#very very long post

[weirdowithaquill]

Let's Talk About Rebecca:

Well, I said we needed to talk about Rebecca, and here we are.

To begin with, I would like to preface this with a simple disclaimer: I am in no way telling people to like or dislike the version of Rebecca found in BWBA, but instead looking into what caused such a deep disdain for this character, one that lasted long after Henry had been departed and was fuelled not by her position as a ‘replacement’, but rather by the series itself. This is not a dissertation on why Henry is a stronger character and why Rebecca should never have been introduced - that is counterproductive and, in some ways, false. This is instead something adjacent to an essay in which I will focus on how Rebecca’s flawed introduction, characterisation and tenure in the series both represents the BWBA era as a whole, but also what led to her being notably absent from All Engines Go, the reboot of Thomas and Friends. This will be followed by me attempting to redesign her characterisation and create an alternate version of Rebecca, one which in my opinion would have done far better for herself in the series. 

Part 1: Who is Rebecca, and Why Her Characterisation Doesn't Work:

According to the former official Thomas and Friends website, Rebecca is: “...a very cheerful and happy engine. She is painted a sunshine yellow which reflects her positive outlook on life. Rebecca always sees the best in others and enjoys helping everyone around her feel good about themselves. Despite her warm nature, Rebecca is not afraid to stand up for herself or her friends. She is a big, strong tender engine who is not intimidated by the more experienced engines on the railway. Rebecca is the number 22 engine.” 

Already, there is a major issue here: her characterisation is a strange amalgamation of others, who could probably just as easily take on her roles without really breaking any of the episodes she is in. “Cheerful and happy” are characteristics held by Ryan, Stanley, Whiff, Thomas, Percy, Edward, Mavis, Peter Sam; the list goes on. There are already far too many engines whose main qualities are cheerful and happy. She is painted yellow - like Molly and Flora were, or if we go further back, like Jock, Pip and Emma were. “Sees the best in others” was once upon a time a quality unique to Edward, as well as Salty. “Enjoys helping everyone around her feel good about themselves” sounds way too close to what Emily has become in the series, without mentioning the evolutions of Mavis’ character or Rocky’s character. If we add in her clumsiness and shyness, we get Kevin and Molly respectively - and Kevin is also yellow! She isn’t intimidated nor does she have any trouble at all with fending off engines who want to be mean to her. She isn’t unique here either: Duck did this when he first arrived, and he had a much bigger and more notable impact because of how he acted when confronted with the big engines' attitudes. What all this really means is that Rebecca has already finished a character arc at some point in the past and does not need to grow further. 

And here we reach the crux of the problem with Rebecca in BWBA: she has nowhere for her character to grow into - something all the other main characters have done decades ago. This is especially problematic at this late stage in the show; Thomas & Friends has been running since 1984, and almost every character they pair Rebecca up with has had an exceptionally long time to bed themselves in and grow into the space they occupy. For Rebecca to compete, and truly qualify for her status as a main character, her character needs to make its own space - and importantly, make that space bigger than as many other characters as possible. This is a running problem in the TV series post Season 7, and something that really baked itself into the show by the time the series reached CGI: the characters do not develop. The Steam Team (bar Emily) hasn’t had any real, natural character developments since the Mitton era - not any sustained over multiple seasons, at least. If we go back to the Classic series - or further back to the Railway Series - we find that the very essence of Thomas is in its strong characters and their natural growth. Gordon grows into being more humble, Edward and Henry grow more confident in themselves, Thomas and Percy mature and (to some extent) learn their limits - the list goes on. There are characters that do not grow as much or remain the same, yes - but they still have some sort of character arc where the essence of them as a character is tested. 

Rebecca does not undergo character growth in the series, and her character itself is not tested in any meaningful way. Instead, she is overused and underutilised - by which I mean, she appears constantly throughout the series but is given nothing to define her as being any different to any of the characters mentioned above. Worse yet, Rebecca’s leads are easily interchangeable with any other Steam Team member, and this further complicates her. Rebecca takes trucks perfectly - like Donald or Douglas would, or perhaps Edward? Rebecca is too fast and leaves passengers behind - like Peter Sam did to the refreshment lady. And when she causes all kinds of delay, is that not like James did way back in Series 3? And she’s tricked by Diesel… like almost every single engine in the entire series, going as far back as Gordon, Henry and James were in Series 2. 

Would it have been better to divide Rebecca’s leads up and give other, more established engines more spotlight? Probably. Her personality is similar to a number of others, and her introduction is basically a mix and mash of older episodes - notably the eighth series episode, Thomas and the Tuba, the tenth series episode, Seeing the Sights, the first series episode, Thomas' Train, and the fourth series episode, Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady. This really doesn’t help to define her, especially when all fans think about when they watch the episode is what other, older episode it is most like. Her subsequent appearances do very little to endear her either, both due to the lack of effort put in by Mattel to ground Rebecca in the series and the low impact of the episodes she does star in. Characters like Oliver or Duke have had lasting impacts on the fandom despite their short tenures because their episodes have high impact. Duck is one of the most popular characters in the fandom of this show, despite having been a secondary character ever since Series 5, and being practically absent from the series between Series 8 and Series 16.

Rebecca also takes up a difficult spot as a replacement for Henry, which complicates her relationship with a large portion of the fandom, meaning a lot of her as a character is questioned in relation to what Henry would have done. While technically, Rebecca was slated as a replacement to Edward, her arrival coincides with Henry’s departure, and thus for the purposes of this, we will consider her to have taken the position Henry had, similarly to Nia and Edward. Whether or not Henry’s departure from the main cast is a bad thing is an issue unto itself, which dives into character assassination and to what extent the Henry seen in Season 21 is the same Henry seen in Season 1. In either case, Rebecca’s roles could have quite easily been filled by Henry or another standing character, and her characterisation is too similar to other, pre-existing characters to make her stand out amongst her costars and their longer, more notable characterisations and character growths. 

Much of this is compounded by how Rebecca was introduced and integrated into the main cast, which is clearly seen when compared with another notable case of an engine joining the Steam Team after it had been first codified: Emily. 

Part 2: Rebecca vs Emily - How to Introduce a Main Character: 

Rebecca’s introduction is extremely underwhelming, especially for a Steam Team member. Thomas and Gordon shared the very first episode, Edward established himself as a foil to Gordon in his introduction and in Henry’s first appearance, he is bricked up in a tunnel in perhaps one of the series’ most infamous and iconic episodes. James makes his grand entrance by crashing into a field, Percy nearly gets destroyed by Gordon and Toby tugs on the viewer’s heartstrings as we watch him lose his entire livelihood. Moving forward several seasons, Emily’s introduction includes her saving another engine from a terrible accident - and then lastly, Nia gets an entire movie to embed her. Rebecca just bumbles about for ten minutes and takes the final shed at Tidmouth. 

To make matters worse, Henry’s departure is equally low-intensity. Edward at least got a full episode; Henry got a single line, used to further Gordon’s character as opposed to finalising Henry’s arc and introducing Rebecca’s. And while Gordon’s character here is interesting and new and possibly the first real growth we’ve seen from any of the Steam Team since Henry, Toby and Percy regressed into children before CGI even began; it does nothing to create a satisfactory conclusion to Henry’s arc or properly build up Rebecca’s arrival. This ultimately undermines Rebecca’s position as a primary character in the series, where she has joined far too late in the series to make an impact without dedicated time and effort being put into her. 

We are expected to accept that Rebecca has simply arrived and is now a main character by the show without any reasoning behind this. There is no connection between the viewer and Rebecca to justify this promotion to main character status, and it is telling. The writers don’t have anything new or unique to say about Rebecca either and it reflects in her episodes, which are remixes of old episodes or bland and unoriginal. This is especially painful in an era when so much of the writing is like this, bar the few episodes that really manage to break through the white noise. Ironically, two of the episodes that do really stand out have Edward and Toby as main characters respectively. 

In contrast, Emily is very well introduced to her position and has a long, notable character arc that plays out across both the Classic and HiT eras to cement her as a main character before making her a permanent member of the Steam Team - a journey that endeared her to fans and helped to build her characterisation to make her unique and interesting. Emily is first introduced in Season 7, where she has a strong introductory story played out against Thomas where she steals Annie and Clarabel and then rescues Oliver from a nasty accident. I’m not entirely certain, but this might be the first time that an engine takes Annie and Clarabel without asking - prior to this, Percy and Duck both got permission or it wasn’t mentioned. And after this episode, Emily does not immediately move into Tidmouth Sheds - she remains at Knapford, despite having further notable appearances across the rest of the season. 

What is made apparent in Season 7 is her characterisation. Emily is brave and bossy, but kind-hearted. She doesn’t headline constantly either, instead playing off other characters and rolling into the background when needed. She slots naturally into a secondary role in this season and feels like an engine who belongs on the NWR. Season 7 introduces Emily to viewers and gives her characterisation to back up her unique appearance. Season 8 continued this trend, building on her more and pairing her up with different engines to settle her comfortably into being a proper presence on the island - notice how it’s an evolution over two seasons? By Calling All Engines, Emily is a main character by virtue of her cementing herself into the cast, and her berth at Tidmouth feels like a natural progression of her story, firmly planting Emily as a Steam Team member. By Season 11, she is being used as a primary character to bounce newbies like Whiff off of! 

When considering Emily and Rebecca, two takeaways make themselves known: firstly, that characters need time and effort to be cemented in the story, especially when introduced long after most other central characters have had time to imbed themselves; and secondly that characters need strong, interesting differences when compared to those they share the screen with in order to fill unfilled positions. Emily is brave and bossy, giving her a unique style that makes her work great either as the protagonist or antagonist of a story. It gives her character flexibility - she can either be the engine that the protagonist is paired up with to learn something from or it can make her big-headed and in need of being taught a lesson of her own, one which she will - in her own way - try and pass on. We don’t meet someone with a truly bossy personality like Emily’s again until Bradford, and even then it isn’t the same. Bradford is used as a comedic character, whereas Emily’s bossiness was treated seriously. 

In comparison, Rebecca’s characterisation causes her to fade where she needs to shine. By being given a personality that has already been used consistently in Thomas, she fails to have a lasting impact and the abruptness of her introduction and elevation to the Steam Team is jarring and gives older viewers no reason to be interested in her. When combining this with the few defining qualities she has, it is equally hard for Rebecca to intrigue new viewers, making her feel bland and unoriginal when compared to many of the characters she shares the screen with. Rebecca is asked to attempt and hold her own against characters who have been intentionally woven together by the series for decades - and as explained above, this is not an impossible feat. It is not an impossible feat in the CGI series either, as Hiro, Paxton and Marion have all managed to stand out in an era when characters very rarely got much character building beyond their introduction. Unfortunately, Rebecca is given none of the same care, and it is reflected in how little she is used. Despite appearing more often as the seasons continue, she gets fewer leads to the point where she has an equal number of leads to Toby in the final season.  

Emily and Rebecca are two sides of the same coin in terms of introduction, both first appearing in an episode rather than a movie and then becoming members of the main cast - the difference is that where Rebecca was shunted in and thus the writers were unsure how to use her, Emily’s careful character-building and integration into the series ensured she would always have fans, something that is reflected in her being given a proper conclusion to her character arc in Series 24, where she is given the number twelve and thus immortalised in the same way that Thomas through to Oliver were. 

Considering the above issues, it becomes quite clear that the potential best way to introduce Rebecca and have audiences become invested in her and her story is not to simply drop her into the series, but rather to build her up slowly, similarly to Emily - which was entirely possible and plausible. 

Part 3: What Could Have Been: 

If we assume that Mattel was fixated on Rebecca having her canon characterisation as well as the BWBA series, there is still an entirely plausible method that could naturally build her character into the main cast, though it is underpinned by the original intent of the showrunners to have her introduced in Series 21 and replace Edward: 

In Series 21, Rebecca is introduced and shown to be clumsy but kind. In keeping with the original episode, she messes up the express and gets in trouble, however she then redeems herself by rescuing Gordon when he breaks down with the express. She is shown to be clumsy but kind, and gets the lead in a couple of episodes, as well as several minor roles. Preferably, she stars in at least one episode with Thomas specifically. At the same time, audiences are introduced to Henry’s dilemma surrounding whether or not he should sleep at Tidmouth - be it cause of the Kipper, arguments with Gordon, or whatever. This both places Rebecca into audiences’ minds while simultaneously opening up the question of whether or not Henry will remain at Tidmouth. Edward leaves, but the shed remains open - this is filled by Nia. 

Continuing in this vein, in Series 22, Rebecca gets a couple more episodes than last season, specifically with both primary and notable secondary characters - I’m talking Duck, Oliver, Rosie, Daisy, Ryan - characters who are popular, relevant to the series and allows the series to cement her as a main addition to the cast. This is to cement her and give her plenty of characters to bounce off and develop relationships with. Meanwhile, Henry’s arc comes to a conclusion and Henry quits Tidmouth in the last episode of the season, leaving it open. This also allows the creators to build up Gordon’s reaction to Henry leaving, showing his struggle to adapt to Edward’s absence and his simmering disdain towards Nia for replacing Edward before the 23rd season. 

Finally, in Series 23, Rebecca takes the empty berth at Tidmouth, replacing Henry and kickstarting an episode - or preferably two, but this is Mattel, so it is likely to be one - where Rebecca is forced to withstand the brunt of Gordon’s anger as he boils over, being compared to Henry before proving herself. This plants her firmly as a main character, while also potentially giving her a strong reason to become close friends with Nia - who also had to deal with Gordon’s stubbornness. Henry is given a proper farewell arc as well, allowing him to gracefully retire to his secondary character status. 

By arranging Rebecca’s arrival over several seasons, she is given time to fall naturally into her position and role, developing slowly and making the connections with other characters needed to cement her position on the NWR before taking centre-stage. This would also help writers learn how to write her, creating a scenario where Rebecca has a real chance of taking off as a character and potentially even getting similar stories to Emily where she is the lead main character who is used to introduce new characters - like how Emily interacted with Whiff in the eleventh season. This would also help viewers to understand who Rebecca is and get comfortable with her presence in the show before being asked to accept her as a member of the Steam Team. 

However, I still feel like her characterisation is weak in comparison to other Steam Team members - as mentioned previously, her clumsiness has been done by several characters including Kevin and Percy, who is a fellow Steam Team member. Her “Cheerful and Happy” characterisation has been used by far too many characters to count - including Percy, Peter Sam, Derek, Stanley and more recently Ryan - and not even her bright yellow paintwork makes her unique in terms of the series, seeing as Molly and Flora both had similarly bright shades of yellow for paintwork back in the model series. Moreover, her leads place her in relatively generic situations where other characters likely would have produced far more interesting plotlines, such as Molly easily pulling trucks despite being built for expresses or James trying to prove he can still pull the express and getting into trouble. Based on this, a complete overhaul of Rebecca’s characterisation is needed. 

Part 4: How to Redevelop Rebecca as a Character: 

When designing a Thomas and Friends character, one of the first things required is a real-life basis - and Rebecca was given a very interesting and unique basis that had the potential to give her very interesting stories. Rebecca is a Bulleid Light Pacific, in particular an unrebuilt West Country Class.  These were strong, powerful mixed traffic Pacifics used by the Southern Railway from 1945 until 1967, giving them a lifetime of about 22 years. They were praised for their free steaming, excellent boilers, and had a number of notable innovations for British steam - including welded fireboxes and frames, as opposed to the traditional, riveted system. The class was also well-known for their availability, being able to pull trains on almost every line that the Southern Railway had. 

In contrast, the class was also very famous for their flaws. Remember, Rebecca is an unrebuilt West Country Class, which had many of the same problems and flaws as their larger Merchant Navy Class relatives. These issues would plague the three Bulleid Pacific classes to such an extent that many of them were rebuilt by British Railways in the 1950s into a more conventional design which utilised the strengths of the class while altering or replacing many of the issues that Bulleid built into the engines as he used them as a testing bed for some of his more modern ideas. In particular, the major problems with the West Country Class were: 

Adhesion problems: the lighter load on their driving axles meant that they were even more prone to wheelslip than the larger Merchant Navy class, requiring very careful control when starting a heavy train - there are several surviving videos of these engines struggling to start a train due to their wheelslip. 

High fuel consumption - these engines were hungry, and this was in many ways highlighted during the 1948 locomotive exchanges where the West Country Class burnt 13.5 kg/km as opposed to the 9.02 kg/km of the T9 class that they replaced - for reference, the West Country Class’ coal consumption is comparable to the Gresley A1 Pacifics prior to the exchange trials of 1925 - a number which was dropped to roughly 10 kg/km after they were modified into the A3 class. 

Restricted driver visibility due to the air-smoothed casing and soft steam exhaust from the multiple-jet blastpipe. The exhaust problem was never adequately resolved, and smoke continued to beat down onto the casing while moving, obscuring the driver's vision.

Maintenance problems: the chain-driven valve gear proved to be expensive to maintain and subject to rapid wear, which was particularly problematic during the Post War period, as British Rail focused on availability rather than high quality maintenance. 

Leaking: leaks from the oil bath onto the wheels caused oil to splash onto the boiler lagging. Once saturated with oil, the lagging attracted coal dust and ash, which provided combustible material, and sparks from heavy braking would set the lagging on fire underneath the air-smoothed casing. The fires were also attributed to oil overflowing from axlebox lubricators onto the wheels when stationary, to be flung upwards into the boiler lagging in service. In either case, the local fire brigade would be called to put the fire out, with cold water coming into contact with the hot boiler causing stress to the casings, meaning these un-rebuilt locomotives would have warped casings, the result of a lagging fire!

All of these strengths and flaws tell a notable story about the kind of engine Rebecca may have been in real life: an engine with extremely good power and speed, but with difficulty at slow speeds and design issues that could have dangerous and rather embarrassing unintended consequences. This is a brilliant basis for a character, and it really irks me how little of all of this characterisation gold that Mattel ended up using - while it is consistent with how they treat their newer characters, it is also a real shame. Especially considering that from all of this, it is really not hard to build a genuinely interesting character that wouldn’t feel too out of place in the Railway Series or Classic series. 

Firstly, based on the high coal consumption and severe maintenance and wheelslip issues, we can suggest that Rebecca is a bit clumsy and worries about how others perceive her. Her class was large enough for this to be less apparent back on the Southern, but perhaps she was one of the worst for it, so she was teased mercilessly - and so after having moved to Sodor, she fears how the other engines will treat her. To cover for these insecurities, Rebecca acts standoffish or gruff, wanting to keep the other engines at a distance so they can’t find out about her flaws and tease her for them - already very different from her original characterisation, but far more interesting as it makes her one of the few new NWR engines to actively try and push both steam and diesel engines away. Furthermore, her excellent steaming abilities and fast speeds in service could translate into Rebecca being somewhat reckless or a speed demon, wanting to use her strengths to both hide her weaknesses and as something she enjoys. Rebecca has an air-smoothed casing, and it may help her feel the wind better at speed, like Spencer with his streamlining. Quite simply, by using her basis as a starting-point for her personality, building up character-traits from strengths and flaws of the class, we can construct an interesting and different characterisation that draws people in, similarly to how the Reverend Awdry did with his eight famous engines. Better yet, it means that once the other characters crack open this more standoffish side to Rebecca, we can still see the kind and clumsy Rebecca from the TVS, but it feels more natural and rewarding to go through a journey to get there and if it’s directed only to her close friends, while also meaning that we the audience can still see her gruff side when dealing with unknowns or characters she dislikes. 

There is also the fact that by considering her class basis, show writers can find interesting stories or take other issues with Rebecca’s class to incorporate into her personality. For example, the low-visibility created by the air-smoothed casing could translate into eyesight problems for Rebecca that she tries to hide because she fears engines would tease her for them, potentially culminating in Rebecca passing a red signal and getting into a crash. Maybe she doesn’t like fire or hates the works because of bad memories, meaning Rebecca hides any mechanical faults until they cause her to break down on the main line. 

By building her character around her class basis, we can develop an alternative personality for Rebecca that naturally stands strongly around other engines - especially as there are very few other Southern Railway engines on Sodor who could see Rebecca’s gruff and cold attitude as the defence mechanism it is. It also gives Rebecca a strong connection to Henry, who acted practically the same when he first arrived on Sodor to hide his steaming problems, making him sympathetic to Rebecca and opening the two up to a long-term arc that ends with Henry having helped Rebecca grow into the happy, cheerful and clumsy engine from the series before leaving. Her recklessness could translate into a rivalry or competition with Gordon, who is far more responsible and meticulous with his express due to his experience and the pressure that has been put on him. 

However, this is not the only way to build a better characterisation for Rebecca, the other option being to make Rebecca into a foil for other main characters. 

Part 5: Rebecca as a Foil: 

The other way to build Rebecca’s character into something that flows naturally with the other, previously introduced Steam Team members with making her more unique and interesting is to build it around the concept of the foil character. A foil character is a character who contrasts with another character, typically contrasting with the protagonist - a strong example of foil characters are Edward and Gordon, or Thomas and Diesel 10. Rebecca could quite easily fall into the position of being a strong foil character to the three big engines, more specifically James and Gordon, who are without a solid foil character to be contrasted against since Edward’s departure. In BWBA, when Nia arrived, she was considered to be closer to Thomas and Percy than Gordon or James, leaving them without a natural opposite. Rebecca has all of the strengths and weaknesses to fill this role. 

For the first option, using the personality the series gives Rebecca, we get the following scenario: Rebecca arrives on Sodor and is both an express engine and a mixed-traffic engine. When she arrives, instead of fumbling her first Express badly, she succeeds, and James and Gordon become worried about their status and jealous of her high speeds. Remember, prior to the codification of the characters into one or two jobs by CGI, James was a common replacement for Gordon on the express, and having his role as secondary express engine threatened would be a major blow to his ego. Worse yet, Rebecca likes pulling trucks, and is thus both similar but also a complete narrative opposite to the pair. Other engines like her for her kindness and helpfulness, even if it does get her in trouble when she doesn’t get her own work done on time - which Gordon and James exploit to make rude remarks about her. 

Already, Rebecca is a natural foil for Gordon and James, being similar enough for viewers to compare one to the other while also being different enough that her positive traits are highlighted against their negative ones. 

Then, Gordon could discover her hidden clumsiness and wheelslip problems, exploiting them to cause her embarrassment - something that has previously happened to James and when Rebecca is reprimanded for the resulting incident, he remembers his own struggles with wheelslip. This makes him more sympathetic to both Rebecca and the audience, and places him on a path towards apologising to Rebecca for how he spoke to her - while Gordon enjoys having the express to himself again. This could follow naturally towards an endpoint where Gordon gets his comeuppance and Rebecca is accepted into the Steam Team, having been a natural foil to both and developed close character relationships based on how she is positioned in contrast to Gordon and James. The series then progresses to seeing Rebecca act in opposition to the pair, as well as trying to one-up them, being either the protagonist or antagonist depending on who the hero of the story is. 

The second option is to use the character made for Rebecca in the previous part - the one built out of her basis and its issues - to turn Rebecca into a strong foil to Gordon and Henry, as well as potentially to Diesel or Thomas. This would begin with Rebecca arriving and acting recklessly with the express, being a speed demon where  Gordon demands professionalism due to his experience. This startles CGI Henry, who is also not a fan of recklessness and places her at odds with them but also potentially makes her interesting to James, who is himself quite reckless. Furthermore, Rebecca’s standoffish behaviour and grandstanding alienates engines like Thomas or Percy, while being very similar to how Gordon, Henry and James acted during their younger years, forcing the three to be confronted with how they used to act, reminding them of their old selves (BWBA is so obsessed with flashbacks and dream sequences, so this would be a good opportunity for them to use classic series moments to help flesh out all three and Rebecca here). 

This could build into Henry recognising the traits he used to hide his insecurities before he was rebuilt, helping to shift how the audience sees Rebecca and giving Henry an arc where he helps Rebecca learn to trust other engines and accept friendships - though notably not Gordon and James, who she sees as being the most likely to make fun of her. This helps Henry gain his classic series confidence back, giving him a boost to stand up and tell the Fat Controller that he wants to move, as well as the confidence to push back against Gordon when the big engine gets angry about the change. The series then follows Rebecca as she argues with James and Gordon, with engines taking sides depending on the episode - including  Thomas potentially absolutely hating Rebecca due to his alliance and friendship with Gordon.

Finally, Rebecca’s actions and attitude could help spur Diesel into recognising some of these negative traits in himself, finally ending the character arc that was attempted with Springtime for Diesel. 

Both of these options really focus on taking these established characters and growing them using Rebecca’s characterisation and unique position as the new big engine at Tidmouth, while also building off of Rebecca’s character strengths to make her stand out as unique too. Remember, Rebecca is the same size and strength as Gordon - the series hasn’t seen a NWR engine of comparable size to Gordon since Hiro was introduced, and he was neither an express engine nor a candidate for the Steam Team, so he was never a credible threat to Gordon. And before Hiro, the last engine of that size was Murdoch right the way back in Series 7, who never made it beyond the model series era. Rebecca has a real potential to be this threat to Gordon, being the first engine of such size introduced in almost a decade - she can pull express trains as well as Gordon while showing up James and being mixed-traffic and versatile like Henry. This is what irks me - Rebecca had everything going for her before she debuted, and got none of it. 

What is even more painful is the fact that there are an infinite number of ways to further develop and build her character or other characterisations to give her that take inspiration from the source material while still being fresh and interesting - for example, what if Rebecca’s clumsiness came from her being a static exhibit, possibly one at a children’s theme park which would explain the bright colours. She could be so kind and cheerful as a way to handle the pain of watching her siblings be scrapped - something that she could bond with Oliver over. The point is that Rebecca had and still has potential but needs a lot more effort put into her than what she got in canon. 

Part 6: Characters to Pair off with Rebecca: 

This brings me to my final core part to this long, and slightly ridiculous dissertation: who to pair Rebecca up with to best build her character and insert her into this universe while feeling natural and potentially giving them some more screen time and character dynamics outside of their usual social circles. 

For this, I decided not to look at Gordon, Henry or James, seeing as they got a lot of consideration in the previous parts, where they were core components of building up Rebecca’s character while also naturally removing Henry from the Steam Team. The following ten characters are engines who I feel would be some of the most interesting to pair up with Rebecca earlier on in the series, to help her bed into the series and give a wide range of popular or interesting characters for viewers to connect her to: 

1: Rosie: Rosie is a USATC s100, a class that worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service! These two potentially have history, and even if they don’t, Rosie would be one of the first engines to realise why Rebecca is acting so standoffish and breaks through to her, seeing as she would have known the class from her younger days. Maybe they become confidants once Rosie manages to break through Rebecca’s facade? Maybe Rebecca decides she prefers Vicarstown and we go back to the Classic-era ensemble cast? The opportunities here are great, and it has the potential to give Rosie some real backstory too! 

2: Salty: Salty also worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service, his class having been introduced in 1962, giving up to five years’ worth of potential overlap. Though it’s less likely the pair would have crossed paths, Salty would still know a lot about the West Country Class. He could potentially even float the idea of her getting rebuilt like a number of her siblings, which would add some real-life facts to the series! It would also be interesting to see Rebecca avoid Salty because she doesn’t want to be exposed by him - remember, she was in service at the end of BR, and really wouldn’t trust diesels based on what they did. 

3: Thomas: Thomas’ class also worked at Southampton when Rebecca would have been in service! However, Thomas would not have personally been at Southampton which means the connection is a little looser. Instead, he could have heard about them from a sibling, or maybe Stepney? Imagine Thomas being really excited to meet this new engine who he’s heard all these positive things about and then it’s this standoffish, grumpy engine who Gordon says is dangerous at speed. It would make for such an interesting dynamic and we could see the cheeky and blunt Thomas from the early series again! 

4: Oliver: These two both made it through the darkest days of BR and survived, and both are also very proud of their achievements - these being Rebecca’s speed and Oliver’s bravery - which could make a scenario where the two hype each other up, much to their own detriment. It would also be interesting to see how Toad would fit into this, seeing as Rebecca is quite reckless and Toad would be opposed to such a thing - and could create a really interesting dynamic where Oliver is forced to pick which of the two he believes during an episode. I can see Oliver being someone Rebecca trusts due to their shared experiences, and it gives Oliver some spotlight. 

5: Emily: Emily was what Rebecca is - an express engine with wheelslip issues who is considered to be one of the best engines of their time. Emily is also an engine who has some issues with CGI-era characterisation and could really do with being revitalised, so why not work with it? Emily tries to be nice and kind with Rebecca, only to keep hitting brick walls and reverting to her old, bossy ways to try and force the new engine to do what Emily wants - bonus points if this is held as being the right thing to do in that situation! It could also play into her getting her number, maybe by rescuing Rebecca from an accident she got into? 

6: Sir Handel: Sir Handel is another engine who desperately needs their characterisation revitalised, and Rebecca is a great chance! Sir Handel considers himself an express engine, and meeting Rebecca puffs him up as she regales him with tales of her speed. This plays into Sir Handel’s cockiness and he gets himself into trouble - and then he decides to get payback in whatever way possible, and we see the reverse of the situation where Sir Handel’s stories get Rebecca all fired up and she gets her own comeuppance. This would not only reintroduce Sir Handel, but also could set the foundations for Duke to return, with references to the MSR. 

7: RWS Flying Scotsman: I specify RWS Scott because I want the kinder, more humble version we got in the RWS to the version we got in the CGI era. Seriously - this engine has just been saved from scrap and given a second chance and his first action is to antagonise his only living sibling? I want him trying to be a voice of reason to Rebecca, seeing as he is uniquely placed to know the consequences of wheelslip - something he also has; as well as recklessness - Scott was the first to officially hit 100mph, so he knows a thing or two! Even more, Rebecca might look up to Scott, based on his fame, though his stories may lead to her being more reckless! 

8: BoCo: Remember I mentioned that the West Country Class caught on fire? Imagine a story with that, with BoCo (a Class 28 infamous for catching fire) as Rebecca’s foil. It could begin with BoCo backfiring and Rebecca making fun of him for it due to her disdain for the diesels who replaced her class before she suffers a similar fate when her boiler lagging catches fire and it’s BoCo who has to help her get her train home. It would be a great way for Rebecca to learn that diesels aren’t all bad, as well as giving her someone new to be friends with - and it would reintroduce BoCo! This could also help draw Rebecca down the branch to meet Bill and Ben… 

9: Molly: Overtly shy Molly and secretly shy Rebecca who covers her shyness up with aggression would make for such an interesting dynamic! I can imagine Molly gathering up all of her courage to speak to Rebecca only to be shot down (unintentionally) and then never want to talk to Rebecca again, and it’s only when Rebecca realises that the bigger engine tries to hunt Molly down - possibly with hilarious consequences. This idea would really work well if you popped in Mavis, who would want to help Molly and stand up to Rebecca. It would also be interesting to reintroduce Molly, especially with Mattel wanting more gender equality. 

10: Mike: This would be a case of grumpy, standoffish Mike versus standoffish-to-hide-insecurities Rebecca! These two would be about as productive as a house on fire. Literally! These two would naturally bump heads in the worst way possible, and it would create incredible comedy and infinite story potential. This would be even better if you added some inferiority complex on Mike’s side, based on the fact he’s never seen an engine this big before - seeing as Rebecca is the only engine of this size able to visit Arlesburgh. They would rile each other right the way up the wall and it would probably never get any better. 

To conclude, Rebecca had real potential as a character - she had an iconic basis, good timing for her introduction and the role she was aiming to fill in many ways needed to be filled; Henry’s character assassination had made him hard to watch for a long time, and moving him out of the spotlight to give writers some time to rehabilitate him was long overdue. It’s just a real massive shame that they managed to fail so badly. By failing to properly plan and develop Rebecca, Mattel created a background character that they tried to have fill a major role that she simply was not able to fill. There were many better choices in the show to take Rebecca’s role, not least of all Molly - a yellow tender engine who was shy and a bit clumsy. By neglecting to properly integrate Rebecca into the series and then giving the show writers very little personality to work with, Mattel ensured that Rebecca would be a BWBA-exclusive character, an engine who never managed to gain half of the popularity of other characters who had comparable runtimes. Engines like Murdoch, Molly and BoCo have far better legacies than Rebecca, and it comes down to how they were treated by the series. All three were introduced with something that made them unique, be it through their interactions with other characters or through their own unique characterisation. Rebecca is a grim reminder to people developing characters for stories - especially characters being added later in the series to a cast of strong, notable and even iconic characters - that these late introductions need a lot of effort and carefully designed arcs to make them viable and allow them to become embedded into the series alongside those they share the screen with. 

Rebecca is one of those characters who is enough of a blank slate that it is easy for people to project onto her. In some cases, this is useful to a character’s legacy - Fergus, Molly, and even Smudger all have been remembered far more fondly by the fanbase than their limited appearances ought to warrant, however this is mostly because they were given a strong enough personality by the show that these projections had preexisting characterisations to connect to. Rebecca was given far too little, and in redesigning her character, I feel like I’ve gained a new understanding of just how far Mattel had pushed the show prior to its cancellation. By expanding the series to include new characters from around the world while also demanding episodes with new, untested characters back on Sodor, the writing team was rushed to complete episodes with a plethora of new faces that had no substance to back them up. There was no chance for these foreign engines to become anything meaningful while Mattel demanded enough new characters to fill an entirely different series, nor was there time for many of the characters back on Sodor to develop meaningfully while the writers scrambled to try and create far too many new characters from scratch. 

And it was the characterisations that suffered for it. 

Once again, this was not an attempt to convince people to like or dislike the version of Rebecca found in BWBA, but instead look into why Rebecca as a character failed to stand up against the other Steam Team members or even many of the more notable secondary faces found in the TVS at this point in the series. This can be boiled down to comparisons to her predecessor, a lack of effort from Mattel to give Rebecca a chance to develop and the decision to use cliched characteristics to create a version of Rebecca that never was going to capture many viewers’ imaginations. This was also an attempt to redevelop Rebecca into someone that can be used by the fandom to rehabilitate her image, or at the least to point out what went wrong and what could have been done to fix it. Maybe someday Rebecca will get the redevelopment she deserved, or perhaps she will be left to the annals of Thomas history, becoming just another footnote in the ever-expanding list of characters who couldn’t stand the test of time. 

Thank you for reading.

[finlands-beret]

Sylvando Lore & Theory Masterpost

Sylvando is an international man of mystery, with him only giving us, the audience, so much of his backstory. Like every great magician, he never reveals his secrets. Soon after I got the game five years ago however, I started combing and filing through the game for all of those secrets, to bring them out into the open. Today, the fifth anniversary of me buying the game, I'd like to share my findings.

Please bear in mind the following is based mainly on my own research, as well as theories crafted from as much information as I could gather from the game itself and supplementary material.

So I'd like to begin strong out of the gate, with possibly the biggest piece of lore I have pieced together: Sylv's age. His father's from Puerto Valor, and his mother was from Zwaardsrust. This, coupled with the fact Sylv himself states he was born and raised in Puerto Valor, assures that he was born after Zwaardsrust's fall. That happened thirty years prior to the game - which brings Hendrik in to the equation. He states in a party talk during act two that "three decades have passed", putting him at six years old when the kingdom fell. This would put Sylv at being six years younger than Hendrik, but then factor-in the nine months his mother most likely carried him for, which puts Sylv at nearly seven years younger than Hendrik. Hendrik is stated to be thirty-six in-game; thus, Sylvando is twenty-nine during act one, and thirty in act two; a year is said to have passed between Yggdrasil's fall and the party reaching Gallopolis.

Next is something that seems simple at first, but has quite some backstory behind it: The casino in Puerto Valor was originally meant as a mansion for Norberto. Don Rodrigo had it changed it to a casino as a means to try and entice Sylv back home. This one stems from the fact Sylv self-admittedly was obsessed with collecting mini medals back in his training days. He had his first argument with the Don over him throwing them all away, and perhaps to make it up to Norberto, Rodrigo made him his own getaway in the form of his own house. It would have been completed before Sylv ran away from home however, leaving an empty, shiny new building behind (Sylv even mentions in a party talk that there wasn't anything like a casino when he was living in the city). Not wanting to let it go to waste, and presumably approaching L'Académie because he knew of their connection to the humble mini medal, the mansion was transformed into the combined casino and hotel. Once it was completed, it might have been Don Rodrigo's idea to make the casino tokens look like mini medals, and he might have sent people off to scatter them around Erdrea in hopes Sylv would have found at least one and gotten curious enough to find-out where they came from. He apparently never took the bait, especially not after hearing the rumours of the casino being built. Sylv was simply too smart to fall for it.

The next theory I dug around for was hidden in plain sight: Sylvando was almost blinded in his youth. In the ensuing healing, his eyes were OVER-healed somehow, and now he's got excellent eyesight. During act one, to find the Silver Orb the party are encouraged to look around L'Académie, where eventually it's suggested they look at a certain book in the library. Said book details the story of how a group of vicious bird monsters tore through the roof of a local manor house and stole away with the noble family's greatest treasure - the Silver Orb. On the party's excursion through the Eerie Eyrie, Sylv will mention how he's never been a fan of things with wings. In fact, during one party talk, he says "I don’t know why, but the naughty things always try to peck my eyes out. Perhaps they think they’re precious, glittering jewels…" This makes for quite a harrowing piece of Sylv's backstory; Sylv was present when the birds attacked the villa to get at the Silver Orb years ago, and in the ensuing chaos he was almost clawed-at. To further the next point, he was healed at the scene (assuming a family like the Don's would have at least one healer on-site), but then his eyesight became TOO good - as we see later in the game, when Sylv looks from the Stallion's deck all the way towards another boat to attempt to lip-read, just outside of Lonalulu, before the tentacular fight. Additionally, this attack is why the villa's roof has a lot of spiked points on it; to deter bird monsters from ever trying again.

I would like to thank and credit @captainbobbin for this next piece, which came-about more recently than all of the others: Sylv's charm-based magic is based on the emotional aspects of charm i.e. romance. Knowing that Sylv's eyes turn to hearts when he uses Pink Pirouette, I enquired to Bobbin about if the same were true about Jade and Pink Typhoon/Tornado, and using excellent camera trickery, he confirmed that her eyes do not change. Captainbobbin then put forth the suggestion that due to this, and given the naming of one move the two share being different -"That's Amore" vs "Sexy Beam"- as well as Jade's differing way of using her own charms, the Princess of Heliodor embodies the more physical side of charm, whilst Sylv embodies the more emotional side.

Speaking of romance… Sylv spent years living in Gondolia with the master mechanic, Gismo Mecánico, in order to design and build the Salty Stallion. However, where the loading screen tip for the Salty Stallion calls Gismo "an old associate of Sylvando's", and the red book " The Astonishing Inventions of Gismo Mecánico' " describes Sylv as "a close personal friend of the ship's designer", I believe that Sylv was indeed in love with Gismo, but it ended tragically. During the Briscoletti quest in Tickington, when choosing a partner you can talk to Sylv and he will say: "Before I get too carried away, though, I'd better check—because heaven knows I've been burnt before—you do actually mean it, don't you, honey?" It's such a small line, but given the aforementioned references… I would wager Sylv made a proposal to Gismo, who turned him down - and some time after, they passed away - potentially in a horrific accident, given the rocky terrain-look of the far side of the Gondolian dock entrance. There is a whole estate of houses on the far side of the docks, which I assume belonged to Gismo.

For my next piece of lore, I'd like to turn to my favourite of the bunch: Given DQXI's heavy theme of reincarnation, and given the following evidence pointing towards it, Sylv may well be the reincarnation of the very first Don of Puerto Valor. In Jasper's quarters in Heliodor Castle, there's a red book Eleven can read about the story of the Shield of Heliodor (aptly titled "National Treasures, No. 106 – The Shield of Heliodor"). In it, it tells the tale of a legendary Heliodorian knight who saved the life of the first King of Zwaardsrust, which was Drustan - whom Hendrik is a probable reincarnation of. Said knight was the same knight who was sent to Puerto Valor to oversee the sea gates, as he is the direct ancestor of Don Rodrigo - thus, Sylvando as well. There's also the fact as well that Sylv receives the Coraza de Caballero from Servantes after the Kingsbarrow Trial; its description says it once belonged to a knight known for his godlike skill with a sword. This suit may very well have been that Heliodorian knight's own suit, handed down through the generations until it ends-up (back) with Sylv. Additionally, it's often stated that Don Rodrigo is a knight unparalleled with his own skill with the sword; most likely inherited from the first Don and passed down to Sylv. This could explain why Sylv still retains a strong sense of justice and sticks to everything the knighthood stands for, even long-after becoming an entertainer; it's ingrained very deeply within him. As for why the Shield of Heliodor stayed in Heliodor… It's most likely the original knight simply didn't want to carry it all the way to Puerto Valor, given it's a heavy greatshield. Considering the above, this also brings about the possibility that Sylv and Jade are very, very, distantly related - cousins many times removed, most likely. Additionally, there is a book in Heliodor titled "A Brief History of Heliodor" that chronicles the two brothers who founded Heliodor; I have reason to believe that the legendary knight was one of those two brothers (who went on to found the lineage of the Don), and the other brother went on to continue the royal line that led to King Carnelian, then to Jade.

Next I'd like to turn to Sylv's longest-held companion, Margarita; she was born in Cobblestone. When Eleven has his vision-flashback after returning to Cobblestone, there's a horse there who had just given birth. Speaking to her owner, he says "This is the fastest filly in the village! But she won't be doing much running for a while—she's about to become a mother! I'll bet her foal will be even quicker on its feet than she is!" Given that the flashback is set ten years prior, that would mean the foal would be ten years old in the present day - which is in-line with Margarita, being an adult horse. As for her bring the fastest filly's foal, Margarita's performance in the Sand National should be the first piece of proof; if the Luminary wins the race, Sylv is always a close second. Likewise, in the Black Cup horse races, particularly the Difficult race, Margarita will always race-off ahead. If Eleven fails to catch her or he hits too many obstacles, she will always win those races.

As an entertainer, Sylv is also a skilled musician - so much so that much of his moveset incorporates references to numerous real-world songs. Here is a list of everything I found, after extensively looking into every ability and pep power Sylv has:

That's Amore - Dean Martin song Have a Ball - album by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Ultra Violet - Bananarama song Hit Parade - BRADIO song Kiss Me Deadly, Gold Rush - several songs of the same name The Fight Fantastic - multiple albums, also an idiom meaning to dance nimbly Kiss of Death - several songs/albums of the same name Love Hurts - Everly Brothers song Shooting Stars - numerous songs/albums; also the name of a 1990s British comedy panel show which heavily featured music Rough 'n' Tumble - jazz album by Stanley Turrentine "Dressed to Kill" accolade - 10cc and The Jetzons songs of the same name

Sylv will also say "Hit me with your best shot!" when defending in battle, which is a reference to the Pat Benatar song of the same name. As a bonus, Golden Boy's dialogue while giving the recipe book for the Dapper Doublet, makes references to Robbie Williams' song "Angels" and Take That's song "Shine".

For the penultimate piece of lore, I'd like to turn to something that had my attention a while ago, and that has come back to me recently; there is a curse within the line of the Don, that prevents those in rule from holding happy or long marriages. This one is based on the potential that Puerto Valor is partly-based on Monte Carlo, the ward within Monaco famed for its casinos - and of the legendary curse surrounding Monaco's royal family, the House of Grimaldi. The legend states that a woman -be she a witch or a hag- cursed the first Grimaldi ruler of Monaco and his line to never have happy marriages. Where we only ever hear of Don Rodrigo's marriage, while he and Gerbera were happy their time together was a short one as she passed away shortly after Sylv was born. It could be assumed that previous Dons all suffered similar fates with their spouses, and assuming Sylv knows about this curse, could be why he has yet to marry.

To end with, I'd like to present something perhaps more out-there than some of the others put forth here: Sylvando was a prototype Luminary for Yggdrasil. For a start, there is the fact he has a character-exclusive, Sword of Light-analogous sword in the Shamshir of Light, which deals light-elemental damage when attacking. There is also the fact he seems to know how to use light magic (in contrast to the actual Luminary's lightNING magic), with his abilities Sobering Slap and Sudden Death. Much like the Shamshir, Sudden Death deals light-elemental damage - the only ability to do so. There may be some irony in that he's the only person who joins the party who DOESN'T join because Eleven is the Luminary (he joins to stop the Lord of Shadows, so he can travel and bring smiles to everyone). Sylv could be considered the guid(ing light, given his magic) to the Luminary proper, assuming of course he was a prototype to begin with.

With all of the above, I'd like to thank anyone and everyone who took the time to read through, and I hope you enjoyed this rather deep dive into the onion of a character that is Sylvando. This has been an undertaking of the past half-decade, and I'm glad to finally be able to put all of my research together like this.

[lunameimei]

Well, considering that I obviously won’t finish this, I think I can post here my work on a small fan comic. The story takes place in an alternate scenario in episode 4x06 ("Furious Fu").

There are quite a few pages, so I'll hide them below. Some of them look very bad, and some of them I am still proud of… In general, for anyone who is interested, read below!

and yes, there was supposed to be bubble-text, but I stopped at the "line"

as you can see further, halfway through I was tired and we only had a storyboard

So what happened here?

The scenario is: Ladybug, under pressure from the Grand Master Su-Han and the burden of being a Guardian, chooses to abandon her role and hand over the miraculous box. Because of this, Marinette forgets everything since she became Ladybug.

The comic begins with Adrien stuck on the roof with Marinette, but Marinette has absolutely no memory of him. As a result, the girl contacts her parents and while they are waiting for the family to arrive, Adrien tells Marinette about the heroes of Paris. And also that Marinette most likely lost her memory due to Akuma's attack. At first, Marinette was very wary of Adrien, but in the end she finds him very cute (and that for some reason his photo is on the wallpaper of her phone) and even assumes that he is her boyfriend… but no. (Since the episode was the first of the fourth season, Luka and Marinette are still dating here) In the end, Marinette meets with her parents, and Adrien goes home alone.

This was the first part, which obviously doesn’t tell much and the story moves very slowly

Next, in Part 2, we would get some explanation from Adrien's nightmare/memory of what happened. Before Ladybug and Chat Noir had to give up their miraculous (and Ladybug would forget everything forever), Chat asked them to reveal their identities to each other. Ladybug said that she was giving up her role as a guardian and both teenagers detransformed. Marinette was horrified and shocked, but nothing could be changed; her memories slowly but surely left her head.

Marinette only managed to ask Adrien not to forget her.

Having lost everything at once: Ladybug, Marinette and Plagg, Adrien becomes very depressed. He understands why Ladybug gave the miraculous box in the first place and he cannot afford to drag Marinette into this “heroic nightmare” again by telling her the truth. Meanwhile, at school, people begin to worry why the heroes have not yet appeared and the “miraculous ladybug” has not returned Marinette’s memories. And in general, no one has seen the heroes for a long time (luckily, Hawk Moth hasn't shown himself again yet either).

The rest of the story was not very well thought out and I only had some “outlines”. Because of Hawk Moth’s new attack, Su-Han asks Adrien for help, since finding new heroes is not easy in the modern world, and going to the Temple would be too long and far away (and Hawk Moth likes to attack a lot and often). Adrien would be furious at the Master's behavior, but would agree to become a "temporary hero" (not Chat or Mister Bug) solely for the duration of the attack on Paris. Because, besides Adrien , no one could be entrusted with this (in the finale of the third season, the identities of all the heroes were revealed), and Adrien feels responsible to Ladybug. And of course he wants to protect Marinette.

But of course we wouldn't have any more heroic fun adventure. Adrien would be just depressed, and his "heroic form" would be dry and furrios.

And also Adrien would definitely lost all his shit on Chloe, since he would blame her for everything that happened. (After all, if she had not helped Hawk Moth, he would not have found Master Fu and Ladybug would not have had to become a new Guardian)

In the end Adrien would generally have a whole bunch of guilt and anger and confused thoughts and emotions about the whole situation.

And… that's all I had time to think through :D I started this comic in 2021 and continued it gradually for a whole year. Until I realized halfway through (creating lines in the first chapter) that I don’t really understand what the meaning of everything I’ve drawn is… and where it goes… I love doing detailed and large work too much, which is difficult for a beginner to handle. Maybe it's good that I froze the project. Maybe not very much. But in any case, why not share what I have been collecting dust on my computer for years.

I hope the text was not too complicated (after all, I use Google translator), and the story was not too boring. In any case, thanks to everyone who watched, read or simply paid attention!

P.S. And also a bonus - the very first developments, where I chose what style and color to create the work in order to be as fast as possible. (the 4th option won as you can see) + the final version from the comic itself!

[ere-the-sun-rises]

Why Certain Male Superheroes Have Such A Strong Female Fanbase

I discussed this on another post, but I think the trend of certain male superheroes having huge female fanbases has its roots in how relatable their characterization and struggles are. Despite being male characters, they are very strongly female-coded. I’ll use four examples, two Marvel (specifically their MCU portrayals) and two DC: Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

I apologize in advance if you click the Read More, this will be a very long post.

Tony Stark gets a lot of shit from the fandom, especially after Civil War. Yet, he remains arguably the most popular character from the entire series and adored by female fans. I think there’s a very good reason for that - he takes on a very female-coded role in relation to everyone else he interacts with.

For starters, he’s constantly slut-shamed. Steve, in particular, takes his sexual habits as a measure of his reliability and ability to be serious/commit. He alludes to knowing Tony from news coverage in A1, and we know from JARVIS’ quip in IM2 that Tony’s sexual escapades are highly covered by media. He looks down on Tony for his displays of sexuality (and more importantly, how shameless he is about them). Mia in IM3 also takes her digs at him about this.

His intelligence is constantly underestimated. Tony is incredibly smart and knows what he’s doing. In every Avengers movie, he is the one who formulates and carries out the plans that save the day. He is the plot device through which everything gets resolved, yet no one actually gives that any weight. In A1, Hill needles him about Selvig’s notes. In AoU, no one listens to him when he tries to explain that he was not responsible for Ultron gaining sentience or turning evil. In Civil War, Steve doesn’t listen to him when he tries to explain his decision to agree to the Sokovia Accords. Don Cheadle’s Rhodey never has any faith in Tony’s actions and constantly treats him like a child in need of supervision.

His emotions are continually disregarded. A major plot point in IM2 is Tony’s Reactor poisoning him. He exhibits all the signs of a suicidal person (even though he’s not) - giving his possessions away, retreating from public and personal life, making rash and/or unsafe decisions, emotional instability - but neither Pepper nor Rhodey even notice. In Civil War, when he tries to relay the human cost of the Sokovia disaster to the team (when we were shown how much that affected him), they dismiss his emotional outreach as manipulative. Steve disregards his friendship at every turn (indeed, being actively hostile to him through almost all of AoU) and doesn’t trust him at all (not telling him that Bucky was programmed). He also doesn’t consider that Tony may have feelings about finding out that his parents were murdered and seems surprised that Tony would be distraught. He never apologizes for hiding such important information, or even admits he shouldn’t have. When Tony returns from space in A:IW, he’s dismissive of Tony’s anger. Right until the end of A:E, Tony has to ask if Steve trusts him to make the right decision and Tony isn’t certain the answer will be yes. Natasha also treats him like he’s unrelentingly selfish, despite having been close enough to him to be wearing his clothes (in CA:WS, she’s wearing the same sweater Tony was wearing in IM2 when the only other person she does this to is Clint, with whom she is incredibly close).

Another major theme is the continued violation of his bodily autonomy. IM1 establishes that Tony’s autonomy is represented by his Reactor and armour, and that his use of both are a means to regain control over his autonomy. Obadiah continually enters Tony’s personal space without invitation or reciprocation, going so far as to undress him without permission to look at the Reactor and this comes to a head with the theft of his Reactor. Pepper gets upset with Tony about his suits in IM3, even hinging the continuation of their relationship on him getting rid of them without addressing why he’s so reliant on them. Steve in CW, once he has Tony on the ground, goes right for the Reactor (not to mention that Tony raises his arms like he anticipated that Steve was going to behead him). Then Steve leaves him there.

I think Tony appeals to so many female fans because it’s so easy to see the way we are ignored, overridden, used and discarded in him. He never seems to be good enough for the ones that he loves. He also knows he can’t turn to any of his closest people for comfort and doesn’t bother to try. He’s been taught by experience that if he’s disruptive or not useful, he’s not welcome. It’s incredibly difficult for him to accept kindness, but very easy to shoulder blame and responsibility. He’s easily hurt, but so good at concealing it no one notices. No one takes him seriously in anything he does, even when he’s proven it with actions. He’s always fighting against preconceived notions of him that aren’t him.

 | | |

Despite being a physically imposing character with a deadly skill-set and high body-count, Bucky is characterized almost exclusively as a caregiver or a victim.

In CA:TFA, he’s got a severe case of “Eldest Daughter Syndrome”, concerned above all with making sure that Steve is taken care of and kept from harm. Bucky consistently cleans up after Steve, both by running off the people he fights and ensuring that Steve’s living situation is assured. As the team sniper, he’s always watching Steve’s back and making sure he doesn’t get hurt. Steve loves Bucky, but he doesn’t ever take care of him. In CW and afterward, Bucky’s still more concerned for Steve than himself. He would have resigned himself to whatever punishment INTERPOL would have give him, and it’s not until Steve is threatened in their fight with Tony that he actually gets involved. Even in FATWS, he helps Sam not only with the terrorists, but with the boat and he reaches out to the Wakandans to replace the Falcon suit that got destroyed. He helps Sam train with the shield, even mentioning that he was the one who helped Steve get a handle on how to use it.

His victimization also starts near-immediately, with him being the sole survivor of Zola’s experiments in CA:TFA. He’s victimized and abusively controlled through his entire time as the Winter Soldier. Like Tony, his autonomy is also materially symbolized by his arm, which is used against him by Natasha in CA:WS and Ayo in FATWS. Perhaps most upsettingly relatable, he’s held accountable for the actions of the Winter Soldier in FATWS as exemplified by the therapist, who victim-blames him and seems more concerned with checking off a box for the government than actually helping him recover in any meaningful way. Zemo capitalizes on this spectacularly in FATWS.

I think a lot of women can relate to the kind of exhausted resignation of Bucky. He’s so rarely in control of anything that happens to him, but he still tries to be useful and kind when he can. He’s scared and hurt and alone, abandoned by the only person he knew in a world completely alien and hostile to him. His body language screams for someone to take care of him, but he’d die before asking for it. He tries so desperately not to be a burden, but always feels like one. He’ll put the needs of those he cares for above himself without exception, even when it causes him a lot of distress. His body and skills don’t feel like they belong to him, and he feels like it’s only a matter of time before someone steals them away again.

 | | |

Bruce Wayne as Batman might seem like an odd example, and there are certainly iterations of him that won’t fit this characterization. However, there’s a lot about him that is highly relatable to the feminine experience.

For starters, he’s guilt-ridden as shit. Bruce always takes it hard and personal when something goes wrong, even when he’s not responsible for it. This is most obvious in relation to his parents or Jason Todd, where he blames himself for something he didn’t do and couldn’t control. While every failure he has is met with a practical reassessment of his tactics, he also looks inward, trying to find what it is about him personally that makes these things happen and/or why he isn’t enough to stop it. He has a tendency to just accept blame instead of pushing back (ei. whenever Jason throws his death in his face).

He’s been raped. However much it may be payed down, Talia drugged and had non-consensual sex with him to conceive Damian.

His main motivation isn’t revenge, it’s prevention. While he’s not above revenge, the purpose behind Batman is to ensure that tragedies don’t have the chance to happen and that, even though he uses violence to accomplish his goals, he will never be the source of that tragedy. He wants to lash out in violent retaliation, but he cares more about redressing the balance of pain than he does inflicting it back. That’s how he can be friendly with people like Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Two-Face.

Bruce is a single mom at his core. He might not be the best parent all or even some of the time, but he loves his children and would do almost anything for them. He gets accused of creating child soldiers (both in canon and by fans), but none of his kids are soldiers to him. They work for him as Batman, but they are so much more than his co-vigilantes. He loves them like a parent and would die for any one of them. Indeed, this is a sentiment that extends to a few members of the JLA too, especially amongst the OG crew.

Bruce’s emotions are also discounted a lot, though that’s generally because he’s taken as cold and emotionless. He feels very deeply, about nearly everything, but he’s very good at hiding it. He views his heart as incredibly vulnerable and so only reveals it to a select few. The more this backfires on him, the less he’s willing to open up and the more guarded he becomes. He cares so much, but he’s so gripped by the fear of being hurt that it has to be forcefully pried out of him.

Brucie Wayne is an expertly crafted persona that plays into the female stereotype of “ditzy bimbo”. The “tall, dark and handsome” persona could have done just as well for his public face, playing into a more mysterious and alluring figure, but he chose to portray himself as a charming drunk, always down for a good time and with all the depth of a puddle. Brucie Wayne is such a shallow and vapid personality, comparable only to that of Paris Hilton’s public profile.

As I said, not every Bruce Wayne is portrayed this way, but some of the more famous examples of him certainly are: Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series/Justice League Unlimited/The Arkham games), Bruce Greenwood (DCAMU, Young Justice), Robert Pattinson (The Batman 2022) and arguably even Ben Affleck (DCEU). He’s capable of being brutal, demanding and uncompromising, but he ultimately wants the pain to stop, not to inflict it.

I think a lot of women see him almost as a kind of power fantasy, a way to exact violent vengeance on the ones who hurt people but maintain an inner kindness. This may be a bit of a self-projection, but I also think women can relate to his “going too far” notion - for those who have been victims before, it is so, so easy to slip into the cycle of perpetuation and become the abuser. He manages to thread the needle of striking back at an abuser without becoming one.

 | | |

Dick Grayson is perhaps one of the most sexualized male characters in existence, and almost exclusively catering to the female audience, particularly once he’s Nightwing. He’s kind, warm, funny, charming, attractive and considerate. But I think a lot of his appeal comes not only from being made of boyfriend material, but the way he demonstrates these attributes.

Dick pretty generally falls into the Eldest Daughter role once he’s an adult, becoming very close with his siblings and often acting as an intermediary between Bruce and the other kids. He’s the one that the rest of the family turns to when something happens to Bruce, and he’s often the one to take up the temporary mantle of Batman when Bruce is otherwise unable. Even with the Teen Titans, he’s a tentpole figure that guides his teammates and helps them mature despite often being the same age or younger than them.

Partly due to his past as a performer, Dick is a people-pleaser. This goes for his home life, romantic relationships and general public persona. Dick is Bruce’s charming first son, Bludhaven’s affable vigilante or [insert love interest]’s considerate boyfriend. He’s a lot more genuine in his public persona than Bruce is, but he’s gracious in the way a retail employee is - a certain measure of forced cheer that’s expected of him. 

The way other characters sexualize Dick is also very female-coded. They always comment on his body, the tightness of his suit and how pretty he is. While they may also comment on his charm or personality, often the first things they discuss are physical. He usually plays along with this in good humour, but even other members of his family who share a lot of characteristics - Bruce, Tim, Jason, older Damian - don’t get the same kind of horny-on-main attention. He’s also usually paired with very strong/dominating love interests (Donna, Kory, Barbara) and has a tendency to be more passive in the relationship and get pursued when dating.

I think Dick acts like a lot of women do (or feel like they have to): upbeat and cheerful, attentive to their partners/family and always available for emotional caretaking. His body is a spectacle that receives unsolicited comment and judgment constantly. He fills the gaps where Bruce falls short and struggled to find his own path and identity away from the needs of his family.

 | | |

Women are used to having to relate to male characters in media, since female characters are generally so sparse, inauthentic or underdeveloped. I think that’s why, when we see ourselves in male characters, we latch onto them so tightly and care about them so much. While none of these attributes are exclusive to women, there’s a certain way that these aspects of characterization blend together that is generally more familiar to women than it is so men. There’s an echo of lived experience in their portrayals that hits very close to home.

[describe-things]

A rebloggable version of this list, from 2012.

Click here for the Wayback Machine's archive calendar for the page.

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Gender Neutral/Queer Titles

[Note: currently this page has written titles in mind. Some titles are gender neutral when spoken, ie fiancé/fiancée, as the pronunciation does not change.]

Family Titles

Mum/Dad

Parent; neutral, formal.

Per; neutral, short for parent.

Par; neutral, short for parent.

Dommy; queer, mixture of mommy and daddy (note: sounds like Dom/me, a BDSM term)

Maddy; queer, mixture of mummy/mommy and daddy.

Muddy; queer, mixture of mummy and daddy.

Moddy; queer, mixture of mommy and daddy.

Zaza; queer, based on mama and papa/dada.

Zither; queer, based on mother and father. (Note, zither is also the name of a musical instrument.)

Baba; neutral, based on mama and dada. (Note, baba means dad in some languages and grandmother in others.)

Nini; queer, based on the N in NB, similar to mama and papa/dada.

Bibi; queer, based on the B in NB, similar to mama and papa/dada.

Cennend; neutral, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) meaning parent.

Cenn; neutral, short for cennend.

Sister/Brother

Sibling; neutral, formal.

Sib; neutral, short for sibling as sis and bro are short for sister and brother. 

Sibster; queer, combination of sibling and sister.

Sibter; queer, combination of sibling and brother.

Aunt/Uncle

Pibling; neutral, your parent’s sibling.

Auncle; queer, combination of aunt and uncle.

Cousin; neutral, as sometimes people say aunt/uncle for parents’ cousins, or much older cousins.

Titi; neutral, from the Spanish for Aunt (Tia) and Uncle (Tio). (however, it is often a diminutive of aunt.)

Zizi; neutral, from the Italian for Aunt (Zia) and Uncle (Zio). (Note: zizi is also a French children’s ‘cute’ word for penis.)

Nini; queer, based on the N in NB, similar to Titi/Zizi.

Bibi; queer, based on the B in NB, similar to Titi/Zizi.

Untie/Unty; queer, combination of uncle and auntie/aunty

Niece/Nephew

Nibling; neutral, combination of niece/nephew and sibling.

Chibling; neutral, the children of you sibling.

Cousin; neutral, as sometimes people say niece/nephew for cousins’ children, or much younger cousins.

Sibkid; neutral, short for sibling’s kid.

Nephiece; queer, mixture of nephew and niece.

Niecew; queer, mixture of niece and nephew.

Nieph; queer, mixture of niece and nephew.

Daughter/Son

Child; neutral, formal.

Offspring; neutral, formal.

Sprog; neutral, informal.

Oldest; neutral, refers to age instead of sex/gender.

Youngest; neutral, refers to age instead of sex/gender.

Kid; neutral, informal.

Grandma/Grandpa

Grandparent; neutral, formal.

Grandwa; queer, based on grandma and grandpa.

Grandy; neutral, short for Grandparent, Grandma or Grandpa.

Nini; queer, based on the N in NB, similar to nana and papa.

Bibi; queer, based on the B in NB, similar to nana and papa.

Granddaugter/Grandson

Grandchild; neutral, formal.

Grandkid; neutral, informal.

Godmother/Godfather

Godparent; neutral, formal.

Goddaughter/Godson

Godchild; neutral, formal.

Godkid; neutral, informal.

Relationship Titles

Girlfriend/Boyfriend (non-serious relationship)

Date; neutral, the person you are dating.

Datefriend; neutral, the person you are dating, but fitting the boyfriend/girlfriend pattern.

Datemate; neutral, a rhyming version of datefriend, the person you are dating.

Lover; neutral, often implies sexual relationship, but simply refers to someone you love/who loves you.

Boifriend; queer, boi is a particular gender identity.

Girlboyfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Boygirlfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Paramour; neutral, someone you are having a sexual relationship with.

Bothfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Genderfriend; queer, based on boyfriend and girlfriend.

Sweetie; neutral, slightly cheesy.

Sweetheart; neutral, cheesy or old-fashioned.

[name]friend; queer, based on girlfriend and boyfriend.

Cuddle Buddy; neutral, cheesy.

Birlfriend; queer, mix of boyfriend and girlfriend.

Feyfriend; neutral, leaning towards queer.

Personfriend; neutral, leaning towards queer, based on boyfriend and girlfriend.

Enbyfriend; queer, based on boyfriend and girfriend. (note: enby comes from NB, non-binary)

Girlfriend/Boyfriend (long-term/serious relationship)

Partner; neutral.

Significant Other; neutral, quite formal.

S.O.; neutral, short for significant other.

Other Half; neutral, informal, and implies monogamy.

Boifriend; queer, boi is a particular gender identity.

Girlboyfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Boygirlfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Paramour; neutral, someone you are having a sexual relationship with.

Bothfriend; queer, for bigender or androgynous people, or perhaps binary trans people.

Genderfriend; queer, based on boyfriend and girlfriend.

Sweetie; neutral, slightly cheesy.

Sweetheart; neutral, cheesy or old-fashioned.

[name]friend; queer, based on girlfriend and boyfriend.

Cuddle Buddy; neutral, cheesy.

Steady; neutral, as in “going steady” or “steady girlfriend/boyfriend”.

Soul Mate; neutral, slightly cheesy, implies belief in soul mates.

Birlfriend; queer, mix of boyfriend and girlfriend.

Feyfriend; neutral, leaning towards queer.

Personfriend; neutral, leaning towards queer, based on boyfriend and girlfriend.

Loveperson; neutral, a person that you love.

Enbyfriend; queer, based on boyfriend and girfriend (note: enby comes from NB, non-binary).

Epox; neutral, from the French ‘époux’ which means husband/spouse.

Companion; neutral, reference to Doctor Who’s companions, or Firefly’s Companions.

Imzadi; neutral, from Star Trek, a Betazed word similar to beloved.

Fiancée/Fiancé

Betrothed; neutral, formal.

Partner; neutral.

Significant Other; neutral, quite formal.

S.O.; neutral, short for significant other, a tad formal.

Other Half; neutral, informal, implies monogamy.

Sweetie; neutral, slightly cheesy.

Sweetheart; neutral, cheesy or old-fashioned.

Cuddle Buddy; neutral, cheesy.

Steady; neutral, as in “going steady” or “steady girlfriend/boyfriend”.

Soul Mate; neutral, slightly cheesy, implies belief in soul mates.

Loveperson; neutral, a person that you love.

Epox; neutral, from the French ‘époux’ which means husband/spouse.

Companion; neutral, reference to Doctor Who’s companions, or Firefly’s Companions.

Imzadi; neutral, from Star Trek, a Betazed word similar to beloved.

Wife/Husband

Spouse; neutral, formal.

Partner; neutral.

Significant Other; neutral, quite formal.

S.O.; neutral, short for significant other, a tad formal.

Other Half; neutral, informal.

Sweetie; neutral, slightly cheesy.

Sweetheart; neutral, cheesy or old-fashioned.

Cuddle Buddy; neutral, cheesy.

Steady; neutral, as in “going steady” or “steady girlfriend/boyfriend”.

Soul Mate; neutral, slightly cheesy, implies belief in soul mates.

Loveperson; neutral, a person that you love.

Epox; neutral, from the French ‘époux’ which means husband/spouse.

Companion; neutral, reference to Doctor Who’s companions, or Firefly’s Companions.

Imzadi; neutral, from Star Trek, a Betazed word similar to beloved.

Official Titles

Ms./Mr.

Mx.; queer, from mix or X as opposed to M or F.

M.; neutral, short for any and all titles. (note: M. is also short for Monsieur, making it masculine in French speaking countries)

Misc.; queer, the word miscellaneous.

Msr.; queer, mixture of Ms. and Mr..

Mq.; queer, based on the M beginning of Ms./Mr..

Ind.; neutral, short for Individual.

Miscellaneous Titles

Ma’am/Sir

Comrade; neutral, not suitable for all situations due to leftist/communist connotations.

Friend; neutral, very informal.

Citizen; neutral.

Tiz; neutral, short for citizen.

Mirdam; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam, although it still sounds similar to Madam.

Mistdam; queer, a mix of Mister and Madam.

Sir’ram; queer, a mix of Sir and Ma’am.

Laddam; queer, a mix of Lad and Madam.

Mir; queer, a mix of Sir and Madam.

Sir; neutral, Sir is used neutrally in the military, although this doesn’t work as well outside of that.

King/Queen

Monarch; neutral.

Ruler; neutral.

Sovereign; neutral.

Your Majesty; neutral, a way of addressing royalty.

Quing; queer, mix of King and Queen.

Caln; queer, created word based on the K/Q sound of King and Queen.

Prince/Princess

Prin; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Prinxe; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Princet; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Princette; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Princev; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Princen; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Princus; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending.

Your Highness; neutral, a way of addressing royalty.

Heir; neutral, refers to future monarchy.

Princex; queer, based on the Prince/ss ending, POC-coined and POC exclusive.

Lord/Lady

Lairde; queer, based on the sound of La in Lady and rd in Lord.

Layde; queer, based on the sound of La in Lady and rd in Lord.

Ruler; neutral.

Liege; neutral, term of address for a Lord/Lady.

Sovereign; neutral.

Suzerain; neutral, a feudal equivalent of Lord/Lady.

Potentate; neutral, a Latin word for someone in power.

Khal/Khaleesi (A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones)

Khalsine; queer.

Khalse; queer.

Khalof; neutral, created by David J Peterson who developed the Dothraki for the show.

God/Goddess

God; neutral.

Goddex; queer, based on the God/dess ending.

Goddette; queer, based on the God/ess ending.

Goddeq; queer, based on the God/ess ending.

Deity; neutral, another word meaning god.

Boy/Girl

Kid; neutral.

Enby; queer, from the sound of NB, non-binary.

Neut; neutral, short for neutal.

Newt; neutral, variation of neut.

Null; queer, refering to someone whose gender is ‘null’.

Gul; queer, a mixture of boy and girl.

Fanboy/Fangirl

Fanenby; queer, using enby as a replacement for boy/girl.

Fanby; queer, a mixture of fanboy/fangirl and enby

[cherish--these--times]

VERY LONG POST ALERT

I've been doing a SGA rewatch. Seeing John and Teyla in a new light and wanted to spread the love and share some thoughts! Bear with me on that one. They might be more to come.

-

I think The Legacy Series very cleverly exploited what had been established by the end of season 5. If we consider the Fandemonium books canon (Stargate Wiki certainly does) then John and Teyla are openly in love and in a committed relationship. The first couple of books reveal that Teyla had harboured feelings for him for a long time but believed he didn't see her in that way. Concept best illustrated by this scene, I believe. When Teyla offers a comfy thigh for his sleepy head and he doesn't say so much as a thank you and she looks discomfited to say the least.

And whether this was scripted or simply an acting choice on Rachel Luttrell's part, this look signifies a lot in an episode mentioning a man she has feelings for who has yet to make a move.

As stated in the books, following the deaths of Carson, Elizabeth and Kate, she sought comfort where she could find it, which was in the arms of a fellow Athosian whom she knew since childhood and who had the Gift as well. She tried to move on with her life with someone she trusted and loved. And it makes sense. Rachel Luttrell loved that about this storyline and I agree with her.

Truth be told, not much is happening regarding John and Teyla in the first three seasons, especially after season 1. John puts on the charm on her when they first meet the same way he does with every pretty girl they encounter on a mission, which clearly indicates that he finds her attractive. And she is INTO IT. Instantly. Her little smile and Colonel Sumner's raised eyebrow and barely concealed amusement LOL... The only moment of levity on his part regarding Sheppard...

You can glimpse that she might be falling for him right there and then. And the necklace scene.. Uuggghh the sexual tension there hehe.

John trusts her implicitly and immediately, it's beautiful to see. I love when he defends her against Bates when she's suspected to be a double agent for the Wraith. And he has little to show for it apart from the fact that he just really likes her and knows that she's a kind hearted person. It's not based on anything factual. Bates was absolutely right about that. And John losing his shit with him because he is well aware of that is delightful. He doesn't know why, yet, but he already adores her and will defend her honour to Earth and back (and that's a long way alright!). Same when she learns she has Wraith DNA and Bates once again suspects the worst. Teyla struggles to fit in and John is her anchor, for sure. Equally, I love when she volunteers to go through the gate with him when he has the iratus bug on his neck. She wants to do it straight away. Knowing she might not come back on the other side. She is already willing to do anything for him at the expense of her life and they've only known each other a few weeks by that point.

But after that first season... Nothing. Teyla finds an ally in Ronon as they both share the burden of not being from Earth and therefore being outsiders, to some extent. He takes John's place by her side and I am digging their friendship so hard it's unreal. Far more than I used to, actually. Ronon loves her so much it's so endearing. She is too reserved to show it in the same way but it's honestly so cute.

Regarding John, sure there is the Conversion episode. And to me it confirms what we already knew which is that John is attracted to Teyla and the virus lowered his inhibitions to the point that he just went and did what he probably thought about doing a handful of times. And the "He cares for you more than you know" body possession thing in The Long Goodbye is a clever way of insinuating that John has deeper feelings for her than he is letting on. Without truly committing to anything. And deeper feelings I believe he had from day one. That's how I had interpreted it. I just didn't think the writers were gonna do anything substantial about it.

And sure enough, John's relationship with her changes from season 2 onwards. It's subtle but you can feel that they have drifted apart, somewhat. Or perhaps things have now settled and John doesn't need to be so protective of her and her place on his team anymore. One thing I did notice is that Teyla is always annoyed when John flirts with other women. The camera is never focused on her specifically but you can see her doing a massive eye roll or else just staring at the back of his head everytime. Or sharing a look with Ronon. Sometimes all three LOL

I guess we can give season 3's episode The Ark an honourable mention for shippy content (and Sunday, more on that soon). When John is ready to die for her by landing the shuttle on the planet, even if Rodney deems it impossible. But that's just John for ya. He did the same for Elizabeth in The Real World. And Jennifer in The Seed. And for other people and Atlantis at large on too many occasions to count.

What the Remnants episode and subsequently the books did beautifully was to establish one paramount fact about John Sheppard. He considers himself a marked man whose impending death will be fate's retribution for his failure in Afghanistan. It was the defining moment of his character, I think. Every time he survives, it's just delaying the inevitable. And so risking his life trying to protect his team and Atlantis feels like fair dues. What else does he have to live for?

But then... Season 4 happened. And it is rather magnificent, in my humble opinion. I'm quite certain John is the one Teyla speaks of to her friend in Sunday. A man who is oblivious to her feelings for him. Very interestingly, that conversation about this mystery man happens at the exact same time Ronon is telling John that he always thought he and Teyla would hook up (Hurrah for Ronon, our biggest Sheyla supporter out there LOL). We know this because the explosion happens in both places shortly after. That, from a storytelling point of view, could not be more on the nose.

And so... in my view, Teyla got tired of pining. John wanted to spend time with her, risked his life saving her, freaked out when she was harmed but still, he did nothing. She was grieving. Kanaan was there. She knew and loved him. It made sense.

One thing I'm mad about is that, because the writers had to justify Rachel's pregnancy, they committed the ultimate sin: exposing Teyla's relationship with Kanaan to us rather than showing it. We had to make do with multiple characters saying something like "Oh the father is Kanaan, right? I noticed the way you spoke about him." KILL ME NOW.

Nothing is more off putting than forcing the audience to accept that something exists by telling them rather than giving them ON SCREEN evidence so they can buy it (looking at you, Ted Lasso). I mean... I would have probably hated the guy anyway (I am a shipper after all), but I don't know enough about him to have an opinion LOL. I only now understand Kanaan and his history with Teyla thanks to the books but it's certainly no thanks to the show.

Yet, it demonstrated one thing. The writers didn't care much about Kanaan. It was all about John and his feelings instead. They presented Kanaan as a fait accompli without doing any of the legwork to solidify their bond aside from some lukewarm scenes that defines them as nothing more than affectionate past lovers.

Instead, perhaps for the first time ever in the show, John gets emotional. Several times. And it's all to do with Teyla, let it be before or after the birth of Torren. More on that later.

I love this quote from the Outcast episode, when he goes back to Earth for his dad's funeral. I can't think of a better scene to encapsulate John's character:

SHEPPARD Well, maybe you meant something to him, too. You never know what people are thinking.

AVA Even those you're closest to?

SHEPPARD Especially those.

This is referring to his father who, to John's surprise, regretted the way things had ended between them. But in truth, I think it applies to John himself as well. That's Sheppard in a nutshell. Keeping his cards close to his chest and never letting the people he loves know how much they matter to him. They might be snatched away, or he might let them down, or he might die and cause them pain. This is post pregnancy-revelation by the way. Considering the context of the episode, this again clearly refers to his family (namely dad, brother and ex-wife), but it also applies to himself, the way he treats his friends and perhaps, dare I say, the fact that he's too late and Teyla is no longer free.

I believe we witnessed something rather fascinating on the writers' part once the decision had been made to make an unknown man be the father of Teyla's child (and rumour has it John has once been the main candidate). They could have dropped the John/Teyla ball right there and then. They in fact had, as far as I was concerned, except for the small hints in The Ark and Sunday mentioned above. But then they picked it up again in a way that leads me to believe they actually wanted to keep the ball.

(Sidenote: This has been proven true because it was planned that John and Teyla would get together in the movie following the end of season 5. As stated here by executive producer Joe Mallozzi. I discovered this after writing this post).

They had the perfect opportunity to have Teyla and Kanaan drive off into the sunset (I know they don't have a car... you get my point LOL) and leave it there but... No. They wanted to keep the romantic tension alive. Which is fantastic to me.

First little clue that feels different is that when they encounter Larrin again and John swiftly enters prince charming mode, the camera purposely shows Teyla's reaction. Which never happened before. This feels very deliberate. And for the first time she doesn't look mildly annoyed but simply... resigned.

It fits nicely with the narrative that she thinks John simply does not reciprocate her feelings. Consider that this is an odd directing choice to make when the writers have already told us she is pregnant with another man's child (though John does not know it yet by that point, which is important to note). To me, they clearly wanted to show that she still has feelings for him but probably thinks she made the right call by deciding to try and move on.

Now. To the main subject... Following Teyla's pregnancy revelation, it appears that John, probably against his will, caught (shudders) emotions.

In a predictable and intrinsically human move (if slightly infuriating), he kinda loses it the moment he learns Teyla is not only seeing someone, but has also conceived child with another man. Now, I know what you're thinking. I am reading too much into it with my shipper goggles on. Well, first of all, no because he loves her that's canon.

Secondly, he shows a level of anger and disquiet that we rarely get to see. He is still John Sheppard and is SUPER UNCOMFORTABLE with anything to do with feelings. But it's undeniable that he is shaken and rattled by the announcement of Teyla's pregnancy. In a way that immediately feels personal. Like not much else ever has on the show. Bear in mind, her people are missing. She is expecting a baby. This is good news and he should be over the moon for her. A glimmer of hope in an otherwise very bleak and gloomy time. But no.

The man is aaaaangry. One could argue that he is just upset because she's under his command and she hid something that could very well jeopardise their missions... That's very true, too (though she makes a point of saying Athosian women remain very active up until the birth of their child). But nobody else cares about that. Not even Sam, who would be well within her right to give Teyla an earful about this. She hid it from everyone but only he reacts so badly. Ronon could have been upset too! He is perhaps a closer friend to her by that point, yet he doesn't feel betrayed by her dissimulation. In fact, he could not be more supportive. Everyone but John is super happy for her. Kudos to Lorne for giving her a hell of a pep talk. I love Lorne. What a guy.

They all trust Teyla and know she can look after herself. John of all people knows that more than anybody else! But this is different. He always respected her decisions but this, he cannot cope with... That's not a direction the writers would have taken had they truly wanted to sail that ship once and for all (see what I did there?).

What he is saying is:

"You put yourself, your child and the rest of the team in danger by hiding crucial information from me. NOT COOL!"

Based on what follows in the show and the books (and the never to be seen movie script), what he is actually saying is:

"You slept with someone and I didn't even know about it and had I known I would have taken my head out of my ass sooner and now it's too late YOU'RE PREGNANT how could you do this to me?? Sure I flirt with every skirt in my vicinity, I give no evidence whatsoever that I love you except when I'm possessed by alien entities taking away my free will and therefore disclosing things I would rather keep buried as deep as Atlantis when we first found it. And I know you have a lot on your plate with your people missing and your child potentially being the last of them and whatnot but WHAT ABOUT MY FEELINGS TEYLA???"

I firmly believe that this is more than Teyla hiding the pregnancy and putting herself in harm's way. I have evidence of this because he loves her it's canon because in a couple of episodes later, in Quarantine, he is the one telling her that she will do more good as a mother by being on the field than by staying home.

And in season 5, in The Queen, she makes the decision to pose as a Wraith Queen and risk her life and John, though very concerned, supports her decision.

That and his faith in her ability to fend for herself since day one are proof, in my book, that his initial reaction was not entirely to do with worrying about her safety. Don't get me wrong, it partly is! And he is mad as hell because she put herself in danger and she's under his responsibility so if she and her child die, that's on him. He has every right to be pissed off. What strikes me though is not so much the reason for his anger but the fuel behind it. The immediacy of it. The "losing his cool in front of Ronon and in the middle of a corridor" type of shit. The inability to bottle things up the way he usually does. It's personal. He is affected in a way that's impossible to repress, which happens to be his coping mechanism of choice. Therefore all the more jarring when he fails to do it. And it's not the only time when it comes to Teyla and the daunting possibility that she might no longer be a part of his life the way she used to:

This scene is very interesting to me. Again with the "in a corridor and in public" thing. This time because he learnt that Teyla is considering leaving the team... And once again, he cannot contain his fury.

True, she has not been upfront about her intentions, probably because she feared his reaction... BOTH TIMES. Uhm...

Both times, she is going through the wringer and he lashes out because he doesn't know how to properly articulate that he is deeply, deeply affected. Teyla must have known this unconsciously because she chose to hide something from him twice. She knew that he would react badly. I think she knows that he is holding back on her and burying feelings. Women know these things. Teyla was a part of his world in a way that he thought was never going to change. But he was wrong. And facing that is unbearable for him, turns out. Considering that they get together in the books (or would have gotten together in the movie), his behaviour makes SO MUCH SENSE.

He's not always a dickhead though. In Quarantine he assures her that her boy will have a family no matter what. Even if she dies, they will look after him. And that is FREAKING AWESOME. He HATES talking about deep stuff. But he also knows she needs to hear from him, specifically, that she's an amazing warrior super mama who's not meant to stay home and change nappies and that they all will be there to look after mini-Teyla if anything happens.

It's unbelievably wholesome and further proof that John loves and understands her so so so so much. And the fact that when the baby kicks for the first time she takes his hand and he feels it...

And then climbs a fucking tower like a fucking prince when he senses that she's really starting to worry. He is already that kid's stepdad I tell ya. I know that Atlantis was emitting a signal that could attract baddies and that the city was vulnerable and he had to do it but the defining factor for his reckless Batman move was seeing Teyla distressed and you cannot convince me otherwise.

One thing that really struck me as well was that in the following episode, Harmony, two pretty women flirt openly with John and Rodney. The latter is hot and bothered whereas John is utterly unmoved. Which is a first. He is even the one who wants to cut this short and leave. Fascinating, right? The timing of this, to me, shows that John is not emotionally available in that moment. Not so soon after realising he lost his chance with Teyla. Sure, one of the women puts the charm on him times a hundred when she sees he's not keen on staying and she theatens to undo their alliance should he decline. And it works because John is still John and I'm under no illusion that he is immune to seduction. But it really dawned on me that yes... John is now aware of his feelings for Teyla. It becomes tangible, if subtle, because it's the MGM and they don't do shippy stuff.... Except for Rodney. Because Rodney is their favourite golden child LOL

That being said... it's still John Sheppard we're talking about. In season 5 he clearly wants to hook up with Larrin and then hangs out with sexy scientists because well..... Teyla is not impressed btw LOL

We can't really blame him. He thinks he missed his chance after all.

Now... Speaking of season 5...

I think it's fair to say that John Sheppard thought he would not die of old age. He was traumatised by Afghanistan (btw I think it's no coincidence Teyla was the only one who wasn't a threat to him in Phantoms, and appeared to him as someone he trusted and loved) and his failed marriage. By adding the otherwise utterly useless Dream Sequence between he and Teyla in Search and Rescue, it's clear to me the writers wanted to tell the audience John always had feelings for Teyla but had never allowed himself to go there because of the above. Also he perhaps had not realised the extent of those feelings. Until it was too late. Which is tragic. So I love, LOOOOOVE that they get together in the books. I love that he succumbs to his feelings for her and now has a partner and even a son to live for. Finally! Finally his existence is no longer about mere survival. It's what his character deserved all along. I love that she reminds him that he is a good man and adresses his fears head on. I love that he helps her embrace her Wraith heritage and her role as both a leader and a mother. I love that they lay kisses on each other's ugly parts. With nothing but mutual understanding, acceptance and love.

I love them your honour.

[braisedhoney]

please tell me about the pigments i would love nothing more than to hear you talk about that one shade of red you like and the process it took too recreate it

... oh, op. you have no idea what you've unleashed.

alright. here we go.

OKAY SO THE RED PIGMENT. pr206. my beloved. my dearest friend. it was an absolute bastard to find because there are so many of these. however many you think there are, there are MORE, and that's only if you don't count the many many scenarios where colors are known to be multi-pigment mixes, usually varying in tone/shade/intensity depending on the brand and manufacturing style. some colors are more consistent than others, but there are situations where a color can be named the same and contain the same pigments and STILL look wildly different depending on the ratio, binder, and paper you use. and that's not accounting for the way the pigment is processed. some pigments (like pv19 for example) can come in so many shades it's frankly kind of ridiculous.

anyway, my quest begins when i am, admittedly, in an edgier phase. i want a blood red, but not specifically because of that—no, i want it because it is THE IDEAL COLOR (to me) for a perfect, warm, slightly muted but still intense shade to add to a muted autumn watercolor palette. and... if you look at my whole theme, you probably know how much i love warm colors. i want to paint mushrooms. i want to dim down some of the brighter greens to make them autumnal. i want the perfect red to put as an undertone.

the search starts in earnest.

the immediate issue is this: reds (and purples and pinks) have horrifically bad lightfastness. not all of them, mind, but many are NOTORIOUS for fading under uv light, which means they will also fade if exposed to sunlight even in passing should it happen often enough. and—in especially bad cases where they're essentially working with dye and not pigment—they can even fade inside your notebook. inside of a drawer.

so not only are we working with an unfortunate pigment base (i'm simplifying here, there's way more nuance to this but shh) but we are working with one that skews heavily toward floral pinks or oranges. the red i'm searching for is warm, but not orange. dries dark but not brown. is transparent, not opaque. that last part is agonizing, because i also desperately do not want a color that will fade on me or generally destabilize, and most of the stable dark red pigments are EARTH pigments like red ochre (pr101) or the like. which, while fascinating because of their historical usage in things like pottery and even cave paintings that last to the modern day, are VERY OPAQUE. this is an issue with my preferred style of watercolor painting specifically, because opaque pigments tend to lift easier off the page and limit layering.

the search continues. pigment after pigment breaks my heart for one reason or another, drying too close to the cooler purpleish-red tint of wine at best. i think i find it in perylene maroon, but the drying shift (the difference between how a color looks wet vs after it dries on the paper) is so extreme that it loses the luminosity AND it's more opaque than most. i languish.

for a while my search turns to creation. i try and mix as many of my single pigment colors as i can into something that vaguely resembles what i'm looking for—so i take quinacridones and mix them with napthols, with nickel azos, with dashes of ultramarines and burnt sienna. everything turns out either just a bit too opaque, just a bit too muddy (that happens with multi-pigment mixtures, and is why so many people swear by single pigment colors. it's personal preference, really, great art can be made either way.)

still, nothing works. failure haunts me. i sit before a pile of used up watercolor paper that is literally covered edge to edge in nothing but similar red squares with various gradients and blooms as evidence of when i tried and failed to convince myself my efforts were close enough. i admit defeat.

in the meantime i shift my focus. i try and appreciate different color palettes and profiles, experimenting with things like fully transparent palettes (personal favroite) to fully opaque ones that function more like gouache. but despite finding appreciation for it, i still think about the damn red that i could never recreate. it kills me.

and then one day, a youtube video. a pigment is being discontinued, and the watercolor community is distressed. this happens a lot, because pigments are actually not always popular because of artists—sometimes beloved colors are put out of production because larger markets like car companies no longer find them popular enough to invest in. this time, the casualty is pr206, aka brown madder, aka quinacridone burnt scarlet.

let me tell you a little about quinacridones. they are genuinely remarkable colors. they have their own cult followings because of how bright and abnormally stable they are under uv light. they're transparent. they're luminous. they come in mostly shades of red and pink and purple, though there are a couple oranges and yellows in there. (there are no quinacridone blues, as far as i'm aware, but the phthalo blues have that category covered.) they also rewet beautifully, so you can put them on your palette and let them dry and not worry about it turning into a useless little rock of color that you can't get any pigment from anymore.

quinacridone magenta (pr122) is probably the most popular of these, the most often used besides maybe quinacridone violet (pv19). a few years prior we suffered the loss of quinacridone gold (po49) and since then people have been On Alert when it comes to losing these colors. i am one of them, because i never got the chance to even see po49 in person, and now the tubes are so stupid expensive that even the student grade versions go for Ridiculously High Prices on ebay, and the professional brands are being hoarded like (ironically) gold by anyone lucky enough to have a tube left over.

but back to our main character. not me, the pigment. pr206. i have legitimately never heard of this one, which to be fair is probably because i try to limit the random colors i fixate on since the hobby can easily get VERY expensive if you aren't careful. but it's a quinacridone, and that catches my eye.

i open the video.

now, i'm sure any artist out there will be familiar with the fact that screens don't display color consistently. it depends on your device, but most can agree that something that looks cooler on one may be warmer on the other, it's just what happens. but i see this color being swatched, and my brain implodes.

it's almost a perfect match.

it could work. it could. years of thinking that same thought have left me bereft and mistrustful of this specific quest marker, but the thought refuses to leave me. probably because the 'discontinued' label flashes like a neon sign.

i resist for about six months, and then i cave. at this point i have genuinely been trying and failing to find this color for upwards of five years. i am desperate, and the color might not be available anymore soon anyway, and apparently i am weak to sales pitches. (note: the color IS now unavailable in some brands, but others bought a decent supply and should have it available for at least a little while, alongside po48 which is quinacridone burnt orange, a favorite of mine and probably one of the only oranges i use regularly. both are discontinued officially, but they'll still be on sale till those supplies run dry.)

the color arrives. i grab my favorite brush. i pull out my stash of paper that i save for special occasions.

it's almost perfect.

i mix it with quinacridone burnt orange.

the result is, i swear, a perfect match for what i have been searching for.

it's warm. it dries dark but not dark enough to look brown. it keeps its luminosity (thank you quinacridones). it's fully transparent (thank you quinacridones). i genuinely feel the urge to weep, but i don't because i am clinging at last to the dredges of my sanity and also salt makes watercolor pigments behave differently and i will not risk this glorious moment. finally, after all these years, bill cipher has a gun i found the goddamn COLOR.

i mix it with warm yellows and with my favorite blues. with the pinks, just to laugh. life is beautiful and i am painting its sunsets, and i do not care if they look ridiculously messy. i have won.

the moral of the story is to never give up. or maybe it's to remember you never actually know everything about even the fields you love the most, because this color totally blindsided me despite being much more common than i expected. or maybe it's that i seriously needed to chill out for a while.

but yes. that is the tale of one (1) of the colors that has taken up residence in my soul. i hope you don't regret asking now lmao.

[neopronouns-in-action]

Before we begin, I highly recommend reading

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbott Abbott

(Project Gutenberg link, where you can read and download the book for free. You can also find many audiobook versions on youtube and the web archive)

(BTW, the word "romance" here is not referring to romantic love, it's the older version of the word that means a story with adventures and amazing quests.)

and

Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul, by Leslie Feinberg

(Web archive link where you can read and listen to the book for free)

to best appreciate this short story.

___

Neopronouns in Action #062: Flatland Warriors: Ponder the Meaning of the Words, or, The Breaking Point.

The audiobook version of this story can be listened to here on the web archive: "https://archive.org/details/neopronouns-in-action/Neopronouns+in+Action+062+00+The+Breaking+Point+-+Context.mp3"

Neopronouns:

da/dar/darl/darkling

phi/phim/phis/phirself,

tuo/tuak/tuar/tuaresi,

Which all follow the same rules as he/him/his/himself:

Replace he with da, phi, or tuo

Replace him with dar, phim, or tuak

Replace his with darl, phis, or tuar

Replace himself with darkling, phirself, or tuaresi

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself.”

Becomes:

"Da is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as da gets a fence set up around darl yard so the puppy can go outside without dar having to walk it. Darl uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting dar use, since da lost darl. Da's going to buy toys and train the puppy darkling.”

Or

"Phi is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as phi gets a fence set up around phis yard so the puppy can go outside without phim having to walk it. Phis uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting phim use, since phi lost phis. Phi's going to buy toys and train the puppy phimself.”

or

"Tuo is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as tuo gets a fence set up around tuar yard so the puppy can go outside without tuak having to walk it. Tuar uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting tuak use, since tuo lost tuar. Tuo's going to buy toys and train the puppy tuaresi.”

= = =

Flyssa sighed as da rested in darl room, trying, unsuccessfully, to tune out the conversation da could hear from the doorway to the parlour.

Dearg had been forced to “invite” Lieutenant Kellite over for dinner after the lieutenant let slip several overt implications that Dearg could going to be accused, within the General's range of hearing, of impropriety if phi didn't prove that “He kept north a good, respectable house”, by spending the night plying phis superior officer with the best wines, meats, and deserts phis meager salary could afford.

Flyssa, of course, had no salary. Lines were not allowed to hold jobs, or own any property of their own. Da couldn't even go out to the market to buy groceries without an escort from either Dearg or one of phis polygon siblings or close cousins, or da would be arrested, most likely executed on the spot, and Dearg, having taken responsability for dar from darl father when they were married, would be charged with criminal negligence and attempted manslaughter.

Lines must be kept under the strictest control, you see, because they were dangerous and unpredictable. Being a line, they had only two faces, and two points, both sharper than the sharpest of trigons. Having no angles, they had no capacity for thought. They were barely even human.

All this was, of course, the reality mandated into law by the higher polygons. Started by those who proclaimed themselves cirles, and passed south, by force, through the descending ranks of the people forcibly labeled the lower classes.

Things had been like this longer than Flyssa had been alive, but not longer than darl grandna had been alive. When Flyssa had still been a child, and not old enough yet to be allowed to leave the house even with an escort, Grandna Tuokeli had told dar endless stories of what life was like before the Configurationists had come.

When tuo had been a child, when their country was still called by its true name of Ib-Wa, there had been no laws segregating people based on their numbers of sides, and lines had been allowed to do any job they wanted, they could go where they wanted, do anything anyone else could do. There were some tasks that only lines and the thinnest of triagonals could do, due to their thinner size allowing them to fit into smaller spaces than other shapes, but that was just how physical reality worked, it wasn't made north one day by a bigot and then mandated into law that pretended it had to be true by pure virtue of being a law.

And now Flyssa was an adult, darl grandna had had to flee the country several years past, and lines weren't even considered to be shapes at all, let alone shapes of equal value and ability as any other.

Dearg, mandated as a trigon of the lowest class, was regarded as only a single, miniscule step above Flyssa as far as the ruling powers were concerned. Phis angle, and thus, according to the Configurationists, brain, was so acute as to hardly exist. But it was an angle, and it did exist in its meagerness, and that was more than Flyssa had.

So Dearg was given the "honor" and "privilege" of serving in the Configurationist's army as a common foot soldier. The hours were long, the work gruelling, and those who did the work were regarded with complete disdain. The "equillateral" trigons who oversaw the "isoseles" were cruel, and viewed torture and execution for the smallest of infractions as "good old Circleday entertainment".

Bribes, such as the dinner Dearg was currently being forced to play host to, were a constant demand of the officers, further stripping the soldier caste of resources and putting them in constant debt. And if you refused to cave to the demands of your superior officer, or failed to supply them with the favors they demanded, it was inevitable that you would be the next one put in the torture block or publicly executed, with real mistakes blown out of proportion, or fabricated entirely out of thin air.

Most of the food and drink laid in front of Lt. Kellite had been snuck in in the middle of the night by their neighbors, all of them soldiers or families of soldiers stationed either in Dearg's regiment, or the other patrol whose territory overlapped with theirs in this corner of the city.

The officers had to know their demands were impossible for a single soldier's salary to supply, given that they were the ones who set the ration limits and pay rates, but anyone who dared to point out these facts to them was executed before they could finish getting the words out. If you wanted to survive as a member of the soldier caste, you had to jump when the officers said jump, and don't let things like basic math or logic or the price of fruit this time of year get in the way.

It had taken the pooled resources of twelve other households to supply the extravagent dinner Lt. Kellite was currently loudly enjoying in darl parlour, with Dearg eating phis portion with much quieter, carefully forced cheer and politeness, trying to hide phis hatred behind the proper demeanor of a host.

Flyssa could see through the charade like it wasn't there, and could only hope that Lt. Kellite was either less perceptive, or at least wouldn't care that the pleasantry was false. His every spoken breath, after all, was insult on insult, hidden behind a thin facade of complimentary-sounding words.

There were many among the soldier caste who'd given into their rage from the constant insults and lashed out at the offendor, only for all the other officers to proclaim them mad out of their minds, or so genetically barbaric that they didn't even understand the idea of a compliment. The "victim" (the officer), after all, never said an unkind word against them, and this was how the brutal, out of control soldiers repayed his kindness?

Clearly, these unprovoked attacks on innocent men of good standing was more proof that the "isosceles" were good only for the most dangerous, taxing manual labor as soldiers, or to be confined as exhibits in schools for the children of the higher ranking polygons to learn the art of recognition by feeling.

It took all of Fylssa's willpower to remain in darl room instead of rushing out to give the Lieutenant a peice of darl mind as the least drastic of all the options da had been considering since Lt. Kellite strode through the front door like he owned it.

In truth, he did. His family controlled this arm of the military, and they owned the land this house was built on. As part of the soldier caste, Flyssa and Dearg were only allowed to live on land controlled by the military. The salary Dearg was given for phis service was immediately returned in the form of rent and payment for food, and for any fees phi was charged as punishment for misconduct, either real or imagined.

Flyssa was trying to focus on darl part of the internal ledger of supplies available to dar and darl neighbors, purposefully trying to drown out the sounds from the parlour by immersing darkling in the task of mentally retallying the stores, so, horribly, dar missed it the first three times Dearg tried to call dar into the parlour.

Phi actually had to come into darl room to get dar, followed by the scornful laughter of the Lieutenant that was so raucus it finally knocked dar out of darl reverie to see darl husband's terrified eye looking in at dar through the thin doorway.

"Flyssa," Phi whispered desperately, "He wants to see you, he insists you must join us for desert. We can't keep him waiting, I already called three times."

Quietly horrified, Flyssa whispered back, "I'm sorry!"

Dearg winked at dar in the pattern for reassurance, while out loud phi raised phis voice to say, loudly enough that Lt. Kellite could hear with anger that wasn't faked, though its target was false, "When I tell you to come and greet our guest, Woman, you come! Don't you dare make me come and fetch you again and make our illustrious guest wait on you like a commoner! Attend to your configuration!"

This last statement was met with a very loud, very drunk repetition from Lt. Kelllite, and followed by another burst of laughter.

As part of the show they had to put on together, Flyssa said nothing, and followed Dearg back into the parlour in the silent, meek subservience befitting the lowly wife of a lowly soldier.

Dearg entered the room first, as propriety demanded, and Flyssa stood next to phir to greet Lt. Kellite in the formal, "Greetings, my Lord trigon, Lieutenant Kellite. I greet you as a humble line, and swear my presence will not sting you."

The line had been first spoken by the wife of one of the higher-ranking self-proclaimed circles, and was now considered a requirement for any line greeting an unrelated polygon.

Lt. Kellite, who was at this point very drunk, laughed again, and called, "You have her very well trained, soldier! That was most dignified and proper...for a line of her lineage!"

Dearg was expected to laugh, so phi did, trying to cover north how angry phi was. Flyssa was expected to say nothing, so da remained silent. Lt. Kellite heard neither response over the sound of his own uncontrolled laughter.

When Lt. Kellite was done laughing, there was a tear in his eye, which he wiped away with one cilia, then blinked at the two of them as though seeing them for the first time.

He began to chuckle again. Why he'd demanded such a large bottle of wine when he clearly couldn't handle even a fraction of it, they would never know.

"Did you know that from this angle--" And he laughed on the word angle,"--you look exactly the same? All I can see are the glows of your eyes, like there's not an angle between you!"

Neither of them said anything, because there was no good response available to them. There was nothing wrong with Dearg's shape any more than there was Flyssa's, but that's not how the Configurationists saw it.

For a Configurationist to say that Dearg was indistinguishable from Flyssa -- a trigon from a line -- it was intended as the gravest insult imagineable. Lines were not considered shapes, they weren't considered human. They were regarded as unthinking creatures of pure emotion when even that much was granted to them, incapable of logic or real thought or self-conception.

The rules of Configurationist society demanded that Dearg be humiliated and infuriated by the claim that phi could not be told apart from a line. And those very same rules also demanded that phi be obedient and subservient, never contradicting phis "betters" or implying they were anything but perfect. Phi was an isosceles trigon whose angle was so acute phi was almost indistinguishable from a line.

There was no way to respond to Lt. Kellite's insult without losing, so phi chose the option least likely to get phirself killed, and remained silent.

Lt. Kellite eventually got over his own hilarity and calmed south enough to demand that Dearg return to the table, and that Flyssa serve them desert.

They acquiesced to his demands, Dearg returning to phis spot at the table opposite Lt. Kellite, and Flyssa moving to the cool room to fetch the pudding that had been hastily thrown together from ingredients from all the neighbor's stores.

Da gently probed the surface with a cilia, and was relieved to see that it had set properly, the surface jiggling firmly at darl touch rather than moving like the liquid it had started out as.

Moving carefully so as not to break the still-fragile texture, Flyssa carried the tray back into the parlour, careful this time to make sure da was paying attention to the conversation incase da was called on again.

But the conversation had drifted to the almost-harmless topic (No topic of conversation was ever truly safe with an officer, who could take any word as an insult worthy of capital punishment) of the weather lately, with Lt. Kellite forcing Dearg to agree with him that all the rain they'd been getting was making the lower classes lazier, letting them think they could get away with doing half the work at slower the pace.

Dearg was not allowed to point out that it was just a fact of reality that you physically couldn't move as fast in the rain as you could dry, so phi could only nod along and give agreeing-sounded noises whenever Lt. Kellite demanded, "Don't you agree?".

Flyssa was not allowed to say anything at all besides the required, "My Lord trigon, I serve you" as da deposited the the pudding dish on the table and backed away at a respectful speed to wait against the northern wall, careful to keep darl eye turned towards Lt. Kellite so he could see dar at all times.

This also had the affect of making sure da could hear his every word loud and clear, despite how much da wished da could shut them out.

"So, Private," Lt. Kellite boomed when he was halfway through the bowl of pudding, absentmindedly throwing the peices of the expensive dried fruit he didn't like over his shoulder so they fell to the southern wall, "How long have you been married to this fine young line here?"

The words themselves seemed positive, but the way in which they were said dripped with derision and barely-contained disgust.

"It will be five years this New Year's Eve, my Lord trigon." Dearg replied, not letting any reaction show in phis voice, and careful to use the Configurationist term for the holy night rather than its real name.

"She's got Irregularity in her line, doesn't she? Her grandmother was mentally unsound, wasn't she? Destroyed after dozens of failed attempts to treat her in the state sanitorium, if I remember right. That was her grandmother, wasn't it?"

Dearg did not let any emotion enter phis voice as phi replied, "Yes, my Lord."

"And it hasn't been passed south to this generation, has it?"

"No, my Lord." Dearg lied while Flyssa held darl breath in sudden aphrension.

"And five years, really?" Lt. Kellite continued as though he hadn't noticed their reactions. A dangerous note had entered his tone, though he still kept north the pretence of merriness. "Five whole years sheltered under my roof, and fed at my table, protected by my wall, and you've yet to produce any new isosceles to fill my ranks in repayment, nor any new lines to marry to your fellow soldiers."

He tapped one cilia against the table as if in deep thought. "Why is that, I wonder? Is she too ugly for you? Or perhaps she did inherit her grandmother's Irregularity."

He rolled his eye to look directly at Flyssa as he continued, "Some Irregularities are invisible on the surface, you know. The doctors only find them after an autopsy is performed. Perhaps I should have her destroyed and we can find out, and find you a new wife. Or perhaps--!" His voice rose higher to cut off Dearg's instantaneous, helpless protest, snapping his eye back to regard Dearg with all the force of a javelin, "Perhaps your vertex, being so acute, has rendered you immune to the wiles of the feminine persuasian. After all..."

His voice dropped to a confidential stage whisper. "You're so thin, you can hardly be told from a line yourself. It'd be only natural for your brain, so acute it's barely there, to be scrambled about which sex to be attracted to. I'll bet you're not even attracted to lines, are you? You can't help it. You don't have any children because you've only got eyes for proper shapes, don't you?"

Flyssa and Dearg held the same terrified breath, frozen in their places, too afraid to move or speak.

Lt. Kellite enjoyed their fear, and gloatingly let the silence hang over the room like a pall for almost a full minute, savoring every panicked heartbeat that made their eyes flicker in distress they couldn't conceal. From his angle, he could see both their eyes, and they could see his.

Finally, just as Flyssa was beginning to think that da would have no choice but to kill Lt. Kellite where he sat, and make a desperate attempt to flee to the north for asylum, just as darl grandna had so many years ago, the officer began to laugh, the sound like freezing ice in the veins of his unwilling audience.

Flyssa forced darkling to unobtrusively relax the tense stance da'd adopted, tried to slow darl racing heart. He was drunk, he'd had almost the entire bottle of wine by himself, he probably didn't even know what he was saying, and wouldn't remember it in the morning to accuse--

"I think your wife should return to her room, don't you, private? Let the two of us talk alone, man to man."

The words themelve were simple, neutral in their literal interpretation. The way they were said...

The room went silent again, the kind of silence that only death can carry.

Dearg was in shock, too horrified to react. Phi just sat there helplessly at the table, staring across at the Lieutenant, unable to speak.

"Leave us, line." Lt. Kellite said, in the off-hand tone of one accustomed to being obeyed without question.

There were many injustices that Flyssa had endured since da'd been born. Too many to count, too many to remember. Too many that da didn't want to remember.

Too many times, da had been the one shocked and helpless, unable to defend darkling. Outnumbered, overpowered, too beaten south and bruised to struggle. When da had been young, after darl mother had died, darl grandna had protected dar.

But darl grandna had had to leave the country to avoid execution, and tuo couldn't bring dar with tuok.

Many abuses da'd been forced to accept as da grew older, many da had learned, by the pain of necessity, to brace darkling against in the only hope of survival.

"I said leave us!" Lt. Kellite snapped, spinning to face dar, enraged by darl disobedience. "Are you irregular? Did you not hear me? Get out of here, woman! Go back to your room!"

Darl heart was beating so fast it was like a single drawn out tone instead of a drum. Rage was boiling in darl heart so powerful da couldn't believe it was only in darl mind.

It felt like the air itself was shaking with darl wrath, like the house should shatter around dar.

The rage was twisting and squirming in darl insides like snakes, and da could no longer hear darl own heartbeat over the roaring sound filling darl ears.

"What are you--?!" Lt. Kellite's terrified shout was just barely loud enough to reach darl conciousness, almost enough to break through the tsunami of rage sweeping over dar, but by then it was too late.

The transformation was on dar.

Flyssa couldn't see it happening, because darl eye was gone, but da could feel it. Darl once almost pefectly straight line shattered, but the fragments did not fall south, and darl mind did not break with them. New lines were forming in the cracks, shooting out and filling in darl sense of the space around dar as new cilia erupted from the surfaces, twisting and twitching to map dar surroundings.

Da had broken through the wall behind dar like it wasn't there, bringing the cold north wind to spiral and eddy in darl new angles.

Da could sense Lt. Kellite's terrified retreat in front of dar, every time he moved, darl new cilia caught the movement in the air like ripples in water, and Lt. Kellite was a struggling fish.

He was screaming, crying out for help, for reinforcements, for his soldiers to save him.

The fury, momentarily abated by the shock of the transformation, swept over dar again, and with a shriek of rage, da leapt in pursuit, slashing through the frame of the Men's door like it was paper, and out into the cold night and the honeycomb of houses that surrounded theirs.

Darl vision was gone, but darl hearing had been enhanced, and da could hear the families in the houses around dar shouting and whispering fervently in confusion and fear.

Da spun, trying to locate Lt. Keller through the wake of his movement, but the wind was strong and confused.

Then -- "He went west! North of Asi and Saber's house!"

Dearg's voice, behind dar, out of reach at a safe distance, guiding dar to darl target.

Trusting phim implicitly, Flyssa leapt towards the alley phi'd indicated, and tore off after Lt. Kellite, pealing out, in a sudden burst of inspiration, darl peace-cry, and discovering only as da began to sing that each of darl new stinging points contained a new mouth, too, each with a different voice.

Twelve voices rose above the wind, above Lt. Kellite's cry of fear, harmonizing in wordless emotion, filled with all the unspeakable rage that had finally burst free from darl heart.

Da was able to move faster now than da had ever been before, and unlike Lt. Kellite, da was familiar with their surroundings, knew intimately the map of hexagonal houses that belonged to darl friends and family and neighbors.

The only thing preventing dar from immediately catching north with him and tearing him to peices was darl unwillingness to injur any of darl neighbors by crashing into their houses or hitting anyone unawares. Lt. Kellite had no such worries, and charged ahead with reckless abandon. But he was hopelessly lost, unable to tell the houses and their inhabitants apart. They were just lowly Isosceles, barely more than lines, barely human. He'd never needed to know their names, or where they lived, who their neighbors were, before.

Even without darl sight, Flyssa knew where da was in relation to the rest of the town, and darl confidance only grew the further dar went, because as soon as da began to sing darl peace-cry, those watching the chase from the relative safety of homes began to gleefully join in.

Da recognized each of their voices, and used their identities to further cement darl location in darl mind even as Dearg continued to call directions behind dar.

Those in front of dar, where Lt. Kellite was fleeing, modulated their voices, raising the pitch whenever he got closer to them, and lowering it when he passed them, always with equal parts rage and laughter in their voices, his screams for help, of rage, of terror, drowned out as, every time he tried to force his way into a house, he was immediately thrown back into the street and forced to keep fleeing or be destroyed right there by the shapes who had emerged to defend their households.

His last mistake was trying to shove his way desperately through the Women's door on the Excal-Dagger house, only to be caught fast in the too-narrow gap, and unable to move to defend himself as the shapes within the house turned in a frenzy and began to assault his front side without mercy.

He managed to back out, blinded and bleeding, and turned to flee again --

And was struck straight through by darl longest point, cleaving his brain from the rest of his body in a single strike.

His blood was purple, the color of death, the color of life, the color of rebirth.

It tasted sweet, and the war-howls as darl friends, family, and neighbors painted themselves with his spilled blood and began to undergo the transformation themselves, baying for the blood of the sudden, unplanned revolution, tasted sweeter still.

[cookinguptales]

travel rambling!! under the cut!! because I do intend to ramble!! a lot!!

like if you thought that wwdits was a hyperfixation of mine, you've never heard me talk about some of the religious traditions I've studied. lmao

SO first of all, religious syncretism is when elements of two or more religions/traditions are incorporated into religious practice. A crossover episode, if you will, and I am obsessed with it. When I was in college studying religions and folklore, it quickly became a driving force in my intellectual curiosity.

I've always been really interested in how people pick and choose from different traditions to create their own personal belief systems, and syncretic religions can be this on a micro or macro level. We could be talking about something as individualized as a self-identified pagan assembling a collection of beliefs and rituals from various world mythologies and written/online sources, or we could be talking about something as established as Louisiana Voodoo, which is a syncretic religion with strong influences from Roman Catholicism, various West African religions, and Haitian Vodou.

Syncretic religions form in a lot of ways... immigration, colonialism, natural spread of tradition, purposeful assemblage of disparate ideas, etc. Sometimes there's a history of blood, sometimes a history of love, sometimes a little bit of both. And man, I feel like there's just something so human about it.

The thing I love best about stories is the way they grow and change within us. When you hear a story, you resonate with certain parts of it. You remember some parts best. And when you retell that story, you can't help but imbue it with a little bit of your own self. The parts you loved and the parts you hated and the parts you want to emphasize or deemphasize or embellish. You can't hear a story without taking it into yourself, and you can't tell one without making it your own -- even if you retell it word for word.

And I guess religious syncretism is the final form of that, a little bit? Taking ingredients from every part of your life, real and imagined and studied and genetic, and mixing them together into the precise stew that nourishes you best, either on an individualized or communal level.

I digress.

I started out with Egyptology in school, abandoned that for several reasons, and realized what I really loved learning about was religion, especially on a practical and/or vernacular level. (i.e. what people actually do rather than the ur version of whatever philosophy we're talking about.) Then Some Stuff Happened and I added on East Asian Languages and Civilizations and really started leaning into learning about Japanese folklore and religions, especially once I started studying in Kyoto.

When I was studying in Japan, I really wanted to learn a lot about Shinto. The concepts behind it had been kind of ill-defined for me, and I wanted to really nail down what people were even talking about when they talked about Shinto. But... to my surprise, even the Japanese people I talked to were really vague on the subject. Which made sense, I guess, as I learned more about it.

I was really, really lucky, actually, because a professor who knew quite a lot about Shinto came to teach at my (American) school shortly before I graduated. It's not easy to find good classes on that subject in the US, especially outside of the west coast and Hawaii. But we had a whole symposium where experts from all over the world came and discussed various research projects on the subject and I was So Happy. lmao

I'm not... gonna get too into Shinto right now. My final assignment for that class, IIRC, was to write a 15 (20?) page paper on the topic "what is Shinto?" so that... might give you an idea of how complicated the question is. lmao.

Suffice it to say, for now, that Shinto is a name that we've retroactively applied to a series of disparate practices and belief systems in what would eventually become Japan. So... in that respect, it's an indigenous religion of Japan, or at least a modern understanding of many of them.

(People think of Japan as one cohesive country because it is now, but maybe think of that period as being more like Ancient Greece? Lots of small little villages and towns (think city-states) that were separated by topographical features and therefore had their own cultures before they were unified into the country we know of as Japan much later.)

Shinto, as a modern concept... ugh, it's still super complicated. There are deities or spirits called kami, and there are several big, important ones like Amaterasu and Susanoo, but also there's just this thought that almost everything can contain a kami because everything has a spirit. (It's animism, baby.) So there is a spirit of that big boulder, a spirit of that mountain, a spirit of that tree, and they're all kami. There are literally thousands of kinds of kami, and they're everywhere at all times. People can become kami after they die, man-made objects can become kami. (Sort of Velveteen Rabbit style.) And in Shinto shrines, these kami are enshrined and venerated and kept happy. Like any deity, they can help or they can hurt, y'know?

There's... a lot more to it than that, some of it extremely political, but that's the essence of it, I think. Kami veneration. (What that entails is... debatable, too! haha)

God, and that was my short version. That's not even what I wanted to talk about.

All that is to say that that's what I was trying to study my first time in Japan. The second time I was in Japan (a few years ago) I heard about Shugendo, which is a highly syncretic mountain-based religion in Japan that has dwindled quite a bit over the years, but not entirely.

Shugendo, to my understanding, is a syncretic religious tradition comprised of elements from Shinto, Buddhism (especially Esoteric Buddhism), and local traditions about local deities. It's extremely mountain-centric, and most important places in Shugendo are on top of mountains. (Which... make them very difficult for my disabled ass to get to.)

The point, though, is the climb. It's a highly ascetic tradition, so practitioners, or yamabushi, would often push themselves to their physical and mental limits. They'd live out in the wilderness, often alone for long periods of time, and make do with what they found out there. One of the places we're going has a very distinct food tradition just because it's largely born out of the increasingly creative scavenging yamabushi would do while out on the mountain. They figured out how to eat a lot of things that most people would not eat. lmao

The important part here, though, is near-constant meditation and going to a sacred place (the mountain) and becoming one with that sacrality. It's trying to find enlightenment through nature and the divine. It feels similar to the Romantic concept of the sublime to me, y'know? And there's stuff about gaining superhuman spiritual powers through all this, too, though I don't know as much about that. (YET.)

One of the reasons why it's kind of hard to learn about is that there are very few practitioners these days. This is partially due to a generally dwindling number of people who identify as religious in Japan, partially because there were never that many practitioners to start with, and partially because... it was illegal for a while! (More on that later.)

Man, though, I wanna learn about it.

Shugendo has kind of become my white whale over the last few years, and there's a lot more information now on the internet than there was when I first started learning about it, but it's still often frustratingly vague!

This time, though, my dad was like "well, we're going to be there for quite a while and you already showed me most of the important tourist spots last time, so is there anywhere off the beaten path you really want to go?"

Now. This was a very brave thing to say to me, considering some of the weird-ass places I dragged him to last time. This man turned and looked me in the eye, the same woman who made him go to the moss temple and the cricket temple in the same goddamn day that we wandered through the bamboo forest in Arashiyama at night after I cheerfully told him that the shrine there was most famous for a ghost story. He said it was one of the creepiest experiences of his life!

haha. memories.

anyway. He looked me in the eye and asked me if there was anywhere unusual I wanted to go. And I slapped open a map of Wakayama and was like I WANNA DO THE KUMANO KODO.

Now... I was not going to hike the entirety of an ancient pilgrimage route. Like I said before, my dumb (but highly excitable) ass is disabled. I cannot physically do that. But I wanted to see the main shrines and temples on the route (shrines=Shinto, temples=Buddhist!) and hike a very small portion of the 1000-year-old route, some of which STILL EXISTS AS A ROAD. *_*

And I wanted to go because... Shugendo!!!! The Kumano Kodo is a popular pilgrimage route for yamabushi!!! That whole Kumano region is sacred for practitioners of Shugendo, and I was like! Heck yeah! I can learn a thing!

But... Dad got injured. ;; And I'm used to pain, but he is not. So I'm not going to make the poor man hike. I want him to heal and get better and not strain his torn abdomen too much.

So I kind of abandoned that idea.

(Side note: I was asking Dad what he thought his physical limits were going to be so I didn't overplan and he was like "well, you can't do that much either, so I don't think we'll do too much" and I was like "what do you mean?" And he said "well, there's nothing that'll hurt me that won't hurt you, too, and you're not going to want to hurt yourself to see things." and I was like "hmm" and I realized that my father does not really understand my existence at all. lmao)

Then I was thinking, though, and I remembered reading about sokushinbutsu awhile ago. I wasn't actually thinking about going to see them initially; Dad and I were just driving up the coast and it's a long drive so I was cheerfully rambling. So I was explaining the basic concept to him and I was like "yes, and I heard that one of the temples is so sacred that you have to go barefoot throughout the grounds, even in winter" and I googled where it was, exactly, because I couldn't remember and

YAMAGATA.

I looked at it and I thought about the Dewa Sanzan and I googled how much climbing those mountains actually require and then I was like

hey dad wanna go to some extremely sacred mountains in northern Japan? they let you drive to the shrines.

And he was like "...why those mountains specifically?"

And then I had to tell him about Shugendo, because yessss that's another very important place for it. I'd always sort of associated the idea of sokushinbutsu with Shingon (esoteric) Buddhism and Kukai, the founder of which, because I knew that it was said that he still rests at Koyasan in eternal meditation.

(YEAH, WE'RE GOING TO KOYASAN TOO! *HIGH KICK*)

But! It turns out that it's actually more of a Shugendo tradition, especially in the Yamagata region, though legend does go that Kukai brought the concept to Japan.

So... what is sokushinbutsu?

(CONTENT WARNING uhhh corpses, religious self-harm, starvation, general morbidity, if you google this know that there WILL be pictures.)

Sokushinbutsu are often referred to as living Buddhas or living mummies. The long and short of it is that highly ascetic monks would be mummified, and they would start this process while they were still alive. It's... a pretty difficult process to read about, so I won't go into a ton of detail here, but if you google "sokushinbutsu" you can find way more information.

I will say that it involves slowly reducing food and water intake and increasing the intake of... well, poison, honestly. Both tea made from the Japanese lacquer tree, which has the side effect of sort of lacquering the organs, and local spring water -- which in the case of Yamagata, involves pretty large amounts of arsenic. People all over Japan attempted this process, but by far the highest number of known successful cases are in Yamagata. This is partially because of the popularity of Shugendo there, and partially, people think, because their water had such a high amount of arsenic, which when combined with the loss of adipose tissue and hydration, as well as the lacquer, sort of mummified the organs while the person was still alive.

This process would eventually kill the practitioner, but... I mean, it takes about a decade. This is not something undertaken on a whim. It is an absolutely grueling practice that is considered incredibly sacred. It's a way to ascend past your mortal body and achieve enlightenment, but only for the most devout and devoted practitioners.

(There's a whole lot about ascending past mortal bodies in Buddhism, but I think that and corpse meditation are a different discussion.)

I say that the practitioner "dies", but... I mean, in a scientific sense, yes. These people would die. Shortly before death, they would be placed in a pit underground and essentially buried alive with only a bamboo tube to allow air and sound in and out. They would be given a bell and would periodically ring it to let others know they were still alive. When they stopped ringing the bell, the tube would be removed. They'd come back and check on the body in a few years, and if it had decayed, it was considered a failed attempt and reburied. If it had mummified, it was considered a successful sokushinbutsu and taken out so it could be displayed for veneration.

This is the important part, though. If the process was successful, these are not considered dead bodies. This is a person who achieved Buddhahood while still alive, and they are considered to be in a sort of eternal repose. You go to them to pray and meditate, and often amulets are made from their robes (which are changed every 6-12 years) so people who come to pray can take some of their power home with them.

So... I want to go to learn about Shugendo, but I knew that seeing the sokushinbutsu would be a selling point for Dad... You just have to know how to sell things, I guess.

(You might know from my other posts that I have extremely mixed feelings when it comes to the display of human remains in museums, but I genuinely can't think of a more vociferous consent than the act of sokushinbutsu. Going to see them feels like honoring their wishes, and I do feel that some of them are very beautiful, in a way. So I am looking forward to the experience, though I'll admit to feeling a little trepidation.)

So we will be visiting the Dewa Sanzan, Hagurosan, Gassan, and Yudonosan!

(-san means the same as Mt. in Japanese! so Fujisan is Mt. Fuji. I usually still use -san with mountains out of habit, and Gassan is... incredibly hard to pronounce without doing that, to the point where it is often translated as "Mt. Gassan." lmao. Japanese double consonants are fun.)

The part of this I am most excited about is... Hagurosan has a museum about Shugendo! IN ENGLISH. I cry!!! Apparently one of the yamabushi currently living on Hagurosan is a westerner! Who really wants to teach other westerners about Shugendo! So the Dewa Sanzan website is excellent and I'm so fucking excited to go there and learn.

(They also had yamabushi training programs if you want hands-on knowledge but again. My disabled ass cannot clamber up and down a mountain, unfortunately. ;;)

Yamagata's a large prefecture, though, so the plan is to drive around a bit. We'll be driving between the mountains (but not up Gassan because it'll be too snowy that time of year and I think that one might be hiking-only access...?) and seeing a bunch of shrines and temples. We're also going to spend a night at Hijiori Onsen, a hot spring town in the caldera of an ancient volcano, and a night at *drum roll* a shukubo!

This is Dad indulging me again. Shukubo is a type of shrine or temple lodging. (Usually temple. But this one is a shrine! For reasons I'll get into in a minute!) Essentially, you stay overnight in a religious lodging. You might be invited to attend morning prayers with the monks, specific rituals (Koyasan's are famous for the goma fire rituals), sutra-copying, guided meditation, etc. Traditionally speaking, these were usually stayed at by religious pilgrims, and some were reserved solely for monks, priests, yamabushi, etc. These days anyone can stay at them!

We'll be staying in two during our trip! One at Koyasan, which I hear has tragically become a bit uhhh influencer-y, and this one at Hagurosan.

Now. Why is this a shrine, even though the building was clearly designed to be a temple? Why was Shugendo illegal for a while? Well... I won't get into all the details, but suffice it to say that during different points during Japan's history, either Buddhism or Shinto have been prioritized by the government, and during those periods, the other tended to suffer.

When Buddhism first arrived in Japan in the sixth century CE, it was introduced from China and Korea and had... some settling to do, I guess? Shinto was largely what was accepted in Japan at the time, and people kind of struggled to reconcile the two concepts with each other. Enter the concept of honji suijaku, which is where this baby gets really syncretic.

It's... complicated, like most of this is, but the basic idea is that kami came to be seen as manifestations, or alternate forms, of Buddhist deities. (Buddhas, bodhisattvas, etc.) The Buddhist deity was appearing in the form of kami to better help people in Japan. So the kami and the Buddhist deities were one and the same, just in different guises. These syncretic deities were called "gongen" in Shugendo, which has elements of both religions in it, and were highly venerated.

But... when politics changed and Shinto was again elevated, there was a forcible separation between Buddhist and Shinto spaces. Like... as in an often violent, state-enforced separation. Shugendo, as a syncretic religion of both, was outlawed. At Dewa Sanzan, most Shugendo and/or Buddhist temples converted to Shinto, and they remain that way to this day. (And RIP to many of the Buddhist statues in the area, which have been sadly beheaded.)

So! There are a lot of buildings around there that are clearly Buddhist in origin but have nevertheless become Shinto. The shukubo we're staying at is one of these.

We're gonna see so many temples! So many shrines! We're gonna go to an onsen! We're gonna learn! Some stuff! See! Some things! Some of which are too sacred to even talk about because it's forbidden!

I am excited.

This is only like three days out of a much longer trip but I am like

every time I think about it.

(Okay, I'm actually a little worried about the shrine I'll have to go barefoot for because it's going to be cold as shit and my joints are... bad. But I can manage!)

okay now this is the longest post on earth so I'm gonna stop here, but we're gonna do SO MUCH and we're gonna see SO MUCH and we're gonna learn SO MUCH and my nerdy little heart is on FIRE.

[hideawaysis]

dismiss Hey Wiki, the wiki mod for Java Edition, is now available! Install now and easily look things up on the wiki while you’re in game by aiming at a block, item, or entity and pressing H. Villager Not to be confused with Illager, Pillager or Wandering Trader. This article is about the mob in Minecraft. For the mob in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Villager. For the mob in Minecraft Legends, see MCL:Villager. For the structure villagers live in, see Village. "Librarian" redirects here. For the achievement, see Achievements § Librarian. VillagerPlains Desert Savanna Taiga Snowy Jungle Swamp Plains (Baby)

Plains Villager Base.png: Infobox image for Villager the entity in Minecraft Invicon Villager Spawn Egg.png: Inventory sprite for Villager Spawn Egg in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Villager Spawn Egg View all renders Health points

20♥ × 10 Behavior

Passive[note 1] Classification

NPC[note 2] Attack strength

Damage decreases with distance: ItemSprite firework-rocket.png: Sprite image for firework-rocket in Minecraft linking to Firework RocketFirework Rocket: Easy: 5♥♥♥ Normal: 8♥♥♥♥ Hard: 12♥ × 6 Hitbox size

In Java Edition: Adult: Height: 1.95 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Baby: Height: 0.975 blocks Width: 0.3 blocks In Bedrock Edition: Adult: Height: 1.9 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Baby: Height: 0.95 blocks Width: 0.3 blocks Speed

0.5 Spawn EnvSprite village.png: Sprite image for village in Minecraft linking to VillageVillage EnvSprite igloo.png: Sprite image for igloo in Minecraft linking to IglooIgloo basement When a zombie villager is cured Upon successful breeding

Villagers are passive mobs that inhabit villages, work at their professions, breed, and interact with each other. Their outfit varies according to their occupation and biome. A player can trade with them using emeralds as currency. Contents1 Spawning 1.1 Natural generation 1.2 Curing 2 Drops 2.1 Hero of the Village 3 Behavior 3.1 Movement patterns 3.1.1 Socializing 3.1.2 Migration 3.1.3 Pathfinding 3.1.4 Stranded villagers 3.1.5 Getting attacked 3.1.6 Preferred path 3.2 Job site blocks 3.3 Gossiping 3.4 Picking up items 3.5 Sharing food 3.6 Farming 3.7 Breeding 3.7.1 Willingness 3.8 Baby villagers 3.9 Lightning 3.10 Iron golem summoning 3.11 Panicking 3.12 Zombies 3.13 Raids 3.13.1 Hero of the Village 3.14 Staring 4 Schedules 4.1 Working 4.2 Wandering 4.3 Gathering 4.4 Playing 4.5 Returning home 4.6 Sleeping 4.7 Healing 5 Professions 5.1 Nitwit 5.2 Appearance 6 Trading 6.1 Supply and demand 6.2 Trade offering 6.3 Economic trade 6.4 Popularity or reputation 6.5 Hero of the Village 7 Similar mobs 7.1 Zombie villagers 7.2 Wandering trader 8 Sounds 8.1 Generic 8.2 Working 9 Data values 9.1 ID 9.2 Entity data 10 Achievements 11 Advancements 12 Video 13 History 14 Issues 15 Trivia 15.1 April Fools 16 Gallery 16.1 Renders 16.1.1 Idle 16.1.2 Asleep 16.2 Screenshots 16.3 Mojang images 16.4 In other media 17 See also 18 References 19 Navigation

Spawning Natural generation

Villagers can be found in villages, which spawn in several biomes such as plains, snowy plains, savannas, deserts, taigas, and snowy taigas‌[Bedrock Edition only] and can cut into other biomes such as swamps and jungles. When the village is generated, unemployed villagers spawn in them, the number of which depends on the buildings in that village, as some buildings generate villagers inside and some do not.

Each villager spawns with an empty inventory. Villagers never spawn with armor or other equipment. In Java Edition a dispenser can be used to equip armor on a villager.

Igloo basements always generate with one villager in the left cell and one zombie villager in the right cell. In Java Edition, the villager and zombie villager are both clerics, while in Bedrock Edition, they have random professions. In Java Edition, the cleric villager can change into a leatherworker since the basement generates with a cauldron, which is closer than the brewing stand to the villager. Curing See also: Zombie Villager § Curing

Giving a zombie villager the Weakness effect and then feeding it a golden apple starts the curing process. After five minutes, it transforms into a villager, displaying purple Nausea status effect particles for 10 seconds after being cured. The villager retains the profession it had as a zombie, if it had one before turning into a zombie villager. In Bedrock Edition, if the zombie villager is player spawned, it adopts a randomly chosen profession. The villager can also be a nitwit, meaning it cannot work once cured. If employed, the cured villager offers discounts on most of its trades.

Curing a zombie villager riding a chicken results in the villager riding a chicken. Eventually, the villager grows up and gains a profession. Curing a zombie villager with armor and items causes it to drop them as items. Drops

A villager, either adult or baby, does not ordinarily drop any items or experience when killed. However, when a player holds an emerald or other item a villager is willing to trade for, the item it offers in trade appears in its hands, alternating between items if there are multiple items the villager wants to trade.

Villagers raise their arms when showing trade items.‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Upon successful trading, a villager drops 3–6.

Upon successful trading, while willing to breed, 8–11 is dropped. Hero of the Village Main article: Hero of the Village

A villager can drop various items, depending on its profession, by throwing a gift toward a nearby player with the Hero of the Village effect. The gift is randomly selected from a list of items for the villager's individual profession, and there is a random cooldown before the villager can throw another gift. Behavior Movement patterns Socializing

Nitwit and unemployed villagers leave their homes at day and begin to explore the village. Generally, they wander inside the village during the day. They may go indoors or outdoors, periodically making mumbling sounds. Occasionally, two villagers may stop and turn to look at each other, in a behavior called socializing, during which they stare at another villager for 4–5 seconds at a time. They continuously stare at a nearby player unless the villager is trying to get into a house at night, farm food, work, or flee from a zombie or illager. Baby villagers may jump on beds and play tag with each other, similarly to how baby piglins and baby hoglins play tag.

In Bedrock Edition, baby villagers do not stop in order to stare at players, and thus continue moving as if the player is not there.

A villager tries not to travel far from its bed in a large village unless the job site or the nearest gossip site (bell) is far away.

Villagers emit green particles if they join a village, set a bed, or acquire a job site/profession.

Villagers run inside at night or during rain, closing doors behind them. They attempt to sleep at night, but if they cannot claim a bed, they stay indoors near a bed until morning. In the morning, they head outside and resume normal behavior. However, some villagers, such as nitwits, stay outside later than others unless being chased by an illager or zombie. Migration

If a villager finds itself outside the village boundary, or a villager without a village detects a village boundary within 32 blocks, it quickly moves back within the boundary. A villager taken more than 32 blocks away from its village boundary forgets the village within about 6 seconds. Whether in a village or not, a villager never despawns. Pathfinding

Villagers, like other mobs, can find paths around obstructions, avoid walking off cliffs of heights greater than 3 blocks, and avoid some blocks that cause harm. However, in crowded situations, one villager can push another off a cliff or into harm's way.

Villagers can open all wooden doors and find paths to blocks of interest behind the doors. However, they cannot open any trapdoors, fence gates, or iron doors. Villagers can climb ladders, but do not recognize them as paths and do not deliberately use them. Any climbing of ladders seems to be a side effect of them being pushed into the block by another mob (usually by other villagers). Stranded villagers

Climbing a ladder can leave a villager stranded on the second floor and roof of some village structures, as they lack the necessary AI to intentionally descend ladders.[verify] A simple fix for these situations is for the player to manually push the villager back toward the ladder hole. Then the player can place a wooden trapdoor at the top, to stop the villager from ever getting up there again. However, the villager can still get stuck on the ladder underneath the trapdoor. Another solution is to break the first ladder touching the ground, completely preventing the villager from climbing the ladder. However, this means the player has to jump up one block to use the ladder. Getting attacked

Villagers flee from zombies, zombie villagers, husks, drowned, zombified piglins ‌[Bedrock Edition only], zoglins, vindicators, pillagers (even if their crossbow has been broken), ravagers, and vexes within 8 blocks, and evokers and illusioners within 12 blocks. Like other passive mobs, villagers sprint away when attacked. Villagers do not run away from skeletons (and their variants), spiders, or cave spiders since these hostile mobs are passive toward villagers. Preferred path This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

When pathfinding, villagers prefer to stay on low cost blocks, such as dirt paths, cobblestone, bricks, and planks. They do this by trying to minimize the path cost of all of the blocks they walk across. They also avoid jumping, because it has a high path cost, but babies don't avoid it as much.

50 Other 3 1.5 Jump cost 20 5 Job site blocks For a list of job site blocks and the professions they are required for, see § Professions.

Unemployed villagers (other than babies and nitwits) seek employment at job site blocks (also referred to as workstations), and employed villagers use job site blocks to refresh their trades (see § Working). Villagers who have made their first trade must claim a site block that corresponds with their profession, whereas tradeless villagers may change their profession to match a site block.

In Java Edition, an unemployed villager claims job site blocks by searching for the nearest unclaimed site in a 48-block sphere. When a suitable site block is detected, the villager starts pathfinding to it, staking a provisional claim. This can occur only while the villager is awake. A provisional claim is released if the villager cannot reach the block within 60 seconds, however the villager may try again immediately.[1] To fully claim the site and change profession, the villager must approach within a 2-block radius of the job site's center. When a job site block is fully claimed, its owner emits green particles, and no other villager can claim the block unless the owner relinquishes it.

In Bedrock Edition, all villagers in a village search for unclaimed job sites in a 16 block radius and 4 block height. If a site block is found, it is added to a shared list of valid job site blocks for the whole village. An unemployed villager with a bed claims the first site block on that list and immediately acquires the profession to match, regardless of the distance or accessibility to the site block.[2] The villager can even claim the site block while sleeping. When a job site block is claimed, both the block and the villager making the claim emit green particles and the site block is removed from the list. If a villager cannot pathfind to its claimed site, both the site block and villager emit anger particles. The site block may need to be broken or interacted by a piston before the villager unclaims it.[verify for Bedrock Edition] A desert villager and a plains villager gossiping. Gossiping

Villagers can store memories about players in the form of gossip. These get spread to other villagers whenever they talk with each other. Each piece of gossip is one of five types, and it stores a value as well as a target. Gossips generate and increase in value as a result of various player actions. The target is the player who caused the gossip. Together the gossip values determine a player's reputation with villagers, which influence trading prices and the hostility of naturally spawned iron golems. Type Caused by Amount gained Decay Share penalty Max value Reputation multiplier Major positive Curing 20 0 100 20 5 Minor positive Curing 25 1 5 200 1 Minor negative Attacking 25 20 20 200 -1 Major negative Killing 25 10 10 100 -5 Trade Trading 2 2 20 25 1

Trading with or curing a villager increases the value of the corresponding gossips for the targeted villager only. When a villager is attacked or killed, however, it instead generates the major negative gossip in every other villager it could see (eye-to-eye line of sight) inside a box extending 16 blocks from the villager in all coordinate directions. When a piece of gossip is shared, it is received at a lower value than the sharer has it. Gossips also decay a certain amount (see Decay column) every 20 minutes. Since major positive gossip has a share penalty >= its max value and a decay of 0, it cannot be shared and never decays.

A player's total reputation with a villager is determined by multiplying each gossip's value by its respective multiplier and adding the results together. For example, if a player has recently cured a villager for the first time but also attacked the villager twice, their reputation with that villager would be 5×20 + 25 - 50 = 75. After 40 minutes the gossips have decayed twice, making the player's reputation 5×20 + 23 - 10 = 113.

The prices of a villager's trades all get reduced by reputation times the price multiplier rounded down, meaning that a positive reputation lowers prices but a negative reputation increase them. The price multiplier is either 0.05 or 0.2 depending on the item, see trading. Prices can not get lower than 1 or higher than the item's stack size. The exact function to calculate the price affected by the gossips is y = x - floor((5a + b + c - d - 5e) × p), Where y is the final price, x is the base price, a is the value of major_positive, b is the value of minor_positive, c is the value of trading, d is the value of minor_negative, e is the value of major_negative, and p is the value of PriceMultiplier.

An iron golem that was not built by a player becomes hostile toward all players whose reputation with any nearby villager is -100 or lower. The golem checks all villagers inside a box centered on the golem and extending 10 blocks in every horizontal direction and 8 blocks in both vertical directions.

Players can set villagers on fire using flint and steel or lava without affecting gossips. The same is true for TNT activated by redstone or a dispenser. However, TNT ignited directly by a player (using flint and steel, fire charges or flaming arrows) does generate gossip for damaged or killed villagers, because the TNT's damage is attributed to the player. Picking up items

Each villager has eight hidden inventory slots, which are initially empty when the villager is spawned. A villager can fill its inventory slots with items it picks up.

The villager does not intentionally seek out items to pick up, but it does collect any bread, carrots, potatoes, wheat, wheat seeds, beetroot, beetroot seeds, torchflower seeds, pitcher pods, and bone meal that happen to be in range. The listed items are the only items villagers can pick up, although the the /item replace command can put any arbitrary item into a villager's inventory. Also, bone meal can be picked up only by a farmer villager.

If a player and a villager are in the pickup range of an item at the same time, the player always picks it up first. If several villagers are next to an item, the same one picks up the item every time. This behavior prevents villagers from effectively sharing food (and thus breeding) in a small space.

When killed or converted to a zombie villager, any inventory item of the villager is lost, even when /gamerule keepInventory is set to true.

If /gamerule mobGriefing is false, villagers cannot pick up items, and farmer villagers cannot plant or harvest crops.

Like other mobs, villagers have four slots for worn armor, separate from their inventory slots. An adjacent dispenser can equip armor, elytra, mob heads or carved pumpkins to a villager‌[Java Edition only][3], but the armor is not rendered (except for carved pumpkins and mob heads). The equipment functions as normal; for example, a villager wearing an armor piece enchanted with Thorns can inflict Thorns damage to attackers, and a villager wearing Frost Walker boots is able to create frosted ice. If a villager is converted into a zombie villager, the armor it was wearing is dropped, though it may be able to pick it up and equip it again. A villager with thorns 3 deals more damage to zombies that attacked the villager than the villager takes damage. Sharing food Villagers sharing carrots.

In Java Edition, villagers collect bread, carrots, potatoes, beetroots, wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, and wheat. If a villager has at least 24 of these items, it gives the extra amount to a villager with 4 or fewer of each these food items. That other villager can also do this until all villagers have shared all items they could (for example, on a group of three villagers one receives 60 bread, then it shares 36 to another villager to keep 24[4], and that same villager then shares 12 to the third villager).

In the case of wheat, villagers have a distinct behavior. They do the same as other crops, but if a villager has at least 32 wheat, it tries to give half of it to another villager, making both have 16 wheat.

If a villager has 8 full ​[more information needed] stacks of any kind of food or seeds and then tries to share with another villager, it leaves at least 24 items in each stack. Thus it can never empty inventory slots to pick up other items, unless it uses the items when trying to breed or when farming if it is a farmer villager.[5][6] A bait villager can be used in a farm taking advantage of this mechanic to have a farmer villager collect and deposit crops.

In Bedrock Edition, if a villager has enough food in one inventory stack (6 bread or 24 carrots, potatoes, beetroots, or 18 wheat for farmers only) and sees a villager without enough food in one inventory stack (3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots for non-farmers; 15 bread, 60 carrots, 60 potatoes, or 60 beetroots, or 45 wheat for farmers), the villager may decide to share food with that villager.

To share, a villager finds its first inventory stack with at least 4 bread, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot or with at least 6 wheat, and then throws half the stack (rounded down) in the direction of the target villager. When wheat is shared, it is first crafted to bread, which may result in 1 or 2 less than half the stack being shared. Farming Farmer villager picking and planting carrots.

In Java Edition, during the "work" portion of their schedule, farmers tend nearby crops.Farmers sometimes move to random farmland blocks they detect within ±4 on the X and Z axes and ±2 on the Y axis, rather than going to their jobsite. If there are fully-grown crop blocks or air above farmland within ±1 of the villager on each axis, the farmer spends 10 seconds tending them (not counting time spend walking to the next block), one per second. The block is harvested if necessary and (re-)planted if the farmer has any seeds. If /gamerule mobGriefing is false, villagers cannot farm. Harvesting is done regardless of the villager's current inventory, even if they lack space to pick up the results. Planting is done as from the first eligible inventory slot. If there is at least one non-fully-grown crop block within ±1 of the farmer on each axis, the farmer has bone meal, and it has been at least 8 seconds since the farmer last did some fertilization, then the farmer fertilizes up to four crop blocks (one every two seconds). When the farmer works at their composter, it composts excess wheat and beetroot seeds, and extracts bone meal if it is full. Up to 20 seeds are composted in one work session, but at least 10 of each type of seed are first kept. Inventory slots are checked in reverse order.

In Bedrock Edition, farmers tend crops within the village boundary. Villagers far enough outside the boundary of any village also tend nearby crops. Farmland to be tended is found by seeking for certain blocks up to 9 blocks away from the villager in the X and Z coordinates and up to 1 away in the Y coordinate (a 19×19×3 volume total).If a farmer villager does not have enough food in one stack in its inventory (15 bread, 60 carrots, 60 potatoes, 60 beetroots, or 45 wheat) and finds fully-grown wheat, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot, the villager moves to the crop block and harvests it. If a farmer villager has any seeds, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot seeds in its inventory and finds an air block above farmland, the villager moves to it and plants a crop. They always plant from the first eligible slot in their inventory. Farmer villagers use and pick up bone meal. They also fill their composter with seeds. Farmer villagers start farming only if a crop is planted on farmland previously. Farmer villagers continue to plant on the farmland even if all crops are destroyed.

For both editions,Farmer villagers cannot turn dirt, grass blocks, or dirt paths into farmland, nor they pick up any hoes to till the blocks. If a hoe is placed into a farmer villager's mainhand or offhand via commands, they still cannot till any blocks. Farmer villagers often share their crops and food with other villagers if they have any extras.

Breeding For tutorials on breeding mechanics, see Tutorials/Village mechanics § Breeding and population cap and Tutorials/Legacy Console village mechanics.

Adult villagers breed depending on the time of the day and need to be willing to spawn § Baby villagers, who also require beds with at least 2 empty blocks above the head. Job sites are not required for villagers to breed.

The breeding depends on the number of valid beds. If a villager is "willing" (see § Willingness below), villagers breed as long as there are unclaimed beds available within the limits of the village. All baby villagers are initially unemployed.

In Java Edition, two villagers nearby one another periodically enter mating mode if both have enough food and are not on cooldown. Breeding fails (with anger particles displayed) if no unclaimed bed can be reached via pathfinding within a 48 block radius. The appearance of the child is randomly determined by either the biome type of the parents or by the biome where the breeding occurred.

In Bedrock Edition a census is periodically taken to determine the current population of the village. All villagers within the horizontal boundary of the village are counted as part of the population to determine if continued villager mating is allowed. However, any villager within the horizontal boundary of the village and the spherical boundary of the village attempts to enter mating mode as long as there is at least one villager within the boundary. If two villagers simultaneously enter mating mode while they are close to one another, they breed and produce a child. The appearance is determined by the biome where the breeding occurs in Bedrock Edition.[7] Two villagers breeding. Willingness

Villagers must be willing to breed. Willingness is determined by the amount of food items a villager has. Becoming willing consumes the villager's food stock, therefore, after mating, villagers cease to be willing for 5 minutes, at which point they must gather a sufficient stock of food items to breed again.

Villagers must have enough beds within village bounds for baby villagers to spawn. The villager must be able to path-find the bed from their current position. (Note that mobs view slabs as full blocks for pathfinding, so putting upper half slabs above a bed invalidates the bed.)

Villagers can become willing by having either 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots in one slot in their inventory. Any villager with an excess of food (usually farmers) throws food to other villagers, allowing them to pick it up and obtain enough food to become willing. The player can also throw bread, carrots, beetroots, or potatoes at the villagers themselves to encourage breeding. Villagers consume the required food upon becoming willing. If /gamerule mobGriefing is false, villagers don't pick up food or break crops. Some baby villagers in Java Edition. Their heads are smaller than Bedrock Edition or Minecraft Education baby villagers. Baby villagers

Baby villagers sprint around, entering and leaving houses at will. They sometimes stop sprinting to stare at other villagers, the player‌[Java Edition only], or an iron golem. If the iron golem is holding out a poppy, the children may cautiously take the flower from its hands. Baby villagers tend to group and chase one another around the village as if playing tag. They also jump on beds.

Illagers (except "Johnny" vindicators in Bedrock Edition) ignore baby villagers until they reach adulthood.

Baby villagers give gifts of poppies or wheat seeds to players who have the EffectSprite hero-of-the-village.png: Sprite image for hero-of-the-village in Minecraft linking to Hero of the VillageHero of the Village effect in Java Edition.

Baby villagers in Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education have a slightly bigger head than in Java Edition; this also can be seen in other baby mobs in the game as well. Java Edition baby villagers look like tiny normal villagers.[8]

Baby villagers can fit through 1×1 block gaps.

A baby villager becomes an adult 20 minutes after birth, even when in a boat or a minecart. Baby villagers with no AI do not grow up. Lightning A villager gets struck by lightning.

When lightning strikes within 3–4 blocks of a villager, the villager is replaced by a witch that can't despawn. Even a baby villager that is struck by lightning is turned into a two-block-tall witch.

Iron golems also attack any villagers that turn into witches. Iron golem summoning Main article: Iron Golem § Villages

In Java Edition, villagers can summon an iron golem to protect themselves from hostile mobs. This requires either 3 panicking villagers or 5 gossiping villagers. If they don't find an iron golem within 16 blocks of their location for 30 seconds, another one is summoned.

In Bedrock Edition, villagers can summon an iron golem if there are less than 10 villagers per existing golem, the village has at least 20 beds, and 75% of these villagers must have worked in the past day. Panicking A villager panicking.

Villagers sometimes panic during a raid or a zombie siege by emitting water particles and shaking.

In Java Edition, villagers panic if they see a mob that is hostile toward villagers, like a zombie, zombie villager, husk, drowned, zoglin, illager, vex, wither, or ravager and flee frantically from them, sometimes hiding in houses. In Bedrock Edition, villagers panic by running around in circles around a bed in a village house, such as when a raid happens or when the player rings the village bell. Java Edition villagers in panic are more likely to summon iron golems. To see these mobs, the villager must have an unobstructed line of sight to it (eye-level to eye-level), and be within a certain range (spherical distance between feet center bottom-most point of the villager and hostile mob): Mob Panic radius Zombie, husk, drowned, zombie villager, vex 8 Vindicator, zoglin 10 Evoker, illusioner, ravager 12 Pillager 15 Zombies Main articles: Siege and Zombie

Zombies, zombie villagers, husks, and drowned seek out and attack villagers within a 35– to 52.5–block radius (depending on regional difficulty)‌[Java Edition only] or a 16-block radius‌[Bedrock Edition only] (even when the villager is invisible). Zombies attempt to break down doors, but only a fraction of zombies can do so and can succeed only when difficulty is set to hard. Zombies who cannot break doors tend to crowd around a door that separates them from a villager. If a zombie or a drowned comes across a set of doors with one open, it usually tries to go through the closed door.

Both zombies and drowned either kill villagers or convert them to zombie villagers. The chance of the villager becoming a zombie villager upon death is 0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard. Baby villagers can be infected by zombies as well. Drowned are able to convert villagers to zombie villagers, even when attacking with a trident from a distance. Raids Main article: Raid

During a raid, villagers flee from illagers and run to the nearest house, similar to a zombie siege. For a villager to hide, the house must have a door and at least one bed.

Before the first raid wave in Java Edition, at least one villager rushes to ring the bell in the center of the village (if they are close enough) to warn the other villagers of an incoming raid before going into their house. In Bedrock Edition, the bell rings automatically regardless of whether a villager is nearby. In Java Edition, when a bell is rung, all illagers within 48 blocks get the glowing effect for 3 seconds.

A villager often stays in the house it first entered, but may exit the house occasionally. The player can still trade with villagers during a raid.

On random occasions, the villager displays water particles as if sweating. Hero of the Village Main article: Hero of the Village

In Java Edition, once the player gains the Hero of the Village status after defeating a raid, villagers give them a discount for their trades and throw them gifts related to their profession. Staring A lot of villagers staring at the player. A lot of villagers staring at the player.

Villagers stare at any player that stares at them, or goes near them. This also applies for some mobs, especially cats. A villager first turns its head toward the player, then the body. Villagers can keep staring at the player unless a raid happens or a zombie comes and chases them off. A villager staring at the player. A villager staring at the player.

Schedules

Villagers have set schedules depending on their age and employment status. Schedules define the villager's goals, which mostly determine how they behave throughout the day. However, their goals can be interrupted by higher priority behaviors most villagers have, such as fleeing from an attack, trading, and getting out of the rain. Villager schedule in Java Edition Image Ticks (time) Employed Unemployed/Nitwit Child 00010 (06:00:36) Wander Wander 02000 (08:00:00) Work Wander 03000 (09:00:00) Play 06000 (12:00:00) Wander 09000 (15:00:00) Gather 10000 (16:00:00) Play 11000 (17:00:00) Wander 12000 (18:00:00) Sleep Villager schedule in Bedrock Edition Image Ticks (time) Employed Unemployed Child Nitwit 00000 (06:00:00) Work Wander Play Sleep 02000 (08:00:00) Wander 08000 (14:00:00) Gather 10000 (16:00:00) Work Wander 11000 (17:00:00) Home 12000 (18:00:00) Sleep 13000 (19:00:00) Home 14000 (20:00:00) Sleep Working

Employed villagers spend most of their day standing next to their job site blocks. From time to time, they "gather supplies" by wandering a short distance away, then returning.

Some professions have additional job-specific goals that are part of their work schedule:Farmers harvest and sow crops. Librarians inspect bookshelves.‌[Bedrock Edition only]

When a villager reaches its job site block, it commences "work". Two times a day, this action of working resupplies any locked trades. Villagers can resupply twice per day, even without having a bed or while sitting in a minecart. A villager can "reach" its job site block if the block is in any of the 8 directly adjacent or diagonal block spaces horizontally around it at the height of their feet, or at the 9 blocks below that. Villagers can still "reach" them diagonally, even if they can't see or touch the face of the block.

Employed villagers do not breed with each other during their work schedule. Nitwits and the unemployed do not follow this rule as they would breed with each other and the employed villagers.

Leatherworker villagers work at any cauldron; the cauldron does not have to be filled with water in order for the villager to work at it. Wandering

All villagers wander from time to time, but for the unemployed and nitwits, they wander for the majority of their day. A wandering villager chooses a random block and walks toward it, then stands there for a variable amount of time before wandering again. If at any time it detects a job site block it can claim, it does so, assumes the skin for the associated profession, and immediately begins following the appropriate schedule.

A villager attempts to claim a job site block by finding a path to a block next to one, showing angry particles when unable to reach it. After a villager fails to reach the job site block several times, it becomes unclaimed, indicated by showing angry particles on it. The villager loses its job site block and eventually becomes unemployed if the villager is at novice-level and no nearby job site block is available. Any other nearby unemployed villager has a chance to become the block's new owner. If there are no unemployed villagers nearby, then the villager who lost the job site block seeks for another unclaimed one or tries to reclaim the same unreachable one in an endless loop (this also happens for claiming beds).

The wander schedule includes a job-specific goal called "exploring the outskirts" that causes villagers to wander near the edges of the village. This enables them to detect new beds, job site blocks, bells, and houses that players have used to extend the village.

During this time of the day, they may also share items. Gathering

Late in the day, adult villagers gather at a meeting place (the area around a bell). When two villagers encounter one another, they mingle (look at each other and "converse" by humming at other villagers). They may also share food, or breed if both are willing.

If a villager isn't close enough to detect a bell, it wanders randomly, searching for one. Playing Four villager children chasing another baby villager, like playing tag.

Baby villagers wander randomly around the village. When they encounter another baby villager, the two of them follow each other for a while and sometimes run as if racing or chasing each other.

In Java Edition, they sometimes stop to jump and bounce on a bed or to stare at an iron golem they encounter. If the iron golem offers them a poppy, the baby villager cautiously accepts it. Returning home

All villagers head home a short time before sunset. They roam around until they get near their beds, then target a block beside the bed. Once they reach their beds, they do not go through a door again before sleeping.

A villager who has no bed simply waits inside a house until morning. This includes players stealing a villager's bed to sleep in, mostly the villager stays in the house and doesn't move until sunrise. But sometimes, if they detect a unclaimed bed nearby they walk out of the house and toward the bed. A villager pushed on a bed in Java Edition. The villager falls off the bed if it is pushed again. Dropping an anvil on a villager that is sleeping in Java Edition does not hurt the villager nor causes the villager to wake up. Sleeping A top view of a savanna villager sleeping in a bed at night.

At sunset, villagers lie down in their beds and remain there until morning. Villagers wake early if food is thrown at them‌[Java Edition only], they are pushed out of bed, or if their bed is destroyed. They also wake up when their bed is used, if they are attacked, or when a bell is rung. If possible, they return to sleeping in a bed after the interruption.

Jumping on a bed with a villager sleeping in it does not cause the villager to get up.

In Java Edition, a villager can be pushed on its bed and sometimes turn its head. A villager can be pushed off a bed,[9] but is most likely to go back to sleeping after staring at the player who pushed the villager for a few seconds.

When sleeping in Java Edition, a villager's hitbox reduces to a cube restricted to the pillow part of the bed. If an anvil is dropped on the hitbox, the villager takes damage and wakes up and the anvil is dropped as item.

In Bedrock Edition, dropping an anvil on a villager that is sleeping causes the villager to take damage but remain sleeping in the bed and the anvil remains on top of the bed.

A villager who has no bed continues wandering in search of a bed to claim.

Villagers follow their Overworld schedules regardless of which dimension they are in. They can sleep in the Nether or the End, without causing the usual consequences of the bed exploding (See Bed § Sleeping), if the Overworld's time is correct.[10] This is because the daylight cycle continues in these dimensions, even though it is not normally apparent to the player.

Sometimes when a villager gets in a bed from another direction they turn their body until their head is on the pillow of the bed. Villagers also sleep with their eyes open. Healing

A villager gets a brief regeneration effect once leveling up in its profession. Pink regeneration particles appear while it is healing.

In Bedrock Edition, when a villager successfully sleeps, it immediately heals itself when waking up at dawn (if it is damaged). Professions Job site blocks next to each other. All plains biome variant professions (except unemployed) corresponding to their different job site blocks.

Each villager can have a profession except for the nitwit, indicated by their clothing as well as by the title at the top of the trading interface. A villager can choose their profession by claiming a job site block. When they go to work, they use their daily schedule to get to their claimed job site block. Some professions, like farmers and librarians, do other things. Farmers plant crops, and librarians can inspect bookshelves. If an adult villager does not have a profession (either they are unemployed or a nitwit), they wander instead.

A job site block can be claimed only if it is unclaimed and within a village boundary with at least 1 bed. Removal of a claimed job site block causes the owner to switch to another profession or become unemployed, provided that the villager has no prior trades with the player. If the villager has prior trades, it keeps its profession and claims a new job site block that matches its profession if one is available. So, once a player trades with a villager, the villager keeps its profession forever.

Nitwits and baby villagers cannot change their profession.

In Java Edition, villagers summoned by a spawn egg or via command /summon are always unemployed until they have claimed a job site block. In Bedrock Edition, however, villagers summoned in similar ways have a random profession[11]; their profession can be changed by a job site block, though.

Novice-level villagers who have not yet traded can lose their profession and change into unemployed villagers.

Unemployed adults actively seek for an unclaimed job site block and change into the corresponding profession.

Below is a table listing the various professions, along with the specific job site block that each profession requires:

Profession Job site block /

Workstation [ ]Biome Desert Jungle [12] Plains Savanna Snow Swamp[12] Taiga Unemployed None Nitwit None Armorer BlockSprite blast-furnace.png: Sprite image for blast-furnace in Minecraft linking to Blast FurnaceBlast Furnace Butcher BlockSprite smoker.png: Sprite image for smoker in Minecraft linking to SmokerSmoker Cartographer BlockSprite cartography-table.png: Sprite image for cartography-table in Minecraft linking to Cartography TableCartography Table Cleric BlockSprite brewing-stand.png: Sprite image for brewing-stand in Minecraft linking to Brewing StandBrewing Stand Farmer BlockSprite composter.png: Sprite image for composter in Minecraft linking to ComposterComposter Fisherman BlockSprite barrel.png: Sprite image for barrel in Minecraft linking to BarrelBarrel Fletcher BlockSprite fletching-table.png: Sprite image for fletching-table in Minecraft linking to Fletching TableFletching Table Leatherworker BlockSprite cauldron.png: Sprite image for cauldron in Minecraft linking to CauldronCauldron Librarian BlockSprite lectern.png: Sprite image for lectern in Minecraft linking to LecternLectern Stone Mason‌[BE only]‌[until BE 1.21.30]

Mason‌[JE only]​[upcoming: BE 1.21.30] BlockSprite stonecutter.png: Sprite image for stonecutter in Minecraft linking to StonecutterStonecutter Shepherd BlockSprite loom.png: Sprite image for loom in Minecraft linking to LoomLoom Toolsmith BlockSprite smithing-table.png: Sprite image for smithing-table in Minecraft linking to Smithing TableSmithing Table Weaponsmith BlockSprite grindstone.png: Sprite image for grindstone in Minecraft linking to GrindstoneGrindstone Nitwit A nitwit bobbling its head.‌[Java Edition only]

Nitwit villagers wear robes that are green on top. They cannot acquire a profession, trade, or gather around bells, but are still able to breed. They are not equipped with a level stone since they cannot trade. Pressing use on a nitwit in Java Edition causes it to grunt and bobble its head at the player. A nitwit must be born or spawned; no villagers change to nitwit from unemployed or a profession, and vice versa. Nitwits can be found naturally or by curing naturally spawned zombie villagers. Zombie villagers can also be spawned as babies, so this is the only way to encounter baby nitwits in survival mode.

In Bedrock Edition, every baby villager has a 10% chance to become a nitwit when they become an adult, as well as having a different sleep schedule where they wander around the village for about 2000 ticks (1 minute 40 seconds) after other villagers go to sleep, before seeking a bed. If they can claim a bed, they arise in the morning 2000 ticks after the rest of the village wakes up. Appearance

Villagers and zombie villagers have seven skin types corresponding to the biome they spawn in. Their appearance also varies based on their profession and their five tiers. They show which trade tier they have unlocked by a badge of a varying material on their belt. A new tier is obtained every time a player trades with a villager and the badge appears as stone, iron, gold, emerald, and finally diamond.

Villagers have different outfits depending on their biome. Naturally generated villagers take on the outfit from the biome they were spawned in. When breeding occurs, the outfit of the child is determined by the biome where the breeding occurs, but in Java Edition, there is a 50% chance it's inherited from the biome type of the parents (equal chance for both parents). In case the villager's outfit is determined by biome but the biome has no specific villager type, it always becomes a plains villager. The outfits available are the following:

Villagers have 13 professions and 2 non professions for a total of 15 outfits:Farmer (straw hat) Trades crops and natural foods, such as bread and cookies. Fisherman (fisher hat) Trades campfires and fishing items. Shepherd (brown hat with white apron) Trades shears, wool, dyes, paintings and beds. Fletcher (hat with feather and quiver on the back) Trades bows, crossbows, all types of arrows (except luck) and archery ingredients. Cleric (purple apron and creeper cloak) Trades magic items like ender pearls, redstone dust, glowstone dust, and other enchanting or potion ingredients. Weaponsmith (eyepatch and black apron) Trades minerals, bells and enchanted melee weapons. The axe enchantments are weapon related, such as Sharpness or Smite. Armorer (welding mask) Trades foundry items and sells chain, iron and enchanted diamond armor tiers. Toolsmith (black apron) Trades minerals, bells and harvest tools. The axe enchantments are tool related. Librarian (eyeglasses and a book as a hat) Trades enchanted books, clocks, compasses, name tags, glass, ink sacs, lanterns, and book and quills. Cartographer (golden monocle) Trades banners, compasses, banner patterns, papers and various maps, including explorer maps. Leatherworker (brown apron and brown gloves) Trades scutes, rabbit hide, and leather-related items. Butcher (red headband and white apron) Trades meats, sweet berries, rabbit stew, and dried kelp blocks. Mason‌[JE only]/Stone Mason‌[BE only] (black apron and black gloves) Trades polished stones, terracotta, clay, glazed terracotta and quartz. Nitwit (green coated, no badge) No trades, no badge Unemployed (no overlay, base clothing of biome without any extra features) No trades until employed. No badge until employed. Villagers have different trades based on the biome in which they spawn.

Trading Main article: Trading The Java Edition trading interface, displaying basic novice-level trading options. Trading options of a max-level weaponsmith. Villager badge changes color depending on the level of the villager. From left to right: stone (novice), iron (apprentice), gold (journeyman), emerald (expert), and diamond (master).

The trading system is a gameplay mechanic that allows players to buy and sell various items to and from villagers, using emeralds as a currency. Their trades can be valuable or somewhat meaningless, depending on the cost, the items the player might get, and how the player treats the villagers. Only adult villagers with professions can trade; the player cannot trade with nitwits, unemployed villagers, or baby villagers. Attempting to do so causes the villager to display a head-bobbling animation and play the villager's declined trade sound‌[Java Edition only].

Pressing the use control on an employed villager allows a player to trade, making offers based on the villager's profession and profession level. All offers involve emeralds as a currency, and items related to the villager's profession. Trading can allow the acquisition of items that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain, such as enchanted books with "treasure" enchantments (e.g. Mending), bottles o' enchanting, or chainmail armor. When a villager gets a new trade, they receive 10 seconds of Regeneration I (totaling to 4♥♥ of restoration), which emits pink particles. The villager also emits green particles suggesting contentment.

Completing a trade with a villager increases its professional level. Some trades grant higher levels to the villager than others. As it advances through its profession, the villager offers additional trades. When a villager unlocks a new trade at a higher level, it almost always grants more experience than lower-level trades.

Villagers have a maximum supply of items and after the player has traded for an item that many times, the villager's supply of the item is exhausted. This results in the trade being temporarily locked. A player can continue to trade for the villager's other available items if any. Exhausted items are restocked when the villager works at a job site, up to twice per day.

In Bedrock Edition, librarian villagers have a 50% chance to sell enchanted books as part of their trades at novice, apprentice, and journeyman-level, and have 1⁄3 chance to sell enchanted books at expert-level as part of their trades, meaning each librarian villager can sell up to four books. The price ranges between 5-64 emeralds per book. Based on the level of the enchantment and whether it is classified as a "treasure enchantment" (meaning they are not obtainable by enchanting, e.g. Mending), which doubles the cost, or not a price is determined.

In Java Edition, librarian villagers have a 2⁄3 chance to sell an enchanted book as part of their trades at the novice, apprentice, and journeyman level, and have a 50% chance to sell an enchanted book at the expert level, meaning each librarian can sell up to four books. The price ranges from 5-64 emeralds per book, depending on the enchantment's level as well as whether or not it is a treasure enchantment. Cost of enchanted books based on their level Level Lowest price Highest price I (1) 5 19 II (2) 8 32 III (3) 11 45 IV (4) 14 58 V (5) 17 71 (capped at 64)

They may contain any available enchantment (except Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, and Wind Burst) at any available level. See trading notes for more information on enchantments and prices.

Clicking use on an unemployed or nitwit villager in Java Edition causes it to grunt and bobble their head; doing so in Bedrock Edition does nothing.

Using a name tag on a villager always names the villager instead of opening the trading interface.

In Java Edition, using space inside of the trading interface after one trade was made refills the trading slots with items from the inventory.[verify] Supply and demand For detailed information on Villager economics, see Trading § Economics.

The price of an item can rise and fall with changes in demand. The price of a traded item can rise when next resupplied, or fall from a risen price if not traded. Demand is stored per item, not per villager. Trade offering Several villagers offering trade items to a player.

When a player holds an item near a villager who wants that item, the villager holds up an item it offers in exchange. For example, a farmer villager who buys 20 wheat for one emerald holds up an emerald, offering it to a player holding wheat. Villagers do not offer trades that are currently out of stock. If the villager has more than one trade for an item, it cycles through the trades, offering a different item every few seconds. This kind of trading interaction makes it easier to find villagers who offer a particular trade, but the player must still open the trading interface to complete the trade. Note that villagers do not hold items to offer trades during their gather or sleep phases, even though it is still possible to trade with them. Economic trade

Villagers have levels and require experience to unlock the next tiers of trade; level 1 is a novice, level 2 is apprentice, level 3 is journeyman, level 4 is expert, and level 5 is master. Villagers can resupply trades by themselves by working more at their job site block. Popularity or reputation

In Bedrock Edition, villagers increase their prices of trades if a player's popularity is low, (e.g. from damaging villagers), and decrease it if their popularity is high (e.g. from trading with multiple villagers). Curing a zombie villager also increases the player's popularity by 10.

In Java Edition, a villager's prices are affected by the player's reputation with that villager rather than by village popularity. Hero of the Village Main article: Hero of the Village

When a player receives EffectSprite hero-of-the-village.png: Sprite image for hero-of-the-village in Minecraft linking to Hero of the VillageHero of the Village, players receive discounted prices on all the items traded by villagers in both editions. The EffectSprite hero-of-the-village.png: Sprite image for hero-of-the-village in Minecraft linking to Hero of the VillageHero of the Village also gets gifts.‌[Java Edition only] Each villager throws gifts related to its profession, and nitwits and unemployed villagers throw wheat seeds instead. These gifts range in value from common (like seeds) to rare items (like chainmail armor). A player's popularity increases by 10 in Java Edition and doesn't increase in Bedrock Edition. Villagers also shoot off fireworks, with different colored fireworks with no pattern. Similar mobs Zombie villagers An example of a zombie villager. Main article: Zombie Villager

When a zombie kills a villager, it can turn the villager into a zombie villager, depending on the difficulty: 0% chance on Easy, 50% chance on Normal and 100% chance on Hard. Zombie villagers also spawn naturally in the Overworld in the same conditions as a normal zombie, although much less commonly, with a 5% chance. Zombie villagers also spawn in abandoned villages (zombie villages) and igloos. They do not spawn from the zombie monster spawner in Java Edition. Wandering trader A wandering trader. Main article: Wandering Trader

Wandering traders are passive mobs that spawn randomly close to the player in both editions, or periodically in village gathering sites in Bedrock Edition. Wandering traders also spawn near bells. Two trader llamas spawn leashed to the wandering trader when a wandering trader is naturally spawned, and in Bedrock Edition when summoned or spawned using a spawn egg.

Players may use emeralds to buy items from wandering traders without the need of unlocking the previous trade, but cannot trade items for emeralds. They also lock trades like villagers, but never unlock the trade, nor can they work at any job site blocks. Like villagers, wandering traders are attacked by most zombie variants (though they do not have a zombified form, they die if a zombie kills it, even on hard difficulty), illagers, ravagers‌[Java Edition only], and vexes.

Wandering traders also drink a Potion of Invisibility at night (or when they see a hostile mob such as an illager or zombie). They also drink a milk bucket in the morning to remove the Invisibility. They despawn after 40 minutes (even with a name tag or in a minecart or boat) with their llamas.

Villagers have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition: Main article: Entity formatEntity data Additional fields for mobs that can breed[

] Tags common to all entities[ ] Tags common to all mobs[ ] Tags common to all villagers[ ] Inventory: Each compound tag in this list is an item in the villager's inventory, up to a maximum of 8 slots. Items in two or more slots that can be stacked together are automatically condensed into one slot. If there are more than 8 slots, the last slot is removed until the total is 8. If there are 9 slots but two previous slots can be condensed, the last slot returns after the two other slots are combined.An item in the inventory, excluding the Slot tag. Tags common to all items[ ] LastRestock: The last tick the villager went to their job site block to resupply their trades. LastGossipDecay: The last tick all gossip of the villager has decreased strength naturally. RestocksToday: The number of restocks a villager has done in 10 minutes from the last restock, or 0 if the villager has not restocked in the last 10 minutes. When a villager has restocked twice in less than 10 minutes, it waits at least 10 minutes for another restock. Willing: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the villager is willing to mate. Becomes true after certain trades (those that would cause offers to be refreshed), and false after mating.

Villager type[

][edit]

Villager profession[

][edit]

Bedrock Edition:See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements [ ] Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS4) PS4 Other

Icon Advancement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) A Throwaway Joke Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea. Hit a mob with a thrown trident. Adventure Adventure, exploration and combat Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity. Arbalistic Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot EntitySprite armor-stand.png: Sprite image for armor-stand in Minecraft linking to Armor StandArmor Stand also counts for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed. Over-Overkill Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace — Star Trader Trade with a Villager at the build height limit Stand on any block that is higher than 318 and trade with a villager or wandering trader. Surge Protector Protect a Villager from an undesired shock without starting a fire Be within 30 blocks of a lightning strike that doesn't set any blocks on fire, while an unharmed villager is within or up to six blocks above a 30×30×30 volume centered on the lightning strike. Take Aim Shoot something with an Arrow Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow. Very Very Frightening Strike a Villager with lightning Hit a villager with lightning created by a trident with the Channeling enchantment, turning it into a witch. What a Deal! Successfully trade with a Villager Take an item from a villager or wandering trader's trading output slot. Zombie Doctor Weaken and then cure a Zombie Villager Use a golden apple on a zombie villager under the Weakness effect; the advancement is granted when the zombie villager converts into a villager. In multiplayer, only the player that feeds the golden apple gets the advancement. Video

TriviaThe villagers were inspired by the shopkeepers in Dungeon Master II.[16] Originally, the mobs populating villages were to be pigmen.[17] When a villager is in love mode, it walks slowly. However, when a villager runs indoors as the night falls, it runs faster than the player's sprinting speed. The villager skins added in the Village and Pillage update were inspired by 2018 fashion shows, such as Gucci's.[18] Villagers are genderless, meaning they are neither male nor female.[19] Villagers occasionally sleep in odd ways during the night inside their beds, sometimes hanging halfway off the side of the bed or even glitching into walls. Although the villages in snowy taiga biomes spawn the snowy villager variant in Bedrock Edition, they use the taiga village variant. In Java Edition, when the Programmer Art resource pack is enabled, all villagers wear a green hood on their heads.[20] This is because the Programmer Art nitwit texture (which is directly copied from the pre-1.14 vanilla resource pack and had the hood in the texture since its addition) is called the same as the Village & Pillage base villager texture (...\entity\villager\villager.png). In Bedrock Edition, when the Classic Textures pack from the Marketplace is enabled, the villagers still use their default texture instead of the old texture.[21] This is because the old textures of villager are located in ...\entity\villager, while the textures for new villagers are in ...\entity\villager2. Giving a villager any item (with commands) causes it to hold the item as if offering it, but it cannot be traded. Fisherman villagers have been intentionally textured by Jasper Boerstra to display the long-since-removed raw fish texture.[22] Villagers display their held items differently than most creatures do, using the "ground" parameter instead of the usual hand parameter in model display settings. Villagers (and baby villagers) on boats that have claimed a bed can still sleep when the bed is near to them resulting in them sleeping in the boat instead.‌[Bedrock Edition only] Ancient villagers have been shown in Minecraft Legends, although they were hinted at in Minecraft Dungeons. In Java Edition, the death messages of villagers are recorded in the game's logs.[23] Baby villagers taking poppies from iron golems is a reference to the 1986 Japanese animated movie Castle in the Sky, in which a giant robot covered in vines (inspiration for the iron golem) gives the main characters flowers to put on a memorial.[24] Their vocal sounds are performed by Samuel Åberg.[25]

April Fools Main article: Easter eggs § 2014 This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

On April 1, 2014, Mojang announced that villagers have taken over the skin servers and content delivery networks (CDN) as an April Fools joke. This caused the player's current skin to turn into villager skins, and caused users to be unable to change their skins unless modifying the launcher.json file. Different career villager skins were used, including the then-unused nitwit villager (green robe).

Many of the sounds were also changed, supposedly by the villagers. They seem to be similar to a villager talking (with words, rather than their normal sounds). The in-game music has also been altered to include villager like noises, and also features a villager version of the "Game of Thrones" theme on the title screen. The sounds originate from the sound resource pack created by Element Animation, titled The Element Animation Villager Sound Resource Pack (T.E.A.V.S.R.P.), which is based on the villagers appearing in their fan videos. The villagers were voiced by Dan Lloyd, Director of Element Animation.

The skins and the sounds were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2014. However, this update cannot be activated by setting the computer's date to April 1, 2014. Gallery Renders Idle

Asleep

References

Can unintentionally hurt the player with a firework rocket after a raid is defeated.Categorized as an NPC in the game code.

MC-257069 — Trapped villager can prevent any other villagers from claiming a jobsite MCPE-63311 — Villagers claim workstations and beds that are too far away and/or get stuck unemployed "Villagers cannot be equipped with anything by a dispenser, but that would be a separate issue and a feature request rather than a bug." — Cannot dispense armor or mob heads onto villagers or zombies — resolved as "Cannot Reproduce". MC-181525 MC-178019 Villager food sharing (java 1.16) - Only the last part and the bugs are relevant https://youtu.be/AnOeYZi4fgc&t=48m33s MC-180893 — resolved as "Invalid". MC-145707 — resolved as "Works As Intended". MC-146515 — Villagers can sleep in all dimensions — resolved as "Works As Intended". MCPE-46034 Jungle and swamp villages do not exist, but a village from another biome can intersect with any biome, including jungles and swamps. Jungle and swamp villagers can naturally spawn in their corresponding biomes only if a village intersects with the desired biome. Jungle and swamp villagers can also be obtained by breeding villagers in the desired biome or by using a spawn egg in the desired biome, as well as by curing a zombie villager spawned in a jungle or swamp. MC-181190 — The discount for curing a villager is multiplied if the villager is reinfected and cured again — resolved as "Fixed". MCPE-147834 — resolved as "Fixed". MCPE-152386 — resolved as "Fixed". http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/xfzdg/i_am_markus_persson_aka_notch_creator_of/c5m0p26 "It's very likely the townspeople will be pigmen =)" – @notch (Markus Persson) on X (formerly Twitter), April 25, 2011 "Fun Fact: Most of the villager designs were inspired by 2018 fashion shows like Gucci's." – @JasperBoerstra (Jasper Boerstra) on X (formerly Twitter), February 28, 2019 "Villagers are genderless- they are neither male nor female." – @HelenAngel on X (formerly Twitter), March 8, 2019 MC-141075 MCPE-119646 — resolved as "Invalid". MC-173917 — resolved as "Works As Intended". MC-165985 — Villager deaths are logged — resolved as "Works As Intended". "@scambot Yes, thanks to @pgeuder who sent me inspirational pictures!" – @jonkagstrom (Jon Kågström) on X (formerly Twitter), February 23, 2012 "HOW MINECRAFT SOUNDS ARE MADE" – Minecraft on YouTube, August 3, 2024"This is how I perform experiments on Testificates:" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), May 21, 2012

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Entities [ ]Mobs Passive EntitySprite allay.png: Sprite image for allay in Minecraft linking to AllayAllay EntitySprite armadillo.png: Sprite image for armadillo in Minecraft linking to ArmadilloArmadillo EntitySprite axolotl.png: Sprite image for axolotl in Minecraft linking to AxolotlAxolotl EntitySprite bat.png: Sprite image for bat in Minecraft linking to BatBat EntitySprite camel.png: Sprite image for camel in Minecraft linking to CamelCamel EntitySprite cat.png: Sprite image for cat in Minecraft linking to CatCat EntitySprite chicken.png: Sprite image for chicken in Minecraft linking to ChickenChicken EntitySprite cod.png: Sprite image for cod in Minecraft linking to CodCod EntitySprite cow.png: Sprite image for cow in Minecraft linking to CowCow EntitySprite donkey.png: Sprite image for donkey in Minecraft linking to DonkeyDonkey EntitySprite frog.png: Sprite image for frog in Minecraft linking to FrogFrog EntitySprite glow-squid.png: Sprite image for glow-squid in Minecraft linking to Glow SquidGlow Squid EntitySprite horse.png: Sprite image for horse in Minecraft linking to HorseHorse EntitySprite mooshroom.png: Sprite image for mooshroom in Minecraft linking to MooshroomMooshroom EntitySprite mule.png: Sprite image for mule in Minecraft linking to MuleMule EntitySprite ocelot.png: Sprite image for ocelot in Minecraft linking to OcelotOcelot EntitySprite parrot.png: Sprite image for parrot in Minecraft linking to ParrotParrot EntitySprite pig.png: Sprite image for pig in Minecraft linking to PigPig EntitySprite pufferfish.png: Sprite image for pufferfish in Minecraft linking to PufferfishPufferfish EntitySprite rabbit.png: Sprite image for rabbit in Minecraft linking to RabbitRabbit EntitySprite salmon.png: Sprite image for salmon in Minecraft linking to SalmonSalmon EntitySprite sheep.png: Sprite image for sheep in Minecraft linking to SheepSheep EntitySprite skeleton-horse.png: Sprite image for skeleton-horse in Minecraft linking to Skeleton HorseSkeleton Horse EntitySprite sniffer.png: Sprite image for sniffer in Minecraft linking to SnifferSniffer EntitySprite snow-golem.png: Sprite image for snow-golem in Minecraft linking to Snow GolemSnow Golem EntitySprite squid.png: Sprite image for squid in Minecraft linking to SquidSquid EntitySprite strider.png: Sprite image for strider in Minecraft linking to StriderStrider EntitySprite tadpole.png: Sprite image for tadpole in Minecraft linking to TadpoleTadpole EntitySprite tropical-fish.png: Sprite image for tropical-fish in Minecraft linking to Tropical FishTropical Fish EntitySprite turtle.png: Sprite image for turtle in Minecraft linking to TurtleTurtle EntitySprite villager.png: Sprite image for villager in Minecraft linking to VillagerVillager EntitySprite wandering-trader.png: Sprite image for wandering-trader in Minecraft linking to Wandering TraderWandering Trader

CE & EE only EntitySprite agent.png: Sprite image for agent in Minecraft linking to AgentAgent EntitySprite npc.png: Sprite image for npc in Minecraft linking to NPCNPC EntitySprite pet.png: Sprite image for pet in Minecraft linking to Pet (China Edition)Pet

Neutral EntitySprite bee.png: Sprite image for bee in Minecraft linking to BeeBee EntitySprite cave-spider.png: Sprite image for cave-spider in Minecraft linking to Cave SpiderCave Spider EntitySprite dolphin.png: Sprite image for dolphin in Minecraft linking to DolphinDolphin EntitySprite drowned.png: Sprite image for drowned in Minecraft linking to DrownedDrowned EntitySprite enderman.png: Sprite image for enderman in Minecraft linking to EndermanEnderman EntitySprite fox.png: Sprite image for fox in Minecraft linking to FoxFox EntitySprite goat.png: Sprite image for goat in Minecraft linking to GoatGoat EntitySprite iron-golem.png: Sprite image for iron-golem in Minecraft linking to Iron GolemIron Golem EntitySprite llama.png: Sprite image for llama in Minecraft linking to LlamaLlama EntitySprite trader-llama.png: Sprite image for trader-llama in Minecraft linking to LlamaTrader Llama EntitySprite panda.png: Sprite image for panda in Minecraft linking to PandaPanda EntitySprite piglin.png: Sprite image for piglin in Minecraft linking to PiglinPiglin EntitySprite polar-bear.png: Sprite image for polar-bear in Minecraft linking to Polar BearPolar Bear EntitySprite spider.png: Sprite image for spider in Minecraft linking to SpiderSpider EntitySprite wolf.png: Sprite image for wolf in Minecraft linking to WolfWolf EntitySprite zombified-piglin.png: Sprite image for zombified-piglin in Minecraft linking to Zombified PiglinZombified Piglin

Hostile EntitySprite blaze.png: Sprite image for blaze in Minecraft linking to BlazeBlaze EntitySprite bogged.png: Sprite image for bogged in Minecraft linking to BoggedBogged EntitySprite breeze.png: Sprite image for breeze in Minecraft linking to BreezeBreeze EntitySprite creeper.png: Sprite image for creeper in Minecraft linking to CreeperCreeper EntitySprite elder-guardian.png: Sprite image for elder-guardian in Minecraft linking to Elder GuardianElder Guardian EntitySprite endermite.png: Sprite image for endermite in Minecraft linking to EndermiteEndermite EntitySprite evoker.png: Sprite image for evoker in Minecraft linking to EvokerEvoker EntitySprite ghast.png: Sprite image for ghast in Minecraft linking to GhastGhast EntitySprite guardian.png: Sprite image for guardian in Minecraft linking to GuardianGuardian EntitySprite hoglin.png: Sprite image for hoglin in Minecraft linking to HoglinHoglin EntitySprite husk.png: Sprite image for husk in Minecraft linking to HuskHusk EntitySprite magma-cube.png: Sprite image for magma-cube in Minecraft linking to Magma CubeMagma Cube EntitySprite phantom.png: Sprite image for phantom in Minecraft linking to PhantomPhantom EntitySprite piglin-brute.png: Sprite image for piglin-brute in Minecraft linking to Piglin BrutePiglin Brute EntitySprite pillager.png: Sprite image for pillager in Minecraft linking to PillagerPillager EntitySprite ravager.png: Sprite image for ravager in Minecraft linking to RavagerRavager EntitySprite shulker.png: Sprite image for shulker in Minecraft linking to ShulkerShulker EntitySprite silverfish.png: Sprite image for silverfish in Minecraft linking to SilverfishSilverfish EntitySprite skeleton.png: Sprite image for skeleton in Minecraft linking to SkeletonSkeleton EntitySprite slime.png: Sprite image for slime in Minecraft linking to SlimeSlime EntitySprite stray.png: Sprite image for stray in Minecraft linking to StrayStray EntitySprite vex.png: Sprite image for vex in Minecraft linking to VexVex EntitySprite vindicator.png: Sprite image for vindicator in Minecraft linking to VindicatorVindicator EntitySprite warden.png: Sprite image for warden in Minecraft linking to WardenWarden EntitySprite witch.png: Sprite image for witch in Minecraft linking to WitchWitch EntitySprite wither-skeleton.png: Sprite image for wither-skeleton in Minecraft linking to Wither SkeletonWither Skeleton EntitySprite zoglin.png: Sprite image for zoglin in Minecraft linking to ZoglinZoglin EntitySprite zombie.png: Sprite image for zombie in Minecraft linking to ZombieZombie EntitySprite zombie-villager.png: Sprite image for zombie-villager in Minecraft linking to Zombie VillagerZombie Villager

Bosses EntitySprite ender-dragon.png: Sprite image for ender-dragon in Minecraft linking to Ender DragonEnder Dragon EntitySprite wither.png: Sprite image for wither in Minecraft linking to WitherWither

Unused EntitySprite zombie-horse.png: Sprite image for zombie-horse in Minecraft linking to Zombie HorseZombie Horse

Java Edition only EntitySprite giant.png: Sprite image for giant in Minecraft linking to GiantGiant EntitySprite illusioner.png: Sprite image for illusioner in Minecraft linking to IllusionerIllusioner EntitySprite killer-bunny.png: Sprite image for killer-bunny in Minecraft linking to Killer BunnyKiller Bunny

BE & EE only EntitySprite elder-guardian-ghost.png: Sprite image for elder-guardian-ghost in Minecraft linking to Elder Guardian GhostElder Guardian Ghost EntitySprite old-villager.png: Sprite image for old-villager in Minecraft linking to Villager (old)Old Villager EntitySprite old-zombie-villager.png: Sprite image for old-zombie-villager in Minecraft linking to Zombie VillagerOld Zombie Villager

Joke features EntitySprite batato.png: Sprite image for batato in Minecraft linking to BatatoBatato EntitySprite cow-horse.png: Sprite image for cow-horse in Minecraft linking to Cow HorseCow Horse EntitySprite diamond-chicken.png: Sprite image for diamond-chicken in Minecraft linking to Diamond ChickenDiamond Chicken EntitySprite love-golem.png: Sprite image for love-golem in Minecraft linking to Love GolemLove Golem EntitySprite mega-spud.png: Sprite image for mega-spud in Minecraft linking to Mega SpudMega Spud EntitySprite moon-cow.png: Sprite image for moon-cow in Minecraft linking to Moon CowMoon Cow EntitySprite nerd-creeper.png: Sprite image for nerd-creeper in Minecraft linking to Nerd CreeperNerd Creeper EntitySprite pink-wither.png: Sprite image for pink-wither in Minecraft linking to Pink WitherPink Wither EntitySprite plaguewhale-slab.png: Sprite image for plaguewhale-slab in Minecraft linking to Plaguewhale SlabPlaguewhale Slab EntitySprite poisonous-potato-zombie.png: Sprite image for poisonous-potato-zombie in Minecraft linking to Poisonous Potato ZombiePoisonous Potato Zombie EntitySprite pony.png: Sprite image for pony in Minecraft linking to PonyPony EntitySprite ray-tracing.png: Sprite image for ray-tracing in Minecraft linking to Ray Tracing (mob)Ray Tracing EntitySprite redstone-bug.png: Sprite image for redstone-bug in Minecraft linking to Redstone BugRedstone Bug EntitySprite smiling-creeper.png: Sprite image for smiling-creeper in Minecraft linking to Smiling CreeperSmiling Creeper EntitySprite toxifin-slab.png: Sprite image for toxifin-slab in Minecraft linking to Toxifin SlabToxifin Slab

Mentioned EntitySprite barnacle.png: Sprite image for barnacle in Minecraft linking to BarnacleBarnacle EntitySprite copper-golem.png: Sprite image for copper-golem in Minecraft linking to Copper GolemCopper Golem EntitySprite crab.png: Sprite image for crab in Minecraft linking to CrabCrab EntitySprite firefly.png: Sprite image for firefly in Minecraft linking to FireflyFirefly EntitySprite glare.png: Sprite image for glare in Minecraft linking to GlareGlare EntitySprite great-hunger.png: Sprite image for great-hunger in Minecraft linking to Great HungerGreat Hunger EntitySprite iceologer.png: Sprite image for iceologer in Minecraft linking to IceologerIceologer EntitySprite meerkat.png: Sprite image for meerkat in Minecraft linking to MeerkatMeerkat EntitySprite moobloom.png: Sprite image for moobloom in Minecraft linking to MoobloomMoobloom EntitySprite ostrich.png: Sprite image for ostrich in Minecraft linking to OstrichOstrich EntitySprite penguin.png: Sprite image for penguin in Minecraft linking to PenguinPenguin EntitySprite pigman.png: Sprite image for pigman in Minecraft linking to PigmanPigman EntitySprite rascal.png: Sprite image for rascal in Minecraft linking to RascalRascal EntitySprite red-dragon.png: Sprite image for red-dragon in Minecraft linking to Red DragonRed Dragon EntitySprite termite.png: Sprite image for termite in Minecraft linking to TermiteTermite EntitySprite tuff-golem.png: Sprite image for tuff-golem in Minecraft linking to Tuff GolemTuff Golem EntitySprite vulture.png: Sprite image for vulture in Minecraft linking to VultureVulture EntitySprite wildfire.png: Sprite image for wildfire in Minecraft linking to WildfireWildfire

Removed EntitySprite mob.png: Sprite image for mob in Minecraft linking to Mob (entity)Mob EntitySprite beast-boy.png: Sprite image for beast-boy in Minecraft linking to Mob (entity)Beast Boy EntitySprite black-steve.png: Sprite image for black-steve in Minecraft linking to Mob (entity)Black Steve EntitySprite rana.png: Sprite image for rana in Minecraft linking to Mob (entity)Rana EntitySprite steve-indev.png: Sprite image for steve-indev in Minecraft linking to Mob (entity)Steve EntitySprite monster.png: Sprite image for monster in Minecraft linking to Monster (entity)Monster

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[funeralprocessor]

Morgan Rambles: My pet project

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I've been working on a tabletop system for like, a while now. Working on is kind of doing a lot of heavy lifting as it's still just kind of a morass of mechanics and ideas, but I've been steadily chipping away at it for a while now. A big part of it has just been figuring out what I want it to be, because I didn't come at it from the outside trying to make a game that does X/Y/Z. It just sort of bubbled up organically from a lineage of horrible cobbled together pseudo-systems that existed only in full in my manic imagination and in like 20 google docs. Basically it's half "system that's geared towards stuff I personally like'' and half "mechanics/ideas orphanage" at this point, but It's slowly coming together into something kind of resembling a presentable thing. Not presentable for like, public use or anything, but like I could show this to potential players and I wouldn't look deranged. That may change and the whole mechanical core may collapse a few more times in the gestation process, but I think what I want it, tentatively called Ars Regia/ArRe, to be about/like/for is pretty well defined. Something I'm prepared to explain now that I've rambled for two paragraphs It's going to fundamentally going to be a game about power and how you use it, which sounds a bit generic I know but one of the core tenants of like the way I play and the way I run things is freedom and the many things that come from it. I like to run sandboxes with no "critical path" or main story, just a bunch of elements you can interact with as you see fit. This is a living world, or as close to one as I can simulate without losing my mind, and having characters interact with it, explore it, utilize it, or fall because they underestimated it is like one of my favorite parts of running a campaign. My job is to play the world, the players job is to decide how they want to live in it.

I also really like the collaborative storytelling and investment you get when players really dig into the world they inhabit and make parts of it theirs. That's why a big part of my design philosophy has been trying to come up with ways to empower the players to actually make big changes, and the "power level" I'm going for has kind of skewed higher as a result. Exalted and Godbound were big big influences on me (and Godbound's author Kevin Crawford/Sine Nomine Games is like one of my tabletop idols along with Jenna Moran and a few OSRsphere bloggers y'all should check out like GoblinPunch (The guy who made the false hydra! That's not a modern D&D thing that's an OSR beastie that escaped containment! All of his shit is good like that!), FalseMachine, Skerples/CoinsandScrolls, ThroneofSalt, and Against the Wicked City. Crawford's stuff is always really polished and even if you have 0 interest in running any of his games his GM tools are fucking immaculate and worth the price of admission on their own (especially since many of them have free versions)), but like mechanically/gamefeel wise aren't what I want. I'm also drawing a good bit from PbtA's enormous lineage, partially some BitD and Spire/Heart, but one of the major ones was Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. In addition to being one of my favorite games I can never convince anyone to play, Legacy does a *lot* different that I love. Your character isn't an individual, but a faction in a post apocalyptic world, with the nature of that world and that apocalypse really really shaped by the very act of character creation. If someone chooses the kaiju hunter faction, it kind of goes without saying that there are kaiju now, something that would not necessarily be the case had no one picked that playbook. That's really fascinating to me. It also has a neat system for kind of pseudo-troupe play. When you need to resolve a specific event in detail and actually RP it out, everyone creates a quick character relevant to the situation or picks one already established, which means you'll quickly get something of a cast of recurring characters for a particular faction, even if that character isn't always played by the same person. Also, because these characters aren't your "main" character it kind of lets you play a lot more fast and loose with them and take more risks. It's almost encouraged to angle for dramatactical deaths, b/c each class has a death move that can be pretty impactful and are all very resonant and fun. I'd been considering some kind of "lower decks" mechanic for ArRe since I imagine PCs will be involved with a lot of big/long term projects and this sort of thing seemed like *exactly* what I was looking for (alongside some domain management stuff). This turned out a lot less coherent than I'd hoped but w/e. Long story short is I'm basically trying to make a TTRPG all about getting players invested in and in control of the world, both by collaborating with them to create it and then giving them the tools and incentives to change it. It is kind of geared towards playing in my like established setting, but that's because I haven't actually had a chance to do any of the collab worldbuilding stuff yet. Amala is also just sort of a powderkeg and fun to throw demigods at so we're all good

[doyl1st]

A long, rambling post about Ignatius.

Ignatius (Iggy) Duncan is Isaac's younger brother. He's a goofy, kind, and sweet man with an almost childlike innocence to him, despite his bloody backstory and violent tendencies. He'll never hurt an innocent person, but if he feels like you deserve to have your nose broken, he'll break it. The thing is, though, he'll do it with a smile on his face. Not a malicious grin or anything. Just this silly, almost dopey little smile.

Iggy is as much of a manic chaos goblin as Isaac is, if not even more so.

As detailed in my other post, he and Isaac have a great many things in common.

Where they differ is in their interests and specialties. Isaac is a man of science who loves math, engineering, and languages. He's got three PhDs and a doctorate. Art and music are totally lost on him, though. He likes them, but he's no good with them.

Iggy, on the other hand, dropped out of college three months in and started working at a record store. He's still extremely intelligent, definitely a traditional genius in his own right, but his true brilliance resides in music. Iggy's the sort of guy who can compose symphonies in his head and play any music he picks up. He's also the kind of guy who genuinely listens to everything, his favorite genres being energetic rap and the heaviest metal known to man.

He considers himself to be the Facility's failure, and has kinda low self esteem. That's really what's defined him for most of his life, allowing others to worm their way into his head. Isaac was a manipulator, but Iggy was manipulated.

Like I mentioned before, Iggy worked at a record store after dropping out of college. It was a really nice gig, expanding his knowledge and interest in music and teaching him a little bit about how the real world works. It didn't last too long, though. The store went under after only a few years and Iggy was lost again.

He was found after a bar fight that ended with him breaking the jaw of a gangster, some dude working for the local mob. That probably would've been the death of him, if the guy's boss hadn't been impressed by it. He brought Iggy into the fold, feeding him plenty of lies about how they weren't all bad.

Iggy wasn't stupid. He knew the guy was just telling him what he wanted to hear, but that was alright with him at the time. The guy was nice to him, made him feel like he belonged somewhere, and that's something he's craved since childhood.

At first, things weren't too bad. Iggy would run errands and do favors, doing pretty much whatever he was told. Then it graduated to him being something of an enforcer. If his boss told him to hurt someone, he'd do it. Iggy might've been only 5'4", but he had one hell of a right hook. He was fast, too, and not above using dirty tricks or improvised weapons in a fight. When it began, his boss would tell him some kind of lie about how the guy whose leg Iggy was breaking deserved it in some way, but eventually he stopped bothering. He knew Iggy would do what he asked even without an excuse.

Eventually, that progressed into Iggy doing hits for the guy. Same story as the last. He'd tell Iggy the guy deserved it, and Iggy would listen. The first few might not have been lies, if only to acclimate Iggy to it. It was hard for him in the beginning. He threw up after the first one. Cried himself to sleep. But over time, it got easier. Knowing the men he was killing would do the same to him if given the opportunity made it easier, too. Iggy eventually began to rationalize it as if they were playing some kind of game. If they die, he wins. If he dies, they win. If you're in the life, you're fair game. No hard feelings either way.

Iggy wouldn't say he necessarily liked killing, but he did enjoy the thrill of knowing he might die if something goes wrong. He's an adrenaline junky just like Isaac, but the difference is that Isaac likes daring heists and outsmarting his opponents. Iggy likes shoot outs and fist fights.

His life in the mob ended with a raid that landed him in police custody. It was almost immediately obvious that Iggy wasn't just some run of the mill crook, and after some talking, some phone calls, and negotiating, some kind of deal was made.

Iggy is now, effectively, a secret agent. He's on a tight leash, but he's at least free. Isaac's deal actually used Iggy's as a basis, but Isaac doesn't find that out until years later when he and Iggy reconnect because of a shared case.

Like Isaac, Iggy has continued to grow and evolve as a person after being forced into a safe environment. He's learning how to become his own person, how to exist without someone telling him what to do. It's difficult, considering some high ranking official is still doing that, but still. He still has a pretty warped view on life and death, but he's at least not as apt to kill as he used to be. With a good enough reason Iggy can and will chase someone down with a fire axe.

He's still pretty eager to fight, though, and now that he's had some formal training, he's a lot more effective. He'll never hurt an innocent person, though. Never, ever, ever, as he'd say.

Iggy's unofficial theme is Insanely Illegal Cage Fight. Even the title is fitting for him.

[ars3n1cc]

★ carrd [link] (out of date) ★ hoard [link] ★ pronouns.page [link] ★

(kinda working on a rewrite for this, stand by!)

my current theme is my oc/fursona roadkill

HEY THERE!!

i'm fenyx, the host of the arsenic system / the corvid cacophony! we collectively go by arsenic, but i'll be in front most often. we have p-did, multiple pds, autism, and more. when talking to us, please use tone indicators as we may misunderstand things (probably a lot pff).

i'm a white, multiply disabled, transmasculine anonbinary xenogender hoarder who uses 400+ sets of pronouns and 100+ names. i am ace, aro, and afam spec, ambiamorous, and an omni gay (primarily). i am also intersex. i am otherkin (poly therian + cryptidkin) (kin blog below!!) im also a minor, so dont be weird.

i have a special interest in homestuck, myself (this is mainly my identity but just...me. i blame this on my npd), and (online) queer history.

feel free to send me requests for coining, stimboards, or anything else really pff. im something of a jack of all trades. also feel free to send asks or dms, im always open to talk but usually to scared to say hi first. im also prone to accidental(?) ghosting sooo. this is your warning.

this blog will be used for general fandom things, mogai coining, art, and other general stuff. speaking of, take a look at my....↓ [under the cut]

OTHER BLOGS!!

@cryptidog - otherkin blog

@domestic--lab - homestuck blog

@bl00died-inkdr0p - writing + poetry blog

@arsynical - vent blog (probably wont use)

@puppy-pawprince - our littles blog [wip]

@ars3n1cc-moved - archive/old blog (inactive)

@autiphilia - para blog

(i use like none of these ever)

STANCES!!

pro-mspec lesbians + gays

anti-endo/demo/tulpa/general nontraumagenic

anti-contact para critical

psych critical

anti-radqueer, transx, and whatever else fits into that shit

anti-ship

TAGGING SYSTEM!!

#arsenic reblogs - reblogs

#arsenic speaks into the void - text posts

#arsenic answers - answering asks

#arsenic coins - coining posts

#arsenic hoards - labels to be added to my hoard

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#arsenic hyperfixates - posts about my hyperfixation

#arsenic fandoms - fandom posts

#arsenic stims - either stimboards/gifs ive made myself or ones ive reblogged

#arsenic shitposts - shitposts :3

#arsenic is eternally fucking around - random shit i get up to

#homo posting on main - talking about/to my boyfriend<33

#discourse - discourse + political things

SYSTEM TAGGING SYSTEM

#blurry.txt - when were blurry/dont know who we are [may not actually use]

#empty.txt - no one

#[alters name].txt

[NOTE: there will be no use of a #fenyx.txt cause im the host and will almost always be in front. also fenyx.txt looks fucking horrible on my eyes /silly but true]

image ID in alt text

image ID in alt text || about my bf @polyfragmentedchaos<33

image IDs in alt text

[realsorcerershit]

Anyways why don't you tell the class about Lumen. Educate your audience on my son

God okay I said I was going to so I will - but first thing's first

HE'S MY SON, YOU CANNOT HAVE HIM BUT YOU CAN LOOK AT HIM AND ADMIRE HIM

Okay that said I'm gonna do a read more because this will be a very very long rambly post otherwise

So! This: Is Lumen. Let me give ya'll some art of him.

(Art credit to coffeerelated on twitter!)

He is, at the time of writing this, an 11th level Wild Magic Sorcerer in the campaign I play in, which we call VTDM, short for "Ven's the DM." He hails from a small little town in our homebrew world of Annwn, and the town is named Dushill. A small town nobody with a big heart, care for the people he's around, and, as it stands now, very accidental hero.

I say accidental hero, because he ultimately was just. Nobody, before this. Before ending up in this campaign to fight against a Cult of Orcus. He was just a small town nobody, coming from being relatively poor, who still did his absolute best to help everyone. He set out on an adventure one day, with his one best friend, to try and make some extra money to help make ends meet. Needless to say, that went just about terribly, and he ended up being the only one to survive.

So where does that leave him now? Traumatized, for sure. Being a lone survivor sucks. But underneath that? He's got purpose. A cause, in fighting against the Cult that took everything from him. He's got a boyfriend in the campaign, too, Sigurd - an ex-cultist who he chose to place his full trust and support in. A lot happened since then, and that is a whole nother post aside from this one. This campaign has a lot of context and that's what happens when you're over 100 sessions deep. And like 3 years.

He also has friends and confidants - people he'd die for if he had to. He's loyal, he is devoted, and he cares. He fights by stunning anyone who gets too close to those he loves and cares about, and he does so ruthlessly, even using his powers of Wild Magic to twist fate. The power still scares him, but he's grown confident enough to wield it freely.

There's a lot more I could say but - I'll leave it to asks and whatnot if anyone's interested because oh my god there's a lot to his story and I cannot cover it all in one post (I wanna go back to playing BG3) so here ya go

[maestro-of-clockwork]

Sketchbook let out a long sigh as she shut and locked the front door. She was absolutely tired - it'd been a long day at the bakery. So many cakes baked, so many cupcakes frosted, so many cookies decorated...even with her co-workers there, the fact-pacedness of it all made her head spin...

Exhausted, she decided to wind down by flopping onto the couch with a coloring book and her favorite colored pencils. The coloring book was full of little Pusheen illustrations to color in. The sight of the gray tabby on the cover made her smile, albeit tiredly.

She was about a half-hour into coloring now, feeling completely at ease to have something nice to focus on. Her stress melted off - she was totally engrossed in her coloring.

"Hello, Sketchbook dear," his voice cooed from across the room. "What are you up to~...?"

Sketchbook froze, she dared not look up.

No.

No, that wasn't him.

She was just hearing his voice again, just an auditory illusion produced by her paranoia.

Yeah, that was it...

Deciding to shrug it off as best she could, she continued coloring.

"Aww...don't tell me you're trying to ignore me," he spoke in a slight disappointment...now sounding much closer.

"G-go away," she shakily commanded, voice rendered timid with fear. "You're-...you're not real..."

She heard his aged baritone voice chuckle lightly as footsteps approached her seat.

"I'm not real, hm? I suppose you think the gift I that gave you during my last visit wasn't real, either?"

Sketchbook's mind flashed to the bee plush Antonio had given her. That, she knew for a fact, was real. She found herself shaking, not even physically able to look up from her coloring book even if she wanted to confirm her fear.

"My dear girl, you needn't shiver so...I've only come to talk."

She could hear him take a seat on the other end of her couch - less than 3 feet away from her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could clearly see him.

Antonio.

He was there.

He was really, truly there.

Her breath caught in her throat as she finally broke her trance from the coloring book to look to her right. She saw him in perfect detail - more detail than he mind could possibly produce.

His finely-pressed black suit, the white gloves that he often wore as he politely placed his hands on his lap...Sketchbook had to physically make herself look up at his face, just to confirm it all.

Antonio wore his usual smile, coal black eyes staring right at her.

"Convinced now~...?" he asked, a playful air in his tone.

Sketchbook immediately went into flight mode, crying out in pure terror as she tried to run - Antonio responded by hooking an arm around her waist and pulling her close to his side tightly.

"Normally, I'd not mind a good chase...but I don't want you to try and get away, not now. What I have to tell you is quite important to me."

She feebly struggled as Antonio continued speaking, "Do you remember when I tricked you into thinking you finally had a father...?"

How could she forget?

Starting to tear up, she croaked out a "Y-yes..."

"Well, ever since you and all of your friends moved on...I found myself growing rather fond of you...very fond. So fond, that...I don't think that façade I put on those years ago was a façade at all.

"I've kept a close eye on you and your friends...but I found myself wondering how you were faring, most of all..."

Sketchbook's blood turned to ice when it all hit her. He'd been watching her every move. That's how he knew all of her favorite things despite her never telling him.

Thinking further into it, it explained all of those gifts with no return address, those unexplained bank deposits...

Those gifts were never from her friends...they were from him.

They were all gestures of his twisted affection for her.

He was - she felt her stomach twist at the thought - doting on her...and she didn't even know it.

Antonio saw the realization in Sketchbook's face, his smile becoming kinder as he started stroking her snow-white hair.

He chuckled at her violent flinching, "These feelings are strange to me, even now, but...it feels right to care for you...just as much as it feels right to hurt you."

Her heart was racing as she struggled to ask, "I-...wh-why...? Wh-what makes me...different...?"

"Oh, darling," his voice came softly, "do you not think you're as lovable as you are~...?"

She had a good idea of how likable she was...but Antonio was lower than the last person she wanted to give her that attention.

The man wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her into a proper embrace, his voice becoming more affectionate, much to her utter disgust.

"You're always so kind-hearted, selfless, loving and cheerful...I swear, you brighten every room you walk into with that wonderful smile of yours! Not to mention how positively adorable you are~!

"Oh, I love seeing that sparkle of joy in your eyes when you're excited; that sweet smile when you bid one of your customers a good day; that delightful laugh when you find something funny...

"You're the daughter anyone would be thrilled to have," he finished, beginning to nuzzle her cheek, "and I'm so, so very proud of you...I'm so happy that you're my little ray of sunshine~..."

Sketchbook was speechless, and really, what could she say after hearing all of this?

She stayed frozen, shaking, silently crying into his chest as he continued to pet her. His ticking was soft, calm. He was at peace, telling her this.

This wasn't another lie.

He was telling the truth.

He was being genuine.

Her tormentor, the being that tortured her in her dreams nearly every night...truly thought of her as his daughter.

Antonio hummed in delight, "It's so lovely to hold you like this...I haven't had you in my arms for so long..."

He thankfully pulled away, but unfortunately not enough for her to break out of his grasp. The man placed a hand on his "daughter's" cheek, eyes full of affection.

"I've been thinking of spending time with you more often. How about, every other week, we go out and do something fun together? I can take you anywhere you'd like to go...we can do anything your sweet little heart desires!" he suggested brightly, beaming now.

"It would be my treat, of course," he added. "Anything my little sunshine wants, she'll get~..."

Sketchbook's words finally broke through, "I-I-I...I just want you to leave me alone, T-Tony...please..."

"You may have anything but that, Sketchbook. There is no getting away from Time," replied his sing-song voice, starting to stroke her cheek with his thumb.

He did that for a few moments before finally stopping, "I suppose I'll leave you be for now. You can expect my arrival the week after the next..."

Antonio seemed to contemplate something for a bit before deciding to give Sketchbook a platonic kiss on the forehead, sending waves of unimaginable revulsion through her.

"Take very good care of yourself, sweet sunshine...and stay bundled up when you go outside," he advised, rising from the couch. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

That was the last thing he said before he ruffled her hair and vanished into thin air.

Sketchbook didn't know how she was going to sleep at night after this...or if she was going to be able to sleep at all.

[swordswoman97]

Tears of the Kingdom Trailer analysis

-First off the into sequence to the trailer is sick. I don't notice anything new in there but it does look really cool.

-Hateno Village has gotten a makeover. It looks like it's been expanded or otherwise upgraded. Love the mushroom thing they've got going on, it's really neat.

-It also seems like attempts are being made to resettle Castle Town, though right now it seems like it's just a camp. Perhaps we'll get something like the Tarrey Town side quest to rebuild Castle Town? That could be neat.

-Next shown is Kakariko Village or at least the mountains overlooking it. I can't really make much out of the village itself though I'm guessing it's probably seen it's own improvements like Hateno, though the shrine seems to have been replaced with... something? Perhaps it's meant to give Link a way to the Sky Islands? There is however one new thing in that giant stone ring which seems like it's a part of something, definitely looks like it was carved on purpose.

-I'm not entirely sure where the next scene shows. My knee jerk reaction is somewhere in Faron, though the cliffs and the like also look like it could be somewhere in Tabantha. Not 100% sure.

-Next is definitely somewhere in the Gerudo desert and we watch as some structure rises out of the sand. It looks like a dungeon which has me really excited. Maybe a future version of the Arbiters Grounds? Or the Spirit Temple perhaps? Either way that structure is just screaming "dungeon"

-The castle surrounded by falling rocks. I think this is probably a scene from early in the game. The castle also looks very ominous, dark and foreboding, made only more true by the tendrils of malice as the rocks hit the ground and what I'm pretty sure is the theme BOTW used for the Blood Moon. We see the same scene from a far before

-Ganondorf looking at the Blood. God he looks terrifying and I love it.

-Another familiar scene Link trying to catch Zelda as she falls but failing

-The Gerudo desert filled with sinkholes. I think another of those things we saw in the Kakariko scene is in the background. The is just confirming my old theory that we would have to return to all the regions to fix something going wrong. Death Mountain is full of malice, the desert seems to be sinking and I can't imagine things are going much better in Zora's Domain or Rito Village.

-Speaking of Death Mountain, that next scene is definitely in Death Mountain, seemingly a mine of some sort. Link trying to fix the Malice spewing out of the volcano perhaps? Either way this area also screams "dungeon"

-A sky ship in a thunderstorm. Perhaps not all the being living on the sky islands are as hostile as the constructs? Or perhaps this is connected to another dungeon.

-Next scene is Link doing parkour in the sky, quickly shifting to Link (or someone else) skydiving through laser grids, and then to Link doing a puzzle which also seems dungeony. Next is Link paragliding through a narrow passage, which reminds me of the labyrinths, followed by Link fighting on horseback alongside a bunch of human allies, and finally Link rinding up an elevator, seemingly Shiekah tech. Looks like we're not as done with that tech as people thought.

-I don't know who this dude is but they give off very rancid vibes. I think it's the mouth. Either way I don't think they're friendly. They're definitely not a race we've seen before though. Perhaps our first example of one of the Zonai? Or maybe they're something else? An interloper? A Twili? A demon? Whatever they are they fail the vibe check.

-Two more super quick scenes, one Link on a horse on a cliff and the other is some giant construct thing awakening. And that construct thing is just screaming "boss"

-A longer scene this one Link in the castle but seemingly completely rebuilt. Is this a flashback? Has Link been sent to the past? An illusion? Either way I don't think it's the castle in it's current state, not with the scene we saw earlier.

-Zelda is okay! Though I have no idea where she is. It looks like a brand new location. We also hear a voice that I first thought was King Rhoam but no it's definitely a new voice. Probably belonging to the character we see Zelda talking to after the shot of the master sword and Link drawing it. We don't see their face but unlike the last dude I definitely think this guy is on our side. The voice is calm and almost comforting and Zelda doesn't seem afraid of him. I've seen some people suggest he's a previous hero, which it might be but whoever he is he comes off as friendly rather than intimidating.

-Link flying on that bird thing again. Probably a method of travel across different sky islands or to the surface without diving.

-Link has fused his sword and shield, which seems to allow you to block attacking with your weapon. That is cool.

-There is a ball in the sky. It seems to be hollow inside and able to be entered.

-Link fighting something. It makes a keese noise so it might be some new keese or something.

-Link being launched up alongside a young Rito. I think it might be Teba's son Tulin, but whoever they are they appear a couple times so I think they might be replacing Teba as the new Rito champion which kind of sucks tbh I liked Teba. I liked having a more serious established warrior as one of the new champions alongside the more cheerful other three.

-Link escorting a wagon which he seems to have made himself. I'm guessing we're gonna have at least one escort mission where you have to get a ground from point a to point b without them getting killed.

-And we see the combat capabilities of the recall (rewind? I don't remember) ability as Link uses it to launch an octorock's projectile back at it.

-Link using some sort of rocket to propel himself up on an island, probably one off the coast of Faron based on the plants.

-More Link doing parkour in the sky. This is definitely some sort of big challenge whether an open air dungeon or something else.

-Link riding a mine cart while fighting a construct. This looks like it's the same area of Death Mountain we saw Link in earlier which just adds to the "dungeon" vibes.

-Mech battle! Except one of the mechs is actually a talus. But it's still cool.

-Horseback combat, seemingly in the wetlands near Zora's domain followed by Link shooting some sort of device which activates a bunch of lasers. This game loves it's lasers.

-Then we have Link and the Rito from earlier fighting what looks like a giant ice monster which is also giving off boss vibes into an explosion of malice as it closes its mouth

-Zelda again this time with dialogue. She mentions knowing what she's there for and that it's something only she can do. She's holding some tear shaped gem that's glowing yellow.

-Ganondorf firing his malice laser into the sky which seems to summon a bunch of monsters before dialogue from him. It is very intimidating and I love how good a job Matt Mercer is doing. Under the dialogue we also see Link's arm get attacked by malice. Probably how the master sword gets damaged and how Link's arm ends up all weird. We then see Ganondorf and once again he looks terrifying.

-Link fighting what looks like a miniboss before cutting to Link and the Rito child.

-Another new character. She's wearing the same outfit as Zelda was and seems to have the yellow tear she was holding previously. I have three theories about her identity. 1 is that this is Zelda transformed in someway. 2 is that this is Hylia herself separate from Zelda. 3 is that this is the Zelda from 10000 years ago. I've got a slight theory connected to this one but I'll talk about that one later.

-Riju! She's here! She doesn't seem to look different in this shot so I suppose it hasn't been that long since BOTW since she doesn't seem to have aged any. She does however now have a sword. Edit: She doesn't just have any weapons, she has Urbosa's scimitars. Look at the official art!

-Link and some fighters on a hill. Most are hylian but we do see a Gerudo and a Goron among them. Perhaps Link will have to lead various fighters in battle at points?

-Link fighting alongside Sidon though Sidon looks different here than he does later in the trailer. We also hear a woman's voice saying something about "you" (presumably Link) not being alone. I'm guessing this voice is the dark skinned blonde woman shown earlier.

-Next we see Sidon, Riju, and the Rito youth from earlier charging. The Rito looks like they might be wielding Revali's bow and Sidon is whether wielding the light scale trident or a replica. Sidon is also wearing noticeably different things in this shot, wearing much fancier jewelry and more importantly his father's crown. He was not wearing the crown earlier he had the same appearance he had in BOTW. Sidon also seems to have another tear shaped gem on his hand, this one blue. My theory mentioned earlier is that perhaps these gems were used in the battle against Calamity Ganon 10,000 years ago and that's why the Divine Beasts weren't enough 100 years ago. The gems weren't mentioned in the stories, they didn't go looking for them, and perhaps not having them is how Ganon was able to take control of the divine beasts. Perhaps the original champions used them to enhance their abilities or otherwise protect themselves from Ganon and thus without them the champions of 100 years ago were left vulnerable.

-Link fighting a three headed dragon. I don't think I have to say what vibes that's giving off. But in case I do. Boss vibes. It gives off boss vibes.

-Final shot is Zelda standing on some sort of pedestal thing with the line "Link. You must find me" I'm guessing we have to reunite with Zelda somehow, figure out where she is, how to get there, and how to get back to her.

But yeah this trailer is jam packed and I am sooooo excited for Tears of the Kingdom. Fingers crossed I can get that day off.