#which isnt to say that it was handled perfectly or even well

[risingsunresistance]

would you believe me if i said this is skyblock fanart 😭

explanation below for anyone interested. it's a bit long 🐖

basic explanation for people who dont go here. or the tldr: the rift is a separate dimension in hypixel skyblock where reality and time itself do not function the same. the other npcs tend to take on different forms in there. this is my interpretation of what might happen to techno if he were to travel into the rift based on some other theories about the place and my own headcanons for him

less basic explanation for the rest of you: ok so. first thing to get out of the way, the rift isnt completely separate from the main reality. SOME of your own thoughts and feelings influence the way you exist in the realm and the way the realm itself behaves. not very many people seem to take on forms ENTIRELY divorced from themselves, save for maybe enigma (we dont know who he was originally, if he was anyone at all)

but i have a theory backed up by absolutely nothing that your rift form is mostly influenced by three different things: your inherit magic, your ability to control and manipulate that magic, and your overall stability. stability will look different from person to person and you dont always know if someone is stable or not just by talking to them. even something as simple as a phobia might change them drastically. still, the rift is unstable itself, so sometimes people get altered horrifically even though they were perfectly fine

my main points of reference for this are that some of our most altered characters are some who check all these boxes, and some who are relatively normal dont check any of them. lathrop/porhtal is split into a bunch of eyes and has one human-looking form that sits motionless at the wither cage and doesnt speak. we know he was incredibly magical, eventually got a great grip on said magic, but was also very very unstable. the wizard is very magical, is a master of said magic, and is pretty well put together. he is nearly unchanged in the rift. barry is the same as the wizard but went a bit nuts before he left, so in the rift he seems just a bit... off

on the opposite side of things, maddox is someone who we are told has ZERO magic in him. the only thing that changes in the rift is the fact that his helmet is red now. kat has never shown us any magic and seems to be pretty normal, so she's also just a different color palette in the rift and happens to have a weird job

anyways back to techno. (btw if you're reading this and happen to not be a regular here this is a mix of headcanons and "canon" but im treating it ALL as real and true facts for the sake of this drawing ok). he could be one of the most magical people here... but he has no idea how to use any of it on command. if you asked him if he possessed any magic, he would say no. his healing ability, while it is VERY strong, is passive, and he was only able to gather magic during the resistance fight with the help of the wands we were given. but he was able to gather a lot of magic during that fight, concentrate it, and release it all on his own. not many people could handle that. he also worships the blood god and has its blessing, and has some connection with spirits in the form of the voices / chat / whatever you wanna call them. there might be even more to him, who knows

so that's already a setup for disaster, but what about his stability? well he's constantly followed by a chorus of thousands of voices all screaming at him and god itself might be hanging around in that mix, led a war against the server staff and a dictator that lasted for 2 years skyblock time, and did the whole potato war thing which was ~70 years server time iirc. i wouldnt really call him stable KFJHG

so what you end up with is a very violent beastly thing, nearly unrecognizable save for the fact that he's still a pig (my first point, you dont become a COMPLETELY different thing under most circumstances). i think he's entirely out of control of himself and would not remember a trip to the rift. a stability elixir might help him in terms of being more aware of himself (i think sirius really downplayed what that potion does lmao it's not just a fun drink, he wanted to guarantee himself some control over his mind while he was conducting his "business" in the rift) but there's no saving the physical form

i wanted him to be beastly to mimic what happens to "dante" in the rift (the memory of dante, it's complicated. but dante and bacte are most likely two different people who are also the same person). yeah he was a big slime in the overworld, but now he's more monstrous. he also doesnt speak, he might not have any idea what's going on. same could be said for techno in a way. of course this is related to dante, what else would you expect from me :P i want to see them fight at the colosseum so bad...

------------

but anyways THIS WAS SO FUN AAAAAUGH IM SO GLAD I FINALLY GOT THROUGH THIS. MY IPAD FINALLY DIED AFTER AN ENTIRE DECADE IN THE MIDDLE OF LINING IT AND I HAD TO CONTINUE ON A NEW TABLET WHEN I'VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE DRAWING WITHOUT A PEN... THIS DRAWING WAS CURSED KJFDHGK

here's a version without chat and the blood god so you can just see the big hog

and here's my old concept from july of last year for comparison :P

initially in the post for the old sketch i said he was based on what i think would happen if he got a hold of some sulphur. i actually think that would be about the same as his rift form because sulphur seems to do very similar things under certain circumstances. always corrupts your form, can sometimes make creatures MUCH larger (matriarch, kuudra, magma boss), heightens your magic (mage outlaw), and can make you incredibly violent (barbarian duke)

bye i hope i tricked someone into reading a really long skyblock theory post expecting more info about techno FKJHG

[mud-o]

[ Detailed Thread ] I've seen lots of debate but here's lists of reasons why I personally think Wriothesley is visually impaired/blind to a certain degree and hope that he is :)

This is listed down based on my understanding/research so if there's anything wrong pls do correct me

Firstly we need to know the term 'Blindness', i know you may be wondering like , uh what? But a lot of people are quite misinformed of what being 'blind' is. Blindness is the inability to see or a lack of vision. Meaning that Blindness is a SPECTRUM. Each person's experience of blindness is unique. 93% of blind and vision-impaired people can see something. It is very rare for someone who is blind that cannot perceive anything at all. Some people may be blind in their peripherals - some in the center, some can see colours and blurs while others can perceive light and shadows better. It varies. A LOT. Quote from an article on Blindness and its spectrum. "These visual impairments don’t all work the same. Macular degeneration, erode the central vision without affecting peripheral vision. Narrowed field of vision- central vision is fine but the peripheral vision is limited. Others include photophobia (inability to tolerate light), diplopia (double vision), visual distortion, and difficulty with visual perception."

Ok so now we've made that clear- here's why Wriothesley being blind isnt as farfetched as you may think , with the way he is acting in the Fontaine trailer. 1) So i've heard everyone say that he is teasing Sigwienne, but let's just go back, why does Sigwienne - put the cute beverage in front of wrio in that manner? Why is she putting the taller cup in front of him where it's simply closer for him to reach for in the first place? You can argue that she did that so wriothesley takes it, but why not just hand it to him then? If you observe the scene - the tea was already there beforehand, which means wrio has either prepared it himself or has even already drunk from it and placed it there. He knows there is a 'cup' on the table. It could be very much logical to assume Sigwienne wanted wriothesley to mistakenly reach for the taller cup she placed there. There would be no point in deliberately placing the cup as if with the intention to 'trick' him into taking it if he could very well see her place it there.

2) The visible jolt of his hands when he hovers over the tall drink that sigwenne places there. And the CLOSING of his eyes, as if to concentrate. On what? Here we can tell the drink clearly looks like a cold beverage, so when his hands hover on top of the cup , it'll make sense to have a reaction based on the wrong temperature registered to his hands - as tea is hot. He glances to sigwenne after , as if amused, only to look back to rotate the smaller cup of his tea. And even when 'rotating' , his actions seem purposeful - carefully interacting w the cup with his hands draping around the handle before holding onto it. As if again, he's mostly feeling around it. If he were to see perfectly well, why would he close his eyes - hover around the tall drink, and seem to jolt by reaction of registering what the object is? His eyebrow even raises up. It makes less sense as - if he were intending to tease her, he'd simply hover alternatively between the two without interacting w them purposefully but instead focus more on the reaction of Sigwenne from the start - and not After he seemingly 'felt' what the glass he is reaching for firstly is not his own cup of tea, but the beverage Sigwienne wanted him to take. Also added point, if you really take notice, while touching and rotating the tea for its handle, his eyes are set straight, not towards the cup.

3) paper argument - again brings back to my point about blindness being a spectrum. Some blind people can read if they really focus and if the object was near enough, and even more that they just show him holding the paper, his eyes were never shown 'scanning' it. And furthermore, we are not SHOWN the paper, it could be braille for all we know. 4) but he looks at sigwienne first before she places the cup - again , blindness is a spectrum. Many blind people can register vague figures of people based on combinations of colour, light, and shadows or other ways depending on the individual. 5) Lyney's dialouge - as we know, genshin loves littering clues and symbolisms around in the trailers. Here's the quote we got while transitioning to Wrio's cutscene. "But what you see, is not real. It's all a show. And every part of the show is carefully controlled" Here we've already got a literal connotation for 'sight' from "what you see" , and connotations of 'acting' what if he was just acting out that he is not 'blind' to the outsider's point of view, so it is shown that he has less of a 'weakness' to others? Covering his disability under a guise so no one knows how to use it against him? It may be a reach - but it is an interesting idea to think about. Esp with the entire theatre play theme surrounding Fontaine and us/people being the audience of the big show.

6) wolf motifs and inspiration - It is quite easy to see Wriothesley is very heavily wolf motifed. Wolves are known for their sharp senses and acute hearing. They rely much more heavily on scent and hearing compared to their sight. Sounds familiar? It would be very neat if wriothesley has heightened senses as he can't rely on his eyesight as much, thus being easily able to tell when Sigwienne moves around and puts the cup in front of him. 7) gameplay - having a disabled character can make interesting and unique ideas on their kit and mechanic. I'll leave most of it for imagination, but something such as a passive that could auto-link enemies aggro-ed for aoe skills? Many many more possibilities. 8) It will simply be good disability representation in media , we've already had collei with the chronic illness of Eleazar, Xiao with chronic pain from karmic debt, Yoimiya's father short of hearing due to working with fireworks etc. It'll be an amazing addition for irl people with disabilities to feel more seen. 9) there's literally a scar under one of his eyes what more can i say if not it being more of a hint. His beta concept designs even had a scar on his eyebrow along with heterochromia? Which can also be seen as being blind in one eye with the 'white' colouring. Also the eyepatch beta design? Yeah.

Also this slipped my mind, but do also note Braille was originated and introduced in france - invented by Louis Braille in 1824. And well, what do we know of where Fontaine is based of? wink wonks

My conclusion, live laugh love hc wriothesley w vision impairment <3 even if it turns out not being canon and just some weird coincidence of everything.

(also please do not steal this as i plan to post this myself on twt too, and again this is just a THEORY on why I PERSONALLY think he's such. You are free to disagree )

[night-shadowblood-writes2]

bridge the gap with me

noa x human reader

2k words ugh lol not proofread, so if there are mistakes, I'm sorry. I hope it's well received, though 😁

chapter 2: new area's to explore

When I woke up I wondered if I should lay in for a bit longer or get a move on with my day before I could even get in a better comfy position my stomache grumbled and I wondered if feeling hungry was worth getting up. "alright (y/n) its time to get up your hungry and and you don't know the area... yes (y/n) I know that you dumbass but i want to lay in bed right now it's super comfy and my feet ache" i said speaking to myself trying to motivate myself.

i sigh grab my water bottle and pack up its better to always be ready to be on the move lets I want to go through the trouble of scavenging for new supplies which isnt ideal. Once I found a river I was able to get a pot boiling to have clean water and I had my spear which really is just a long stick poised ready to attempt to catch fish if this didn't work I'd have to go back and remake my weird fish trap basket but it kept being destroyed. after an hour I cought three but my spear tip was damaged from smacking it into the rocks. "damn it (y/n) okay okay i'll try again with the stupid trap." I grumble to myself I used the knife to remove the scales and remove the insides. I then went around looking for any vegetables or herbs to add.

"Hell yeah!" I cheered I found a good find and thought 'huh this place is pretty good nothing has come to attack or claim territory so far maybe I can settle here for bit.' "first things first find good shealter prefebly near a good water source then I can make a garden with all the seeds I found so far. maybe building a house if I go back to the library and find something on how to step by step.." I sigh went back to my camp and get ready to make breakfast.

afterwards I begin to look around the river going upstream 'I wonder if I can make a tree house' "I always wanted one maybe I can and it would keep me away from predators too" I then made up my mind "well looks like I found the place for me." I smirk lost in a world not my own I was going to thrive not die.

It took months to get everything ready and even longer to find a sturdy tree and make the materal I needed good thing I arrived in early spring I could handle the heat but I had to be ready for the winter I struggles and many times gave up but now a months later a decently sized tree house and I was thinking of making another that connected by a bridge for food storage. My hands were calloused and a it cut my gloves worn down a good amount. I had a lot of times hit my head. "Primative tool but they worked for a reason" I say as I tug on the roap ladder making sure it was sturdy before climbing up it was about 15 ft up I had to be sure no accidents happened I'm so glad I made railings. it was a decent side only one room and a side building for using the restroom I though of building it on the ground but if I had to go at night I didn't want to chance fallingi just use a roap the take the bucket down and use it a fertilizer.

I looked at my little garden and I hope to expand it soon after watering and taking care of that I decided to start on the wooden bridge. After a few hours I wasn't even halfway done but I strectched my back the cracking was perfectly satisfying," Man and I thought my back was bad before now I'm sure I will hate myself in the future," I looked up and lay back "but damn did I do a good job..." I let my eyes close and drift to sleep unconsciously thinking of my family and friends what were they doing how are they did they miss me?

When winter hit I made sure to stock up scavenging for blankets or material to make blankets and bedding. It was my first winter here it was harsh and unforgiving I would have froze if I wasn't so diligent.

I was halfway through making the storage areas foundation so the vegetables and fruits I had had to be stored with me though they didn't last long. Meat and fish I had to dry them out like jerky or eat it then and there. "I wonder where I am and how close I can get to the ocean or maybe I can somehow use salt water from the lake to make salt it would sure make this food taste better." I sigh and decided to try it out I brought my pot my successfully made fish trap (after many many MANY trial and errors) and decide to find a salt lake or river maybe with my hunting knives on I ventured out it was a ways away I don't know how long I'd be gone but I have memorized the area of my home rather well this time I would explore a new area.

With a hop skip and step I made sure to be on the look out new area means new danger. I was careful but nothing was too bad in the year I have been here I have yet to run into any apes and honestly I didn't know what I would do if I did. It was one thing to see them on a screen but to be here where if I cross the wrong ape I could be beaten to death or worse it was frightening.

I know they are more evolved now with human intellect but that made them even scarier in real life but like any species there are good and bad in every group. where there was bad people or apes there had to be good and I full heartedly believe that but I'm no fool its my life on the line I had to get smarter stronger and adaptive reactive I wanted to live. I began humming another song it was from epic the musical 'thunderbringer' it was catchy I had to admit the whole musical was.

In the distance I heard a horse I tensed did I want to go see it to confirm would curiosity kill the cat? I don't know but I was moving anyways a river separated me from who I saw. Apes a few actually they were slim a few children played around them the elder ones looked to be chastising them not to get too close to the water. I remember reading this some apes couldn't swim due to muscle mass, body structure, low body fat percentage and other factors. The babies were really cute though I decided to leave them to themselves. I saw a few male apes watching fishing or petting birds acting as gaurds. I noticed a few of the same type bird in trees flying around or on the chimps.

as I walked away I heard a commotion which prompted me to hide did they see me?! I was scared but no the noises started going down wind. "Lets go I should go I could be in trouble if I'm caught." I went back like an idiot I saw why there was so much panic a baby had fell in and the river swept them down river the apes ran after it the males riding on horse trying to keep up. I saw a few gather around a female she was in panic that was her baby. I could tell the others were trying to calm her.

I knew the baby would drown the river was getting too violent the males couldn't swim out to it. It broke my heart but that was life if you're not careful life could be taken from you or a loved one.

Splash!

'What am I doing? Idiot youre dead!' 'I know I know but its a baby and the mother was crying' I thought to myself as swam. pushing myself to kick harder swim faster I saw it it was close I reached out it went under and I dove after it. I wrapped my arms around the baby forcing us up the river pushing at us but I made damn sure the baby got air before we went under again. the water was strong but I kept the little ones head above water as much as possible. I opened my eyes and I felt my heart drop into my stomach drop a waterfall I looked around we weren't to far from the edge I saw the males calling to us and I desperately kicked trying to get to their side it was hard swimming with one hand holding the baby in the other trying to keep it alive.

When we got close enough I slipped and went under but a large strong hand gripped my wrist and pulled. and my back hit the ground hard coughing out water and gasping for air I rolled on my side the baby in hand also coughing out water. I rubbed and patted it's back I ignored the sound of hooves and ape calls. "c'mon c'mon there you go let it all out breathe little one breathe" I mutter encouragingly. I also heard the other apes arrive most likely the others that were upstream . Once its breathing got regulated I sighed in relief before straightening up not looking at them too scared too silently punishing myself for being so stupid but I didn't regret it a life was saved today.

The mother or who I assumed to be the mother came close desperate to get her young but too scared on how I'd react. I smiled made sure no teeth were shown and held out the baby "I'd recommend getting this one home and dried up"I said, she reached out quick to take its young but not roughly the baby was handled with care the female looked young maybe her first born possibly. she made a gesture I don't know sign language but I knew that it was a thank you one.

They didn't know how to act I could see that I remember seeing these movies around 7 times EACH I wasn't supposed to speak humans were called echos mimicing apes at lesser intelligence. The apes were cautious a female came forward she was familiar. "you..can speak?" she said slowly breathlessly but smoothly. I nodded slowly my body tensing looking around to see if I could make an escape. "I am Soona.. come with me echo " she gestured for me to stand then signed to the other and the began heading in a random direction.

a male signed to her but she shook her head I wonder what he said. It was a bit of a walk but then we came to a large home wide field large structures and many apes. they watched us shocked some cautious keeping their distance Soona led me to a large structure with two other males she led me up it was a long way up "Noa!" she hooted and gestured for me to not move the males watched my every move. I felt as if I just shackled myself and I was going to drown under their gazes. Movement came towards us the footsteps were strong with purpose and hesitated to look up knowing who I would see. "This echo speaks?" his voice was strong yet young "yes.. we all heard her. "She saved meadow's son..he fell in the river..almost drowned" Soona says. "what is your name?"he directed to me. With a silent gulp I steeled my nerves and looked into his green eyes he was (taller than, smaller than, eye to eye with) me "My name is (y/n)."

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale reviews: Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Alright so I FINALLY saw the movie and after an ordeal with the AMC

I can finally give my thoughts on this movie.

So in order to properly rank this. I will put the following Categories.

Animation

Plot

Characters

Music

Fanservice

Lesson

And I will give my final score at the bottom. I will try not to get too spoiler heavy but spoilers below

And for those that dont want ANY spoilers. I will say it is a great kids movie go watch it

______________________________________________________________

Animation:

This movie is Absolutely Gorgeous. Every mushroom, every brick has been lovingly crafted. I LOVE the attention to details, I love how hard each hit feels in this movie. The Choreography in this and flow is incredible. Illumination's eye for visual slapstick is still on a league of its own and it fits very well with the movie.

The character expressions all flowed great and you felt sucked in by the expression. It was like watching a Mario game. Brooklyn, The Mushroom kingdom, The Dark Lands, The Ice Kingdom, The Kong kingdom and Rainbow road ALL felt distinct and flowed. I am IN LOVE with this movies asthetic. The action was perfectly paced, I would even say it matched and surpassed the flowing animation of Puss in boots Last wish.

10/10

____________________________________________________________

Plot

So its pretty straight forward, Bowser tries to take over the kingdom, and he needs to be stopped. Mario and Luigi end up sucked into the mushroom kingdom trying to make a name for themselves as plumbers and get separated.

Mario ends up meeting Toad, Peach and Donkey Kong and the crew end up fighting Bowser and Saving Luigi. It starts as a trip to get reinforcements to fight the koopa army, turns into a race on rainbow road, then turns into a fight at a wedding and then finally a showdown in Brooklyn.

Mario and Luigi save the day and end up finding a connecting route to the the Mushroom kingdom and Brooklyn.

Now there is a LOT that happens in between these plot points and I will say it does feel a bit fast at times. But It is entertaining, Mario and Peach bond. And the scale and excitement never decreases. It is solid.

7.5/10

I wish more time could be spent in some places but thats mainly a pacing thing. and its the only real gripe I have.

___________________________________________________________

Characters

I think I will break this up into multiple sections.

Mario: I will say it, the previews took all the worst bits of Chris Pratt's VA work. Because he actually did a bang up job, I didnt hear Chris Pratt, I heard Brooklyn Mario (And the Accents are explained to be part of the commercial which has Charles cameo AMAZINGLY done)

I liked Mario's character, he was a guy that wanted to prove himself and doesnt know when to quit. Mario also doesnt like mushrooms, it was funny. He can get down on himself, but push comes to shove he is Mario and will do anything for those he loves. He has some cute bonding moments with Peach and they have a good chemistry, which I can say could be romantic or not, both are fine ways of interpretation. His goal and lengths he is willing to go to save his brother are great and I love it. Mario is great in the movie.

Peach: I will admit, I was worried on how they handled peach here. I knew they were going to make her a girl boss. And I do think that she is not as Feminine or Charming as what one would expect from Peach... BUT she has the good heart and cares for her subjects. Which Peach will be self sacrificing to help her people, but also will do what she can to mess with Bowser. As shown in her fight at the wedding. She and Mario got a good dynamic and I enjoy the roll. Though I do like that she isnt invincible, she can be outmatched and there are things even she thinks are too risky.

Luigi: I feel robbed. Not because Luigi's performance was bad, FAR FROM IT. I wanted MORE Luigi. Luigi was captured for most of the movie and had the funniest bits. He also had his big hero moment and really helped drive home one of the big lessons. I am glad that he is supportive of brother and he thinks he is the coolest guy. The characterization of Luigi was PERFECT. But as mentioned before, I wanted more of him

Toad: He was a delight. I think he has great comedic moments and I love how he just claims Mario as his BFF. He gets really funny jokes and the bits are usually out of left field. My favorite has to be how he distracted the guards, I wont dare spoil it, but it involves a Frying pan.

Donkey Kong: I thought I would hate DK. I still am not sold on the voice... THAT BEING SAID. Donkey Kong being the show off big shot that cant see past his own ego and just wants his dad to be proud of him was not what I expected but enjoyed. He also has some good moments. One moment you think he is gonna bond with Mario over Dad issues but then left turn, he goes "Well your dad's right, you suck"

It just sort of works for them, they have this frenemies vibe that I love.

Bowser:

Bowser steals the movie. He is the funniest character. He is the best character. HE WROTE A LOVE BALLAD FOR PEACH called "Peaches". He is goofy yet Intimidating. Jack Black's voice for him was perfect and the Character acting was on point. Jack Black NAILED BOWSER. He is DEFACTO Bowser. I cant say enough of how amazing his bowser was. It was just so perfect.

The others: From Mario's extended family, The Koopas, Kamek, kranky, the Luma, The Penguins. I LOVED all the side characters. I cant name one I didnt enjoy. Shout out to the Blond Kong in a sports Blazer who casually caused a kart crash of a By-stander

Now Aside from Bowser I cant say the characters are deep, but they were not meant to be. They were what they needed to be. I enjoyed all the characters on screen and never felt myself loathing not seeing a certain character for longer.

solid 8/10 (Jack black and bowser are 10/10 tho)

______________________________________________________________ Music

So I wanted to give this a 10/10, but I cant.

I found some of the random 80's rock songs a bit out of place. It is Illumination.

But outside of those songs, when they are doing the mario music and themes they ARE GLORIOUS. Bowser's fury theme and the Remixed Star theme were my personal favorites

All of the mario music is beautifully crafted. You know papa nintendo made sure they did it justice.

Overall, 8/10

The 80's songs werent the worst pick but they werent needed. Should have just stuck with the mario stuff.

But... it is illumination.

______________________________________________________________

Fanservice

ALL OF THE REFERENCES,

FOREMAN SPIKE

Pauline

CHARLES Martinet AS MARIO'S FATHER AND GIUSEPPE

PUNCH OUT PIZZARIA

the musical references,

The princess is in another castle joke.

The sound effects.

The entire movie is CRAMMED FULL of references and jokes that I am sure I didnt get all of them.

This movie was CRAFTED from Fanservice.

Is the Sonic 2 movie is a love letter to the fans,

The Super Mario Bros Movie is a full on Love Biography to them.

I am so full of the fanservice I was squealing

10/10

___________________________________________________________

Lesson

I wasnt expecting the Super mario bros Movie to have a lesson, and to my surprise it had 2 lessons.

Never give up. Mario shows throughout the entire movie his grit and determination no matter how much people look down on him or underestimate him. He got back up and kept fighting.

The power of Brotherly love. Luigi had faith in his brother who was always there for him. And he knew that things will be alright as long as they were together. And Luigi took it to heart, learning that what his brother said was true. Brotherly love made them invincible (well actually it was the power star, but it was because of that love they were able to get it.)

I am not gonna put it at the level of Puss in Boots the last wish. But its some good lessons

7/10

_____________________________________________________________

Overall, this movie, if you arent a Super Mario super fan, Is a solid 8/10

It has good characters, funny/hilarious slapstick and moments, fun action, and great for kids with a good lesson.

If you are a mario super fan (Like me)

Solid 9.5/10

I would watch it again no questions. I do wish it had more Mareach and Yoshi

[pinkyjulien]

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT Actually I'm going to share my fresh, sleep-deprived thoughts that I wrote yesterday- or more like, this morning gfhhgf bear with me cause I was loosing it :>

⚠ Heavy spoilers under read more!

As a heads up as to why the formating is all weird, this was sent to a friendo who worked on PL :3 Did a list of things that stuck to me in those 4-5 first hours right before falling asleep! I stoped at the little hideout with Myers, didn't met Reed or Kurt or MrHands or Anybody elses yet really 👁👄👁✋ taking my sweet time with it!

The start : I LOVED the glitchy holocall with songbird, it set the tone immediately

God walking up to the gate and seeing all those cars and npcs waiting to enter- THE BIT with the cops who cant go in ?? omg loved it, again its such a tiny thing that set the tone right up

Songbird introduction oh my goddddddd…. HGJG I love HER SHE'S SO COOL… When she was like "were going to crash so I woobled into your relic" I was???? Ok so How and What and What and What UH… Also I can see why people won't like her, already just cause she mute Johnny and isnt a Samurai fan fhdjbqg BUT I PERSONALLY REALLY LIKE IT

Dogtown itself???? Holyshit. Like, I remember dev saying that Night City itself was a character, the main character even, and they nailed it hardcore with Dogtown too- all of the civilians are fucking so memorable too??? how good the random crowd npcs look as well!! Its a glowup from vanilla and it shows (special kudos to the netrunner kid vendor, and the flame thrower elbow guy and his little dance ghdjs)

I wheezed when trying the AR googles HGKHQ

The crash : God. Even tho I knew what was going to happen, the amount of chills I had during that scene!! It reminded me of one of my favorite DLC from Mass Effect 3, Citadel, there is a scene where Shepard eat shit and fall through a big aquarium / building and is truly alone, hurt and all- gave me the same vibes of "the world is too big, too Much and I'm just one Guy" ??? It got me so hookt, god. ALSO THE TITLE POPING??? UUUGGGHHH. GOD.

Rush to the crash, the sneaking to the ship and getting Myers got me Alert and excited

Escorting Myers feels nice cause she's not useless, she knows how to handle herself (DUH!) but I mean her A.I as a NPC, I like that she also sneak attack on ennemies when you do, like Jackie did

Part I had struggle with was the Driving Myers to the Garage bits, was getting frustrated- I love driving in FPP but with this car, in those streets and in this stressful situation YUOOOCK it wasnt IT FHFJJG switched to TPP and managed after a few tries UwU

OK GOD. The museum- amazing visuals and lore crumbs ofc BUT THE CHIMERA???? HELLO???????? THEY FUCKING POPPED OFF. I havent felt this stressed on a boss battle in FOREVER! Funny enough it reminded me of my first time against Nefarious from Ratchet and clank 3, and its positive HKGJ I was a wee kid back then and its my favorite game from the ratchet serie (which is my favorite console serie tbh) and it made me so nostalgic of that time??? REALLY Comf, really challenging, I shat myself.

District itself is FUCKING INSANE. Of course, it looks amazing, the sound design, the VIBES- I thought everything was already done in night city, how much different nuance of CyberPunk can you do when you already have such a big city with such different districts?? but dogtown is so different and yet fit perfectly

I LOVE. THE. NOMAD DIALOGUE OPTIONS… One of my big "fear" was being left out of the fun cause yeah Nomads really just have the badlands kinda hfjdjg but!!! I already been fed from the few choices I had, especially the one when cutting out the tracker from Myers neck, mentioning the uhh ritual thing, I was !!!!!!! AAAAAH FOOD FOR THOUGHTS AND ROTS I LOVE IT

talking about Nomads I LOVE THE DIVERSITY in the new garments!! Had a lot of corpo and barghest armor loot at the start, so I didnt expected to see some cool denim harnesses, practical jeans and worker gears OwO Excited to see more cause AZHHHGFH

[beecanons]

Deltarune; Neurodivergent HC

requested by @pulsar-ray (sorry its late /g)

characters: spampton, swatch and tasque manager

Spampton

Dysgraphia and Dyslexia majorly struggles with writing numbers and letters often written backwards never consistent with sizing and lines always curve random or misplaced capitalization uses the trick of writing a line under 6 or 9 to indicate which is which but still mixes it up at times only left and right trick that words is the "lefty loosey, righty tighty" rhyme, the L hand trick doesnt work for him will mix up words that are very similar uses numbers for letters both cuz cool typing quirk and mixes them up (3 and E, B and 8 etc)

Meares-Irlen Syndrome. wears glasses to help with his sight struggles reading large blocks of text as they look like patterned lines and can cause headaches very light sensitive very different prescriptions in each eye including slight colour distortion has trouble with distance, depth perception and hand-eye coordination frequent headaches

Autistic-Spec/ASD might have autistic spectrum disorder? definitely has a range of the symptoms and traits.

Swatch

ASD definitely on the autistic spectrum. hates the use of "functioning" labels. has a sound sensitivity and prefers being indoors in the city to avoid the loud city noise. loves organizing and categorizing things by colour. delayed verbal responses

Dyscalculia Can count just fine for the most part but begins to struggle with larger numbers. Has difficulty reading strings of numbers verbal and visual math equations? not near this one. does however count money just fine. struggles with subtraction and counting backwards from high numbers can be very slow when anything involves numbers at times due to things taking a little extra time to process for him.

Dyspraxia never ask him to catch something, literally cannot, will drop it, it will fall and break if breakable. delayed physical reactions, tends to be off balance and will stumble and likely fail to catch himself if he jumps. the person who trips over themself when running, probably done so a lot as a kid and prefers just walking and keeping movements small and in one place. does bump into things sometimes, especially bumps into the wall when turning a corner but usually only when hes not fully focused on where hes going.

Synesthesia every single colour has its own flavour and sound and/or smell shapes have specific colours and sounds to them isnt sure how to describe it but can point it out sometimes will say something like "this colour sounds high pitched" or "this shape has a smooth feel"

Tasque Manager

ADHD misplaces things hyperfocused on one thing at a time but will attempt to multi-task lots of movement, even when in idle mode she is never perfectly still despite popular belief, concentrates just fine on tasks, she just cant multi-task very well, can only handle a few things at a time and likely will become side tracked but still makes progress on tasks. tries a lot to schedule herself and stick to a list of tasks, swatch more often than not helps her out with this.

Hyperlexia very fast reader often helps swatch with number related issues always has a word for something very good memory when it comes to numbers and words, possibly includes a photographic memory and/or "dictionary-like" memory. MUCH better at writing/typing out things than verbal communication. tends to repeat specific words, mostly when speaking but not entirely in a "stumbling over the word" kind of way probably has a book collection stored somewhere. yes swatch organized the books for her.

Synesthesia different colours emulate a taste or smell to her certain textures and flavours have a colour to her different sounds have different shapes and colours to them she can get very descriptive about it at times if youre curious. it goes on.

if you have anything to add or would like to share your own headcanons feel free!

the inbox is always open!

[regryrth]

#drdtdevappreciation

Im so proud of how you all as a fandom handled this so well 💙 I know things are still pretty shaky in places and no one can rlly say this problem is “solved” or “forgiven” unless DRDT Dev specifically says so (which I dont mean to say they should or have to comment on anything, I know they mentioned theyre nervous and now uncomfortable interacting which I understand and accept responsibility for) But it really makes me happy to see how for the most part We’re turning something bad into appreciation. So for the fandom here. I appreciate all of you.

Even the ones who mightve gone too far. Just like me u had good or at least non malicious intent. Which turned out bad but there are still ppl who respectfully understand where youre coming from. Maybe its not wanted- But I appreciate and care for you too. I dont know how youre handling this all, But if its anything like how I did, I hope you understand nothing is ur fault just like how people have said it’s not entirely mine and not DRDT Devs. Even if it wasnt the best thing u couldve said in the moment. I understand u didnt want to harass anyone. It was a mistake made cause it’s human to act emotionaly have opinions and want to be understood with that. That can make ppl say and post things online that get deserved back-lash like I did. And the things u say can seriously hurt people like I did. I cant say how anyone else feels with everything thats happened But if Im right about everything so far. Its okay. To me at least which I guess isnt much. Even If u dont feel real remorse- You feel u were justified- But just dont want to be lectured in paregraphs over and over. Thats ok to me too. No one has to be completely justified in how they feel and it would be hyppocritical of me to say u do. And you shouldnt have to be looked at as any worse then the rest of us for stating your mind. Ur a great DRDT fan and person too and no one should claim any different for anyone. So while no one can throw around the word “forgive” for an incident that isnt ours to forgive- I “understand” u.

On a lighter note- The people who defended DRDT Dev without harassing anyone. U all acted so maturely in response to everything I honestly envy u a little. Does maturity and not making mistakes like these come one by one for you? When I make mistakes like this I feel like something with no real sense of right or wrong- Then I mess up and ppl come out to tell me where I went wrong and the “right” thing to do- And I piece together all the life lessons and “right” responses little by little until I feel safe with myself. Like a kintsugi piece. And like the cake in chapter 1! Did u have to do the same? I wonder if everyone experiences this. But thats not so relevant to appreciating you- So thank you for seeing every side. Even mine. Thank you for taking this whole situation and turning it into something good for everyone. We should talk about stuff like this more- While I still wish I hadnt posted that confession Im happy with whats been made of it- Even if the damage was still done. Because disrespecting and dehumanizing creators like DRDT Dev who put themselfs through so much to make wonderful content for us is never ok and to sweep it under the rug Like nothing ever happened is even worse. I know I requested the original post be deleted But Im ok with it being up on other blogs and posts because its important to hold stuff like this accountable and talk about it. And u guys did just that which is why Im so proud and thankful for u. This isnt a Thanksgiving dinner But u all deserve to be appreciated for doing good things too and supporting DRDT Dev.

And that brings me to who I appreciate the most- DRDT Dev. Everyone has said it so perfectly already I cant think of how to say it myself. But theyre so strong for going through all this. With their health. And going through and finding things like what I said. And other things none of us know about because they work to prioritize us over themself. And yet they still dont give up. They still keep going even with everything. They dont have to do this. But they do anyways and we should all appreciate them so much for that. Because sometimes we forget they and there team are human- I forgot that too. Doing things like my confession and taking their work for granted and other things is never ok. Im so happy we can do something to share our appreciation for DRDT, DRDT Dev and their team. Bad things and arguments and DRDT Dev being hurt by me had to happen first. I wish it didnt and that fandoms would give this much love and support to their creators without some incident happening first. But Im happy what happened let us appreciate the dev for there work now. And even if the DRDT Dev doesnt create side content anymore because of this- Its alright. They shouldnt have to push themselves past their boundaries or limits for us cause they already do so much. Even if we dont know much about them- We know enough to say theyre a wonderful person and we all love their content and them so much.

I know a lot of ppl apologized on my behalf and I suppose I wrote a longer apology to DRDT Dev and the fandom. But Ill say again as the anon themself- I am deeply sorry DRDT Dev for what I and others have said and done. I hope that you are well. And that youre able to see our appreciation through these posts.

I love you all 💙

[goodnightalex]

i am so close to quitting twitter. i already quit tiktok bc lets face it, it sucks. twitter seems like the next step but it’s practically the only handle i have on pop culture atm so quitting it might be interesting.

on the topic of social media, i personally dont think instagram is as bad as people make it out to be in the way of negativity. i do understand it can create peer pressure but it doesnt really affect me, as much as it affects others ig.

(this next bit is just a rant on cancel culture)

twitter on the other hand is an absolute hell hole built off of cancel culture to the point where everyone has to be perfect in every way regardless of any other factors that might affect this. i have seen literal children get cancelled on that site because they said something wrong or said that they dont like someone. it is actually insane. peoples brains are still developing until the age of 25 and wont be able to make perfectly sound decisions until then. its science. its like people forget that they are people and that they arent robots programmed to not offend anyone.

and if someone gets cancelled and oh wait- you follow them, you get cancelled too by association like wtaf.

if you get into a situation where someone who you know or look up to gets cancelled, what are you even supposed to do. say the evidence is shit and you argue against it, you get ridiculed and “cancelled” yourself because you are defending the person. if you run along with it because it’s convincing or peer pressure then, sure you wont get ridiculed so much but you could also be harming others, by bullying them for their opinion in some ways (depending on how you express your distaste for the cancelee in question) more over, what if it comes to light that the allegations are false (which in the majority of cancellations that i have witnessed have been the case due to people just trying to dig up dirt on someone or faking things), what then?

what i tend to do in cancellation situations is sit and watch it burn. there isnt much else i can do. getting involved only fuels the fire and if i looked up to the person in question well i guess that fucking sucks because i cant do anything to defend them (depending on how bad the situation is obviously).

DISCLAIMER: in this insight into my thoughts of cancel culture, im not trying to say that all cancellations are unjustified and fake. i understand that sometimes they are true and people are victims of these situations. all i am trying to say is that the internet (in particular twitter) is a cesspit of misinformation and hate, where people forget that everyone is a person with their own individual thoughts and feelings towards topics. im not trying to defend anyone who has been discriminatory or a pedo or rapist, there are obviously still bad people out there. this is mostly in reference to cancellations based off of loose evidence or simply not liking someone or something. the fact i feel like i need to write a disclaimer in itself is pretty fucking shocking tbh and really shows the state of the internet and how fragile people are. i do infact have common sense, and realise people are cancelled for a reason sometimes.

anyway, thank you for reading

[2kat15]

CMC inspired (loosely) verse. Like. Very loosely. No. Really.

Wherein Dantes is on the hunt for a villain and is not afraid to get dirty to achieve his ends. When a mark figures him out, hunter becomes hunted.

"You have to time this right, Dantes. Do you hear me?" A young woman demaned sharply into his ear piece.

"Love you, too, Haydee." Dantes drawled.

"Dont be gross." Haydee scoffed over the line.

"Hardly." He hummed as he looked across the street from the metal bistro table he sat at, a cooling cup of coffee sitting before him. He eyed through his sunglasses, the luxury condo complex across the street where a bellhop stood sentry.

"You have to time this perfectly. Romeo left 3 hours ago, but he's do anytime."

"Calm yourself. We have time." He assured.

"When they change shifts-"

"I know the plan." He cut off.

They had bee rehearsing it ad nauseam. Tracking. Stalking, even, Romeo for little over a month, learning his routine. His mannerisms. How he walked, talked, carried himself. No detail too small.

Only Dantes alone kept to the shadows more-lest any make connections of there being-in image-two similar people. No.

Dantes couldnt stand out. Couldnt be memorable. But he did need to be Romeo. At least, for tonight.

"Did Vampa get his phone?"

"Earlier today." Haydee relayed. "They had an "accidental" bump on the subway. He didnt seem to notice the swap then. Im sure he has by now."

"Then the rest will be fine." He assured, setting out a few dollars on the table for the passing waiter as he got up as the bellhop moved back. His relief had arrived.

They could fool the human guards. The camera, not so much. But Dantes was confident on that front too. How many security guards truly paid that much attention to see or say exactly when someone arrived and left? Not without due cause would they review footage, and Dantes would not give them reason.

Romeo would enter. Romeo would leave. Later yet, Romeo would enter and leave again.

"Tell me your plan. Once more". Haydee instructed as he ducked into a close alley to start the charade, shucking off his coat to expose the clothing beneath, far more Romeo's style.

Dantes folded his coat up, cramming it into the plastic trash bag he had come with before tucking it against the alley wall.

"Dantes!" Haydee barked.

"Patience, Haydee. Patience." He quipped. "It's a simple thing. I go in, and wait for Romeo to return. I subdue him, and raid his closet for the attire appropriate for tonight's main event: Roy". He grinned, an almost feral edge to his twisted smile.

Roy. Roy. Roy. What secrets did he keep? How many of Dantes personal enemies did he shield? Dantes would find out.

Romeo wasnt the only one they had been tracking, but seeing as Roy had an attraction to the escort, Romeo became another means to an end.

"It isnt that simple." She snapped. "Can you handle-"

'A pampered escort? You think too lowly of me." He snorted in derision.

"On the contrary. I think you too excited. Are you sure you made the appropriate dose of your sedative?"

"Quite, considering I tested it on myself. Romeo will not awaken for several hours. By which time our event will be well over. Now adieu, Haydee. Adieu for now. I'll call YOU when ready for the next step."

[birdkittenn]

continuing where i left off

wrath layer fic chapter 2 reaction:

once again, author's notes reaction. i found the details tag from a tumblr post once and decided id stash the info away until i could use it somewhere. and that turns out to be here

yeah. feral little guy who wants to kill and murder but stopped by the guy who isnt feral

everything is gayer from v2's pov, who has already realized his feelings and trying so hard and failing at getting rid of his crush on this stupid blue fuck

and then i have little thoughts on the little v1-sentry interaction. it's there i guess. v1 the undersocialized little guy who only knows how to kill panicking because if not kill, then what do?? the fact that there's a Lot of people didnt help

oh the v1 trauma scene. im dreading a little at rereading this, i dont think it was good >-<

first, from current v1's pov, who has forgotten what has happened. this reads fine honestly

and now with the memory. the last line in the center is part of v1 realizing that its stuck in a loop and deleting the memory. so far with how i've written it, v1 does Not fare well when realizing it failed an order/task/anything. it does better at not marking things as failure now but it still handles it poorly

current idea that im not 100% sure will make it into the series is that memory deletion does not mean deletion of like, feelings. the stress is Still There. which. you know. if v1 suddenly finds itself in a loop where it keeps deleting its memories, and thereby placing it back into the exact same situation each deletion, the stress just continues building up and. yeah

not sure how i feel about the fact that, so far, my pre-canon characterization of v1 and v2 is that v1 is the most anxious thing that loves to kill ever, and v2 is like...there. v2 going "wow, its so easy being an unfeeling machine" [proceeds to not even realize he is experiencing feelings]. v2 is very stressed when he learns that he has feelings like everyone else. deals poorly with having them. v1 is just always stressed the fuck out though. i guess it's like a cheetah or something

word of the author means nothing btw if its not in the series. everything can change at any time i just like talking about my current plans

v1's reaction to conflict like this! it doesn't want to talk about that at all and gets angry if you try. the anger comes from something like fear though

ok the drawing scene! i struggled with explaining the concept behind it a little. i looked up an image of a lighthouse and mentally broke stuff down into shapes and then tried to describe that as best as i could

if i have to be completely honest, the idea of robots being Very Good at just tracing art and doing realistic art, but struggle more with the abstract stuff comes from this fic. i havent finished reading it nor do i really remember a lot of stuff anymore these days but that was 1 of the scenes that stuck out to me. another scene that sticks out to me is the part where sun tries to describe his favourite colour, but its a very specific colour, guy probably has the hex code for it and all, and tries really hard to recreate that exact colour. its cool i need to reread if i ever get the time. 107 chapters got hands

ivan aivazovsky! i wanted one of his wave paintings specifically because the first time i saw it, i went WOAH and so i knew i had to use one of his paintings for my yaouri fic. and then the part where their conversation drifts away from the drawing topic is because i ran out of things to say and also i needed them to move onto the next thing i wanted them to do

oh, the voice thing is next! v2's voice is perfectly fine by the time of the 7-3 fic, but in the 4-4 fic, it was fucked up. i needed a reason as to why v2 would restore his voice and the answer is v1 just likes it. v1 likes to listen to him a lot. it also likes to make him shut up but like lovingly

oh, from one of the glitched text, i transcribed "play nice" as "pʰle͡j na͡js" partly from that 1 time i took a linguistics course and they made me transcribe those sounds as e͡j etc instead of whatever online dictionaries transcribe it as, and then that just stuck with me. i also had a moment while transcribing "play" as like hey wait a minute! air releases when i pronounce the p in play, so i should add the symbol for that

i have that outfit in my closet! no pictures but i know exactly what it looks like. sadly have been unable to find an image that looks like my dress online

i have also had a scene where once v2 finally dresses up v1, his pet name for it is just doll. like. yeah. i havent found an excuse to get v2 to do that though

(v1 is just laying down on a couch during this scene)

oh yeah i had v1 teasingly call v2 a sculpture but didn't know exactly how to get it to do that. i mean i figured it out but yeah. i dont know if this was a planned thing that never came to fruition or something i made the fuck up just now (memory not the best) but they wouldve played around a bit with the actual sculptures in the room and comparisons wouldve been made

aaand that's the end of the chapter. i dont have any further thoughts on this

and the below screenshot is the alternate petting scene where v2 overheats. i instead moved the overheating to the next chapter. v2 cannot handle this amount of affection (yet) (he unwillingly gets trained to tolerate more before he gets far too happy about it and ceases to like function for a bit) (thanks v1)

who wants to see me liveblog my reaction to my own fic

[calebwittebane]

people who say philip wittebane isnt interesting personality-wise are outta their minds like. him going through Smelly Ex-Puritan Redditor Who Loves To Appear Pathetic And In Pain (And Also Literally A Serial Killer) -> Ancient Barely-Human-Anymore Spiteful Bitch And A Cosmic Scammer pipeline is one thing, like thats the superficial Mess; where the fun really begins is when you look at how truly emotionally stunted he is i mean theres so much to unpack here... like hes old as balls and yet he never quite developed past the mindset of a 7 year old. like theres genuinely a developmental impact present of a shitty upbringing (im sure caleb did his best but being raised by yr older brother who was also a child who didnt know shit and probably experiencing a ton of horrible shit otherwise doesnt sound great) that philip never really did anything about, never addressed and never worked through. like hes just stuck in one place mentally and emotionally and goals-wise. and stuck recreating what he knew by doing the same thing over and over (creating clones of caleb) expecting different results. like the best he can do is yearn for the few things from his past that were good. he thinks of witch hunts like its a game hes playing and wants to be the specialest boy with the best score getting the coolest title Um Excuse Me Its Witch Hunter General.

(lmao the way he got to actually pretend to be a little kid in hollow mind, he was having SO much fun doing that. it came so naturally to him. really committed to the bit to the point where you wonder if its even a bit. the answer is no its not a bit although when it was time to be a big boy again and see the look on their faces that too was sooo fun to him. he TRULY was vibing in that episode like he was having SO much fun its horrible)

but those things were long ago and he has a skewed image of them and the way he recreates them is extremely imperfect too. he leans into his childish selfish urges without thinking. he wants the copies of caleb to be “improved” by which he means he wants them to be the caring, patient, protective caleb who always had time for him and who was endlessly dedicated to him (who, i speculate of course but, likely didnt even get to have a childhood of his own because he had to grow up fast to take care of everything and never really got to hang out with his peers - something that hunter’s experience is eerily similar to) that he remembers from his childhood. i mean we dont really know what caleb’s and philip’s entire Attitude Journey towards witches was exactly (yet) but what philip really murdered caleb for, at the core, was moving on and changing and trying to have a life and family of his own, becoming too different from the caleb he had cherished as a source of comfort as a child. caleb changed and grew up and developed aspects of his own life that philip had no access to, and philip couldnt handle that and destroyed him. and then tried to recreate him as exactly what he had wanted him to be. and failed time after time, because no matter how much he tried to prevent it, the grimwalkers too would be their own people and they too would develop into something he couldnt control. and because philip is emotionally 7 years old, he doesnt get it. to him its just a repeating nightmare of caleb Abandoning Him, not something that just like, is part of being a person

and the fucking. shitass little family he created for himself. himself, the collector, and the grimwalker. whichever grimwalker it was at the time. one of so many. himself, his Loyal Not-Brother Whos Always There For Him, and the collector who is his buddy who is also perpetually stuck being a child (i am THINKING about how well they had to have gotten along, i mean they seem very fond of each other up until the betrayal (which again doesnt negate anything, philip is perfectly capable of just throwing people out like hes discarding toys even when he used to be super fond of them. You Know, Like A Child), they had to have been VIBING, im super fascinated by this tbh and wonder if the collector ever got to see philip being childish silly and goofy. we as viewers even get to see bits and moments of philip being childish silly playful and trifling and im like imagining philip just allowing himself to be that all he wants around the collector because Theyre Both Eternal Children). like its literally kid philip’s idea of a perfect family. just he and his eternal buddy and his eternal parentsibling. both being toys he can then discard, or in the case of the grimwalkers abuse and then destroy. Shit Ass Little Family For A Shit Ass Little (6′8 tall) Loser

he doesnt do anything for religious reasons and hes not shown to be bigoted except for his hatred of witches - its like he doesnt get it and never did, because no matter the circumstances children arent born believing what the people around them do, they learn and internalize it from their environment, and he and caleb only really had each other it seems and just kind of observed adults from far away, so what philip Did internalize was this distant idea of witch hunts being something totally cool that earned you ranks and being important and Protected Humanity (also a very nebulous concept). like all of that was abstract and nebulous enough that caleb being the more mature of the two upon actually meeting witches and getting to see the demon realm immediately understands theres nothing to fear or hate and its a beautiful rich world and he can be one of them and start a life there

philip knows how to win games, he knows how to survive no matter what, he knows how to earn sympathy from people, he knows how to lie and steal, he knows how to destroy things and toss them away and take them apart and put them back together. he knows how to run an empire based on arbitrary rules he invented to play into his bigger scheme and final plan. he doesnt know how to have anything genuine without ruining it. he doesnt know how to avoid being an unbelievably cruel creepy sleazy ridiculous insufferable BEAST

like at the end of the day he did this to himself (the imagery of him gradually losing humanity and basically just wearing a person suit to hide that hes pretty much a semi-solid at best is awesome too), and he lost and is in an absolutely pathetic state now all because of his own actions, he ruined COUNTLESS lives; but theres also like, consideration given to how he became this way, how it was a combination of things he couldnt help and growing up in an environment that was cruel and didnt allow him to develop properly - but how that too was not impossible to overcome, and we get proof of that in the show, and he failed to overcome it largely due to his own decisions - and his own actions he committed with full awareness and premeditation. like hes so much more than “villain who is a product of his time” and so much more than “villain who doesnt know any better because Tragic Backstory” and so much more than “villain who is just evil because he is”. hes a great villain ok. so far the most compelling and interesting ive seen in this type of media. icon and legend. invented being horrible. a petri dish of a person, designed to be studied in a lab. cant stand her fake ass *10 seconds later* me and the bestie

[hanguangbuns]

wei wuxian and his attitudes on his sexuality... and the fandom attitudes towards it in turn

so i guess for my first post ill talk about some discussions of sexuality ive seen floating around, mainly pertaining to wei wuxian's sexuality and how he views himself. this isnt any sort of analysis of the direct text or anything but oh it could be. i dont use a lot of direct references to the text for this post, mostly going on pure memory, so take it with a grain of salt.

one thing i see a TON in fandom and transformative fandom spaces is this incessant need to label a favorite character's sexuality one way or another, whether it be a sexuality the person likes to project themselves on or something else. thats not to say that its necessarily WRONG to do so—i love it when my dear mutuals see themselves in a character i think its very endearing & exciting, and in fact, there had been many times where i did some self-exploration of my own sexuality through characters. the problem i mostly have is when people get heated or even obsessive over something like a label.

i think for so long, there's been this discussion of wei wuxian's sexuality where, though mostly in good faith, comes to a point where you have to wonder if it even matters in the canon context. whether he’s bi, gay, straight, etc... it all comes down to the fact that in the story, they (wei wuxian and lan wangji) don't label themselves at all, and neither does the author. yes there is the term "cut-sleeve", which as we all know, is mostly used, almost in the negatory in the mdzs universe—the origins of the term “cut-sleeve” itself is referred to the story of Emperor Ai of the Han dynasty, who cut off his sleeve so as to not wake his sleeping lover. cut-sleeve itself is an allusion to homosexuality, but not the full label.

so what does this mean? well for starters, on twitter, there has been this lovely thread by twitter user flowerofgusu, who does a detached translation of chapter 111, and noticed a few key things. what i want to focus on is the first tweet, where translation differences are highlighted in that line. i implore you all to read the thread (its short!), because i dont want to trample all over it. but keeping it simple, we can see that there is a BIG difference between reading a wei ying who always thought himself as heterosexual, and a wei ying who just simply never thought himself “in that way”

i think this could open up a lot of discussion on how sexuality is handled in mdzs, and how wei ying’s own attitude toward sexuality is written. the author of the thread noticed that wei ying’s attitudes lines up well with the concept of “demisexuality.” and it makes sense! we know that lan wangji is the only person that wei wuxian has ever come to love intimately, and whole-heartedly. but again, the thing is, its a label, and whether or not it was intentional, we will never know if he is demi for sure. and that’s ok! in my opinion, characters dont have to have labels, and we know that wei wuxian can be perfectly happy living the rest of his life without labeling himself in any specific way.

(side note, now im seriously wondering if a “lack of label” is also a phenomenon of me wanting to project too—personally im someone who doesnt really stick to one, so i wonder if this is also me projecting in a sense. lol)

anyways, my problem with all of this arises because of a couple of attitudes of seen in response to the thread. i wont link it, and honestly i think the issue seems to pertain to the way fandom views characters’ sexuality in general. that discussing how characters might be demi, or acespec, or even just someone with no labels, is met with attitudes of “you’re erasing bisexuality” or “he is gay!!1!”; when ppl introduce the book, its “the main character is a bisexual necromancer!”. these claims are generally in good faith but, the problem is, they are not backed by the canon text either. i wont sit here and talk about other series or other characters, but i know for sure wei wuxian isnt labeled at all. heres what we know: 

that, in his first life, he teased and flirted a little, if only to make friends or get something in return, like food, or a perfume sachet.

he was rumored to be someone who ravishes virgin maidens every night, which no, he didnt. he hung out with some ghost maidens one time and lived alongside some poor farmers in the burial mounds. he died a virgin too

he experiences moments of comphet on few occasions, most notably in xuanwu cave where he told lan wangji “he doesnt like men”—i wrote a bit on this but i went back to read the text in its full context, and wei wuxians proclamation of “i dont like men!” seems to be more of a way to assure lan wangji that he wont take advantage of him, rather than him being so assured of his sexuality. since i dont have access to the original text, let's leave this for another day.

in the phoenix mountain kiss, he assumed that the person who stole his first kiss was a strong, but shy maiden. again, comphet at play, and never considers the possibility of it being a man

in his second life, he plays what he thinks not only how a cut-sleeve acts, but how mo xuanyu acts. when he first wakes up, he plays the act of a lunatic, then attempts to play it up to his advantage when he learns that mo xuanyu is homosexual. not once does wei wuxian himself ever harbor any negative feelings or disgust towards mo xuanyu being gay, or towards homosexuality at all.

in fact, up until the moment wei wuxian starts to fall in love with lan wangji, and when he realized he did, he never once fantasized about him being in a serious intimate situation with anyone, nonetheless even a man! his first life had been a lifetime of struggle, a struggle to conform, and a struggle through war, and a struggle to stand up whats right. whats notable is that although he and lan wangji met only on several occasion, it was enough to make a huge impression on each other—and for wei wuxian tell jiang yanli all about his new friend in the cloud recesses!

anyways the point is, wei wuxian never labels himself, but neither does he ever think about his sexuality in any meaningful way, whether because he “didnt have time”, or because he just simply didnt see the need to. i think the lack of a label on a character, or, really, a person, not only means that they dont care about how to define themselves, but because they just simply dont see the need to. wei wuxian is someone in the latter—he is a carefree person that goes with the flow, and doesnt get hung up so easily over any little thing.

this brings up another point ive thought about a lot—why use these western labels to define fictional characters living in an ancient fantasy china? especially terms where they have only been recently defined within the past couple hundred years. i think there is a lot to discuss when it comes to imposing western views of sexuality onto foreign art and media, especially media that, rather than try to label subjects any specific way, aims to tell a story rather than focus on identity politics. (i think this goes into why danmei itself is pretty appealing to a lot of people—it doesnt focus on the labels of its characters, but rather the characters themselves going “i love this person for themself, and not because im gay”. of course, there could be few exceptions, but generally, it is popular for the main couples in danmei to be wholeheartedly devoted to each other, no matter if they have been in several relationships before, or none at all)

another phenomenon ive seen in the fandom which was subject to a lot of discussion, is “sbwy”, or straight boy wei ying. generally i do think its inherently a harmless concept, and one that can be fun in a comedic setting, and especially wonderful when it comes to things like “coming of age” fics or analysis. the problem is. too many a time have i seen bad-faith criticism of the novel that claims… that wei wuxian was actually “straight” in his first life, and him taking the body of a gay man means he suddenly turned gay and that means mxtx deleiberately wrote this and is homophobic and blah blah blah—

just. full stop. i think at that point, anyone who thinks that probably didn’t read the novel lbr. wei ying was never implied to be “straight” in his first life—like i mentioned, he flirted with girls and generally never thought about himself in “that way”, but the whole point of the flashback arcs were to bring to light certain contexts that the present arcs needed, and to highlight the relationship between wei wuxian and lan wangji at that time. its rocky, but generally, they had a better relationship than what most people thought. we know that lan wangji didnt want his feelings known to anyone, and especially wei wuxian; so wei wuxian himself had no reason to know of it at all. and it makes sense—by the time lan wangji himself realized it, it was much too late, and wei wuxian had deemed him an outsider to his problems. theres nothing he could do to help without overstepping boundaries, so he chose to respect it (generally).

anyways what im saying here is that wei wuxian wasn’t straight in his first life—he just never had any reason to think about his sexuality. he was and is carefree, and i think his attitude towards his sexuality carefree as well. when he started realizing he was catching feelings for lan wangji, his first thought wasn’t “but im not gay!”, it was “oh my god. i might be gay. i might be gay and i might be gay for my best friend and i dont know what to do about it does he like me back i hope he likes me back aakdjklgfdhlkf;ds” (please note that i use the term “gay” loosely, not that im making any straightforward comment on what his sexuality might be, ty) he’s flexible with his attitude towards his own sexuality, not really claiming he’s any one thing, but instead, focusing on the most important object of his desires, lan wangji.

(discussions of sex incoming)

he was never inclined to seek out gay erotica in his first life, and he was never inclined to that kind of interests, and he was never inclined to sex at all. we know that in his first life, he died a virgin and never felt any kind of desire like that at all. in his second life, he becomes interested in sex—most noteably, interested in sex with lan wangji. lan wangji is the object of his desires, and throughout the entire story, no one ever catches his eye quite like the second jade of lan. he unlocks a desire within himself that he himself has never known, and from then on, hes more inclined to do anything with lan wangji. its exhilarating, its scary, its wonderful, and most of all, wei ying is happy. hes happy and excited and satisfied! wangxian never put labels on themselves throughout the novel, and theyre happy with that. when they realize the depth of their feelings for each other, theres no going back—it feels natural to them, so why go through the trouble of putting labels for themselves?

to close off i wanna say, headcanon whatever you want! whether wei wuxian is gay, bi, straight, demi, whatever, its all up to interpretation! and having civil discussions about it can be fun, and can bring people a whole different perspective than what they thought before. but i think its silly to claim that wei wuxian has to be one or the other, and if ppl hc him being a label you think is incorrect, its morally wrong to do so. in my opinion, i think the lack of putting a label on a sexuality can be really refreshing, and for wei wuxian, it seems to do him just fine.

[icewindandboringhorror]

 *starts  saying “say goodbye to your PDI” every time I have to leave a room or exit a conversation * 

[the-old-caius]

I neglected to mention, I don't necessarily buy that the intended reading was simply Divine Right of Kings Good, Empire Good. It's not what I got out of it, at the very least. Martin has a crisis of faith specifically regarding the god that granted the right of Kings, says that waiting for a divine to intervene and guide you isn't how you fight off evil, (supposedly this is framed as correct, since that conviction is what leads us to victory at Bruma, subsequently being how we even get the amulet back) (the complicated part here is that while this, in part, denounces the idea of a god-chosen Emperor, he also fulfills that idea in the same act) and like, he ended the covenant, the third era and the septim dynasty, and that's what saved Tamriel, so. YMMV? In the end, a divine did intervene, but only because of the Amulet being shattered, so blindly clinging to that symbol of rule would've ended far worse... the invocation of the avatar is also weirdly ambiguous regarding why things actually happened. I've said this as a joke before, you could 100% read it as divine retribution instead. It's also not like Akatosh is a beacon of morality or sense.

The story lacks perspective- you get the Blades, a religious order dedicated to Talos and sworn to serve the Dragonborn on one side, and the insane world-ending cultists on the other. Not good! But Martin specifically, as arguably the central character of the Main Quest, has more going on than just being a symbol for a "righteous reign of emperors". Quite the opposite, at times

[the imperial legion specifically, the Empire's tool for conquest, also renders itself useless to actually fighting off the forces of Oblivion cause they're busy "defending" the border, so like... that might not count as an explicit condemnation of imperial conquest (Redguard did that), but it certainly doesn't cast it in a good light.]

M. Caius-antivirus 1) don’t know your pronouns 2) I keep thinking of your soldier/poet/king thingie and like. 🤔 can’t quite word it but do you think Martin found apotheosis as Just Martin or as Martin Septim? I know the intended reading is the second one because Todd Coward said divine right of kings, but the more I think about it, the more I find it romantic/rewarding that he was ultimately Just Martin. What do you think? :o

Good evening 1.) he/him :] and 2.) okay so here's the thing. I have so much to say about like. Everything that's behind the covenant and the amulet and how that kinda re-frames in my mind a little. Like the origins are pretty fucked up and I think making it fucked up was a conscious decision

Short answer is that I think the breaking of the amulet and covenant was another turning point where something significant changed. Avatar of Akatosh.

His blood... the dragon needs the mortality of human flesh for the blood to mean something? You know? All of it.

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. lo hades def looks like he's into crypto, you know what I mean? especially bc you cant be taxed on it, the richer the better!

2. This isnt even just LO but why do so many of the romance comics have such a desire to sexualize barly legal young women who are of COURSE naive virgins (but also super sexy and horny and know how to flirt out of the blue!) and try and make us root for them to get into relationships with their Christian Grey knock-off bosses?? like Let's Play (spoilers I guess) thought it'd be funny to have the MC be in physical PAIN after having sex, like why are you showing your teen audience this???

3. Nah I feel the same way as other anon. LO is way too confused on whether it's a light hearted YA story or a serious drama for Mature™️ readers. Like the SA and (one) therapy session was more or less handled perfectly fine, but everything from the AOW to the Trial is either incredible goofy or tries way too hard to be "serious" with RS and her team both not putting the writing nor art skill into it to hold any weight. It just comes across as melodramatic and try-hard over genuine and well planned

4. There's so many "quirks" in LO's art that are bad but WHY is it a thing where when a character is just standing there their arms and legs are just glued to the side of their bodies like🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️🧍? that's not how even soliders at attention stand, there's still bones and muscles to account for but they end up with that end product? I just do not get how her and her team have probably 50+ years of art education and practice between them and yet they fail on such basic concepts every time.

5. I for one think that the differences between how characters slapping each other is depicted as either good or bad depending on who’s doing the slapping isn't hypocritical of RS: Hecate slaps Hades because she thinks he’s being predatory towards Persephone, this is a well-intentioned slap. Minthe’s slap on the other hand, is not justifiable because she was in the wrong in the context of that conflict: you don’t get to just stand your boyfriend up and hit him when he’s hurt by it.

6. it's just funny WT itself has a posting rule that your comic "cant show topics like incest or grooming" as if thats not the majority of the romance genre itself. yall ever read eggnoid? cmon now.

7. punderworld made a myth rec list and go figure some lo fans were in the comments saying "LO was all [they] needed" and its like how would you even know this episode happened unless you were subbed to punderworld, therefore proving they keep up with other myth comics? also the creator got upset at the lo fans being mad she didnt also rec LO as if its not the most advertised series on that whole site and she was promoting smaller creators. LO fans are so entitled even to other creators it's crazy.

8. I think the issue with the “let people like things” argument (and the fans do this so much) is that I’m All for that, I and every other critic isnt saying you can’t like, hell there’s parts of it I do like and wish there was more of! But if you go “just let people enjoy things!!” when it comes to legitimate criticism (ie misogyny, racism, classism, mishandling of trauma and assault to push a romance along, etc) you don’t care about others opinions, you just want them to like YOUR thing.

9. we already know rachel is a weeb but it's most obvious when it's a kissing scene because she does NOT draw lips but all of a sudden they get huge and glossy when theyre about to smooch but nothing else about the face adjusts with it and it's like what the hell is that 😭

10. i honestly dont blame lo fans for buying books of it even if the quality of it degrades rapidly after vol 1, once it ends (maybe in five years at this rate) webtoons will right away put it on daily pass which is notoriously a bad venue for rereads/new readers who missed when it was originally published and given how rachel has no sense of less is more, itll cost hundreds of dollars just to read the current 190+ episodes, much the many more shell milk out of it. might as well avoid that now 😵‍💫

[familyagrestefanblog]

Analysis of the Family Agreste Portrait

Quarantine strikes again and since the Agreste family portrait has fascinated me for a loooong while now I decided to put my thoughts into words and write another essay x3

The amount of informations we get out if it is amazing and its not only highlighting the absolute TRAGEDY it is that this family is about to face such a horrible fall out, it also hints at the former family dynamic before everything went to hell.

So make yourself comfortable and get something to drink, because we will be here for a while.

Here we go: My analysis of this beauty of a fictional portrait

Let's start with the most obvious one: Hawkmoth.

Its commen knowledge by now that the background makes it seem like Hawkmoth is standing behind the Agreste family like a bad omen waiting for fate to take its course and cause their doom. The portrait is brilliantly designed so the illusion is created that Gabriels body (here in a blue suit closer to Hawkmoths normals dark purple one) overlaps with Hawkmoths and a darker line is connecting the two faces as well, which rest on the same height right beside each other. The very same line grows bigger as it goes further behind Emilie - coloring her entire background - showing us that EMILIE is all Gabriel sees when he becomes Hawkmoth. But notice that Adrien on the other hand can hardly be concidered part of Gabriels “sight” at all.

Its forshadowing 101 and damn beautiful if I may say so. But this isnt what I want to focus on in this post.

I want to elaborate on two other key factors that tell us about the former dynamic of the Agrestes instead and what they tell us about the present and future.

The heart:

This is hitting me on another level because look at the heart these three form with Adrien right in the middle! He was so LOVED. This family may have never been anywhere close to ideal but still, there was LOVE and now he's gonna loose it all.

Adrien already lost his mother which led to his father getting even more distant and cold and now his father is becoming increasingly more abusive as he falls deeper and deeper into villainy. Gabriel was never a good father, the show has already made this clear with episodes like "the bubbler", “the collector” or "Gigantitan" for example but gosh there was hope for their little family! The end scene in "Jackady" portrayed it perfectly and I wrote a whole other post just covering the sigificants of Adriens and Gabriels hug in that episode. Check it out here if you want, it goes hand in hand with this one.

Miraculous is all about love and the completely different ways it can affect us, our behavior and actions. Because love isnt just wonderful, pure and empowering, it also can be twisted, destructive and cause the darkst nightmares. And with this family the writers know how to portray the complex love in an abusive houshold thats destined to go up in flames and they also know how to hint at their troubled past with the family portrait.

But this heart visual tells us even more in connection with the positions of their hands. And with these two key factors, lets start with Gabriel:

His hands convey it so strongly. He loves/d Emilie and Adrien so much and no doubt this love for them was certainly the reason why he started his quest as Hawkmoth. But he is now losing himself more and more in the pleasure of his villainy to the point where he forgets why he's doing it in the first place and becomes a complete monster (of a father). But this turn and spiraling into villainy didn't came out of nowhere - this root already had to be in him to grow like that. And this is also something the portrait indeed hints at as well.

Because Gabriel is the only one of the three who:

1. We see so completely open and without hesitation reach out and hold BOTH his family members.

2. Is visually “cut off” from them as well.

But this doesn't mean he was excluded and the only one who truly cared and loved, it just shows that things were more... complicated...as usual.

This is best explained with Adriens hand placements:

One hand is holding his mothers but the other one is visibly not reaching out for his father. But as we all know, that's not because Adrien doesn't love him. In season 1-3 it is made more than clear that Adrien does not hate his father - he loves him alot and tries to be there for him and be patient because he knows that the loss of his mother brought his father terribly down.

Sure, Adrien gets frustrated and angry with him, literally how could he not?? But Adrien tries his best to reach out to Gabriel so they can bond and come out of this tragedy stronger.

But this loving willingness to forgive his father for the chance of growing a father-son bond with him doesn't change the fact that these two didn't had a bond prior to this. And let's be honest here, does anybody actually think this distance between them was caused by Adrien? I don't think so.

So notice how Adriens hand - not reaching out for his fathers - is the only one in the portrait NOT inside or forming the heart.

When the connection of the hands between the family members symbolise their connection to another, then Adrien keeping the hand for his father away from the display of love is VERY telling. It tells us very directly what this distance did to Adriens side of the relationship. Despite Gabriels hand being right there, Adrien does not meet the gesture. And I cannot believe that he did it out of resentment, nothing in the show indicated such strong negative emotions from past Adrien.

It's much more likely that Adrien not reaching for his fathers hand is meant to show us that Adrien felt that he either CAN'T return the gesture because he fears that it'll end in an unpleasant reaction from Gabriel - that it isn't Adriens "place" to reach out to his busy and distant father like that, like it's demanding something - or Adrien simply didn't took Gabriel laying his hand on his shoulder, in the context of posing for a portrait, as a gesture of love and affection.

The way I interpret the portrait is that prior to Emilies dissappearence Adrien did not exactly try to reach out to his father the same way he did from s1-s3, which, I mean, of course wasn't the case. Not only is it NOT the 13 years olds (or younger) job to form an emotional connection to their absent parent - when that’s the PARENTS job - it also wouldn't be necessarily "needed" for Adrien to do so.

Because Emilie at this point was still in the picture so and she was the complete opposite. She was a (or maybe the ONLY) safe, reliable and loving constant of parental attention, affection and care in his life and because of these two HARSH contrasts Adrien learned from very early on to focus mostly completely on her in that regard while kinda blocking his father out.

That most likely wasn't even an active choice whatsoever - Gabriel proofed to be an unreliable resource so Adrien learned to subconciously treat him that way out of self protection. That doesn't mean he had any kind of dislike or malice against his father it just means that he wasn't able or allowed to connect with Gabriel the way he needed. Several episodes show that Gabriel deadass only parented like 15 minutes tops in his life with one of the worst offenders kinda being “Gigantitan” ngl.

So yeah, when I see that the portrait wants to tell me that prior to Emilies loss, Adrien - a 12-13 year old at most - is THIS used to rely solely on the strong bond he has with his mother and not even really reaching out for his fathers love, then I can't help but interpret it in the way that... Well... Gabriel was so distant and emotionally unreliable to Adrien for all his life, that Gabriel simply... wasn't needed by his son. Not at that point of time at least.

And while this may seem weird, because obviously Adrien only now starts to stop craving for his fathers affection and approval (which is btw a horrible, HORRIBLE thing and not something good. A half orphan losing the last remaining hope he had left of having the chance to finally get to form a bond with the only other parent he has left, just to be crushed by disappointment and abandonment all over again until he let's go, is REALLY NOT as much of a good thing people will make it out to be. This is... plain awful) it's actually quite logical.

Adriens hand outside the heart doesn't mean that his father meant nothing to him and therefore refuses to meet and accept his affection (that's literally the complete opposite of what the show shows us), it means that Adriens and Gabriels father-son relationship suffers from a fatal emotional disconnection caused by miscommunication/ a lack of communication.

And this was caused by Gabriel. How? Let me elaborate on that by going a bit far afield (cuz lbh we all have time for this. I’m writing this in quarantine and youre reading this is quarantine, so lets gooooooooooooo).

In "The bubbler" Adrien says that his father "always forgot his birthday", but I cannot agree with this in true honesty. Gabriel is controlling his sons entire life, calls him "the epitome of perfection" and temporarily truly gave up being Hawkmoth for him, he definitely never forgot Adriens birthday.

"The bubbler" even SHOWS us that Adriens perspective of the situation is actually not the truth:

This is Adriens first birthday after Emilies dissappearence and it's incredibly telling how Gabriel handles the planning.

What this entire little sequence tells me is that Gabriel is completely and UTTERLY used to NOT be the one to take care of anything related to Adriens birthday. So Emilie was always the one who did it but somehow - now without her - Gabriel apparently still hasn't even considered changing anything about that nasty non-involvement and just expected Natalie to pick everything up where Emilie left it.

Because let's be real here, knowing Natalie she would NOT have forgotten to get a present if Gabriel truly had told her to. Natalie is never presented to do mistakes like that but Gabriel on the other hand IS definitely presented to us claiming things about himself as ultimate, blameless and true when they simply do not reflect reality. A great example: Gorizilla

You didn’t even speared a minutes of your time for Adrien and he DID try to! Asshat… It's a problem guys. The lack of self awareness Gabriel displays in moments like this is legitimately concerning when you think about how deeply this man is falling right now.

But back to the topic:

Because even if Gabriel didn't even consider doing anything himself for Adriens birthday - not even taking the time to SEE his son (who just recently lost his mother, come on Gabe, really?) - one thing one cannot hold against him: he sure as hell remembered Adriens birthday like any decent parent would and it wasnt portrayed as a this-year-for-the-first-time thing.

And yet Adriens statement still makes complete sense. Because a big, BIG problem with Gabriel is just how much he takes things for granted. He EXPECTS things to be universally known and to never be doubted, just because that's how HE sees them. I will write 10 essays if it's needed to make people understand that Gabriel DOES truly love Adrien, it's just that Gabriel HIMSELF is such a rotten, twisted and toxic person that he cannot see how much his (oppressing) behavior and the way he (doesn't) express his love hurts Adrien and that HE is the one at fault. (for more, once again, read this)

Gabriel LOVES Adrien but he takes the love he feels as such a matter-of-fact that he just completely... forgets to show it.

And when we take Adriens words and look at the Family portrait it unfortunately seems that...

…. Gabriel ALWAYS forgot to show it.

Adriens hand - that should at least be reaching out to his father - is outside of the heart in accepting certainty. Because that's what Gabriels non-presence was for Adrien while growing up: an unreliable and unreachable certainty he had to accept early on as safer to not try to emotionally depend on too much or else he will get hurt.

So yeah, Adrien is the one in the portrait who is very openly not reaching out but only because Gabriel never gave him the needed affection and stability to be able to create that bond.

But let me correct what I said a little earlier: Adrien ALWAYS needed his father. Every kid, especially one in a bad situation like Adrien, does need their parents/friends etc as support system to become independent and confident in a healthy way. And if they don’t have that they WILL crave and look for it!

What Adrien has been doing up to now IS normal for a teenager - humans NEED affection, belonging and safety. What ISNT/SHOULDN’T be normal is Adriens disconnection towards his father in the portrait and just how much Gabriel fails to take care and BE THERE for his son in BOTH TIMES!

Collector:

Bother Christmas:

One thing I like about the show is that it portrays their young main cast with one very important truth: The psyche of a child/teenager of their age will react and adapt so it SURVIVES, even if it results in unfortunate consequences in other relationships and places. Thats the psyches main concern and it'll try to cope with the limited experience and development it has in whatever way necessary to get itself to the next day. A coping mechanism is not there to make you a better person, it ensures your SURVIVAL, everything else is a secondary concern.

So seeing pre-show Adrien not react to Gabriels touch and even feel completely unloved and disconnected from him is no surprise to me. Kids are incredibly observant. They may lack the needed experience and knowledge to truly understand that they deserve better and to stand up for themselves but they are masters in picking up red flags in people and can put this danger into perspective while comparing the different danger levels of their options of people and places to adjust their behavior.

Feast:

Stormy Weather 2:

So the broken connection between father and son we see in the portrait (that Gabriel doesn't even notice but Adrien fully internalized) isn’t there because Adrien “didnt needed” or wanted his father, its because Adrien NEEDED Gabriel so much in his isolated upbringing but Gabriel didn’t LET him need him - so Adrien had to adjust to that accordingly. Big, huge, ENORMOUS difference.

Honestly the most miraculous thing about Miraculous is that Adrien was able to bring up the strength to stay positive and friendly and to forgive Gabriel in hope for a better future. That boys situation is 7 kinds of depressing and traumatizing...

It's just flabbergasting to me how well this portrait shows how basically non-existent their relationship was at that point. And it's horrible to know that this estranged and unformed bond is all Adrien had left after Emilie dissappeared, just alot worse because after Emilie incident Adrien states that his father changed alot for the worse as well.

So to think that all Adrien had left wasn't even this former basically non-existent relationship with his aloof father - who would only barely show his true affection for his son because he's either not around enough to do so or he thinks it "unnecessary to proof his affection" for/to Adrien because he already thinks it so obvious and undoubtable.

Well he thought wrong. And GOSH, it breaks my heart!

So now comparing the "Gabriel" hand from Adrien with the one representing his connections with his mother conveys a pretty harsh contrast.

Because last but not least, let's take a look at Emilies hand placements:

But here is now an interesting difference to Adrien. Whereas we openly see that Adriens side of the Adrien-Gabriel relationship is completely disconnected from the heart/love - showcasing just how badly Adrien has always been neglected by his father - we don't see Emilies hand in her Emilie-Gabriel relationship AT ALL.

Once again just like with Adrien, this doesn't mean she didn't love her husband and that Gabriel was used and fooled by the woman he so utterly adored. It just means that from Emilies point of view things were a bit more complicated. What exactly this is, the portrait is keeping secret from us. We have no way of knowing if and how Emilie is returning her husbands gesture. All we can say is that if she does she is definitely not doing it in such an open and unconflicted way as she does with Adrien.

But since when has anything with this family been this easy?

One thing the portrait makes very clear, Adrien and Emilie had a strong and good bond. Definitely the healthiest because the Adrien-Emilie connection is the only one depicted without any kind of disruption from both sides. Both mother and son are reaching out for the other ones hand creating a whole half of the heart, showcasing their affection for another openly and without any of the implied doubts the other connections display. And honestly? Comparing all the hand placements, the one connecting Adrien and Emilie just comes across as strikingly pure and true (which makes it even worse that it was HER Adrien lost…)

As I said it's a HARSH contrast to the one Adrien shears with Gabriel. This contrast is highlighted even further by the way these three face on another.

Emilie and Adrien are positioned facing another and so are Emilie and Gabriel. Telling us that Emilie was "face-to-face" aka involved with both her husband and son. It is Adrien and Gabriel were this looks wildly different. These two have no way of seeing each other in the eyes the way they stand now/then, further displaying their deeply rooted disconnection. It's portrays perfectly how important Emilie was in this family dynamic, because even though Adrien and Gabriel bearly had a connection at all they at least had Emilie as a link between them, keeping the family together. But then they lost her and where this left both father and son off we know oh too well...

So to collect all the informations we get out if this portrait:

-Adriens and Emilies relationship was the strongest and purest. Both of their hands connect and reach out for another in the heart, showcasing that they had a loving and positive bond.

-Adriens and Gabriels relationship is heavily scarred by a deeply rooted disconnection leaving Adrien feeling unloved and unwanted by his father to the point where Adriens side of their dynamic is outside the heart altogether. Gabriel may love and adore his son just like he loves his wife and never thought he displayed his love for him in a lacking way, but fact is: this love never reached Adrien the way it should have and Adrien is the one in their dynamic who got severely hurt and damaged by it.

-Gabriel was the only one completely unconflicted and happily at peace with the former Family situation. He's reaching out to both his family members with open love and affection in blissful oblivion that neither his wife nor son could return them the same way (to different degrees for different reasons). Gabriel was the ONLY ONE in the Agreste family who didn't saw problems in their lives and thought them all happy, hence why he's so obsessed with changing the past and bringing THIS state of their family back. He was happy and he had everything he needed and loved right with him, of course he wants THIS back. He's not aware that Emilie and ESPECIALLY Adrien did not feel the same about their former situation and that bringing all of them back to this is not the perfect happy ending for their entire family as he thinks.

-Emilie may not have been as unconflicted with Gabriel as he was with her but she is NOT feeling the same disconnection her son feels and isn't depicted with negative feelings towards Gabriel. Her side in the Emilie-Gabriel relationship is neither shown outright positive as with her son or outright bad as Adrien with Gabriel. Her side of their bond is depicted through her unseen hand placement in the unknown area in between.

-Despite their not so unconflicted feelings towards Gabriel - and Gabriel himself being aloof - neither Emilie nor Adrien are actively trying to cut Gabriel out. They aren't flinching away from his touch or exclude him from the heart whatsoever. He's happily included, obviously feeling loved. They may not be 100% happy and Gabriel doesn't notice it, but they aren't denying him his happiness and make him unhappy. Again, he's the only one truly happy here. Something neither Emilie nor Adrien tried to take away from him.

-Emilie and Adrien are facing each other as do Emilie and Gabriel, implying the presence of communication and a bond. Adrien and Gabriel do not face each other, showing their disconnected bond. If they could see each others face Adrien would have been able to see that Gabriels hand is a gesture of genuine affection and Gabriel could see that Adriens expression does not exactly display pure happiness the way he thinks. This also goes for Emilie. Emilie just like her husband is placed BEHIND her son, so even if she is facing him she would not be able to really see just how much Adrien is not satisfied and truly happy with his life at that point (meaning how unhappy being looked up, friendless and at distance with his father actually makes him).

- This fascinating family makes me sad and I like it lol