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aroaceleovaldez · 19 days

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the show chb logo was also ripped from fandom, like in the past decade all the official chb shirt had the logo without the circle and then the fandom started doing and the show went for it, sorry your tags reminded me of that

[Link to post/tags in question]

Yeah, I know Delphi Strawberry Service has done more circular-based CHB shirt designs for ages, and I've seen the more circular-based designs floating around for awhile. I think Magicbysab's circular-based CHB shirt designs also predate the show design? Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I understand on a level that if they did base it off fandom designs, particularly if they're basing anything on widespread fanon or fandom-based concepts, it can be difficult to pin down credit or may even seen unnecessary. But if they're going to be doing that I feel like at least they could hire like, a fandom consultant of sorts? Instead of just ripping off from the fandom, hire someone from the community who produces that already so at least there's some recognition and acknowledgement of where it originated.

Heck, in some instances if you ask around in the fandom it's not hard to pinpoint who specifically popularized certain concepts! I could talk for ages about Cherryandsisters being a driving force behind photokinesis!Will, or Saberghatz with plague!Will (tbh between the two they spearheaded a ton of early Will/Solangelo fanon), and I swear Drksanctuary alone is behind like 50% of Alabaster fanon, etc etc etc. People in the fandom know these things! Heck, we know ReadRiordan company knows how to do that kind of thing! They commissioned Viria for the official art, and the UK Riordan newsletter reaches out to fans all the time to feature their work (with credit, they're one of the better ones)! Though in Rick's book tours he did showcase Viria's art (at least with credit) without asking before she got commissioned, and during the Tower of Nero book tours they actually straight up stole a solangelo edit from Pervysloth with completely zero credit (link is to my canon url readriordan parody blog).

I think it doesn't help as well that Rick and his editor allegedly use the fandom wiki in place of a series bible. The PJO wiki is notorious for putting inaccurate information or fanon onto pages at random and having no sources. (What I wouldn't give for the PJO wiki to have frequent book/page sources a la Warrior Cats wiki...) There are what, now almost 18 books in the main series alone? Of an extremely renowned best-selling series that's 20 years old and now being adapted for TV? And they STILL don't have a series bible? That's like, step 1 of writing a series. This kind of reliance of the fandom for resources and concepts definitely isn't new for them.

It just feels so bizarre as to what it says about how the ReadRiordan company views the fandom and the creatives within it. I understand that trying to figure out how to give credit to the concept of "CHB shirt design, but circular!" is difficult, if you even can find out who did that first or popularized it. But if you're going to rip things from fandom, at least find somebody to try and credit? Show that you put in even the tiniest amount of effort? And if you get it wrong and people know, they'll correct you and that's that! But ReadRiordan just keeps trying to actively obscure these kinds of things, even with their own media, not ripped from the fandom, which makes it feel all the worse when it gets pointed out. And a lot of the time the whole reason those concepts get popular is because they're filtered through big names in the fandom! The fandom is a community! We know these people! We can point to them and explain exactly what they popularized! Remember how Velinxi popularized long haired Piper with the heart-shaped flyaways? Goodness only knows how many fandom designs are heavily influenced by Viria and Minuiko and Burdge (and Indigonite and Fuocogo and Ikimaru and Thecottonproject and Joker-ace and Sixofclovers and Vikingmera and Saber and Cherry and and and-). If you are in the community this stuff is easy to find. But Rick and the ReadRiordan company clearly being ~5 years behind with fanon pretty obviously tells me that they're not in the community at all, and aren't bothering trying.

#riordanverse #pjo #readriordan #pjo tv crit #rr crit #Anonymous #ask #long post //#sorry i am passionate about fandom history and crediting artists #its late and im too lazy to proofread right now so im just throwing this one out there #apologies if it's nonsensical #anyways Rick and ReadRiordan stop ripping off literally everyone challenge #stares pointedly at Rick blatantly recycling his own writing. its not a fun callback my guy thats just lazy writing #percy making a dam joke to himself in SoN? cute callback #solangelo falling into tartarus scene in TSATS being a direct rip of percabeth in MoA/HoH? what the hell man

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seven-tastic · 1 year

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#my beloved son and dad #i have barely time due to work and school and drawing this took 3 days because i can only draw at night and not too late #i can only daydream of luke to cope #accept my silly takes though #luke pearce #tears of themis #SHAKES AARON IM SORRY ILL DO YOU JUSTICEONE DAY HE DOESNT LOOK OLD

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soo-won · 3 months

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redraw of this image by @_k0terrl_ from Veil !

#i have to read Veil now #akayona #akatsuki no yona #yotd #yona of the drawn #princess yona #yona #hak #son hak #suwon #soowon #im sorry the res is so bad i realized too late.#and it's like one of the best suwon i've drawn lmaooo #the solution all along;..was no lineart...#suwon's crown the most beautiful but i pulled my hair out

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corrodedcoughin · 4 months

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my sillay goofy thought for you is….. picture this; corroded coffin performing their song, stacy’s mom (or sOME STUPID VARIATION OF IT BUT I ALSO BELIEVE THEY HAVE AT LEAST ONE SONG ABOUT HOT MILFS - and maybe the variation is… about having a thing for someone u totallyyyyy shouldn’t have. like who could THAT be?) anyways. is this anything🧍‍♂️

Picking this up and twirling it around like the end of a beautiful romcom AAAAAAHHHH

I ADORE this!! I feel like they’d go in for a 2 for 1 part of their set list. An milf interlude, a milf-terlude if you will…

Scotty doesn’t know and Stacey’s mom played back to back with so much ferocity that at the end there is a shout to the crowd for inhalers and a request for a musical interlude of Jeff giving a quite beautiful guitar solo from the last unicorn soundtrack. They have to calm the masses (6 people in the crowd actively not watching, 4 people that ARE and 5 people at the bar who are not facing them and engaged in their own conversations)

There is no coherence to a corroded coffin set list but you can’t say they don’t create a ✨ musical experience like no other ✨

(Yes Steve is one of the 4 that is watching and promptly unbuttoned his top button of his polo shirt after the milf-terlude that had intense eye contact with a one, Eddie munson)

#ruubbbbbyyyyyy #I’ve not written a Steddie thought in MONTHS #you are activating my neurons #and thinking abt Eddie singing ‘dusty doesn’t know DONT TELL DUSTY’ obnoxiously in his van and at rehearsal #but too scared to do it at the actual gig #they continue to have intense eye contact that neither of them mention for a ridiculous amount of time #until they fight over the free lollipop the diner gives out with the table cheque #both lay claim. both lick it in an attempt to get ownership. both realise they may as well kiss #so they do #IDK!!!#but it’s a Christmas miracle and Wayne is so happy that he gives Steve his Christmas present early #it’s a mug ‘you are part of the fmaily now son 😭’#then turns to Eddie ‘don’t you fuck this up for me 🫵’#stranger things #eddie munson #steddie #steve harrington #I am so sorry this is such a lame and late reply I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A NICE DAY I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU MWAH MWAH

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nandermoenthusiast · 20 days

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oh my god i got so emotional SHUT UUUUUP

#911 #911verse #evan buckley #so this is what crying about a character is actually like #like i do be crying at times dont get me wrong #but i just love buck so much. i kept stopping the episode and going. omg omg omg #omg its happening. omg idk if i can actually watch this. omg its happening !!!!!!!!!!!#jesus christ JESUS CHRIST #like i know we throw the word around a lot but this is MY SON #and everything that happened in the episode. it was like it was happening to me #i felt actual physical damage and actual butterflies as the kiss moment approached #like theY DID THAT #THEY MADE MY BI SON CANONICALLY BI #idk to have this shift in a characters perception this late in a procedural….. 911 you gods #i really hope they can somehow make more seasons cause they would deserve ti #it. and like. this doesn’t have to be the end of buddie??#they could get them together at any time bc buck realizing hes into men is a lot other worm can than buck realizing hes in love with #his best friend. i just dont know how they would do it with eddie bc they would have to pull a lot of focus over there too with a big #chance of feeling repetitive with their narratives #maybe they just show them together after a timejump and say they worked some stuff out idk lmao #ANYWAY I AM STILL CRYING BECAUSE BUCK MY SON IS A CANONICAL BISEXUAL JEALOUS DISASTER JUST LIKE HIS MAMA ❤️#THIS IS WHAT REPRESENTATION IS ACTUALLY ALL ABOUT (and i mean his horrifying handling of the feelings of being left out of course lmao)#THE LOOK EDDIE SHOT HIM TOO #i am too frazzled rn i just need to scream i think #hi. im sorry this is me coming out of the 911 closet now that wwdits is on hiatus #evan buckley!!!!!#SON OF MY SONS #LIGHT OF MY LIFE #APPLE OF MY EYE

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cherrycreamfairy · 1 year

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#me right now #i'm sorry you have to deal with my stupid cringe ideas my son but its too late im in too deep #buy a ticket and enjoy the ride sonny jim #donkey kong #shit post

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blueiight · 7 months

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Ill pay people to make moving video edits of ldpdl to all my sad boy 60s-80s black ennui music

#Claudia & louis little girls eyes by lenny kravitz 🥺😢#Louis billy paul its too late #Louis down you fall by gil scott heron #friends of distinction going in circles #the memphis mustangs idk what ur full of #the 1970s was literally the 1910s repeated.#Matter of fact. jacob lou be soundin like arthur prysock in pitch& diction sometimes like okay gullah girl LOL #thats why i be jtfo when ppl who r from narnia wax poetry abt his accent. no shade #yn.#Im sorry. im my dad’s son

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rapha-reads · 2 years

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Batman: Wayne Family Adventure did a comic on Jason's PTSD and Joker-related trauma.

...

THEY DID THAT

I'm grossly sobbing.

#MY BOY DESERVES TO BE TREATED CORRECTLY #say thank you bwfa writers for doing the gods' work #batman: wayne family adventures #bwfa #batfam #batman #jason todd #red hood #the love of my life my son my little wing my jaylad #sorry i absolutely cannot be normal when it comes to jason peter todd-wayne i love him way too much #have i told you lately that he's my ultimate favorite character #because he is #rapha rambles

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spiritoast · 1 year

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tried digitally emulating my old marker style on a scanned sketch, had a lot of fun w/ it and now i wanna do more pieces w/ this coloring style lol

#soup art #vesper tag #artists on tumblr #not much else to blab abt in the tags im just very happy with this abhjgbfhj #might dig the og sketch back up and color it traditionally too for the bit #sorry not sorry for drawing my son so much lately . i loves him

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tuff-ponyboy · 9 months

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like 5 years ago I saw an edit of patty x rusty-james to apologize by timbaland and I haven't been the same ever since

#AND I NEED YOU LIKE A HEART NEEDS A BEAT BUT ITS NOTHING NEW #I LOVED YOU WITH A FIRE RED NOW ITS TURNING BLUE #and you say sorry like the angel heaven let me think was you #full body chills whenever I heard that song solely bc of that edit #me and my mom's boyfriend's son from when I was like 7 would say it's too late to go to the bathroom....it's too late #me thinks if I tag rumble fish maybe someone will find it and send it to me #rumble fish #hehe haha #loser thoughts

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aberooski · 1 year

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The problem with my brain having been obsessed with knowing what fictional characters' singing voices sound like since I was a little kid, and especially now that I'm a vocalist as an adult, is that I can't listen to hardly anything without that voice in the back of my head being like "oh this sound. This specific moment in this specific verse or chorus or whatever. That's specifically what xyz character(s) would sound like!" And I hyperfixate on that for the rest of my life and I craft so many headcanons 😭

That being said, when he's singing seriously Atticus has an incredible voice argue with the wall. Atty has a very wide range but his voice really lives and thrives in the mid range. But he likes to sing higher pitches whenever he gets the chance and is very good at harmonizing. When he gets Chazz to sing with him he always let's Chazz take the melody as often as possible and harmonizes over him. He also plays like every fuckin stringed instrument and hosts weekly campfire jams for the J-Squad to unwind and hang out and de-stress ☺ he always schedules them around his and Chazz's Saturday night sleepovers so they never miss one 😌

Chazz can also sing but doesn't discover it until Atticus gets him to sing with him during like a campfire jam session or one of their regular hangouts. His voice is best suited for more mellow, slower songs like me wow wonder why I headcanon that 🙄. and everyone is very impressed by his vocals, but he gets huffy and embarrassed whenever anyone compliments his voice. In my head his vocal range is on the lower to mid range side and has a very nice rasp to it, especially on the lower pitches where it's a little more prevalent and compliments Atty's voice so they blend very well.

Jaden has the perfect pop punk voice. Just the perfect tone and range, perfectly unrefined sound for it too. But if anyone asked he would shrug and say he couldn't sing. Of course he can, but he doesn't particularly think he's all that good and doesn't really care if he can or not, it's not that important to him like card games are so he'd rather not call attention to it askskskks. His ego is reserved for card games and card games alone 🤭. But he always hypes up the others during Atty's campfire jams and he participates fairly often because he thinks it's fun and everyone else seems to enjoy it when he does so he's down for it. He also lives in the mid range but has a pretty strong upper register for belting out those pop punk classics 😌 Dear Maria is his now Alex

Alexis is an alto, she lives in the mid to lower register, she does have a little bit of an upper register too but she lives on the lower side. Her voice is very warm and soothing and mature and just nice af. But she's self conscious about it so she doesn't sing very much and almost never around other people. Leading to the theory that when the subject could come up she, like Jay, would says she couldn't sing but unlike Jay, she just isn't confident in her voice even though it's very good. Atty likes to nudge her to try and get her to sing with him at his campfire jams, but she always declines. He keeps trying though 🤭

Hassleberry has a surprisingly good voice, very warm like Alexis's and lives in the mid to lower register like her. If she sang, they would blend very well I think. He's private about his voice too, but he'd be fine if the crew find out about it. His southern drawl is still quite prevalent when he sings and it really elevates the gentle warmth of his voice. His vocals are unrefined and amateurish but they're still very strong. He prefers songs with simpler melodies and really thrives in softer, more melodious country/bluegrass music which isn't a surprise to anyone but the fact that his voice is so warm and gentle despite his rough exterior makes people view him in a different light. But in a good way 🙂 he's embarrassed at first when the J-Squad finds out he can sing, but he comes around quickly and has participated in a couple campfire jams himself every once in a while.

Syrus's isn't very different from his regular speaking voice at all I don't think. He has a very young sounding voice and he hates it. It's not bad by any means, he just feels self conscious about it like Alexis but also like he's self conscious about literally everything. Same my guy. That being said, he's a tenor. He has almost no lower register but he has enough of one 👍. His voice is very light, which he's also self conscious about. And he tends to stick to humming, he feels less embarrassed and self conscious that way and wouldn't die on the spot if anyone heard him. Also like me, if he is actually singing along to a song and it gets too low or he just feels like it's too low, he sings it up the octave.

And unsurprisingly at least to me, I feel like Bastion has the most old fashioned type of voice. His range is also very wide like Atty's is. He knows he can sing and is confident about it around strangers, but if anyone he knew heard him or complimented his voice he'd blush and get very embarrassed in an adorable way. Honestly he enjoys the compliments but he doesn't really know how to handle getting them for something not having to do with how smart he is, so he gets flustered when people compliment his voice, to varying degrees depending on how well he knows the person complimenting him or not. That being said, if you want anyone singing the old school classics at the Christmas party or some golden age musicals, you want Bastion.

#wow I'm sorry that's a lot of rambling #but anyways the whole J-Squad can sing in my headcanon leave me alone #I'm a vocalist so of course they can #I do project a little of my own vocal abilities and qualities onto them but I also firmly believe what I headcanon about their voices #I've been hyperfixating about Hassleberry's vocals in particular lately I just love the idea of him singing so much #outside of golden age musicals and stuff my voice lives in country/folk/bluegrass too and he 😭#look he's adorable as shit you can't tell me the idea of him just singing a chill bluegrass tune isn't the cutest/softest shit 😭#I love my dinosaur son 😭🧡#they all have the power to be vocalists in their own rights fuck #anyway it's 12:30 am I need to sleep goodnight #yugioh #yugioh gx #gx headcanons #chazz princeton #atticus rhodes #jaden yuki #syrus truesdale #bastion misawa #alexis rhodes #tyranno hassleberry #abby's just rambling don't mind her #abby fully admits she's an idiot

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talentforlying · 3 months

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i'm still mostly in waiting mode for the new hellblazer & queueing up a bunch of stuff for when school starts up again in a week & i'll get hellaciously busy again, so i am in & out around here this week. sorry everyone!

but in the meantime i AM poking around on my hellblazer npc multi (@debtsunpaid) if anyone wants to fuck around with the folks over there. i just put up an interest tracker, temp bios are in the pinned, and i'm working on full bios for everyone this week.

#( ooc. ) OUT OF CIGS.#headinhands.png #sorry for vanishing y'all this has been. a time. sick family & hospital visits & now a vet visit has me fried #and this ADHD is a real son of a bitch bc i simply Cannot focus i am too busy thinking about THIS TUESDAY #NEW FUCKING HELLBLAZER TO CHEW ON at which point i will once again be feral and rabid and writing #in the meantime i am throwing shit at the wall to build a very fun cosmic horror-ish oc based on the Fear Machine #who is basically the god born of all humanity's collective fears. supposedly defeated by zed & john in the late 80s #but now psychically chained to a wreck of a german man who thinks it's an alien he picked up in space #so if y'all want to hear me run my mouth about obscure hellblazer mythology again i'll be kicking around the multi #sched.

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outeremissary · 1 year

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!! (a surprise for you :))

A surprise indeed, haha. As usual, this was how I discovered I had posted something. This was uhh. Not my most prepared night for it.

Hmm... I guess this will just be random rambling, and I don't have any nice, new art for this, so it's going to all be old art that's mostly not colored (lot of it is years old and I hadn't uhhh figured out the color thing). Anyway, Caina Lilindel, the ghost who haunts this blog and I am geased to have as my pfp forever.

First the meta notes: Caina was a grugach (mechanically wood elf- the UA for grugach hadn't been released yet) rogue inquisitive I played in a Curse of Strahd game that ran from 2017 to 2020. He was loosely based on a side character from an abandoned project I worked on periodically during my first year of university (which was then loosely inspired by something in VtM, but that's not important), and I made him as a quick, edgy character who I wouldn't mind dying because the DM was very adamant that the first area was a meat grinder and we might TPK. He survived though, and I was left to play my joke concept straight. And then I got really into that. Really, really into that.

Caina was a secretive exile who had been wandering the world alone for almost three decades at the start of the game. He was sharp-tongued and abrasive, never willing to help anyone for free. He hated risk but easily plunged into recklessness at the behest of emotions he made only the barest efforts to keep in check. He was always pushing away those who might befriend him, and every time someone responded to his vulnerability with kindness he recoiled as if they could burn him- or as if he would burn them. He hated being touched but yearned for intimacy. He killed without a second thought but argued passionately against dealing out further death. He was an absolutely wretched liar on the occasion he tried, and in moments of peace he was an excellent cook and unfailingly kind to children. His primary hobbies were card games and reading unimaginably trashy novels- he was the only member of the party who recognized van Richten, and that was because he was a longtime fan of a horribly prolific series of pulp thrillers based on van Richten's adventures. He had a way of following those he respected or cared about as if starstruck- he never knew what to do with his feelings. And despite his own tendency to break his word or bail on things he could never recover from anything he felt was betrayal. I always loved the combination of vulnerability and prickliness.

(backstory summary that got ahead of me ahead. and this. isn't even everything.)

Caina was born in a small semi-nomadic community in a hilly land and lived his early life without ever straying from his home. Life moved slowly and quietly there, the circular turning of seasons the only visible mark of the gentle passage of time in a community of near immortals. He was one of very few children and the spacing between the youths of the community was easily such that a child could be the only in their age group all their young life until reaching the more even ground of adulthood. But Caina was fortunate. There was another child his age in his home: a boy born the very same year as him, timing so close that the two were often called twins. That boy was Avél, Caina's best friend, constant companion, and the first person to lose his life at Caina's hands.

Caina was a quiet, diligent child who always went along with everything his more outgoing friend wanted to do. From a young age they shared the same dreams of adventure and tale-worthy glory far from home- although Caina would never be able to say if heroic legends had always set his heart racing or if this dream too was simply following Avél. He was known as a sweet child, one constantly fretted over and sheltered by his mother, who feared for a son who had been born sickly, and his grandmother (the family matriarch), who was intent on raising an eldest son who would be useful to his family. He would have duties when he aged, his grandmother knew: to his parents, to his grandparents, to his cousins, and if the Most Revered was good, to a sister who could pass down the name of the family to another generation. It wasn't for eldest sons or only sons to stuff their heads full of fairy tales and stray.

In contrast to quiet Caina, Avél was a troublemaker and a free spirit. He was never one to be confined by a rule if he could challenge it, and as a second son with no sister who would one day rely on him to keep the house for her, Avél's life had a certain openness to it. His tricks and disappearances were met with gentle scolding but never with restriction. He could imagine any future ahead of him, could dream of danger and distant lands, of anything in the world he desired. Anything he wished for might be his. And what he wished for was to be taken under the wing of the gruff old huntress Siyir. Siyir had been further afield than any of the others who wore the title of ranger. She had gone well beyond simply charting the movements of the community or passing messages between the pockets of the grugach people or brokering trade deals. Siyir had slain a griffin. She had descended into human lands, had seen mountains that spat fire and waters that spanned the horizon. She was Avél's vision: a legend who had stepped through campfire flames to stand in the mundane material world. And of course, this meant that Caina worshiped her too.

So the stage of life was set. Two boys, near opposites in every way, but each the other's closest confidante and the mirror of his own experiences- or perhaps less a mirror than a shadow and the bright thing that cast it. Avél pulled Caina out of his shell and into new experiences. He supplied dreams enough for two and invented adventures to match. There was an awe that Avél inspired in Caina. He wanted to nurture passion that could match his friend's to more truly inhabit their shared dreams. He wanted skills to match Avél's natural athleticism and way with words. It gave him a hunger to keep up, to learn, to know, to show that he too was equal. But nothing he did ever seemed to bring the two of them even. His boldness crumpled under caution, his hesitance and appeals to the wisdom of elders earning him affectionate teasing as a stick in the mud. He could never run as fast or far as Avél or climb as high or win tussles between them without tricks that brought out whines of "no fair! do it right!" The skills Caina learned alone bored Avél. Cooking was dull and far beneath a legend, Avél insisted. Wayfinding was useful but too much work- Caina was the smart one, so he could take care of it, couldn't he? And the runes of a seldom used writing system (taught to Caina by the community's shaman) were entertaining only for an afternoon or two- he laughed when Caina asked later if he'd been practicing them, and Caina's ears burned with shame for finding them so fascinating in the first place.

With age came a sharper sense of the distance between them. Avél was the golden child of the community, Caina his keeper. When Avél broke his arm falling out of a tree on a forbidden excursion it was worth a day's scolding that quickly melted into doting and repetition of the grand tale of his adventure for months, while Caina was reprimanded for allowing Avél to hurt himself and then quickly forgotten as more than a timid accessory to Avél. Siyir took interest in Avél, but Caina quickly realized had little in him: she hardly acknowledged Caina when she spoke to the two of them together, and she had a way of only offering things when Caina wasn't around. And Avél, for his part, hardly seemed to protest surprise hunting trips at dawn or archery advice when Caina was unavailable. He always shared what he learned afterwards, but no matter how many times Caina asked for Avél to bring him along the next time there was always an excuse when that next time came around. Suspicion set in that his friend was hoarding time with the huntress to himself. And when the changes of puberty began Avél grew taller and filled out better. His features emerged from teen acne as defined and handsome, new edges to his face only making the soft twinkle in his eyes seem brighter and the creases of his smile kinder. Caina stayed spindly and awkward. It was painfully clear that strength would never come to him naturally, and without it a slight edge of grace didn't feel like much. He began to distance himself from Avél to have time to hone skills his friend had and he felt he lacked. But it was never enough to do more than keep up. Just to keep up, and hope desperately that Avél's aimless talent would one day lose to training.

And then Caina's mother gave birth to a daughter, and Caina was too old to miss the meaning of the event. The first brother's duty was to his sister- to be a part of her household more constant than a partner, for those were fluid and often changed over the long turning of the decades, and more vigorous than a mother, who would one day be claimed by the years. To share in her generation and her legacy. Caina would go from a childhood sidekick to Avél to a supporting character in the tale of Cailo. There would be no breath for his own story, his own adventures. Like that he added Avél's freedom to the endless list of envies.

Yet Avél, in his careless optimistic way, never acknowledged the change. They still had the same dreams, the same loves, the same life. Even as Avél spent more time with Siyir as Caina helped care for his baby sister Avél danced around it. Any time the future was questioned Avél suddenly had a new story that needed telling immediately or somewhere to go or something that needed doing. And sometimes he simply laughed and pushed it away.

In the midst of this stormy sea of adolescence, Siyir decided to take an apprentice.

The decision wasn't an announcement, but a challenge. The ranger let it be known to all of the youths that she would take on whichever best passed a series of tests she set. Worth, she said, was the only way to decide who was fit to carry a legacy like hers. And that worth superseded all else: she would take her chosen apprentice and no other, and it was known without ever being said that likewise nothing could take her chosen from her.

Worth.

Caina knew all her skills secondhand, but had practiced them to the best perfection he could imagine. He knew the one who would ultimately be the only true competitor inside and out. Siyir had never seen him, but he could make her. He would show her that he was worthy.

He matched Avél in every test. He could shoot, he could hunt, he could track, he could pitch a camp of his own. He was still Avél's superior when it came to navigation, even if his friend had improved. The few other challengers quickly proved half-hearted and dropped out. It was only Caina and Avél, just like it had always been.

The night before Siyir's last test, Caina returned home late. He had gone out to gather herbs for the shaman, Galen, and been sidetracked by the urge to practice one last thing. When he passed by Siyir's dwelling, he caught the sound of a familiar voice that gave him pause: his grandmother was in Siyir's home.

He crept closer, and the conversation became clearer. His grandmother was asking what she was meant to do if Caina won the contest. Who would be there for Cailo? Was their family simply to dwindle, plagued by foolish wanderlust and misfortune? Caina could hear in his mind Siyir's counterargument: that many daughters grew up alone, that Cailo didn't want for cousins who could help her, that their father was still with them and far from old. That one son was an acceptable concession for a woman who had once shot a griffin from the sky. That maybe Cailo didn't want her legacy either.

But Siyir said none of those things.

"Avél is my apprentice." It wasn't her usual brusque tone. It was a reassurance, a gentle correction. "I just couldn't let it get to the boy's fool head by letting him have that without a little fight."

Every semblance of hope evaporated. He hardly remembered the rest of the night- only the listless dreams that tore at him whenever he tried to rest. He was trapped in a haze.

He was still in that haze when he rose before dawn and found Avél.

They walked out and away from the early spring camp, Avél chattering all the way and glancing over here and there at Caina with something that sometimes looked like relief and other times looked like guilt. Caina was quiet for the most part. He smiled and nodded and urged Avél on. Once or twice he laughed. It was so easy to slip into familiar patterns while following familiar paths. By the time they reached the cliff over the falls, the light made it clear that despite the lingering morning mist dawn was well behind them.

Many years before, a lone long-branched pine growing at the edge of the falls had fallen. The reason was unknown- no one had been around to see it go- but now it lingered in death as persistently as it had in life, laying its lattice of branches out across the open air to form a precarious bridge from one side of the gorge to the other. Mist from the falls left it permanently slick, and between the spring rains and the snowmelt still trickling down the surging falls had crept in precariously close.

When they were younger, they had often talked about crossing it. Avél had take a few steps out, falls plunging down on one side and open air on the other, and Caina managed a half step before begging Avél to come back. "Next time I'll do it," Avél always laughed.

"What do you say- for old time's sake?"

To hear the proposal come from Caina stopped Avél dead. His laughter wasn't the familiar bell of joy. It cracked at the edges- nerves, perhaps, or surprise.

"As if I could say no."

And Avél stepped forward, hesitating a moment at the edge. His eyes flicked to Caina and his mouth hardened into a thin smile. He took his first step onto the trunk. A few steps later, Caina followed.

Looking back, Caina was never sure what he had wanted from that morning. It was like a dream, the roaring falls eating the sound of the world around them and the mists swallowing everything outside that tiny expanse and the figure of his friend.

Somewhere near the center, Avél stopped. He turned and shouted something. Caina read the words on his lips: Let's go back.

Avél was moving his feet, trying to reposition to walk back, when the dreadful inevitable happened. In the blink of an eye he had gone from upright to clinging to one of the branches jutting out from the edge of the trunk below. There was no thought when Caina rushed forward recklessly, bracing himself against one of the more solid branches as he grabbed a slick hand just in time as his beloved friend's support cracked and fell away, useless. Avel dangled at Caina's mercy, clinging with both hands onto Caina's arm as he struggled to find a foothold to pull himself up.

In this moment of nightmare, lucidity returned.

Caina would never be able to say why he brought his friend to the falls. He didn't know why he challenged him at their stupidest, most dangerous childhood game. He didn't know why he followed so close, never allowing Avél the space to turn around. All coincidence. All error. None of it conscious. None of it him.

But he could never forget the moment he chose to let go.

If Avél screamed, Caina never heard. The falls swallowed the sound greedily. In the constant roar of white noise, it seemed like Avél was as silent as a shadow, and when he disappeared into the mist below he became every bit as transient.

There were searches, of course. There was weeping. And finally there was blame. Caina hadn't planned the crime, and only began to hide it too late. Put before the gods in all of Galen's power, he cracked. He had believed like a fool that he had hated Avél. Now as its target he understood what true hate was. Yet for all that, there wasn't heart in a community that couldn't remember ever having an execution to kill another so soon after their loss. No one could remember the curse ever being used either, but Galen knew it all the same.

It was with nothing but the clothes on his back and a new fear of death that Caina left the home he had been cast out of. The brand of defilement burned on his hand, the angry red scar weeks from true healing. Cast out from his home, from all kin, from the sight of the gods themselves, who had sealed his exile with the cursed brand. The legend he had made for himself was one of misery. And beyond its edge, only wandering without rest- always running from the guilt carved into skin and soul.

#I'm sorry this is so so long he's been on my brain lately actually #I am once more ruminating on his life and his world #the caina family tree is Real and very interesting to me because he was actually raised in his paternal grandmother's household #instead of his maternal grandmother's (much more common)#his mother was adopted into his father's family because there hadn't been any daughters in over two hundred years #and it was a source of great anxiety for his grandmother. she had a son and male cousins and nephews #but sons and male cousins and nephews aren't enough. they give support but not legacy. and they wander off if you have too many.#but there was always tension having someone else's daughter in the household #I did not mention galen at all. or hino. or cailo. I'm sorry to have not gotten to talk about any of those three.#I had already gotten Too Sidetracked by lineage and was trying to focus it down!! so siyir was most important #I developed some mythology as well for this. by the end I uhh. don't think that what I was working with resembled my source material at all #my corellon larethian was fun though #I'm going to REALLY regret this in the morning #which is. hm. three hours from now #ask game #ask me emithing #caina lilindel #userharps

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bugeyedfreaks · 1 year

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Gonna try as be as concise with this post as I can, since I’m sure you guys know by now that I… can talk way too much about the PPG. 🤣 I had heard about the Powerpuff Girls live action leaked script, but I never took the time to read it for myself. People sent me screencaps of different sections and gave me a summary of what happened, but from all of that, I thought it didn’t sound very good, so I didn’t want to assault my senses with the full thing. A few days ago, the PDF of the script popped up on Tumblr for me as a recommended post, so I thought I should take a deep breath and finally take the plunge.

I’m surprised to report that after FINALLY reading it… I didn’t entirely hate it. Is the writing bad? Yes. Are there way too many pop culture jokes? Yes. Do they make the mistake of giving all the girls ice powers when it’s pretty established canon that Blossom’s the only one with that? YES, and that’s really aggravating. You get glimmers that the writers have seen the show, and kind of get the characters, but only to a certain point that borders on superficial.

However, there’re a lot of cool ideas in the script. I kept reading it thinking, “Ohhh, that’s a cool idea, but I wish they did it [insert different way here].” I even went, “Awww!” at a couple points. Yes. I was weirded out. I liked some of the character interpretations (I’m like 75% on board with Blossom’s character, liked Buttercup and Bubbles’ sisterly chemistry, strangely love the weird take of crazy stardom obsessed Bubbles 😂 and her relationship with the Prof, among many other things!), but I was super thrown off by the pointless (and honestly, unfunny and baffling) “adult” humor and pop culture jokes. Those made NO sense. Like Craig McCracken has said in the past, you don’t mix the girls in with whatever’s like hot or trendy, they’re supposed to be evergreen. Despite this type of humor sucking, it makes me sad to hear that the network interpreted the fans’ response as hating any humor, and are changing it to go into a “serious” direction. I think all it needs is some good original humor not so dependent on references to things (maybe even a healthy dose of puns). PPG usually has a good mix of serious fighting and goofy hijinks, and you could totally do that with a live action series. The characters are fun and funny and it would be fun to keep them that way, just… creatively!

There’s also some OOCness that’s just unforgivable. Of course, you need these characters to have flaws that they’ll overcome throughout the run of the show, but some of the additions were weird, like they didn’t track for who some of the characters are at their core. There was one that I thought was interesting but had lousy execution, and that was the Professor being a greedy stage dad kind of character. It made me sad, but the idea of our usually sweet Professor being secretly evil or doing some shady things on the side WAS kind of intriguing. If they were gonna do that, I would have made it a slow build up to like a season finale, like, “…wait, the good dad licensed his kids out of the money instead of for the good of the town?! Evil all along?!” or something like that. Maybe he was forced into it and went against his own moral code. Could it even have been an avenue to introduce Him? Was he puppeteering the Prof all along?! I dunno. But the way they wrote the Prof how they did just made it seem like they had no clue what they were doing, or who his character is even at a basic level.

I think a lot of the ideas presented (childhood stardom, the struggles of adulthood, privacy, the real world repercussions of fighting, mental health, etc.) are really super intriguing, and my mind is like REELING with a lot of potential that seems wasted and lost. The girls have established personality flaws that they could really build off more from (Blossom with perfectionism and pride, Buttercup with anger and jealousy, Bubbles with sensitivity and naïveté) and in a more meaningful way. Same with the villains, like… some of them are more complex than a casual viewer would think, and it would be cool to see that complexity fleshed out even more.

One thing I would really want them to do is to try to, like… distance the show as much as possible from the original canon cartoon. PPGZ is a good example of successfully creating a PPG-esque show for a specific market and demographic that keeps the spirit of the original show and the general designs while making it CLEAR that it’s its own thing. After what happened with PPG 2016, it might have made fans skittish that this live-action show is meant to somehow “fix” things, or continue the cartoon’s official storyline. It shouldn’t. This needs to be, like, more clearly an alternate universe. Don’t even have the cartoon in it as a gag (I’d say the least I’d put in are the cartoon designs of the girls as like… in-world merch mascots or something, and even then I’m hesitant). If you look at this show as a separate entity that’s only based off the original characters, it might feel a little more palatable. …maybe. 😆

Anyway, I could write SO much more, but that’s… my general take on it. Not great, but not as much of a dumpster fire as I was expecting. I dunno if I’m confident that they’ve been making any meaningful changes to the script. Realistically, at the end of the day, they’re probably viewing it as a way to push merch and make money rather than setting out to do a live action PPG series justice. That’s okay. It is what it is. If they DO want to make it good though, I think at the very least it just needs more thought put into it and to be scrubbed clean of all those garbage pop culture jokes. We’ll see what happens though, but I did at least detect some potential hiding in there. Now if it builds on the potential… that remains to be seen. 🙃

#ppg cw #sorry I’m late with my Deep Thoughts on this one #also omg #SO SURPRISED that I like the character of Jojo as much as I did lol I seriously thought he’d be ruined #not even close to perfect but there’s Potential™️#not feeling the dad and son thing but also NOT not feeling it… I have very complicated feelings about it haha #i could write a whole thing about how to properly incorporate mojo into the show but… I feel like it’d be wasted effort anyway so idk #ALSO I will say they should tone down the cringe sex stuff but I AM intrigued by some of the romance aspects #it’s much less cringe since they’re adults here so I was happy that I wasn’t TOO much like… blech… but there were moments #buttercup and bubbles stop being so honry PLEASE 😑

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