#unclear major character status

[sleepyiswhumping]

A New Supervillain In Town

Content: Violence, Death, Living Weapon, Whumpee-Turned-Whumper, Multiple Whumpees/Caretakers, Kidnapping, Unclear Major Character Status

This is an idea I've had about a pre-existing OC, but I've no names for the others. Working on that.

~~~

Hero 1 laughed with her team as Youngest cracked another joke. Hero 1 and Youngest were the newest members of the team, yet they already felt at home. The rest of the team were amazing, and Leader had made sure the missions they went to warmed them up to the job, instead of tossing them into the thick of it right away.

Youngest continued as they flew to their next mission.

"-so anyway, that's how I got kicked out of a Red Robin."

Hero 2 snorted, incredulous. "Wait, that was a true story? Jesus, Youngest. You've gotten up to some shit."

"Hey, I like to have some fun!" Youngest chuckled, dismissing the absurdity of the story.

"Hey, hey, focus up." Leader said as they approached the location. "This is a different call. It was urgent, and the caller sounded terrified. We need to be on our A-game here, got-"

Leader trailed off as they saw what had happened.

The first thing that caught everyone's eyes were the bodies. Policemen's corpses had been flung across the road, through the shop windows, and the recognizable bodies of another team of heroes lay motionless, strewn out, twisted and broken, in front of an unmoving figure. A hulking figure, almost nine feet tall, its flesh a mass of scar tissue, the countless bullet wounds not seeming to affect it.

"What the fuck?" Hero 3 blurted. Everyone else remained silent in horror and awe.

The figure turned toward the team, hearing Hero 3. It began to walk toward them, stepping on the bodies in its path, crushing them underfoot. Approaching them languidly, its grin glinted in the sunlight, pointed teeth shining like polished steel.

"Stand back." Leader whispered, stepping in front of the team, then they called out to the figure.

"Stop! You are under arrest! Do not resist!"

The figure continued its lazy approach, grin widening.

"It's real cute you think you stand a chance against me. I mean if they-" it motions toward the broken corpses of the other heroes- "didn't, what makes you think you do?"

The creature's voice sounded like gravel and broken glass as it taunted the team.

Leader hesitated, taking a step back as the figure reached the team, hulking over even Medic, the biggest member of the team. Its eyes glanced over the team, before coming to rest on Youngest, a malicious glint noticeable in them.

"I like them." It said, pointing at Youngest. "Give them to me."

Youngest cowered behind Medic as Leader and Hero 3 stepped in front of the two protectively.

"Yea? And what makes you think we'll just hand them over?"

The figure's arm lashed out faster than a bullwhip, its speed seemingly impossible for its size. Grabbing Hero 3 by the throat and lifting him to its face, it began to squeeze.

"Give me them or he dies, and then I'll kill you all the same way and take them anyway."

After moments of no movement except Hero 3 hitting and kicking at the figure and trying frantically to shake their head, the figure sighed.

"No? Oh well. His blood is on your hands."

With a squeeze and a twist of its wrist, it snapped Hero 3's neck and tossed their limp form to the ground.

"Now. Who's next?"

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Wakey, wakey. The latest hot, steaming garbage Dragon Age hot-takes have dropped.

Wow, Lily. That's a LOT of words to say "I've never played any of Dragon Age. I've only hate-skimmed the series because I decided it was all problematic garbage before going in because there's no sister character I can project my messed-up fantasies on to, so I'm just going to pretend to be oh-so "deep". and "woke" so I can earn progressive brownie points without any effort."

Oh yeah my fans were showing me this last night after I finished Veilguard. I finished Veilguard on stream by the way!

"Dragon Age itself is boring, a generic high fantasy series seasoned with racism it never really bothers to address and a massive host of worldbuilding that is always the least interesting version of a kind of fantasy that was already not interesting to begin with."

The thing I've always loved about Dragon Age, the thing that got me through the slog that is the gameplay of Origins in 2009, has always been the worldbuilding. It's fairly unique as far as fantasy worlds go. All of it takes place on a single continent called Thedas. No one knows what else lies beyond it.

Elves used to be powerful immortal beings until a cataclysm in pre-history that has been pretty unclear until this current game (though you could already figure it out before Veilguard with all the clues throughout the first three games), now they are small second-class citizens who were once enslaved. Their entire culture has been decimated and they have no land of their own. They can only live in ghettos in human cities or as wandering tribes people reinventing the few scraps of history they do have into their own unique cultures.

Dwarves have a stringent caste system and anyone who leaves for above ground is forbidden to come back. They lose all of their social status. Their kingdoms were also decimated when the Blights began, leaving Orzammar the sole Dwarven kingdom. Besides, of course, the elusive Kal-Sharok that is mostly closed off to the world. Dwarves rely on trading lyrium (a substance essential to mages and Templars alike) with the surface for their survival and so they are often traders and economists. The Merchant's Guild is a powerful surface institution that despite being full of Dwarves who left Orzammar or were born on the surface still ties itself up in stringent Dwarven tradition. Dwarves also invented the common tongue/trade language everyone uses.

Humans don't have a whole lot of known history on their origins. We know they're not native to Thedas but Veilguard tells us they were there before the Veil (what separates the real world from the Fade, the world of spirits and dreams). Which is very interesting cause the world was so different back then. After the Veil humans formed the Tevinter Imperium which was a Roman Empire-like civilization that spanned the entire continent. When Andraste lead armies against them the empire was broken up, Tevinter became a smaller country in the North and other countries formed all around the continent. Humans ended up bringing the Blight to the world when the Evanuris, the ancient elven gods sealed away behind the veil, used their dragon thralls to speak to high ranking Tevinter magisters and lure them into breaching the Veil to enter the Fade physically.

Qunari are a completely unique concept to Dragon Age. They're a nameless horned race the majority of which follow a religion/social structure/philosophy called the Qun. It was passed down to them by an ancestor in a long forgotten land they left centuries ago. They conquered Par Vollen, pretty much the furthest north of Thedas, and have been there ever since. Their goal is to submit all to the Qun because the Qun is certainty. Living is a choice and the Qun gives that choice purpose, giving you a role you need not ever question because it is a demand of the Qun and the Qun is certainty. There is some evidence they are people who mixed themselves with dragon blood to become what they are now.

And that is just an overview of what makes the worldbuilding unique. There is so much more to everything I just said.

"Half the characters you meet are related in some way to the Chantry"

Yeah almost like the Chantry has the political power and reach of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe. Almost like Andraste as a prophet is a mix of Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc. Almost like fictional stories take influence from real life history to easily communicate to an audience what they're doing with this concept.

"BioWare is averse to the idea of Elven companions who aren't either chronic backstabbers or insufferable."

Lily what did Fenris and Merrill ever do to you? Did you not actually do Zevran's companion quests and raise his approval? He won't go back to the Crows if you do that you know. Sure Velanna is annoying but I wouldn't call even her insufferable.

The only real backstabber is Solas and he is literally Fen'Harel the elven trickster god.

"Outside of that all encompassing issue, a lot of Dragon Age companions require you to go through a long quest chain before you get to learn anything interesting about them"

Yeah Lily. If you want to get to know your companions better you actually have to do things to get to know them better. That's part of the fun of the game. If you don't like that then these games are maybe not for you.

"The worst version of this is Leliana. If you do her quests and follow her story to completion, she's a somewhat interesting character. BUT... for 11 hours before that point she's just Imoen as a born again christian. How the fuck does a Triple A game fall into "Original Character Do Not Steal"?"

... okay legendary super ultra rare W from Lily.

I'm only half joking because Leliana is the character I coined the term "writer's pet" for.

""Okay I think the group mage will be Vivienne" and then I met Vivienne and spoke to her for ten minutes, and proceeded to leave her in the camp because she's the mage equivalent of Stella Kubler, sucking up to the Chantry and actively supporting Mage Auschwitz."

And it was immediately negated with a common major L.

Maybe if you'd actually hear Vivienne out on why she supports the Circles you could learn something from her Lily. She's very similar to Wynne in that regard. Vivienne feels mages need a place to commiserate with other mages and learn to control their power. And she is absolutely right about that.

Also she is a queen and if you actually had to talk to her for 10 minutes she'd probably leave you weeping on the floor with her verbal stinging barbs alone.

She also becomes the mom friend companion if you befriend her. She's the only one who really checks in on the Inquisitor and frets about how you're doing. In her own way.

"BioWare for a while kept operating under the assumption that there was a real ethical question behind Mage Auschwitz. There wasn't. There was edgy gamer bros roleplaying as fantasy nazis and EVERYONE ELSE siding with the Mages, and rather than give up BioWare kept forcing the issue."

Lily if you didn't spacebar hammer your way through cutscenes and dialog and actually paid attention to the fucking story you would know the Circles and Templars are way more complex than you're stating here. You don't even seem to realize that Templars are an arm of the Chantry. Despite the fact they're called Templars.

I doubt you even know that Templars are usually recruited as children or teens in a monastic-like tradition and orphans are often just handed to them.

"Dragon Age 2 gives you an escaped slave party member who is also a bigot.

By the end of Dragon Age 2 I was a Warrior and my part was "My Mage Sister, my Mage Girlfriend, and my Mage BFF."

Oh god she likes Anders. Of course she likes Anders. The same Anders that turns to said escaped slave and says "Hey mages in the South are PRETTY MUCH slaves, you should be supporting them!"

The escaped slave who has lyrium markings carved into his skin by his former mage master. His former master who may have also had a sexual relationship with him. The escaped slave from Tevinter, where mages are the upper class and rule over all of society. Where blood magic is nominally forbidden but constantly happening behind closed doors. Where slavery is legal.

That escaped slave. Fenris. My favorite character in the entire series and my favorite romance in the entire series.

You ain't winning this one Lily lol.

"Going into Veilguard, I just don't bother with companion quests, because I know I'm just going to hate them at the end of it because that's how this game works.

Compare this to Mass Effect"

Compare it specifically to Mass Effect 2 because you are going to get everyone killed by not completing their companion quests.

"You get Miranda and Jacob who are big simps for Cerberus, but their companion quests have nothing to do with that so you don't have to listen to any of it past the first time."

Ah the human supremacy group is fine though.

"Mass Effect does have its dud characters. Zaeed, Kasumi, Thane, Ashley, Miranda"

Lily you get Thane and Kasumi out of there right now.

Really? You didn't list JACOB? The most lame nothing companion in any Bioware game ever?

That's the end I can't take any more.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Actually could we put some light on the class difference clash epel is experiencing in school. The situations looks a little weird to me. Cuz in epel's robes vignette it starts with the other pomefiore students asking him about carpet brand preference and he has no idea what to answer. They end up having a misunderstanding that never clears up. Epel proceeds to make a table manner mistake which Rook helps cover up with a lie so epel won't be embarassed (rook can probably sympatise) while vil is more strict. It is in this vignette we see that instance of vil first making epel lie about his favorite food for unclear, debated reasons.

In Epel's labwear vignette we hear some of the NPC students whisper about him and they seem to be asuming he must also be from some rich family due to the clothes he wears (which vil gave to him and makes him wear) and maybe also because he's in pomefiore. I know that it's just like vil to give people clothes he thinks will fit them best,and some of it might be so epel blends in pomefiore better, but could Epel actually be more likely to get picked on if he was perceived as from a lower class? NRC is a prestigious boarding school but it's not like he's the only character with more...average circumstances. Compared to the literal royalty and celebrity attending.

[Referencing this post!]

Mmm... I mean, aren't the mobs (in the Labwear vignettes) already bullying Epel because they perceive him to be of high social status? I don't think it would make a difference if they knew he was of a low social status since the mobs were already bullying him (again, under the impression that he's rich) to begin with. What I'm saying is that bullying would have occurred regardless of Epel's socioeconomic status. It's not necessarily nice, but it seems to be the norm for NRC students to verbally bash one another.

I don't really recall other major or frequent instances of middle class (Trey, Jack, Ace) or low-income students (Ruggie, Deuce) in the main cast being bullied. In fact, Trey and Ruggie are pretty well-liked and respected within their own dorms despite not being as wealthy as the majority of their peers are. (In this post, I go over how roughly 75% of the main cast come from at least upper middle-class backgrounds.) The bullying seems to be centered mainly on Epel, and I think that's probably because his peers perceive him as being small and cute--and therefore delicate, meek, and easy to push around. Epel just seems like the ideal target from a quick glance. Notice how B-kun comments on Epel’s face first:

I think it's also worth noting which dorms the bullies in Epel's Labwear vignettes come from: B and C are from Savanaclaw, and A is from Pomefiore. Savanaclaw mobs are notoriously belligerent and are usually the go-to mobs to pick fights with their peers for what are very minor things. The Pomefiore mob bully seems to be an outlier; most other Pomefiore mobs, at least as depicted in Epel's Ceremonial Robes vignettes, are polite and refrain from this type of behavior.

Importantly, (Savanaclaw) C is the one that calls Epel a “little rich brat” and (Pomefiore) A says Epel is “daddy’s fancy little lad”. This wording makes both sound resentful of the rich, thinking them spoiled—so it makes me think maybe A, B, and C are actually not rich themselves and are the less privileged picking on someone they think is wealthy but unable to stand up for themselves.

Now, within Pomefiore itself, it does appear that many of its students are upper class or at least sticklers for appearances. Their knowledge of brands and aesthetics itself is not damning evidence (anyone of any class could know this too; there’s also lots of non-rich people who obsess over brands). However, the fact that all of Epel’s first year peers already seemed familiar with how to handle a full set of cutlery at a formal meal does indicate high socioeconomic status, as the common man would not know how the heck a salad dork differs from the fish fork. (Most people use 1 fork or 1 spoon for the entire meal, and forget about having courses.) Buuut we shouldn’t assume that this one vignette is representative of all Pomefiore students, just as we cannot assume the one mean Pome A is a good example of all Pomefiore students, since there are limitations with the game. (Another famous game limitation is all Savanaclaw mobs being beastmen and every other dorm having zero beastmen mobs; in the manga, we see humans in Savanaclaw and beastmen in Heartslabyul. Riddle also verbally confirms that Heartslabyul has a cat beastman in the second Beans Day event.)

I think there’s definitely intersectionality at play as well. There’s something to be said for a culture clash in addition to a clash of classes. Epel is the only one in the main cast from a decidedly rural area where there isn’t much to do (ie no brand name shops) and everyone is close and casual with one another (ie there is little in the way of formalities). This likely contributes to the disconnect between Epel and his Pomefiore peers.

Now, where is this all leading to? Am I claiming that bullying based on socioeconomic status doesn't happen at NRC? Of course not! I have no doubt that it happens, but I don't think it's specifically the rich-on-poor type. In Epel's case, it seems to be the poor-on-(perceived to be) rich kind, but the opposite also occurs (in book 1, Riddle insults Yuu's pitiful education, something which is typically associated with the lower class; magic and magic education in particular is associated with the upper class). And, of course, we have the middle ground of people of similar socioeconomic status going at each other (for example, Leona and Malleus's rivalry). What's sort of sad is that the environment at NRC is conducive to animosity and no adults ever intervening because: 1) the students are so prideful, who would actually have the guts to tell an authority figure they were being picked on? and 2) the students tend to try and retaliate or get into fights instead, which only escalates the situation.

At NRC, I get the impression that class is one thing you could get bullied for, but that power and/or connections are much more important factors. Let's revisit Ruggie, who is the most impoverished of the main cast. If we assume that the less well-off students are predominantly the ones who get picked on, then shouldn't we have many examples of Ruggie being bullied? But he isn't. In fact, the big, burly Savanaclaw mobs (who are known to be combative) seem to defer to him instead of bullying him. Leona even leaves Savanaclaw in Ruggie's care while he is away in book 6, fully expecting that the mobs will listen to Ruggie. Why? Well, Ruggie is not physically or magically strong, but he has Leona's backing. It's through this association with the powerful Leona that Ruggie gains the respect and the following of the others in his dorm. This is something we consistently see in other characters, including Epel's own dorm leader. Because Vil beats him in combat, Epel agrees to listen to what he says even if Epel dislikes it. We see mob students bend the knee to the main cast once they've gotten glimpses into their power or abilities (Leona versus the Savanaclaw mobs, Idia versus the Ignihyde mobs, each in their respective Dorm Uniform vignettes).

Circling back around to the concept of Epel being bullied! Would the Pomefiore mobs turn on him if they realize he's actually not wealthy? Maybe...? We don't really know enough about the individual personalities of the mobs to judge for ourselves. If they did bully Epel for that though... I feel like those mobs would be in for an ass whooping from Vil (and Rook) for being so petty, vindictive, and disregarding decorum. Vil can rub people the wrong way with his demanding and stern attitude (I'm one of those people sometimes), but he wouldn't stand for such "ugly" behavior. It sullies the good name of the Fairest Queen and the dorm made in her image that he oversees. Those are my thoughts on the topic! I apologize if I ended up straying a little from the initial ask (I felt like I wasn't even truly talking about Epel for half this post ashdbsadlbayw).

[s10127470]

X-Men '97 Rewrite (Part 1)

@a-roguish-gambit, @cheesecakeluvrs

Hey there guys!

As I’m sure many of you know, it’s been almost an entire year since X-Men '97 premiered.

And ever since it’s first season wrapped up back in May, the reception towards has notably shifted.

While the common consensus being that while the show is good, it does have a lot of glaring flaws.

And a lot of this has to do with the show's creator, former showrunner and head writer: Beau DeMayo.

It was revealed right before the show premiered that he was fired from the show.

Though the reasons why were still unclear.

However, once the first season was completed, we would find out why DeMayo was fired.

That being he allegedly made the work environment incredibly toxic and was guilty of committing acts of sexual harassment.

And with people finding out more about him over the ensuing months, it made a lot of the flaws of this series a lot more apparent and gave a reason why they were there in the first place.

So, in honor of the upcoming 1 year anniversary of the show, I've decided that I wanted to do a rewrite of the first season.

I'm not sure if anyone else has done this yet, but if so, let me know.

Anyway, for this rewrite, there will be major changes.

Also, I will be highlight of the flaws of the series throughout this series.

And to start this off, we'll be looking at the first two episodes of the series, as they premiered on the same day.

So without further ado, let's get this started!

Episode 1: To Me, My X-Men (March 20th, 2024)

Overall, this is episode is largely the same, but there are a few key differences.

First, there’s the roster.

It’s essentially the same, but there’d two things to here.

First off, there’s Bishop.

It was really cool to see him become a full-time member of the team, given how he was a recurring guest character in the original animated series.

For only three episodes……

But here, he will be sticking around.

Next, the team actually has another new addition.

And that new addition is Colossus, who like Bishop in the original series, was also a recurring guest character.

As you would expect, he would be sporting his classic outfit now.

As for his voice, he would be now voiced by Stefan Kapičić, reprising his role as the character from the Deadpool films.

We would see this in the opening scene, where Cyclops, Storm and Bishop infiltrate the hideout of The Friends of Humanity.

We’d see Colossus tanking blasts, hurling massive objects at them, and destroying their machinery.

Next we come to the X-Men’s status.

In the past year since Xavier left, things have been looking up for them.

Human-mutant relations have greatly improved, and mutants are now being integrated into society.

The Xavier School for the Gifted has become an actual school again and are now teaching both young mutants and humans.

This would be revealed during the breakfast scene.

Plus, it would be pretty cute to see these students absolutely gawking over having their teachers be The X-Men.

And The X-Men themselves being pretty flattered about the whole thing.

One thing to note that a lot of people mentioned was that it seemed like the show was planning to go to audience surrogate route with Roberto.

But after this episode, they basically threw that out.

But in this version, they’ll actually keep that route….but it wouldn’t be with Roberto.

Instead, it would be done with Kitty Pryde.

Just about every X-Men fan reading this:

Yep, Kitty would be the audience surrogate for this series!

And this is just the best of both worlds!

Not only because Kitty has experience with this kind of thing, but also because just about everyone who watched the original series all wished she would’ve made an appearance.

Hell, some even wished she was the audience surrogate rather than Jubilee.

Side Note: Does anyone else keep forgetting that Roberto was even in '97? He got side-lined pretty hard. Not helped with the fact that he was kind of a dweeb.

But yeah, Kitty would be taking Roberto’s spot as the hostage of The Friends of Humanity.

And as you would expect, over the course of this episode, Kitty would promptly get to meet each of The X-Men.

While on the topic of Kitty, let’s talk about her voice.

For this series, Kitty would be voiced by voice acting legend, Kath Soucie.

Now, this choice I have for Kitty may seem strange to many of you.

Like, Kath is incredibly talented and despite being 72 now, she still sounds great!

But most of you are probably wonder why an actress that old is voicing a character who, in this series, is 16 years old.

Well first off, we’ve had plenty of teenage characters being voiced by actors much older than them.

Hell, Holly Chou, Jubilee’s new actor in this series, is like, 51.

And second off, this is would essentially serve as a major Easter egg.

As I’m sure most of you know, back in 1989, there was Pryde of the X-Men.

It was an animated tv special, serving as a pilot for a potential X-Men cartoon.

It focused on Kitty joining The X-Men, which consisted of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Dazzler.

However, the pilot didn’t really take off and the proposed series never got made. 

Though it did serve as the basis for the X-Men arcade game produced by Konami.

But in weird way, without this special, we wouldn’t have X-Men: The Animated Series.

So Kitty’s casting is basically a tribute to the special and everything finally coming full circle.

Hell, her outfit here would even be pulled from Pryde of the X-Men.

Anyway, the scene at the club would instead replace with a somber scene in the inner city

Just like Roberto did, Kitty ran away, feeling like that even among fellow mutants, she doesn’t belong and is trying to get a ride back home to Chicago.

We would get a really tender scene of The X-Men comforting Kitty, all relating to her struggles and ever sharing some of their origins, showing that they understand how it feels dealing with mutant powers for the first time.

Plus this would serve as the reveal of Kitty’s phasing ability.

The highlights would definitely be from Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine, with this essentially serving as the beginning of Kitty’s famous friendships with them.

And before you ask, no, Kitty and Colossus will not be a couple her.

Also, as they’re looking for Kitty, we’ll also be getting some good ol’ shipping fuel.

We would find out that Rogue and Gambit had officially become a couple since the original series.

And there’s some hints about something going on between Wolverine and Morph.

And I’ll touch on why around the end of all this.

Anyway, the episode plays out the largely the same.

And since Colossus is here, you’ll know he’ll be tossing Sentinels arounds and smashing them into each other.

And yes, we’ll even see him and Wolverine performing the iconic fastball special!

However, the scene between Roberto and Jubilee would be replaced by one between her and Kitty.

But it’s still the same, with Jubilee assuring Kitty that she does belong here and that The X-Men are not just a team, they’re a family.

Kitty would reveal that while she does want to go home, she’s kinda afraid to because she fears that her parents would disown her for being a mutant.

Though she would also state that’s not the only reason she fears her parents would disown her.

Yeah, this version of the series is going there.

Also, this what Colossus’ ballin’ outfit will look like.

Episode 2: Mutant Liberation Begins (March 20th, 2024)

Once again, this episode is largely the same.

But there are still some massive changes.

To start this off, this version will be getting rid of perhaps the two biggest flaws of the series.

1. Magneto being the focal character. This doesn't really hit you at first, but as the series goes on, it does become much more apparent. Especially now with the fact that DeMayo is famously a huge Magneto stan, and more or less made him both a writer's pet and a kind of a self-insert. As a result, this lead to a good chunk of The X-Men being sidelined and even his character....kinda getting ruined, which I'll touch more on when we get to the second point. But one of the strangest things is that in spite of famously being a Holocaust survivor and Jewish, that's never mention in this entire series. Which you think DeMayo would do since he's a huge Magento fan, given how important that is to his character. But no. Once again, it kinda feels like he purposely erased those just so he could self-insert himself! Also, we already had one X-Men series with this whole focal character problem, we didn't need another one.

This isn't helped by the fact that Magneto was already the focal character of the later X-Men films, but one thing that's consistent with that franchise is their inability to actually focus on the goddamn X-Men.

Plus, it's made the show unfortunately fall into a major trapping of the comics over the last 20+ years.

I mentioned in my X-Men Hot Takes post that I couldn't stand how Magneto has been treated.

Being that everyone constantly portrays him as the true hero of X-Men.

Saying that Xavier and The X-Men were wrong and that their goal was dumb and meaningless.

Saying that he's justified in EVERYTHING he does!

And most famously of all....

That he was right.

And once again, I have to say to that.....

Here's the thing.

Magneto does have some good points, like how mutants should rise up and stand up for themselves against human bigots.

But he's not exactly right, and that's largely thanks to his execution and actions, which I'll touch a little more on later.

There's also the fact that in spite of the many horrible things he's done and his multitude of negative traits, fans and even the writers never seem like they want to actually have him face the consequences of his actions or ever confront any of those negative traits.

The best way I can describe this is that he has the inverse of the problem Peter Parker has with his fans.

I mentioned this before in my Flanderization of Peter Parker post, but the Spider-Man fandom has developed an obsession with emphasizing and gassing up Peter's negative traits and flaws, largely thanks to how much of a pushover the character has been portrayed as in recent years.

So much so that many of their ideal versions of Peter is basically him being a raging asshole who just hates everyone and everything.

Hell, it's gotten so bad, that I've even seen fans believing that Peter would/should actually be a FUCKING BIGOT!

Seriously, what the hell happened to this fanbase?!

But for Magneto, fans and writers seem like they want to portray him as never being capable of doing anything wrong.

Or if he does, he's always justified in doing it!

Look, I get that he is a very sympathetic character.

But I feel like people need to know that just because you're sympathetic, it doesn't excuse any horrible things you may do.

It could explain it, but not justify it.

I swear, Magneto could dead-ass murder these people's entire families and they would still find a way to justify it.

2. The Magneto, Rogue and Gambit love triangle.

Oh good lord this thing......

I said it before, and I'll say it again.

LOVE TRIANGLES ARE THE WORST.

They are rarely ever done and more often than not, are used as a cheap way of causing easy drama.

Not to mention it's one of the most overused writing cliches in general, alongside the third-act break-up and the liar reveal.

And The X-Men are unfortunately, famously guilty of this.

However, it in the original animated series, while the infamous Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine love triangle was there, it at least had the decency of being very one-sided.

Wolverine had a crush on Jean.

Jean wasn't interested and kept having to gently let him down.

And Cyclops was mentally holding back in the urge to blast the hairy manlet all the way to the next county.

However, '97 decided it wanted everyone to suffer by giving us an even worse love triangle.

Just about everyone has more or less have been about their vocal about their disdain towards it.

And it's not hard to see why.

This love triangle is the worst kind one can be.

One that screws over EVERYONE involved.

First there's Magneto.

I already mentioned that '97 kinda screwed over his characterization, and this love triangle was the main reason for it.

His past relationship with Rogue and his desire to get back with her generally makes Magneto look like a total creep and a scumbag.

There's the age difference between these two, which wouldn't have been that much of a problem if it wasn't for the blatantly retconned history between them.

Even though Rogue was of age when she and Magneto got together, this whole thing still gives off major predatory vibes, largely thanks to how young and naive she clearly was.

Also, I have to credit @cheesecakeluvrs for pointing this out, because I never picked it up myself.

The whole ordeal between them has this manipulative undertone.

Like, it's very clear that Magneto knows about Rogue's whole situation and her craving for physical intimacy.

And it's clear that he is kinda tempting her with the fact that he can bypass that with his powers.

This is made even worse when you remember that Magneto has a history of manipulating others for his own gain.

And how romantically immature Rogue is when compared to Magento.

Remember, that motherfucker was married once!

This especially comes to play in Episode 5.

Where although subtle, there is this sense that Magneto is pressuring Rogue and even lowkey forcing her to be with him.

Like when he said that she should be the leading lady of all Genosha.

I'm not sure if that's exactly what he said, but it was something similar to that.

And the thing is.....this could've worked if.....

A. They rightfully called out how creepy and manipulative this all is.

And B. Explain why he's doing all this. Like, why does he want to get back together with Rogue?

And what makes this relationship even worse is when you factor in the fact that DeMayo made Magento his self insert.

And the fact that one of the major reasons for his firing was sexual harassment allegations.

Well.......I think this clip speaks for itself.

Though I do wonder why he did this? Especially since he's an openly gay man.

Next we come to Gambit.

He definitely got the least bad (in spite of the fact that he got killed off halfway through the season), but still.

They kinda turned him into a Cuck Berry for the sake of the Magneto and Rogue relationship that was so obviously pulled out of this show's ass.

And finally we come to Rogue.

I think she may've been been done the DIRTIEST out of all three of them.

Like, apart from the fact that she's still hung on the whole not being able to touch people thing (which like, is anyone else starting to get kind of tired of that), that fact that her whole arc is largely revolved around her relationship with two men comes off as....kinda misogynistic.

Which seems to be for the course with DeMayo, as he apparently doesn't care or like just about any of the other female X-Men characters except for Jean.

Especially Emma Frost.

And apart from the retconned relationship, there's also the fact that in the original series, Rogue was pretty open about how see hated Magneto.

Like, during that period of time when everyone thought he was dead.

During his funeral (if you could even call it that), Rogue basically said "good riddance".

If I remember correctly, when DeMayo was asked about this continuity error, he revealed that the reason why Rogue hated Magneto was because she was still hurt from how their relationship fall apart all those years ago.

Yeah!

It wasn't the fact that he was a megalomaniacal terrorist who basically wanted to conquer the world and subjugate or/and destroy the entire human race.

Or that he frequently terrorized and actively tried to kill her FAMILY because they were the only ones who the balls to stand up to him.

No! It was all because of a dead relationship......

You know, I'm starting to think that DeMayo may not be a good person.

But now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about a few more changes.

-Since the relationship retcon has been rightfully sent to The Shadow Realm, Rogue doesn't sympathize with Magneto's struggles and, along with the rest of the team, is pretty open about her hatred towards him.

-We would get a few scenes of Magneto and Kitty interacting. Particularly of their shared Jewish background, and we even get the two talking to each other in Hebrew.

-During the trial scene, instead of there being anti-mutant protesters, it would be anti-Magneto protestors. I mean it's MAGNETO, who doesn't hate him?!

-In fact, Magneto's trial would see several humans who affected by him some way by his actions over the years testifying against him. This scene would really highlight perhaps the greatest of Magneto's many flaws. He's kind of a idiot. In the sense that he usually lets his emotions get the better of him and cloud his common sense and better judgement. As a result, whenever he does something drastic or insane, he never really considers the consequences this could have. Whereas Xavier relies more on reason and logic, Magneto relies on brute force. And that's often been his downfall. This would really be eye-opening for Magneto, seeing the lives he's either taken or ruined because of his actions. And for once in his life, Magneto would actually show genuine shame and remorse. This would led to him actual giving a heartfelt apology to all the people he's harmed over the years. Not only would this scene show that Magneto can actually feel ashamed of himself, but this would also make The X-Cutioner feel a little more understandable in his actions.

-The fight with The X-Cutioner and The Friends of Humanity would involve Cyclops, Storm, Bishop, Colossus, Morph, Gambit, Rogue and Beast.

-After helping Jean give birth, we would see Wolverine and Rogue actually looking happy, since the former had FINALLY moved on from her and the latter is happy with Gambit.

-Magneto would actually be saved, not by Storm, but by Kitty, who would use ger powers to make him intangible. So yeah, Storm isn't gonna be de-powered here and actually gets to stay with the main cast.

-We would get a tender scene after the trial, with Magento genuinely thanking Kitty for saving him.

-After that, we would get a montage of Magento walking around the mansion, seeing the other X-Men bonding with each other. The first scene would show Cyclops and Jean bonding with the newborn Nathan. The second scene would show Storm, Rogue and Bishop posing for a painting being done by Colossus. The third scene would show Gambit and Jubilee competing with each other at some video games. And the fourth and final scene would show Wolverine and Morph sharing some beers with each other outside......right before sharing a kiss. And throughout this montage, we would see Magneto looking......genuinely saddened.

Well that's all for now!

Well that’s all I have for now.Let me know what you guys think about this rewrite. And if you could, give me some ideas on how the rest of the season should play out!

The rest of this rewrite will be officially continuing in March, when the show officially turns 1!

So stay tune.

Also, I know some people are gonna mentioned that I didn't explain why Magneto looked so saddened during the montage I mentioned earlier.

Well that's because I want to know from you guys why he looked so saddened.

I know why, but I wanna see who's able to guess it correctly.

And the person who's able to make the correct guess will get a special shout-out from me in Part 2!

But until then.....

Happy New Year!

[the-eeveekins]

The Witch From Mercury: Tying Up Loose Ends

A look at the state of different characters, organizations and plot points after the epilogue of The Witch From Mercury.

Earth vs. Space, and Earthian Inequality

The crux of this conflict was the growing inequality between Earthians and Spacians, and that Spacians were exploiting Earthian labour and resources for their gain, while also pitting them in proxy wars. When Miorine dissolved the Benerit Group, all their assets were placed into Earthian hands, including all the resources the plundered from Earth and presumably a number of weapons. With this, the main driving force of the conflict is resolved, although tensions very likely still linger, especially among those who lost family and friends to the Benerit Group.

While it may not be a perfect long-term solution, it has definitely helped in the short-term. Gund-Arm Inc. has survived the transfer and we see Miorine working with Earthian protesters to solve lingering issues. And we even see that Sedo is now getting an education. Clearly, Miorine’s actions havehad a positive affect on Earthian lives. Suletta & Miorine changed the status quo in a far greater way for the better than many Gundam main characters manage to do in their own worlds.

The Benerit Group

The Benerit Group was dissolved, and all of the political and military might it wielded as an entity was destroyed. Obviously many members of the group found ways to continue working, and many will have had some assets stashed away not attached to the group, but they would lack the combined strength that the group wielding before.

We see that Delling and Sarius are under investigation in the epilogue, so even if they're still free as of the epilogue, they may not be so for very long. And for Delling, who formed the Benerit Group as a means to enforce a tyrannical "peace" upon the world, his life's work was destroyed by his daughter, and all the power that came with it.

We do see the Peil Ladies, who seem to have slinked away to some sort of retirement home in the aftermath of events. While some see this as a good ending for them, keep in mind they had just double crossed the BG in a play to be the next major power in the business world after the SAL wiped them out. Instead, they were left with nothing. No power, no super company. You can see how miserable they look in the epilogue.

The children of the Benerit Group all seem to have found a future, one way or another. Gund-Arm Incorporated is still around, with all it's Earthian and Spacian employees. Elan, Secelia and Guel are still kicking and running their own businesses, though it's unclear if they found positions with the new owners of their old companies or started over.

GUND Technology

The Prologue started with showing GUND as a means for humanity to travel into space, as well as conquering various other physical disabilities. The work of the Vanadis Institute is now continued by GUND-Arm Incorporated, which we see in the epilogue is producing medical technology to aid those with disabilities, like Petra and Ericht.

Shaddiq

I have talked about this a lot in the past, but Shaddiq doesn't have a bad ending. His goal was to dissolve the Benerit Group and transfer their assests to Earth to balance the powers, and Miorine successfully achieved his goal for him. Sabina and company came away from everything with their freedom and now work to better Earth. And as a cherry on top, since Shaddiq was already under arrest for Plant Quetta and Asticassia, he also took the fall for Quiet Zero as well, to protect Miorine’s new family.

Mercury & The School

We don't actually see Mercury in the series itself (except in a flashback of the Lfrith hanger), but we don't really need to. The planet itself doesn't have any relevance to events, and Cradle Planet (which does take place on Mercury) makes it pretty clear there isn't anything of interest out there anyway. And while Suletta is from there and wants to build a school there, she never once expressed a desire to return. We can pretty safely say that Suletta built her school there, based on the line "You're going to build another school here?"

Lingering Questions

The Space Assembly League

Quiet Zero not only shook up things in space due to the dissolution of the Benerit Group, but also the revelation that the SAL was directly supporting Earthian resistance groups and helping them carry out attacks against their own citizens, not to mention very publicly trying to wipe out millions of it's own citizens with a giant space laser. Presumably this caused a massive shake-up within the SAL, and between that and the Benerit Group dissolution, the entire political structure of space very likely changed significantly, but the epilogue doesn't really give much of a hint about what that looks like.

The Lfrith AI

A plot thread in the Prologue that completely disappeared afterwards. While I'm not personally convinced it was ever meant to be a plot point beyond the Prologue, I was convinced it was worth bringing up. It was meant to overcome the Gundam Curse and allow people to pilot Gundams without negative permet damage. However, by all accounts, it never succeeded. The show very heavily implies that Ericht's unique ability to coexist with the Data Storm is what allows her to connect to the AI and pilot a Gundam without harm, and it's never brought up again. Not to mention the Darilbalde used a new advanced AI that could pilot a mobile suit with pilot input at all, but not even that was seen as a solution to the Curse for the Schwarzette.

Elnora and the Covern

We know Suletta was the key. It was necessary for someone to pilot Aerial because Ericht couldn't. Whether it was Ericht's permet resistance that Elnore needed, or maybe just a close bond family bond to push permet scores, the solution she found was to clone her own daughter. Through context we might assume this isn't exactly unheard of in Ad Stella, given the lack of surprise about her origins from Suletta’s friends. But what about the Coven? We see that by the time Ericht "dies" and she is uploaded to the Aerial, Suletta was already born. Were they made before or after Suletta. Before implies they were clones that tragically could not survive and Elnora desperately uploaded them to the Lfrith to save them, unable to bear more loss. Afterwards implies that they were necessary for control of the Gundbits. Where they more repli-children uploaded, or did Ericht simply copy her data into clones to handle the bits more easily? There are so many questions about what Elnora did to make the coven.

Notrette

The woman of mystery. We never even see her face. Depending on who you ask, the mystery is a good thing and any more information would ruin it. We know she's from Earth, that she wanted to apply the evolutionary mechanics of plants to humans, and that Quiet Zero was the key to her plans. And that, for whatever reason, she left a backdoor into it for her daughter based on the genetic code of her tomatoes. Why did she marry Delling? What was her original goal with Quiet Zero and what did she intend with it? How exactly did she die? Did she have a love affair with Prospera that saw her help Elnora create a clone of her daughter?

The Future of Gundams

Perhaps the ultimate sequel hook: we do not know what the future holds for Gundams after Quiet Zero. The Ur is presumably still around, and even if it remains a forbidden technology, we've seen that there are those willing to sacrifice lives to use that power. On the other hand, is the original goal of GUND-Arm Inc. a possibly? Can GUND Format equipped Mobile Suits be operated safely and for the good of humanity, instead of as a tool for war?

Asticassia

With help from Guel, Elan and Secelia, Asticassia survives 3 years later. But what is it's purpose? Is it still a training ground for the spacian elite to train the next generation of oppressors, or has it found new life as a technical school that takes in students from anywhere, without prejudice.

The Three Kids

In the epilogue, we see Suletta playing with three children in the wheat field. Are these children that Suletta & Miorine adopted? Or simply some local kids who Suletta likes to play with? Due to the fact that they seemingly disappear for the rest of the scene, I'm inclined to believe the latter.

[brw]

How many personalities does Aurora it’s very unclear btw thank you so much for getting me into Alpha Flight I have so many new weirdos to get into I hate it!!!!

(sorry for how long this has taken me to write!)

So, by and large, the vast majority of writers go for just two; Jeanne Marie and Aurora. This is what was set up in the Byrne run, and is the most enduring version of the character. At it's most basic, the concept for Jeanne Marie and Aurora is a madonna/whore dichotomy, and is basically the entire theme that John Byrne was working with. Later writers and storylines have added more nuance to these two primary alters, but that's them at their core.

The status quo of this wouldn't change until issue #104 of Alpha Flight, where we see 6 separate alters in Jeanne Marie's mindscape. It's interesting, because while Byrne and Mantlo both played with yellow-costume Aurora being a separate alter to both Jeanne Marie and Aurora, neither of them ever committed to it, so it's nice to see Lobdell bringing that thread back that had been abandoned by Hudnall and Nicieza. None of these alters are given their own name in this issue, but they are meant to be separate, and the issue ends with Jeanne Marie fronting again after a long absence.

Now, it's possible this comes up again in later issues of Alpha Flight (I still have a few issues to go before I finish the volume), but as far as I'm aware this is the only time for a long time where alters other than Jeanne Marie and Aurora are shown, except for in Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3, where the system uses rapid splitting/fronting to fight Norman Osborn.

(Again, none of these alters are given unique names.)

It's possible that the system is given more focus in some issue of X-Men I haven't read, or in that 2000s Weapon X series I also haven't read, although the latter I heavily doubt. By and large though, most writers stick to just the two, but there is at least 8, and possibly more but we haven't really seen them.

[serickswrites]

Febuwhump 2025

Day 1: prompt: vocal cords; TW: captivity, torture, medical whump, cruel whumper, body modification

Day 2: prompt: holding back tears; TW: captivity, torture, restraints, forced to watch, water boarding, cruel whumper, self sacrifice, defiant whumpee, strangulation, unclear character status

Day 3: prompt: pinned down; TW:

Day 4: Alt prompt 3: pick who dies; TW:

Day 5: prompt: not trusting reality; TW:

Day 6: prompt: forced to stay awake; TW:

Day 7: alt prompt 9: in another life; TW:

Day 8: prompt: bleeding out; TW:

Day 9: prompt: necromancy; TW:

Day 10: prompt: magic exhaustion; TW:

Day 11: prompt: demonic possession; TW:

Day 12: prompt: used as practice; TW:

Day 13: prompt: "I don't trust anyone else;" TW:

Day 14: prompt: becoming the monster; TW:

Day 15: prompt: Icarus; TW:

Day 16: prompt: major character death; TW:

Day 17: prompt: power instability; TW:

Day 18: prompt: living weapon; TW:

Day 19: prompt: death wish; TW:

Day 20: prompt: "I did good, right?" TW:

Day 21: prompt: put on display; TW:

Day 22: prompt: "Grab the little one;" TW:

Day 23: prompt: gunshot wound; TW:

Day 24: prompt: forced to beg; TW:

Day 25: prompt: bound and gagged; TW:

Day 26: prompt: concealing an injury; TW:

Day 27: prompt: post victory collapse; TW:

Day 28: prompt: recovery; TW:

[watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees]

Force of Nature - Masterlist

other stories

"He suddenly stopped and Carter bumped into him eliciting a soft growl. The vampire wasn’t too keen on being touched by humans, even if it was an accident and especially if it was her."

Carter used to be the heir to a prominent hunter family, helping to protect their territory from the parasitic creatures of the night. To her misfortune, not all her encounters with vampires go as smoothly as planned. One time, she misses the target with the stake, and the creature stays alive, granted he's pissed off and takes his revenge on her. It's a tragedy through and through, read the warnings.

Content warnings: vampire whumper, human whumpee, blood drinking and associated gore, depression, mind control, minor and major character deaths, unclear character status, unhappy ending

First Part

1 - Ray of sunshine (Julius & RJ)

2 - Fall (Julius & RJ)

Monster (Julius)

3 - Forever cold (Julius and RJ)

--- interlude ---

Thrill Picture perfect

Second Part

Chapter 1

Bite me!

Burn

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5 pt. 1 | pt. 2

Alternate endings (to be posted)

vampire!Carter AU

Resolution

The Theseus curse (mythology AU)

Out of character AU 18+ (honestly just ignore this)

Art:

Season's Beatings Gift drawing and poem

EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS⏫⏫⏫⏫

Julius

Julius and RJ vibes - song - picrew

Carter picrew

[iaf]

Listen– listen to me. Kenji and Ben are foils to eachother's character.

Let me explain, you have this kid who was neglected by his parental figure for the majority of his childhood. He was given too much "freedom" and materialistic possessions to keep him busy and away. This kid hides behind a facade of cool confidence and constantly feels the need to prove themselves to someone.

Then there's this other kid, who had a present parental figure that insistently urged them to branch-out. A kid that was fine with hiding from the world and living in their own comfort zone. An honest kid that is also easily frightened. He was uncertain with his abilities and not intrested in proving he was "cut-out" for the outdoors.

And as the story progresses, they go through different experiences. They change as individuals but ultimately remain as foils to one another.

Everyday, Kenji becomes more uncertain with who he is as a person. He begins to question who he is without money and status. He wonders what real family means. His loyalties are questioned and tested. This boy no longer knows what it is that he wants. Kenji is held back by the past (his father) and scared of what the future holds. It's all too confusing and unclear. He doesn't know where to go and what to do.

However, with everyday Ben also changes. He becomes more certain with who he is as a person. He accepts the new him, someone free of socialtal expectations. He gains confidence in himself and recognizes his abilities. He holds his ground and states what's on his mind (staying with Bumby). Ben let's go of the past and isn't afraid to embrace whatever mystery the future holds for him.

See season 1 for example. Kenji doesn't want to admit how scared he is, so he tries to act cool and take the lead. Ben however is sharing his doubts and is jumpy but he's honest about how he feels. The last two episodes of the season completely flips the script. Ben takes the lead and does something brave, suppressing his fears. But once Ben is gone, Kenji facade fully disappears. He's honestly states he doesn't know what he's doing.

There's also season 3. Kenji's taking more responsibility. He seeks leadership roles and starts thinking more collectively. Ben is still very much part of the group but is less of a team player (due to inner turmoil). He thinks more independently and silently struggles connecting with the others again.

This is probably why they butt heads so often, right? It's clear Kenji and Ben contrast eachother but they are not complete opposites, at least that's not how I perceive it. You see, these two boys are on the same journey of self discovery and I believe that they recognize that in eachother. Even if they struggle to stay on the same page most of the time, they still get along and one can only imagine how much more solid and understanding their relationship became post-rescue.

[mateushonrado]

To describe Claudia from The Dragon Prince right now

Status Post #11257: By right now, I mean from the recent season Book Six: Stars and as confirmed at SDCC today, next season will be titled Book Seven: Dark, which will conclude the series as well as phase three, which will be a trilogy is in the planning stage (pending approval from Netflix), though it's unclear if it'll be either three more seasons of the show, a spinoff set before or after the show or a film trilogy.

I'd say she can be compared to these four characters in question.

Willow Rosenberg / Dark Willow

Due to reaching a despair event horizon and turning to darkness.

Cassandra

Due to being the daughter of the first major antagonist.

Karone / Astronema

Due to being the main female antagonist with a heroic brother and a conflicted alignment.

Sasha Waybright

Due to being friends with the main protagonist as well as having a bit of an aloof personality, before and after her face heel turn, not to mention being bi coded.

[psychotrope777]

banal thought from earlier: so these 2 characters represent 2 of the major groups of echinoderms. i think before the series ends they shouldtry to cover the rest of the 6 (5?) major groups mostly to humor me specifically and no one else

urchins have appeared throughout the series basically serving as like wild animals, specifically as an equivalent to rodents / "pest" insects. an urchin was a sentient creature like one time in that episode whwre patrick had a beard ehich i only remembered after reading about it on the wiki i forgot about this episode

im kind of unclear rn on whether or not sand dollars constitute their own group. last i knew they were just an order of urchin but a lot of people bother to single them out. i dont feel like rehashing everything ive ever read about echinoderms for a dumb spange post

they as far as i know have never tackled brittle stars (closely related to starfish but genetically distinct... as far as we know) which would be probably the easiest one for them to do

and i also dont think theyve ever done a crinoid, unfortunately i feel like if they did itd probably be relegated to the status of a "plant" or MAYBE a nonsentient animal but i dont think anyone has ever tried to do a sentient crinoid that's like unexplored territory. This could be huge guys this could be like their new mascot character. especially given tgat the humble crinoid is like every american child's favorite marine animal

(i almost added apongebob to this post because i misremembered sponges as being echinoderms for some reason. theyre not and i kind of feel stupid as fuck for thinking that now bc i actually took marine science classes #failure)

[nine-fingered-entity]

wind and truth post-postlude thoughts:

a) unsurprisingly, my favorite arc was adolin. he's been my consistent favorite this whole time anyways. but i think also just it was a well done very satisfying piece of work. the distinction matters, and as we've all seen, oaths are not always forces of good, even if sticking to them feels good. anyways.

b) there is still time to get that drink. like in 10 years post timeskip. and to dissolve the oathpact, because honestly? its kind of fucked up, even if its better now. i will not be giving up hope. they will be getting that drink, even if it takes another 5 books and i'm like 50 when it happens. (and they'll throuple up then. i can dream).

c) i had a feeling she'd end up pregnant and yet somehow i don't hate it? it's oddly full-circle. it kind of works.

d) rip dalinar. you crazy man. he died doing what he did best: making world-shattering decisions for a bunch of people who will resent him for it. and also it worked. deranged. big fan.

e) is navani going to be trapped in tower coma for the next ten years? or however long this timeskip is??? oof. that's. unfortunate

f) i know shallan and kaladin are gonna be more minor characters for the back half and they're both trapped for a while away from the action (more kal than shallan) but both of them feel like they have more story and plot to go. did shallan ever get to 5th ideal? vague and unclear and hard to tell but i'm guessing she maybe did???

g) fucked up blackthorn ghost/spren/guy. the MYTH of him made manifest. that's a fun concept. i am excited to see where that goes. renarin and janash books gonna be fun. i liked both of their arcs so im excited to see whats next

h) if there's no more stormlight, how's the whole radiant thing going to work?? is it going to work???

i) really hoping for more singer/listener pov in the back half. i feel like venli and rlain could have gotten more chapters. these books do fall into the trap of being very-human centered, which is unfortunate.

j) i liked Kal's story. i suspect it will be divisive. less thrilled about the herald thing but. it does make sense and there's still 5 more books so as a midpoint i like it. don't want him to be like that at the end of 10 though. i did like szeth's as well, that really worked. especially the 5th ideal scene and the flashbacks. i just wish they'd both been given more time to breath -> because there were so many POVs it felt a bit cramped and rushed (a lot of the POVs could have used a little more room to breath. i would have read a 1500 page book idc.)

k) one of the heralds is working for retribution. that seems. ominous.

l) poor gavinor. fucked up. interested to see where his story goes. also waughh sigzil. still ambivalent on sunlit man but. waugh.

m) i liked it. it works as a midpoint: resetting the status quo to worse, and justifies the alleged 10-15 year timeskip. it takes the major plot threads of 1-5 and ties them up while leaving many questions for later. the major characters (kal, shallan, dalinar. adolin. szeth.) have had their arcs more or less resolved. the minor/back half characters have been set up for the back half. it'll be a wild ride but. excited to see where it goes.

[transmasc-wizard]

Gabriel's from bad things happen right? What's he like?

ohoho. im glad you asked

Gabriel is from BTH, yes. he's the opening POV character and there is something deeply wrong with him

they are 19, pronouns he/they, last name shaw, gender: transed, sexuality: yes, status: in a fucked up toxic little relationship with @lychniscitrus's oc Max Gray

they were kicked out of their home for being trans when they were 16. he has ptsd, bpd, major depression, and tourette's, and i will probably end up making him autistic on accident because i do that. he is always very very tired and it's unclear whether it's disabling or not (it will become disabling).

ex-evangelical. PETTY BITCH. gabriel hates everyone he doesn't love and is terrified of being alone. loyalty is everything to him, he will stay by your side until you're literally killing him and even then he may come back. the only person he will never go back to is his father. they never wanted to be part of any of this. they just want to go home. he doesn't know what home is anymore. he is a skater boy. he said see u later boy

im love him <3 i will introduce his wip. soon. soooon

[aphelea]

Jobs within the Elven Nobility

For the Reading Rumble Round 4. A look into the structure of the Nobility, and the division of roles—based on ability—of Emissaries and Regents.

@camelspit @arson-anarchy-death

To enter the Nobility, one must graduate the Foxfire Elite Levels, for which a special ability is required. (The members of Team Valiant are the exception to this rule, as—excluding Wylie—none have completed their Elite Levels yet.) Members of the Nobility are considered to be of a “higher status” than other elves, and they hold more power over the Lost Cities. Typically, they hold the title of Lord or Lady, though those who work at Foxfire may hold different titles depending on their position.

The main purpose of the Nobility is to assist the Council in their work. Emissaries and Regents are both intended to carry out tasks for the Council, with Regents having lower rank than Emissaries. Besides this difference in rank, it is unclear what the difference between the tasks given to the two jobs is. 

Beyond Emissaries and Regents, there are a few more named jobs in the Nobility—although it is likely that there are more that have not appeared in the series yet. Quinlin Sonden is named as Chief Mentalist, a job that is similar to human therapists. It appears that one elf can hold multiple Nobility positions at a time, as Quinlin is also said to have been a Probe—alongside his Cognate, Alden, who was a Keeper. The positions of Probe and Keeper seem to be both official positions and general terms for skills a Telepath may have—Prentice was considered the “Keeper for the Black Swan,” though he did not work for the Council in his real life, while Fitz refers to his Mentor saying that “[he] should be a Keeper someday.” So, the term seems to be used both generally and to refer to a specific position with the Nobility.

Curiously, we see three Telepath skills considered jobs in the Lost Cities—Keepers, Probes, and Washers. (Washers are unclear, as the term seems to refer more often to the skill rather than the job; however, Councillor Kenric was said to be a Washer, and Damel Kafuta states his job to be a Washer. Damel had yet to graduate his Elite Levels, so it would be highly unlikely for him to have been a Noble, but still technically possible. It seems most likely that Washers, while a valued job, are not only Nobility members, although they carry out the Council’s work. Why this would be is yet uncertain, but it is possible that, since Washers would rarely be needed, they wouldn’t be considered a full-time job as such. And, with Kenric being able to wash the Washers’ minds, there is no real need for Washers to be members of the Nobility.)

The three jobs mentioned are skills that only Telepaths can hone; however, since a majority of the Nobility are not Telepaths, it stands to reason that there must be other ability-specific jobs within the Nobility. For example, Della, as an Emissary, was given the task of spying on Alden. Perhaps this means that there are specific types of Vanishers trained mainly in espionage. This explains why Della is consistently shown to evade the senses of even the strongest of characters throughout the series. Vanisher spies would also fulfill a part of the Council’s duties, in spying on the Neutral Territories, rebels, and other species. 

Another curious thing to note is that it seems that few elves with elemental abilities are in the Nobility, or, at the very least, few are interacting with Sophie. Based upon treatment of Tam and Linh’s abilities, there does seem to be some general prejudice against elemental abilities as a whole—perhaps that they are more wild, and less “refined” than mental abilities such as Telepathy and Empathy. However, we see many more Ancient or near-Ancient noble elves with elemental abilities—perhaps suggesting that there was once a time when elemental abilities assisted the Council, but now, they do not as much. I would think that this is because the Lost Cities must have taken time to build—centuries, even, which would require elves with elemental abilities to assist in their construction. But now, after the sinking of Atlantis and the completion of most construction, there is much less of a need for elemental abilities. Likely, of course, this pairs with the banning of pyrokinesis resulting in distrust of elemental abilities as a whole. 

Beyond elemental abilities and Vanishers, we also see plenty of Empaths in the series, and especially in the Nobility. The only real role that the ability seems to serve for the Council is the ability to detect lies, which Oralie does. Cassius, however, is sent on Emissary missions much like his fellow Telepath emissaries—so, there is clearly more than one use for Empaths in the Council. Perhaps one of these such jobs is the equivalent of Elf Lie Detector, used mainly during Tribunals and other important interviews. Then, there may be another Empath job—Cassius’s job—which is of more use out in the field. 

As for the overall structure of Nobility jobs, I propose that “Emissary” and “Regent” are merely overarching titles for groups of smaller, ability-specific jobs. Keepers and Probes, for example, are types of Emissaries, who specifically focus on mind-breaks and mind-searching. Vanisher spies would be specific types of Emissaries whose job is to gather information on certain subjects. An Empath Lie Detector may be a type of Regent—not Emissary, as their job would not require as much classified information as an Emissary’s would—who serves in Tribunals to ensure honesty.

 Overall, I propose that each ability that is represented in the Nobility has certain ability-specific roles within the overarching framework of Emissaries and Regents, in order to better serve the Council and their needs. 

[spitblaze]

More Braindead Panic 1 thoughts heehoo

I'm percolating! Thoughts are percolating! Nothing is set in stone I'm just brainstorming here.

So like. I DO wanna pare down the roster now that we don't have to get Every Single Camper in there. We can at least like more easily relegate some characters to background status. Elton doesn't need to be here all the time. Nils is barely ever relevant. Its fine. They don't have to go they can just have greatly reduced roles.

Anyway like. Idk. Everyone is at a university probably, how they are brought together is...slightly unclear. Maybe they're all in the same Psychic Studies class, maybe they're in the same dorm building, maybe they're in an extracurricular together, maybe they're all participating in experiments for the psychic science program (willingly, like psych undergrads), maybe they're brought together by happenstance. Whatever. What I'm sure of is that it's not because they all have the same major. Koschei is undeclared (maybe history or wildlife management actually?), Rue is botany/biochem, Not Vernon is doing something in either English or film. You get it.

So what's the plot. Good question! Like I mentioned before my brain took some stuff from Gideon the Ninth and ran with it but I didn't really have much else until I got back into octopath and started thinking about Cyrus Albright's story again, which. I will not spoil but has influenced my ideas here

So there's either an old psychic studies building or a door in the current building/labs that nobody ever opens, right? It's always closed, it has a sign that says 'do not open', and as far as most of the students and faculty are concerned, the sign is put up because there's something maintenance or campus IT will yell at them for messing with otherwise. The only people who would suspect something is fishy are those who notice the door is lined with something to prevent psychic observation and interference in an area other than the labs.

And then one day one of the students goes missing. A psychic one. A lot of rumors abound- did they drop out without telling anyone? Did the stress of college get to them? Were they kidnapped? Was it a hate crime? Nobody knows. And nobody knows until Koschei finds himself on the other side of the door a few days later. Idk why he's there. Maybe he was invited to a trial, maybe it was open late at night and their curiosity got the better of them, doesn't matter. The point is that what's on the other side of the door isn't a maintenance room, or a server room, or anything else sensitive but normal. It’s a staircase into a huge underground facility full of weird labs and archive and test chambers. And in one of the labs is the desiccated husk of that missing classmate. Someone notices Koschei and he barely makes it out alive. But like- holy shit, what WAS that?? What can he do??? Who will believe him???? He could go to the campus cops, but he knows they won't do shit. He could tell the faculty of the university, but would they believe him, or would he invite further danger on himself??

So he ends up telling his two closest friends (and maybe study partners? [Who will become his Romantic Partners over the course of the story]), Rue and Vernon (new name pending). And then it becomes a whole thing, going on expeditions into the facility to find out what happened to their classmate, what's being studied down there, and why other psychics around campus are disappearing as well.

[serickswrites]

Heroes and Villains One Shots

Heroes and Villains

I'd like to think that's forever--Hero and Heroine discuss love

Married?--Hero and Heroine are married

Skirt--Hero and Lover's wardrobe discussion

Hate--TW: kidnapping; beating; drugging; enemy to caretaker (sort of), could probably argue this is yandere

Only For You--TW: temporary character death, blood and gore (mention)

I Don't Know Why--Hero and Villain are lovers

Sun--TW: major character injury, caretaker and whumpee

Heels--Villain's wardrobe

One Last Kiss--Love wants a kiss before Hero goes

Bed Time--Villain doesn't want to go to bed

Excuse--Villain lies to Supervillain

Fire--Villain's unrequited love

Water--TW: drowning; water torture; major character injury; unclear character status

Mad--Hero and Villain and work

Run--Civilian and Vigilante interact

Distracted--Villain and Supervillain in Lair

Witch--TW: injury; blood; mild depiction of gore

Beauty--Supervillain and Villain discuss beauty and brains

Caught--Sidekick goes to Villain

Smell--Hero feeds Villain

Fix--Villain breaks something

Collapse--Superhero fears for Hero

Sorry--TW: mcd; blood; death

Think--Hero, Villain, and Supervillain have a conversation

Friends--Villain thinks about friendship

Ice Cream--Villain tires of fighting

World--Sidekick is disheartened

Legend--Civilian stumbles upon Supervillain

Brightest Idea--Villain and Sidekick are out of ideas

Mess--Base is in a mess

Unknown--Civilian stumbles upon something

Destroy--Supervillian and Villain have a conversation

Pin--Villain bares it all

Shut Up--Hero is an anxious mess

Honey--Supervillain catches up to Hero

Mystery--Sidekick hasn't been using their powers

Participate--Hero refuses to participate

Weird--Mail time at Base

Naive--Villain laments

In Another Life--TW: blood, knife, stabbing

Miracle--TW: threats of death, implied future violence

Drunk--Hero and Villain get intoxicated

Rules--Hero and Other Hero talk

What it is--Hero and Villain have a bad day

Choice--Sidekick isn't a first choice

Meeting--Hero and Villain meet

Not going to happen--Sidekick wants to throw a party

Go There--Hero and Villain have relationship issues

Drama--Villain loves drama

Do It--Hero and Villain talk

Forget--Villain doesn't want to remember

Your Bad--Superhero lectures Hero

Funny--Right Hand is incompetent

Know That--Hero catches on to Sidekick

Be Real--Villain levels with Hero

Don't Like--Hero and Sidekick sneak into Lair

Please Kiss Me--Villain wants a kiss

Zoo--Supervillain needs a day off

Sure About It--Superhero catches Sidekick

I Got This--the smallest hero stands up

So Dramatic--Villain is very dramatic

Get You--Villain is weird

My Fault--Villain is blameless

Public--Hero finds Villain in public

Shut Up--Sidekick is loud

Stupid Face--Hero is self conscious

Joke--Villain cannot take a joke

Fool--Hero feels the fool

Secretiveness--Villain fears their secret will get out

Need--Hero feels unwanted

Messy--Lair is a mess

Go Home--Civilian just wants to go home

Not Allowed--Movie night is a bust

Dog--Villain misses their dog

Immortal sidekicks request--TW: referenced torture, referenced captivity, referenced emotional manipulation, hurt/comfort, hurt/recovery, hurt/aftermath

Hero is supposed to kill Villain request--TW: physical violence, blood, weapons, blade, betrayal

Swallow It--TW: captivity, restraints

Villain rescues Hero request--TW: restraints, captivity, blood, wounds, rescue

Whatever--Sidekick feels invincible

Real--Superhero belittles Hero

Screaming--Supervillain is angry

Bye Bye--TW: self-sacrifice, implied character death, blood, injury

5 croissant anon ask

Standing--Sidekick the eavesdropper

Supervillain toasts Superhero

Sick hero request--TW: infection, illness, hurt/comfort

Hero escape the hospital request--TW: injury, broken bones, hospital

Hero boasts--TW: emotional abuse

On the Floor--TW: gun, robbery, threats

Give Me a Kiss--Hero to the rescue

Awful Job--Villain is awful at their job

This is the End--TW: threat of death