#this was also just an excuse to get better at drawing dragons

[battry-acid]

fe3h dragons, canon and fanon :3

seteth and flayn dragon designs co-conceptualized by @merlyybird

[flamestar126]

"YOU'VE ROLLED A 1. . ."

Prompt: Wendigo

(Recommend to turn up brightness to see darker details)

[r--kt]

Do you like Kakashi's dogs? Let's talk about why there are eight of them.

another example of naruto's ✨cultural code✨

contents | the eight dog warriors chronicles · legacy · eight confucian virtues. also look at the cuties love them sm

Naruto Vol. 10 CH 90

[ one dog is wonderful, I'm saying as the owner of a sweet little york terrier. two dogs are good, they won't be bored together. three dogs? yeah, cool! how are you going to walk them though? four? yes... look, maybe we have to draw the line h- wha- EIGHT? Excuse Me!? ]

surely, it's worth starting with the fact that eight is a lucky number in Japanese culture — everybody watched Hachi. of course, this is not the only cultural detail where the eight is mentioned. I want to pay special attention to a thing that I didn't know about until I googled it, and this is clearly what Kishimoto was doing homage to with Kakashi's eight ninken.

The Eight Dog Warriors Chronicles

Better known as Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. and it's not just some kind of book, it's a novel, consisting of 106 booklets written by Kyokutei Bakin in XIX century. Hakkenden is considered the largest novel in the history of Japanese Literature. this is one of the main representatives of the gesaku genre, which includes works of a frivolous, joking, silly nature. further I will emphasize a few more times how damn popular this work is and how often it is reflected in culture.

here are some illustrations for these books

now let's talk about the plot. It's weird, but it's weird at samurai-dogs-story level so stay here.

In brief, the story tells about the commander Satomi Yoshizane, whose native lands were attacked by the army of a man, whose forces surpassed those of Satomi, and the samurai in despair swore to a dog named Yatsufusa that the dog would get his beloved daughter Fuse as a wife if he chewed that man's throat. surprisingly, the dog not only understood the owner, but also fulfilled his wish! after that the commander refused to keep the promise. however, Fuse, true to her word of honor, went with Yatsufusa to the mountains and became his wife. upon learning that his daughter was pregnant, Satomi, in a rage, sent a samurai to kill Yatsufusa and bring Fuse home. she stood up for the dog anyways and died with him. at that moment, eight pearls with hieroglyphs that denoted the foundations of Confucian virtue burst out of her womb. (...cheers for mythology, I guess)

Soon, eight dog warriors who were Fuse's spiritual children were born in different parts of Awa province. after going through hardships, they got together and became vassals of the Satomi clan, then won the battle, and soon reached peace.

some more illustrations made by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. from left to right: Inukawa Sōsuke (the dog warrior), Inumura Daikaku (the dog warrior), Princess Fuse (their mother).

the novel mainly tells about each individual warrior dog and his shenanigans in a funny adventurous way. huge fame has led to excerpts from Hakkenden being staged at the Kabuki Theater and mentioned in the anime and manga, such as Inuyasha, Dragon Ball, as it turned out, Naruto and so on. there's also a lot of films and video games.

The eight virtues

these are loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, honesty, justice, harmony, and peace.

they relate more to Chinese culture, but basically Hakkenden was inspired by it too. since I did not read the whole novel, I would still like to mention at least the values on which it is based, and which were embedded in the symbolism of this story. It's quite interesting to apply this to Kakashi's dogs. gives them more weight and depth.

It is also interesting to note that the reason why Fuse gave birth to dogs was also that her father was cursed earlier in the story in a way that his descendants would become depraved like dogs. in Japanese culture, dogs embody the duality of character: the same mentioned filth and depravity, and devotion and bravery. so as samurai. but this is a different conversation, more related to Kakashi and his dog poetry.

Did you get here? Here's an additional discovery for you✨

Pakkun's name (パックン) is derived from the Japanese onomatopoeia “pakupaku” (パクパク) which reflects the sound of munching.

Kakashi, that's very sweet of you.

thank you for reading this to the end ♡

[skrittkicking]

charr body types for practice, rambling nonsense under the cut

ive been trying to get better at drawing more varied body types for a while now and i think ive still got a long way to go but im getting there. fat and muscle definition werent something i bothered to learn for a long time because all i wanted to draw was twinks and dragons ... but in the last year or so ive really been pushing myself to do better. i think learning to draw different body shapes is really important and improves your overall anatomy skill by a mile, its also just really fun for me to think about how fat is distributed across the body and affected by gravity and all that stuff. bodies in general are my favorite thing to draw and what i spend the most time sketching

ok enough word vomit lets talk about my ocs

iovitus is supposed to be built more like an athlete, but im not sure i got that across very well. they're still skinny and comparatively twinky next to their fellow cats, but still strong and in good shape. after they left the legions they didnt really bother that much with the upkeep of their figure, but since theyre focusing more on mercenary work again they've been better about it

most of iovitus' muscle is in their shoulder & back, as their weapons of choice -- longbow and throwing axes -- require a lot of strength in that area. theyre very triangular shaped & top-heavy, with a broad chest & shoulders, thin waist and narrow hips. skipped leg day :/

nero is supposed to have sort of a dad-bod type of build. i changed a bit about his design as ive been tinkering around with his lore recently. she was always supposed to have some tummy to her, but i dont think i drew it very well in the past. i think a dad bod is very fitting because she is one after all

i also wanted to make her blind eye more obvious because i kept forgetting about it whenever i drew her so umm sorry babe. still need to come up with an explanation as to why it happened! was considering having him just born with it for a while, but i love scars and scary traumatic events so... sorry nero

in spite of the good layer of fat he's got on his body though, nero is very strong and muscular underneath it all. his warband doesnt do a lot of combat stuff anymore but he's still working most of the time and takes good care of himself. juicy thighs btw

ruckus... i dont have much to say about. i love you babygirl

she's so much taller than everyone else.... its difficult to notice in the line-up as they are, but i wanted to see so i lined them up in front of one another and. well. ->

look at her. and iovitus. why are you so small??

finally, lia! she's still small in comparison to most other blood legion charr, but she makes up for it in her strength. or, well, she might've in her younger years; at her current age she's definitely lost a lot of that muscle definition just by the nature of aging

thats not to say she's weak, though. she can and will definitely fuck you up if you try her

her burned arm is her main weak point. it was burned severely enough where the muscle and nerves were permanently damaged, resulting in a lot of stiffness, uncomfortability, and chronic pain. the movement in that arm is limited and she has to guard it closely if she's ever in a scuffle

i think in general a lot of muscle definition for charr is lost just cause they have fur to cover it up, evident by the fact you cant really see a lot of it on the in-game models. or at least thats my excuse for not knowing how to define muscle with lineart

[all-about-kyu]

Summary: You’ve been hooking up with and hanging out with San and Seonghwa for a bit now. You’re tired of the lack of labels, though.

Pairing: dragon!Seonghwa x fem bunny!reader x dragon!San

Tropes: hybrid au

Genre: fluff, angst, (barely) suggestive

Rating: PG 13

Warnings: emotional breakdown, arguments, suggestive comments, y/n has blue eyes due to being a rabbit

Word Count: 1,616

Note: Look forward to more of this! @sanjoongie and I have created a whole universe about these hybrids!!

Cotton Tails & Simmering Fires Masterlist

It’s become common for you to sit on the couch between two dragon hybrids. It should be weird, considering you’re a bunny, but here you are. You hadn’t really sat down and thought about it too deeply yet. The way you met them was odd. First, you were out of your safe space, but now here you are, and now you’ve been hooking up with both of them together and individually for a few weeks now. You’re tucked under San’s arm, wearing one of his shirts, and watching some random sitcom. Your legs are resting in Seonghwa’s lap, his finger drawing random patterns on the bare skin of your leg. The mixture of San’s sea breeze scent and Seonghwa’s strawberry jam is oddly comforting.

You watch as Yeosang walks through the living room to the kitchen. Truth be told, you smelled him before you saw him. His peppermint scent cut through the air more aggressively than some others, though it wasn’t unwelcome. He looks you up and down, not a care for his friends being tangled with you right now. His electric green eyes draw you into his gaze.

“I might have to try you out for myself, hops. Damn, your legs look so nice bare like that.”

You know your scent heightens a bit, even gets a tad sweeter. The two dragons cuddling with you notice too. Seonghwa snarls under his breath. His electric blue eyes almost glow brighter as his slitted pupils become thinner. Icy shards building just beneath the surface of his fingertips. And if that wasn’t enough, his typically sweet scent goes extremely sour to the point your nose crinkles. San is in no better state. Smoke puffs from between his lips as he attempts to hold back from burning Yeosang to a crisp right then and there. They had no right to be jealous, though, none at all. You throw your legs off Seonghwa and remove San’s arm around you. Then, making your way over to the green-eyed dragon, you look up at him with your big blue doe eyes.

“Maybe,” you start, rocking on your heels, “maybe I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“No, you won’t.” Seonghwa deadpans.

“Remember what we told you?” San adds.

You see red, and your typically sweet sugar cookie scent burns out of pure anger.

“You don’t fucking own me. We aren’t dating, and I’m not your property. I knew you dragon hybrids were territorial walking into whatever the fuck this is, but that is no excuse to be an asshole.”

You don’t even give them a chance to respond to you. You lock yourself in San’s room as you change and don’t allow them to explain themselves when you leave. Your mind is a flurry of emotions and thoughts as you navigate your way back to your hollow. You texted a member of your fluffle that you were on your way back. She was more than ready to hear whatever you had to rant about. She was one of the best listeners you know. That being said, she’s also the worst enabler you know too.

“You don’t understand!” you exclaim as you pace through your room.

“You’re right. I don’t.” your fluffle-mate chuckles from your desk chair.

“They’re fine with sharing with each other. Hell, they even mentioned that they would probably share me with the rest of their thunder and-”

“Woah, woah, woah… they said what?”

“That they’d share me. Now, keep up-”

“You’re telling me,” she sighs, “You’re telling me that they told you they were going to share you and then decided to get jealous ‘cause of a comment one of their thunder members made? You realize how hypocritical that is?”

You’re about to respond, but there’s a knock at your door. The scent of someone uncomfortable or fearful of something accompanies it. You turn the worn nob on the dark wood of your bedroom door to see one of the slightly younger fluffle members practically shaking in front of you.

“Are you o-”

“T-there are two dragon h-h-hybrids outside the house, and I just wanted to warn you guys.”

Your eyebrows furrow, “Two? What do they look like?”

“I didn’t stick around long, but they both have kinda long black hair… I think the one had his hair in a ponytail. T-the one had really scary neon blue eyes, and the other’s eyes looked almost white. They were so pale… I didn’t like how they seemed.” she admits.

“Did you see what color their tails or any scales were?” you pry further.

“Black… and really shiny purple, I think… it might’ve been dark blue.”

“Fuck,” you curse under your breath, “I appreciate you telling me.”

She nods, scurries to her room quickly, and shuts the door tightly. You close your door much more gently and turn to face your friend. She’s already giving you a knowing look. She knows what you’re about to say.

“I guess I’d better go ta-”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waves you off, “go talk to those emotionally constipated dragon boys of yours.”

You’re dreading walking outside your home. Not because you’re scared of them; that’s far from the case. You simply do not want to interact with them right now. You trudge your way out of the home to see both boys standing at the edge of the front lawn. They look horribly out of place. Both of them are dressed in dark colors; San has a chain on his hip yet again. Seonghwa decided to have all his piercings in and use the most obnoxious dangling ones in his ears. As you approach the duo, you notice how Seonghwa’s pupils widen, and his strawberry jam scent sweetens upon seeing you. That, at least, is a comforting feeling.

“What do you want?” you ask with a bite in your tone.

“We want to talk.” San replies shortly, his salty scent growing even saltier somehow.

“What he means is, we fucked up, and we want to talk things out with you.”

You sigh annoyedly, “You have 10 minutes.”

You think for a moment about taking them back inside your home. You decide against it, though, since you know some of your fluffle are uncomfortable with their presence outside the house as it is. You plop down on the grass, and they follow suit. There’s a small patch of wildflowers right beside you that occupies your attention. You delicately fiddle with the petals of a vibrantly purple one before Seonghwa takes your hand in his. The gesture makes you look up from the flower and the sight you see you’ve never been privy to before. Seonghwa’s eyes are lightly brimmed with tears. His slitted pupils are narrow again, and you swear that the scales framing his face are paler, with little bits of mist coming from beneath them. His scent becomes subdued slightly as well.

“Hops,” he sighs, “I’m so fucking sorry. We had no right-” he lets out a shaky breath, “We had no right to be territorial over you when we aren’t dating.”

“Yeah, sorry we didn’t account for your feelings.” San adds.

San seems far more apathetic about the entire situation. It pisses you off. Seonghwa, you know, is being genuine. He’s told you before that he doesn’t often cry, so to see him on the verge of tears now shows the authenticity of his emotions.

“Don’t you have any remorse, San?” you bite, and the scent of burning sugar returns to the air.

You have no room for being gentle or kind right now. You’re angry; how, after what happened, could he be so nonchalant about it still?

“Excuse me?” the younger dragon asks.

You can see the flames burning below his fingertips, searing the grass below him. His already sharp, salty scent grows even more intense. Now you’re fearful. You know he wouldn’t hurt you, but your natural flight tendencies are screaming at you to bolt away. So instead, you watch as Seonghwa places his hand on San’s and instantly cools his hand.

“You know we’re not great with the whole emotion thing. San doesn’t apologize. So the fact that he’s apologizing to you is huge.”

“I kinda love you.” San says quietly, sniffling slightly while his scent dulls to a post-storm kind of sea scent.

You look at the purple-scaled dragon and see he’s not looking at you. Small puffs of smoke are coming from his nostrils, and his silver eyes are nearly metallic. He’s crying. You find yourself tossing yourself into his arms and wrapping your arms around his neck. His hands instantly reach your waist and hold you against him. He cries into your shoulder as he holds you in his lap. Seonghwa runs his hand over your fluffy white ear and soothes you. You hadn’t even noticed you were crying until Seonghwa ran one of his fingers against your cheek, catching a stray tear.

"I can't believe that you want me. Both of you. Actually wanting me, not just my body." you half joke.

You hear a chuckle rumble through San’s chest at your comment.

"Well, you're good company. You and your body." he teases back, earning him a gentle smack to his shoulder.

“Should we go back to the lair then?” Seonghwa asks softly.

“I’d like that.” you respond, voice muffled by San’s shirt.

“We have a lot to make up for. We’re doing everything and anything you want for the next week.” Seonghwa chuckles sweetly

“Some of us have work to do.” San replies. You hold him tighter, “I mean, I’m sure that my secretary can handle the paperwork for a few days. We need to spend a whole lot of time with our precious girlfriend.”

COPYRIGHT STARLITMARK 2023© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED — reposting/modifying any fic or piece of original writing posted on this blog is not allowed. Translations are not permitted. 

Networks: @cultofdionysusnet @kwritersworld @k-vanity

Tag List: @jaehunnyy @brattybunfornct @roseforseonghwa @spiderrenjunfics @umbralhelwolf @ericssmile @honeyhuii @tarutarumilk

[thesharktanksdriver]

Dicentra D. Boa

Content warning going in: implied rape, human trafficking, slavery, implied sexual assault, implied Sa of children, and massacres. It’s not talked in length or in detail but it is alluded to due to the Boa sisters backstory and Dicentra’s conception. I wanted to be sure to give a warning just in case because of the nature of these topics. If any of these themes are triggering please skip past the section labeled “Josephine” and go to “childhood” instead

Also sorry if she’s cringe or Mary sue but she’s my little blorbo and I love her. Writing her is also my excuse to write (and rewrite) about Boa Hancock because I think she’s underrated and I think her character could’ve been handled better by oda (this is in regards to her liking Luffy which is really weird since she’s a grown adult who fell in love with a 17 year old after being victimized through a decent portion of her life by adults)

General information

Name: Dicentra D. Boa.

Following after the flower naming convention of the Amazon lily, Dicentra is the scientific name of the bleeding heart flower. Her name was chosen by Hancock since dicentra’s birth mother didn’t know what to choose

The D. Is gained to her by her birth mother Josephine D. Etheus. Though Dicentra is apart of “the will of D” she has no idea about it due to the fact Boa swore to Josephine that no traces from her would connect back to Dicentra.

Age: 13

Dicentra was born a few hours before the mass breakout of Mary geoise when Hancock was 16.

Race: half-lunarian

Dicentra’s motherJosephine was a full lunarian captured in the massacre of her people. Despite Saturns extermination efforts a few celestial dragons wanted a lunarian as apart of their collection and were able to accomplish this secretly

Being only half lunarain attributes to her white hair and darker toned skin. But along with this it also acts as a reason as to why her wings are so small and why she doesn’t have an eternal spark.

She can’t create fire because of this, but she could control already lit flames if she needed to. But she has not found this out yet

(Fun fact is that whenever in a room with some type of fire, she subconsciously pulls that flame slightly towards herself. Kinda like how sunflowers face the sun, flames direct themselves towards her)

Personality: curious, sometimes oblivious, good hearted, optimistic, overly eager and a bit chaotic

As a young sheltered girl Dicentra is naturally curious of the world and just about anything she can get her hands on. She enjoys soaking in all of the knowledge of the great world beyond the Amazon lily, whilst also secretly yearning to see it for herself.

Another side effect of her sheltered upbringing is the fact she’s very oblivious to things. Whether that be wandering into a bad situation due to curiosity of something that caught her eye or just being unaware of concepts like men not being hideous monsters that’ll kill her (Hancock taught her this lol). Despite her being oblivious to these environmental concerns she’s actually very observant of others emotions when needed.

Unlike her mother’s cold and dominating facade Dicentra is very openly warm to those around her. She often times is found conversing with others around her, joyfully asking about things and recounting new stuff she discovered.

Along with this she can be very eager about whatever catches her eye. Leading her to blindly and stubbornly pursue it even at her own detriment (much to her mother’s and Nightshade concern). This has lead to her acting without foresight and acting on the first thing that entered her mind which can have varied results…like biting someone’s hand

Interests and hobbies: journaling, exploration, drawing, dance and song

Once more due to her interest in the world beyond the Amazon lily Dicentra has taken to journaling all she’s learned. When her mother brings her gifts from far off places she enjoys documenting everything she can about it. Of all subjects she loves writing about the most she enjoys exotic Fish, birds and gemstones the most.

Due to her journaling she ends up exploring places quite a bit. From the city of her home to the jungles and mountains she’ll explore. Some of it from blind interest and from plain eager stubbornness

Something gained from her journaling is her hobby of drawing. Though years of practice she’s gotten decent at drawing, though it’s less out of passion and moreso just for proper documentation.

Her real hobbies are that of song and dance. As a princess Dicentra had taken up many hobbies but the two that stuck with her are dancing and song. She enjoys dancing since it’s an active activity and picking up new instruments to learn and play.

She’s particularly fond of the Erhu (I’m taking in some Chinese inspiration due to the Chinese influence of the Amazon lily)

Habits and quirks: Manners, stiff posture, back issues, lack of shoes, playing with her hands, love of berries/fruits and tendency to put others before her

Dicentra as princess (though that title is moreso just a title since the Amazon lily leadership is based on strength rather than bloodline) she was educated to have proper manners. While she’s a tough and tumble kind of girl she still implores these manners in most social situations until she finds something interesting and throws manners to the wind.

Due to these manners she can sometimes also have a stiff posture in mix with her back pains. Hiding her wings is a hassle for her so binding them along with keeping a certain posture as to be sure their hidden is important. When around those she trusts she lets up a bit and is more relaxed but that’s if they know of her wings. If not she keeps up the posture to be sure they won’t be found

As stated above she gets quite a lot of back pain and jolts of discomfort due to her hiding her wings. It’s an unfortunate thing she has to deal with, something all the boa sisters feels guilty about but know it’s for Dicentra’s best interest in the end.

Despite being taught manners Dicentra can’t stand wearing closed toe shoes. She doesn’t mind sandals but she loves being barefoot much to her mother’s ire. Dicentra loves the feeling of grass and sand beneath her feet.

A nervous quirk she has is that she plays with her hands quite a bit.

Also is a giant sweet tooth for things but especially loves Berries, Fruits and her favourite food of peach buns with a custard filling. It’s definitely due to the D trait.

Another tendency she has is for her to value others above herself. As princess though it’s more of a title she believes that her mom and the Amazon lily comes first. She’ll put down or put away her own feelings and ambitions if it means she can’t help others. It’s the reason as to why she stayed in the Amazon instead of exploring like she wanted, why she asks questions about the outside world and sees glimpses of it through stories and objects instead of pursing it herself.

Relationships: Hancock, Marigold, Sandersonia, Nightshade, Rayleigh and Shakuyaku, Gloriosa, Salome and Ouroboros

Hancock: Dicentra has a very strong relationship with her mom and looks up to her as her hero (for various reasons). She loves her mom deeply for both her kindness and dedication to protecting the Amazon lily. She knows deep down her mom is a lot more tender than she lets on but puts up a front to protect everyone else (and herself). Even though dicentra wishes to explore the world she follows her mom’s rules of staying in the Amazon Lily knowing there has to be some reason as to why her mom is so insistent on it. Along with this she follows her mom’s rules of hiding her back and binding her wings even if it’s uncomfortable (something Boa wishes she didn’t have to make Dicentra do but does it out of necessity). Her favourite activity with her mom is having her mom brush her hair

Marigold: Dicentra loves her aunt Marigold but is sometimes a little bit intimidated by her. Granted she knows her aunt would never do anything bad but Marigold is sometimes too stoic for Dicentra to read which makes her nervous she’s doing something wrong. Unbeknownst to her Marigold very much loves her but gets worried of messing up and internally panics because she overestimated herself. Dicentra’s favourite memory with Marigold is when she taught her how to make flower crowns

Sandersonia: Dicentra loves hanging out with her Aunt Sandersonia. Unlike with Marigold Sandersonia is more in tune with her emotions so Dicentra is able to read her better and therefore know if she’s bothering her. If Sandersonia isn’t busy with something she’ll often tag along with Dicentra’s exploring of the Amazon lily and play games together. Dicentra’s favorite thing to do with Sandersonia is petting her aunts zoan tail

Nightshade (another oc): Nightshade is Dicentra’s sworn guard and protector assigned by Hancock herself. Dicentra sees Nighshade as her closest companion and as a big sister to her. Though Nightshade sometimes gets frustrated at Dicentra throwing caution to the wind and running off she knows that Nightshade doesn’t typically get legitimately mad unless something really bad happened. Nightshade beside the Boa sisters is the only one who knows of Dicentra’s wings and origins, something the bodyguard takes in the upmost seriousness. Dicentra knows Nightshade isn’t her original name but hasn’t pushed about the subject. Her favourite thing to do with Nightshade is playing hide and seek.

Rayleigh and Shakuyaku: dicentra knows very little about these two but does hold them in high regard hearing they helped her mom and aunts. The most funny thing about this though is that she has no idea Rayleigh is a male (boa taught her men were ugly evil creatures lol) . She’s never met them but she hopes to one day do so.

Gloriosa: dicentra sometimes sneaks out to see the former empress of the Amazon despite being a “traitor” to learn more about the outside world. Though she doesn’t like how her mom and Gloriosa don’t get along well Dicentra holds respect for Gloriosa.

Salome and Ouroboros: Dicentra adores Salome and all the snakes of the Amazon. Her fight or flight instinct of bite first ask questions later was somewhat developed due to watching Salome when she was younger. Dicentra has a snake of the same species as Salome named Ouroboros, aptly named for its penchant for…eating its tail all the time. No one has any idea why boros does this but Dicentra loves her beloved snake even if all it does is act as a necklace for her half the time. Half the time people don’t notice they’re alive if not for their occasional blinking. She loves petting the scales of Salome and Ouroboros, absolutely loves the texture

(Meme break before getting to serious stuff. Nightshade is also included here)

Backstory

Prologue: Josephine

Dicentra’s birth mother Josephine was a lunarian born on the red line and raised with her people. She lived atop the red line in peace for many years, she was particularly gifted in being a graceful flyer amongst others her age but lacked control of her flames. Despite the peace at a young age she could tell something was coming somehow, she had a sixth sense for that thing (observation Haki). Eventually when her people were massacred to build Mary Geoise atop her ancestral home she was taken by a celestial dragon who wanted one of her kind as “apart of his collection” even though that wasn’t technically allowed. This all happened when she was 15.

For Years Josephine was kept in a cell, wings broken and unable to conjure flames even if she tried due to being underfed and weak. She’d spent so long being toyed with and abused with no relief but an empty cell to return to when she was finished being “useful”. Eventually though she got cellmate in the form of the young Boa sisters. For the first time in years Josephine felt something as she stared at the young girls, mirror showing her how much of a shell of her former self she was. She used to be young and free, used to be afraid and now she had felt nothing in years. And staring into the fearful tear stained eyes of these girls she swore to herself they wouldn’t end up like her. Broken and empty.

In that cell in the span of months turned to years Josephine would do her best to protect the sisters. Though she could not always protect them she was able to lessen their suffering. She cared for them, began to see them as her own just as they began to see her as a mother in this hell. Through her wings were broken she’d use them as blankets for them in the damp cold of the cell. Josephine would share the little food she had with them. She’d also tell them stories of her people who once proudly flew the skies, sang in hushed tones the songs passed on from generation to generation. Hell had at least become bareable

Eventually much to her own fear and horror Josephine became pregnant. It at some point was bound to happen but all the same it horrified her for the fact she knew her child would be killed. A bastard to celestial dragon was purged for the fact of “tainting” their holy blood, and that was just for normal cases. She was a lunarian, the people they purged and were still actively being hunting down from how that devil gloated about “owning such a rare species”. She had to hid this and hope for the best, and that’s what she did with the help of the Boa sisters.

Somehow hiding her pregnancy was a task in of itself but it had been somehow done, but with that came the actual delivery. Weak and Malnourished as she already was without proper medical care in a dark cell wasn’t a good mix. She’s left at deaths doorstep clinging barely to life after the deed was said and done. The only upside to it all was she felt that sixth sense again, things were changing and her daughters would be free. Before letting herself rest she makes the girls promise to never tell her daughter of her heritage, to protect her and love her as she loved them. Tearfully the girls agree, Hancock vowing she’d raise Dicentra as her own. With how Josephine falls asleep the girls believe her to be dead, and in a way she is…but not fully yet

The mass escape of slaves happens and her daughters flee, through this all Josephine laid on deaths door in her cell. She was ok with dying, had for so long dreamt of such a thing, but anger had let her from not dying quite yet. Half dead and powered only by the knowledge she’d die Josephine gets up. Broken wings crack and move, the pain so blinding it became numb. She had to protect her daughters, had to erase all trace of them here lest a trail is somehow left. And despite never knowing to master her flames she ignites because she herself is the kindling. The already aflame Mary geoise is lit with newer more intense fire that burned to the fire. Josephine burns with mother’s rage and a single wish. Cleanse her homeland with flame just as it was meant to be oh so long ago.

Josephine kills her tormentor and bastard of a man who’s father to her daughter, watches the flames bath him in agony as she holds his face in burning hands. Scarlet eyes glaring down at him as everything burned, her once small flickering flame behind her neck so intense and big it hurt to look at and consumed the background. Flesh melts and blood sizzles in her palms. Josephine dies kneeling on the red earth of her home, staring up to the smouldering sky with broken wings and an outstretched hand to the heavens she so loved. Her scream echoes out among flickering flames and chaos, echoes and reverberates into the sky before turning to nothingness. She burns so intensely that nothing of herself and twenty feet surrounding her body is left besides ash, soot and a trail of bloody feathers littering the ground just outside the crater as her scream of agony faded.

Chapter 1: Childhood from the eyes of a mother

Dicentra grows up on a lie just as everyone else of the Amazon lily does. From the time she could walk and speak she’s told of how her mother and aunts slayed a fierce-some gorgon that had killed her birth mother which led to her being adopted. That gorgon cursed her mom, aunts and herself with a curse bared on their backs. For her mom and her aunts it’s an odd symbol and for Dicentra it’s her wings. But all the same Dicentra knows that her mom is her hero (and though that story is a lie it’s still true she’s her hero) and the young princess stared at her mother in awe and such innocence. It’s something that eats Hancock up inside, that she’s lying to her daughter about everything. Of her wings, her lineage and birth mother and yet she made that vow and she won’t go back in it.

All this leads to though is Hancock being fiercely protective of her daughter, not just for the fact of her blood but because she wants better for Dicentra. She wants her daughter to live happy not plagued by the burden and shame that she and her sisters suffers daily. The memories, the pain, the loss of it all. She wants Dicentra to live the life Hancock wished she had, of never being ripped away from a safe and loving home to be hurt over and over again. It’s why she keeps a close eye on her, especially in the early years where everything is still fresh in her mind of the escape. Perhaps she’s a tad overbearing at times but knowing her daughter is happy and safe within the walls of her nation is all that matters. But as time progresses she does become more lenient towards letting Dicentra do things on her own with the only condition being a bodyguard accompanying her.

At 6 Dicentra has Nightshade assigned as her personal bodyguard and protector. Before then it was randomly assigned guards or Salome who took over watching over the already curious and slightly mischievous young girl. Much to Hancock’s displeasure her daughter takes to running off into the jungles of the Amazon but at the same time she can’t help but be happy her daughter takes her freedom in such strive and not forgranted. Dicentra talks of all range of things she came across once she comes home, from rocks she found to bird feathers pressed in pages. Nightshade with now wild tangled hair standing beside Dicentra posed and proper even with a few leaves and sticks lodged in once straight black hair.

By 7 Hancock decides to have Dicentra be taught proper manners and help her find some hobbies that aren’t just running off into the brush. It’s there that Dicentra finds her talent in Dance and playing instruments, she specifically likes playing the Erhu traditionally played in the Amazon lily. It’s a hobby especially Hancock enjoys because it quickly becomes a source of calm when old memories plague her mind. Perhaps a lifetime ago she would’ve picked up the instrument as well, but now she resides herself to listening to old tunes that would play before that fateful day on a ship leaving home. Whilst she listens she holds her daughter, time seems to slip away and for once all is well for those minutes playing song.

At 9 Dicentra begins to do more things around the Amazon lily. Knowing the jungles area and documenting the plants she finds ends up being useful to apothecaries and doctors on the island. Along with this she starts to also help in delivering things and having a hand in public events. It’s here that she begins to realize what being a princess means even if it’s more a title than anything. To the Amazon lily her mom is cold and respected, the citizens of the island fear and love her and Hancock knows this. They don’t see her compassion behind closed doors but Dicentra does. If her mom is the cold and cool leader that in secret cared, then Dicentra would be a sliver in that door for others to see that kindness. She tells the truth, that her mom asked her to try and find ways to help the other kuja women. As princess the women of the island love her and she notices she means something to everyone there. For the women of the island Dicentra is their kind princess in contrast to their lovely but cruel empress, to Hancock Dicentra is what little hope is left in the world.

At 10 the young princess starts asking Hancock more about the outside world and it leaves the empress silently terrified. They aren’t bad questions, moreso just innocent ones of if places she’d been to were like home. But to Hancock they signify the end. She knew from the moment her bright eyed daughter began to run before learning to walk, began looking out to the sea on the horizon and climbed to the tops of the snake statues overlooking the entire tribe she’d one day be curious enough to leave. That this island would become too small to satisfy her need to see and experience the world. A selfish part of her wished that the luxuries she spoiled her with and the nights in which she’d hug her close whilst promising she’d always be safe here would disway her, but Hancock always knew because of the spark in her eyes that she’d one day leave. It terrifies her and yet she knows one day she’ll have to because she can’t take away Dicentra’s freedom just as hers had been taken. But for now she was safe, leaving was in the future but now she was safe in her arms.

By 11 Dicentra waits by the docks as Hancock sets off to yet another warlord meeting that would go nowhere. Hancock when her daughter was younger would leave her with Sandersonia as she and Marigold would set off into the ocean. But Hancock decides that this time her daughter was old enough to last a few days on her own (despite how terror still grips her heart). Nightshade swears she’ll look after the young girl and none of the Boa’s doubt that. Not when the ex-assassin turned bodyguard has the same look Hancock does when the young girl does something as simple as gifting a flower. It’s a look of wanting to protect something so desperately because it was one of the last pieces of kindness in their world. None of the Boa sisters trust easily, especially not Hancock, and especially if it came to her daughter. But Hancock trusted Nightshade, and that was a feat in of itself. And so Hancock sets off on her ship, trusting her beloved daughter to her bodyguard and ex-empress of the Amazon. Though it’s only for a few days Dicentra helps keep things afloat alongside Gloriosa.

Chapter 2: where the story begins

By 13 Dicentra knows the Amazon lily like the back of her hand. She knows every trail, bend of the river and cove there’s to find in the lush landscape populated by snaking vines and flowers. Pollen coats the air in sweet smells as the distinct smell of rain coming sets in for the young princess and her shadow. But the Rowling black clouds did little to dismay the young girl, if anything it only made her more excited as she quickened her pace and hopped over twisting roots. Having a storm in the calm belt was a rare occurrence, the lack of wind and still waters kept for a stagnant environment but once in awhile a storm would drift from the grand line and breeze briefly through the still water and die off. It made for decent rainfall and any occasional change in weather from the hot climate was always something welcome to the young girl. Nightshade would agree in that retrospect, from the few moments she talked of times past was she talked of a place described as an eternal flowering spring, not cold but not yet summer (though apparently a northern area had snow). So Dicentra raced to the many hidden beaches and coves of the Amazon lily.

its towering cliffs her beloved home had many secret coves beside the main waterway into the heart of the city. Many laid forgotten to time, old boats used generations ago laying still in soft sand that crunched beneath her feet. Typically there was no tide at these hidden beaches and coves, just stagnant water lifting at a certain level against the sand. No white foam decorating its edges like lace if not for the storm stirring the waves. She can’t help but giggle at the sensation, even if her stockings got wet in the ordeal. A few feet away nightshade stood as the wind blew past, still and silent yet eased by now dropping of rain on warm skin.

The rain is cool and refreshing, trailing down and leaving hair damp.

But calm only lasts a moment.

Typically when a storm blew through the calm belt it was mild at worst and calm rain at its least. It was almost always that way with nothing to keep feeding its trajectory as it fizzled out and died.

But sometimes depending on how large the storm was prior it could survive long enough to be just as powerful as it was in the grand line.

One second Dicentra is standing at the waters edge basking in the cool rain, the other second she’s dragged in by once cerulean blue waves that became crashing cold darkness. The void encompasses the entirety of her as she’s choked from air and the cold grasping at her bones. Instinct sets in immediately but the shock of near icey waves and pulling current tossing her like a rag doll make it impossible to do so. Helplessly she floats in near darkness as storm clouds blocked out sun and made the waters a chilling void. The image of complete utter darkness as she reaches blindly engraved itself in her mind. Never once has she felt such a fear of the dark. When she was younger she hadn’t feared it, rather was intrigued to explore it instead. But now it grips and drags her down down, down into is abyss.

But then a hand appears from the dark, Nightshade.

Twitchy and icey fingers grasp the stronger hand that then pulls.

She lands on the old rickety boat with a thud and immediately sea water streams out in pained coughs. Wind blows wildly tussling hair as waves crash against the edges of the boat. She can barely see over wet hair clinging to her face but she feels Nightshade hold her for dear life and above the yelling waves her protector screams to hold onto her with all she can.

Dicentra does as says and feels a colossal pain hit her before a once friendly darkness consumes her vision.

Chapter 3: turning point

Waking up is typically a calming routine for Dicentra. If mom wasn’t on a warlord meeting she’d brush sit down with her and her mom would brush her hair. It was a daily tradition, on in which her mother would hum quietly and gently comb through her hair. Sometimes she’d check to see if the pink dye of her hair was loosing its pigment, if so she’d ask if she wanted to leave it natural or dye it once more. Dicentra always opted to dye it again. Crushed up flowers mixed with imported hair products then used to stain once lily White hair again. That was their tradition together alongside at night having mom look at her wings and care for them. Apologizing as she helped her wings molt or placing a soothing cream on the sore hurting appendages. So waking up one morning with sunlight streaming on her face on linen instead of the familiar feeling of silk is odd. Not bad but it doesn’t make sense for a few moments as her sleep plagued brain thought through what had happened.

She remembered a storm, darkness gripping her, coughing up slat water that burned her lungs and then clutching Nightshade for dear life.

Nightshade!

Despite her body feeling like wet bricks Dicentra finds herself dragging herself from the small bed she was laid on. Blindly she reaches out expecting to find her closest companion besides her family. Instead though she meets something else instead.

Nightshade was a lithe person. beautifully strong despite her lack of visible muscles. She used to ask her shadow of a bodyguard how she was able to be so strong without being as muscular as aunty Marigold. The quiet woman would simply hum, saying something about she isn’t strong but has good instincts and reflexes. Point being in all of this the arm she grabbed wasn’t that of Nightshade, it was muscular

“Oh yoi? You’re awake finally.” The voice is weirdly deep and as her eyes adjust Dicentra is faced with someone crouching down to her level. Blue eyes stare at her from behind glasses….this was a weird looking woman.

This is where things would come into motion

I’ll leave it at this for now. But rest assured she has more story

[cruciomee]

Why do you like the Greens so much. You seem very kind and it’s weird to me you like the clear villains/usurpers of the story (especially because they die out).

Honestly, I would normally be upset at this kind of question simply because I hate discourse. I am a people pleaser & in my heart I want everyone to be happy in the fandom. So normally, I would ignore this but not gonna lie. This question was kind of funny.

First & foremost, I was really neutral before I joined Twitter. I did not care about the silly who has more right to rule nonsense. I read fire and blood before the show came & the only thing I was looking forward to was “The Battle Above the Gods Eye” & Sunfyre coming back (because that dragon comes back!) Characters on both sides were equally interesting, but also equally boring for me. It was a specific part of the fandom on twitter to turn me so team green

On a sheer engagement level I have found that anything I draw with team black does not get very much interaction. You would think that ifRhaenyra is the most popular character in the show, if you draw something of her you will get some from of engagement but that is most definitely not the case. so sometimes I wonder if she actually has fans or is this fandom just full of people looking for a fight & use her as their excuse. Either way, I like drawing team black characters but what’s the point if no one wants to actually see it.

Now onto my personal opinions, I like my favorite characters to suffer. I hate cookie cutter happy go lucky stuff. The better a character is made to seem the more I don’t care about them. They become extremely boring to me. Im someone who likes a messy character. The more toxic the person the better. just because I like that kind of character doesn’t mean it has any effect on me as an actual person. fiction is not the same as reality! I don’t like discord in reality, but I love it in fiction! I hate toxicity in reality, but I love it in fiction! Aegon ii is a pathetic trashcan & I love to see him suffer. I can’t wait to see him burnt & broken! I also can’t wait to see him force himself off of Milk of the poppy & for his dragon to come back to him against all odds. I’m so ready to see his death, he needs to be alone & miserable. The fact I’m a kind person who honestly loves drawing kids & family interactions more than anything has nothing to do with what I want to see/read. I read some crazy toxic fanfic & the character I like the most is always the one getting emotionally destroyed in them. Everyone has their thing that they are into & I would never judge them so why should you judge me for liking a bunch of miserable losers who wear green in a show about dragons fighting for no good reason other than on who has more privilege to sit on a metal chair made of swords.

[ride-thedragon]

The worst thing about Rhaenyra is the inherent need her fans have to moralize the protagonist. Rhaenyra isn't a good person.

That's okay.

Rhaenyra isn't a feminist.

That's okay.

She is not a girl's girl and that's fine.

It's so unfair that people can unapologetically Stan Aegon and Daemon but draw the line at morally questionable women.

We love gray characters until a character is truly gray and a woman.

Rhaenyra isn't better than Alicent, nor is Alicent better than Rhaenyra. These women are both brought to the heel of their patriarchal society at the helm of the most power it affords to women.

Neither of them are intersectional thinkers or necessarily progressing women's rights. Rhaenyra would rule then her son. Alicent will just have her son and grandson's rule.

It's a disservice to her character to pander to the idea of moral righteousness or bettering.

What happens to her happens because she is a woman. At every turn, her womanhood and the role of it will pigeon hold her in this society. That does not excuse her very questionable behavior.

Two things can be true.

For example, using my favorite girl, Nettles.

Under Viserys' rule with Alicent and Otto ruling this young girl is a sex worker to sustain her life. She is assumed to have lost her virginity to eat and was disfigured as punishment for wanting to eat. That was her assumed life under their rule. The entire time she has the capability to be a dragon rider.

Had it fallen normally to Rhaenyra nothing would've changed for her and like most of the women we see in that line of work she'd die at the hands of someone or from illness or pregnancy all while being able to claim a dragon.

Women do not need to be exceptional.

( Not everyone can be Nettles)

Women can just be legally named the heir and be heir.

But to impose a moral code that these characters can never live up to is unfortunate. Again, I rise and say I love Rhaenyra, and I understand that she's been groomed by a crazy person and has the moral compass of every Targaryen after the conquest. She's that girl. I'm sorry for those who don't get it or feel the need to justify it.

I also love Alicent, and as a victim of white people's nonsense in 2020 and the Hollywoodification of the feminist movement in the 2010s, you'll never see hate a woman when men are to blame. Seeing someone try to care about something, she has no understanding or ability to truly escape from is hard and a lot of you project the lack of understanding most people have had when it comes to feminism on her as a means to seem above her and what she does. We all fall short and to villanize her for it, is crazy, especially when the person we compare her to has access to do better and doesn’t pursue it.

I'm still waiting for y'all to dislike Daemon for killing a wife, sleeping with a woman at his wife's funeral, and strangling the other after she miscarried their child. Let's not mistake splinters for planks.

[mislamicpearl]

(DRS2P2 SPOILERS)

Dragons Rising AU where everything is the same but Zane is written like an actual character. (also more screen time for Euphrasia)

Please reblog this post instead if you want to share.

Some explanations:

I've ranted several times before about how dissatisfied I've been with DR Zane. I just feel like he's so disconnected from the rest of the characters, like the writers don't really want him there but have to have him anyway because he's an OG and part of all the sets and all. So they find lame excuses to leave him behind, or render him useless, or treat him like an emotionless machine, or just give him the dumb comedic side plots like the Zane lookalike contest or babysitting a silly frog man. It's so frustrating seeing him treated this way as he was my favorite ninja when I was binging the series, and it wouldn't even take that much to give him more presence in the show. So these small scenes sort of just came to me in a rush and I had to draw them to cope.

It bothers me so much that Zane is the only one of the OG ninja aside from Jay (who's got amnesia) who doesn't get hugged whenever he reunites with the others. Like you can't even pretend it's because he's not a hugger or because the others feel weird about hugging him or something, because they've done so many times throughout the show before. So now to have them just kind of not make a big deal about seeing him again after years have passed makes it seem like they just don't care as much about him anymore?? So yeah, definitely had to rectify that. Didn't draw Kai and Nya hugging him because I already drew that awhile back.

I had made a post about Euphrasia taking Mr. Frohicky's role in the show instead, but I want to clarify this does NOT mean she would have his same status as a side character whose only job is taking care of the monastery, it's just to put her in a better position to be close to Zane and the other ninja and be more involved with main events. I think Zane could've really benefited from having a next gen kid to take under his wing like the others.

I feel like people might potentially take offense with me letting Zane be the one to catch the piece of training equipment before it could hit Lloyd, rather than the other way around, because that scene WAS cool and it showed how far Lloyd has come as a ninja master, so I don't necessarily want it changed; this was just the easiest way I could think of to show Zane having won the Element of Reflex (also he's still the one surprised by it while Lloyd is unfazed).

[oncewhenalongtimeago]

I would love a "Sorry, but I Think I Lost Your Plot" in the POV of Hiccup again. The way you write from his perspective is great to read, especially with him fumbling (literally and figuratively) around our reader.

Sorry, but I Think I Lost Your Plot pt 16

Pairing: Onesided!Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III x Modern!Fem!Reader

Words: 2,107

Hiccup talks to his dad and does some illegal town-ly maintenance. Stoick finally asks Hiccup to stop following you but he’s unfortunately a little late on the draw.

Tags: Time Travel, Reader into Movieverse, Hiccup’s POV, unedited

<Previous - Next>

Hiccup stared out a crack in the door, pulling on the corner of his coat.

There was a short crunch from off to the side as he wondered what had brought you up the hill.

He could try the colored tailfins again. That was sure to catch your attention.

Hiccup had spent his afternoon hiding around corners shiftily, carrying seeds he’d just picked up from the docks and secreted away in his coat, sneaking back to his home.

Someone had been hoarding them, and it took him a pretty penny to get his hands on. 

He’d never saved anything ever and he worked at the forge scott free so it was more like something he’d have to pay in favors. Hopefully it was worth it.

He saw you walking down the hill from his house to the village and peered down at your retreating back as you became a speck, standing up on his toes in order to try and get a better look as the angle of his house on the hill became more and more of an issue.

He made a mental note to ask his Dad about why you were up there later.

He heard another crunch from the side.

Hiccup wasted barely a moment to shoot Toothless a look of betrayal, half marred by betrayal at his nonchalance as the Night Fury chewed on kindling and tracked it all over the house.

Said dragon’s head was low to the ground as he brunched through solid charcoal, paws awkwardly gripping the nearly horizontal end of the log.

His Dad was definitely not going to like that.

He promised himself that he was going to throw an eel into the fireplace when he had an eel. Hiccup made a note to jot that down for later.

His stupid dragon could be bought out by fish pretty easy on a normal day, but never when it came to his kindling. 

He’d clean it up later.

He spent a moment longer looking outside at sunny fields and almost didn’t notice the heavy beating of footsteps behind him and the shutting of the backdoor.

“Hiccup.”

He startled, turned and smiled awkwardly, face and shoulders stiff as he turned around, feeling and probably looking like a plank of wood.

Knowing he was there didn’t ever make it any easier.

He was met face to chest with his Dad, who he had to crane his head to look up at, looming above him.

His Dad talked to him to confirm if he was coming home that night for family dinner instead of going to the hall, something which no one else did. Hiccup wasn’t even sure if that was a privilege only they got or something.

Family dinners were definitely a new thing and Hiccup wasn’t sure how he felt about them, especially when most were spent chewing in silence.

He wasn’t sure if they could really be called family considering they were missing a very important member.

He had also, coincidentally, been avoiding his Dad.

Especially when he breached the subject of girls. But Hiccup wasn’t sure his Dad knew which girl Hiccup liked. He was able to shoot off a quick excuse and run for it, usually. He was very good at that. 

But really, who had he been talking to? Gobber?

His father cleared his throat awkwardly, glancing towards the door and back at his son, “So, you like-”

Definitely Gobber.

“Nope, no,” Hiccup said in a tone he hoped was dry, shoulders stiff as he stared at the wall out of the corner of his eye,  ignoring the slightly cold sweat that was beginning to gather at the back of his neck, “Can we talk about something else?”

Stoick gave him a look, “Don’t be following her around, you hear?”

“Huh?” Hiccup asked, voice cracking awkwardly.

Hiccup shoveled a palmful of dirt over a small lump in the ground with his hands, knees digging into the overturned dirt below, feeling pleased with himself. 

He sat back on the ground, pulling his legs out from under him to sit in something resembling a loose leg cross. 

He dropped his hands into the dirt, not minding the grit as it dug under his nails.

He stared at the good sized pouch by his side, mostly empty.

Getting ahold of the seeds was difficult considering you were the one and only delivery girl on Berk.

The package was a sort weighty, though nothing anywhere near unmanageable.

He wondered if it would be appropriate to get you a satchel or something. He could make it out of some of the leather he had left lying around the forge. He could pull out some tools, too, and print a few knots around the border of the hypothetical top flap. 

The beads dotted around the twine encircling his wrists and lining the draws of his tunic shifted, making a sort of barely noticeable crumpling noise as he moved.

You gave him a lot of those. Did that count as you liking him back? 

Hiccup groaned, leaning back on his hands and blinking into the sky, then closing his eyes.

He’d never been the type to wear jewelry -he’s always imagined that to be Snotlout’s thing, he always eyed that one guy down by the docks with the nose ox ring- but you gave them to him. 

He, against all odds, liked them a lot.

He wasn’t a planter, either. He hated it, actually. But… You said it. Girls liked flowers. Girls where you came from liked flowers. Girls here liked flowers, maybe. Hiccup never asked.

How long did it take roses to grow, anyways?

Hiccup shifted slightly, staring at one end of a scaled wall, debating whether or not it was a good time for him to bolt away from the flowerbed he was crouched on, despite the permission he’d gotten to be there.

Certain types of dragon dung made plants grow faster. He picked that up from some of the grain harvesters down by the fields, overheard it while he was messing around when he was younger, definitely illicit and something that they didn’t want getting back to his Dad then and something that, recently, Fishlegs was amicable enough to confirm.

Hiccup made an expression he hoped conveyed his appropriately sectioned disgruntlement.

He poured some into the large dragon feed bins. When the dragons dropped dung from the sky, they’d also be dropping rose seeds. They didn’t pass through dragons like they did other animals. Hopefully no one noticed.

Maybe he could find an import somewhere for a full bush. But he didn’t have anything to trade.

He didn’t even know if there were full rose bushes in the Archipelago.

Once they sprouted, convincing the other Vikings to take care of the rose bushes was going to be difficult, if the sprouts didn’t get trampled first.

He could pass it off as some public service effort, but really he was just doing it to try and woo you. The public service thing would definitely please his Dad, though.

Oh, gods. Hiccup was hit with immediate regret. 

The dragons were definitely going to burn the rose bushes and he would have spent a handful of coins for nothing. 

Could he paint the roses? He still had paint left from the other day. It made great fireproofing. He thought about making a mask, or something. That would be cool.

How much water did roses need, anyways?

He had no idea how he was going to convince his Dad that pipes were worth the resources it’d take to make and maintain them.

He imagined talking about it over the dinner table. Definitely not.

“What are you doing?” Came the deep-ish squeaks of a voice, probably a mirage, called to him like a fairy or a fae or a troll or something evil because he thought it. He ignored the thick shadow that overcame him.

“I can help!” The voice of Fishlegs squeaked again.

Hiccup glanced to the side, where indeed Fishlegs was looming over him, “Unless you like growing things, you can’t help me”

“I like gardening,” Fishlegs insisted, “And I’d… I’d like some flowers for R-my mother!”

“Roses?” Hiccup asked, leaning on his knees.

“Oh-oh!” Fishlegs said, “If you need help, if you’re trying to- you know, for her- she and my mother-”

He scowled again, feeling sort of grumpy and a little bit sad.

Hiccup definitely didn’t have a mother for you to learn with. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to take advice from the lord of suck. Again. Even if it was good advice.

“R-Right, well, nevermind about that,” Fishlegs continued, though Hiccup didn’t pay as much attention to why, “You need help growing roses?”

“No,“ Hiccup urged, miming to Gobber, arms waving from where he stood, alarm rocketing up his spine, secreted away in the shadows of an alley with Toothless.

Said Gobber was too busy peering around Hiccup’s father’s side to pay him any mind, roughly pushing his Dad’s tough, metal plated shoulder, urging him forwards.

Hiccup pulled his prosthetic out of the slightly sunken ground, where it had dipped in after he had tried to go around patting down damp upturned dirt with his boot, a leftover from the other day he’d spent planting seeds around Berk with Fishlegs.

Toothless, being Toothless, snorted, nodding to both Gobber and Hiccup’s father, blending slightly in with the shade in which both he and Hiccup hid.

Hiccup glared at him.

Toothless dropped his eyelids and stared blankly back as if asking Hiccup what he expected.

“I know, Bud. You don’t need to say it,” He grumbled.

How a dragon could be so expressive was lost on him.

There was obviously not much Hiccup could do to rebuke him, a few tons heavier and a lot more fiery in the throat than Hiccup himself in a very literal way, but he was sure he was going to kick the Night Fury off his bed the next time he tried to crawl in.

Hiccup liked it better when he was sleeping on his own anyways. Unless, of course-

Toothless smack him on the back of his head with his tail.

“Ow,” Hiccup rubbed his head, grumbling at his dragon.

Toothless slept on the foot of his bed some weekends which was a pain in the leg. Time two when, on special occasions only, he tried to set it on fire in his sleep.

You were standing in the sunlight, booted toes digging into the dirt, looking quite confused with a pile of possibly clean laundry in your arms, draped over both and occupying the grip of one hand, a coat with the Thorston crest thrown over your shoulders.

Stoick looked back at you with a blank expression, his large beard twitching. His helmet seemed to cover half his face as he stared blankly forwards. 

He looked sort of exhausted by the situation as you stared back, with another thin package in your other, free hand.

Hiccup couldn’t believe it.

Gobber tried to nudge his father forward again with his hammer arm, which didn’t do much. Even jumping into Stoick with his shoulder didn’t do anything and Stoick didn’t move an inch until he chose to move his feet, looking back at Gobber tiredly.

“What is your relationship with my son?”

“Huh?” You asked. He heard your voice vaguely from where he stood, not particularly hidden around the bend of a large house frame.

You seemed very focused on his Dad, though. Anyone would be in the situation. At least, that’s what Hiccup thought.

Everything in him burned with embarrassment. A little bit of him was very irritated with his Dad, sort of annoyed, too. 

Who tipped him off, anyways?

“How…” Hiccup’s Dad looked down at the card, comically small compared to his large hands, “Do you handle responsibility?”

Gobber threw his hands up in the back, waving them around like very thick sausages, freezing only when, finally, he caught Hiccup’s eye, frozen like a Terror on top of a fish barrel.

“Do you have any parents who would be open to discussion about-” Stoick asked gruffly, looking very unimpressed as Gobber walked up and tried to smack him on the back of his head, gesturing towards where Hiccup was hidden in an alley, trying to turn his attention away from you and only him.

Tried, being the key word.

Hiccup choked back a yelp as he half scrambled half backed very dignifiedly further back into the alley, swearing to the Gods Almighty that- Well, that- He couldn’t do much on his Dad’s front but he was definitely never talking to Gobber again.

[10blue10]

HTTYD continuity: Are there two Hiccups?

First of all, thank you for all the likes and reblogs on my ‘there are two Hiccups’ post. It’s seriously blowing my mind how popular it is. So, if you read it and thought “what? There are two Hiccups?”

Well, no… but actually yes. I wasn’t being literal (I know, on the reading comprehension website? Shame on me), but the thing is, I’m actually kind of right? Just look at these examples from the wiki:

The entire series is based on the six main Dragon Riders moving away from Berk for over a year. However, in commentary, Dean DeBlois has said that they all lived on Berk between the first two films. The second film’s Art Book elaborates on this saying that they all had responsibilities on Berk which prevented them from leaving.

In other words, as far as Dean is concerned, RTTE never happened.

The series also focuses on the six main Dragon Riders exploring lands outside the Archipelago together, while both Dean and the second film’s Art Book state that only Hiccup and Astrid ventured outside the Archipelago as they were the ones drawing up Hiccup's map. The other four stayed much closer to Berk.

Again, we have a direct contradiction between what Dean claims happened pre-HTTYD2 in his (head)canon, and what we see in RTTE.

Numerous other "dragon riders" are introduced throughout the series, when the second and third films themselves stress how Berk is the only community who rides dragons. Dean elaborated on this during a convention panel explaining that that’s why Eret and Drago were so alarmed when seeing Vikings riding on dragons, and why Eret assumed Valka was one of them.

In an interview with the series creators Art Brown and Douglas Sloan, it was mentioned that the show was originally meant to have 4 seasons, spread out over the span of a year and a half, leading up to the second film. Following the many clues and mentions regarding the passage of time within the story, the last 7 episodes of season 4 were supposed to have happened during the same summer as the film. However, when seasons 5 and 6 were ordered into production, the show writers had to carry on with the timeline they had set up, which inevitably lead to the series continuing into negative time; going past the second film.

In other words, the last two seasons of RTTE aren’t meant to take place before HTTYD2 - they take place after it. If there’s better proof that RTTE is on its own separate timeline, I don’t know what that is.

The majority of film characters are portrayed severely out-of-character in the series compared to the films and film-verse media; most arguably Hiccup and Astrid. Aside from having similar appearance and even voices, their personalities and behaviors in the series portray them as drastically different people than their film counterparts.

I would argue that they are more in character during RTTE, especially Snotlout, the twins and Fishlegs. Isn’t it amazing what being fleshed out characters instead of comic relief can do? But there you have it. RTTE!Hiccup is portrayed as drastically different to his film counterpart. When push comes to shove, there are two Hiccups.

Or, you know, three, if we count the one from the books 😂.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to lamenting the fact we live in the timeline where THW exists and not the timeline where the writers of RTTE were allowed to make a full length conclusion movie.

[juniorfor2]

For some reason, even though it has been 2 years since S1 and Aemond claimed a dragon, I am still seeing people say that it is impossible to steal a dragon and he did nothing wrong. Which is baffling, because he clearly was - he did not have the King’s permission to claim such a dragon, and he specifically did it on the night of Laena’s funeral because he wanted to make sure no one could stop him or claim Vhagar before him.

I think part of this stems from a lack of theoretical understanding of how ownership works, as @rhaenin-time writes about here, but I also think it comes from a practical lack of understanding - it’s pretty clear that none of these people have ever worked with domestic animals, and therefore have never had to deal with the exact specifics of what ownership looks like in relation to each person involved with the animal.

However, I have worked with large domestic animals - and the moment that you start comparing the two, it becomes pretty obvious that Aemond was in the wrong.

The relationship that the riders, such as Laena, have with the dragons is most similar to a full lease on a horse. This means that by paying money to the owner, Laena can take Vhagar over to her place in Pentos and have essentially full responsibility over her. Laena can ride her, take care of her, allow her family to help with responsibilities, etc. She essentially acts as the owner of Vhagar. However, Laena is NOT the owner at the end of the day, she is leasing. That means that whenever Laena ends the lease (or in this case dies), Vhagar goes back to Viserys.

Vhagar belongs to no one except Viserys - not Laena’s family, not anyone related to Viserys, not even Alicent as his wife. The only one who could potentially do anything is Rhaenyra, who could be given the responsibility as heir, to manage things if Viserys cannot. No one else gets that responsibility, because their name is not on the label for ownership.

Therefore, neither Aemond nor Rhaena are allowed to just grab Vhagar and ride her. It is understandable that as a 6-7 year old, who has grown up with Vhagar her whole life and even ridden her with her mother, Rhaena might not fully understand this. However, there is no excuse with Aemond. He has never had responsibility over Vhagar, and he was not given permission to take on that responsibility and ride her. He knows this too, by sneaking out at night to do so, rather than asking at a more appropriate time.

That is stealing. By understanding that someone else owns the animal and deliberately not asking permission to take them, there is no other way to view it. It doesn’t matter if Aemond is Viserys’ son, if a kid took out their parent’s horse at night to go for a ride without telling anyone (especially never having ridden or seen the horse before), you can bet they’d be grounded for months and they would never ride them again.

It’s no different with dragons. People seem to think that by virtue of dragons possessing more intelligence than the average animal, that this somehow changes things. It really doesn’t. Sure, a dragon cannot be abused into submission, they have their own magical abilities and shouldn’t be constantly restrained, but what else is there? A farm animal could just as easily kick a person’s head in for abusing them or trying to force them into something. An animal can decide not to listen to anyone if they feel like it. They should be treated with respect as well - they are not dumb creatures that can’t understand a word a person says. People say you can’t force a bond with a dragon - do you really think it’s possible to do so with a horse?

Aemond’s actions are not better by virtue of the creature being a dragon. People trying to draw such a difference are those who have never had to understand a clear distinction in ownership before, and do not understand how domestic animals behave. If Aemond did not ask permission from the owner to ride Vhagar because he knew he wouldn’t get it, then he was stealing, plain and simple.

[swallowedbyfandom]

Her chambers soon begin to look like a florist shop. Colin has been a busy bee, she will give him that. He has sent her beautiful elaborate bouquets everyday this week with sweet little cards attached. In the week since that awful dinner at Bridgerton house Colin has managed to purchased a home in Bloomsbury. He has also interviewed and hired several servants to fill household positions. There have been trips to the lawyers and other legal affairs that has the Ton holding their breath. It is clear to all he is preparing to take a wife.

Her mother observes the situation with a shark's predatory anticipation. It is almost makes Penelope sad that her mother cannot see what he does not do. He has not gone to see a doctor yet nor has he had one come to call. She is serious about that, she had once overheard a midwife tell her mama that certain illness can led to infertility. While at the time she did not understand, what they were speaking on she does now. Her Papa's whoring likely left her mama unable to carry a child again. Colin has not come to call and he still has not come to her mama to formally declare his intentions to court her.

Frankly she has stated clearly what her expectations are for a suitor. That he is still falling short of her expectations is his own doing. He had eight weeks to work with. He just burned nine days of that with half measures. Flowers are a nice gesture but they are an empty gesture when she has a home filled with gentlemen callers daily. When they take time from their day to hand deliver her flowers and sweets. When they line up and wait to spend time with her. He is stalling, and falling woefully behind.

She is standing with Agatha who has used her dragon's glare to give her succor during the last three balls. The pickings of available bachelors worth spending time with tonight is minuscule. They are in the middle of giggling like schoolgirls over Lord Duncan trying to hide behind a curtain, when she spots Francesca looking uncomfortable with Lord Samadani. She lets out an aggravated sigh.

"Please pardon me. I must rescue Fran from the Queen's import. Please let her Majesty know they are incompatible. He wants an army of children and Francesca does not want more than two." Agatha lets out a snort, with a knowing smirk.

She makes her way over to Fran who is politely trying to give the Marquis a not so subtle hint. She flashes Fran a reassuring smile and smoothly cuts into Lord Samadani's ramble.

"Please pardon my interruption, my Lord. Francesca, Lady Danbury has been trying to get your attention. I believe she has a message from your mama to pass along."

Francesca gives her a relieved smile, before turning to excuse herself from Lord Samadani. Penelope opens mouth to excuse herself also, when she spots Fife making his way over to her.

She grabs Lord Samadani's arm and turns her wide panic filled eyes on him. She speaks rapidly.

"You must sign my card and take me to dance immediately."

To his credit he reaches for her dance card as he speaks.

"Why am I breaking the rules of etiquette to dance with a Lady I have not yet been introduced to?"

"You are a gentleman are you not? I am a Lady in distress. What better reason is there?"

They take their positions on the dance floor.

"Are you really in distress?" He asks her.

She places her hand on his shoulder and relaxes her frame while responding.

"I assure you my Lord, any Lady with sense would be distressed by Lord Fife. I am sure that if I am forced to dance with him once more tonight I shall stab him with a dessert fork."

He releases a deep rich laughter that draws attention to them. He smirks at her.

"May I have the name of the violent lady I am to dance with?"

Giggles escape her as she demurs.

"Penelope Featherington, my Lord. However I dispute the claim that I am violent. I prefer the term vigilant." She frowns as she continues speaking. "Lord Fife is swine. He enjoys making comments that are improper. While I may not understand the actual innuendos, I understand his leering looks enough to be uncomfortable."

The Marquis looks decidedly less amused by that. His frame carries a tension now it did not before. She distracts him with questions about his country. He is surprisingly charming and intelligent. He escorts to her to Albion after their set is complete and once he sees Lord Fife approaching again, this time trailed by Colin he signs her card for a second dance. Thankfully it is her last spot available on her dance card. She gives him a curtsy while graciously thanking him for his aid. Now she has a viable reason to deny Fife and Colin both a dance.

Colin is lucky she is not holding a drink in her hand when he asked why she did not keep a dance available for him. She for certain would have thrown it into his face at that moment. The hubris of that question fills her with rage. They have been at this ball for hours if he wanted to dance with her he should have asked when she arrived. She has danced six sets tonight with a variety of different gentlemen. She has danced an additional four sets that were second dances. Lord Samadani will be the fifth Gentleman she has a second dance with that night. That Colin thought he would swoop in the last hour of the ball and finally grace her with his presence. He must believe her desperate or still a silly girl waiting for crumbs of his attention.

The carriage ride back is entirely too long in Penelope's opinion. Her mother has spent the ride blatantly evaluating Penelope. She allows her mother to look her fill without comment until she figures out which question she wants to ask. Finally Portia seems to make up her mind.

"Have you finally given up on Mr. Bridgerton?"

She rolls her eyes. God, her mama is so short sighted.

"Contrary to what you like to believe I had never really set my sights on Mr. Bridgerton."

Her mother scoffs in response.

She makes a dismissive gesture with her hand, before she continues speaking.

"You don't have to believe me. Your opinion in the grand scheme of things matters very little. I have always adored the Bridgertons as a whole. It is also true I have always held tender feelings for Colin. However I never expected anything to come from it. I was aware that our close childhood bond would always have him viewing me as a little girl. I did not try to entice him. I never felt the potential fallout with his family to be worth the risk."

"If I were as blinded by love as you believe, I would have accepted his proposal. I did not because I am no longer certain he would be an ideal husband for me. He has allowed peer pressure to dictate a change in his values and behavior. What use would I have for a fickle husband?"

"If he wants to be my husband he will prove it. He will swallow his pride, eat his words and court me publicly. He doesn't get a pass because we were childhood playmates. We are not children any longer. I will not marry unless I am sure my husband will not leave me and our children in dire straits the way papa did to us. I am more practical than you believe."

"I do not need to be in love to marry well. I am looking for a stable partner I can grow to love. I am looking for a man who will think disappointing me is a fate worse than death. Who will choose me and our children before anything else. I would rather be a spinster than settle for less than that."

Her mother's lips are white with how hard they are pursed together.

"Colin Bridgerton looks down on our family, mama. He thinks he would be doing me a favor by marrying me, and saving me the shame of the Featherington name. Our family may be a scandalous mess, but we are survivors. While I am not proud to be a Featherington, I am proud to be Penelope Featherington. If I allow him the upper hand of being my white knight now, he will have it forever."

Her mama looks so pensive. Penelope allows herself to lean forward and drop a kiss on her forehead.

"I have been caring for myself for years now, mama. Put your efforts on my sisters they need you, I do not."

Her mama seems to startle at that. " I have tried my best with all of you girls. You know that right?"

Penelope exhales heavily she is too tired and short tempered for this conversation.

"No you did not. You tried and failed with my sisters. Phil and Pru are helpless and without a single drop of cunning. You married them to idiots. Albion and Philippa I can understand. They are in love and happy but neither of them is particularly bright. They are one shady steward away from poverty. Albion needs someone to teach him how to run an estate. Hopefully his parents will do so."

"Pru and Harry are doomed. Harry is sweet and simple, Pru will take advantage of him. While the Dankworth fortune is sizable, it is not so sizable that it can withstand Prudence's spending and inheriting the debt remaining on the Featherington estate."

"That your daughter's are completing to inherit that debt, should tell you everything you need to know. Yes a son will secure the title of Baron but it will also inherit the mess Papa and Jack made. If either of my sister's had sense they would pray for a daughter. If you had sense you would remarry and wash your hands of papa's mess. That is why I have finally entered the marriage mart. I am looking to wash my hands of our family."

"You have never tried to help me succeed, mama. Everything I am, I am in spite of you. Perhaps you were trying to make me strong? I doubt it though you are not a long term planner. You love me. I know this but you do not like me. That is fine. I feel the same way. We do not have to play pretend with each other, mama. We are adults."

Her mother remains quiet after that. She knows she has broken something irreparable between her mother and her. However they have been broken for years. Why should she be the only person to carry that burden?

She has carried the Featheringtons far enough. She has kept them off the streets. The more she thinks on it the more she realizes that the money she has set aside for her mother is unearned. Why would she leave almost half her earnings for her mother to spend on tacky gowns? Let her mother count on her son in laws or let her remarry.

She has worked hard to secure her future. Why the hell would she leave behind half her fortune? No. She isn't leaving anything behind. She has already done more for them, than they ever did for her.

[sweetshelluvaau]

Finally, I finished him!

So here he is, the King of Lust himself, Asmodeus! I wanted to take a break from the main cast plus hyperfixation came into play so if I didn't draw Ozzie my brain would have exploded so here we are. I'm putting this under read more because there's a lot of ranting before I get to the notes on the redesign plus pictures to address my points:

To be honest: I don't mind Ozzie's design/outfit in the show. It isn't horrible by any means and there was a time where I could say I even liked it. But when Oops dropped and seeing him without the suit happened, disappointment sunk in.

Are you telling me this man, is a beefcake under that compression suit? The embodiment of lust is jacked and his outfit doesn't show that!?

Seriously Viv, where's the beef?

And while I did say that I did at one time like his design, I never found it really 'sexy' (his voice on the other hand...) and after seeing his beautiful chest all I can do is cry about it.

Also: what is it with Viviziepop and top hats? It's if half of her male cast wears them. It'd make sense for some characters, notability sinners who died in their era that they were popular but it makes no sense for other characters. In this case, I just think Ozzie looks better without one.

Ahem, yeah okay, right, soooo notes:

I noticed one of his earlier looks before the final design he had a longer, thicker and fluffier neck and kinda sad they didn't keep that being it worked with the rooster motif he's suppose to have. I decided to incorporate it back into my design just because I can. Plus, ya know it's fluffy:

I also decided to give him bird feet/chicken legs and make him a bit thicker thighs because excuse me he's part rooster have you seen the meat on those things?!

Because my obsession with his chest, I decided that the outfits should show it off more because, um...chest. Also: FLUFF. idk why I just really wanted to make him fluffy.

The outfit on the right was the one I drew first but I felt it was lacking the regal feel I wanted to go with being he is one of the Deadly Sins and I wanted to show that (along with his chest and fluff but shh). I decided to keep it as a secondary, causal outfit on days off when all you want to just lay on the couch and chill/cuddle with your boyfriend. (likely gonna get rid of the neckless being I mostly just added it because I thought it was funny. If you know, you know.)

After going back at it a second time I decided to go for a burlesque style (Not sure if I nailed it or not) considering his club sorta had that theme going for it and while I'm more than likely going to revisit and change a few things later on, I overall love how the outfit came out.

And of course, a crown. I may get rid of the fire/flaming top in later drawings but I thought it was cool at the time.

I may still revisit the design to maybe add a bit more bull, goat and possible dragon to his design outside of the heads but I think I may save that for when I cerate his full demon form where I'll have those features stand out more. Likely won't have him have his tiny form in my au, no matter how cute it is.

not really a design note persay but kinda want to mention it because it bothers me: I drew/inked and colored both of these at different times which is why the anatomy and coloring is so different from each other. I'm still playing around with clip studio paint tho I think the shading style on the right is the one I'm gonna go with for now on.

As for character/lore notes: I really don't like how it feels as if Ozzie (along with some other characters) was defanged in season two plus how they made him, a deadly sin, not feeling all too threating. Granted, Ozzie being nice isn't the problem (being nice doesn't necessarily mean you're a good person plus I do like that the sins do have some virtues like believing in consent being ya know, complexity and what not suppose to be full on evil) and I even have him being one of the nicer Sins in my AU but still can have his dickish moments and hell, he and Fizz are gonna drag your corpse with the amount of roasting they're dishing you about your sex life because god they were so much fun when both them had more bite. Please bring back my chaotic asshole jester gremlin and his rooster boyfriend tag teaming about how much you suck in bed and just being a general nuisances to society plzthx. (plus ya know, Fizz is a Jester his job is roasting people. Not to say he can't have some kindhearted moments. His friendship with Blitzo gives me life and I love the moment with the deaf kid even if you have to question why a kid is doing at a 18+ event to begin with but that's a whole other can of worms.)

While I'm not going with the circus theme that Viv claims she's going for with each Deadly Sin being based off a circus act (which is a fun idea in theory tbh if that idea expanded on outside of a poorly done aesthetic), I kind of like the idea of a magician motif for Ozzie due to his use of fire plus one of his infernal correspondences happens to be illusions, which we kinda saw him do in Ozzie's. I thought it was a cool touch, regardless if that was intentional or not.

Also, apparently it's canon that Fizzarolli is his first romantic relationship and idk that kinda bothers me. Asmodeus is over thousand years old and in biblical lore he's been in a few relationship (plus what happened in the Book of Tobit with Sarah). Why not play around with that? In my AU, he's been in at least two (Lilith and Mammon respectfully, and I'll talk about that at a later time) before but they were all failed relationships, which soured his view on love for a long time until he fell for Fizz. I also headcanon Ozzie being/use to being a bit of a hopeless romantic, as much as he tries to hide it (poorly).

Hey, I drew some half decent hands for once.

Anyways, yeah, here's my version of Ozzie. Next up with be either Stolas (which is less of an rewrite and more of a damn overhaul because holy shit I really had enough of this guy in canon) or perhaps Beelzebub being I got some ideas for her too.

Made with Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop CS6 for final touches. Okay to reblog, Feedback is encourage.

[parachutingkitten]

Okay, this has been bothering me, and I'm gonna go into it, cuz I feel like being mad that the fandom didn't get better is friggin valid, so imma get negative here at some serious missed potential, if that's not your jam, 100% get it, please scroll past.

We have a season with 20 episodes, each of which are 20 minutes long. That is an unprecedented amount of time for a ninjago season- I would argue maybe too much time, but that's not what we're getting into here. Even just the first half is the length of your standard ninjago season back in the day. There is no excuse for not taking your time with ideas that deserve time. You've got time. You've got too much time.

If you're gonna do a mystical mind prison that traps you in your worst fears, you gotta do it! You can't do this wimpy half commit thing you're doing here. What is this cop out that's like three minutes long? This is a top tier trope! Loads of stories do this- for a good reason, it's a great way to get lots of new insight into your characters, not to mention have fun with environments, hypotheticals, bend logic, and do some creative filmmaking. And here you are, inventing a whole weird fictional animal to facilitate your nightmare state, and it legitimately takes up so little screen time that it hurts! What? Did you not have enough to say about your characters to fill out a full subplot? You thinking that surface level about things? Or was the basketball tournament fake out with the dragons so important to the story that you couldn't cut it out for some character introspection?

It's so short and pointless, it doesn't functionally do anything except tell us very directly "Here's what this character fears, and will have to get past this season!" No looking into why or making some progress/losing progress on the issue in the dream state. We don't even get to see everyone's visions, let alone see any interconnectivity between them. It's just such a waste of a classically exciting set up. And why on earth would you place this concept at the beginning of the season? Put it at the turning point man! That's what this scenario is made for! Literalizing characters overcoming mental challenges so that it's interesting to watch! Using the nightmare dream sphere for exposition in the most boring possible version of the trope is just dumbfounding.

I mean seriously? The black void? That's all you've got? You gonna go the Cars 2 route and set our supposedly deep nightmare sequence in a black void? No symbolism to the void even? No distorting of visuals within the void? Nothing? Can you get any more basic? Did you really put that little creativity into this? Like, the whole point of the nightmare dreamscape is to get creative! So much symbolism and messaging that you can easily tie into things! the possibilities are literally endless! But yeah, I guess Arin running in place is pretty meaningful too, I'm sure it took you a while to come up with something so profound.

There's a reason this story beat usually makes up at least half the plot of any given episode it's in! There's so much room to explore. The potential for crosscutting between nightmares is so high, drawing parallels between characters. Maybe they're all interconnected, and the mentally strongest of the team breaks free to help the others in their nightmares. Maybe it's a revelation point for the rest of the team as they see a dark past of another character they didn't know about. Or maybe it's just the audience who gets new insight into a sheltered corner of a character's mind, or a way to reveal to them a dark secret someone is hiding. You can also have fun subverting expectations, maybe one of the nightmares is just objectively pretty funny. And, the best thing about any dream environment you're creating, you can have the characters get involved in insanely creative fights and action scenes where they literally beat up their mental roadblocks with cool looking and symbolically important powers or tools.

Like, I know the fandom is losing their mind over this scene because 'omg Nya's gonna be so sad cuz of the memory loss(that hasn't even been revealed in narrative yet, so the irony doesn't even really work)' but I just need you to understand that the full fledged angst, character growth, and introspection y'all are speculating could have theoretically happened in Kai's plot is what we could have had for everyone. For a full episode. Like it deserved to be. And it would have been really cool, and really satisfying, and beautifully and symbolically stunning, because countless other people have done it, it's honestly not too difficult. Stop freaking out like they did a good job with this- they didn't do a good job with this. They couldn't even bother to give everyone a vision, they just gave up on the concept halfway through.

Not to mention how accessible and valuable this type of storytelling is to kids! Literalizing some of the big abstract issues these characters are supposedly battling this season would be a great way to get kids to grasp these ideas, but instead it's literally like two and a half minutes of slightly ominous stuff to bate us before we move on.

Stop teasing us with interesting stuff and then not actually following through! This is not how you do storytelling!

[quibbs126]

So I talked about Frost Queen getting into the main story, and that a possible solution I could come up with being her just joining Dark Cacao in a story to recruit the dragons of his kingdom (assuming they do that), and my brain just kind of took that idea and started running with it, and it culminated in this

I personally like to read the text in a dramatic narrator voice

Also I don’t really know where the “Ice Cold Squad” bit came from, I just thought their names were too long and needed something else, and that’s what I did

Also my first time drawing Frost Queen. Her outfit wasn’t too bad, and I liked drawing her hair, but I did not like that crown. Also as to why Dark Cacao’s in that outfit and with no crown, well I thought since he’s going on a dragon recruiting trip, he probably wouldn’t bring his crown. And as for the outfit, well to be honest I just sort of started subconsciously drawing it. Also I thought “hey, Hollyberry’s got a different outfit than her normal one, give Dark Cacao one too (even though I just drew a pre-existing outfit)”, even though as I write this I realize that Dark Cacao’s outfit is a literal suit of armor and would probably be more suited for fighting than this one. The one excuse I can come up with for a new outfit is that the dragons’ domain is incredibly cold and he needs something better suited for it, as metal isn’t exactly going to keep him warm

But I mean honestly, maybe it’s because my brain has decided it’s interested in Frost Queen, and Dark Cacao is one of my hyperfixation characters, and/or it’s because I’ve recently seen quite a bit of content with Frost Queen and Dark Cacao, but I really want to see Frost Queen and Dark Cacao interact, and specifically the way I want them most to interact is just in a story where they have to work together, and it’s just them. I need to see how they interact, mostly because they both seem pretty similar in terms of personality, and that they both seem relatively antisocial and also dramatic. There’s some comedy potential with these two, along with dramatic potential

But yeah, enjoy them