares me so much. It depicts these incredibly unhealthy and downright dangerous situations as simply existences that people have to suffer through. If I were a kid that had watched that, I would just thought that was normal and not something that is inherently wrong with our society that should not be perpetuated or fixed! This is not representation, this is normalization. 

P.S. But hey, Reggie has a crush on a girl so we should support lgbtqia+ media? Well here’s my little piece of that. I love my little lesbeans. If you’ve read any of my reviews you know it’s something I crave, but Reggie is so misplaced in her emotional development that just coming to terms with the fact that she may have done something embarrassing in front of her crush is enough for her. She then shuns Conelly (and the options of gaining friends in the real world who like the same quirky stuff as she does), so that she can once again return to Endless. It’s less satisfying then yuri for the sake of perv pandering in my opinion. 

[shock777archive]

Shock777′s Teen Titan universe (fan-prediction), had the animated show from 2003 had more seasons after season 5.

Honestly I wish I had time to draw/write out the Teen titans / bbrae ideas I have. I have the cutest ideas and no time to sit down and devote myself to a comic or even a fan fic anymore. :’(  I love the Teen titans/bbrae fandom so so much! There’s so much good content out there and i love sharing that content and absorbing what others have made! But again, everyone does Teen Titans/BBRAE DIFFERENT. everyone has their own headcanons on how things should go, fan characters, next gen ocs, and their own thoughts on the titans as a whole. 

I love seeing the personal ways others develop the two and their relationship. But at the end of the day, I have my own headcanons and ideas and I so badly want to share them with the world. But...no time, energy, and lack of motivation plagues me. 

But Anyway... Because I cannot devote my time to a comic or fanfic at this time, I’m going to just blabber about what I imagine in my own canon universe for the titans. 

*Note that not all of these ideas have been fleshed out. i constantly go back and re-imagine different scenarios. I have a general blueprint of how things would go, a skeleton with main events and a short timeline of sorts. but subplots, fillers, and some major details are lacking. I’ve had to invent characters/villains, but I haven’t given them much thought as of now.

 I have spent a LOT of time on this, and would love input and comments, reblogs and shares. :) I’ve been keeping this in my drafts as I progress my ideas further...so this is almost like a masterpost or something lol XD; 

Anyway, keep reading if you wanna know how i imagine the fate of the titans and bbrae’s canonization had the original 2000′s cartoon show had more seasons to work with. 

 After Season 5/ Trouble in Tokyo ends. 

There are some key things and headcanons that I have to mention before rolling any further. 

Raven is free from Trigon after the events of Season 4. She no longer has him inside of her, persuading her and influencing her. 

Star/Rob is canon. After the events of Trouble in Tokyo, the couple begin a healthy dating relationship that is full of sweetness and life. 

Kid Flash and Jinx are a thing, but their relationship is somewhat superficial at first. 

Terra is alive, but either chooses to forget her past life, or literally cannot remember her sacrifice or the titans. She has cut ties to the titans permanently.

There are remnants of Trigon remaining around the world, deep underground, and many cults that worship him exist. There is possibility of him being reformed/regenerated, however he needs a new host as Raven is no longer his host. 

The Titans have a huge following around the globe majorly in part due to Titans East and the ending of Season 5 episode “Titans Together”.

Slade is alive once more, waiting to rise up against the titans again. He has to rebuild his empire again from scratch and this will take him quite some time to do. He still may be looking for an apprentice. 

I know there are other questions/plots/things I haven’t thought about such as titans east, certain villains, and other things you all may be curious about. 

Literally just ask me what i think happened to someone/some event and re-jog my memory so I can spend time to think about said things. :) It’s been a loooooong time since 2006. XD 

The Time Skip. 

In my own headcanon/universe that takes place after the original animated 2000′s cartoon show,

there is a time skip of sorts

. a time skip of 2-3 years later where the Titans are slightly older, all over the age of 18. 

Robin- 19 Starfire-18 Cyborg-19 (the oldest of the group) Raven-18 and a half, nearly 19  Beastboy-18 (just barely turned 18). 

They all still live in the Titans Tower in Jump city, and evil still very much exists. After this timeskip, the titans would have different outfits and appearances. I’ll do my best to show them how i imagine them now: 

Starfire:

About the same height as she was before the time skip. slightly bigger breasts but still on the smaller side. She wears shorts and her hair is longer and thicker. her bangs are parted to one side instead of down the middle. 

Robin: 

Transitioning into Nightwing. His hair is based off of his disguise in “trouble in tokyo.” He is growing out his hair and becoming more fulfilled with his life now that Starfire is with him romantically. He is about as tall as Starfire now, and will probably grow taller than her soon. 

Cyborg: 

(lol he basically looks the same because he is made of mechanical parts...oops! ) He is more cool-headed and loves to tease the other titans especially rob and star, about romantic things and about growing of age. 

Raven: 

Her hair has started to grow out...she no longer trims it. It is a little past shoulder length now. Her breasts have grown bigger, she is about a C cup. she wears long gloves now, and matching boots. she mostly keeps her hood off unless she is going into battle. she is now officially the shortest teen titan. 

Beastboy: 

He has the most radical change out of all the others. He matures nicely, losing the fat on his face and growing lean muscle. He grows taller, not quite as tall as robin, but taller than Raven at this point. He still has plenty of growing to do, however. His hair is now fashioned forward into a fohawk, and he is more emotionally stable. 

All of these drawings are just prototypes and can be subject to change, however I am pretty set on beastboy and Raven’s designs. ^^; they also were sketched relatively quickly so forgive the crappiness lol 

Starfire and Robin’s relationship

Starfire and Robin have been dating ever since their time in Tokyo. Starfire affirms Robin and helps him overcome his past demons. She calms him, and soothes him, and now he is less likely to freak out or obsess over villain happenings. The two are close to getting engaged at this point. They sometimes spend the night in each other’s rooms, though nothing too sexual happens. 

Cyborg likes to tease them whenever they go for dates, and he especially loves to poke fun of Robin. It is all in good fun, and mostly gives the others a good laugh. 

Sometimes their relationship can be obnoxious as starfire sometimes cannot control her urges to kiss robin at random or perform pda though robin has talked to her about it before. She is getting better though, having been dating him for about 2 years now. 

Beastboy sometimes is jealous/envious of Robin. Even though he is happy for his teammates, he wishes he could fall in love and start his own romantic ventures. Raven couldn’t care less about romance for the time being, and is rather on the outside when it comes to seeing others in relationships. 

Beastboy and his thoughts on Terra 

After the ending of Season 5, episode “Things Change”, he comes to accept that he has work to do with the Titans and he stops pursuing Terra altogether. It takes him a long time to get over her, and even after the timeskip sometimes he thinks of her and gets depressed. He really feels like he lost something...He feels like no one will ever come to accept him or like him the way Terra did. He is at war with his hormones, always trying to flirt with civilian girls and seek approval in places he shouldn’t. In the end though, he is painfully single and is bogged down with feelings of loneliness. Beastboy acts tough, confident in himself and silly around the team, but sometimes, he just needs to brood in his room. 

I always believed that had a season 6 ever was produced, beastboy and raven would have gotten together. Why did season 5 end on beastboy cutting ties with Terra, unless he was going to be set up with someone else? I always believed that last episode foreshadowed him moving on. Now that he has cut himself off from Terra and accepted her choice, i felt that it would have been an easy transition into bbrae becoming canon. 

BBRAE. a general timeline...lots of parts are missing. 

Firstly, Raven has always had a soft spot for Beastboy. It’s been shown time and time again in the 5 seasons of the original show. I want to state that i believe since Trigon is away from Raven now, she has become free in some sense, with her emotions. She still has to control herself from emoting too too much, but she is less vulnerable to exploding things with her powers come any sort of emotional distress. 

My bbrae fan-theory has a general format i usually stick to but the details of it are somewhat blurry. 

Things I MUST have in my bbrae timeline: 

There must be an obligatory moment where Raven figures out she is in love with beastboy. There is a pivotal moment after the time skip, in which it clicks for her that her friendship with him is more than just friendship. It starts off slowly..them growing together. Raven is definitely the one who falls for beastboy FIRST. I like to think of a few of these scenarios to happen in a 6th season that brings raven and beastboy closer (kind of in chronological order) : 

An episode dedicated to Raven figuring out Beastboy’s dark past with his parents and his fight with Sakutia disease. Whether it’s because he fights a bad guy from his past, becomes ill, or Raven steps into his mind. There are many ways for this kind of an episode to happen. I feel like once Raven learns that beastboy has his own skeletons in his closet, she becomes more sympathetic and nice towards him. It’s after an episode like this where she starts to call him Gar for the first time on special occasions. 

An episode surrounding beastboy and Raven on a mission together, similar to when Raven had to go on her own to take care of Melvin, Timmy and Teether (episode “Hide and Seek”). A mission in which they are placed together and alone while the others are on other missions. I haven’t thought of what kind of mission it could be and how long it would last. I play around with the idea that raven and beastboy are chosen to be together based on their abilities so the mission would incorporate that. During this mission they are together alone and things could happen to bring Raven closer to him. Things like :

-Raven and Beastboy getting caught in a storm together and are forced to take shelter  -Raven witnessing Beastboy being good with people/children/the elderly and it makes her smile  -Raven and Beastboy forced to share a room/bed for the night (I realllyyyyy like this trope tbh ;A;) Beastboy could be accidentally cuddling Raven in his sleep and Raven could wake up to it. That, or Raven wakes up earlier than beastboy and notices him sleeping and she stares at his handsome, serene face and remarks, “...you know...I’ve never seen him look this...peaceful.” THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT COULD HAPPEN WITH THIS KIND OF TROPE AND I CAN’T SETTLE ON JUST ONE IDEA asdjkfhalkjsdfhaf -Good teamwork and sense of flow with each other when fighting bad guys. I need at least one good fight sequence of the two of them kicking ass and beastboy asking for a high-five afterwards from Raven xD  -Raven and Beastboy getting ready to leave their mission having completed it, and Beastboy says something along the lines of, “I’m actually glad I was paired with you of all people Raven. Had it been anyone else, I might have ended up failing my mission.” 

An episode where Raven is in danger, and Beastboy Transforms into the Beast to save her, getting nearly mortally wounded in the process. This would be the definitive episode, where Raven comes to realize her feelings for beastboy. I imagine that Beastboy and Raven have an argument earlier in the episode, where Raven walks away from it feeling like he doesn’t like her and still thinks she’s creepy. But the argument ends up being a misunderstanding on Raven’s part, and Beastboy was actually meaning something as a nice gesture. After she realizes Beastboy’s sacrifice, she visits him in the infirmary as he recovers. He is out of it for several hours and she feels awful about their argument, having nearly lost him. When he comes to, Raven asks him “why?...why did u go so far..for me? I thought you didn’t like me...” Beastboy would then reply with a heartfelt compliment to raven, and it would be revealed that the argument was a misunderstanding. Beastboy would smile and shrug off his wounds. He would say a heartfelt/emotional one liner, (don’t know what it is yet) but the moment he says it raven’s heart lights up and she feels love for the first time. she would inner monologue, “what...what is this? what’s...happening to me?” it would zoom in on beastboy’s smile and she would have a surge of all the memories of them up to that point, overflowing her until she nearly falls backward. Beastboy would ask her if she was ok, as she stumbles a little... and raven would say that she was fine and glad hes doing better...she would leave the room calm and cool , leaving beastboy none the wiser. The episode would end on that, but it would be the start to their relationship. 

There would be other episodes and sillier lighthearted stuff surrounding the other characters. but in every other episode there would be cute bbrae moments every now and then sprinkled in. moments like: 

-Beastboy shirtless in the training room, Raven oogling him on accident when trying to locate another team member.  -An ending scene on an episode where the titans all look at the sunset, and raven looks over at beastboy, shining in the light. his handsome features would shine through, and she would blush and avert her eyes. he wouldn’t notice her gaze, of course.  -A moment where beastboy flirts with raven jokingly, but Raven just stays silent, confusing beastboy who was accepting a snide remark in return  -Raven having a nightmare about beastboy dying or getting hurt, and she goes to check on him in the middle of the night. He would be sleeping in his new queen size bed (i have a headcanon that he gets rid of his bunk beds sometime during the timeskip) and Raven would smile at his peaceful face.  -Beastboy catching raven as she falls during a fight, Raven blushing and pushing away from him immediately  -A moment in which Beastboy flirts with some civilian girls who laugh at him and reject him, and he moves on, without noticing raven was watching the whole time. She then explodes the girls’ drinks they were carrying in a form of rage and jealousy XD 

I have many other ideas too for random moments. But now back to the main skeleton: 

An episode in which Beastboy is upset because he sees Terra passing by on the street. He is reminded of his status as a single man, and sees love and romance everywhere he goes. he cannot escape it, coming home to star and rob shenanigans and cyborg is too busy teasing them that beastboy seeks solace with Raven. He admits how he felt about terra and how he feels lonely. Raven tries to keep her sadness and jealousy under wraps, and confides in beastboy that she feels alone too. beastboy assumed she was like not into romance or anything like that, to which raven replies with a blush and a comment like, “I’m a human too you know.” Beastboy would feel better after talking with her, and would end the episode by telling Raven that if she ever felt lonely, they could hang out sometime. raven would smile and say, “i said i was lonely, not desperate.” BB would roll his eyes and leave her room, smiling and saying that the offer was on the table still. 

This episode would be the one that makes beastboy fall for Raven. I have no idea how it would start, but beastboy would invite Raven to go hang out with him. Raven would begrudgingly agree, and would be dragged into a friendly outing with her crush. Beastboy would ask raven to hold onto him as they rode his moped (sometime acquired between the timeskip), and raven would blush. they would wear civilian clothes during this outing. They would see a movie, and go to the bookstore. As Raven became comfortable being around beastboy, they even go to an arcade and raven starts getting into the videogames and kicking beastboys butt at his favorite games. Raven becomes so relaxed that she lets her guard down, and at one moment beastboy would make a joke about something silly, and raven would giggle and laugh out loud. Immediately, raven would realize what she had done and cover her mouth with her hands and blush. Beastboy meanwhile, just gasps and stares at her with big eyes. “did...did you just....laugh at one of my jokes?!” Raven would turn around and blush madly, saying nothing. Beastboy would then cock an eyebrow and smile the biggest smile he ever had. “After all tHESE YEARS! you think I’m funny!” Raven would blush and reply, “....one funny joke out of millions doesn’t make you funny beastboy.” Beastboy then steps back and notices something..he notices how she isn’t meeting his eyes with the regular cold, jeering glare but how she is really flustered and her eyes look soft..he sees the pink blush on her cheeks and realizes that he is correct... that she really DID think he was funny all those years...He also begins to suspect that in that moment, raven was actually...into him. Beastboy blushes deeply and starts stuttering, but then a few teenage civilians would walk by and interrupt the moment. “Hey it’s beastboy and Raven! cool! C-can we have a picture with you guys?! wow i can’t believe the teen titans are here!” The teens would snap a photo with the two blushing titans, and then start walking away. As they walk away, raven and beastboy overhear one of the girls state, “Wow they’re so cute! I never knew those two were a thing!” Raven and beastboy would blush furiously and beastboy would yell, “W-We’re JUST FRIENDS!” back at the civilians who are out of earshot. When he turns to raven, she looks beyond mortified. Beastboy’s ears droop as he feels like she is embarrassed to be with him. meanwhile raven is feeling the same, thinking that beastboy would never date a creep like her. They ride home on the moped in silence. As they return, raven thanks beastboy for the outing. he stutters and thanks her too. there is an awkward silence. “So, uh....” Beastboy would start, but raven would turn, say “goodnight.” and then leave the room. 

An episode in which Beastboy fights Adonis again. Adonis threatens to hurt Raven and the other titans, but Raven doesn’t know that when beastboy and Adonis stand off, its about her. the team is separated from the fight. Beastboy ends up kicking adonis’s ass, but is beaten up pretty badly. by the time raven and the other titans get to beastboy, he collapses into starfire’s arms who catches him from falling. before he loses consciousness, he sees raven and smiles at her with a swollen black eye and beat up face. “Raven...good...y-you’re safe...now...” he passes out at that point, leaving the team to stare at raven and raven just as confused as everyone else. 

An episode in which Raven finally admits her feelings for beastboy to herself.  this episode would delve into her psyche again and feature her emotions again. she would be losing control of her powers, similar to the episode “Fear itself.” because she is denying her love for beastboy. she doesn’t want to pursue it in fear that he wont like her and fear of hurting him. When danger raises its head, beastboy is in trouble and is unable to be rescued by the rest of the team. They try, but no one is strong enough to overcome the villain without raven’s help. But raven is not able to use her powers because she is denying passion within her. Seeing Beastboy being held by a shocking device, each time the titans get close, the villain shocks beastboy and makes him scream in pain and agony. Raven finally cannot stand it, and her powers activate again. However, she isnt channeling all of her emotions together like in the episode “nevermore.” She is leaving passion out. Raven finds that she isn’t strong enough to defeat the foe, and finally gives in and accepts her passion for beastboy. As soon as passion enters the equation, raven becomes at least 10% more powerful than before. her love for beastboy fuels her, and gives her the extra edge to defeat the villain.  beastboy is rescued by Raven who frantically takes the shocks off of his ankles and wrists. He starts to thank her, but is interrupted by her hugging him tightly, still fueled by her love for him. beastboy blushes and is shocked. raven holds him for a second, tenderly and closely. the episode ends there. 

And I still have many more episode ideas that I’m currently working on. The skeleton would continue with one more final episode where beastboy and raven would finally confess to one another. I dont know what would force the confession, and i have no clue if either beastboy would confess first or raven would. Maybe people can give me ideas? :) I just have so many ideas of how it would all go. i lean more towards raven confessing first. because beastboy is so patient with her. 

So the very very basic outline for bbrae canonization would be: 

- Raven falls for beastboy first, Raven gets closer to beastboy, beastboy falls for raven, raven admits to herself that she loves him, either beastboy or raven confess their love to the other, they begin dating. 

Once Beastboy and Raven are a couple 

I have a headcanon that Raven would want their relationship to be a secret for a while. although they have confessed their attraction to one another, their romance is slow at first and is kept secret from the rest of the team. Beastboy is patient with raven, and accepts the fact that she isnt ready to go public with their love. The couple would give knowing glances to one another throughout the day, sometimes spend the night in each others rooms, send late night text messages, and secretly pine for one another while the other teammates are none the wiser. 

I also have a headcanon that they dont share a first kiss for a while yet. beastboy is very hormonal and wants raven badly, but he is very patient and wants her to initiate it because he doesnt want to make her uncomfortable. Eventually it would happen, raven initiating it of course. she would probably kiss him quickly on the cheek, but beastboy would be so shocked and overcome by love that he would turn her face back to him, look her in the eyes, and they gently would both come closer and lock lips for the first time. 

Starfire would eventually become the first one to know of the pair’s relationship shortly after robin proposed to her. i havent settled on how she would find out, but it would happen and their secret relationship would finally be announced to the rest of the team. at star and robs wedding, raven accidentally catches the bouquet, to star’s delight. 

After beastboy and raven become a thing, raven almost exclusively calls beastboy “gar” or “garfield.” 

As beastboy and raven grow older, beastboy changes his name to Changeling around the same time Robin becomes nightwing. 

Another Time Skip

There would be another time skip near the end of the Teen Titans series, foreshadowing a spin off series about the teen titans next gen (lol i steal too many ideas from kishimoto-sensei lolololol) There are a few things that would happen. 

Starfire and Robin become parents in their early 20′s. It’s after Starfire announces her pregnancy that bb and rae get married. 

(*the rest of the series is based off of my original comic about beastboy and raven’s married life and the birth of their first child. If you want to read that comic, please go here.  ) 

Beastboy and Raven would have a child two years after starfire and robin have their daughter. 

Kid flash and Jinx would have a child too around the same time. Cyborg would adopt a child. 

About a year and a half after their first child is born, beastboy and raven would have a second child. 

The series would end, showing yet another time skip where their kids are now living in the tower, grown up into their teens themselves. the next generation would begin. 

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

So...yeah. lol obviously i have to work out this narrative, but that’s generally how I see bbrae becoming a thing. I know there are other things i glossed over. such as slade and other characters. but i mainly only hypothesize about my ship becoming canon tbh lolololol. 

I have designs for the next gen kids, 

And i’m currently working on more designs and a plot for the next gen series. lol 

but you get NO SPOILERS for the next gen ! >:C 

Let’s just say that old enemies return, family bonds are tested, and the old titans and the next gen titans have to work together to defeat the ultimate evil. 

Anyway, thanks sooooooo much for reading all of this! ;A; 

If you read all of this, congratulations you are now one of my favorite people ;W; 

Please send me questions, suggestions, critiques, and please like and reblog...I would love your input! :3 This is just my version of how bbrae should be done. i love reading fanfics and other’s stories. let’s all share in the glory of bbrae shipping and hope for a season six one day xDDDDD 

But yeah. Thank you. :) And I am out! xoxoxo 

-Alex, Dec 2018- 

(may edit later with updated thoughts, ideas and timelines.) 

[celestaele]

any && all powers, abilities, && whatnot eros has are all derived from the infinity stones. there’s a brief mention of these here but like the post, it was BRIEF. there’s also some details about such things in eros’ big bio, but today i’m going to try to put everything together in one place. they will be divided into two parts: part one being his usual collection of abilities with some brief descriptions of what they are && which stone they derive from, && part two are other abilities/powers he has in stages of giving in to the pull of the power stone deep within him. the reason they’re in different parts is because the things listed in the second part are not applicable to the first part, but everything in the first part is applicable to the second part. now that i’ve officially confused everyone, let’s get to it!

POWERS && ABILITIES PT. 1

alright so we’re going to put these all into categories based on which stone contributes the necessary energies needed for such ability/power to manifest. just seems the easiest way to organize everything. now, not EVERYTHING listed he uses. it is just what he has at his disposal. some of these he uses often, or perhaps subconsciously, while others he chooses to avoid.

MIND STONE: the most obvious of the stones && their contribution 1). consciousness - the primary stone, when paired with the soul stone, contributing to eros’ manifestation as a material && ‘living’ being. also allows him to tap into the rest of his abilities && still 2). heightened intellect/memory - he be smart. hella smart. when he’s studied up. eros starts off not knowing anything, but upon gaining any knowledge, he retains it. for the most part. 3). rational thinking - now this might not seem like a power, because he doesn’t ALWAYS use it, but if eros were to actually use && think before he acts, he’s fairly rational. it creates his decision-making && plan-making abilities when combined with his memory && intellect, but he rarely uses this. he acts before he thinks, usually.

SOUL STONE: another obvious one 1). soul - his soul is something he’s crafted all by himself through who he’s around && what decisions he makes, but the ability to even have a soul is given by, you guessed it, the soul stone. it’s what allowed him to develop emotions && emotional ties. it gives him his flaws. 2). heightened healing factor/homeostasis - his body heals much faster than any normal mortal, && he also has a heightened metabolism due to the fire that burns at his core. it adds to his physique, && also makes him warmer to the touch, almost like a walking heater, even if he himself feels cold most of the time.

TIME STONE: less obvious but very prominent 1). “immortality” - created at one age && will stay such age forever. added with his lack of proper biology && written dna, eros will never age. he’ll look the same forever, however long that might be. this does NOT mean he cannot be killed, however, it is very hard to do so. 2). brief glimpses of the future - in his dreams, eros can see glimpses of the future. they aren’t very visible, && he doesn’t know they’re the future. he just thinks they’re dreams. it isn’t until what he dreamt actually happens that he feels like he’s seen it before, like some twisted form of deja-vu. 3). mystical arts - if he had the time && put in the effort, eros could potentially harness the mystical arts like doctor strange, but he doesn’t. what he can do is whatever has been shown to be done using the time stone in the constraints of the mystical arts, meaning he can turn back time ever so slightly. he uses this mainly as a way to heal others, but it takes a good bit of his strength to do so.

SPACE STONE: only small uses but very prominent 1). bifrost teleportation - he can use the bifrost. that’s it. that’s literally it. mainly due to the mix of stormbreaker being so close in proximity so he can also harness enough energy to go places using the bifrost.

REALITY STONE: hella prominent 1). peak perfection - the reality stone was the prime factor behind eros’ overall appearance, pulling the most desirable physical traits from across the galaxy && shoving them into one boy in order to make him perfect without having to try, all in the hopes of him being good with using his own body to his advantage for interrogation. 2). weapons materialization - combined with the power stone, eros can conjure up materialized weapons, mainly swords of any lengths, almost out of thin air. in reality, they are energy blades, connected to him through reality strands that morph into the energy blades themselves. it does take quite a bit out of him, though, rendering most other abilities && powers unable to be used, which is why he rarely uses this ability unless up against another being with weapons similar. 3). reality-alteration - something he RARELY uses. like in iw where th.anos made it appear as if knowhere wasn’t destroyed && how he recreated the image of a perfect titan to show the avengers fighting him on titan, eros can alter the reality of his surroundings, putting up a facade of whatever he wants. however, whenever he does use this, it’s mainly on himself, testing different clothing choices with ease. very self-centered with this ability because he finds no other use for it.

POWER STONE: HELLA 1). cosmic plasma - the main bulk of his power. can hurl purple-tinted energy from his hands at will in short bursts, or he can let it fester in his palm for a more power-house punch. very dangerous. very unstable. his most used form of defense && his prime weapon. 2). lightning manifestation - summon lightning && harness it due to the faint presence of stormbreaker within him, always takes on a purple hue unlike normal lightning wielded by th.or, whose lightning is generally presented as blue.  3). superhuman strength/stamina - self-explanatory. he hella strong && can keep going for long bouts of time if need be without getting tired. strength similar to that of th.or.

ABILITIES NOT CONNECTED TO INDIVIDUAL STONES BUT THEM AS A WHOLE 1). advanced hand-to-hand combat 2). expert swordsmanship 3). persuasion 4). interrogation

POWERS && ABILITIES PT. 2

all of these are ones that must be unlocked through the give && take of control within eros’ being. the further he gives to the alluring pull of the power stone, the more abilities he unlocks. most are very dangerous && only come with instability && a lack of control on eros’ part. they do NOT normally appear in my canon unless set in a verse or au where eros does, indeed, become the weapon he was intended to be in the first place. otherwise these are all dormant && inaccessible. 

1). levitation - fairly self-explanatory. he can levitate, while his form takes on a golden glow && he has a dark purple aura emitting from his skin. 2). teleportation - able to go from place to place at will, appearing && disappearing in a cloud of dust, just like those dusted in the snap originally. a better way of transportation than the bifrost for sure, but painful. 3). omni-manipulation - manipulate anything with his mind && his being. stems from a combination of every stone, mainly the power, mind, && reality mixed together. one of the last abilities he can learn once fully under the power stone’s influence. 4). apathy - lacking in any && all emotions or feelings towards others. only knows indifference && only craves more control && more power. 5). heightened pain tolerance - he feels no pain. literally no pain. at all. comes with having no emotions, really. 6). extreme loyalty to his father - aligns with th.anos so easily, following his father with unhinged loyalty that is set in unbreakable stone.

[lethe-distillery-blog]

The Mad God

A beast they call me. Uncouth. Uncivilized. A disgrace. And perhaps, if I am honest with myself, they are not so wrong as I would once have liked them to be. I cannot deny what I have become in my isolation. Part of it, I’ll admit, is self imposed; but the larger part of this misery has been out of my control. If there is anyone to blame, it is I. The sweetness of victory stales over time, it grows foul and sour even with the most tender touch, all things, in perspective and time, become clear. But, as the mortals say. I chose my bed linens, it is time for me to find if they are to my satisfaction as I lie in them.

 I chose this hell, thinking myself smart. I chose to rule the earth, and so, my brothers granted it to be so. I was given uncontested rule of all things here. I am rich beyond any kingly measure for I am owner of all precious things. I think nothing of arming my soldiers in iron chased in platinum, I think nothing of the jewels embedded into all surfaces so that naught but a candleflame flickers with the intensity of a sun on all that which I hold in my domain. I am surrounded by others, soldiers, peasants, merchants, tyrants all. I am surrounded by so many, and yet, I remain alone. Grossly forgotten about in ways that if one were not familiar with my family, could be perhaps be considered cruel, but alas, for me this is nothing new.

 I wanted to matter.

 I should have known that I never would. That my brothers, in their cruel and deceiving ways, have once again, shown me my place. Shown me that they do not want me with them, in their ruling of mankind. And so, over the centuries, I have learned to quite trying. Zeus, ruler of the sky and God-King. He lords over them with nothing but fear and manipulation, an iron fist in which he forces them all to abide. I have heard that he has forced them to shape him great weapons of lightning bolts in which he has some show for his bluster. I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for one of them to realize that he isn’t much more of a threat than Father Cronus. Perhaps one of his own children, thus, the cycle repeating. Poseidon. Hot tempered bastard. I’m surprised he is still alive given some of the things he’s pulled. But then, I suppose, why not? He can create earthquakes in his rage and then blame me for them, after all, I’m never allowed there to defend myself against such accusations and being the Lord of the earth, seems like it would be my fault. And, if I knew it would get back at any of them, I’d consider it, but man, well, his time is brief, and I will see most of them soon enough, why bother speeding up the process?

 What hurts the most, in all this time. Is the complete denial of my family. Those, whom humans seem to have the closest bond to, are nothing more than strangers at best, and annoyances seeking a favor at worst. It’s funny how I simply do not exist, but for the butt of jokes or a boogeyman figure until one of them needs me. And then they come, pleading with me for understanding and forgiveness. “Forgive us,” they plead, their mewling tones but pathetic nonsense I have long since grown used to, “Please Hades, we know you can help.” And I can; and I do, because I am too desperate to matter, to feel as though I have a purpose to someone, anyone. But then they leave, and I am alone. And nothing I did ever matters.

 I clenched my fingers around the goblet, the burnished gold glowing in the dim glow of my candlelit hall. I was a God, a King in my own right. I sat upon a throne, and had servants, I had soldiers, and yet in all the important ways, I was alone. I took a long pull on my wine, listening to the creak of bone and iron, the clacking of mandibles, and off in the distance, like birdsong, came the shrieks of the damned. Those cruel enough, vicious enough, and horrible enough that they had somehow managed to gain the attention of my rather dense brothers. And so, Charon had brought them here. To me. He was the closest thing I could call to a friend, but our talks were brief and preciously rare. He was my sole contact with the outside world, a place that I wanted to both forget existed, and also, remember desperately. Amusing, how even with the powers of a god at my beck and call, I was limited. That even with my powers over the very earth itself, my freedom was just barely beyond my reach. I looked around at those surrounding me. I was no better than they, no different either. Just as I picked the perfect punishment for those that came before me, so too, my brothers had picked for me. It could be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic.

 There was one thing in this world that at least made my existence tolerable. A great pomegranate tree that I had managed to coax into taking root. It was my deepest secret. And it was the only thing that I still held onto from my humanity. It was the one desire of mine that I had managed to salvage, the one thing that I had taken for myself, in spite of my brothers, and the others that claimed me as kin. It was the only living thing that I had in my domain. It was a gross violation of what was allowed with my restrictions, and if anyone happened upon it in my inner sanctum, the thought of that punishment was not worth considering. I both loved and hated that tree, there were days that I did nothing more than watch the way that the candelight flicked through it’s leaves with a green so crisp and beautiful that no stone had hope to match. And Other days I hated it so desperately I wanted to burn it to the ground into a pile of smoldering ash for what had been taken from me. My hopes and dreams, twisted by the cruel designs of others. Not one had asked my opinions, not one had cared what I had wanted.

 Even now, there was a part of me that still yearned for that dream. The dream of being a God-King, like Zeus, but not. I wanted to be ruler of the lands, of the earth. To be wealthy yes, but, I wanted so much more. I wanted to feel the light and warmth of Apollo’s chariot as he passed by, and to wave to Artemis in the night. I wanted to grow things upon the earth. Trees. Point of fact. I had wanted an orchard. A silly, whimsical dream, that even now, held on with a tenacious grip. A hold so solid that it felt as though a dagger driven through my heart would be less painful. And now, the only thing that allowed me that dream, that age old fantasy; was a solitary pomegranate tree.

 I heard the barge sounds, my mood was foul as I stood and made way to the Acheron. On my thoughts was one particular Goddess, one that I disliked as much, or even perhaps more than my brothers. Demeter. The one creature alive that held my dream in the palm of her hand with a careless grip, her indifference to what I would sell my soul for was something that always brought me to a near rage. It felt so wrong that someone who should care so little about something should have it when I wanted it so badly. I shoved open my doors with my force than strictly necessary but it helped me feel better. And that, was valuable at this moment. I walked with purpose, I could feel my robes clinging to rough patches of the cobblestones, the chill of them a constant presence here, even with the mighty Phlegethon burning with it’s dragon’s breath, it did not travel far enough to warm my domain. This was not a pleasant plane. This, was quite literally, Hell.

 I raised my arm in greeting to my friend, his great height appearing diminished beneath a cloak, his pole and burden bending him nearly in half but I dared any hero to underestimate him. Charon was a wise creature, perhaps even wiser than me, for it seemed only I was fool enough to fall for the pleading guilt trips that my family ensnared me with. He always seemed impervious to such tricks, I cannot deny I was envious of him for that. “Charon!” I greeted, his boat was full. I glanced to my soldiers, ready to guide them to be judged. It was the same thing, every time.

 “Hades.” He had a strong voice, gravelled from lack of use, though I am sure mine didn’t sound much better. Besides dolling out punishments, there was no point to speaking much here. Nothing intelligent to converse with besides each other. Well, besides the Titans; and given that brother Zeus and crew were the ones that defeated them and put them here, I had my doubts that they would enjoy talking to me, even without me being his twin, I bore enough resemblance that it wasn’t worth risking again. “Demeter is on earth again.” I felt my hackles rise, my temper flaring white-hot, my fingers clenching into fists in my robes. Down. I had to get control. Charon didn’t know my secret, not from a lack of trust on his behalf, but my being the God of the Underworld and all, I had a certain image to maintain and nurture. “She brought her daughter with her. Zeus had some bitch fuck a bull.” He shrugged, neither of us understanding my brother and his sadistic ways. Still though, Demeter had a daughter? Holy shit, when was the last time I had bothered to look at the human world? It hadn’t been that long. Right?

 I delayed court. Who was going to stop me? I took a long while at my pool, the black waters now allowed me to watch the scene upon it’s surface with a growing amount of wonder and a jagged pain that stabbed through my chest. Demeter had brought a young woman with her. And though I wanted to rip apart Demeter with my bare hands. This woman held me enchanted.

 Her face was serene, with a kind, delicate smile that knew no hatred. She spoke with a kindness and a gentleness that I had only heard about, never given the graces of seeing it. She danced through fields of flowers in a carefree way, her long hair flowing out the colour of wheat and her eyes so green they reminded me of the way grass looked. Her laugh put birds to shame with its beauty, and yet she did not judge them for being less than she, she instead took delight in them and encouraged them to join her and so they sang in a way that brought tears to my eyes. Her skin was a light tone, softly tanned beneath the kiss of sunlight and I suddenly grew jealous of all the things around her. I was jealous of the grasses that got to touch her skin, the flowers that she kissed with the softest of affections, the breeze that got to play in her hair. I was losing myself here, what the hell was I thinking. She was the daughter of the Goddess I hated most, and more, I did not need comfort, I did not need anything she offered to me. In fact, I didn’t even want it. I was here, in my domain, it was all I knew, it was all I required

 So why did it hurt so much when I left?

 Court passed with an agonizing slowness that felt like it’s own sort of torture. Despite getting to sentence a pedophile to a beautifully devious thing I had been wanting to test out for awhile I knew I was distracted. I knew that my choice of torments had been poor at best, not well thought about, but they had sufficed. I needed to focus. I walked around my domain, torturing here, tormenting there. Tasks required of me an my station, a promise to those I found to be slacking that I had no particular fondness for them and that they could join those in their torment just as easily. It was an effective strategy, and most days, just the variance in a monotonous existence was enough to cheer me up. But it wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Not walking down by the Phlegethon just to hear the screams of those I had placed there on purpose, a reminder to those that I truly did not like. Nothing in my world could cheer me up like that smile, a smile that hadn’t even been directed at me. I couldn’t be that pathetic.

 I was, in fact, that damn pathetic. I kept watching her, day after day. Finding new things in her that fascinated me. Her kind spirit, her gentle touch. She had even inherited her mother’s knack for growing things, as she helped crops grow, and flowers. She showed me the beautiful things I had so desperately wanted to achieve, and though I wanted to hate her for it, to hurt her for things that I had no control over. I found myself liking her. I found myself searching her out when I had other things to do. Spending long hours with her in front of my pomegranate tree as she spent her time doing what she did best. Being her. It had taken me a long while to finally hear her name, and when I did, I spoke it, just to taste it for myself.

 “Persephone.”

 I spent so long watching her, focusing on her in the human world. Watching her create beauty while I was surrounded by nothing but darkness, despair, and ruin. She encouraged me to be better. I dressed better, taking care to look like a king properly should, though none here cared or even noticed. My robes were swapped out for finery, my trinkets became more embellished and royal. She made me grow flowers around my tree, things of platinum stem and gemstone petals that sparkled and glinted. All hues and varieties stood around me. Amethyst violets, diamond daisies, and aquamarine weeping bells. Trees took form with gold bark, emerald leaves and ruby apples. She encouraged me to not only look better, she taught me how to live.

 Finally, I could not take it anymore. I couldn’t take the insanity of it. Something had to be done. And I had tried to be noble. I had tried to ignore her, to go back to my life. But now, there were memories of her all around me. My rich robes that were of a finer quality than even Zeus was afforded, every gemstone and mineral I saw reminded me of my secret garden, my pathetic musings over a woman beyond me. I spent days wandering my plane, beating spirits and doing my best to distract myself. But when you are exposed to the light, it is so hard to go back to the darkness.

 I tried to behave. To be noble. But I couldn’t do it anymore. One more night in a lonely bed with cold sheets as my comfort, one more day without anyone to talk to, one more day knowing my brothers had their wives and took them for granted. Wasn’t I deserving of that? Couldn’t someone be mine? I would make sure they never regretted it. Ever. And there was only one person that came to mind for that desire, that need inside me that had awoken. Persephone. I tried to avoid her, tried to contain the madness that made my sanity feel like it was unhinging. Even when I wasn’t at the pool I could see her, out of the corner of my eye. Never there when I focused, but my fantasies so strong that I felt like I truly was going to lose it. I saw her on the throne I had created on a whim, she was dancing through the garden that I had made for her, she was right there beside me as we walked down the Acheron. I couldn’t tell when I was asleep or when I was awake anymore because the nightmares didn’t stop when my eyes were open and the dreams kept going into the night. I couldn’t take it anymore.

 She came to me. Swallowed up by the only earthquake that I had ever caused. My desires finally getting the better of me as I brought her here, to me. She looked so beautiful, a ray of sunshine in my world that had no knowledge of it, her beauty looked so much more in person, it was nearly painful for me to look upon her. But still I did, I drank my fill, my desperation winning out over common sense. Perhaps I was a beast, uncouth, uncivilized. But, I would keep her safe here, I would be everything she ever needed here. Here, I could love her properly. And as she looked up at me, her green eyes widening with recognition, I spoke past the lump in my throat. “Please,” I swallowed hard, “don’t be afraid of me too.” Because if she rejected me, I don’t think I would survive it.