#with how I write them; they're narrative foils

[gxldensxldiers]

ANYWAYS now I'm free to spread my Stiletto + Lockpick propaganda. Specifically how SpecGru/KorTac interactions are just a damn soap opera for anyone fluent in a Romance language because Lockpick's just this cocky little shithead of a 'kid' (in Stiletto's eyes at least) doing illegal shit without giving a damn because she knows she has her reasons. And then we have Stiletto who just sees a younger version of herself in Lockpick and fucking hates it so damn much and will always call that shit out cuz hey. Kid's being a fucking dumbass and throwing her life away.

I know I've posted about this on my other blog but just know Stiletto's anything but heartless and did join the Carabinieri out of a genuine need to change her community for the better; it wasn't just about getting revenge. It just so happened she could do both.

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

LOST IN THE SAUCE

___ !! ramble below !!

the new episode has given me too many ideas for ragatha pieces that you all have to deal with for the next upcoming weeks . this is one of them . you followed The Ragatha Blog you will have to expect Ragatha

i find it so funny how i would see a pair that's Very Clearly written to be narrative foils ( jax and ragatha ) and then i would go " okay . hold on as i compare and contrast Zooble and ragatha instead "

it's not even that i hate jax . in fact i Like him . i guess i just like to think about the least obvious stuff . and because i have an unhealthy obsession with this pair

zooble is the second newest in the circus . ragatha is the second oldest . zooble is outwardly blunt and rude . ragatha is outwardly nice and sweet . zooble is honest about what they're feeling and makes it clear who and what they dislike . ragatha's dishonest because she doesn't want people to hate her and keeps her grievances in the inside . zooble vehemently rejects the circus . ragatha Threw herself into the circus and wrapped herself in it . zooble's closer to the cast than you think . ragatha's Farther from the cast than you think .

they're like Opposites but not in a ' two sides of the same coin ' way like Jax and ragatha they like Clash . it's why i like to think they had the Slowest platonic slow burn ever before pomni came into the picture and even then i'm literally in the middle of writing the car conversation with ragatha and zooble where zooble realizes that despite having the ability to tell through ragatha's bullshit they still don't really know her Personally

i just have a thing for characters that's so deep into their dishonesty that even the others in-universe are unsure of who they really are .

Also i don't see ragatha and zooble as mother-child ( i'm not against it btw ! i just read them more as awkward best friends ) but i have people in my audience that does see them as such so like ... seeing it all in that lens makes zooble carrying a high ragatha funnier .

[c7berz]

honestly the hardest part about writing joker and akechi isnt the half-mean, half-sincere, banter layered with double meaning that only the two of them really understand, it's dealing with futaba and haru and striking the balance between "futaba and haru are wrong for feeling slighted by akiren choosing to be close with akechi" and "akiren is wrong for being close with akechi in the first place".

the reason i say joker and akechi (just the two of them, platonically) rather than specifying shuake (specifically romantic) is because any fic about or even just showing their relationship is going to have to contend with this- joker and akechi are (or at least want to be) friends, despite yaldabaoth and shido and everything in the universe setting them up to be enemies.

they're foils to each other, so they have an understanding of the other no other characters have, despite them both having parallels with pretty much all the PTs, but that doesnt change the fact that akechi hurt a lot of people in ways that can never be fixed, and left them with pain that will never go away and while joker can choose to (and imo already has considering everything in third semester) forgive akechi for trying to kill him, specifically, he has no say over how futaba and haru grieve, and yeah if my friend was given a wish for anything in the world and he brought back the guy who killed one of my parents i'd be pretty mad!!

but again joker and akechi are foils- narrative parallels from the bottom up. their stories intersect and overlap in ways the PTs don't, which allows them to have an understanding of each other from the beginning that the PTs would likely take years to replicate. joker and akechi literally defied god and every force pulling them apart to still try to be friends, in the end.

and while joker loves his friends and he knows they love him back, and they support him and are there for him emotionally, theyre never really going to get him the same way that akechi does, and joker isn't wrong for wanting someone to fully understand him in the way he fully understands (or at the very least wants to fully understand) akechi !! and thats exactly what makes it so tricky- nobody here is really wrong, at least not 100%.

this is a conflict that can only really be resolved by having everyone come to a mutual understanding, but honestly that's the hardest part to write!! it's such a complex issue and i have no idea how to go about it lol

this is isn't to say shuake wouldn't work post-canon or anything, just word vomiting to see if that makes my struggle to write this any easier

[anneapocalypse]

On Wuk Lamat's Role in the Back Half of Dawntrail

(Note: You do not have to like Wuk Lamat, you do not have to like any character, that is your business; however this post is not an invitation to expound to me on why you hate her, so if you aren't open to discussing her positively, please move along.)

Wuk Lamat is vital to the back half of Dawntrail. Her presence in the story there is both narratively and thematically important and its lack would render her character arc incomplete.

For context, I have seen some comments that there should have been less Wuk Lamat in the back half of Dawntrail. I truly don't see how that would have been possible or made sense without throwing out most of what was set up in the first half, or simply writing an entirely different story. Regardless of whether you personally vibe with her, Wuk Lamat is the main character of Dawntrail; this is her story, and it's themes and narrative beats are inextricably interwoven with her character arc.

First of all, can you imagine what people (in-universe and out) would say about her if after the attack on her people and the appearance of the dome she just... stayed in Tuliyollal with Koana and let other people do all the work? She's the Vow of Resolve. Of course she's going to be at the forefront of the action. The whole point of her choosing Koana to rule with her in a new interpretation of the tradition of blessed siblings is that they have complementary strengths, and they have a benefit that blessed siblings don't: they can be in two places at once!

Second, a big part of Wuk Lamat's journey is learning about the cultures of Tural so that she can fairly preside over them all, and in Alexandria we get to see her bring that lesson to bear in a big way when she learns about the regulators and the processing of souls. She's rattled by it but pushes past that personal reaction to say, as the Dawnservant, "Please teach me of your history and culture so that I can understand the importance of this practice." In doing so she learns critical information about the situation. This is a culture so far removed from the Turali peoples Wuk Lamat knows, and they're also a separate kingdom not technically under her rule at all, but that doesn't actually change her response. She still reaches out with curiosity and compassion, always seeking to learn and understand.

As she comes to understand Alexandria's history, she also learns the context she'll need to understand Sphene when her true motivations are revealed later. Moreover, Sphene is a very clear foil for Wuk Lamat. The Dawnservant characterized by her love for her people and her desire for their peace and happiness vs. the Endless Queen whose love for her people has been twisted into something destructive and terrible.

And then there's the narrative beats about family, and particularly the loss of parents in different ways: Wuk Lamat earning the trust of her brother's abandoned son and taking him in as family, and her being there for Erenville as he struggles to come to terms with the death of a parent (something Wuk Lamat has also experienced very recently).

And that's to say nothing of how personal Zoraal Ja's betrayal is to Wuk Lamat; of course she has confront him personally. It couldn't be anyone else (except maybe Koana, and they both seem to agree that it should be her).

The Rite of Succession is not Wuk Lamat's whole character arc; it's only the first half. It's after Wuk Lamat comes into her own as Dawnservant alongside her brother that she truly shines. It is in the back half of the story, when the stakes are dramatically raised, that all the lessons she's learned in her journey will be tested, when the peace she seeks to preserve is so brutally disrupted. We get to see her struggle emotionally with the shock of that in Tuliyollal, then rise to the challenge of leadership. How she responds to all of that is her character. It is the culmination of everything the first half of the story has set up. This is still her story.

And personally, I think it's wonderful to see a female character not only featured so prominently in the story but getting so much character development and such a complete character arc.

[barbwritesstuff]

This might turn into an essay because I truly could write an essay about this, but I was replaying Blood Moon for the infinite+1 time and the decision to make Alek's job be a janitor has SO much to it that I love and adore, the contrast of him being the highest status and most respected member but also never really enforcing that (e.g. letting Sergi call him by his name instead of Alpha) showing that he's a practical leader - a leader who is there because he takes care of people rather than being in the position for power or vanity, and then him taking a job that is low status and a thankless and often unpleasant job, but one which is extremely important to the community, a community that would likely not recognise what an important role he's playing in their wellbeing and how that can also play as a metaphor for the wider theme of the role werewolves play in the city over the course of the storyyy <3 <3 <3 idek how much of if was intentional because there's SO much but at its core it speaks to the fact that you truly GET the genre

I really wanted my werewolves to feel like people. They're not monsters, they're janitors, wait staff, and post workers. They're parents, cousins, uncles, and grandmas.

Normal, working class, people. The sort that would move into a low income area of the city, enrol their kids in school, and pick up odd jobs to make ends meet.

I also just really liked the idea of the alpha being this kind, nice janitor guy. Like, he's cool. He's the guy you see catching the bus late at night. He'll share his sandwich with you if you're hungry, knows some corny jokes, and has his kids' photos in his wallet.

And he's the alpha of the local werewolf pack, not that you'd ever know that.

Also, perhaps more thematically, making the werewolves so human and so normal really meant I could ham up the vampires. I leant more into the horror with them, made them more alien.

I like werewolves and vampires as thematic opposites. They're each other's narrative foil. And so, by making the werewolves regular people who seem like scary monsters, it makes sense to make vampires scary monsters who seem like regular people.

The werewolves are the big, loud family that moved in next door. The vampires are the powers that be, the rich, the powerful, the established of the city, and they're much more dangerous than the newcomers could ever be.

Of course, Erin May is the exception. The young vampire that's there to show vampires don't start out monstrous, they were once normal people too. It's time and hunger that warps them.

[moony-2001]

The real-world impact of Lore Olympus

i.e. do your research Rachel

Trigger warning: racism, fetishization, appropriation, mentions of SA

Long post ahead

A while ago, someone told me that Lore Olympus was just a silly little comic written out of boredom. That it was made to be "funny". They told me that "[I] can't hope [for] an extremely [well-written] story when it was just made with the intention to make something goofy" and that if Rachel actually wanted to make something serious like I had, she would write a book and not a comic.

At the time of this exchange, it was past 1 a.m. and I was exhausted. I did not want to argue with this person and it simply wasn't worth my time or energy in the moment.

But looking back at that (mostly one-sided) interaction, I can't help but think that there is so much wrong with that point of view. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion about Lore Olympus, whether good or bad. But Lore Olympus isn't just some silly little nothing comic about nothing important. It is a comic that actively appropriates and erases Greek Culture. It is a comic that has no respect for the actual stories that have been passed down over thousands of years whether by word of mouth or written text. It is a comic that perpetuates a false narrative and harmful stereotypes about characters or certain groups of people. So, no, it's not just a silly little comic.

Incorrect information

Here’s an example of what I mean:

When I was doing research for my post about the 10 year time skip, I looked up Leuce to reconfirm the little information I knew about her. Wanna guess the first thing that popped up about her?

A Lore Olympus Wiki article.

Okay. How about Minthe? Hundreds of pictures of her from Lore Olympus and a LO Wiki article as one of the top 3 results. Both character are horribly represented in LO and unfortunately there isn’t really any documented stories or records that can refute how LO paints them. Because of this, other characters in Greek Mythology like Leuce and Minthe, whose stories have little to no documentation, stand to suffer the most harm from deliberate misrepresentation on Rachel’s part.

Of course well-known and better documented figures in Greek mythology face slander as well. What about Thetis or Leto? How about Apollo? All of their portrayals in LO are HORRIBLE. I have seen people online absolutely drag them to filth not because they're upset about how the character is portrayed compared to their mythological counterpart, but because they have no knowledge of how they are actually portrayed outside of LO. They just assume that's how the characters are. Similarly, people who have either very little or no prior knowledge of Greek Mythology and Culture would look at the comic and go "Yep, sounds legit. It must be true." and go about thinking that what is portrayed in LO is accurate to what was transcribed thousands of years ago.

Creative interpretations and racism/fetishization within LO

Don’t get me wrong. Creative interpretations and artistic liberties can be great. When they’re done tastefully. I personally think if done correctly, a Greek myth spun in a modern way has the potential be very good. But that's not what we were given.

Characters like Minthe, Leuce, and Thetis (all nymphs btw) are portrayed as trashy tramps who put out and are used as a foil sabotage Persephone and/or her relationship with Hades. Compare that to Greek Mythology where in the Iliad, Thetis is very well-respected by the gods, particularly Hera. Unfortunately, other similar characters like satrys (and basically any character that isn’t a god) are usually portrayed as a low-class POC that can be easily exploited, manipulated, or used as a temporary villain/lover/pawn to “get back” at Persephone, our white-coded protagonist who can do no wrong.

Additionally, there is a clear race/class bias against characters like nymphs in LO. We see many cases scattered throughout the comic of gods like Hera or Aphrodite referring to nymphs as "trash" or "low class" or the idea that nymphs do not belong with gods being heavily implied if not outright said. I cannot tell you how often I've seen Minthe be called some variant of "cheap" by the readers of LO. Even Persephone (who created the flower nymphs) treats them with such disrespect. She frequently calls them some variant of "stupid" or "simple" like saying how they're not the sharpest crayons in the box even though she's the one WHO MADE THEM. However, it's so odd not really to note that nymphs like Echo, Amphitrite, or Psyche (who was previously disguised as a nymph) are not discriminated against. This is because they are liked or trusted by the gods they are around and ergo are often portrayed as the "good ones", which is a disgusting mindset to have.

We also see the fetishization of nymphs in the comic that is disturbingly similar to the fetishization of women who are Black, Asian, or Latina. It is a known fact that Hades has a flower nymph fetish. Not only is this implied in the comic, but Rachel stated it outright in an old Patreon post. Nymphs are also generally treated as sex-symbols, disposable, and as a lesser-than. Zeus frequently displays this behavior by abandoning nymphs he knocked up in the mortal realm.

For example, when Persephone finds out Apollo is dating Daphne, she isn't upset he's dating her friend. She's upset he's dating a flower nymph, beings that are generally considered to be "rare", "dumb", and objects of sexual desire. Ew.

Even on the Lore Olympus website (loreolympians.com) nymphs are regarded as "beautiful", "desirable", and "very exotic". And when they're not described in a sexual manner they're say it with me now regarded as "low class" or "workers" for some kind of god/goddess.

Final thoughts

So not only is the characterization of characters like Minthe or Thetis harmful to Greek culture and the stories that are so ingrained in their society, but it is also perpetuating harmful stereotypes about people of color and women who are confident in their sexuality.

Of course, the characters within Greek Mythology had their own issues. Zeus was a serial rapist, many of the goddesses deemed to be "feminist" by today's standards were actually horribly misogynistic looking at you Athena. But 1. that's just how things were back then (but that does not make it right) and 2. all of the good, the bad, and the ugly is still there in Greek Mythology. They're not denying how fucked up it is, but they're also not changing their history to better fit their own narrative or the narrative of the modern world. It exists, it happened, but now it is studied and called out by historians.

Rachel, on the other hand, is doing exactly that. She is actively changing the Greek's cultural history to better fit her fic's narrative. She is constantly sweeping things under the rug or going "No this is how it ACTUALLY happened". Lore Olympus is marketed as a "feminist retelling" yet somehow, it takes allllll the ugly parts from Greek Mythology (rape, incest, problematic age gaps, dubious consent, etc.), mixes it with a majority of the issues we have in the modern world (white feminism, rape-apologists/rape culture, grooming, fetishization of certain minority groups, etc.) and then amplifies the concoction to 20. Lore Olympus cannot be a "progressive, feminist, retelling" and also have characters that are morally apprehensive/come straight from the ancient myths. It does not work. In fact, IMO it makes all the problems from both eras worse.

News flash: actual cultures that are still thriving today are not your toys. They are not "made up". They matter. Do better.

[witchofthesouls]

I'm back on those thoughts about my favorite tragic brothers: Prima and Megatronus Prime.

So as much as I do like the recent posts and talks about Prima being a goofball or deliberately airheaded as he knows that he's detached compared to his siblings and tries his best to connect to others, I think we don't explore his, well, assholery. Especially in the Aligned continuity.

Personally, I like reimagining them as the first pair of split-spark twins as it really fits the narrative and provides the repetition that connects Ouranic and Cthonic roles in Greek mythology as well as other divine relationships across different mythos. Prima is the firstborn and was made in Primus' Image, and from his own shadow rose Megatronus as they were meant to be a reflection of Primus and Unicron, the next generation of the divine.

Canon-wise, the Covenant of Primus had mentioned that Primus and Unicron came from one entity split into two, so the pattern could have carried on and be very much a well-crafted motif to emphasize their divine origins and drive the point that they were meant to function as a pair.

That would make so much more sense on why Prima had major beef with Solus as they both were very similar: sun/fire-coded Primes with staunch views to guide Cybertronians and have a very close personal relationship with Megatronus.

This would honestly explain a lot of Prima's eventual distrust and paranoia since he would have absolutely expected Megatronus to always be in complete synch with him. Megatronus is his spark-twin, his half, his own brother born the moment after Prima taken shape from Prima's own frame. Of course, the guy is utterly territorial of Megatronus. He must have had a huge flux of emotions when Megatronus made the decision to pursue Solus.

They respond to Solus so much as she, the Prime of Creation, also contains a greater fraction of Primus' own power, and she acts as a mirror and foil to them.

Arguably, I say she's Megatronus' mirror and Prima's foil.

That distinction is really important, and while this discussion has a lot of my own personal headcanons and (re)interpretation of the Thirteen Primes, there is canon evidence to support how Solus and Prima are foils. Prima limited his relationships on those similar-minded to his own ideals as he demonized Primes that went against his worldviews, while Solus was highly social and very connected to many (if not all) of the Thirteen. The Prime, who allowed the Predacons to be completely wiped out versus the Well of Allsparks that continued to produce Predacons until forcibly stopped. Prima, whose death remained unknown and unaccompanied, and Solus, who had several brothers walk into her very grave that doubled as her final gift to kickstart the new generation.

Personally, I say this should cast more questions into Prima's character and his own writings on his siblings. How much of it was actually true versus his own warped perceptions of them that may or may not have been affected by Unicron's own meddling? If Megatronus was his dark twin, then it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that Prima projected a lot of his own insecurities and fears onto Megatronus, especially after Chaos turned his eyes upon Creation. Prima already had difficulties relating to others and prefers predictability. For Megatronus, his dark-counterpart and half of his own spark, to act without his knowledge, would have made Prima question everything after that point, while Unicron's leftover miasma sank its claws into him, stoking up the paranoia and distrust to extreme levels that will seed all the conflict afterwards.

'There is your mirror and shadow basking in another’s presence,' that dark, insidious croon whispers in the back of his mind. Prima sees Megatronus' expression -that soft one that's usually reserved when they're alone -as his brother wipes away the soot and grime from Solus' disgruntled face as she was obviously dragged from her Forge to the table for a meal. 'Look, he turns away from you, away from Light.'

[raayllum]

I've never been quite so fond of Callum and Rayla as a ship because there are some glaring issues with them that I really can't seem to look past, but recently upon rewatch, I have been seeing the potential in Claudium. They have a really interesting dynamic that turns from childhood friends into tragedy and I think its really well written.

What is your opinion of Callum and Claudia as a couple?

First off thanks for dropping this in my inbox! Always love hearing and talking about alternative ship perspectives esp in a civil / interesting manner!

Callum and Claudia have always had one of the most interesting 'background' dynamics in the series to me. On a narrative level, TDP is particularly their coming-of-age story working narratively in parallel as two mages, with Claudia being Callum's lancer/deuteragonist from a magic system lens (Rayla is that for him In General), and it's accordingly very fun. By proxy, this naturally lends a fertile ground for a lot of dynamic exploration for them, including but not limited to shipping! I've always been very fond of them eventually working together (however reluctantly) on future magical related projects and being appreciative (again, however reluctantly) of being around someone who gets/loves magic the way they do.

When it comes to Callum/Claudia meta, I've written meta about them before even if I don't necessarily 'ship' them. I think even in a world without the assassin mission they would've inevitably ripped each other apart at the seams, but sometimes you want a ship/dynamic for the Mess, y'know? And, tbh, I rarely enjoy ships from a 'purely shippy' standpoint — for any kind of ship to grab me, there has to be strong character work / thematic stuff going on — so how I write Claudium meta is not fundamentally different from how I write meta about anything I actually do ship.

The bulk of this stuff was written in arc 1 where they were prominent, and does occasionally loop Rayla in on account of her foil dynamic to Claudia (particularly during S2).

Callum x Claudia tag (lots of parallels, framing, smaller thoughts from myself and others, etc)

Where can I put it down? (the Callum, Claudia, Rayla foils dynamic tag)

You Already Did :: A Callum/Claudia Meta (s1-s3)

Aaravos and Rayla as Callum’s Two Paths (+ S2 Claudia)

That said, here's the meta that was originally meant to be quick. Let's go:

1) Callum and Claudia are this very interesting mix of simultaneously seemingly knowing each other very well thanks to their similarities — they're both fascinated by magic, care deeply about their brothers, regulate themselves to caretaker roles but can also steamroll others, are incredibly loyal / loving, have penchants for unnecessary violence — and not knowing each other at all. I think this is more because of the Box(es) they've put each other in, respectively.

For Claudia, she sees Callum as someone who's a little naive (assuming she knows better in early S2 about the mission vs Zym stuff), someone she can somewhat take for granted (using him, somewhat leaning on his feelings), and assumes he'll be more forgiving towards her than he actually is (what was her plan post-kidnapping? That they'd kill Rayla, drag them home, and the boys — Soren / her father in later seasons — would inevitably see 'sense', i.e. see things her way, and forgive her / think she was right all along).

It'd be very easy, then, to look at Callum's big crush on her in the first two seasons and assume he holds her in higher regard than she holds him. He's crushing and blushing and defending her, after all. However, the main reason I've never totally shipped them is because of how Callum treats/views her in S1/S2. Even in 1x03 in the dungeons, or especially in early s2 when he has no reason to doubt her — she told him the truth, she gave him back the letter, she hasn't knowingly done anything to him — Callum never actually trusts her when it matters.

He agrees with Rayla's plan in 2x03 because he knows, somewhere deep down, Claudia betraying him is not out of the question, nor does he ever trust her with his Most Important Person (Ezran, which is later expanded to include Rayla), and if you wanna get to Callum in any significant way esp in the early seasons, you gotta get to him through that foundational bond. I've said it before and I'll say it again that, for him and Ezran (as Rayla was a neutral/negative party who didn't have any kind of real bond with Claudia or Soren at all), the illusion plan is actually pretty Mean if the mage fam siblings had been genuine.

What this tells us, then, is that Callum and Claudia pre-series think they're close... but they're not actually. Claudia rarely talks about her emotional problems to anyone until Terry, and Callum wasn't going to go to her because of his crush. There's a lack of a strong emotional bond, and I think that's one of the main reasons they fall apart so quickly when significant changes start happening. They both have strong senses of loyalty, but that loyalty was never ever towards each other... and that's fascinating, tbh.

2) Some of the inherent tension for Callum and Claudia I think, therefore, is the interplay they both have with Identity as a theme.

Callum has the first stages of an identity arc in arc 1, but it's far simpler and less demanding. He uses royal titles and systems as a way to distance himself within his own family — "Why don't you just call him Dad?" "Because he's the king. And I'm his stepson" — and finds meaning in becoming primal mage, a path both Claudia and Rayla have a hand in setting him on. Claudia, alternatively, doesn't really have an identity theme; part of it is that she's not super self-reflective, and the other half is that she's stapled her sense of self onto Viren so hard that there's not really any room for anything else.

Season 4 immediately kicks them both in the back of the knees and doesn't look back. One of my favourite things about S4 was the season explored how the timeskip took their arc 1 identity pillars — for Callum, it was Rayla (becoming a mage, becoming more confident, having a confidant/peer for the first time, etc); for Claudia, it was Viren (presumably self-explanatory) — and then shoved them together into messy reunions of "the separation changed you fundamentally, and now you're spiralling".

Prior to Rayla leaving, Callum was talkative and very open about all of his feelings; prior to Viren's death, Claudia was far more passively following her father's plans and ideas. But when — after a two year separation caused by perpetuating the cycle (Rayla and her self-described obsessive revenge, Viren and his grab for power) — comes to a close... the Callum and Claudia they find are the opposite, and Rayla and Viren have both very much changed, too, all of which makes reconnecting / doing relationship repair harder for everyone involved. For more on the parallels/character work between these four in S4, check out this meta; it's still one of my favourites.

Cue Rayla and Viren getting better (in some ways), and Callum and Claudia getting worse (in some ways) comparatively as they're drawn deeper into Aaravos' machinations.

What this does, then, is set Callum and Claudia (+ Rayla and Viren) in a sprawling identity arc throughout the seasons. Rayla and Claudia continue to prominently parallel each other (both refuse to kill their High Mage of Katolis / let him die in S4, for ex) as Callum and Viren continue to parallel each other. Callum's main reaffirmations of his sense of identity is his brother and Rayla, whereas Claudia's arguably takes an unexpected distraction: as Terry and Viren become concerned with reaffirming their own sense of identity amidst actions of violence that threaten to change them for the worst, and Soren's arc 1 certainty is smashed into pieces in his bond with his sister... Aaravos and Callum become the main pillars Claudia's identity theme bounces off of, even if Callum doesn't pay her assessments of him much mind.

Unlike Soren, Terry, even Ezran... all people who loved and knew her (as again, Rayla had no prior bond to break) Callum has zero qualms about hurting Claudia, nor has he ever, tbh (just look at the venom in his eyes in 2x07). What we get on his end, then, is that rather than be doubtful because of past love (Soren) or being unsure of how she's gotten here (Viren: "My sweet girl... what happened to you?"), Callum is completely certain, recognizing Claudia explicitly through her capacity for violence... and her repeatedly bringing out his capacity for his own (i.e. him making sure she looks him in the eye before he leaves her to drown in 5x09). He didn't have to use the blood freezing torture spell on her, after all, but he comes out of the gate swinging with it.

What this creates, then, is a question: is the way Callum sees Claudia more accurate than the way other people see her? Is the way Claudia sees him — "I don't hate you, I don't want you dead" — real, or just a way for Claudia to still believe that she's a good person? And if it is real, is there any instance wherein Callum would believe that it is?

The irony is, of course, is that Callum and Claudia are growing increasingly similar in their methods and in their responses — while both are unaware and despairing at least a little over just how much they've changed, and could continue to. They're the embodiment of "Let's judge and criticize things other humans do, and then do the exact same thing ourselves!" Because, as they've said many times:

3) I would do anything for you.

Mages in TDP are fixers. Magic, after all, gives you the power to fix your situation in some manner. To feed, to heal, to protect, to revive. When faced with potentially losing or being unable to help someone they love in season 2, Callum and Claudia both turn to dark magic as a solution. For Callum, he convinces himself it's a one-off, but I'd always believed otherwise, lol.

Now, the mindsets both approach dark magic with is very different. It's only in arc 2 that Claudia begins to be aware of the cost ("You think I've done some awful things, and I have") but it's a price she continually chooses to pay, anyway. In some ways, this is closer to Callum's mindset regarding dark magic throughout ("It was easy. Too easy. Even though I know it's wrong"). So why do something you know/believe is bad? Simply that the ends justify, or outweigh, the means.

The fun part is that this parallel is set up all the way back in 1x02, wherein Callum inspires Claudia to think of the switching spell ("I'd switch places in a second") that rips Harrow and Viren apart. Callum then embodies the spell concept more earnestly in taking Ezran's place, just as Claudia doesn't understand why Harrow would be uncomfortable with someone laying their life down for him so directly if it means he'd live (cue her bafflement and anger when Viren strolls in with the same reservations in 6x01). If I can lay myself down for you, if I can save you — even if you don't want me to — why wouldn't I?

They both say "I would do anything for you" and mean it. It's devotion to the point of destruction. They're willing to sacrifice everything — their bodies, lives, senses of self — if it means the people they love will be okay.

Nothing is too much to ask. After all, Callum knew Ez had the Nova Blade in 7x09, so he didn't have to carry on with the coin spell, but if it didn't, everyone in the immediate vicinity would die, and he wasn't about to lose Rayla or Ezran especially if the only cost was himself.

What this means, though, is that Callum and Claudia are both willing to steamroll over others to secure what they think is best. Callum is usually more well-intentioned about it (when he stays behind in the Bookery, it very much is for Rayla, whereas Claudia wanting to heal Soren is for him yes, but also because she can't handle it and doesn't want to acknowledge what he said about their dad) even if there tends to be worse consequences (almost dying at said Great Bookery), but they both do it (Claudia ignoring Viren's change of heart in 4x02, etc).

A good chunk of this is because they are very solution focused. If there's a problem, and they see an answer, they will hyper focus on getting to that answer by any means necessary, even if it means disregarding their own physical wellbeing or others' (Claudia in s5 with her own, Terry in s6 and s7; Callum in s2/3/7 with his own, s5 with Domina Profundis). This is also why Callum makes the choices he does in 7x02 (bigger meta on that here since I'd predicted something similar happening uh, a week post-S3 and Callum making those choices post-S5 lmao): Ezran was having big emotional problems he couldn't solve, Rayla had an emotional turned physical problem that could be readily solved, so he tunnel visions and goes for the one he can solve. (The fact that Ez had a support system and Rayla didn't + Rayla also offered to turn against/fight her people to save his dad when they first met also factored in tbh.)

RAYLA: It hurts me to know they're trapped like this. It's agonizing. But I know our mission comes first. [...] CALLUM: Rayla, we can help them. We can undo this spell. (5x04)

CLAUDIA: Wouldn't you both do the same if you had a chance to save your Dad? To bring back King Harrow? I would even help you. (5x09)

If Callum or Claudia have picked your problem as One To Solve, they will see it through to the end; if they haven't, or don't even compute something as a problem, good fucking luck getting them to care, tbh. Claudia and Callum stapling someone else's wellbeing onto their own ("Why are you doing this?") is just what they do, even if that means someone else's sliding by well, the wayside (Terry, Ezran) because again: who's in their way? Who's problem can they actually fix?

This does mean that sometimes there can be collateral damage if they've decided hurting you doesn't matter, to the point we've both seen them willing to inflict unnecessary physical pain on other people.

They also as of the end of S7 have inverted hair — Callum's mostly dark hair with his white streak, Claudia's hair mostly white with a few black streaks left — which is an absolute treat from a foils and narrative standpoint, lemme tell you. I can't wait to see what fucked up shit they do in arc 3.

But now for what I think I've been dancing around long enough as a semi-closing note:

4) You can't really talk about Claudia and Callum without talking about Rayla... but because of Raydia, not Rayllum.

Rayla and Claudia are foils, and they always have been.

They enter the story similarly as antagonists — dark mages and assassins have similar story purposes within TDP, after all, being willing to sacrifice themselves and others for what they deem important enough ("so I could carry out my dark work" / "I have work to do") — but where Rayla immediately breaks from her father's orders, Claudia clings steadfastly to them. They offer drinks to their travelling companions (1x04), grapple with what to do with Callum (2x02—2x03), work to save their fathers while being submerged in water (5x09, 6x09), abandon their boyfriends (Rayla to protect him, and Claudia to protect herself), and as Claudia's hair becomes white, she physically looks more like Rayla as well.

But where Claudia is a mage — a fixer in mindset, willing to discard her heart to follow her mind and sacrifice others — Rayla is primarily guided by her big heart and willing to sacrifice what she finds important — her family, Callum — as well as herself. Claudia (like Callum) cares about her loved ones above all else; Rayla cares about everyone else above all else ("My heart for Xadia").

RAYLA: I let him go. I don't know why. EZRAN: Because you felt for him. [...] You saw that he was scared, and you knew he was a person, just like you.

CLAUDIA: You're right. It won't follow us. But not because it's trapped. [Smiles] It won't follow because it's afraid of me.

What this provides then is a clear way at how they're both lancers for Callum within the narrative. A lancer is the primary character contrasted with the main character — if the hero is earnest, the lancer will be snarky; if the hero is nervous, the lancer will be more bold / confident — in order to provide balance and change. When Callum is more passive, unsure, reserved, or feels helpless (1x03, 1x09, 2x03, 2x07, 3x01, 3x09, a good chunk of smaller instances in S4, 5x08, 6x06, 7x02, 7x06) Rayla and her choices or circumstances is often used to prompt (and/or force) him to take action. She's his primary agent of change with the narrative and always has been... but, sometimes, so is Claudia.

After all, Callum's love for Rayla motivates him to move closer to Claudia, not farther away. In 2x02, when his crush is offering to spend more time with him and fix his problem by teaching him dark magic, Callum refuses... but it's his love for Rayla in 2x07 that leads to him picking that book right back up and actually doing it.

CALLUM: I'm sorry. It's just not for me. (2x02)

DARK!CALLUM: It's not about you, is it? If you love her, you'll be the you that can save her. You'll do what you must. However dangerous, however vile. (7x06)

VIREN: If it's love, then nothing else matters. Do what you must. (6x06)

At the same time, Rayla illustrates why Callum and Claudia fell apart. Even when she's made mistakes or lied/left, Callum knows that everything she's ever done has been to protect him and Ezran, and in 7x02 is to protect/save her family. She lays herself and only herself on the line all the way until 7x09, where the conflicting messages of "I sacrifice so Callum doesn't have to" meets "Callum — who always tells me not to sacrifice things — is telling me to sacrifice (him)". These things aren't true of Claudia, who lies to use people (Callum and Ez in S2; Terry in S7) around her with varying degrees of being literal, and her increasingly high body count. Rayla isn't concerned with being a good person (that would require having a stable sense of self that she cares about, which is too much self esteem for her, lmao), but Callum and Claudia are attached to thinking of themselves as good people (and/or potentially in Callum's case, that being synonymous with being someone Rayla 'can love'); Callum is willing to sacrifice it, while Claudia clings to it to her last breath.

Therefore, all three of them have a very interesting interplay with each other on themes of choices and abandonment and TDP's whole thing with sacrifice.

CHOICES: Claudia fears having to choose; Rayla fears making the wrong choice; and Callum fears having no choice at all.

ABANDONMENT: Callum is abandoned but never truly abandons (he might walk away physically but never emotionally); Claudia would always pick to be abandoned rather than abandon (with the exception of 6x01); and Rayla always leaves / is more willing to leave.

Take, for example, Rayla in 4x05 in leaving the drake being what Callum and Ezran were willing to do point blank in 2x07; she's borrowing their selectiveness but chopping off parts of herself in the process, as Callum only went back for the dragon that Claudia was going to dissect because Rayla did so. Callum takes the first half of Claudia's fulminus spell in 1x03, but Rayla helps him complete it in 1x07.

Aaravos' possession chokes/suffocates Callum in 4x04, something that only happens because Callum did dark magic for Rayla with Claudia's book; Rayla chokes in 5x09 going under the water (Callum's Ocean arcanum, Claudia's submergence in Aaravos' literal waves of grief); Claudia chokes/suffocates as well in 5x09 because Callum steals her potion; Claudia then suffocates Callum in 7x07 with the Staff of Ziard by more water he's later going to pick the staff up out of because of his love for Rayla. Claudia gifts Callum the letter that she only has because Rayla kicked it out of his hand, a bad action that likewise delayed him learning more about Aaravos (which is a good thing), only for Claudia to use it as a tool of deception whereas now Rayla is entirely honest... Everything is interrelated; everything is contingent.

Callum chose Rayla because he could trust her with Ezran, and after Claudia scared Ezran, it was over, but that foundation allowed Callum to build a bond with Rayla that could compete/convene with — and under specific instances, be prioritized over — his bond with Ezran (Callum lacking a vengeful bone in his body and having made his peace with Runaan similarly to Zubeia/Avizandum also helped), similarly to way Claudia's bonds with other people have competed and/or taken precedence (Viren and then Aaravos above all else, leaving the boys and her brother and boyfriend by the wayside).

It's not necessarily the healthiest way to live and have relationships — Callum in particular loves in a Very intense way (i.e. if you're not Ez or Rayla, you're on a varying scale of chopped liver to him) — but damn if it's not interesting to watch.

Other Little Callum x Claudia Things / Closing Notes:

Claudium is always more interesting to me from Claudia's POV. In my view she likes him well enough, and doesn't not not like him, but it's not a very strong crush; Callum is comforting and comfortable and it'd increase her status. Her still holding onto not wanting to hurt him is interesting as well since, as discussed, he hasn't. Callum reaching out to Claudia in 4x08 and 7x07 of "stop / you don't have to do this" is especially funny to me because there's little doubt in my mind (especially post-S4) that if she did listen to him, he'd absolutely use it against her and immediately go for the jugular. They hate each other in a way that's not entirely rational, and it's awesome.

Love the fire and water symbolism they have going on, especially with the fight in Akiyu's grotto in 7x07. Claudia increasingly becoming more and more associated with fire throughout the series vs Callum getting more water associations is juicy, particularly considering since she got swallowed up and spat out by the ocean in 5x09 whereas he got an arcanum he'd likewise rather not have.

Callum and Claudia's tendency to knowledge steal from each other — Callum taking her primal stone and her book; Claudia taking his answer to the riddle; the trio stealing the prison, Claudia basically gifting the Staff of Ziard to him an episode after claiming it was hers (more on that here) — is delicious. The fact that map shit came back full circle — "the being will guide you to the one who has answers" "having knowledge doesn't mean knowing knowledge, so it means he has a map" the cube of Aaravos being a literal map that leads to Elarion (which is what I'd always hoped for since S4) — is just the cherry on top.

Can't talk about them without talking about the chain motif, whether it's how they mutually chain each other in 1x03 (Claudia grasping his wrist, Callum fitting an actual chain over hers), the snake chain spell that continually haunts Callum throughout, dark magic as something that promises freedom yet also chains/traps you... Callum and Claudia both using magic in S7 to immobolize / imprison their siblings, but Claudia and Ezran both choose not to kill them, and Callum asserts that he's not giving up on them ("but I'll always be your brother") while Claudia spirals about it ("so you've given up on me?").

And finally personality flaws because hoo boi. Claudia hates feeling judged in any manner (again, very attached to seeing herself as a good person) but canonically thinks that Callum is judgemental on more than one occasion and he absolutely can be. Think of how he should logically trust in 4x01 that Soren wouldn't let anything bad happen to Ezran, but he 100% does not and gets aggressive and intensive anyway. Callum also doesn't like dark magic either (whereas again, Claudia does revel in it and think it's great for a good chunk of arc 1), so while in a world with no assassination he might've become a dark mage alongside her, he would've been a lot more "we shouldn't be doing this" about certain stuff, which would've majorly bothered her, until their or his motivations matched up, wherein he'd go just as far or farther than her, which would also majorly upset her. Basically: I think they're too similar and clash in very particular ways that it'd take massive character development from both of them to work out longterm and to not give up on the relationship. Whoops?

I'd like to write a drabble or oneshot one day where they're both committed to defeating Aaravos (maybe Claudia finds out he killed Viren in 6x08) but the spell required is like... a pretty horrific path that none of their other allies really want to walk, so they do it together while hating each other and angrily bonding the whole time. An interesting way for Claudia to let go of her distaste for him judging her would be to think/realize they're equally fucked up / willing to go that far, and Callum not feeling like he has to hide any of his monstrosity in front of her (because I think that's less of a concern post-S7, but it's still there, even if Rayla would absolutely accept him no matter what it hasn't quite clicked for him yet) and he thinks that'll make him feel better, but it doesn't anyway because he doesn't really want to Be this, either. Neither of them do, but... hand in unloveable hand, I suppose.

Because again: I love the mess.

[vindicated-truth]

What makes Lee Dongsik and Han Joowon stand head and shoulders above the fray of fictional partners in media for me is that they are truly equal.

In many other pop culture partnerships, albeit legendary in their own way, one person is very clearly the "star" of the show and the other is the "side kick". It's not a judgement of whether that makes it better or worse—it's simply a statement of fact, as their roles in the story.

One of the foremost examples I can think of is, of course, the one and only—Sherlock Holmes. He is the clear star of the story, and while John Watson is indispensable as his partner, it is also clear that he is the "second lead" or the "side kick".

The same can be said for all other equally beloved and legendary adaptations of the Holmes phenomenon, such as House M.D. (Gregory House and James Wilson) and Star Trek (James T. Kirk and S'chn T'gai Spock)—both of which are beloved series to me too, along with the original Sherlock Holmes' series.

In many ways it's partly why I was drawn to the dynamic between Dongsik and Joowon too, because there are shades of Holmes and Watson in them as well—Joowon as the cold and calculating but incredibly clever version of a Holmes character and Dongsik as the more personable and emotionally in touch version of a Watson character—but it's the way that they're written and portrayed in Beyond Evil that's different.

For a lot of Holmes adaptations, Watson (or whoever their counterpart is) is often one step behind of Holmes' genius, because that's how stories in general often are written, as a literary device: the side kick is the foil to make the star shine more. The Holmes character (whoever their counterpart in that universe is) is the clear captain driving the wheel even as their partner is their indispensable right hand man—and often their conscience and their touchstone to the rest of humanity (this is especially true in House's case).

With Dongsik and Joowon, they are toe to toe in everything. Wit matching wit, strength matching strength, heart matching heart. It's why even in their promotional posters, they are clearly shot as true partners: not with one man in the foreground and the other in the background, not with one man in the center and the other on the side, but together, back-to-back, clear in being each other's equal even when they couldn't even accept each other as partners just yet.

Because even when they were working separately, they were working together, each arc by each individual character indispensable to the overall narrative of the story and the overall development of their partnership.

And isn't that absolutely fascinating? That it's possible after all to write and portray true partners, without having to relegate someone to the role of an indispensable, beloved, but still clearly a side kick, and have both characters both be the heroes of a story—and have them both truly matter to each other equally?

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

Miziluka needs to be the top problematic ship because I want to read fics of Mizi being obsessed with the maniac who looks like her dead wife. They're even narrative foils.

LITERALLY WHAT IM FUCKING SAYING anon come here and look me in the eyes. Luka literally looks like her dead wife. It's about seeing each other's ghosts in the person you probably look down upon most in the whole narrative and being the only ones left alive and about how Luka was the first one to really feel just how Mizi's rage is as huge and burning and violent as all her other emotions and wearing a mask of softness and the fragility of humanity and Luka even looks like her dead wife (and probably lies like her too). They should be insane. Sorry to keep glazing my own writing but I literally have them being insane because they should be!! They would be weird and fucked up over Hyuna and Mizi should be weird about Sua-Luka paralleling!! They should have miserable heterosexual sex where they're each pretending the other is someone else!!

[bobbile-blog]

Okay so I've finally gotten to Jessicalter's Oprec and now feel qualified to talk about Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures. holy shit. This went straight into my list of top Arknights events. Fantastic event, spoilers will be under the cut so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading the event first. It's really good and worth your while.

Anyway, what follows is a scattered mess of thoughts about this event and things that stuck out to me.

First off, plot stuff! I'll probably cover this when I do my next plotline recap post, but what I took away from the end is that Clip Cliff seems to want to make Blacksteel independent, or at least more self-determining than it is now. He seems to be gathering resources and assets like mobile city plates and investing in long-term infrastructure like merc training, so he definitely has a long game he's pushing for. I don't think we know enough go speculate about his goals, but we'll definitely be coming back here again. After all, Tila has an infection monitor in her art, which probably means she's going to be playable at some point in the future.

Next, having looked into this a little on my own, I was interested in some of the previous places Raythean has shown up. Specifically, the ones that stood out were the drones in the Kazimierz Major and arming Silverash's forces in Kjerag, which might be referring to the Tschäggättä. It's not just notable for their apparent level of technology, but also as a faint connecting thread between three separate capitalism plotlines. I don't know if that's going to be meaningful in the future, but I found it interesting enough that I thought I'd bring it up.

Now on to more narrative things. While I love Liskarm and Franka, I do think it was the right choice to give them less screen time in this event. They're both (for the most part) fully-realized characters who understand their own motivations and morals. This is above all else an event about Jessica learning to stand on her own as an adult, so it makes sense that they're more here to support her than they are to play their own roles in the story.

Speaking of said roles, I liked the event's commentary on cops. It pointed out an interesting distinction that I wouldn't really have ever thought of, that between mercenaries and cops. To start: cops exist to protect property, not people. The police exist to protect things and do not have an obligation to err on the side of people over things, and in fact are supposed to do the opposite. This event understands that, and that role os the core of how the bank treats the Blacksteel mercs. CV, however, raises an interesting point that mercenaries are bound by the letter of a contract and not the larger obligation to property cops are, so they can actually raise moral objections and point to their contracts, sort of a Lawful Evil/Lawful Neutral to cops' Neutral Evil. The independence of their position with respect to cops allows for more of an independent morality than you'd get in a cop story and I like that, I think it's a really smart direction to take your writing in.

On a (mostly) separate note, holy shit Arknights is really good at writing cowboy stories. Between this and chapter 9 (and I would argue An Obscure Wanderer), Arknights has repeatedly made it clear that they Do Not Fuck Around with their cowboy stories and I'm surprised I haven't heard more people talking about it. It kinda has everything:

- It takes place in a rural, working-class setting undergoing a larger imminent societal shift that can inform the larger narrative, and deals with a semi-mythologized past that is rapidly disappearing.

- It has a protagonist and an antagonist that serve as foils, both very heavily affected and defined by the (same) violence in their past that they've both had different reactions to. Our protagonist has come to terms with the violence as a tool to maintain order, while our antagonist has used it for personal gain and in some ways lost control of it.

- It's a story about community, and heavily emphasizes local and personal community over larger artificial corporate "community". That's my reading of the recurring motif of the cold btw, warmth represents the close, personal community Davistown used to have and the cold that now pervades it comes from how the bank has systematically dismantled that community.

- And, I'd argue most importantly, it understands the narrative power of a bullet. The Showdown at the end of a cowboy story is powerful because we've spent the entire runtime of our story with these characters, and they are now facing each other down with the intent to end one of their collective two stories. The entire weight of the narrative so far comes to rest on a single moment of tension. It's really hard to gather up the kind of narrative momentum you need to make that hit like it does in CV. For example, it requires a really light hand with actual action in the story, so that it really does feel like it's an even standoff between our protagonist and antagonist. On the other hand, though, you do actually have to establish the relative skill of both parties and actually sell the danger of the moment to the audience. It's really hard to toe the line between tension and actual action in a way that makes for a satisfying resolution, and CV does it extremely well.

Honestly, Arknights just seems really good at getting the vibes of American media right. This is something I noticed in DV and Lonetrail too, and I haven't really been able to put my finger on what it is about them, but the vibes are just really on-point. I want to write more about this at a later point once I actually figure out what it is that I'm feeling, but maybe it's the setting, maybe it's the cast, maybe it's the plot points, maybe it's something in between — it just seems to understand the spirit of period cowboy stories in a way that I can't describe. Good shit.

Finally, I wanna end this with where Jessica is now. The events of CV take place In between the events of Loneterail and Ideal City, so the current "now" of the story is a few months ahead. Jessica left for the frontier along with Woody, Helena, and Miles. They live together in a small new settlement, building the place from the ground up with Woody and Jessica acting as town sherrifs. At the point we're at now, rhe town is fairly well-established and Woody has temporarily left on other business, leaving Jessica the sole sherrif of their new settlement. However, she's risen to her new station, and is growing into a stronger person than she ever was before.

[zazozaliad]

ramble I keep saying I'd make about sunday wrt adoptee trauma

so this is the promised screed where I talk a little (a lot) on the way society treats adoptees, which Sunday and Robin are & which I think is uhh a detail we're kind of easily prepped by Orphans As Media Trope to not really dwell upon on a deeper level. and I get it. but star rail is in fact writing these two on a level where this is an extremely important detail of who they are as people, it's intrinsically part of how they TICK. they don't just have a Complicated Flock of Dad Situation, they don't just have religious trauma, they have the adopted child version of these things which is every normal part of it but also backwards on roller skates while someone calls you ungrateful for wanting to stop and fix your skates' laces when they start coming untied.

from my own admittedly limited perspective — I am one, but it was a kinship adoption; I thus recognize the limits in my point of view and also want to try and elevate the voice of other adoptees whose experiences of displacement were different than mine. for instance: here's a great article by mirah riben, that also comes full of links for further reading.

anyway. they're adopted. this is an extremely critical decision in the halo sibs' design, and going further into the narrative foils territory the Aventurine and Sunday similarities don't stop at 'Aventurine and Sunday both lost their home and parents.' There is a next step, and it is 'Aventurine and Sunday were both once trafficked children.'

Soooo let's get to it! Ahem. Adoption, as it exists in modern society, is a multi-billion dollar industry. it is not, in fact, a noble act of salvation, undertaken by adopter on behalf of adoptee. It is, in blunt distillation, an intentional act of putting a human being under another's care — or, "mercy," how about we call it? That's a great word, isn't it.

With them at his mercy, Gopher Wood treats Sunday and Robin, these 'twins of Order,' as his golden opportunity. He used power and influence to secure the chance to raise them, after the senseless disaster that uprooted their lives. This last bit is a fact neutral statement, by the way; even if he turned out to be the coolest flock of birds dad ever, he still plucked them up like they were some choice shinies left laying around. They perfectly suited his personal needs, so that's the whole reason he's in their lives, and that they're in his.

I'm framing this merest act of adoption in a highly uncomplimentary way for a reason. By the way, peep the bits of canon showing Robin and Sunday as really young children, and how they aren't explicitly being called 'Robin' and 'Sunday' there. But moving on!

Adoption, and not just the circumstances leading toward adoption, is traumatic. It doesn't always result in unresolved trauma, because different people have different levels of resiliency to different things; a stressor is a stressor, whether you tanked it well or not. It is a disconnect with, or even a destruction of a portion of one's personal identity. The places we are from, the way those before us lived, these are intrinsic parts of our selves an adoptee loses partial or full access to.

Star Rail is pretty decent at showing this, actually; we've met adoptees in every major area (even arguably Amphoreus, if we stretch for the case of Pasithea) and each and every time you can see how the experience complicates. Bronya discovers the bittersweet answer to that hollow in herself in front of us in real time. Yanqing is maybe one of the Softest depictions of this, and he is still a relentless workaholic who itches to show himself as worthwhile. Because that's the thing.

Because society frames adoption as benevolent sacrifice, there's that weight, always there, in the mind.

In truth, adoption is acquisition, the factual motion of a supply (of people. of a person) meeting a demand. You don't, actually, pledge to take care of a child on accident. That's not a real thing. A child adopter is, when we ignore all pretentious sentiment, a person enacting a desire to acquire a child.

Sunday, I think, is my favorite depiction of a Star Rail adoptee thus far. He continues to commodify himself into adulthood to the point we see him literally turn himself into a big craftwork of unfeeling metal and porcelain. But they specifically chose to Not make him unrelentingly gracious toward his 'rescuer,' a move that has given me terminal brainrot about him, irrevocably, forever! ...And actually, by the time we meet him, he's gotten kinda fuckin' bitey at his "father," while still carrying out his Big Plan? It's a fascinating thing to see and a breath of fresh air, because it would have been pretty easy to write him a different way, and may have even made him more 'sympathetic' by showing him as just being some poor misled soul waiting for a wake-up call in the form of a train to the face.

but instead we have who Sunday actually is.

Sunday is, in fact, well aware of the wrongness of his own lived experience getting exploited for the Oak Family Order Conspiracy's ends, but ….

...he still chooses to do what he does because sure. You can know. You can know it's all fucked up, you can have that conversation until everyone involved is blue in the face, but there is a version of reality you would prefer to be true and then there's the version of reality that you personally live in, and Sunday, if anything, is quite used to feeling like he's the person starkly forced into facing the latter, so much so, he thinks, okay. What if I could make it so that I was the only one who ever had to live that, from now on?

…

there are no easy answers to tragedy. The 'answer' Sunday has dedicated the majority of his life to is that if he could simply personally suffer enough, conform enough even through the bitterest moments, everything will become easier and more harmonious for the world at large. this belief propels him on through acts of great endurance, into doing some real mean shit, and also, into crafting a fake fantasy version of reality ("I am okay with this state of affairs") to push other people to live in because things will be more convenient that way.

This is, in fact, "the vibe," of being an adoptee, In The RL. It doesn't matter if you win the fucking lottery and get adopted by the sweetest person to ever live, the messaging of society at large is still gonna blare ever in your ear: you're so lucky. you should be grateful. aren't you grateful? why aren't you grateful? what's wrong with you? if you won't appreciate what you have, you should imagine what it's like if it gets taken away.

an adoptee doesn't have to imagine what its like to lose what they have, by the way. even if their adoption happened when they were an infant. and even as sunday tries to seize the mantle of becoming 'the strong,' to reforge himself into a guiding star, he speaks from the perspective of one who has been 'the weak.'

I do not have my fandom PhD in Robin studies yet so I don't feel like I can get as in depth here as I like, but also, the trauma of being an adoptee is where I feel that a lot of Robin's more implicit characterization comes from, and also where a lot of potential misunderstanding of her comes from, because people I think.. don't very easily relate to the adoptee perspective, and instead think of it like a more 'normal' (bunny ears) (massive. massive bunny ears) family dynamic where there isn't that particular sword over the head. I am extremely understanding of this! if you haven't lived it, it can be hard to grasp how bone deep it goes into you. in everything. every moment. every day.

but. uh. TO ME, there are so many moments she is saying "blink twice" to Sunday while being very careful to not potentially have him pull away, because she sees him as way more 'in deep' and indoctrinated than she is. I think Robin sees her brother for most of the plot and fears she's looking at a Grateful Adoptee(TM), and it is a brick wall between their ability to communicate earnestly with one another. have you seen the letter Sunday almost-but-didn't-send her by the way? ho-ho-holy shit. I need someone to write that canon divergence yesterday, but that's also me huffing copium over the idea that that letter would have ever made it off planet when people were canonically reading sunday's mail.

...by the way, I think it's really interesting that robin's activist work seems to be aimed to try and stabilize areas in need, rather than rescue people from those places. this, too, is a mark of someone who understands The Problem With Adoption, To Me,

uhh. I don't really know how to end this. I just really need people to think more about this specific angle of his character other than it just being a source of sadness in his background he has moved past because it's actually extremely formative of his Everything and also I stare into the darkness between stars when we talk about Welt signing adoption papers. It's fine. I'm not gonna come for you for saying that even if I try to remove it from my own vocabulary. But oh my God. Oh my God. Please commit to EXPLORING THE CONNOTATIONS I would love to see people make fanworks of him reckoning with the extremely mixed and difficult emotions that "Welt attempts to dad at him explicitly" would inspire.

ok... peace..... I've spent way too much time writing this when I am sick and should be resting....

[alicepao13]

The deception by the production started last summer, since they're trying to re-write history. Just to bring things into focus again. Because sometimes we can't tell the forest from the trees.

Since last summer, the Hudson and Rex has said all sorts of lies.

They claimed they didn't announce Diesel's death because Sherri Davis needed to be emotionally okay to work with the other dogs. That's partially a lie, and Sherri Davis herself was the one to say it in the news. During the production, it might have been true. But production for last season ended in November 2024, and they announced it in February 2025 (Edited: I previously erroneously had written March. March was when the season ended, not when they announced that Diesel had passed). And that's because people didn't fall for the switch, I'm sure they were ready to announce it at the end of the season if they could get away with it. They wanted people to tune in and Diesel's death was getting in the way of that in their eyes.

They never mentioned in their promotion that John Reardon would be in the show just for a couple episodes. If he hadn't talked about his cancer, we wouldn't even know why he wasn't there. We'd probably blame it on him and then the narrative would have been "John Reardon got tired of the show". They banked on him being what he always was: quiet and private. And he still was but even like that, he foiled their plans with two posts, and good for him.

Since they had already decided how to go about it, they never announced the end of John Reardon's employment at the end of S7. Despite numerous questions as to whether he'd be back, despite him announcing that he's ready to be back and medically cleared. Deception, cover-up, and avoidance. It took 3 months(!) for them to announce Luke Roberts, and they still haven't said that he'll be the lead, again despite numerous questions.

They are choosing to keep the show as Hudson and Rex. What Hudson and Rex? This is false advertisement, and is a show that was based for the half part on John Reardon's work. At this point, it's purely a scam. Any other product that would claim it contains something in it that it doesn't would be in big trouble.

They sent people to speak anonymously as if they had no "stake in the game" besides employment on Reddit. But they made mistakes and given how Sherri Davis now talks about the show, it must have been someone close to her, which frankly, makes every single piece of "information" even more questionable for reasons I have stated before.

They told fans that "this is the show now", "stop being rude", they talked about mob mentality, harassment, things that to my knowledge have not happened. And social media is a public space, I'd know. We kept it pretty tame, actually. Letting someone know that you won't watch their show is not any of these things. Calling it out for what it is, a money grab, is none of these things. Even if it's done by 50, 500, or 5,000 people.

So, ask yourselves, what are we willing to believe from the mouths of these people? Who among them is trustworthy? Who does not act out of self-interest?

I for one did not "choose to believe John Reardon". Because he didn't speak on the matter. So I will not "choose to believe Sherri Davis" either. I'll let all the evidence of her and the production's deception that I've gathered so far speak for themselves.

[the2ndsanctuary]

I'll just make a half coherent post so I don't have to haunted by it for another week. I'll reiterate ideas about beasts I've been saying here and there, in it's own post.

As of now, the story with the beasts and ancients is nearly the best Devsisters have worked with. Weirdly, they took a very popular trope of a good guy having an evil version of them, and then. Understood the assignment. With some misses, but mostly hits, Beast Yeast has been an absolute banger, and I've got a lot of excitement for the story I didn't think I'd ever have for cookie run again.

So. As of right now, with Shadow Milk's chapter conclusion, we have a quite solid pattern of writing Beasts and the conflict with the Ancients. Instead of dancing around it, I'll just bullet point what seems to be the main themes:

Mortality and immortality: Beasts were made into immortality, ancients were not. That leads to fundamentally different experience that either party had. Unlike ancients, who earned their immortality (then godhood), Beasts ARE gods who were unable to understand cookies they were made to serve.

Nihilism and hopefullness: Beasts had lost their hope in cookiekind, falling into bitterness, hatred and despair. It is a sign of being unable to cope with very human, mortal experiences (loss, conflict, desires, greed, love), unlike Ancients who had lived, loved, lost, grew, and who will not lose their hope for people and the better future and will keep fighting for it.

From the above comes out the point I'm gonna call I WAS DESTINED TO LOVEHATE YOU: Beasts believe that Ancients genuinely stole part of their power, instead of being punished for going rogue on their purpose from the witches. BUT. Beasts believe the Ancients are just foolish for standing with their beliefs, as Beasts have seen the truth, the reality of things, they """understand""" that Ancients virtues are futile - and they WANT to change their mind, get them on their side or destroy them in the process, prove them wrong. Whether you want to admit it or not, they're factory made narrative foils who were destined to understand each other like nobody else, but never going along on the same path, see ⬆️.

I HATE MY FOLLOWERS: Beasts do not care for their followers as much as followers care/worship their beasts. Re: Nutmeg Tiger is a general upholding a status quo based on strength and authority, believing in Burning Spice representing her worldview; however, Burning Spice does not care for neither her, nor the wild spices, or the showmanship of power; Candy Apple and Black Sapphire find entertainment in trickery, rumors, lies that hurt people, for which Shadow Milk, actually, doesn't care that much - what Shadow Milk wants ultimately is a perfect world where lies and truths cannot be told apart, BECAUSE cookies lie, because truth hurts, because he hates Knowing; as far as his henchmen can entertain him, they are the kinds of people that made him "open his eyes" to the cookies "true" nature.

Friendship: Beasts, I don't think, actually were ever friends. Part of a pantheon, sure, but not comrades the way you imagine friends to be. Ancients met, got to know each other, care for each other, and that care is being used against them (especially in case of White Lily and Dark Enchantress being used as a mockery of their friendship). Beasts who may have cared for something before, have not actually experienced actual real friendship.

As of right now these are the main things that seem to be consistent with the Beasts, and I'm looking forward to how true it stands in the future.

I'll put my Silent Salt and Eternal Sugar speculations and ramblings below.

So, most of us agree Eternal Sugar is the next beast, right?

ES had a virtue of Happiness that turned into Sloth, and Hollyberry will be opposing her, with her Passion. It's very interesting concept to play around, her unyielding love and trust in people, her protectiveness.

In one of my nuked forever to be lost posts I've considered the idea of Eternal Sugar being based on Dionysus, and as of rn I still Sorta stand by it, telling what Exact inspiration for her is is hard. She kinda looks like a Muse to me, too.

Possibility is, Happiness is very often borderlining with exhaustion, overexposure to things that make you happy Can ruin your life, whether it's food, hobbies, people, too much of it will hurt you in one way or another if it's all you focus your life on - no good thing can be eternal. But what if you just keep trying anyway? Never stop the happiness? Turn it into a fatigue?

Keep getting sweets until you can no longer take it. You can have as much sugar as you like, never ever ever stop it, be happy, stay, don't move.

It can come to the point of not bothering at all. Happiness is in sloth.

Why would you bother with saving anyone, Hollyberry cookie? Don't you see they're happy in their fatigue? If they stay, no danger comes to them. Stop trying. Give up. Just rest.

As for ES followers, we can get a cookie themed around hedonism, not saying no to your wishes, persuading our heros to give in to their desires. Maybe some cookie based off of greek myth, a Titan, that would be neat. The point I expect is for them to be unapologetically unbothered and enabling ES's spiral like the rest of the followers do.

As for Silent Salt, I had my assumption on some myth but I don't remember what it was. I remember it was a nordic god. Their virtue of Solidarity was turned into Silence, which is incredibly scary and exciting. They oppose White Lily's Freedom.

I have high hope for them to have a connection to Shadow Milk in a bit of a more meaningful way than the rest of the beasts do with each other. The matching theme of a knight and a jester generally just kind of tracks.

I think it's interesting the way Solidarity and Freedom seems to often correlate, but that's not the case.

My assumption is that Silent Salt was a warrior that stood for the interests of the people, for peace and righteousness and justice, solving conflicts among cookies that couldn't solve them on their own. Why it turned into Silence, I wonder.

Could be the fact that you will never please everyone, there will be betrayals, back stabbers, liars. Can you truly stand along with someone for a common goal, can you truly find a common ground with someone when you feel like your needs are going ignored.

How it could tie into Shadow Milk - is Silent Salt, perhaps, realizing the futility of their purpose, perhaps they know the ultimate purpose of cookies, and found it too overbearing to ever care for the cookiekind wellbeing. To Shadow Milk speaking too much, Silent Salt prefers to not at all.

Can't tell exactly what their perfect world could be. Probably a barren wasteland, or cookies hiding and never coming out - not to be eaten by witches, or be stroke by Silent Salts sword.

White Lily cookie found the truth that turned her into a grieving, bitter, furious monster. You could argue Dark Enchatress is White Lily's own beast form, separated from her. There could be speculation on how full White Lily feels as a person without that hatred and grief that Dark Enchantress took. But White Lily ends up being the bearer of guilt, overbearing, eldritch horror of Knowing - and how really free is she now, and if she dares to speak, how many people will stand with her in Solidarity? How many are standing with Dark Enchatress? And what that Freedom her half is fighting for has brought? Pain. Loss. Bitterness.

You are fighting for a world unachievable. Your beliefs are futile, and you have done nothing but bring misery to the cookiekind you claim to love by fighting.

Stay quiet. Let the knowledge be your own burden to bear.

Silent Salt I reallyyyyy struggle to imagine having any followers. Any epics we get on that event could probably be on the side of the heroes. Maybe ONE of them who knows their ways around the land of Silent Salt, but that's all.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

"Another theoretical path for Zoe would be to let Chloe redeem Zoe. We know that Zoe was a massive liar in the past."

If I understood your pov about a Chloe redemption and how Lilia neither has reason to be on the show: if you had to use a character for Chloe to redeem, and kinda serve both as a foil for her and a lesson for Adrien's character growth, it wouldn't be Zoe, but Lila?

*sighs* You bring so many good points on the characters' writing that I can't beleive how many "repeated" characters the show has! Would you consider Socqueline another innecessary character?

(Post this was in reference to for Zoe and for Lila)

It's not shocking that the show has "repeated" characters. It's a school drama with 21 teen heroes in the canon cast (24 if we count the special characters). It's damn near impossible to give that many characters a unique role in the story unless you're dealing with extremely complex plots a la Game of Thrones where it's less one large cast in a single story and more smaller casts in mini stories that all intermingle. If you look at something like GoT, you'll notice that, while the overall cast is massive, each mini story has a more normal sized cast and those smaller groups only come together after they're extremely well established. Miraculous could have done something like that with each member of the class getting a mini arc that focused on them, but it didn't, so the cast is basically a uniform blob.

Zoe, Chloe, & Lila

Before we talk about Socqueline, I wanted to quickly make some comments on Zoe and Lila. If I had to have Chloe redeem someone to show off her new skills post redemption, then I'd have it be Sabrina. If Sabrina is off the table, then I'd pick Zoe. If Zoe is off the table, only then would I look to Lila because why use Lila when you have Chloe's best friend and sister as options? That's far more compelling than some random girl no one knew before this year and who no one is connected to. Even the Zoe route is questionable since she's so underdeveloped right now. Both her and Lila would need major work to be fully functional characters and I personally have no interest in doing that work since I don't feel like it adds enough value to canon.

I will note that Lila and Zoe actually had potential to be an interesting contrast to each other since they're both liars. Redeeming one and damning the other works far better than doing the same narrative with Lila and Chloe since Lila and Zoe have the same core problem while Lila and Chloe have nothing in common to the point where canon has to retcon in Chloe having a Marinette obsession so that the Chloe and Lila team up made sense.

Similarly, if you damn Chloe, redeeming Zoe could have been interesting. You could even redeem her and then, though her, save Chloe since Zoe hasn't suffered from Chloe anywhere near as much as the rest of the cast. That and their sibling status makes Zoe a decent choice for the person who changes Chloe's heart just like the Zoe's backstory feels like a good contrast to Chloe's canon story.

Zoe is introduced right after Chloe supposedly proved she didn't want to change (for this post, we're pretending people actually tried to help Chloe and failed). That should mean that everyone is really freaking wary of the new girl who shows manipulative tendencies while also claiming that she wants to change. That could have led to an arc showing how you know when someone does want to change and how to navigate that.

I don't think Zoe is a great candidate for that since she's a total stranger who no one but Chloe has any reason to care about, but it would have done something to make the people in canon actually learn the supposed redemption lesson we're currently missing. As-is, Marinette just randomly believes in Zoe right from the start and Zoe is good basically right from the start, showing that Chloe's betrayal meant nothing to the cast and driving home that Marinette's first impressions of people are basically always right. Adrien seems to be the only exception.

Socqueline

Socqueline is a totally pointless character who I would never have included. It's not that she's bad in and of herself, it's that she once again adds nothing to the cast that wasn't already there. She is Origins Alya on steroids. She's here to protect Marinette from Chloe and inspire Marinette to be brave and that's about it. Why she needed to do that when Alya is supposed to have that role is anyone's guess.

If anything, Socqueline undermines Alya since we now know that Marinette had an amazing best friend before Alya came around! Socqueline was willing to fight Chloe even before Chloe randomly mellowed out into a nicer person because seasons one-to-three Chloe has nothing on Derision Chloe. Even seasons four and five Chloe aren't as bad as Derision Chloe. This show has no idea what it's doing.

[stygiansauce]

Read Margin of Error

Fell in love with it

Head is now filled with scenarios

Now I need a jealous southern tango because my brain can’t shut up

(Feed us)

Possessive Tango certainly exsists. You'll actually get to see him a bit in chapter three (though its hidden under layers of plot). I think his idea of possession comes off much more like protection. He's a very caring and gentle lover. His anger doesn't fire up as much in this AU because, though his brain doesn't stop moving he lets his feelings wash through him. He acknowledges that he feels things, then moves on (except when he can't). He just cares so hard and gives so much of himself and protects with his whole being (not just Jimmy and thats what's so interesting about his character) that it doesn't even look like possession, but it is.

I'd like you to consider though (for reasons chapter three will explain. dear lord I promise it's almost done, we're almost out of the woods I can see the light), that Jimmy is the jealous and territorial one. Jimmy is the kind of character to over think. He'll roll thoughts around untill they don't make sense anymore. He tries to digest his feelings for Tango and because he can't he pushes the boundaries of thier relationship to find answers. ( "I don't see why we couldnt" he says while impulsivly touching his crush. GOD THEY'RE IDIOTS) He knows he has a crush on Tango. He knows he feels some kind of lust towards him. He has a very loose grasp on why Tango, though. I'm dropping so much Jimmy lore in chapter three. Like theres such a big chunk of his personality missing from the story right now that I needed to do a bit of character analysis before we go back to primarily Tango POV. I'm actually 90% sure that chapter four is all Tango.

Still, putting myself back on track. Tango's cannon character has that firecracker energy that we all know and love. In the life games it normally portrays itself as sharp anger, revenge, and quick-wit. MOE Tango will have his sharp anger moment, but untill then, a lot of his fire is put into flirting. He has very good self control ("Tango’s hands itch to reach out. He sets them on the table just behind him out of caution. He’s unsure. He’s almost never unsure, apprehensive, hesitant- any string of synonyms that will express how Jimmy is constantly tipping Tango over onto his head. The last time he had to physically stop himself like this was well before he left Texas."). But all resolve has to break somewhere :). Jimmy will push untill Tango is forced to shove and when it happens, it will be an explosion worth watching.

They're narrative foils your honor. They will always yin and yang eachother, its simply the law. (Probably one of my favorite possessive Tango scenes isn't untill much later at Jimmy's birthday party... I've said too much) Here are some tunes to add to the Possessive Tango fire. Not all of these are on the MOE playlist but are like unoffical anthems I regularly listen to when writing. Hope you understand - Del Water Gap Ode to a conversation stuck in your throat - Del Water Gap (Del Water Gap my beloved please stop making me feel things) Cry for me - HUNNY Hover like a GODESS - WILLOW