#villain propaganda

[fashiondisastertournament]

ROUND 3

Matchup #3.5: Gabriel Agreste (Miraculous Ladybug) vs Teru Hanazawa (Mob Psycho 100)

Why do I feel like this is gonna be a bloodbath

On the left, we see a fashion designer. Yes. This is a fashion designer. Gabriel Agreste from Miraculous Ladybug! He conquered a vampire and Satan himself already, but can he stand against Teru? With multiple nominations, he has made it into the bracket for:

the monarch outfit (above) and all other Hawkmoth outfits

that "fucking peppermint tie & bright red pants (below)

the all-white skin-tight suit with pointy shoes" (below)

triangle hair which he often hides under a shiny bald cap

villain costumes that he creates for others

Beside him is Teru. Oh Teru. Let's list some of his Fashion Crimes, shall we? Before the tournament, he was frequently nominated for:

wearing a three foot wig which causes him to resemble a cactus (above)

picking out that horrible monkey shirt that you could see in the Mob poll for Mob

certain... official promo art and official fanbook outfits (below)

send propaganda if you have other outfits to point out!

[just-some-guy-joust]

Just Some Guy OC Tourney - Side A: Round 3

Rules:

do NOT be mean to anyone or any characters in these polls. you MUST clarify if you are joking/teasing or you will be blocked. if you are someone who entered an oc into this and you are mean to other contestants you will be disqualified

do NOT claim a character doesn't deserve to be here. yes including your own. be nice

if you are posting propaganda you have to @ tag us, including if your propaganda is in the reblogs. it is difficult to tell when something is or isn't propaganda. anything not tagging us will likely be missed

please don't hesitate to let me know if i messed something up!

have fun, hype each other up <3 thank you

Jaiden Wells | She/her | @apotheoseity

Jaiden is.. really just some girl. A college student and avid Tumblr user, many of the people she's close to are wrapped up into supernatural or otherwise out-of-this-world situations, but she's just.. not. Everyone around her is terrified that she'll be exposed to some sort of horror, and at some points she's jealous of the people around her for leading such interesting lives, but she remains.. utterly mundane.

Promos: https://toyhou.se/16595108.jaiden-wells

~

Adan Botello | He/him | @rainecloud020604

Adan is a highschooler who is just looking to pass class, go home and play Minecraft. He doesn't want to be unique or special any more than he is, maybe being a Minecraft YouTuber would be awesome but that's all he wants out of life. No matter what is thrown at him he tends to run away from it, like a fantasy world trying to claim he's a prince, he wants nothing to do with it. He just wants to be a normal kid, graduate high school and play Minecraft. He's also got transgender and autistic swag

Promos: https://toyhou.se/17322997.adan-botello check out the comic featuring Adan on this blog @a-tale-in-a-bottle

~

Wally Rosette | He/him | @hershelchocolateart

Wally Rosette is a 15-year-old kid who was chosen (and then kidnapped) to attend the Elite Villainous International Learning facility. This position, however, is solely because his parents were world-famous villains. Wally himself has no interest in the business, and is often described as the sweetest person any of the cast has ever met. He spends most of his time in the background, helping out faculty and students with their homework or various tasks, and only ever becoming relevant when homework *is* the plot of the week. Wally is just a kind kid who knows better than to get involved in the plot and loves his friends so so so so so so so fucking much it's unreal

Promos: https://toyhou.se/8256045.wally-rosette <-wallys toyhouse profile! https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-villain-school/list?title_no=97541 <-the comic he's in (discontinued because I'm doing a different one - it is 6/40 chapters with a planned remake Somewhere in the distant future)

~

Full images and descriptions under the cut!

[no extra description provided]

Despite the fact all he desires to be is just some guy the universe keeps trying to make him more than some guy. He's supposed to be a hero, a prince, but he keeps running from the idea of it so much he ends up in another world entirely and all he wants is to go home and be normal, all he wants! He's not looking to save his sister, she can save herself she's strong. He just wants to go home :( that's all he really wants in life and he's getting really tired of the universe saying otherwise

THIS IS MY VERY FAVORITE BABY BOY So Wally is a sweet kid, but because his parents were world-famous, he never really got a choice in who they raised him to be. This resulted in him having a BUNCH of self-worth issues that he tries to deal with on the side because he doesn't want to get his friends involved. He has two (2) major points in the plot (OUT OF 40 CHAPTERS)- one plot point where he ignores the main antagonist to get a boyfriend instead, and one where his entire arc finally culminates in "Wally Learns How To Say No To People." Outside of that, he does NOTHING regarding the main plot and is a C plot character at best. He is simply involved and there in the background because I love him so much and he is my precious little baby boy and yeah sure maybe I loved him so much I made 27 alternate universe versions of him that all have plot relevance in all my stuff but *this* wally is simply a boy and he is blue and he is lovely and I would kill and cry for him every day

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 6 Group 27

Propaganda and further pictures under the cut

Lucifam: Lucifer, Chloe, Dan, Ella, Mazikeen, Linda, Amenadiel, Trixie & Mum/Charlotte

Team Bleck: Count Bleck, Nastasia, O’Chunks, Mimi, Dimentio & Mr. L

Submissions are still open!

Lucifam:

They really are just a big ol' mildly dysfunctional family, they've all hung out independently with each other in different groups (which is so rare in shows) there's so much I could say about them but that would just be telling you the show and I'm very tired 😅 (I just happen to have a blog about them and the picture I submitted is my banner, I didn't make the edit so I'm not sure if it's official promo material or someone's fan edit!)

Team Bleck:

VILLAIN FOUND FAMILY I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEYRE SO GOOD MAN C'MON... Dimentio is a bitch and Mr. L was kinda brain washed into it but overall they all genuinely have such fun dynamics even Mr L and Dimentio involved, Tragic Wants the world to die Count, the devious little shit that is the insane Fool, the secretary who is in love with a man who loves another, the big lug who just wants to chunk up the place but cares for blecky boy, the beautifully mildly terrifying shapeshifter who can be a giant spider abomination, and the brave brainwashed mechanical genius! You can even add in tippi as an honorary member because shes bleck's fiance :]

Villian found family!

Oh man where do I start. Evil team with the power of friendship. Dimentio reading everyone’s diaries. Nassy and Mimi and O’Chunks forming their own mini found family after Dimentio and Bleck are gone.

[egg-emperor]

like sorry the haha funny meme "even the villain has good moral standards and is actually in the right about this x subject and genuinely wants to improve the world other people and is actually so progressive" type of villain shtick isn't canon to Eggman. this is the guy that's been a genuine threat to nature and the whole planet and everyone in it since the beginning

this guy doesn't give an absolute fuck about anyone else and that's the point as he's the most egotistical selfish self centered self serving bastard in the world, to the point he feels that the entire world should belong to him and that he should rule it and control everyone in it. he's not giving anyone shit because the more you let people have the less he'll be keeping for himself

he wants to remove free will and make everyone slaves to his empire to worship and serve him. build hell on Earth with intentionally deadly theme parks and other fucked up attractions. and just like he already does to try to accomplish his goals, if he succeeded he'd destroy nature and the environment and kill people and wildlife in the building and reign of his empire too

he wouldn't give a fuck about healthcare, dental, education funds, housing and food and rights etc for others in the slightest and wouldn't offer it. unless it was to lure people in, maybe commit to it a little while to make it seem convincing but then cut it off like haha sike you actually thought I cared it was just to trap you in this- that's all you're gonna get at the absolute most

and if he did start turning people into robots/doing his robotomy treatment so people never have to eat, sleep or think again as he put it in the Forces promo Eggman Empire propaganda video, his robots aren't treated well by him and get smacked and ordered around and being stripped of free will isn't fun anyway even if you like the idea of being a robot/like a robot :P

there is absolutely nothing pleasant about living under Eggman and serving him... unless you're specifically into how unpleasant it is and have a true dedicated undying will and loyalty to serve him. and I am and I do 😍

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

How to get Ink on Tapas

A guide for my fellow S-Class Heroine brainrotters 🫡 but which also applies for other series.

❗❗Permanently unlock chapters/episodes for (hopefully mostly) free❗❗

---

Fortune Cookie Ink

The Ink you get this way lasts ONE WEEK.

First, you'll want to get very familiar with the Inbox button which you can access on the bottom panel ①

Next, click the "Claim" (or "Get", idk) button near the top for the Fortune Cookie. This refreshes every Monday 00:00 PT.

---

Reading Missions

The Ink you get this way lasts ONE DAY.

You'll want to open the messages tab ① once a day, optimally at around 11AM PT (there's probably a range of timings, but I haven't bothered to figure it out)

② Click one of the events that are still ongoing. This should bring you to either the promo page or the series page itself.

③ Check the details of the reading mission.

In this case, I need to read 7 episodes within 1.5 days.

Chaps that are unlocked via WUF (Wait Until Free) are counted as well. (Orange WUFs refresh once every 24hrs and the blue ones once every 3hrs.) So my plan is to open the first 5 chapters, which are automatically free, and use WUF for 2 more chapters.

(BTW, you don't actually have to spend time reading the whole chapter or even scrolling to the end. Just let the chapter load and you're free to leave. Just make sure the chapters are greyed out in the series page like Chapter 6 here. Chapter 6 has been considered Read. Chapster 1-5 have not.)

Because this is an orange WUF series, I can only unlock one WUF episode once every 24hrs. So if you start the mission after 05/04/2024 00:00 you're screwed basically. This is why I tend to open my app around the time when the missions refresh (11:00 PT) so I have more leeway to unlock the 2nd WUF episode.

You do need to get a little used to the terminology Tapas uses. There are some reading missions which you can't fulfil without spending Ink. Here's an example:

Only 24hrs are given to unlock 2 episodes of <The Resourceful Little Consort>, and this series is a 24hr WUF series.

Also note the fine text:

Episodes unlocked prior to the start of the event are ineligible

UNLOCK (not Read) episodes -> this means that reading any of the first few episodes that are permanently free do not count, unlike for the first example, <I've Been Proposed to By a Villain>

So this reading mission is a bust, basically.

---

Checking Ink Expiry

① Click More ② Click Ink Shop

③ Click the (?) at the top right

④ Click transaction history

The page should look like this.

I haven't actually figured out what time exactly the ink will expire. I think it's 24hrs from when you were first awarded it and not 00:00 hours/midnight.

Also, Tapas likes to say you need to check your Inbox to "claim" the Ink, but you. you don't. It's credited to your account instantly. I think the countdown starts from the instant you open the last chapter needed to finish the mission.

---

That's all the tips I have, I think. Go forth my lieges !!

If you're coming here for some series other than the Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, please do me a solid and check that out too, thanks. We have a very humorous girlboss female lead and an extremely wet sad and soggy perpetual regression male lead who's also really strong and has so much agency in the story and who is full of so many interesting contradictions and-- Wait actually let me just plug my propaganda post here.

Remember to turn on 1-Tap to get that 10% off when unlocking episodes. And then turn it back off so you don't accidentally spend Ink you don't intend to. (Although this is only an issue if you've bought Ink that you're trying to save. If you're perpetually running on only free Ink then you probably won't accumulate enough Ink for this tip to be useful.)

[ultfreakme]

Black Adam is the Supehero film we need

I mean it. A film like Black Adam was sorely needed when it was first announced and still badly needed now during it’s release. It does this thing, that most superhero movies these days don’t do; it takes its characters seriously. It never pokes fun at their names, their suits, their powers. No. These are heroes who are on a mission, and it’s so refreshing seeing a superhero movie that isn’t so insecure about itself. The Rock and the cast are proud of the characters they’re playing, they respect them and that makes all the difference. From the get-go, the confidence and care placed in the source material helps set the tone and immerses the audience. You will love and respect them as much as the writers and cast does.

:read more:

The biggest highlight of the movie to me, is how explicitly critical it was of American Imperialism and the military. It’s prevalent throughout the movie. Khandaq is an African, Arab country invaded and abused by entitled Americans, under the pompous thumbs of their military. The titular characters are all from Khandaq, fighting for their freedom and their rights. Teth-Adam(Black Adam) is a villain only to Americans because he gets in their way. His methods are not pure or benevolent, because his people have been enslaved and used for thousands of years. Of course he’s angry. Of course the people of Khandaq support this man- this god-- who is freeing them from the people who would care even less for their lives. Why should they empathize? Why should they have any mercy when these American assholes have been invading, abusing, killing and restricting their freedom for so long?

FUCK NO.

And you know what? He’s never condemned for it. The Justice Society of America(JSA) enter thinking they’re in the right, but when they learn what’s up, they admit that they’re wrong.

I did not expect such scathing and overt undressing of how shitty the situation is for countries occupied by the american government but here it is. In a comic book movie.

I say comic book movie because MCU at this point is thinly veiled military propaganda.

The trailer makes you think you know everything but I promise you, you don’t. The promo material shows a very tiny part of what Teth-Adam is about. Teth-Adam’s character is very subtle, he’s not bombastic and he does not verbalize his emotions and thoughts but as you watch the movie, you’ll realize there’s more to him than “I’m no hero” (and that line is not what you think it means, the movie will give you context for why he keeps repeating that).

The JSA are extremely fun, Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan were amazing, they brought such presence and weight to the characters. Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell are also wonderful, they have amazing chemistry and the amount of thought they put into their characters was shocking tbh. You can tell what each character is about just based on the way they move (Cyclone’s twirly, light-stepped, often very free. Atom Smasher is extremely awkward, shoulder’s hunched, unsure how to fit into a space). Black Adam’s physicality says so much about his character like y’all, they thought through everything for them.

The civilian characters; Amon and Adrianna are freaking amazing too. Amon is very much the heart of the story, the one who shows JSA and Teth-Adam what being a hero is really about. Maybe not directly, but he represents what a hero’s supposed to be, what their end goal is with all these heroics. Adrianna is who keeps the story centered and human. She’s who reminds these people with god-like powers that this is not about their petty squabbles and fights when there are so many regular people relying on them for help. She keeps them on track.

It was so nice to see the civilian side play as big of a role as the human side.

This is not a cinematic masterpiece. But it’s a darn good movie with an important message, a heartfelt production, amazing effects and acting. You won’t be bored for a single second and you will walk out of it feeling awesome. 

[eenochian]

i loved ur post about how cod fans have been treating the characters!! i found it insane how they were having a moral panic over makarov (is the cod fandom like one of the few fandoms that does this? lol) but it needed to be said… people are drawn to cod characters for many reasons and i’m sure it’s not because of “morals”

Thank you!! I was very nervous posting that, since I know parts of this fandom can get pretty aggressive about other opinions. I wasn’t trying to target or insult anyone with my statement, but there’s very clear double standards with characters!

I actually just made another post about this topic (sounds like self-promo I’m so sorry) because, yeah, this fandom can’t seem to understand that art isn’t always about good morals. Being sensitive and mindful about what you produce and engage with is very important, and doing your part to not be influenced by the problematic content that you consume is very important. However, all media is problematic in some way, especially COD (y’know, the military propaganda series). People need to be able to engage with media like this because, if everything is morally “pure,” then we lose out on important discussions about real-world issues, safe spaces for troubled folks, and lessons on media literacy.

I’ve talked about this and thought about this a lot in the past couple days. Like, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in the past 48 hours stepping back and looking at myself and my behavior in this fandom. I always try to be mindful, sensitive, and very careful with what I produce. That being said, I’m far from perfect. I have an ongoing fanfic for Makarov on my writing blog. Valeria is one of my favorite characters. I’m indifferent on Graves, but will gladly admit that he’s a very compelling villain and an interesting character.

Acknowledging that these problematic things are problematic isn’t saying that you can’t engage with them. You absolutely should engage with stuff like this if you so wish. The important thing to remember if you do choose to produce content of these characters, however, is that there’s nothing romantic in what they do, and they are based off very real issues in our world. Explore the different sides of them, enjoy them, but do not romanticize them.

A very good mindset that I’ve taken to heart is this: these people may be horrible, but they are still people. Humans are not one-dimensional beings. Explore the other sides of them. Humanize, but do not romanticize.

Sorry for the rambling, but thank you again for the response! People need to be kinder to each other and more mindful of the content they engage with, but that doesn’t equate to complete media purity.

[vnguard]

I don’t have an official promo so have this. Do you like smug, sarcastic, rude, vindictive, cruel, edgy - cough. Do you like absolutely irredeemable shit lords with depressing pasts and dark senses of humour? Look no further! This idiot is here and he will fuck your shit up for one (1) cornchip.

Ind. Sel. BNHA RP acc for Dabi. 18+ lads. Rules

[celestial-citrus]

okay I gotta be honest I don't know your OCs or else I'd be sending asks would you like to tell me about them (please)

well first ill promo my OC blog 👀 @dalriata-propaganda-department

i just have one story ive been slowly chipping away at for many many years. i actually don't have an official name for it still. LOL. it definitely falls into like the urban fantasy/cosmic horror genre somewhat.

i have like, a lot of lore. like, a lot. tons. i confuse anyone i talk to about my story. ive been obsessing over my character Bridei for months and my sister didn't even know who he was. everything is so interwoven i like cant explain a quarter of it without going off on 20 bunny trails.

anywho i have a kinda old pic i did of the main cast

the 2 on the left and one all the way to the right are siblings. Ross, Penelope, and Percy Wellington. the lad in the middle is Sigurd. The obnoxiously colored one is Farron, he's a revenant (undead reanimated to fulfill a purpose) but he's currently unaware of this. he thinks he's a very weird Fay. he is wrong. they go on adventures and sing shanties and pester their Mentor character Bridei (pointy lad below)

he's important but also not that important but it IS important that I love him.

there's 2 main villians, Mr. Guest and Morven.

in their own ways they are both plot twist villains. mr guest mainly for the "audience" and morven for the characters themselves. morven is a Fay, she had a thing with Bridei but she's currently trying to find a way to kill him (he can't be killed) and she's extremely unhappy about it. also sigurd is kindof like an adopted son to her (he doesnt know she's evil and the wellingtons don't know he knows her, Bridei knows she sucks but doesnt know she's the reason he got cursed and is behind the main antagonistic force The Cult (i donot have a name yet, i can't find something that doesnt sound stupid but im sick of calling it The Cult).

so yeah it's got a lot more plot lines and such and characters going thru their arcs and a tiny bit of romance sprinkled in barely but yea. i'm quite proud of it. :)

thank u for askinn

[inkalized-archived]

1,2,12

canon questionare || not accepting

1. what made you pick up this character ?

when i first got into twst i didn’t pay too much attention to azul at first. however at the start of chapter three i was pretty much sold to his character. loved him before he dropped the facade and loved him even more when he broke character. despite his shady business i just love how he does things? well that and how he improved himself so much. cannot help but to stan this shady octopus that tries to be the best version of himself and get back at people out of spite. 

have some azul propaganda that i ghost wrote. 

2. how did you get into this franchise/fandom?

i saw the promo of it a long time ago when they doing the first character reveals and i remember going :eyes: at jamil (because jaffar was my favourite disney villain ) at the time. i did play the JP version in the beginning, but back then there weren’t any real translations so i gave up at that point. 

skip forward till like 2019 where a certain somebody was spamming twst on the tl and twst hasn’t let me go from their choke hold ever since.  

12.  what would you say is the most unique trait about your character?

answered here !

[strangestcase]

the mcu be like "don't worry guys Loki is canonically bi/pan and genderfluid, it says so in this easily missable promo!" and then the bi/pan and genderfluid "rep" we get is Loki making out with Girl Loki

by the way, in the original comics Girl Loki was actually a random teen Loki tortured

but mcu Stans say they've been queerbaited because Loki didn't have hot man on man action with his boss?

excuse me. we got queerbaited because they promised us a mspec and fluid character and not only the fluidity was IGNORED and basically retconned but the mspec part was mentioned in passing! and yes I know that Loki dating women doesn't make him any less bi, and that having a bi4bi relationship on screen is at the very least a few crumbs, but out of all the bi women he could have made out with he had to made out with A BLAND-LOOKING GENDERBENT VERSION OF HIMSELF

so I'm fucking sorry the two white men with ambiguous chemistry didn't kiss onscreen! maybe it's your fault that you can't have two white male characters BREATHE next to each other without you planning their wedding! I would be pissed too if my ship didn't become canon but come on now. they told us we'd have trans representation and look at this shit!

I haven't even watched the show and that's LITERALLY all I know about the plot!!!! that the character they promised would be openly transgender and bisexual is portrayed as a cis man that has sex with what is one timeline away from being his literal sister!

well, congratu-fucking-lations, Loki is finally getting shipped with themselves, so now the Sexymanification has come full circle! Jesus fuckign christ!

(and to all the people who are like "bUT loKi fUCKed a HorSE in thE norSe MythS", marvel Loki and myth Loki are WHOLLY DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN LOOK ALIKE. marvel Loki is vaguely based off myth Loki and is, in the MCU, actually the inspiration for his myth counterpart. yes, ancient aliens bullshit, but at least they aren't weird about it, unlike him making out with his almost-sister)

like Jesus Christ on a fucking bike, this is just THE latest bullshit the MCU has pulled, along with straightwashing Nat's homoerotic rival, whitewashing the shit out of Wanda (and making her, canonically Jewish and Romani, a nazi sympathizer), turning Baron "Literal Nazi" Zemo into the leftist villain archetype the MCU loves to pull, and turning captain marvel into army propaganda... well, I'm saying this as if the MCU ever was more than badly written, badly edited, bad-looking US military propaganda in which the only thing worth looking at is a cgi RACCOON.

[travllingbunny]

The 100: 7x10 A Little Sacrifice

After The Flock - the show’s weakest episode in a long time - and an unfortunate hiatus after that episode, A Little Sacrifice helped get season 7 back on track. It’s one of the best episodes of the season: it was exciting, things finally happened - a lot, we got a big revelation about what the endgame is likely to be all about, there were fights, an attempted mass murder/genocide (what would a season of The 100 be without those?), some really good character work, and the first major death of the season. 

Yes, Charmaine Diyoza was not a main character. but after being introduced as a villain in season 5, she has grown into one of the most memorable and interesting characters on the show - in large part due to Ivana Miličević’s charismatic performance - with a complex and morally ambiguous characterization and backstory (which I really hope to maybe learn more about one day in the prequel flashbacks? Please?). She has been one of my favorite characters since season 5, and I loved her development and her relationship with Octavia, her mother/daughter relationship between her and Hope, her past fights to protect “expendable” prisoners and her S7 attempts to find peace and renounce violence, and hope (!) that at least her daughter will get to have a different and better life where she wouldn’t need to resort to it.  She became a (not so little) sacrifice for the better future we saw her dreaming of in season 5 in that conversation with Kane - maybe that dream is something we will see the new generations live in the series finale?

The one thing I wasn’t too happy about (I was OK with the lack of Bellamy cliffhanger since we got him in the promo for 7x11 right afterwards) was that Clarke did not have any more screentime than in the other recent episodes. But, especially on rewatch, she had some great subtle little moments.

You know what is not subtle? Sheidheda. He’s finding new ways to be completely OTT. This time he can finally stop pretending to be Russell, so he gets a makeover, more in tune with the...interesting Grounder fashion styles, chews the scenery even more, and then - thanks to Madi - he loses an eye (just as he did during his original lifetime), getting closer to his season 6 Emperor-like look, though he’s missing a cloak this time. He also doesn’t have enough facial hair to twirl his moustache, but he actually hisses at one point. This part of the episode was, this time, really fun and intense, including a really good fight scene and some really emotional and important moments for Indra, Madi and Murphy, but doesn’t need much analysis and doesn’t require attention on rewatch.

I’m still not sure how/if these two storylines will connect. But I can see a thematic connection of sorts: Sheidheda is the embodiment of the worst parts of the Grounder culture, with the worship of violence and power and killing all those who oppose you; and not just that - he’s all egotism taken to the extreme, the kind of “wild beast” as Anders would despise, but in this case, he would actually have good reasons to. On the other hand, we have the Disciples with their sterile white rooms, order and the propaganda of the abnegation of self in the favor of the collective, and dreaming of “transcendence” instead of trying to get back to the “old ways”. But they really come off as two sides of the same coin: both ideologies are about worship of and subjugation to a leader, both believe violence is the solution, and both are against love and see it as a danger.

Brand new opening titles - these opens start with a shot of Sanctum and end with the Bardo Stone Room with the Anomaly Stone - and guess what makes a cameo near the end of the credits? That’s right, Earth. I was starting to think that any return to Earth won’t happen, but now I’m not so sure.

Sanctum

The episode opens with the immediate aftermath of Shady’s massacre of the Faithful. We see Madi’s friend Rex (that’s his name according to the credits) - the Sanctum boy who offered Madi’s other friend, the null boy, to play soccer - mourning someone, probably his mother. This scene had to be there so we’d feel some sympathy and sadness over the deaths of the Faithful rather than just be relieved they’re (mostly) gone. One of the wounded ones is Jeremiah, the same guy who developed deep gratitude for Murphy for saving his son. Although the Faithful have been very annoying, I do feel a tinge of sympathy for this guy, who’s so clueless that he never understood he had any agency in what happened to his son and seemed really convinced it was all about the will of the “gods”. He now asks Murphy to take care of his son when he dies, but Murphy insists he will not let Jeremiah die. (Trey, the annoying a-hole who was brainwashing Jordan, and used to act as the leader of the Faithful, is credited in the episode but I didn’t see him anywhere - so I have no idea if he’s among the dead, or he survived and was in a deleted scene.)  

Madi has a really nice mini arc in this episode. She already had PTSD from her experience and possession by Sheidheda in season 6, so she is absolutely terrified when she learns he is back, and when he threatens her in a really creepy way. Excellent acting by Lola. Later, after being comforted by Murphy and joining the survivors,she shows strength in comforting Rex for his loss; and in the end, overcomes her fears and risks her life to save Indra.

Not that it matters, but Sheidheda’s real name is Malachi. (I’m still gonna keep calling him Shady.) We learn that when he recites the lineage - the names and clans of all the previous Commanders, which we know from S3 is a Grounder custom for a new Commander to do. Of course, we only get to hear some of the names in the middle (a couple of random Commanders called Maffei kom Boudalankru - the Rock Line and Kemji kom Trishanakru) and the end, when he mentions Lexa and Madi. The show wasn’t going to spoil the prequel by revealing the names of early Commanders,

The fight itself was really intense and maybe the best Grounder-style duel in the show (yes, I prefer it to the 3x04 one, which involved too much showmanship to look as a real death match). Shady is obviously going to be there for a while and things aren’t going to get so easily resolved, so he wins and is about to kill Indra - who refuses to kneel to save her own life - but just as he’s about to kill her, Madi finds the courage to come as the Big Damn Hero at the crucial moment, pluck out Shady’s eye and save Indra’s life. But then as he is about to kill Madi, Indra decides to (metaphorically, since she’s lying and about to pass out) kneel in order to save Madi’s life. Indra’s arc with Shady has come full circle: this may finally make her understand her mother’s choice and realize she was unfair to her. She grew up blaming her mother for agreeing to kneel to Sheidheda and considering her “weak”. The battle had been lost, her father was already dead, and her mother made the best possible decision and wasn’t just saving herself but her daughter, too. Otherwise, as we see in this episode, Shady would have ordered the daughter to be killed, too, after the mother - as he thinks children of the people he killed should also be eliminated so they couldn’t pose a threat and seek revenge.

That last order even shocked Knight, who may be having some second thoughts about the awesomeness of “Sangedakru’s greatest champion” (but this doesn’t mean he won’t keep obeying him). Penn and the other Trikru guy we know, who are loyal to Indra, reluctantly knelt when Indra asked them to.  

Madi, Rex and the other Faithful (including Jeremiah, who has indeed survived) have gone into hiding with Murphy and Emori - and hiding at the abandoned reactor. We didn’t see Jackson, but i’m sure he’s there. (Sachin is a guest star and must skip some episodes he’s not really needed in.) So now we’re finally reached the part of this storyline where Shady is in power and our heroes are the resistance. And Murphy is now, with Emori, a part of a power couple protecting these people and taking care of them (who would’ve expected that back in season 1?) - much like we’ve seen Clarke and Bellamy do over the seasons - even though most of the same people resented them for being fake Primes just a few hours earlier. Maybe they’re finally starting to get a clue and feel respect and gratitude to people who are trying to save them just because it’s a decent humane thing to do, rather than for being self-proclaimed “gods” who participated in their murder, oppression and exploitation.

Bardo

After 4 episodes, Clarke, Raven and Miller finally left the Stone Room! Yay! Jordan and Niylah stayed in it, and as it turns out, Jordan has a much more important and interesting role to play by reading the Anomaly Stone, while Niylah’s role in S7 has been to be exposition machine for Grounder history and have bad one-liners while Miller has the good ones. I’m glad there was no prolonged “OMG are they really brainwashed and on their side?” misunderstanding, as Clarke and the rest of the group, after learning about MCap from Gabriel, quickly realized that Octavia, Echo and Diyoza are only pretending, since they haven’t blown the secret that Clarke doesn’t have the Flame.

Speaking of one-liners, Miller’s “Get the flock out of here” really made me laugh out loud.

Callie is known as the Pramfleimkepa - the First Flamekeeper - which should mean she was never a Commander (I imagine that would supersede the position of the Flamekeeper or at least be as worthy of mention). I was afraid for a moment that Niylah had given the game away when she told Cadogan that - but fortunately, he didn’t understand what it meant, as he never knew that Becca called ALIE 2.0 “the Flame”.

Gabriel and Cadogan have a long conversation over dinner (or breakfast or lunch of whatever) about Earth before the bombs and Cadogan’s beliefs. The two of them are one of the few remaining humans who knew life before the apocalypse. (After Diyoza’s death in this episode, the only other people left from that time are the Eligius prisoners in Sanctum.) But while Cadogan is chronologically ‘older’ than Gabriel, as he was a Millennial, while Gabriel was born a couple of decades later, and because Cadogan has technically been alive for thousands of years on Bardo - Cadogan spent most of that time in cryo (same as Diyoza and the other prisoners). Gabriel is the real Old Man - at least 260 years old, having lived and experienced all those years. We learn a bit more about Gabriel’s background - that his family were from Colombia and his grandmother was poor, making him a “self-made man” - another contrast between him and the love of his life Josephine (which makes their season 6 parallel to Clarke/Bellamy even more perfect). Gabriel is the go-to-guy this season for having conversations about the worship of false gods and trying to challenge the Disciples’ beliefs. Cadogan, again, denies that he’s a cult leader (sure), reveals he doesn’t believe in God, and claims he doesn’t consider himself one (he sure doesn’t mind being treated like one, though). Instead, he claims his purpose is for everyone to “transcend” and become like gods - though he doesn’t really explain what that would consist of, and he also doesn’t offer any explanations as to why there is supposed to be a “Last War” and who the enemy in that was is supposed to be. Seven episodes have gone by with the characters talking to the Disciples, and no one has ever asked that question: who is the enemy? I guess they don’t even know that, they just think that, when they type in the code, they will learn who the enemy is and the war will begin, for... reasons? He also adds some BS about “this life” being unimportant compared to afterlife. (Now, to be clear - I actually do believe in the afterlife in general (though I don’t know in which form), but I really, really hate it when religions make the afterlife the focus and treat the life we actually know and are sure we have as less important, use it as an excuse to teach people to accept any sort of crap in their lives and not ask for more instead of living their lives to the fullest and trying to build something worthwhile in this life.) Gabriel is less than impressed with Cadogan, and challenges him by pointing out that “You can’t fight a war for the soul of the human race with an inhuman army” and that a life without love, individuality or freedom is pretty worthless, but Cadogan has the afterlife as a ready excuse, even though that doesn’t really answer the question.

The most important revelation that we finally get in this episode is that Cadogan has most likely mistranslated and completely misunderstood the ancient Bardoan text that he’s based his entire belief system on. And his mistake was in large part due to confirmation bias - he saw what he wanted to see, even though the idea of ending wars and violence by starting and fighting a war is absurd. (Niylah, for once, has a good line, when she points out that every major war is supposed to be the “last” but it never is.) Jordan’s interpretation - that it is really about a test that the species needs to pass - makes a lot more sense. Not a literal test - I really can’t imagine the show introducing some kind of godlike “higher beings” - but, I think, something that will require the characters to use all their strength and moral sense and all the experience they’ve had and wisdom they may have gained, to find the best solution to save the human race and rebuild the civilization, hopefully into something better (and it’s really not too hard being better than the mess of tribalism and constant wars and conflicts we’ve seen on the show). I don’t know what this will be, but the words “the orb becomes like a star” make me thing of a natural phenomenon. 

It’s also cool that it was knowledge of the Korean language that helped Jordan decipher the text - proving how helpful it is to be familiar with multiple languages and cultures and how much it expands one’s way of thinking. Do Disciples speak any languages other than English? They seem to foster cultural uniformity, so probably not. (it’s also confirmed now that Monty was half-Korean on his father’s side - Chris Larkin is Korean, but the actress who played his mother, Donna Yamamoto, is Japanese, so I assume Monty is half-Japanese.)

If you doubted that 7x09 flashbacks were a waste of screentime, we get a confirmation early on that Echo has just been pretending to be loyal to the Disciples, while plotting revenge all the time, when she kills a Disciple and saves Hope from being sent to Skyring. This plot could have continued straight from 7x07, when Echo’s Azgeda ritual was strongly hinting that she’s out for revenge. (And yes, the writing in 7x09 was just  that clunky as I feared - of course that Chekhov’s WMD that Levitt mentioned for no reason would be used in the very next episode for someone to try to kill all the Disciples in another Mount Weather parallel.)

A tiny bit of info about the Disciples - a Disciple addressed Hope as “Seeker Diyoza”. I don’t know if that’s a title for those trying to reach Level 1 or something else.

Hope, with her usual anger and impulsiveness, reminiscent of how Octavia used to be once, and her naive black and white views, is all for revenge-genocide, too, in spite of Octavia’s and Diyoza’s disagreement. Her mother tries to, again, teach her the lesson she tried to in 7x07, that she should turn to love instead of violence and killing (which carries a lot more weight when it comes from someone like Charmaine Diyoza rather than a hippy): “I know what it's like to kill innocent people for a cause, and I promise you, it's not gonna fill that hole in your heart. Only we can do that.” But Hope retorts that “There are no innocent people here”, echoing Nikki’s words to Nelson that “There are no innocent people at the end of the world”. It’s not that Hope doesn’t have a point that everyone in Bardo is a part of the society that’s been kidnapping and torturing her family and that stole her childhood, but collective responsibility is a concept that only works in terms of moral responsibility, not as an excuse to commit genocide because you’ve decided that everyone in the other group is evil and the “enemy” and deserves death. Some people have compared it to Maya saying “None of us is innocent”, but I don’t think this comparison works, because that line changes the meaning entirely depending on whether you are holding yourself and your society morally accountable for its failings and complicity in crimes against humanity, or if you’re using it against others, in order to justify hate and commit crimes against humanity.

Even though neither Clarke nor Octavia had huge screentime in this episode and may not have done anything big (like Diyoza sacrificing herself and saving everyone, or Jordan figuring everything out), they had some wonderful, subtle little moments that spoke volumes:

I loved the hug between Clarke and Octavia - where Clarke said her condolences to Octavia and then Octavia said them back, letting Clarke know she knew what Bellamy meant to her and that she is grieving just as much. (”I’m sorry, Octavia” - “So am I”)

Raven and Miller exchanged a wordless look - probably because of how awkward it was for Miller to see Octavia again. Although these 4 people all go back to season 1 (and it was the first time in a while they were in the same room), for Miller it’s been just a few weeks since she was Blodreina and he was her follower, and the last time they saw each other (in season 6), he yelled at her that he’s not following her orders anymore - which was about him struggling with his guilt and seeing her as an embodiment of it. But for Octavia, it’s been over 10 years and a huge character development, which Miller doesn’t know about. But they had no time to go over it - instead, she just hugged him and asked him to hug her back, and he did.

When the group went to find Levitt - still tied up and bloody after Echo had tortured him and killed two Disciples in front of him to force him to tell her about Gem9, the WMD that can destroy everyone on Bardo (he must be really traumatized one - Clarke obviously immediately realized what was going on when she saw Octavia come to check on Levitt, going by the look on her face, and her look when she turned to go and the others went after her, while Octavia was still there -as if saying "I realize you need a moment with this guy, but don't wait too long". Although Levitt looked disappointed and shocked that Octavia didn’t untie him, she was really doing what was the most reasonable way to try to protect everyone - the priority was to stop Echo from killing all the Disciples, which would include Levitt, but also to stop Levitt from alerting Anders, which he would’ve done, because Octavia also wanted to save Echo and her people. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t  care for Levitt, but she’s not the 17 year old girl who’d go: “I just met you but you’re immediately the most important person to me and I’m going to prioritize you over everyone I know”.

 And then we get to the final and most dramatic scene of the episode...  Echo’s attempt to commit genocide out of revenge, while Octavia, Clarke and Raven tried to talk her down.

Octavia tried to reach Echo by, again, talking about their shared grief over Bellamy, as she did in 7x07, but again, it did not work - because Octavia and Echo, and Clarke and Echo, are different people, who grieve in different ways and think and act in different ways. It doesn’t mean that any of them are grieving more or less than another one - but their responses are very different. Octavia - this mature Octavia who is more able to empathize with others and doesn’t react with impulsive violence as she used to -  responded by trying to reach out to others who were also grieving for Bellamy, Echo and Clarke, and validating their grief, too. Clarke reacted - after the initial shock and grief - by sucking it up, as she does, in order to take care of the others, and focusing on saving the people Bellamy loved, telling Raven “We do this for him” and focusing on saving Octavia and Echo. Echo, on the other hand, reacted destructively and violently and by killing people for revenge and then plotting genocide as revenge for 3 months. This is the only way she knows how to process grief - she’s never known a different way, as I’m sure Azgeda weren’t known for compassion and sharing feelings. When Bellamy was grieving Clarke in season 6, she asked him “When do we attack?”, because that’s what she expected him to do, too. She’s also lost because she hasn’t lost just a boyfriend, but a leader and anchor in her new post-Praimfaya life, and because she had made saving Bellamy her mission she was waiting to fulfill during the 5 years on Skyring. If she had carried out her plan, I’m not sure she’d know what to do with herself. (I don’t know what it says about the mindset of us, humans of 2020, that so many fans have decided that Echo’s way of grieving is the superior one and the one that shows that she loves Bellamy the best. It certainly doesn’t show anything good.)

Octavia’s next argument - that there are many good people on Bardo she’d be killing - was even less successful, as Echo threw her relationship with Levitt back in her face, pointing out that he stole her memories, talking of him as one of their enemies, and then even saying: "Way to honor your brother's memory!" Echo came off as very judgmental here, and more than bit hypocritical - after all , she personally almost killed Octavia twice, and Bellamy started trusting her and dating her on the Ring, after she had given them both far less reason to trust her than Levitt did. Levitt actually took a risk and was helping her against Anders just out of his feelings for Octavia, while Echo only helped Bellamy and others after she was exiled and had to in order to survive. She seems to value forgiveness only when it’s others forgiving her (”Who knows more about forgiveness than us?”), even though she never expected them to and was a bit shocked that they did.

Clarke then tried to use her standard “This is not who you are” plea, but it didn’t work with Echo, since Clarke doesn’t really know Echo, and the words felt empty. There really is very little reason for Clarke to think this is not who Echo is, except for her tendency to assume Echo must have changed for the better because she’s Bellamy’s girlfriend and Bellamy loves her (see their conversation in 5x12). Clarke also tried to use her own experience - as she did with Raven earlier in the season - telling Echo that “a choice like this” would haunt her forever (of course Clarke would bring up MW, it always goes back to MW for her), but Echo rejected that comparison and, for a moment, channeled me by pointing out that Clarke’s motivations were to save her people, while Echo’s are purely revenge. Which was, however, a strange argument in context - pointing out that Clarke’s reasons were much better and she had no choice but to kill all of the Mountain Men or let them kill all of her friends and family, while Echo wasn’t achieving anything good and could just save all her people and not take revenge on the Disciples. But Echo seemed to be telling Clarke that they different, and she cannot assume that Echo will feel the same way about mass murder Clarke does.

Then Clarke finally brought up Bellamy, pointing out that he would not want a genocide to be committed in his memory. I don’t know how anyone who’s watched the show for 6 seasons could disagree with Clarke. But Echo did. What’s more, she yelled  "You have no idea what Bellamy wanted!" in a really angry, resentful way. It felt personal. I don’t know if Echo has felt romantic jealousy of Clarke over Bellamy - she has sure kept it close to her chest - but it certainly felt like some kind of possessiveness, like resenting the idea that Clarke was as close or closer to Bellamy and knew him better. In any case, this was a moment of extreme dramatic irony - because we know (and really, Echo should know as well)  that Echo is the one who doesn’t seem to know, or is simply ignoring, what Bellamy would have wanted and who he was. And she should know. She was there when he talked down Riley from killing Roan, telling him “War made me a murderer, don’t let it do it to you too”, she was there when Bellamy refused to kill 283 prisoners in cryo sleep and said “Clarke didn’t die for us to go back and make the same mistakes”. And she was there when Bellamy was grieving Clarke but decided not to take revenge for her death - not even by killing the man who murdered her, Russell - but to try to honor her memory by doing what she would want and surviving and keeping their people alive. Which directly contradicts Echo’s statement that Bellamy would be doing the same she is if one of them (Clarke, Octavia or her) were killed. Does she really not know him? Most of the time they spent together were in a time of peace and boredom with just 7 people on the Ring. She seems to be projecting her own ideas and views and character into him. 

Then Raven went on to agree with Clarke (but Echo did not resent her for saying it), pointing out how Bellamy has grown and changed and that the post-season 3 Bellamy certainly would never do that. I was slightly annoyed when she said that Bellamy of season 3 may do that - but to be fair, she did say, “maybe”. Now, season 1 or season 3 Bellamy was certainly angrier and more prone to black and white thinking when it came to enemies, and he may very well have agreed to kill all of the adult Disciples if he thought they were likely to be a threat to his people (which is what he did when he agreed to help Pike kill Lexa’s army), but he sure wouldn’t agree to kill any of them just for revenge, or to kill children and non-combatants (the one time he did it was MW, when he and Clarke knew there was no other way to protect their people from being horrifically killed, and he hated it and was haunted by it then). Nevertheless, that’s a minor thing as the point of Raven’s speech was the way Bellamy has grown and developed. Echo hasn’t really changed, certainly not as much as Bellamy wanted to think in S5. Is there still time for her to change?

In the end, love did save the day - but it wasn’t Echo’s love for Bellamy, it was her non-romantic love for Raven and Raven’s for her. Raven calling her a sister only helped pave the way - but she had to actually threaten to stay there and force Echo to choose between killing Raven and giving up her revenge, for Echo to finally stand down. The fact she did shows that maybe there’s still hope for her to change and give up revenge and violence for things like friendship.

 But then Anders had to appear and ruin everything, He could have just tried to arrest the group, rather than threatening them and giving them speeches about how he despises them for being “beasts raised in the wild”. (I’ve wondered many times since 7x05 is Anders is supposed to be smart or a complete dumbass. He was definitely a dumbass.)

Diyoza took charge, as the most experienced and tactical one, and almost.  And then Hope was again being her impulsive, angry, out of control self - Anders is always the person most likely to set her off - killing Anders (which I wouldn’t mind) but then also making her own attempt to commit genocide. (It’s funny that the four Disciples just froze and did nothing while all of that was happening.)

What happened then was both a heroic sacrifice and one of the best and most heroic death scenes on the show, a fitting ending for Charmaine Diyoza (even a visually beautiful death in a creepy way, as Diyoza turned into a crystal statue), with her final message to her daughter to be “better” than her in the future - and a heartbreaking loss for Hope, who has just been punished by the narrative/fate for her devotion to violence and hate and attempt at genocide, by causing her own mother’s death. She was obsessed with revenge for her lost childhood and the fact her mother was taken from her - instead of focusing on the future and what she still had. I’m sure that Hope will survive to the end of the series, and will have to question herself and change. She still has Aunty O to help her and be her family.

As we’re approaching the endgame, the show here made an obvious point about violence, hatred and revenge and having to give up those things - not for Anders’ unemotional duty to the collective, but for love and compassion/

Rating: 8.5/10

[just-some-guy-joust]

Just Some Guy OC Tourney - Side A: Round 2

Rules:

do NOT be mean to anyone or any characters in these polls. you MUST clarify if you are joking/teasing or you will be blocked. if you are someone who entered an oc into this and you are mean to other contestants you will be disqualified

do NOT claim a character doesn't deserve to be here. yes including your own. be nice

if you are posting propaganda you have to @ tag us, including if your propaganda is in the reblogs. it is difficult to tell when something is or isn't propaganda. anything not tagging us will likely be missed

please don't hesitate to let me know if i messed something up!

have fun, hype each other up <3 thank you

Wally Rosette | He/him | @hershelchocolateart

Wally Rosette is a 15-year-old kid who was chosen (and then kidnapped) to attend the Elite Villainous International Learning facility. This position, however, is solely because his parents were world-famous villains. Wally himself has no interest in the business, and is often described as the sweetest person any of the cast has ever met. He spends most of his time in the background, helping out faculty and students with their homework or various tasks, and only ever becoming relevant when homework *is* the plot of the week. Wally is just a kind kid who knows better than to get involved in the plot and loves his friends so so so so so so so fucking much it's unreal

Promos: https://toyhou.se/8256045.wally-rosette <-wallys toyhouse profile! https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-villain-school/list?title_no=97541 <-the comic he's in (discontinued because I'm doing a different one - it is 6/40 chapters with a planned remake Somewhere in the distant future)

~

Adan Botello | He/him | @rainecloud020604

Adan is a highschooler who is just looking to pass class, go home and play Minecraft. He doesn't want to be unique or special any more than he is, maybe being a Minecraft YouTuber would be awesome but that's all he wants out of life. No matter what is thrown at him he tends to run away from it, like a fantasy world trying to claim he's a prince, he wants nothing to do with it. He just wants to be a normal kid, graduate high school and play Minecraft. He's also got transgender and autistic swag

Promos: https://toyhou.se/17322997.adan-botello check out the comic featuring Adan on this blog @a-tale-in-a-bottle

~

Full images and descriptions under the cut!

THIS IS MY VERY FAVORITE BABY BOY So Wally is a sweet kid, but because his parents were world-famous, he never really got a choice in who they raised him to be. This resulted in him having a BUNCH of self-worth issues that he tries to deal with on the side because he doesn't want to get his friends involved. He has two (2) major points in the plot (OUT OF 40 CHAPTERS)- one plot point where he ignores the main antagonist to get a boyfriend instead, and one where his entire arc finally culminates in "Wally Learns How To Say No To People." Outside of that, he does NOTHING regarding the main plot and is a C plot character at best. He is simply involved and there in the background because I love him so much and he is my precious little baby boy and yeah sure maybe I loved him so much I made 27 alternate universe versions of him that all have plot relevance in all my stuff but *this* wally is simply a boy and he is blue and he is lovely and I would kill and cry for him every day

Despite the fact all he desires to be is just some guy the universe keeps trying to make him more than some guy. He's supposed to be a hero, a prince, but he keeps running from the idea of it so much he ends up in another world entirely and all he wants is to go home and be normal, all he wants! He's not looking to save his sister, she can save herself she's strong. He just wants to go home :( that's all he really wants in life and he's getting really tired of the universe saying otherwise

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Museum of Mayhem Art Analysis

ahhh it’s finally here and it’s AWESOME. Lots of credit to @ifalnasminiatures for bringing this to my attention! Also credit to Hayder Hype for providing (nat zero six on gearbox forums) sources (Ashley Landry on twitter) in the description of his video because oh man it’s a lot

you can view most of these art pieces on the borderlands instagram as well

lots to talk about especially regarding the calypso twins so let us dive right in

tl;dr: tyreen has a weird red marking on her face in some old designs. i think troy used to be blind and missing his metal plates. more proof for my elpis/chemical sludge/lost legion theory that the twins are using said chemical sludge to give their followers psuedo-siren powers bc a dahl pumping station (hyperion pumping stations on pandora) but dahl had a presence on the moon

one of my favorites, it reminds me a lot of the Mask of Mayhem, but for villains.

Punk Girl is shown again twice, probably further proving she’s tied in with the CoV somehow

we also got some crazy looking villains such as

baby face. which is all kinds of extremely fucked up

this dude who looks like he could be a miniboss with the glasgow smile and the cool goggles

this guy who i legitimately thought was dr zed for a hot second there

could it be

the evilest brother?? pfft nahhh

this girl who seems like she could be a unique character with a baseball cap. wondering if maybe she’s related to Punk Girl in any way. What’s the verdict on the other band members? 🤔

uhh let’s give it a solid maybe and move on

this piece! very interesting to me

so, the very first thing i noticed is zane’s eye patch being on the other eye lol

amara’s tattoos are also gone, however that might’ve been for reasons similar to the japanese cover art of the game. 

most interestingly is a point @ifalnasminiatures made and it’s that the calypso twins are actually palette swapped! you can see Troy is the one with the white hair and Ty is the one with the darker hair. which I think mayyy play into a few things we see later about the twins

we also see a tiny ship in the background. i can’t tell if that’s sanctuary-iii or the blue/yellow ship, it all blends together a lot due to the quality of the pic. but it is next to the calypso twins, which makes me want to believe it’s the blue/yellow ship we see with red markings all over it. you know this one from the mural of mayhem wallpapers

you can see the reddish markings on the back right next to the engines

then we have ummm

this cover art

😬

thanks for not using this one gearbox cuz 

oh my god

she just reminds me of suicide squad, that’s not a good image you wanna dredge up from the deep recesses of your fans’ brains

she might be a unique character given the clothes/hair? cuz you don’t normally see psychos with stilettos on. or yknow, shoes in general. the hair also seems way to clean and neat to be a psycho/cultist

i just feel uncomfortable looking at this, so moving on

a different logo. also not my favorite cover art, but at least im not physically uncomfortable looking at this. that poor girl’s pelvis... anyway

lots of silhouettes

interestingly, i feel like the roses might have been a thing they just put in for the new cover art. haven’t seen hide nor hair of them across any of the pictures i’ve seen.

we got a lot of figures. out of them i most definitely recognized amara, salvador, maya, another salvador?, zer0, moze (maybe?), and axton. i thiiink one of them is maya as well, but im not 100% on that. 

i can guess why they didn’t pick this one: it’s hard to tell who’s who. a lot of these poses make the silhouettes kinda hard to see and the merging together at the bottom makes things even worse. i do think it’s interesting there are some bl2 characters on here as well, but hayder hype mentioned they very well could be placeholders, and given that i can’t make out fl4k or zane, im inclined to believe him.

this art which was used during the promo for this event

rip elpis i guess LMAO

a better look at the psycho himself from the promo released by the borderlands twitter.

there’s a new red planet which hasn’t been shown off before, looks like a gassy planet kinda like jupiter, but interestingly it has this green crack in the side?

very reminiscent of pandora’s eridium scar. i am wondering if this is because this planet had a vault opened, or if it is tied to the Eridians at all. be interesting if it was their homeworld.

also i have no idea what the symbolism is in the homeworld destroying another planet but maybe we shouldn’t think about it too hard e_e

the other planet that’s being destroyed... idk fellas

it doesn’t match up to me but like, this is only one shot

i don’t know 🤔 if you really squint, maybe you can see that hint of purple at the bottom there?

here

tbh, i thought this was elpis the first time i saw it due to the cracks, but i figured elpis doesn’t have like continents across its surface, just craters. and wayyy more cracks.

so it’s probably not pandora and it’s probably not elpis.

huh...

i do think the actual shot is suspended above promethea, you can see the familiar asteroid belt surrounding it

there’s also a planet in the background,

which i imagine isn’t pandora bc no eridian scar

could be elpis or eden-6, or the 5th planet we don’t know about. i kinda get the feeling the 5th planet may be that gaseous red planet tho. which is probably going to be super weird to traverse now that i think about it. they said oz kits weren’t coming back, right? i wonder how that would work. hmmmm

there’s also this redder planet here which i actually DO think is Pandora. if you squint real hard u can see the purple from the eridian scar. plus the color matches up pretty well with the pictures provided above.

there’s also these two bodies over in the corner where the light is coming from. i can’t tell what they’re supposed to be

there are also these little dudes in the top right

i assume they’re maliwan? they remind me a lot of the maliwan drop ship things that fly overhead when you enter promethea

YESSS okay this is the start of some PRETTY WILD twin stuff

troy: missing his tattoos, blind in one eye, has a weird mark above his eyebrow. also, no metal bits!

Tyreen!!! with a red stripe across her left cheek going up to her eye??? no tattoos on her left arm as far as we can see, but that might be for marketing reasons (she’s also covering up part of her bicep). she’s also missing her coat and chains and wearing a different glove.

we also have a bunch of bl2 VHs taking up space. again i think hayder hype is right in that they’re simply placeholders. not much else to say, but 

this trend of Tyreen having red markings on her face and Troy being blind in an eye (or both) actually continues through a fair amount of these posters!!!

more cover art. one of my least favorites again... i just think it looks like the psycho is puking out the VHs. also, seems to be an older version of the psycho mask.

fl4k seems to be less rendered than the rest of the cast? like they have less detail, especially on their coat

also you can see an older looking space shuttle up at the top, which reminds me a lot of the one we use in TFTBL to get to helios. except less caravanny and more rockety

the splatter also reminds me of siren powers, with the purple and the glitter. it’s cool that it’s showing a different shot than what’s behind it. maybe a hint to siren powers because it’s sort of like a portal.

more puke! 

this time troy is blind in both eyes it seems,

tyreen seems to still have a mark on the left side of her face, im wondering if this ties into her scars at all? it doesn’t seem as prominent as the previous red mark.

Zane seems to have an actual eye patch instead of his more high-tech eye patch, which reminds me a lot of the leaked character concepts from like january i wanna say

amara seems to be dual wielding lol i wonder if originally that was going to be one of her 3 skills but then they were like “wait salvador. wait. nisha. FUC-”

also fl4k is being obscured by this weird saturn-like planet. let them be free!

moze is missing, the saturn like planet shows up 2 times total, and that blue/yellow ship is seen again behind troy

as for the purple stuff? you already know my theory that the twins are going to be using the chemical sludge on elpis to empower their followers. it could also just be straight eridium/slag. you know, like the testing from the WEP with bloodwing and even krieg. we’ll have to see. it would be interesting if they tied krieg into the story through there.

i do lowkey think it’s chemical sludge though, because some of it is actually glowing blue in places, you can see it clearly below amara’s feet. maybe some tie in to siren powers cuz they glow the same blueish color. who knoooows not i

big shot of this psycho here, looks like he’s crumbling. 

i really like the 4 VHs standing at the base with the elongated shadows. very dark vibes from this tho, probably not suitable for the series as a whole. i can see why maybe they decided not to do it. 

i wonder if we’ll see this giant psycho statue somewhere on pandora. it would certainly be a sight to behold. 

also i kinda wish we had cloaks like the concept art shows. cloaks are cool

more sketchy art. this one is also kinda strange, i definitely get why they decided not to go thru with it.

possibly tie-in with the ‘mother’ imagery we get on the propaganda signs across pandora.

lmfao the foot

very bl2 like, im glad they didn’t stick with this. i like that they decided to change things up

troy seems to be blind and also missing his metal implants on his face. his jacket also looks a lot different, it looks more like tyreen’s with the spikes and stuff across it. we also can’t see his metal arm at all, tho we do see his sword! which looks a lot different, im glad they decided to revamp it to be more visually interesting lol

tyreen is more interesting to me. it looks like her right arm has like a silver coating over it? unless that is a metal arm as well. she also is wearing a different kind of glove. her tattoos are missing as well, but again, it’s probably because of the cover art. her scars also definitely seem to have reached her left cheek at some point.

zane also looks a lot different, tho amara, moze, and fl4k look about the same.

another shot of the ship, this one is definitely the blue/yellow one. there’s gotta be some significance with that, right? either we’re getting skins for sanc-iii, we’re going to be painting it a new color, or it’s a different ship.

what the HECK

maybe the twins stole sanc-ii and we’re using sanc-iii. idek. this ship is driving me up a wall lol

gun head.

not a lot to say here. i actually like this one lol it’s very mellow and straight to the point. it’s nice that the logo is right in the middle, not at the top like most of them.

game. buy it. okay? cool.

similar to the other background we did, a bit different. again, like @ifalnasminiatures pointed out, the twins are actually palette swapped here. 

Zane also has the old eyepatch on his right eye instead of his left eye, and his jacket is black instead of blue. fuckin’ edgelord.

one of my favorite ones out of all of them. it’s beautiful, i really wish they had kept it. Fl4k is missing but i assume they were meant to go next to Amara? i also think it’s interesting Moze is in the front, as I took Amara to be the leader this time around. Zane is also an older design, with the eyepatch back on his left eye again (starting to think this is an aesthetic thing lol) and a black jacket instead of blue.

We see the twins on the top. Tyreen has that mark on her face again, and Troy is the same as the last few covers.

We also see Maya, Zer0, and for some reason Brick? Which is weird to me considering we have a few other characters who initially feel much for important to the story (cough Lilith cough), but I’m not complaining. 

the purple splatters again make me think this is a tie in to eridium/slag/elpis’s chemical sludge. i also like the logo being worked into the design instead of just thrown on top, i think that’s a nice detail

i couldn’t find a great shot of this poster which is a shame because it’s one of my favorites

a lot of baddies to go around on here. i love the dude up top, he reminds me of the Anchormen from the captain scarlett dlc in bl2!

these dudes

we can see Punk Girl on the left again

and this guy who appears to be in some medieval armor

i have no idea what’s going on there but i am EXCITED

i’ve been thinking and tbh i think the multiple planets thing was just an excuse for gearbox to go absolutely ham on the character designs/settings. 

i mean why should they have to hold back all their medieval armor designs for another dlc like tiny tina’s? all their pirate/sea-fairing designs for a pirate dlc? fuck it! go WILD. i think they did, anywho

there’s also this post which... tbh i can’t make out much at all. again, seems like an older psycho mask design. it looks like there are characters in the splatter on the bottom left, but it’s very hard to tell who’s who, especially at this angle and image quality lol

if we get a better shot later on i may return to this piece and try to figure things out!

we also have this piece which is giving me huge ‘Happy Together’ vibes. very trippy

moze looks like she’s using an untextured atlas gun? dunno what’s going on with that tbh lol

i really like this one too. it’s cool. i get why maybe they wanted to go a little crazier tho, feels too simplistic for the MAYHEM vibe they’re going for.

oof! can we get an F in chat for whatever planet/moon this is

lots of pink floyd vibes going on here as well

we see a different looking blue/yellow ship flying away from the explosion. it seems to missing a lot of the parts that make sanc-iii so recognizable including the engines/wings

i like the destruction vibe they’re going for here, really sells the “universe destroying power” the twins are supposedly going to get. 

anyway, in addition to the cover art pieces, we also got a few concept art pieces as well!

this bit which looks like a gun

you see the aiming mechanism up there? you see how it’s aimed at that planet/moon? yeah i 100% timed this so you’d see the above concept art with this immediately after :P (im kidding i didn’t but hey now you don’t have to scroll)

fuck yeah babey

we also have seen something similar to this in the gameplay trailer!

i didn’t actually think it was a giant fucking GUN tho. can we get an F in chat for Promethea and/or whatever else this thing gets aimed at

yooo

i thought this was opportunity at first cuz of the bridge but it’s more likely promethea

when u go meet zer0 you can see some water surrounding the city so i would guess this is somewhere else on promethea

im mostly interested in the giant fuckin triangle in the middle of that courtyard looking area

oh also the giant trench of destruction on the right there. that’s probably important, too.

more concept art!

i think the bottom of the 4 VHs is actually what was leaked in january.

some art of the twins on the left there, tyreen is so much shorter than troy omfg

and this does indeed looks to be a younger version of angel so credit to @prettypinkdork for mentioning that on my angel post. it is nice to see those tech-y wings in action, definitely does prove it’s her.

we can also see this art of what i think is Punk Girl, which is interesting to me because she looks to be doing something with her right hand. possible siren powers? maybe! 

we also get a much cooler, bigger version of that maliwan ship people were talking about, with what look to be maliwan... eye bots? surrounding it. this is soooo fuckin awesome to me because it reminds me of a sailboat. and airships are fucking COOL

but something interesting is that i don’t think this ship was actually always maliwan

we got an A in the back here... for Atlas? i mean... you know it’s coming... the colors would match up. Yeahhhhhhh...

more interesting is that it actually looks like maliwan covered it up with their flags/tarps. i would not be surprised if this was claimed by maliwan possibly during the takeover.

a cyclone, with a whole fuckin lot of detail. just... holy shit.

not much else to say here though. i like the stuffed animal on the side, though

a better shot of jakobs manor which holy shit looks badass as fuck

big turret/observation thing on the right there? im not sure

pretty sure this is eden-6. also more tropical trees? possibly a water planet? but maybe just ocean on eden-6. also there seems to be like webbing on whatever is on the road, so maybe some spider-like wildlife?

most important to me is this

yeah i would bet that’s eridium/slag/the chemical sludge from elpis

im pretty convinced this is something on elpis mostly because the DAHL logo on the side. which again, they were on pandora yes but they were mining for iridium not eridium. if this was pandoran pumping stations, that would be hyperion.

i do think this is elpis. and i do think the twins are using the chemical sludge that mutated the lost legion into those fake siren things to give their followers superpowers.”holy holy holy” indeed.

this, plus the rakk wings on the psycho in the mask of mayhem are just convincing me more and more

that’s all for now folks. i gotta run

[everyonelovesagoodstory]

Descendants 3 and The Isle

So we are finally getting a lot more promotional materials for Descendants 3 and it looks like we can get a clearer idea of the plot.  It appears to be going in a different direction than I predicted and is addressing some of the main concerns fans have had about the Isle situation and how Auradon treats the residents.  One of the many criticisms of Descendants is how the Isle residents have been abandoned and how the core four haven’t helped the situation which I feel in Descendants 3 is shown to be intentional.

With Hades and Uma’s promo videos we are shown Hades and Uma making valid points on how the Isle residents are imprisoned and forgotten. Especially with Uma she makes points how Mal and the core four only are helping a select view and leaving others behind. The thing is these actions both in the dialogue and camera shots are not being portrayed as villainous. We see that the Isle residents who are left behind aren’t being portrayed as evil but as dejected, hurt, and saddened. These shots make the audience feel sympathetic and sorrow for the residents and have to be done on purpose. Even through the summaries are asking if the characters are the villains it’s quite obvious that the writers and director are showing the Isle residents as being the victims of Auradon.

On the other side you have Auradon and the core four hosting VK Day where only four Isle kids will be able to go to Auradon Prep. I think this being done to shown that while the core four are trying to help they are only doing the minimum and are still being complicit with the Isle situation. Also I had thought the posters on the Isle where created by the Isle kids but now it’s apparent that they are part of Auradon’s propaganda along with the core four signs. In the end I think one of the messages in D3 is that Auradon, its residents, and the core four had been acting like villains to the Isle residents and had been hurting them.

While I do agree that the criticisms of Mal, the core four, and Auradon are correct I also think these are intentional and that it’s what the creators want to audience t feel.

[liminalchasm]

i wonder what the overarching thesis of the plot of overwatch is. their promo material about the world needing heroes is so vague it’s meaningless. our ‘good guys’ are almost all operating outside the law, but there’s a lot of pro-military propaganda baked in to the rest of the story e.g. the whole omnic crisis. the only organization who seems to have an actual thesis statement is talon, who are the villains, but the narrative seems to agree with their ‘conflict makes us stronger’ idea. it could just be that’s the nature of our modern western storytelling tradition, that the individual plot threads tend to overwhelmingly be about being overcoming barriers and hardship and coming back stronger.

oh i guess there is zarya’s ‘together we are strong’ but that doesn’t contradict talon’s thesis. and they’ve put so little emphasis on that as of late.

i feel like i’ve made this post before. it’s been 3 years bliz can we have something besides scraps? i’m tired of wondering when you’re going to make a point with this universe you’ve built.