#victoria the echidna

[nordiccowgirl]

How Paradox met Victoria.

My headcanon for my AU is that echidnas are kind of a cross between Archie comics and the Paramount universes, with more emphasis on the Paramount side. Thus, Victoria is like Knuckles in that she wants to fight everyone and respects you more if you defeat her (or declare you her best friend). Tempest, for the record, got yeeted into a wall when she fought him.

This scene occurs only a few months after Paradox and her sisters come to Mobius and so she has no idea how "normal" kids act - so naturally, she becomes best friends with the monster child and the feral child. And we all know how that turns out.

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #MonotremeMonday, two echidnas from the National Gallery of Victoria collection:

1. Lena Djamarayku (Rembarrnga, NT, b. c.1948) Echidna, 1998 earth pigments on paperbark (Melaleuca sp.), wood & pandanus (Pandanus sp.) fibre, echidna quills 25.5 × 80.0 × 21.0 cm

2. Yvonne Koolmatrie (Ngarrindjeri, SA, b. 1944) Echidna, 1999 sedge (Carex sp.), echidna quills 14.3×47.4×28.3cm

[chocolategothwolfhorse]

So I'm rewatching that Sonic 3 fight scene that's on Youtube, right? Well, I'm looking at the background, and I see that one Magenta Haired lady.

Has anyone else acknowledged this? Is this just another easter egg, or does anyone know if there is more to it? I haven't seen anything about her myself, so I'd like to hear others' thoughts.

I know she's named Professor Victoria from the latest Tails Tube episode, but idk all the details.

[energy-falcon]

OK, I need to toss this out here.

if the theory was right that the new year Tailstube was set up for the next game and Professor Victoria is going to be involved as an important character I think I got an idea what it might be like.

My feeling is that it’s going to be a sort of Sonic adventure, three with a similar style to sonic adventure one where each character has their own campaign with its own style of gameplay.

We know Prof Victoria is likely going to be a major character, and whether or not she is Maria’s sister or niece or is a robotnik, we can confirm at the very least that she is a historian, if not a full on archeologist based on the title of her book. Combining this with the ancients and the dangling plot threats from Frontiers about them I think the next game is going have something from the past being uncovered, w/ professor Tori being involved.

I also think the game is gonna have an element of travel similar to unleashed, because of the tailstube mentioning a road trip, knuckles and amy both also mentioning wanting to explore the world.

I think bare minimum playable characters are going to be the people who were front and center in this tailstube, as its the first bit of media directly addressing whats coming post-frontiers. As such, the likely playable characters are as follows:

Sonic

Tails

Knuckles

Amy

Rouge

Shadow

Sonic is obviously going to be in this game. Let’s not even joke. I think him and shadow are likely going to play similarly Because they roughed out a pretty decent style w/ frontiers, and refined it with shadow generations. Considering Shadows popularity and the amount of hype surrounding his character, and the fact they have a very good gameplay system for him already they can easily adapt to Sonic, its not that far of a stretch to say they’ll probably gonna make both of them playable. I’m expecting them to do some differences though shadow has chaos control and chaos snap and all his other abilities. Sonic is his usual tool kit maybe with some extra twists to help differentiate the two. (For example, Sonic has Spindash/Dropdash, rolling, & the bounce bracelet, Shadow has Timestop, Chaos Spear, and Stomp). As for their stories, presumably Eggman’s gonna uncover something from history w/ power, and attempt to harness it leading Sonic on his journey to stop him. Meanwhile, shadow is probably gonna be involved because of professor Victoria, either because she’s Maria’s sister, knew Maria’s father, or because She Worked for GUN (she got geralds journal to Commander Towers), which we know was crippled by eggman post forces, and had been slowly building itself back up.

Tails’ whole arc in frontiers was about regaining his confidence and proving himself as a hero, and he ended that game by saying that he wants to go on an adventure of his own. The Tailstube episode specifically ended with him saying he was gonna take it on a road trip, signalling he’s likely gonna have a solo journey. I’m crossing my fingers that we get a mix of on foot gameplay like adventure, one and the cyclone from adventure 2, instead of JUST the cyclone, because as much as I think it’s cool I liked on foot tails better, and it helps make tails more than just the Tech guy. They already had a pretty solid on foot tails. They just need to refine his kit a lot more and fix a couple things.

Amy is kind of tricky but again she had a really solid gameplay set up in frontiers, they just need to make more of her attacks use the hammer instead of the tarot cards, which was my only complaint. She said she was gonna hang out with her friends more in the tailstube so I’m guessing her campaign is about her going on a road trip to visit all her friends. I’m not sure if she’ll be playable because I’m not sure what her campaign would be like but I hope she is.

Knuckles and Rouge are both interesting and are similar to sonic and shadow, as they are both closely associated with the treasure hunt style of gameplay. Knux ends frontiers by planning to branch out from his island, explore the world and treasure hunt and mentions as much in the Tailstube, while Rouge tells tails she wants to expand her gem collection, interestingly with tails asking her about gems of historical value, which could tie into Professor Victoria, who is bare minimum a historian, if not an archeologist. The differences could be neat tho: knuckles is going on more classic treasure hunts to seek information about the ancient mysteries involved in the plot while Rouge’s levels are more like bank heists with some more puzzle elements. Could be some cool variety.

All in All, I don’t know if this is accurate, but I’ve had this in my head for like the past couple days and I just needed to get this out.

[beranibear]

Went to Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, Australia.

Thought y’all would like the precious beans I saw today ;-;

See below for animal IDs

Animals:

1 + 2 - Short Beaked Echidnas

3 - Red Kangaroos

4 - Eastern Grey Kangaroos

5 - Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo

6 - Australian Pelicans

7 - Boyd's forest dragon

8 - Rainbow Lorikeets

9 - Red-tail black cockatoos (female + male)

10 - Spinifex hopping mouse

[its-nice-its-different]

My first wild echidna sighting! Just doing their thing on the road verge.

[southernimages]

Grampians Victoria, full story at

[m3tr0n0m333]

I made more

Any empty spaces are the ones that I wasn’t sure anyone would fit

Guys do you want to hear more about Lemniscus please please please please please please please pl-

ANYWAYS THE SILLY LITTLE GUYS IN OUR SILLY LIL STORY BUT IN AN ALIGNMENT CHART!!! Hey… if ur reading this… send me more alignment charts to put them in!! It’s so fun!!!

Btw if you know me already, this is from our world, Lemniscus, so NOT QUITE “Mobius” /Sonic’s universe. They’ve kinda developed into their own story at this point so um. They’re very different. YOU GUYS SHOULD ASK MORE ABT IT!! DROP AN ASK!! Or find out more posts under the #Lemniscus tag

[dw-flagler]

blonde wildbow characters:

WORM:

lisa wilbourn (Tattletale)

victoria dallon (Glory Girl/Antares)

carol dallon (Brandish)

sarah pelham (Lady Photon)

Neil Pelham (Manpower)? (Presumed, i'm not a geneticist but both his kids have blonde hair and i think that's recessive)

crystal pelham (Laserdream)

eric pelham (Shielder)

Dean Stansfield (Gallant)

Mike ? (Lightstar)

Missy Biron (Vista)

Elle ? (Labyrinth)

Riley Grace Davis (Bonesaw)? (it's never said if her hair is naturally blonde or she made it blonde to look more like America's Sweetheart)

Paige Mcabee (Canary)? (feathers are yellow, hair is technically unknown)

Ashley Stillons (Damsel of Distress)

Noelle Meinhardt (Echidna)

Marissa Newland (Sundancer)

Greg Veder (The Worst)

Oliver (Oliver)

Ava (Cuff)

Kurt Wynn (Harbinger/Number Man)

Jeanne Wynn/Brown (Citrine)

Rune/Scribe

Sam (Prism)

WARD:

Rain O'Fire Fraizer (Precipice)

Ashley Stillons II (Swansong)

Ashley Stillons III (Damsel of Distress)

Ryan (Cradle)

Nailbiter

Colt (Colt)

PACT:

Blake Thorburn

Rose Thorburn Jr.

Rose Thorburn Sr.

Paul, James, Roxanne, Peter Thorburn

Sandra, Penelope, Joanna, Lea, Chloe, Lola Duchamp

TWIG:

I didn't read twig

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

calling Weaver "Skitter" isn't deadnaming but calling Defiant "Armsmaster" is. calling Victoria "Glory Girl" is definitely deadnaming. calling Damsel of Distress "Ashley" may or may not be deadnaming, jury's still out. calling Riley "Bonesaw" is deadnaming but somehow so is calling Bonesaw "Riley". calling Mannequin either "Sphere" or "Alan" is deadnaming. calling Tattletale "Sarah" is deadnaming and calling her "Lisa" might be too. calling Assault "Madcap" isn't deadnaming but nobody will know what the hell you're talking about. i think calling Alec either Jean-Paul or Hijack counts as deadnaming but i'm terrified to give a real answer because what if iota disagrees. calling Bitch "Hellhound" is deadnaming. calling Krouse "Francis" isn't deadnaming it's just annoying. calling Noelle "Echidna" is deadnaming, however-

[nordiccowgirl]

Saw this on Pinterest:

And the vibes were so Paradox and Victoria I just had to draw it.

[arthistoryanimalia]

#MonotremeMonday:

Ngarrbek, The Echidna, 1948 Unidentified First Nations artist, Kunbarllanjnja (Oenpelli), Northern Territory, Australia earth pigments on Stringybark (Eucalyptus sp.), 26.3 × 51.4 cm National Gallery of Victoria O.10-1956

[eddathegreat]

Worm and Ward and Familiarity

I saw a really great analysis of Worm working with tropes while Ward works against them by @greatwyrmgold, and it reminded me of a more general contrast that I noted:

Worm is coming from a very familiar place and being pulled out of that. The Undersiders have fairly relatable experiences (on average). Poverty, bullying, neglect and abuse by guardians. I'd argue that, as extreme as Alec's experience is, it would resonate with many who have dealt with indoctrination in their youth (like me). Brockton Bay is a city on economic decline, struggling to stay afloat, and afflicted with violent crime. There's superpowers thrown in, sure, but it's fundamentally very familiar human shittiness and problems that drive a lot of the story.

The powers are definitely weird and creative, but it's still unmistakably a superhero story. Bugs, darkness, flight and strength and durability, contact biokinesis. Superheroes and supervillains in costumes fighting each other, hijinks and blood loss.

Except that there's Endbringers, and Echidna, and Cauldron, and Scion. The culmination of the story is peeling back the mask of a familiar superhero setting to reveal a cosmic horror story.

Ward is set in the aftermath of that.

There's a massive megacity that still doesn't have a name. It's basically a country, but it's led by a mayor. Infrastructure is just barely there, lots of people are still living in tents, the internet is just barely running and not everywhere. People with superpowers are no longer just superheroes and supervillains, they're... what, exactly? So many threats that were once contained are now running free, the ratio of normal territory to gonzo hellscapes has been turned on its head. The skyline is torn apart by portals to other worlds, and it's fucking with the weather. There's a political movement against people with superpowers, and there are people affected by superpowers with their own identity, and both of those groups are very conspicuous in how hard it is to treat them as an analogy for any other groups. People are estranged from their own environment, and it's a brave, terrible new world in the shadow of a slain god.

The superpowers are less straightforward. Being unable to be pointed at, impregnation tentacles that fuck with the effectiveness of other powers, lots of cluster triggers and grab-bags, etc. The powers are more obviously reflective of the cosmic horror story people have had to wake up to, unfamiliar, weird, and deeply upsetting.

The characters are also pretty dang weird. Rain is a lot like Alec, and I think he might actually be the most normal of the bunch. Body dysphoria+, sharing a body with a sibling, attachment issues, living as a clone or as a sort-of clone. Not totally unrelatable, to be sure, there are parallels with real life experiences, but these are more their own thing, not so recognizable.

This makes Victoria kind of the perfect protagonist, matching the themes: she's estranged from who she was and her old connections; her home city is gone; she's gone through something absolutely mind-bendingly terrible that is among the worst that people can experience IRL and then some; her power has changed; she was raised into the weirdness of superheroics and is pioneering how it looks in this new world; she's knowledgeable about the weirdness surrounding powers, giving her a good eye for understanding the new world.

I think a decent fraction of Ward's relative unpopularity sadly comes from this: estrangement from the once familiar. The characters can't be related to as easily, the powers aren't so iconic, and the setting feels undefined. I don't think Ward is inherently worse for it, it's just a bit of a tougher sell.

[victoriadallonfan]

Updating the “Wildbow Protags In Horror Movies” list with @tisinoodle

First up is Train to Busan!

- Taylor - Honestly clears it pretty easily. Blinds all the zombies and with some elbow grease makes it to busan safely. I do wonder… animals and fish become zombies in this virus. Does that include her bugs? Would she control zombie bugs? Or does she lose control like Echidna clones.. concerning

- Blake - Clears it just as easily. The Abyss probably makes him immune to zombie infection anyways and he will chop through them like a scythe. Easy W for man of wood.

- Sylvester - Probably fucked if he’s not Lord Simon. He doesn’t even speak the language so he’s double fucked. He’s smart enough to stay alive for a while, but not to the end.

- Victoria - Clears it easy. Much less work than Bitter Pill zombies.

- LVA - Clears it pretty easy, even with having to hide from Innocents. Good, solid, teamwork. No real issues barring stupidity of the passengers.

- Mia, Carson, Ben, Valentina, Ripley - They feed Ben to the monsters and then probably all get infected because their hubris meant they couldn’t use his skills to escape or made the other passengers turn on them. All dead.

Second we got Underwater with Kristen Stewart!

- Taylor - Uhhhh she’s fucked, unless she gets lucky and is kept safe by Kristen, but dies at the end because of the pods. All her crabs will do is feed the sea demons.

- Blake - Survives if in mirror, dead if not. He can at least fight the monster, but mirror form is his only way to survive. He would likely get himself killed fighting a monster to save others and have his suit collapse.

- Sylvester - Same as Taylor, though Lord Simon could improve his chances dramatically. Not really good for him otherwise, so he dies unless Kristen saves him and he steals a pod.

- Victoria - Probably rescues the entire crew she meets. Just has her force field carry the ship to the surface.

- LVA - Probably rescues the entire crew they meet. So many avenues of rescuing everyone, from realms, to SWDIM saving them, to magic items….

- Mia, Carson, Ben, Valentina, Ripley - They probably purposely leave Ben behind and Kristen and her crew have to compete with Hursts. Both sides nearly kill the other, but use the remaining pods to rescue the kids

[skitter-queen]

I’m glad you like my better ward au,,, here’s more

Browbeat gets murdered on screen in chapter 1

In chapter 2 we find out that rain is a trans man who is stealth everywhere except home

In chapter 3 we find out that Ratcatcher is a echidna clone of skitter and that’s why she wears the mask all the time

In chapter 4 Victoria gets the big gun & it’s explicitly compared to a vibrator

In chapter 5 Victoria gets a vibrator and it’s explicitly compared to a big gun

In chapter 6 everyone in breakthrough has a big hug and laughs

In chapter 7 Victoria punches Amy through a wall

In chapter 8 we find out that looksee’s trigger is that everyone is *too* nice to her

In chapter 9 we learn that marquis and number man are still lovers

In chapter 10 citrine concisely explains her powers

In chapter 11 dragon hosts a gala

In chapter 12 svetka takes Victoria to a gay club. She does not notice.

In chapter 13 they listen to the protesters and create a more equitable form of government

In chapter 14 there’s a whole arc where cherish escapes from the pod and gets a hug from all of heartbreak

Lisa and Rachel are queer platonic partners????

in chapter 16 Byron comes out as a transgender lesbian and starts her transition

choosing to imagine that chapter 12 is not "victoria doesnt notice the club is gay" and rather "victoria does not notice she has been taken anywhere" because the entire chapter takes place inside of a very complex and multi-layered internal Victoria Dallon Monologue unpacking her feelings about the previous Dragon's Big Gala chapter. the gay club thing is only revealed in sveta's interlude after chapter 15

[mc-minty-spice]

Something fun about Ward is how in Worm, the Undersiders were Masters (4 of them!!!) and Thinkers (Lisa and Taylor), and many of Taylor's most iconic fights are against Brutes (Lung, Echidna, Alexandria), Tinkers (Armsmaster, Bakuda, Mannequin, Bonesaw), and Shakers (Leviathan, Burnscar, Lung).

In Ward, Breakthrough has a lot of Brutes (Victoria, Sveta, Tristan), Shakers (Capricorn, Victoria, Swansong), and Tinkers (Rain, Kenzie, Chris), and the main antagonists are Masters (Goddess, Mama Mathers, Amy, The Simurgh) and Thinkers (March, Teacher, Goddess, The Simurgh, Fortuna).

I'm maybe stretching it a little, but I think it's a fun parallel.