#theres a lot of backstory for this so it might be confusing

[autisticlalna]

"You Were Right" (and a behind the scenes on how we got here)

initially i was gonna make a post going over all of Anathra's lore so far but then i realized i do not quite have the spoons for it, and also i'd like to break it up into easier to cover parts anyway. so let's jump straight into the most recent mystery!

i've already talked before about the hidden messages in Rubyco's videos, and about the split-second easter eggs in Viking's. encrypted messages aren't exactly new to Skyblock Kingdoms.

but, okay, let's rewind a little. it's 1 am, a couple days before Anathra's episode 8 premieres. i'm winding down for bed, see the premiere on my homepage, and go: hey! i wonder what Anathra's doing next episode!

hey what the fuck is that. why is there elder furthark

a bit of backstory on me: i love translating things. you probably know this by now. i also knew a guy who was big into norse mythology stuff, and that included him knowing elder furthark. so i immediately peg that as "oh, shit, that's elder furthark" and track down a translation tool.

("why are you going into backstory" we'll get to that. lol lmao.)

anyway, its 1 am, i run it through the first tool i find, and get:

someþiŋ ' weird ' happened

...or "something weird happened".

COOL. THAT'S OMINOUS.

i go to bed. when i wake up, Moxi has shared something from Anathra's discord:

...but i can't figure out what it translates to.

timeskip to the premiere.

Anathra gets a delivery from the End Kingdom after helping Josh out with villager stuff. he goes to place the shulker down, it's suddenly nighttime, and...

hey, what

iou were right

...okay, here's where we loop back to that backstory bit, and also i pull back the curtain to showcase how hilariously bad this went for the dnerds.

i recognized the alphabet as elder furthark

(and yet my dyslexic ass doesnt realize theres two rs in it until now. it has been 5 years.)

trying to translate the box name gave me gibberish ("io nht tuil")

i also knew from the "something weird happened" message that elder furthark isnt 1:1 with the english alphabet

oops there are two translator tools. oops they use different runes for "y"

due to [gestures at cherry and doak], there is a minor scuffle about if it says "you" or if it actually IS supposed to say "iou"

we still cant translate the box

still cant translate the discord message either. this is about to be really funny

people in the sbkcd are also translating it, so we compare notes

anathra steps in to save us:

THANK YOU ANATHRA <3

i am immediately embarrassed because, oops, turns out Angerthas (dwarven runs from Lord of the Rings) has alphabet overlap with elder furthark, so that's where the confusion came from. seeing as it's a post-filming decision, that does mean that the episode description and chat message were translated correctly, but the box is in Angerthas and, despite having the same runes, they do not correspond to the same english letters.

i spend a bit alternating between bonking myself for my mistake and bonking my very tired head against Angerthas for a bit until WhiteQry suggests that maybe what Anathra said in chat is the same thing. later, Aquelon is able to translate it as "IU WER RAIT". or,

YOU WERE RIGHT

...right about what?

skipping back to the events of the episode: Anathra realizes that he's lost time. he says he's only felt this "once before", doesn't know what the writing is, and is generally thrown off by... whatever just happened.

i need to rewatch Anathra's pov before i can dig into what i think the message means-- my initial guess is that it has something to do with his ?nightmare? from episode 5, although im not sure past that. considering his pov plays with the concept of the fourth wall a bit as-is, the message also might not be for Anathra (and he can't read it with glasses on either way).

Anathra's in the middle of something. there's a lot going on with him, inside and outside, and i really want to do more overviews of his lore because it's very fun. until then, keep an eye out for more strange messages i guess.

-

"hey leo you didn't translate the furthark in the 'glasses off' message, what gives" WELL, YOU SEE. I WAS TOO BUSY BEING EMBARRASSED AT THE TIME TO PROCESS IT. AND IT WASNT UNTIL WRITING THIS POST AND GETTING THAT SCREENSHOT THAT I SAW IT AND WENT "wait. hold on" AND RAN IT THROUGH THE TRANSLATOR.

AND THEN REALIZED, AFTER FOUR DAYS, THAT ITS THE URL OF THE SITE IM USING TO TRANSLATE THIS AND IT JUST GOT KINDA MANGLED BECAUSE OF THE "NOT 1:1 WITH ENGLISH ALPHABET" THING.

im in hysterics. how did this happen. please dont ever think im professional. all of these super cool in-depth explainer posts are the end result of so much clownery but i needed to show you guys just how much of a MESS this is lmao

[thornswoggled]

my pilot chapter reaction in a nutshell

i really enjoyed this first glimpse into what TAMB might have been, but at the same time im grateful that we didnt get it. its a testament to how strong yamazakis commitment is to crafting a strong and compelling character-focused narrative that we went through seven (!) drafts to get where we're at. this first draft is tonally confused, unsure of its direction, and provides little room to wonder where the story might go from here. its almost perfectly suited to be a one-shot... which might be well and good when youre pitching ideas to a publisher, but feels strange compared to the long and winding narrative of character progression we currently have

so the initial backstory for chise being sold is a lot weaker. reads like a fanfic trope, feels like a "my mom sold me to one direction" story. i think its more important for chise to have put herself into a stupidly dangerous situation of her own accord - one day id like chise to fully appreciate the gravity of auctioning herself, seeing as she has only enough shame about it to avoid telling her peers. theres little room for speculation for this chise, who is sold to a loan shark to pay off debt. how does a japanese loan shark get in touch with a british mage, anyway?

this chise feels like... how should i put it? you know in middle school, those chapter books you would read about sassy girls going to like, vampire school and stuff? do you get what im going for here? shes sort of like that. she feels like the protagonist of a young adult novel series called something like "High School SUCKS 🩸🧛‍♂️... Volume One of the KNIFE to Meet You Chronicles 😈😈😈"

we also see that chise is enrolled almost immediately in the college. first, let me say that i love this proto-isaac we got here. i can only imagine yamazaki decided it was too troublesome to draw, or just felt out of place. which is a shame, because i like isaac quite a bit and i didnt pay him much mind when the college arc was first coming out because his design is such a nothing burger:

just as in the final story, chise is the odd one out at school - a witch attending classes for alchemists. but because she wasnt a sleigh beggy in this version (yamazaki says in interviews in the same book that chise went through a few different versions of what made her special, including being a 'specter in human form'), its unclear why shes here. this part is particularly striking to me, because...

... yes, i dont think you belong there either! because you already have a teacher, and he seems to be teaching you a lot already. more than elias is in the final story, anyway. this chise is competent and already fairly-self assured. is she here only for the social aspect? i do appreciate that elias doesnt trail her to school, but it doesnt mean much given that theres no explicit reason for her to be there

moving on to elias. first of all, yuck:

thanking god and also jesus that chise doesnt use such deferential terms for elias in the final version. blegh

this elias is uncanny valley. while chise has more attitude and sass in this version, elias makes up for it by being goofier and more amiable. theres still a sense of him being strange and off-putting, but it doesnt seem that this elias is the 'mild-mannered child pretending to be an adult' that yamazaki says our current elias is. i cant imagine chise has much to teach this elias on how to be human - if he struggles with emotions, its harder to tell. which makes sense, given that she also states that her initial draft of elias WAS originally human. i love the way yamazakis loose sketches for these panels end up making him much more expressive:

he has a sense of humor! can you IMAGINE him trying to make this joke land in the final story. chise would be like (jesse pinkman voice) "............. okay"

i cant help but wonder if, given several more decades of chises influence, maybe elias could somewhat embody this pilot personality

all that said, theres a significant difference in the dynamic between these two, and its that elias has never made any sort of indication that he intends for chise to be his wife:

i think this is a huge issue, and it provides little room for their relationship to grow in a way that feels compelling. in the final story, chise knows almost immediately what elias expects of her (or... what she THINKS he expects of her... she wont learn that his view of marriage is uninformed til later), and it colors how she regards him. which must be confusing for elias, considering he has little idea of the implication behind his words. elias is just as handsy in this draft as the final, but without the pre-established expectation of "youre gonna be my wife," coupled with elias not necessarily needing chise to teach him how to recognize his own emotions, this becomes a will-they-wont-they student-teacher romance that i frankly have zero interest in. not to yuck any yums but i just dont like that at all

despite it all, the heart of their dynamic still remains the same, and the goal of this series remains the same as the final:

even with badass punky chise and goofball elias as our protagonists, this is still a story about two people from opposite sides of the planet coming together and acknowledging their growing interest in one another. the desire to understand each other more is still at the core of these two. im just glad it was refined into what we got

and finally...

badass action girl knife-wielding chise you will always be famous. i love her so bad. thats all

[fictionfixations]

corporate needs you to find the difference between these two pictures /hj

(from this post translating the departure ova, or basically the prequel to world heroes mission bc idk where to find it normally)

screenshot from this video cuz i cant replay cutscenes lmfao

like. okay so i started thinking about hawks and aventurine in the same thought train and i just. couldnt let it go. and then i remembered that departure ova where he had those sunglasses(?) (IDK The name of stuff. im just gonna call them glasses.)

didnt realize that they're kind of doing similar poses. thats because hawks had the glasses on his eyes but he pushed them up, and here aventurine is about to remove his glasses during the cutscene

MAJOR MHA & HSR spoilers

(if it gets confusing im begging you to read parts of it with the other character's part because im trying to connect them but it might get confusing reading it first)

no but listen me thinks of two boys with not great childhood in greedy corporation who h as. probably wronged them-

well in all honesty i dont remember shit about if the hpsc has done horrible things. scratch that they have because literally nagant. sorry ive forgotten so much mha story its been awhile (i was gonna go on a rant about how its just another thing the fandom considers canon because yes. like. i dont think tsukauchi has ever been confirmed to have a lie detector quirk, its just that his sister who appears in the vigilantes(?) manga does)

hawks cozying up to the league to get secrets (i almost said league of assassins im crying. batman go brr.) backfires

forced to reveal shit (remember dabi revealing in like his video in Dabi's Dance Hawks' backstory?? also portrays him in a negative light, viewing him as a murderer)

he also tries to make himself seem righteous like 'i couldnt let these injustices stand!'

(from wiki. also his wings get damaged, they can regrow but not to what it was before) ALSO fakes death (temporarily. LMFAO tokoyami)

also this is kinda weak but gets hit while hes down

(technically) hawks is still alive but his quirk is still kinda gone forever i think

anyway i think he appeared in the latest chapter. he seems to be doing well. tbh i have such a shit memory. uhm spoilers for that chapter but i just got so distracted by the todoroki family and dabi like holy shit

FHSOIfh i think hes the HPSC president now.???? DAMN good for him ?

bACK ON TRACK. aventurine cozying up to the family to find out the 'truth'

sunday does his weird shit to force aventurine to say the truth or get punished (asks him about his past and personal shit like 'do you love your family more than yourself' or something, asks about him being an avgin, if hes the only survivor, if he wants to destroy the world) (also sunday thinks of aventurine as like a liar?? like. like. i forgot what it was but he viewed him as like an ill-intentioned person he needed to get rid of. thinking of him in a negative light and probably partially because he was associated with the IPC.)

he calls him a villain. i. DAMN (from the wiki) so like. you see what i mean? also acts righteous acting like aventurines the bad guy while hes the one in the right

bruh gets told he has seventeen system hours to live

cheeses through it (nihility able to cut through it if you were confused during the story on how he lived) but fakes his death (temporarily. he can come back out around 2.3 lOl but it still took a strain on him)

gets threatened while hes still recovering from the aftereffects of the nihility and everything

genuinely dont remember hawks getting hurt during afo fight (and toga) but i also got so confused on what was going on reading the manga cause it was a lot. i dont think he got saved tho

aventurine survived but the cornerstones gone forever

also while im here since yall probably dont know

also he bet that he'd get a promotion but we dont know whats going on about that (and it doesnt seem like we will. or. theres implications that that the xianzhou(?) war dance is connected to the IPC cause of the special program where owlbert said he was gonna quit and that he got a better offer for the wardance. and it was revealed that actually it was them who gave him that better offer?? so maybe we'll see in next update(?))

like. like. hah ha hawks getting promoted? eh?? eh?? you see????

tbh i didnt think i could connect them at all but here i am now finding more and more

also off topic

i thought this was a mistake or jab at mineta im CRYING his names GRAPE JUICE???

your brain when you want to go to sleep because you have something you're looking forward to to do tomorrow (or today because its THREE AM) but you need to not be tired for it but then it pulls this thing out of nowhere to fixate over knowing you cant ignore it because they're characters you love and that the idea wont go away until you express your thoughts so you get the keyboard out to make a short post but then you keep thinking about it and it gets longer and longer cause you keep remembering more shit to add:

[heronoegg]

could we know what the backstory behind mina getting autopsied was? i know you said her mother permitted it while under the influence, but why? and who is "some people"?

doesn't have enough backstory to back up what im saying but the long story short is somebody once had a AU where Mina was a real alien and she had an autopsy and i just thought the idea was neat cause she's a alien girl there was never really any thought behind me giving her autopsy scar but i have to make something up

I HOWEVER DO HAVE SOME BACKSTORY FOR HER MOM

I HC Mina was on accident, didn't mean to have another kid, cause they already had one which is Mina's big bro, so her parents accidently had another kid which is her.

Mina reminds me of Amy rose from Sonic in the sense that she says she wants to fall in love one day but can't really do it (its somewhere on her wiki that Mina said this in the novel i think. That she likes to match make her friends but falling in love herself is tough to do DONT QUOTE ME I MIGHT HAVE READ THIS SOMEWHERE ELSE), it reminds me so much of Amy, and i have headcanons for Amy that her parents aren't so in love the way she wants a relationship, like "wow, my parents are the opposite of in love when i grow up i want to be in a loving famliy"

so that carried over to Mina, my version of her mom for one reason or another she's for a lack of a better word is one of the those mom's who drink alot and is never truly sober. she is not the worlds most awful mom but she doesn't really take care of her kids and she ignores them a lot when they were little cause she didn't want to take care of them resulting in the kid's liking their dad more cause he was an awesome dad, Mina remembers her dad, she was a daddy's girl

KEYWORD: WAS

Mina's dad dies idk going to a location maybe work and gets in the middle of a hero fighting or something. leaving the kids with their mom, Mina's brother at the time is old enough to go to school and take care of both mom and Mina so hes the one doing everything. ima say he's like 16 when she's 5 he doesn't go to hero school he's just a cool dude

---warnings of me not having enough knowledge on a subject so i keep saying "i guess" or "i don't know" cause i don't know and this is just off the top of my head thoughts, if somebody could truly come up with a better reason im open to listen cause these are just not well put together thoughts ----

as for the Autopsy thing it sounds stupid but like ya know, gotta come up with a reason for stuff i guess im perfectly fine with having 0 explanation and just doing stuff but i'll give you my thoughts i had while trying to find a reason before i gave up.

Mina's mom is a alcoholic, she's gonna come home wasted, she's gonna come home barely able to process anything, in her drunken state she mistook Mina for a alien cause she's like a weirdo (no offense to people who do believe in aliens) who believes in aliens but it's not that far fetch when mutants can look like anything. and im under the assumption that she associates with weird people who also believe aliens are real, so she takes her daughter to them while she's drunk and tells them this is a real alien.

Mina is extremely confused

im unsure how the autopsy situation happens but it probably traumatizes Mina if they didn't knock her out with some strong meds, they cut her to look at her organs and was like "Yo man this is normal, nothing here is alien" my next thing is after they fix her up somebody probably uses a quirk to either make her forget this happen or something like this cause they don't want the police on them so it's like this never happened, but Mina has the scars but never ask questions about it

How this even happen and Mina lived, i don't know, how this even happened and her mom didn't go to jail? Maybe she did go to jail, cause theres this whole other idea i have where Mina gets put with her auntscause her brother for some reason or another can't keep her legally? idk and mom is probably in jail so she gets put with her aunts who dislike children like actually are bad people and mistreat her HOW SHES GOING TO UA LIKE THIS IDK but it's a blessing to her moving into the dorms

the bad part about this is Mina's mom's spiraling and she probably does have good memories with her mom it's just she has a really bad drinking problem and i feel like i can see Mina now, as a hero in training going to see her mom and asking her if she would like her to help her go clean and get her life back together, cause Mina doesn't hate her mom, she just dislikes her aunts cause they were created to be garbage that's why i didn't name them cause i dont care about them and im the one who made them exist lol

this is unfinished ideas, don't know why they are semi-morbid and strange it just b like that sometimes

[vethbrenatto]

TLOVM S2E7 Thoughts

WOW, I was like “i wonder if they’re going to keep in the ‘vex calls scanlan useless’ bits” a day ago and they literally. just started it I’m insane my intuition

I hadn’t even considered grog and the gnomes might not be in the episode but now I’m thinking that e7 might be team half elf plus Percy and e8 will be grog and gnomes

Lmao nerd boy is nerding

You couldn’t just pretend to be happy Vax

Nope totally wrong grog and the gnomes are here

WHAT IF I PUT MY HAND OF YOURS WHILE YOU HEALED YOURSELF WHAT THEN

literally this whole scene he’s holding her how am I supposed to focus

SKINNY GROG CANT HURT YOU

why do i have three peni.

how could you say that about his books vax

COUNTRY TRAVELING SONG WHAT THR FUCKCK

I’m really of two minds about the Pikelan direction they’re going in: I think it aids Scanlan in that it emphasizes his need to deflect sincerity with comedy. However, I think it really detracts from Pike in that campaign-Pike thinks Scanlan is funny. She likes his jokes. A lot of pike’s s1 arc in TLOVM feels inconsistent with her dislike of Scanlan’s crass side- like it’s very in her nature to find this stuff funny. Not that she can’t also like the sincere side, which she does, but just that I think her side of this narrative is making her character seem flatter than it should, especially when you group it with the fact she’s been given a lot of Kiki’s campaign personality traits

the drug trip scene is funny but was it necessary. there’s 8 minutes left where is saundor. or syldor. Where is the Vex focus. Maybe,, they’ll stay in the feywild for e8 while grog and gnomes head to Westruun?

Garmelie was merely the TRAVELER

okay so syngorn next episode.

Best Characterization: Percy. Love u nerd boy

TLOVM S2E8 Thoughts

ohhhh this episode is the Echo Tree, I had the order in my mind wrong no wonder I was so confused about the pacing

Syldor your bitchass can die

WILHAND TRICKFOOT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS I LOVE YOU SIR

ngl I think the titling hit less animated but fun nonetheless (it’s about the reactions, the live audience, the Matt’s face)

I love saundors voice literally slay sendhil

I adore this Vex in the Echo tree scene, I’ll touch more on it at the end

“My heart is someone else’s” NOW THERES A PUNCH THAT HITS

arty my boyyyy

Best Characterization: Vex

TLOVM S2E9 Thoughts

Boulder parchment shears!!

OKAY THERES THE PIKELAN I WANTED. she flirts back! it’s stupid!! he takes it too seriously!! they joke!!

KAYLIEEE SHES HERE SHES HERE

I don’t have much comment I just love the grog backstory

black hair pike 🥹💚

wait so scanlan wasn’t part of dranzel’s troupe :( that’s such a weird detail to remove

zanror does have a cutie nose

“What if I need you” mirroring s1 buddies ahhhh

Best Characterization: Grog/Pike

Overall Best Characterization: I’ll say Grog.

Okay so I liked this batch a lot, but I’ve got to come back to the question: Split the party- yay or nay?

And I’m still wavering between yay and nay.

Yay: I think the character beats particularly that came from the Grog + Gnomes side of the story hit harder with them sequestered on their own. This new “Grog finds his strength” taken literally storyline is a huge boon to Grog’s character even though I found it a bit superfluous at first. They were able to emphasize the Pikelan and to a lesser extent Scanlan/Grog dynamic that they haven’t been able to touch on as much before.

Nay: I felt like the episodes had some wasted time. Episode 7 I felt like we didn’t need the Feywild side of the story (the most important part is meeting Garmelie- the fight in that episode is essentially to drive further home that Vax is on a diverging path, something I think 4-6 already firmly established). Episode 8 I felt we didn’t need the Grog/Gnomes side of the story (meeting Wilhand was great, but the B plot of “giving grog an enema” was weak)

Ultimately, I think I come down on the side that I would’ve preferred the party to stick together. The weaker plot lines I outlined above I think could’ve been axed and the whole party could’ve gone to the Feywild, we’re still given significant Grog + Gnomes content, and then we’re given just a bit more time to stew in the concept of Syngorn. The punches, specifically with Perc’ahlia in Syngorn, fell flat to me because I don’t think they were given enough time. Had they cut the original E7 fight to make more context for Syngorn, I think it would’ve gone well in expanding context. Then, E9 could’ve remained totally the same just with the rest of VM along for the ride.

That said, maybe the split was worth it just for the country traveling Pikelan bop.

[marygodwin-bsd]

Rating members of the Guild based on nothing but my own vibes (I haven't seen all of season 3)

there is a part 1 and 2 of this and ill probably make a part 4

Lucy M. Montgomery

10/10 for the fact once she showed up the show stopped treating kyouka like a possible ship for atsushi. 3/10 for the fact they gave her braces but when they needed her to be attractive they got rid of them ??? her design is 7/10, i like all her colors and shes very distinct, but she has the same issue as kunikida does with those big flyaway spikes that ernd up changing the entire hairstyle? just braids would have been fine. 9/10 for that incredibly cool but confusing power, also I just love her so much overall imma give her an 8/10

Nathaniel Hawthorne

im totally biased bc I liked the scarlett letter except for how much this man loved commas ANYWAYS this guys power is 10/10 freaking SICK I LOVE IT. 6/10 for the design its not bad but its very uhh .. monochromatic?? still cool and i get it might be because the red stands out but like give him one more red piece on his person. 10/10 for secretly being hoplessly in love with margaret?? I love it??? it reminds me so much of the book because of how hester and whatever his name was are super comfortable and sweet with one another in the forest and no one knows about them its peaceful and its fantastic ily nate overall 8/10 he seems like the kind of priest who would give free hugs at a pride parade

Margaret Mitchell

10/10 for the literal interpretation of Gone With The Wind but i wanna see her make a tornado. 10/10 for being in love with Hawthorne i love a secret romance. 7/10 for that accent in the english VA. 4/10 for seeming like shed be a little... a little phobic idk why i just get that vibe and this is about vibes love the fit 7/10 im just wondering how she can stand to possibly get her skirt wet 7/10 overall i just dont know enough about her to comment on anything else

John Steinbeck

8/10 for that power being cool but looking so viscerally gross. 7/10 for looking like Baldroy and Finny smashed together, 5/10 for that backstory bc i get it but dude youre going the wrong way. 9/10 for growing grapes for me <3. but 3/10 for putting the girls in danger cmon man be a gentleman overall 7/10

James L.

(I cannot find a Gif.) uh 6/10 for being there but then he dipped i didnt even know who this was

Mark Twain

GIMME MORE 5/10 for how i dont understand his ability at all did they just not know what to do and so they gave him his own tiny characters???? 8/10 because hes so cute but uh all the redheads in this show look related bc they are the Same Shade of RedHeaded cmon hony you know how to move a slider towards yellow just make his hair a little lighter. Theres not much about him and im not sure why hes a sniper 6/10 for not getting it, but hes cute! overall 7/10

H.P. Lovecraft

10/10 the best way they couldve represented him- honestly i was SO WORRIED bc you know you know what IRL lovecraft was like(0/10 for his racism) im just glad they didnt make him like his IRL counterpart instead they just made him like one of his own monsters 9/10! Fantastic idea! I like how just plain weird he is? he has no ability. hes just Like That. the guild just decided they wanted him. team pet. let him nap. 9/10 on that design, hes monochromatic but his hair and face and all that are distinct. oh also 10/10 because in that one fight he uh kunikida uh uh uh 9/10 overall really well done

Herman Melville

dont know much about him at this moment um 4/10 i hate his beard whats going on there uh 8/10 for the fact he and Moby Dick can talk to eachother and also have arguments apparently??? way to be one with thyself dude 6/10 because i know very little about him

Louisa May Alcott

baby 7/10 but i feel like shes lonely also how on earth does her ability have anything to do with Little Women?? is time slowing down like, a knock on the book? are they calling it slow?? i'll never know. 8/10 design i like it a lot i mean shes not super distinct but shes cute. overal 8/10

Edgar Allen Poe

POE!!!! i heard about poe before i watched the show uh 4/10 for how dirty they did him giving him a pet raccoon i love Karl but that is foul (RIP irl Poe rabies mustve sucked) 8/10 for his dynamic with rampo, though i havent gotten far enough to find true ship material beyond that one episode? 7/10 for the design its cool but a bit impractical and i feel like hes doing it for show but honestly its a stylistic choice overall 8/10 for his everything love him

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Money monehy money, must be funny, in a rich mans world 10/10 for how much he loves his wife i know irl FSG was a dbag to his so great improvement i also think its so funny that his power is Money like how did you learn that so 9/10 for that. 7/10 for that design i can get on board with most of it but his bangs look too much like kunikidas and what is that tie pattern??other than that hes fantastic. the backstory is sad and i wish he could save his daughter. 8/10 overall bc he still beat up atsushi

Part 1 here Part 2 here Part 4 here

[expired-blueberries]

hi i was the reboot massacre anon. it wasnt only you there were a couple people i was responding to. thank you for answering though!! youve got some interesting insights (i mean this genuinely)

im gonna be real i forgot a lot of details because it's been a While since i gave up. i had like a vague memory of starting to like the rich kid villain but then feeling like that stopped and didnt end up going much anywhere? i guess that mustve been "starting to get more backstory but then he didnt show up again forever."

also i worded the kevin and albedo thing badly: i did like new kevin for the most part actually, he was interesting. i was more disappointed about lack of albedo, since he was one of my absolute favorites. that one is on me for just clinging to old continuity.

but there are a lot of new designs i like too. most of the blue energy fused versions of aliens were really cool, as were kevin's corrupted/upgraded versions, and even that steampunk xlr8 that was only in like one episode. im not just like Unilaterally Hating Things That Are New theres a lot of neat stuff in the reboot

i dont think most of my complaints are with old vs new continuity. my biggest issues were just feeling like theres a lot of inconsequential filler, flat characters, and confusing or lacking motivations. to me, most episodes felt like EITHER the writers/producers didnt respect the characters/world enough to fully think through the logic of what characters are doing or what impact they have on the worldbuilding (my initial lizard-brain emotional reaction), OR theyre being forced to churn out so MANY episodes one after another that they dont have time to give "minor details" as much thought (my later conclusion after thinking on it). but maybe this gets better in later seasons though! thats why i was thinking i might try again.

in particular, the way you describe ben's reaction to the knight (i remember there being the beginnings of a new knight villain) is interesting to me, even if max's reaction is odd. because the fact that ben shows panic at all feels like more character depth than i ever saw in the early eps. like thats interesting to me because theyre really considering the consequences of how an actual ten year old (or anyone really!!) might actually react to someone powerful so easily and repeatedly swatting him aside. even original ben didnt get to be afraid very often. makes the characters feel more real if they can have negative reactions to things.

Aww, hey anon, great to see you again! Hope you're doing well~

Sadly, you're right that Billy (rich kid villain) didn't show up much again after he started getting insights into his backstory. Even when he did, any forward progress he could've made was quickly torn away from him. I can think of at least two times he could've had some character growth, and, indeed, even HAD character growth, only for said growth to then be rescinded for the end-of-episode gag. He pretty much ended the series the same as he started it, which is a total tragedy. I hope if the reboot timeline is continued in the future that they make him a full-fledged friend of the Tennysons, but I also doubt it'll happen  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also totally get what you mean by missing Albedo! He's such a cool guy, and I think the reboot could've done something really fascinating with him if they added him to the cast. I'm not sure if it would've been something good, necessarily, but definitely interesting all the same. Personally, I'm okay with him not being in the reboot (despite how much I like him), just because I really enjoyed the cast that we already had, and I'd be worried that we would have to get rid of one character just to add Albedo. But I definitely get wishing he were in the reboot! I've seen a lot of fanart of him in the reboot style, because a lot of people feel the same as you!

I agree with the complaints about inconsequential filler. Unfortunately, the reboot is stuffed to the brim with it. I guess that's what happens when you only have ten minutes and an episodic cartoon style to tell a story... sadly, you have to spend most of that time doing absolutely nothing new. I'm glad that your conclusion is different than your original perspective, though! From what I've seen of the crew that worked on the show, it seems like a lot of them really respect the franchise and enjoyed the characters (Kelly Turnbull in particular has had the best tweets talking about it IMO). I definitely understand the initial kneejerk reaction of thinking that they disrespected the franchise and didn't care about the story, especially in the shock of moving from the prime timeline to the reboot timeline, but I'm glad you moved on from that thought! For a lot of prime timeline fans who tried reboot and dropped it, it seems like that initial kneejerk reaction is what stopped a lot of them, so I totally get it.

Although I disagree with thinking the characters are flat and have confusing or lacking motivations, I also understand where you get that idea from. The episode format (ten minutes long, mostly just jokes and action sequences for a large amount of the show) definitely doesn't do it any favor, and a lot of the time the only time you can get actual character depth is when you're least expecting it, or else in a special/movie. That's definitely one of the downsides of reboot. Some of the characters, like Max, are pretty one-dimensional, too, I'm sad to say. Kids cartoons nowadays often seem to dumb-down the adults, which is tragic.

Ultimately, I think a lot of the depth of reboot comes from having to do a bit of deeper thinking on your own, rather than just accepting what the reboot gives you. Like, yeah, Billy seems pretty flat on the surface, but then you have to think about how dismissive his parents are, how it seems like there's nobody in the world who truly cares about him, and how it's obvious deep down that he genuinely wants friendship but is never allowed to get it, and he's pretty interesting. Or, Charmcaster just seems like some kid who ran away from home to live out her witchy dreams, but then you look a little deeper and realize she was being groomed and predated upon by a being that was centuries old and only using her as a battery, and suddenly her vitriol at the world starts to make sense. A lot of the depth, you have to connect dots to find it. It's there! But it's hidden. Personally, I enjoy doing that sort of deep searching. It's in my nature to overthink everything. But I definitely understand why you might not have noticed it on first watch, especially if you didn't watch the right episodes.

I think you are pretty correct on your later deduction, that they don't have enough time to give the little details attention thanks to the sheer amount of episodes they had to put out. They make a pretty good big picture, but the small picture does lack, unfortunately.

If I could be so bold as to suggest what to watch? If you find that you really can't sit through the entire reboot, but you really do want to see why some people (like me) sing its praises so highly, I suggest you skip almost the entirety of the first season, picking up on the season finale (Omni-Tricked parts 1-4). From there, season finales, specials, and the movie are good to watch. I also suggest all of the Forever Knight episodes, because every episode with him in it that I can remember furthers the plot of his arc. I would also watch the Michael Morningstar episodes. Not all Kevin episodes are necessary to watch, but I find they're almost always some of the most enjoyable, so I suggest just watching all of them. Charmcaster episodes are usually pretty good. I personally like the Billy episodes, but like we've already discussed, his character doesn't really go anywhere permanently, always losing its gains by the end of the episode. Episodes with Phil are usually pretty good, or at least okay, and I'm pretty sure at least a few of them advance the plot or hint at backstory. Really, I've seen at least two posts on two different social media sites about plot-based episodes of the reboot to watch, so if you looked it up on Google, you could probably find them and have a better idea of what to watch!

Honestly, the thing a lot of people don't realize about reboot, is that it actually does a pretty fantastic job (imho) of handling serious topics and the characters negative emotions. That episode with the Knight is one example, but if you want another example, then I'll humbly point you to the Ben 10,010 special. In said special, we see Ben in the future as a washed up and burnt out hero, living a solitary life away from all friends and family. This is the future that he eventually ends up at after all his years of heroics, and I think it's the most realistic; what person could grow up normal after being forced to become a hero so young? After living through unimaginable horrors? After having the very universe itself thrust onto their shoulders? In the end, my greatest complaints with that special is that we don't see future Kevin as a human, we don't see Glitch in his humanoid form, and Ben does the loathsome "gains a lot of weight while depressed but he loses it all at the end to show that he actually is all better now!" trope. But this special and that episode aren't the only ones we see the characters deal with negative emotions! I know Gwen has an episode where she handles feeling unappreciated and uncared for, and Ben actually has another episode featuring the Knight where he deals with negative emotions like not being trusted by his family and not being listened to. On its face, reboot doesn't look like it would ever handle these topics, but it does, and I think it does a pretty great job of it! They're usually resolved pretty quickly, but what can you expect from a ten minute long episodic series?

Haha, sorry again for the word spam, but yeah! Like I said before, I totally understand if you try reboot again and still end up not liking it. It isn't for everybody, and that's totally okay! That said, I hope that if you DO end up giving it another chance, you enjoy it! Who knows, stranger things have happened, right? Like an alien watch falling to Earth and giving a random ten year old the power to shapeshift

[mellowgoop]

ok, it has been an incredibly long day but I can at least put a take onto the internet that goes further than any I have seen so far in English regarding ambiguity with Lily's gender identity

Im going to make reference to around five articles, one interview and a few magazine scans all of which you will find very quickly yourself if you check citations on ZLS wiki's lily page or wikipedia itself for the show. Ive been citing things for weeks and this is a tumblr post please excuse my laziness in not linking lol

I'll start off by saying things are actually considerably worse than we might think outside the japanese speaking fandom. Not in terms of the representation itself- you would be shocked how non-ambiguous this highly ambiguous lgbt gesturing is in both english and japanese. No, the issue is actually as far as I can tell in some promotional material from animage, a magazine covering the anime from outside the creative team, and generally the fact it would be a lot more dangerous for MAPPA to say "girls can have dicks" explicitly than it is for them to Show us that and say nothing

To get down to business, this is pretty much the easiest show in the planet to project a normal transition narrative onto. Daily Dot has a ton of amazing, heartfelt tweets collected from 2018 showing how much we as an english speaking fanbase ate up lily as a new great piece of transgender rep in anime and theres a handful of people from japan rejoicing in there too. My personal favorite is Carlos' take (that's how I have them down in my notes, we're on a first name basis in my head after all this research) on Crunchyroll sharing just how overjoyed seeing such a relatable transgender character was for them.

Basically, the media portrays the transest backstory in all hell by saying that the lilygirl we know and love has a "thrown away name" (a hyper literal translation) which reveals she lived as a boy before she died. She rejects this name when Kotaro brings it up, which resonates with people as rejecting a deadname and marking the clear line between her past and her true self. If you're somehow wandering into this fresh, she dies over dysphoria, and dysphoria is kind of the major thing that pins her down as transgender representation for most people.

Note that "thrown away name" is pretty much the most explicit wording we're going to get from now on. The devil isn't even in the details but the *words* for those details in causing this confusion, as the Mipon interview with two of the lead creators reveals. This is an interview that the "gender subversive idol" article was based on, but even that article itself clouds things up by trying to call it definite proof "she's transgender" without being able to cite them on the word transgender

The creators themselves are actually great, in this interview they talk like they have tape over their mouths and cant say words like transgender once. What they do instead is outline what they wanted the audience to ~feel~ through her episode and yeah, we felt it! we All felt it! they give us another important piece of the pie by saying she 'was a boy,' which may not sound like much but backing up the past-tensing of the identity associated with her deadname is HUGE for deflating the crossdressing argument

which is something that people should really get around to, because...

to open up that discussion, the interviewer *compared lily to otoko no ko in anime,* a phrase that *they* brought up and was not echoed at all by either director. the japanese popular culture scholar Shaoron Kinsella outlines the way that this term really arose from anime and then entered real life, not exactly as an LGBT adjacent thing, but more a crossdressing identity where men sometimes dress like really pretty girls. emphasis on sometimes! its a pun with "boy" and "daughter." There is nothing inherently bad about the label, except conflation with sh*ta p*do shit, and its just kind of thing. a thing thats really hard to pin down in relationship to actual trans people

in Kinsella's paper, one person says otoko no ko IRL arent LGBT at all, while another says its a great word for anyone who lives as a girl but has not had bottom surgery (EG, Lily.) I don't know well enough whether or not we can confidently say its kind of a way to address Lily's non-op status.... but its probably a jumbled way of addressing Lily's non-op status

now the reason I hit you with all that is because while the English wikipedia page calls Lily a transgender girl, the Japanese page calls her an Otoko no Ko boy. This is not the interviewer with Mippon's fault- there is, according to a 2021 article, *promotional media* that calls lily a boy. One disconnected to MAPPA itself which the author posts a scan of calls lily a boy actor, which is interesting because her dad does the opposite in canon, and is from Animage. because I have not found the full magazine yet I do think it has the energy of a pokemon coro coro fake. but, thats baseless conjecture for now

the more worrying one, which the link to is dead for, is a reference to her as a boy in the dempagumi inc. collaboration materials, which actually Would have been official as far as I know

essentially... despite never outright calling her a girl the anime itself never calls lily a boy. even in flashbacks, she is """""""crossdressing"""" 24/7 with her dad, though his deadnaming her is interesting. the creators did Not want to make something offensive to trans people *and i am yet to see them use the term otoko no ko themselves.* frankly, I dont think we in english speaking fandom should be doubting their intentions, point blank. until more official statements come out where they take a mixed stance of if she is a girl or not, I genuinely think this is a combination of language problems and a media fuckup with the japanese promo material

holy SHIT, sorry to vent but while i knew there was a non-trans reading of lily it took until WAY too long into my project to realize some official material leans towards the Otoko no "Ko" angle

i was so scared but sharon kinsella actually wrote something on this in english, ive never felt so alive in my whole academic career- ko paper, you and me dance NOW im taking you the fuck out! im killing this reading right now for the whole fandom I have to 😂

super mellow GOOOOOOO

[figuredmoon]

245 Days

There’s a hole in the center of her chest, well, it’s more like a giant, growing, gaping chasm… but, you get the point. It hurts to breathe, still, even though it’s been about eight months. Two hundred and forty four days, to be exact - but who's counting? Definitely not her. There’s not a crumpled piece of paper in her backpack with lines counting down the days or anything like that. Counting to what, she doesn’t know, but it keeps her head sane for the two minutes of the day she takes to count all the messy lines. She’d always had nice handwriting. Jacob wrote like he was always in a rush and maybe he was but she never asked, just teased him mercilessly for writing like a seventh grader. Now, she wishes more than anything she could read the words ‘at work, be home late, love you,’ scrawled across a neon blue sticky-note and stuck to the fridge. 

“How long have you been in town?” the man in front of her repeats, looking only slightly annoyed that she’d zoned out in the middle of a job interview. 

“About a month,” the words fall from her mouth easily, a lie she’s been telling for almost seven and a half months (two hundred and fifteen days), “my parents and I just moved here.” It’s rehearsed, but she says it with a smile and he nods, scribbles on her application and sighs. 

“Can you come in tomorrow for training?” 

She wants to tell him that this is the 8th shitty, understaffed diner she’s worked at, but her application says no prior work experience, so she doesn’t. He doesn’t need to know that she’s 10 states away from home. Her brain hiccups and scratches, like an old record. Home isn’t a place anymore, just a burnt memory, withered away at the edges, torn and faded from being touched too much. 

“Yes, absolutely,” she says instead, a little too much forced enthusiasm behind her words. She stands up, thanks him one more time and pushes through the door, her backpack slung over her shoulder. 

She takes the long way back to the motel, walking through a quiet residential street with street lights that flicker a dull-yellow, forgotten by a city that takes them for granted. She keeps her head down, but a part of her burns with the desire to scream and throw a rock through someone’s window. She doesn’t though - just takes one left turn, one right turn, cuts through a side yard and unlocks the motel door with a sigh. The back of her neck itches against the light of the moon and she slides the curtains shut, ignoring the gnawing feeling at the back of her throat. Instead, she takes her clothes off carefully and folds them back into her backpack. They were her nice clothes - her interview clothes - the ones she stole from walmart then cried about because Jacob would be so, so mad at her, but he wasn’t there to be mad at her and all she wanted was to hear him scold her like the dad that he wasn’t supposed to be, but was anyways. 

She brushes her teeth, stares into a face she doesn’t recognize anymore, spits, rinses, tries not to cry. You know, the normal routine. She’s not even bitter anymore. Just angry, sort of, but mostly numb. She takes the crumpled up paper out of the bottom of her backpack, smooths it out over the bed and adds one more tick mark: two hundred and forty five. She counts over them all again, once, twice, three times. The chasm in her chest is a black hole now, ready to suck in the entire motel and maybe the ground below her feet. She folds up the paper, places it gently in the bottom of her bag, then lies back and hopes that maybe she’ll actually sleep tonight. 

She watches the sunrise on her walk to the diner and she’s waiting on the outside bench when the manager comes to unlock the door. He looks shocked to see her. 

“Sorry, I thought you said six,” she lies, smiling and tucking a hair behind her ear. He said eight, but she knows that most diners need extra help before morning rush, so she follows him in and listens as he tells her things she already knows. Things she’s been doing for two hundred and sixteen days. Two hundred and fifteen, two hundred fourteen, two hundred thirteen.

[pocketramblr]

Y, T, O, and G

Y- a character you want to protect. Fuyumi. i cannot stress enough how much this woman deserves a break from heartbreak

T- any fandom tropes you cant stand? ok this isn’t ‘cant stand’ so much as just Do Not Get, At All, but like... i dont get outlandishly ooc things? like just going ‘ok so here enji/chisaki/whomever was just Always A Good Dad’ with no reason for the drastic change? like the same then goes for reverse for Criminally Horrible Physically Abusive All Might or Inko, i just dont get it?? if it basically turns into an oc why not use an oc? im just not into it. and i guess that might sound weird with how away from canon i get with like family trees, but even in those cases basically everyone is the same, just interacting with different people? Ojiro still has a drive to be a hero and self esteem issues, just also a motivation now to save his cousin Amajiki. Same people, different situations. Which is what makes Different people in the same situations as canon just so... confusing to me.

O- i usually begin a story with the plot. 

G- nine times out of ten, i write it in order. sometimes i’ll write it all from one character pov in order, then jump back in time to fill in other character povs, and if i’m really bugged by a scene i’ll just skip and come back, but its ussually much easier for me to go start to finish.

ask game

[probably-haven]

Kaeya Alberich & Why his Failure is Inevitable

A theory on Kaeya’s reaction to- that event in his backstory.

take everything with a grain of salt , because it’s heavily based on assumptions, most of which are centered around his reaction to- backstory stuff, so gonna put that under the cut-. i actually originally said this in a reblog to someone asking the exact question awhile ago

im kinda in a content drought though so i might as well bring it back, hopefully some people find it interesting in this context though. Lol a lot of it is just seeing how angsty i can make it too so- ehe

actual content under the cut: (spoilers for kaeya’s backstory, diluc’s backstory, Khaenri’ah lore, and a bit of Childe’s backstory)

so the exact verbiage used in kaeya’s story for his reaction to Master Crepus’s death is: “Even someone like Master Crepus would submit to such a dangerous and evil power…” Sinister thoughts flashed through Kaeya’s mind, and he simply smirked— “This world is truly… fascinating.”

-

Now I’m actually pretty sure this quote ties in, not to the destruction of khaenri’ah, but to the cataclysm before it. Specifically, it deals with the Khaenri’ahn alchemist Gold who started it.

Canonically, Gold was an incredibly ambitious alchemist specializing in khemia 500 years ago. Their most well know achievement is corruption of the dragon Durin, but concealed much deeper in Teyvat’s history, a number of Gold’s legacies include incorporating the powers of the abyss into their alchemy(and eventually being corrupted by those very same powers, tho it might be a translation error), followed by the destruction of Khaenri’ah’s Eclipse Dynasty(including the royal family and the royal guards tasked with protecting the people of Khaenri’ah), and this was followed shortly by ‘using their talents to create an army of “shadowy monsters."’

these monsters, blood filled with the corruption of the abyss, would only continue pouring out of Khaenri’ah in waves until the fateful day that it was destroyed. The era of suffering these monsters caused would come to be known as the cataclysm.

-

taking those facts into account, it could be a remark about how even someone as kind hearted as Master Crepus could fall to the temptation and corrupting aspects of power that caused his people’s fall so long ago, even without the naturally corruptive effects of power from the abyss. that’s sad- but if you get into the theory of it its even sadder the further you go.

Now theory wise its important to make a few connections- I am under the impression that the “fall of the Eclipse Dynasty” that Gold caused through abyssal power was actually the first instance of Khaenri’ah’s curse, and the monsters of the cataclysm- were among the curse’s first victims.

a bit sadder with the fact that his statement can now refer to his feelings of there truly being nothing that could have been done to prevent the very same exact curse that has caused him so much suffering through his life. There was no resisting the corruption of power, only delaying it. It hammers in the fact that the reason he was sent to Mondstadt truly might be the destiny he had many times been told it was. A cruel joke from Celestia perhaps?

but not sad enough. let’s pull out the big one. The Khaenri’ahn Royalty Kaeya theory. (there’s a lot- im not gonna cover the explanation behind that one here)

Gold, the most powerful alchemist in Khaenri’ah would likely have worked under the Eclipse Dynasty, so assuming the theory of Kaeya(and Dainsleif) being the last member of the Eclipse Dynasty, its reasonable to say he would have known Gold. Now whether Gold was a good person or not is irrelivant because it remains the same either way. Kaeya has twice seen the corrupting abilities that come with power strip him of all those close to him, shouldering him with an additional responsibility to carry out in their memory that he never wanted. Yes this hurts more if he was close with Gold and Crepus managed to make him feel safe enough to get close to people even after that- but I’m here to provide the facts and theories, not the emotions, though theres a lot

but…. its a stretch(like a big stretch)… but for the sake of going all out on a limb, we can take this one step further.

In Childe’s story it references the abyss by saying “this dark realm had sensed the burning ambition in this boy’s heart” and it can be assumed that the powers granted by the abyss, as the natural opposition to Celestia(natural as in abyss magic literally opposes the magic of Celestia by nature) might just opporate in a similar way to the gnosises. Kaeya has no knowledge of gnosises though so for now lets use the word visions.

The powers of the abyss that were given to Gold would likely have been favored over visions from the gods in a godless nation like khaenri’ah afterall. and if he knew Gold, a known genius, he likely wouldnt have noticed anything off until it was too late. A sudden fall from his perspective. Visions, delusions, power from the abyss, what difference truly is there to a child raised to shun the gods. All are granted through ambition, and all will only end in suffering

afterthought:

However the main thing behind the Khaenri’ahn Royalty aspect of this angst fest- Kaeya would have been extremely young during Gold’s corruption and Khaenri’ah’s fall… like i cant help think of that one tik tok audio “that must be so confusing for a little girl” but it really does fit because now i can’t shake the imagery of Kaeya, faced with the imagery of the man who raised him dead as a result of a power he chose to use. And he finally understands what he was too young to understand back then. the world is not fascinating in a way that he is interested in it or wants to know more about it, but more interesting in the way that people’s eyes are involuntarily drawn to images of tragedy. It’s an expression of cruel irony, of truths he was forced to face, of knowledge he doesn’t want to know, but that he needs to know- if he plans on carrying through with his destiny- siding against Mondstadt. but siding with Mondstadt would cause him to turn against Khaenri’ah as Gold had all those years ago, and is that not fulfilling a cycle of fate all the same?

It’s an expression of mourning. He is chained by the legacy of Khaenri’ah and there’s nothing he can do to escape it. Either way the cycle will repeat. This fate gives him a unique power and even he will eventually succumb to it, doomed to be viewed as a corrupted betrayer no matter who he sides with, to doom yet another civilization in return. Such is his preordained role as the last hope of Khaenri’ah. The unescapableness, the way it all becomes so sure and clear and nauseatingly relevant in that very moment are what drive him to say that as he finally realizes that he cannot win.

-

of course a lot of this is a stretch and just theories, but the angst potential was there so i decided to run with it lmao

additional afterthought: this isn’t something kaeya would know, but the corruption of Durin by Gold was actually predicted by a priestess in dragonspine before Celestia destroyed it and made it like it is now.

just angsty because it reinforces the idea of a repeating cycle of foretold destiny that no matter hard hard Kaeya tries, he will never be able to escape. Really puts Mona’s “He believes he has made a clean break with his past, but one day fate will catch up with him” line into perspective.

[chouchen]

okay here i go nerding again: the 3 main pages i assume youre talking about are pretty much as you said. the first is all about story; the main storyline, the open world story, the chronicles that are like backstory for some of the characters etc. (except the material stages to the right, one coop and one single player, they are basically your dailies) the second is pretty much all the abyss gamemodes. in fact, the first one on there was at some point called abyss, now its superstring dimension (for me at least, it might change as you level up but i wouldnt know). that is pretty much the main way you get crystals, and was one of the only two ways to get them for free until recently. you go in, you fight everything as fast as possible for higher points, and the higher you are on the leaderboard, the higher you get in the global rankings and the more crystals you will get. you get a set amount after completing each stage, and a larger one depending on how well you did compared to the others on your leaderboard. it resets i think 2-3 times a week, so way more than genshins abyss, but yeah its pretty much the same reason it exists. the other one is memorial arena, which, as the name might suggest, is an arena. its much closer to the actual abyss spiral as far as gameplay goes, and is also played for crystals, and some other very nice materials that can be exchanged for character fragments in the store, even S rank ones, so be sure to check that out! now, a third one has recently been added, called elysian realm. its still pretty new, and by far the most fun. its also for crystals, also very challenging, but its the only singleplayer one, and gives a fucktonne of first time rewards. it resets every week, and gives a key for a new character to unlock every week as well. it is very hard to do though, i can only do it fully with only one character i have to be fair, but you can set the difficulty after youve done all the set stages and get more money the harder youve done it. kinda like those genshin events that send a wave of enemies at you, and you have to set the difficulty and different disadvantages for yourself for higher scores! except it gives you buffs after each wave. its kind of complicated to explain, you need to like know your characters and know what you need most for them in terms of buffs, but its still by far the most fun one out of the 3, and theres a lot of rly cool characters coming out bc of it, like the very next one called pardofelis! (and some other even cooler ones that are redacted and we dont know of them yet bc were good and noone ever leaks anything... actually, honkais way of betas are a lot less secure than genshins, as the china servers get everything exactly one update earlier, so its pretty easy to figure out whats gonna be next if you just look it up lol, it also helps with planning ahead, esp for lil old f2p me) andd the last one that can be confusing is universal mirage. that one isnt for crystals, or competitive at all, its for crafting materials. crafting is way fucking harder in this game bc things need so many more resources, and you cant get many of them at all, but while its a pain to do it, if there is something in there you want, and you dont wanna pull for it in gacha, you can technically just get the materials to make them in there. its real fucking slow though. aaand the rest are just one time challenges! char trials and deep archives are there to give a one time gift, and then theyre just kinda take up space, so not much else to talk about. and the event page, wouldnt you know it, contains the event content. OKAY, so, about gacha: honkai's gacha system works way better in my opinion. theres a lot more banners to choose from first of all so lets start with that. dorm supplies are this games starter banners, one for characters and one for gear. that said, they are just as useless. there for the exact same purpose of free shit as they are in genshin. after that there are the expansion supplies. that is the featured chara banner. after that is the focused supplies, each for a

different set of featured gear. event supply is too long to explain, its event supply, it changes too much for me to explain all the kinds of em just in here. and theres also ELF supply, for the ELFs, that exist in this game also (can you tell ive never got a single one of them) the rates work like this: way better than genshin, in my humble little opinion. so, first of all, characters. there is a 100% chance you will get the featured character on your pity. none of this 50/50 bullshit. in fact, the game outright tells you how much you have till then. the guarantee for a featured char always starts at 100, but i think thats still better than a chance of getting someone you didnt even want at 90, and resetting your pity completely. so, if you pull for someone, eventually you will get them, no bullshit, no counting down your pulls by going back and checking because it outright counts for you in the corner. you also cannot get gear from the char banners, (except for dorm supply) which should sound obvious, but alas... the counter also carries across banners just like in genshin, so dont have to worry about that. one A rank every ten pulls as well. okay, equipment banners are a little more complicated, as there are more of them and work slightly different. so, when a new valk comes out, her gear comes out with her obviously. that is on its very own banner though. the focused banner will still exist, and will still have the same gear, but it will work differently. the actual featured weapon and stigmata supply will have a 30 guarantee for the weapon or one of the featured stigmata. it will work the exact same as any other banner with its one good thing every ten pulls thing, same chances, same everything, but it will have a guarantee counter. as i said, the normal focused supply will still be there, and one of them will still be the new gear, but that one will not have a guarantee meter. which means, well, you will have no guarantee to get everything. the larger rates will still be for the set you want, but there is absolutely no guarantee for anything there. all random. so, why does it exist then? other than the fact that after the main gear supply ends, it will be the only place it will be available in ever again, im not sure. im not big brain enough to math it out. maybe if you had like 3 more pulls till the 10 on that one from before, you can still try and get something at the guaranteed 4 star and hope its the one you wanted. thats what i do anyway. SO, IN A NUTSHELL: pity is at 100 instead of 90, but there is no 50/50 for characters, guaranteed something nice every 10 pulls anyway, gear supplies are a bit more sus, but there is still a good chance of getting what you want if its featured with the 10 pull guarantees, and the pity on gear banners only exists sometimes (usually when a new char comes out, or bc of an event), usually 30 pulls for a stigmata set piece or the weapon (or 60 for the weapon actually, that happens too sometimes). also, good to know for the future, there is this thing called EXPA select and FOCA select. that is i think in the event one, and that is the best one in if you want a specific char or set, as you can select who or what you wanna get. chances are the same, but the guarantees only carry over for characters, not the gear. still, very useful if youve been wanting someone for forever and they just never showed up, but they change very fast, like every 3 days or sth, so its best for whales i guess, esp for gear. THATS ABOUT IT! if i left sth out, or explained sth poorly, do ask anything, i know so many dumb things about this waifu game

thank you for this explanation, i got everything about the abyss and stuff ^^

now my question is about the gacha, i've been doing random wishes (sorry for my genshin vocabulary) and i've been getting random valkyries. So are the limited valkyries...not limited ? like after their banner they're in the gacha forever ?

second question not related to gacha or abyss, is it worth it to farm fragments to upgrade a valkyrie you already have ? i think it's the equivalent to constellations in genshin but i don't know if it's really that good D:

[unlimitedhorsepower]

ive had a repeating dream with ryan in it in which my brain is somehow generating the weirdest ryan backstory details all by itself

it starts by me in 3rd person seeing ryan walking through a city (its evening and very dark) and then knocking on a door and entering without waiting for a reply and then i start seeing things through his POV and its so weirdly detailed and ryans mom has made food

and i woke up from this dream today because ryan got SO distraught/upset. and usually ive woken up or like, the dream has changed before everyones gotten to eat but today i got to see everyone start eating some sort of soup (tomato soup?)

anyway after ryan has entered the house, i get the sense ryan is visiting his parents(?)/family but i KNOW that the woman is ryans sister and i see her clearly and i KNOW she is at least 10 years older than ryan or something like, that shes my so much older than ryan that its hard to call her a sister

and the reason im not sure if theyre ryans parents or grandparents is because i feel like theyre his parents but theyre so old? but actually because its such a specific plot point in the dream that i KNOW thats ryans sister and i KNOW shes a lot older than him so that maybe in the dream it follows perfect dream logic

either way it always goes the same (and my dream ryans genealogy gets even more fucked up because his mom has a decorative pope plate AND the flag of ireland on her wall which ryan looks at a lot) and everyone sits at the same places on the table every time, so i dont get to see a lot of stuff from the other places in the apartment

and i get the sense its some assistive living situation (this is fueled by my grandma irl for sure lol) and when everyone has sat down (ryan is the last to arrive and his dad ignores him), ryans dad starts showing off what awesome gifts he has gotten for his wife. he has dark hair (but its dyed) and he hangs sunglasses from his shirt and is kinda stylish. hes also really stereotypically italian-american like hes my brains idea of what the sopranos protag is like (???ive never seen the show but if i had to pick)

his moms defining trait in the dream is having long, graying ginger hair? and also oddly parted like, it has a section of ginger hair left instead of normal graying (??). i dont get a good sense of her otherwise because shes mostly standing behind/next to ryan where hes not looking

some of the gifts i can remember are a golden necklace with a big real diamond in it, imported olive oil (it doesnt even have a label in it because its directly from some farm or something), and a champagne(?) bottle opener plated with gold with a pure amethyst handle

and everyones talking a lot EXCEPT ryan. hes mostly just thinking and i thought about it just now and i think it might be some sort of situation where theyre speaking in italian and ryan can understand but not reply which is why hes silent (??)

he thought mainly about how extremely hungry he is, and then he was like ugh i dont understand why the bottle opener has amethyst in it because that doesnt really match the decor at all lol... well whatever. he also thinks about how his mom(?) has gotten worse/more demented but at least shes taken up cooking and can cook still

finally we get to the eating part and her mom is a bit too silly/forgetful to set the table so ryans sister helps her out by setting the table while his dad talks to his wife about how beautiful etc she is (wife guy) and ryans sister doesnt give ryan a plate, so i like feel (?) ryan making a confused face at her

and shes like oh.. and she speaks to ryan in the vocal equivalent of a mean girl tight-lipped smile but nicely enough so nobody will notice and goes smth like, “theres only two clean plates of this set of four, one is probably in the wash and one is on the kitchen top behind you because mom(?) has already eaten”. and idk if she says mom or not because its a dream so its not exactly Real words bc weird logic

and she continues like “but does it matter since you never eat properly anyway, or even want to eat:/”.

so ryans like “oi oi... aheh... you got me...” in a defeated fashion and doesnt even try to argue about it. but hes really upset internally because this entire time hes been like, at least ill get food soon im so hungry...

and ryan awkwardly smooths out the tablecloth with his fingers (really vivid to me for some reason) and his dad goes on about how ryan is so disrespectful for not even wanting to eat such a hard-cooked meal and ryan just weakly smiles back at him and he was SO distraught in his brain where i was observing everything from that i woke up.

this is the first time his sister in the dream has spoken to him and it was basically just “area man gets actually bullied for disordered eating by his sister in 3 sentences or less”. why did she do that. why does she hate ryan so much

anyways heres ryans dream sister my brain made up and the image of her is so vivid about the haircut ESPECIALLY. like in t&b style too for some reason (i cant draw like that though). and she looks a LOT like ryan, vividly. im not sure at all what shes wearing though because my brain never focuses on it ain the dream and im not sure if i imagined a dress shirt after waking up or not

bye ryan... move aside ryan your sister has got it going on kinda. she might be evil for some reason but maybe pussy from a girl whos evil is a basic need?

on the scale from one to ten how do you rate my brains ryan lore<3

[omegawolverine]

I love it when people talk about things they're passionate about, tell me something cool!! Anything you want, just something you find interesting or want to talk about :D

hello anon my beloved, I am in a bad mood so you will be receiving a passionate, yet lowkey of pissy rant about why villainizing bakugou makes me wanna vomit and its NOT just because I'm a dumbass kinnie :)

tws: child abuse (emotional and physical), near death expierences, bullying, kidnapping, suffocation, lots of trauma in general tbh. if you've seen bnha then basically just keep all the general triggering plot stuff in mind incase i missed any warnings

also, note: I havent caught up on bnha in a minute, I'm at like the start of the war arc but I barely remember shit there tbh so like. probs missing new stuff. also bnha spoiler warnings lol

so, for starters, the homie bakugou has like,, a good handful of issues that come from his childhood that explain why he's an ass. he was always praised and never actually reprimanded for being a twat which led to him having a huge ego that ended up fucking him over majorly. this ego was something that his mother acknowledged him having, but literally didnt try to fix it with anything other than violence. see here:

like, instead of trying to help him, she hits and insults him, which is probably what led to his weird inferiority/superiority complex. being constantly told by others that you're outstanding and one day you'll be a top hero because you're rude and aggressive and then going home and being hit by your mother for those exact same behaviors is bound to fucking confuse a child.

so like, now that we've established that its definetly canon that his mother (parents? I think he said parents at some point but masaru doesn't seem like the type so 🤷) hits him though we don't know how much or how often (though if bakugou was as much of a little shit back then ((which as far as we've seen- he was)) then it was probably often), lets talk about how regardless of all that 1) hitting your kids as "discipline" not only doesn't work but is abusive lol like idc if it's spanking/popping them on the mouth for talking shit, slapping them across the face "on occasion", etc. shits not okay 2) hitting your kids!!!! does not work!!!!!!!! it is literally PROVEN not to work!!!!!!!! hitting a child who has done something wrong doesnt teach them to stop doing something it teaches them to be scared of you, which will cause the child to withdraw, removing part of their support system (assuming said abusive parents would even offer that up) and will most likely lead to them thinking they're a bad person, not that their actions were bad, which are two different things. so, ya know, that would clearly have an effect on a kid. like, as someone with a mother who reminds me all too much of mitsuki: I have acted like a complete shitbag and taken my anger out on people to feel better in the past because of the way my mother treated me. though it was nowhere near what bakugou did, I still know first fucking hand what a mother hitting and insulting her child will do, especially if they have no proper outlet for that (friends, a safe place to vent) which bakugou never fucking had.

theres also the fact that just talking to your kid the way mitsuki does (saying it's his fault he was kidnapped because he's weak, all while hitting him) is not??? okay?????? ive seen people arguing that this was just a joke in poor taste but like her son was KIDNAPPED and even if it was a "joke" there's literally NO WAY that would EVER?? BE FUNNY??????? she just sounds like the kind of parent who at the very least says shit without thinking that would traumatize bakugou (because being told right after being kidnapped it's your fucking fault by your mother is absolutely traumatizing) but it comes across as her being emotionally abusive.

mitsukis character as a whole comes across as a shitty mom who doesn't realize she's a shitty mom and thinks bakugou being an ass isn't at least partially her fault even though she's admitted to realizing he has always had an ego problem and doing nothing to fix it except for hitting and yelling which obviously did nothing but make him just as loud and violent as she is.

this is obviously not the entire reason why he's a dick but he was never properly taught that the shit he was doing wasn't okay and people not stopping it and/or praising him endlessly even tho he was a bully is basically the same as encouraging it, thank you very much.

moving on from that, let's talk about bakugous other traumas and how he naturally responds to them. hint: it's with either full blown panic or a fight response (verbal or physical, though usually physical. also sometimes it's the panic followed by the fight response.)

so far in bnha (keep in mind that I am not caught up, I've only read up to the beginning of the war arc and i barely remember those bits so) bakugou has...

nearly died via sludge villain (he was unable to move and was being suffocated to death- keep this in mind)

lost for the first time ever and against deku of all people (this nearly sent him into a full blown panic attack, likely because of that sexy little inferiority/superiority complex combo. think of this as like. gifted kid burnout lite. he has always been the best of the best and now suddenly he is being beaten by somebody who has always been weaker than him, which immediately makes him start thinking he was never actually that good, he's actually a fucking failure, a goddamn fraud)

won the sports festival by default (bakugou counts this as yet another failure because todoroki didnt try his best. had bakugou lost to todoroki full strength, he would've taken 2nd place with a bit of bitching, but he still wouldve taken it rather than refuse the medal as it would be a reminder that he failed. instead of accepting that like UA shouldve, the staff chained and muzzled him on live television and then had all might, his fucking idol, force the medal into his mouth. remember the sludge villain incident and how he couldnt move and was suffocating to death? yeah.)

been kidnapped because of the way he reacted to winning during the sports festival (he was aggressive and tried to refuse the medal because he felt he didnt deserve it and was then retraumatized by being chained up and muzzled. his "villainous attitude" was a fucking trauma response, do not tell me otherwise)

was then chained up once again by the LOV after being kidnapped,,, do we see the "retraumatize bkg" theme yet?

"ended all might" (he literally blames himself for all mights retirement because had he just not have been weak, all might wouldve had more time, right?)

my point with all of these is that bakugou has been severely traumatized and has then had his trauma responses (aggression, fight) used to further demonize him. not all people with trauma react the fucking same and the way the fandom just refuses to acknowledge anger as a valid form of trauma response is gross as hell.

moving away from that topic, bakugou has literally never had any actual friends, they all just used him and didn't care about him which absolutely will fuck up a kid, especially one who already has all that other shit going on. bakugou deadass never had a support system or people to help him grow as a person, let alone properly work through his fucking emotions so it's not surprising that he would take out his bullshit on the one person who tried to help him especially considering he saw dekus actions as him thinking he was weak. bakugou was raised to not seek help, he thought somebody strong shouldnt ever need it, so for somebody like deku (who bakugou percieved as weak and helpless already) to offer up help? deku must obviously think bakugou is even weaker than him, what other explanation could their possibly be!

speaking of which, there's his heaps of insecurities that he basically hid by being a twat and bullying others for most of his life. kid was so insecure he bullied deku for fucking years cause he thought deku looked down on him, thought he was better than him, etc. and that only got worse bc his idol then decided to take deku in, train him and even give him his quirk. there's probably some shit im missing but still he's got issues and always has had issues. that being said, he's actually improving and working them out now which is what makes him a really good, interesting character. it's also nice to see a character who is a dick without some tragic backstory (like his backstory is sad but its not the classic "my family was fucking slaughtered and i turned into a raging bitch who murders people" type shit) bc that rarely happens and it's like most assholes don't actually have a story like that they're just assholes lol

now lets talk improvement! lil bitch has been getting better since he got into UA and im so happy abt it!! he had a rough start what with deku suddenly having a quirk and all but like he is really improving now and it highkey shows that bakugou just mostly needed people who 1) didn't constantly praise him and actually criticized him instead 2) actually fucking punished him doing stupid shit and 3) some motherfucking friends

Since going to UA he's gotten actually feedback from teachers about his weaknesses and how to get stronger, he's lost against others, hes been told he has a shit attitude and is a dick, told he should be nicer and leave deku alone, etc etc. He hasn't gotten in trouble too much with teachers but others give him shit for what he does and aizawa has punished him too, while still acknowledging that bakugou is an amazing and dedicated student, something which no one else had done up til that point. and uh???? homie actually has friends who like,,, don't use him and also call him out when he's a dick. like specifically kirishima has done this shit and him and bakugous relationship is clearly very healthy and beneficial for the both of them. makes me feel all happy n shit, ya know

bottom line is: while it is absolutely valid to dislike or even hate bakugou because he is a massively flawed person who has been very cruel to others, villainizing him for the way he acts which in large part seems to be from a lack of guidance, a shitty mother and heavy amounts of trauma, is fucking awful. his actions cannot be fucking excused, he needs to apologize and continue to grow, but he is also a fucking teenager, who is just now being told that the way he acts is unacceptable by people who dont fucking abuse him (and I swear to god if any people who think mitsuki isnt abusive interact with this fucking post I will fullstop hardblock you, I do not fucking care) and actually treat him like a normal person instead of some prodigy child or someone who needs to be fixed.

people are free to debate my points or whatever bc I know some of this stuff is up to interpretation but like. dni if you're just here to say you hate bakugou for xyz reason or that he's irredeemable. also especially dni if you compare him to fucking endeavor yall bitches make me gag.

anyways thxs for the ask anon <33 sorry this is a kinda messy info dump lol

[birdsareblooming]

Infinite is connected to Solaris

This is gonna be a long one, strap in.

Infinite, Infinite, Infinite. The most recent in-game villain, and the most powerful in recent history as well. Despite being only around 3 years old, he’s become extremely popular. and half of that is because of the song.

Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris. Villains over 10 years old that haven’t been used since their original game appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Or... have they?

Now I want to say before all of this, this all could be coincidences, me being delusional, or something otherwise. It is ONLY a theory, but for something as crazy as I’m claiming I need to preface with this for my own sanity. 

But i’m gonna cut the bullshit. You’re here to see how I am going to bs my way to saying that Infinite the Jackal is connected to a dead god from what is regarded as the worst Sonic game. 

And, like most of these, I need to start with some house cleaning, some things you need to understand.

1. Time Eater is Mephiles

You might have seen me meme about this before...

...But yeah that’s exactly the situation.

I had theorized this before I knew Ian Flynn thought the same thing. Their identical color-schemes, almost identical aesthetic, and completely identical power-set. 

Even the name Time-Eater, that was Mephiles, and Solaris’s goal. To eat time. 

2. Ifrit is Iblis

Now i’m going to assume you have two questions

If Time Eater is Mephiles, than where’s his counterpart, Iblis?

Who the fuck is Ifrit

Long and Short, 

But, more importantly, 

Ifrit is what caused Silver’s Future post Sonic 06.

Ifirit was their retcon for keeping Silver’s future the way it is (even though they defeat it at the end of sonic rivals 2, causing the future to not be that way, hence why Silver was 3 conflicting backstories. Thanks guys.)

So, when it comes to fire demon that destroys the world and causes the future that Silver the hedgehog lives in, that’s a good amount of evidence already, especially with the preface that Mephiles is alive in the form of Time-Eater. If Mephiles was reborn, why wouldn’t also Iblis? and Ifirit is so uncannily similar theres no other candidate. 

also, might I add:

(thanks @zorloser​)

For you who don’t know, Ifrit’s story ended being re-trapped in it’s pocket dimension with Eggman Nega. 

3. The Phantom Ruby

The Phantom Ruby... Oh, the Phantom Ruby.

A very new addition to Sonic, and yet very important. It was the leading mcguffin of two games, and is made out to be very powerful. 

yes I know that’s a lot up there, but you need to understand the Phantom Ruby to fully understand this theory. 

It’s also very important that Eggman didn’t create the Phantom Ruby as he claims. He created Infinite, not the stone attached to him. Despite there being prototypes, which does confuse me, but from what info we’re given from the wiki the Phantom Ruby seems to have come from Classic Sonic’s universe, even retreating there after the events of Forces. This is also confirmed in Episode Shadow:

Although, Eggman did name it, seemingly on a whim.

~Tangent Time~

Despite being CALLED a Ruby by Eggman, the Phantom Ruby doesn't LOOK like a ruby, despite being magenta.

Rubies CAN be dark even to the point of being Black, but never connected. They’re usually just one shade.

(And don’t you dare say “The chaos emeralds don’t look like emeralds bc they’re not green. They’re all TECHNICALLY emeralds, they’re part of the beryl family, and even if only green beryls are called emeralds, they are all the exact shades of beryl.)

But what the Phantom Ruby DOES look like, is obsidian. 

note this for later.

4. Infinite

For those who don’t fully know Infinite’s backstory, it’s expanded upon on the wiki and Rise of Infinite 

Now that we’re all on the same page, lets continue to him now. 

Lovingly referred to as the “Masked Clown.” Infinite goes about the entirety of Sonic Forces revealing nothing of himself, the only things we know about him are from Episode Shadow and Rise of Infinite. We don’t even see his real face in-game. 

Although we have enough to know that his personality changed post Phantom Ruby, it’s even mentioned on the Wiki. Although how much of that change was spurred on by being beat up by a 15 year old, we’ll probably never know. 

Although his goal has always been the same. Starting the planet over as a desolate wasteland. What a fun dude to be around. Probably the life of the party.

5. Connections

(i’m using Mephiles and Time-Eater intermittently, same with Iblis and Ifrit.) 

Alright, now we’re all on the same page. Let’s move on.

I’m going to play a game we’ve played before. I’m going to name something about Infinite or the Phantom Ruby, and add something that’s eerily simmilar to Solaris (Mephiles + Iblis)

All of this Info can be found on the Sonic Wiki

Phantom Ruby: -It is an interdimensional gemstone of incredible power- Ifrit: It is an interdimensional, demonic fire-creature of incredible power- (wow those are, the same description huh)

Infinite: -After Infinite's fusion with the finalized Phantom Ruby prototype, he acquired the ability to generate, destroy, and manipulate virtual realities, which he could turn into virtual reality projections to interact with reality.[32] Said virtual realities are illusions, which Infinite creates by exercising control of one's visual and depth perception by feeding the brain false information- Ifrit: -Described as capable of binding one's soul, the Ifrit can enslave others with powerful mind control powers.- -Ifrit, which manages to use some kind of mind control on Sonic and/or Tails (or Knuckles and/or Rouge, depending on which team the player is controlling), but is defeated by the other teams, and is destroyed.-

Infinite: -Infinite's newfound strength proved so great that he was able to effortlessly defeat figures like E-123 Omega and Silver the Hedgehog, and ultimately best even Sonic the Hedgehog twice. He was even able to single-handedly overwhelm the entire Resistance army during Operation Big Wave. His power was such that not even the Miles Electric was able to give an accurate reading of his capabilities.[31] Time Eater: -the Time Eater has demonstrated immense super strength; even in its incomplete form, it easily knocked Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic unconscious with a single hit. After being completed, the Time Eater was able to effortlessly repel both Classic and Modern Sonic's and knock them out using brute force alone-

Phantom Ruby:  Its powers can also warp the fabric of space-time,[1] allowing it to create pocket dimensions such as Egg Reverie Zone and Null Space, as well as teleport entities from place to place. When used alongside the Chaos Emeralds' time-space powers, it transported Classic Sonic and itself to another dimension, and later sucked Dr. Eggman into a rift- Time Eater: Its signature skill however, is creating "Time Holes",[8] spacial rifts that lead to any point across time and space, including alternate timelines and across different dimensions.

Infinite: When everything you know has come and gone (You are at your lowest, I am rising higher) Only scars remain of who I was (What I find in the ashes, you lose in the fire) When there's no one left to carry on (This is an illusion, open up your eyes and...) This pain persists, I can't resist But that's what it takes to be infinite Solaris: -Much like his two halves, Iblis and Mephiles, Solaris is immortal and virtually indestructible.- -As a transcendent life form, Solaris possesses a unique state of existence that lets him exist in the past, present and future simultaneously, making him omnipresent throughout time and virtually impossible to defeat unless he is attacked simultaneously in all eras-

Possible reach:

Phantom Ruby:

Solaris:

(I’m refering to the odd red-stone in the middle, also that the wings somewhat resemble Infinite’s sword.)

~Tangent Time~

remember the first tangent? Where I meantioned that the Phantom “Ruby” looked more like obsidian than a ruby?

Well someone else looks like a certain type of obsidian, Snowflake Obsidian to be exact:

Alright Reaching time over. 

Now you might have noticed that the Ifrit-Infinite connections seemed to fit just a bit more-Maybe it was just me- even down to the Phantom Ruby and Ifrit’s OPENING DESCRIPTION being almost copy/paste, which i’m still amazed at.

This get’s to the next part of my theory.

6. Where are they (Mephiles/Iblis) now?

Welcome to~ where are they now!

Mephiles, or Time-Eater, So far is undocumented. It’s said they were “Destoryed” at the end of Sonic Generations, but for all we know it was just the machine additions, and Mephiles was “destoryed” over 10 years ago and he started kicking again.

Iblis, or Ifrit, was locked in it’s own pocket dimention along with Nega, and hasn’t been seen since...or have they?

haha that’s a callback! Do you remember the beginning of this post or is it too mindbogglingly long for your brain to comprehend in one sitting? 

7. The Phantom Ruby is Iblis/Ifrit

let’s talk about the power set of the Phantom Ruby. Interdimentional, very powerful, capable of some kind of mind fuckery.

Ifrit is, Interdimentional, very powerful, capable of some kind of mind fuckery, immortal and is constantly on fire,

You may be wondering about this “Fire” thing. “Solaris was a sun god and infinite has no connection-” WRONG! 

sorry that was forceful.

Infinite used a very specific and strange method to destroy the planet. He made an illusion of the sun, and set it on the planet. Out of all the methods, and interesting choice to be sure. But not for a sun god.

also: “What I find in the ashes, you lose in the fire”

“What are you saying you dumb bitch?” You might be thinking. First of all, rude, second of all, I’m saying that the power inside the Phantom Ruby IS Iblis/Ifrit, hence their connection.

Before I get to timeline and other stuff, some minor things:

The decision to have Infinite take on specifically Silver, and showing Silver being able to withstand a fight against him for a good amount of time, as well as giving them a minor repertoire, which no other seemingly “unconnected” Resistance Fighters get. 

the name “Infinite” fitting the naming scheme if “Iblis and Ifrit” and you know how this franchise is about naming schemes.

Now, where we last left Ifrit he was trapped in a pocket dimension with Nega. 

Where we first find the Phantom Ruby is “In Sonic Mania, the Phantom Ruby appeared on Angel Island after a dimensional breach occurred in the atmosphere.” (via sonic wiki)

Now, it is kinda hard to connect those two lines, but the dimensional causation is there. 

(I could add an ENTIRE subsection of me trying to connected Mephiles to the time-traveling nature of Little Planet, therefore connecting Solaris to Classic Sonic’s world ((and “fun is infinite)) but this theory doesn’t need to be any longer and I cannot physically do any more research.) 

it’s possible Ifrit would be trapped, Mephiles was trapped in the Scepter of Darkness, so it’s more possible than impossible. 

But, Imma be fully honest with you guys, Most of this is because of the song.

If you haven’t heard “Infinite”, What is wrong with you. Go listen to it. Oh my god. 

But, some of the lyrics, don’t totally make sense knowing Infinite’s backstory. But it makes more sense seeing through the lens of the added Ifrit influence.

“And after all this time you're back for more“ (If talking about Shadow, it wasn’t a “long time” inbetween Infinite’s defeat and his rise. And Infinite has no stated relationship with Sonic. However, Solaris and subsequently, Iblis, do.) “When everything you know has come and gone“ “But that's what it takes to be infinite“

Even the name “Infinite.”

He chose that name after fusing to the Phantom Ruby and “ABAndoNiNg hIS pAsT SeLf” 

But, the Phantom Ruby has no connotations of immortality. None specified. it’s possible it’s power could be used to trick the user into immortality, but it’s never specified. You’d think he’d be called “Phantom” or, even, “Zero” (his working-and possibly true-name) But no. Infinite.

Now, think back to the connections earlier, and the info I took from Solaris’s wiki.

“Omnipresent throughout time and space”

Sounds pretty “Infinite” to me.

Am I saying Infinite is the new Iblis Trigger? Yes.

Ok my fingers hurt from writing this sorry it’s so long 

bye

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...