#their base dynamic is a lot more different

[questionablecuttlefish]

Okay Fine Let's Talk Timebomb and Season Two.

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

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

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

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

...until.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is exactly what happens with Ekko in E7.

Which brings is to AU!Powder and Jinx.

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

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

Is not the same person as this girl:

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

AU!Powder is literally a different human being.

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

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

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

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

And I thought that was the point.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But she could have been Ekko.

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

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

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

While this is happening for Jinx at the same time.

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

And here's where the two stories finally intersect.

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

But she's still ready to kill him.

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

That was Powder.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that's their final interaction on the show.

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

Ekko's final shot of the show is this.

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

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

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

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

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

He's letting her go.

He's choosing his own story.

He's staying where he belongs.

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

And this is Jinx's final shot.

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

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

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

Maybe even someone new?

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

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

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

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

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

They both deserve better than that.

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

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

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

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

But don't go insisting it's "the canon" and going after the shippers of other ships for these characters as "not canon" or somehow offensive for existing, especially toward one particular ship that, yes, has been around much longer than timebomb, is uncool.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[23z567]

ok guys dont kill me i need to do some oc posting

[egophiliac]

Since book 7 part 5 (the part where we meet Meleanor/Maleanor 👀) is coming to EN this month, i would love to see your take on lilia’s proposal to meleanor! i mean they were like little kids right? it couldn’t have been that serious…i think the only reason she even brought it up again is because she could tell lilia still genuinely loved her…(even if he didn’t realize it himself?) but, oh well! Let’s think about silly childhood shenanigans to numb the pain! ^_^ (orz)

oh shit?! get ready for a doozy guys, it's comiiiiiing ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I chickened out of posting the whole thing (look, I get VERY carried away when it comes to these wacky kids and their Tragedy), but I do believe that it probably ended with Lilia getting embarrassed and just shoving the first thing he sees into his mouth to try and cover for it.

(we're just lucky it wasn't a frog this time)

[bonefall]

If Sasha had left Hawk and Moth with Thunderclan or Shadowclan do you think Tigerstar would have been able to sink his claws that deeply into Hawk?

In ShadowClan, perhaps. Blackstar starts doing his damnest to stamp support for Tigerstar and his ideas out, but Ratscar is a clever cat. A clever, charming one. I can see him easily leveraging his charm to earn Hawkfrost as an apprentice, or the other Thistle Law supporters coalescing around their "young heir."

There would be less chance of Tigerstar getting his claws deep into his boy than RiverClan, which actively has NO reckoning and is deeply politically divided.

Meanwhile, it would be extremely unlikely in ThunderClan. ThunderClan as a whole HATES Tigerstar. Being part of his legacy is NOT something Hawkfrost would have been raised with-- and I can honestly see Sasha, if she realized ThunderClan was a good place to go, ALSO developing a pretty significant bond with Goldenflower.

...Thinking about it, it really would have been the Good Ending for Sasha here. Goldenflower would have learned about everything and felt a deep need to protect Sasha. Tigerclaw took EVERYTHING from her, and she immediately moved to reject him, but he still managed to convince her daughter to leave her side. TOOK Tawnypaw from her, and KILLED their oldest son Swiftpaw.

Learning that Tigerclaw went on to use Sasha would make Golfy sick. She doesn't have to think through it logically to know, deep in her gut, that what Tigerclaw liked about Sasha was that he could control this one. That Sasha was her replacement, to birth him kits he could own. Stealing her own child wasn't enough-- he wanted ones he could instill loyalty in from the very beginning.

There's a precious memory in her mind, of when their daughter Lynxkit caught greencough. Everyone knew she wasn't going to survive. Tigerclaw took his little kit, so small he could cradle her in his paws, and he hummed her to sleep for the last time. EVERY moon, she learns something that cracks that memory a little deeper, a little further, and one day she feels that she will loose one of the most meaningful images she has of her lost child.

How can she reconcile that image, to the trembling, half-starved woman who stands before her? This thin-boned rogue, who believes she is selfish and stupid for the egregious sin of losing a child while desperately trying to raise them alone?

Hawkkit and Mothkit would have had a very different upbringing. I also don't know if Sasha would have vanished back into the wilderness. World hard and cold. Golfy soft and warm.

[dairyfreenugget]

It's not theft if I'm stealing from myself 😎

Also I'd like to thank my friend Saturno and my patreons for enabling my poor financial decision that is buying two closed species MYO tickets

Vernids and base were made by lilaira

[razzledazzletrassh]

no major fic updates just yet guys TAKE MY WOY OC I MADE LIKE. April of last year IM PLUGGING SOME INFO ABOUT THIS GUY IN THE TAGS.

I may also redesign her soon or something. Make her more bug-like with some stuff. I can cook guys let me cook !!!

[cent-scratchnsniff]

More sketchy employee profile images. Mostly made to be able to replace the picrew I had in the template I made since I can draw. I did end up just putting it as back and white though but the color is just nice to have. I'm STILL trying to tweak the template since it is very finicky and there is an example of what it looks down below if you're interested. It is a lot. It will happen. I am just not the quickest

There are typos and inconsistencies I missed but in general it should be fine...

[intersex-support]

Hello! I have a question: Would it be okay for me to describe myself as questioning intersex if I suspect I may have an intersex condition but haven't been able to see anyone about it?

I was assigned female at birth, but I've experienced a lot of anomalies since I began puberty, such as very inconsistent periods (around 2-3 a year, which are always very short), proper visible hair above my lips (along with beard hair, but it's a lot thinner and much harder to notice), and external body changes such as widening hips never occurred. A lot of "female" clothes don't fit correctly, and I've always had much better luck with anything from the men's department. I can't wear a dress without constantly getting misgendered, and misgendering is something I've dealt with all my life honestly (much worse when I was still in school, but I still encounter it).

I've never known what could cause it, although I'm aware I have some medical history when I was an infant (although I don't really know what for). This is something I've wanted to find out more about, but my (cishet male) doctor has never taken me seriously, dismissing all my concerns. I'm hopefully moving GPs soon, but the waiting list there is long and I don't know when I'll see someone considering it's not urgent. So, is it okay for me to describe myself as questioning intersex and interact with the community in the meanwhile?

Hi anon!

This is just my personal opinion--other intersex people might disagree and are allowed to disagree.

I personally think it's okay for people who are questioning being intersex to say that they're questioning intersex/suspecting being intersex /on the intersex diagnosis journey etc etc etc. However, I do think that people who are questioning intersex should be sure that they are being considerate in intersex community spaces, being honest and not misrepresenting themself, and being careful not to talk over people or overstep boundaries.

I think it's really important to there to be places that people who are questioning intersex to find accurate information, and to get support on navigating a very complicated and biased medical system. And in truth, there is just so few information and resources out there that if questioning intersex people want that type of advice, information, and support, of course they're going to come to intersex community spaces and look there! And I feel pretty strongly that part of intersex justice is figuring out ways to get medical power into the hands of intersex people--part of that comes from giving our communities the tools they need to discover that they might be intersex. So that's why I think it's important for there to be spaces welcoming of intersex people, and why I think it's okay for people to express that they're questioning.

That being said, I also understand why there are other intersex people who don't always want every space to be one that's completely open. I think it's important for questioning people not to speak over other intersex people, not to position themself as an authority in subjects that they're just starting to learn about, not overtake all conversations to be about questioning or the diagnosis process, and not overstep peoples specific boundaries in terms of joining specific groups, such as ones that are specifically for people who've survived IGM if they haven't experienced that. (all real examples of things i've seen.) In general, I think most intersex people will be really welcoming to questioning people as long as you're just honest about what you're experiences and show up as your authentic self, rather than trying to mislead people or represent something that isn't true about your experience.

So long story short, I think it's totally okay as long as you're considerate when interacting in intersex spaces! Feel free to check out more of the resources on this page for information to help you on your questioning process, and good luck!

[amelikos]

Thinking about how Onyx and Sango's first scene together had Sango complaining that he had to tag along with her when Hamber told them both to accompany him to the castle back in HZ024.

Yet they are both pretty much constantly shown attached at the hip. Hanging out together, being together during and outside work, oddly being the most domestic in their group (they know each other's quirks and habits and call each other out on them), implied to get food together (not shown but still, Horizons has a theme of sharing food with those you care about and food as a means of connection). Basically, both of them staying together even when they don't really have to.

[bldwspr]

if i keep seeing people nominate small guy as bottom and big guy as top i am actually going to explode.

[averlym]

which is gayer? SIX or Adamandi (real)

adamandi

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

me, reading more of Humanity, a Phineas and Ferb dystopian AU recently: hmm, little redheaded boy who has endured Horrors, hiding from and fighting a corrupt government with help from a fierce(ly loyal) hybrid creature? sounds familiar....

AU Phineas and my OC Oliver from The SOS Chronicles! I think they would get along great. 💜 Oliver would 100% be down for helping Phineas escape an oppressive regime, even though he has 99 of his own problems.

"It's going to be okay." "What is?" "Everything. Not all at once and not right away, but it will be." "How do you know?" "Because I was a slave and I escaped, and you're brave enough and smart enough to escape too."

Meanwhile, while the boys are having a heart to heart...

... Perry and Silvie are a little less sure about each other. Don't worry, they'll be friends as soon as Silvie realizes Perry is as committed to keeping Phineas safe as she is to protecting her friends.

"Are you very brave and fierce too?" "Krrrrr." "And you keep your weak boy safe?" "KrrrrRRRrrrr!" "... Okay. We can be friends. I am Silvie." "Krrrrr." "I think I am supposed to say nice to meet you now, so it is nice to meet you." "Krrrrrrrrr. 👍"

But wait I hear (absolutely no one) asking, where's the rest of the SOS gang? Where are Silas and Cassie? Well...

They got separated from their friends, crawled through some vents, saw one of AU Doof's machines blow up in his face, and he was so upset that Cassie felt bad for him and crawled out of the vents (with Silas trying to stop her) to find out what went wrong with the machine.

"Look, there's two wires on the main circuit board that were swapped, that's why the machine blew up. It wasn't your fault, it was just an accident." "Th-thank you? But you still haven't told me how you got here?" "Through the vents! :D" "Cassie!" "No, I mean... children are illegal. How did you get here?" ".... you hear that Silas? We're criminals on two worlds now! :D" "That's not something to be excited about, Cassie! And what do you mean "children are illegal"?!"

Not pictured: Almitak having a mental breakdown in a corner of Oliver's mind because "NOW THERE'S MORE OF THEM?!"

I'm overall pleased with how these came out! Sideways people are a struggle for me, so having almost ALL of them be like that was, uh, a challenge. But I think for the most part they turned out well. I'm happy with all the expressions except Silvie's, which just confounded me, but Silvie's just a hard character to draw in general, so there's that. Also Silas' face isn't quite right but I couldn't figure out how to fix it (he's also too short shhh). On the plus side Oliver looks extremely empathetic and I LOVE Phineas' expression Idk how I did them so well. Also Cassie just looks tiny and adorable.

[cloudbends]

Also I can't believe I'm saying this about a persona 5 spinoff but p5t is actually... Surprisingly good? The character dynamics within the phantom thieves are much more fleshed out (which is something I always took issue with in the original game), the character screentime is a lot more balanced and mostly no flanderisation (aka yusuke gets to Do Things for once, makoto gets to Not Do Everything thank god, morgana is the most likeable he's ever been to me), the new characters are incredibly fun and executed very well especially for spinoff-only characters, the plot concepts are interesting, the sprites are very fun and expressive, like. idk I just didn't expect it to make up for some of my issues with the main game tbh!! a pleasant surprise for sure

[imminent-danger-came]

Sorry if you‘ve been asked this before, but since we know you‘re fav lmk characters, I was wondering what you‘re favorite duos and trios were?

And/or however many characters you wanna group together. Just in general, the character dynamics you find neat!

(My guess is that MK and Mei are somewhere on the top of the list- if not THE top)

One of my favorite things about lmk (of which there are many lol), is that you could throw two darts, and whatever two characters the darts land on are bound to have an interesting dynamic.

One of my favorite episodes is the Sandy and Huntsman episode (2x08), Tang and Macaque also have an intriguing conflict in 3x08, and Pigsy and Chang'e (3x07) have such a heartfelt shared passion that you can't help but enjoy their on screen time together.

I'm someone who wants a sort of Ne Zha and Yellowtusk "we reluctantly work together" arc, where even though Yellowtusk may have helped nearly bring the world to it's destruction, he ultimately helped save it, and he also happens to know a thing or too about keeping the Jade Emperor's power contained. I think it'd really fit in with lmk's "past mistakes vs making the right choices now" theme—in all honesty Yellowtusk has already paid his time with an eternity spent in the scroll—and now he can truly help make a better world. I think it'd be a neat way to keep him involved in the story, give Ne Zha someone to bounce off of (they both view power as sacred and a huge responsibility, unlike Wukong for example who is much more flippant with power), and would give some juicy drama ("You would betray your brothers?") between Peng and Yellowtusk later down the line.

Though anon you're 100% right, MK and Mei are at the top of my favorite dynamic list lol (They're whole motivation is to protect each other out of 100% platonic love. Obsessed with them). I'm also really partial for the MK, Mei, and Sandy trio that pops up here and there (1x03, 1x04, 3x04, 3x06). Traffic light trio is a treat, and the sunburst duo has my heart forever and always (I love seeing the way MK and Wukong's relationship has developed over the course of the show, both for the better and worse). Pigsy and Tang are always a delight (thank you 1x04, 2x03, 2x04, 3x05, 4x04, and specifically the line "Sometimes it's that little bit of char that makes for a more flavorful meat! Even if it is a bit tangy."), they're definitely at the top of my list. Obviously I like shadowpeach, and shadowpeach + MK (ooooo the monkeys are such delicious/tragic foils oooo), and I think Mei and Wukong have a really interesting dynamic (Wukong seeing Ao Lie in Mei, Mei viewing Wukong as someone who has hurt MK). Wukong and Azure's dynamic is also super interesting (Azure with his unrequited crush and heartbreak), so is LBD and MK's (could talk forever about these two), however I'll cut this off here since I could probably go on for a long while about this specific topic.

[inkedmyths]

Yknow, I do think some of the criticisms about modern vampire media I've seen going around lately are valid in their analysis, but also they simultaneously annoy me, yknow what I mean?

Because yeah sure taking the classic weaknesses out of a vampire can really lessen the impact of what they are and make them overpowered and imbalanced. Yes they were often a metaphor for the upper class and their lifestyles and exploitation. These are valid and fair points! And should be considered!

But so many of these posts are solely looking at the Bram Stoker interpretation of a vampire, and having that be The Only Thing That's Actually A Vampire, and I find that. Kind of irritating and slightly condescending sometimes.

There are all kinds of stories of vampires or blood-drinking monsters from around the world that vary wildly in appearance, abilities and weaknesses. This isn't really a new thing, nobody was ever able to agree on a Set of All Encompassing Rules, some stuff was more common than other rules but not necessarily universal, you get the idea

Plus, like, vampires (and other monsters too!) have been used for a MYRIAD of metaphors, so just the one isn't like, a catch all.

Thirdly and finally idk man I think it has the same vibe as those art videos that are like "Things artists draw WRONG ALL THE TIME! FIXING ART" or "How to Not Make A Mary Sue"

[waywardsalt]

Linebeck is the Maui to Link's Moana. Or more accurately the Peter B Parker to Link's Miles Morales. He could have the most interesting and heroic past, but he has the vibes of Just Some Guy. I'd kill for a game set after Phantom Hourglass (but before Spirit Tracks) where we learn more about Linebeck's history, and how it plays into his newfound parental relationship with Link

Linebeck being more or less Just Some Guy compared to Link being this weirdly competent pre-teen is a fun part of their dynamic a lot of the time. There is a lot of time between PH and ST and that obviously is an opportunity for more storytelling between those characters, plus considering that we have very limited information on Linebeck's history or... anything, exploring him further is always a lot of fun, and could make for an interesting subject for anything before or after PH (or during), and further going into his relationship and dynamic with Link has a lot of potential for... a lot of different stuff!