#and the whole ‘his species needs to be mean to survive’ thing-

[rogers-attic]

i like how the american dad fandom collectively headcanons that roger had terrible, ab//sive parents back on his home planet

like take a look at this goofy alien guy: hes an alc//h//lic, he has traits of a multiple personality disorder, hes an addict, he has very clear abandonment issues and went on a family bender, he smokes; all those things right there are DEFINITELY trauma responses like he clearly has LOTS of trauma he isnt properly dealing with

he even keeps his dad in the smiths freezer and takes a bite of it every year on his bday for gods sake like he aint right in the head

#ik ik rog is an asshole a lot of the times and you shouldnt use trauma as an excuse for your actions- #and the whole ‘his species needs to be mean to survive’ thing- #but CLEARLY hes dealing with some serious issues here #like what has my babey boy been through?!??? #istg if they dont make a decent roger backstory in the near future i am going to loose it #i need his backstory so badly 😭😭😭 #i am happy though with the tidbits of his life here and there in the series #i like to think that the smiths have tried to get roger the help he needs multiple times like in family affair- #but he dismisses it says hes too ‘superior’ for it or goes once and thinks everything is fixed #i also like to think that when rog first came to the smiths and they treated him like the rest of the family- #he was taken aback at first bcuz he wasnt used to such kindness and hospitality from caregivers #i could go on and on with this but i wont lol #i could write a freaking novel based on hcs and theories i have regarding this show #ive officially got ad brainrot yall #american dad #roger smith #ad talk

[thenightwolf51]

A detail from the first Trolls movie that always kinda confused me was the fact that Chef was gonna feed Poppy to Gristle.

Poppy is King Peppy's heir, shes the future queen. You'd think that would make her off limits. She needs to survive to be crowned and eventually continue the royal line. The bergens are a monarchy themselves so they understand this importance and the trolls are their livestock so they would have to put some focus on maintaining genetics and keeping the trolls at a somewhat stable quality of life, that includes the social dynamics of the tribe. At least as much as we would keep track of the Queen bee in a hive, the biggest bull in a herd, or the fastest horse in the derby.

But now with Band Together it makes more sence.

Viva is older than Poppy, which means that she would likely have been assumed to be the future queen. As far as the bergens are concerned King Peppy already had his "heir and a spare". Poppy was just the spare.

With that in mind, i wonder if it was a tradition for bergen royalty to be fed a royal troll for their first trollstice. "Every prince deserves a princess" Chef had said. Did Peppy have a sibling that was fed to Gristle's dad?

If Poppy hadn't been born, would Viva had been considered old enough for Peppy to be given to Gristle instead? She managed to lead the Puttputts when she got seperated. Or would Gristle have gotten Viva and the bergens just hoped Peppy would create a new heir?

And back to the genetics bit. Do you think they selectively bred the trolls for the best taste or effect. Like specifically choosing trolls or families with undesirable traits to cook at trollstice so that their genes die out. Is that how the average pop troll of the current generation got to be so... delusionaly cheerful.

Like i know its all played up for the movies because their pop trolls, constantly singing and dancing and eating sugary sweets. But in comparison to the other genres they just seem more exaggerated.

So how much of that happy positivity and optimistic near lack of self preservation that most pop trolls have is natural for their genre and how much is enhanced due to at least 100 years of selective breeding.

I imagine the happier a troll the more dopamine/serotonin they produce naturally so the bergens would probably take care to decrease the the amount of trolls that wernt as "potent". Which likely would have been trolls that sang and danced less, were more likely to develop anxiety or were prone to depression or going grey.

On the evolutionary side of things this would have led to the happiest and more optimistic pop trolls to be the most attractive and ideal mates even if the trolls don't relize the scientific reason behind it or consciously notice that happy trolls had a higher servival rate.

(Which kind of reminds me of that one post that said something about boybands like Brozone who made trolls happy with their music likely being "protected" in some way because bergens wanted them to continue making trolls happy)

And i do think the pop trolls were captive for at least 100 years because i doubt a whole town and castle, essentially a small kingdom can be built in one life time. Especially not one with an established monarchy and near religious holiday that has a "minister of happiness". Honestly i wanna see it as over 200 years, give them plenty of time to forget their pre-trollstice history like the existence of other tribes

This is a bit long and rambling but my world building mind really wants to hyperfixate on the details of the pop troll's captivity and what it means for them as a species and for the ways their culture might have shifted or adapted.

#dreamworks trolls #trolls #trolls band together #queen poppy #trolls viva #king peppy #king gristle #trolls bergens #trollstice #bergen traditions #headcanons #troll culture #maybe

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (Previous) (Next)

(Chapter 12 lets gooo!)

The audacity of this fish! Eyelids still heavy, brain still longing to go back to sleep. Shooting the meanest glare he could muster at the fish, hoping desperately that his displeasure would be received as intended. Untangling himself from the curtain, Danny rubbed his face. The folds of the fabric imprinted on his cheek leaving a pink mark that was quickly fading with his continued consciousness.

Danny pulled a peeper out of his makeshift freezer. Thankfully, it was still frozen. At least some aspects of his powers stayed the same. Sucking in a deep breath chilled water trickled through the gaps between his fingers, peeper going limp in his hands. His little workstation lacked a stove, a massive oversight on his part, but an understandable one since he didn’t have nearly enough materials to make a stable oven. The only thing he could make at the moment was an explosive hazard that’d cook anything in a five-foot radius to a charred crisp.

Charred Danny was a limited-time special dish, cooked via portal, and was unfortunately out of season forever. Like a discontinuation of tuna-flavored Oreos, nobody would be sad about it not being available. Surely, his fishy stalker would prefer him burnt like a marshmallow, but Danny isn't willing to indulge that preference. If he was going to be eaten, you bet your ass he’d be making this unpleasant for both of them.

Sheesh, he needed to find that guy's name. Or give him a new one. An insult wouldn’t do. Names had to mean something. This isn't a DND game, he can't just use a fantasy name generator and call it a day. No, this name had to be cool, not another “Inviso-Bill” scenario. His legs almost gave out in despair at the thought of being the one to give someone a name so stupid! He hadn’t done anything to deserve a punishment like that. Sure, his whole tapping routine was a migraine and a half, but he hadn’t done any harm. Even when Danny attacked him, he didn’t do anything, despite the fact he could’ve killed Danny with a single swipe from those razor-sharp claws.

Gritting his teeth at the thought of dying a third time in such an embarrassing way, he glanced down at the floppy fish still in his hands. Completely inedible, but Danny was getting pretty hungry at this point. Finding the strength to freeze the damn fish was difficult enough, he couldn’t just shoot lasers out his eyes and suddenly have a fully cooked peeper in his hands! All they had right now was the fabricator… Ugh, he scrunched his nose at the thought, but really, there were no other options for him at the moment. Oh, the ways humanity suffered for survival. Reluctantly giving the thawed peeper to cook, Danny began brainstorming names.

More information would be needed, he couldn’t just name him based on nothing! Swiping back to the fish guy’s databank, Danny studied it thoroughly. According to the PDA, this guy’s DNA was spliced, altered. Not in the getting electrocuted to death sense, but the genetically modified as an embryo kind of way. A perfectly functional hybrid between two unknown species that Danny guessed shouldn’t have been able to breed. But regardless, they came together to make this behemoth of a creature who looked as if he crawled through the deepest depths of hell just to scratch his freaking window.

!!!

He was going to call this guy Dami, short for damnation. It wasn’t an insult, it was cool! Danny would have died a third time to have been given a name as cool as that! Anything would’ve been better than Invis-o-bill. If Dami turned out to be the one who set up the ecto dampener he’d take back his cool nickname.

With a loud ding, Danny’s attention is brought back to his breakfast, now steaming at the fabricator. A small temperature warning flashed on his PDA the tablet setting a timer to let the fish cool down. If this had been any other food Danny might’ve been offended. The true way to eat something hot was to stuff it in your mouth and breathe out steam like a dragon while your taste buds burned! But this was fish, and a fish cooked by a fabricator no less. It was sure to taste like chemicals and Danny wasn’t looking to prolong the experience by choking on said chemical-tasting fish.

So he listened to the PDA if only to avoid a Skynet situation. It might just be data corruption but the AI seemed to be at the end of its rope. Remembering this AI had the choice to kill him with misinformation, messing with it further wasn’t the best idea. He’d toe the line of trolling, but ignoring it now felt like an invitation for it to short-circuit in his hands.

When the timer went off, Danny snatched the fish off the fabricator. The fish was still warm in his hands as he tore into it. Flaky, a faint, ashy aftertaste, barely noticeable if you hadn’t expected the off taste. Gutting the fish took away most of the artificial taste. Who knew vaporizing bones, organs, and tendons could fuck over any kind of palatability? Lasers sterilized the meat, giving it a hint of Space salmonella wasn’t a disease anyone was eager to catch. Maybe he’d get an award for his discovery but he’d rather not be sick with an alien infection when medical knowledge was as limited as it was now. Access to the intergalactic network was pretty much non-existent. They were out of the space confederation reach, meaning he was completely and utterly screwed if he caught anything serious.

What could bandages do for food poisoning? A whole lot of nothing, that’s what! They could only hope a doctor survived the crash and they could find them before any significant injuries happened. … Significant injuries to other survivors, that is. Danny’s going to fight a big ass fish!

Launching himself out the hatch seaglide in hand, Danny began circling Dami. His gigantic tail dragged against the sand, and he could only wonder how he got here in the first place. The shallows were too small for him to be a native. His body was built for the extreme pressures of water up to 8156 meters deep. His preferred environment should be as deep as deep should go. The probable pressure difference between the shallows and Dami’s home habitat was tremendous! It can't be healthy for him to be this close to the surface. Is this a beached whale situation? Did the crash damage his home?

With a databank incomplete, answering any important questions became increasingly difficult. Alterra’s handheld scanner was built to understand the basics. Deeper scans could show him the most complex parts of his biology. If he could build a beefier scanner, it would make things so much easier for him.  Designing a table was several difficulty levels below designing a scanner that could record a species' entire makeup at a molecular level.  Mistakingly blasting a poor, unsuspecting fish with radiation just to understand how this leviathan functioned would end poorly for both of them. It was easy for him to forget Dami's a teenager for his species. If he went around taking bone, blood, and muscle samples, not only would he feel bad but he'd probably be disemboweled by Dami's mom or Dad. While he's willing to throw hands with Dami, a 3v1 wouldn't be fair for the leviathans.  Observation was what his self-preservation limited him to, and if this species happened to be one who liked getting into fights? That was a free blood sample right there. All he had to do now was stop him from destroying the coral tubes

Danny darted underneath Dami’s tail, the fish jolting backward, pulling his tail with him. Gritting his teeth, Danny continued to chase Dami’s tail, bringing the large fish closer and closer to the deeper grassy plateaus. Like dancing, a swing from Danny's blade triggers his partner into the right moves. Of course, the right moves were away from his fucking base!  Dami might mean well, but in the end, he was scaring the bladderfish and destroying the shallows with his sheer mass!

Swinging one last time, Dami finally got the memo and swam a small distance away. Not quite close enough to see his entire base, but close enough for Danny to see him through the window. Like a kicked puppy, Dami rested his head on his arms. It almost made him feel bad, but the trail of uprooted plants and panicking fish the leviathan left in his wake canceled out any guilt.

“Caution. Continued degradation of the Aurora’s drive core may result in a quantum detonation. Continuing to monitor,”

…Shit.

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim @dragongoblet @noxcheshire

#dp x dc #dpxdc #dcxdp #subnautica au #Damian gets a cool nickname

[gatitties]

Would you ever consider writing a continuation of your ‘Not in my world’ writings?

─ Strawhats, Heart Pirates & Kid Pirates x isekaed!student!reader

─ Summary: you are definitely not made for this world, luckily you have a good protective squad!

─ Warnings: none

Part one / Part three (Kid Pirates)

I have some more thoughts in mind but not many ideas, although I'm open to suggestions with the theme if you would like something specific :')

─ Before you were struggling with the stress of exams, now you're struggling with the stress of this crew, you can't even spend five measly minutes calm because you're already in hot pursuit.

─ Good side, no one knew you and no one seemed to notice you (just like in your class haha…) which got you rid of a 'wanted' poster at least for now.

─ Bad side, you were exposed to a ridiculous amount of dangers from which you couldn't defend yourself (beyond punching or biting someone).

─ Luckily you have a captain who gave you complete security, and when he was being stupid you always had a swordsman watching your back, and if he was lost you had a cook by your side to help, but if he was too busy (flirting) you also had the strength of a cyborg at your side, and if none of them were there to help you only had one thing left…

─ Cry.

─ You didn't underestimate the protection of Nami, Usopp, Robin, Chopper, Brook or Jinbe, but you felt much safer with those four idiots, for no specific reasons, they were the ones who got you out of trouble the most, but you would trust them all with your life.

─ And speaking of crying, it was the best way to deal with all this pressure of the change in the world, even though in your previous life you were not completely happy, the radical change still affects you, Robin was the one who consoled you the most for that and you always come when you feel bad.

─ At least, you left some of your pessimistic thoughts about your future or what was going to become of it, you just have to enjoy the little moments of peace that you had traveling through this world.

─ Sometimes you got a little irritated because everyone saw you as a scaredy cat (which you really were) and they saw you as a baby that they had to protect, you weren't even that little! although you were not going to complain about the protection when you find yourself in trouble.

─ Without a doubt, it was a change of scenery for the better (largely also for the worse) because it helped you forget about things from your old life and rebuild your person, maybe a little change didn't hurt you, but you still feared for your life when side of this team.

─ You definitely get a lot of hugs with Nami and Usopp when something scary happens.

─ Chopper still scolds you for your sleep schedule and has Brook put you to sleep early for your health.

─ Although you have improved your eating schedules and have started eating healthier thanks to Sanji.

─ You also started training with Zoro and Jinbe, not as intensely, just some defense and stamina because you're going to need it if at some point they're not there to save you.

─ It is clear that Law does not make much of an appearance, rather it's his actions that put him so high on the wanted list, he is much more discreet than Luffy.

─ But that doesn't mean that all his demands to keep you in the submarine cause you stress, much less than before, but it persisted in the back of your mind, couldn't he understand you from emo to emo?

─ Luckily, being a student means that most of the time you have to fend for yourself to survive tests, exams, works... without help because good or kind teachers? Nah, that doesn't exist or they're an endangered species, so you pretty much know how to do everything.

─ Or at least learn fast and adapt, you quickly accepted the dangers of the world and most importantly how not to attract attention (it's not like you had done it before), anyway you were learning from the best, Law knew very well how to go unnoticed.

─ The good thing, you took this whole thing as a little vacation, it didn't bother you too much not leaving the Polar Tang, plus it meant less trouble and less fear of someone stabbing you or something.

─ The bad thing, Law was very demanding with everything, he reminded you of a child demanding new toys (surgical material), unfortunately you couldn't disobey if you didn't want to end up abandoned to your fate.

─ From what you know Law is quite strong so you should be around him, the problem is that you are not useful when you get mentally worn out and it seems that if you receive a lot of demands your mind will just shut down and do everything wrong.

─ Of course, your captain will notice and let you rest and urge you to go out for a while when they stop on an island, he will keep an eye on you because he knows that your appearance stands out from the others, he did not have infinite clothes and sometimes you used the outfit with you ended up here.

─ Luckily you always had your back covered, if he wasn't there, Shachi and Penguin would always follow you as a good dynamic duo, they helped clear your mind due to the amount of absurd comments or jokes they told.

─ Bepo is always there for a hug, the best hugs you've ever had.

─ You started some self defense lessons with Jean Bart just for good measure.

─ Law would like to scold you for your bad sleep schedule but he was no one to talk about it…

─ However, he doesn't take long to point out all the things that are harmful to your health, like when you sit like a shrimp causing back pain.

─ You are doomed, if you thought Luffy was someone who made a scandal it is because you do not know this crew, you definitely threw away a long time ago (literally the first minutes in this world) the possibility of ending up in a beautiful or peaceful place, free of anxiety.

─ Before it caused you a bit of discomfort that your classmates didn't count on you with some activities, now you are more than grateful that your presence is like that of a ghost.

─ Kid doesn't care much if you get into fights or if you draw the attention of someone who could hurt you, if you are inside his ship you must be strong, he only cared that you didn't hurt yourself because he didn't want to have to clean your brains from his boat deck.

─ Don't worry about it, Killer has your back, even if he doesn't show it, he feels sorry for you and your unfortunate encounter with his world, because he was the one with whom you vented the most as if he were your own mother, he will do everything possible by talking to Kid so that don't expose you to so many dangers.

─ Kid agreed to be more 'soft' about your weakness since you were useful in many aspects, you know, you're not stupid and you know how to adapt despite being terribly scared.

─ The good side, you were stopped from involving yourself in small crew tournaments, be it wrestling, drinking, or even a little thumb wrestling, not to mention you wouldn't actively participate in anything that required force or violence.

─ The bad side, they started treating you like the most fragile person on the planet (Kid no, he just stopped being less of an idiot with you), you constantly had Heat and Wire as your personal bodyguards but there came a point where it was ridiculous even for you.

─ It's not like you've never felt scared (or harassed) of someone in your other life, not that you were a warrior, but if you had to throw punches, you were going to.

─ This is how you began to learn to fight with Killer, although he didn't like the idea very much either, he accepted because it never hurts to know something about defense.

─ They all agreed not to bombard you too much either with questions or tasks, they knew what would trigger your anxiety and didn't want you sticking any more forks anywhere else in their bodies, Wire was good at calming you down in the moments you were within a second of hysteria.

─ You couldn't determine if you preferred to suffer in your previous life or in this one, but you thought that being here gave you the courage to live that you didn't have before and you believed that you could improve your person now that you didn't feel so much social pressure on you, in a certain way, you were free.

#strawhats x reader #kid pirates x reader #heart pirates x reader #reader insert #student!reader #isekai #isekaed!reader #one piece #op #one piece x reader #headcannons #kid pirates #heart pirates #strawhats #x reader #luffy #usopp #nami #robin #chopper #kid #killer #heat #wire #law #bepo #shachi #penguin #franky #brook

[its-the-sa]

Different anon. God just boiling down the slugcats to 'animals' angers me in a way I didn't think I could be angry. Yes, they are animals, but by all means they are cognitive and understand complex emotions, communicate with a supposedly complex language, are able to be taught to do things. Why else would the iterators use them as messengers constantly? It's not like they're messenger pigeons where it's just going from point A to point B, they understand exact instructions. If this was just some random animal, making groans and grunts, they wouldn't be able to understand what Five Pebbles even meant when he was explaining how to ascend. Even with the mark, could you imagine if he told a lizard this? Artificer, arguably, is a prime example of this. Just an animal would get over their fallen children, sure they'd grieve but in the end they'd just make more. Arti not only is so enraged by their death, that she is physically incapable of ascension, but also swears vengeance upon a whole other species. This isn't just some animal who lost her children, this is a mother who is enraged at her children's murder. Sure, they aren't on the same level as humans are. Like obviously. But I'd argue it makes sense that a scavenger and a slugcat could fall down the path of enemies to lovers. Especially when you consider the fact that death isn't permanent in Rain World's universe. That would definitely change one's perspective on it. I dunno if I make sense, I'm juggling like three things at once, but I had to say what I needed to say. Wording bad, slugcat smort.

tbh it took me a minute to figure out what this was even referring to, because honestly I don't think that anon meant to use the word 'animal' to dehumanize arti in the first place. it sounded to me like they were just using it as a non-human equivalent for 'person', like "why would anyone fall for a person who committed hate crimes against them?" which is a valid question. it never even occurred to me that they could have meant it in the sense of calling her an inferior creature.

that said... you ARE 100% right and you should say it, lmao.

I very nearly got into this exact argument once, bc i saw some comments from a guy scoffing at the idea of arti showing mercy to baby scavs. because by his logic, 'she is just an animal, so she isn't bound by human morality. in the wild, animals kill any young that don't belong to them without hesitation'. and it just pissed me off so much, because not only was it such an edgy "mercy is for the WEAK!" alpha-male bullshit take, it was also just factually wrong. many animals can and do adopt the young of other animals, even other species, especially when they've just lost their own. and like you said, they can grieve, but then they move on. they keep surviving, and making more babies. they don't dwell on injustice, or let rage consume them to the point that it becomes a hindrance to their own survival. they don't go on single-minded revenge quests. they dont try to justify their own violence by demonizing entire species, and they dont end up plagued by guilt in their sleep. those are very, very human things.

and yeah, i see a lot of people theorize that it's the mark of communication that grants the slugcats higher intelligence, but I don't really buy that either. i think the mark just lets them understand the iterator's language. they must've already had the capacity to understand it, or else it wouldn't work at all. it'd be like trying to install windows on a calculator. also, even without the mark, slugcats are obviously shown to communicate with each other. they have their own culture, they tell stories and make art, and they're apparently able to understand karma and the nature of the cycle at least enough to be able to ascend. so like... any creature thats capable of spiritual enlightenment must at least be sapient, right??

it seems like in the absence of the ancients, both slugcats and scavs are beginning to move in to their niche in the ecosystem

#in other words #[holds up a slugcat] BEHOLD A MAN

[six-paths-of-jeanmarco]

You wanna talk about Reiner, Jean and Marco?

Okay, let's talk about Reiner, Jean and Marco. Buckle up, there's a lot to talk about.

Disclaimer: this is not an anti post to any character or ship, quite the opposite. Read the whole thing before you jump to conclusions, thanks :)

Well, yes and no. First and foremost, the background. Jean and the rest of the cadets, while each had a goal, were training to defend what they thought to be all that was left of the human species. For 100 years, the walls protected them, but they were no longer secure. The military was humanity's last hope of survival. With these unimaginably high stakes always looming over them, the cadets ought to have developed a complex bond that would be very hard to put into words. Let's just say they were something more than just siblings in arms, and you could tell that. Throughout the series, you never get the impression that Jean and the others truly wanted to kill RBA. It also explains why Marco questioned Reiner and Bert about their conversation before he even realized he's made a mistake.

However, we also have to remember this scene. This happened not long after Marco's death. Realistically speaking, I don't see how Jean wouldn't have harboured a healthy amount of hatred in his heart. But it never overcame him because his grief over losing Marco was much stronger than his hatred for those who caused it.

He won't get his answers from Annie, but he could get them from Reiner after they captured him in Shiganshina. He convinced Hange to not execute him due to a mix of the aforementioned bond and his need to understand what truly happened to Marco and what were the shifters' true goals. And of course, because preserving one's life, even an enemy's, is in Jean's nature.

There's so much to unpack here, but first, let's focus on the idea that "the people who killed Marco were the same as Jean himself", which is a false equivalence supported by other false equivalences.

There's RBA's mission to commit straight up genocide against Paradis, and the raid of Liberio or Eren's plan to steal the War Hammer, ensure that the world hates Paradis, and use his friends as his escape route. Sure, the Scouts could have chosen not to aid Eren, let him be captured, lose the Founding Titan, and allow Marley to destroy them once and for all. Not a hard choice at all, right? The only thing that those two events have in common is the fact that the shifters were responsible for almost all of the casualties. In fact, as a commanding officer, Jean did everything in his power to avoid civilian casualties in Liberio. He even failed to kill Falco and Pieck.

Then there's Marco's murder and the clash with the Yeagerists. All I'm going to say about the former at this point is that Reiner had other options to keep Marco from endangering their mission other than killing him. But fundamentally speaking, the two situations share nothing in common. The circumstances that led to them happening, the power dynamics between the parties involved, the stakes, and the context itself makes them practically unrelated. The alliance had to leave the island or the Rumbling would have ended the world. The Yeagerists gave them no choice other than to fight them. Saying that Reiner and Jean are "the same" it's like saying a killer who murdered their victim is just as bad as a survivor who killed their aggressor in self defense. The killer could've chosen not to commit murder, whereas the survivor didn't have a choice. In this case, the world is the victim while the Yeagerists are complicit for interfering with the only people that could stop the Rumbling. Of course, that doesn't mean Jean shouldn't have felt anything after he killed his former comrades, he'd be ooc.

In fact, these aren't just my thoughts. Some of these points are made by Isayama himself:

Notice how Yelena frames the raid as a nation wide attack? Except, that's not what it was at all. The Scouts only attacked the internment zone while Eren and Armin ravaged it and the port of Liberio respectively, two locations in one of the thousands of cities an empire as large as Marley must've had. And they did so to prevent Marley from gaining the means that would've allowed them to destroy Paradis. As for what Reiner and Annie did to the walls and their people, Yelena's accusations are hitting the nail.

These issues are never properly addressed in the following chapters. Instead, they were used to lay the foundations for the "we're the same" fallacious dialogue. Isayama didn't have to throw every single Scout in the same gray soup as the Warriors since they've already proven to be complex characters in the previous arcs. His own writing didn't support it. Imo, that's why he failed in this regard.

The campfire scene is a highlight, that one thing is true. It's extremely important for Jean and Marco's relationship. Marco wasn't just Jean's most significant person throughout the series (aside from his mom), he was also his most significant loss. A wound in his very being.

Not knowing what truly happened to Marco, what were his last moments, was an open wound on its own. When Reiner finally confessed, Jean had the closure he'd thought he'd never get. Now he could start the long process of healing - partially, because such pain never truly goes away. You just learn how to live with it, and Jean already has plenty of experience in that field. I think this is a very powerful message, important too. Grief is not something inherently bad. It's up to you what you do with. You either allow it to consume you, or you hold it tight, you cherish it as a sign that what you had was real, still is real, you let it shape you into a better person, one that understands pain and wishes for no one to have to go through something similar. Jean is the latter, ever the kind-hearted man.

This should have been Jean and Marco's intimate moment, but Reiner intruded on it with his self-pitying babbling. There are lines that mustn't be crossed. That's when Jean snapped and attacked him. He didn't do anything after he learned the truth, just told Reiner to shut up, which he didn't do.

There's a glaring difference between Jean's reaction and what Reiner did after Marco overheard his discussion with Bert, what he did after Marco begged him to talk it over, to talk with him. He executed him like an animal; worse than that, he betrayed him, crushed his soul, denied him any chance of survival, left him behind for the titan to finish the job.

Marco was kind, understanding, supportive, good-natured, bright, forgiving, a true leader worth following. He wanted to serve the king because that's how he thought he could serve his people best (this is clearly inspired by the relationship the people of Japan had with their emperor before he renounced his divine status). Yes, he was also wrong about some things he didn't have the chance to understand as one of the early deaths. But Marco represented something we should all strive to be: a good human being.

On the other hand, Reiner strived to be a hero. Someone who'd wipe out all the devils. Someone driven by selfish ideals that have been shaped by prejudice and hatred. Only a monster would kill someone like Marco. As I said earlier, he had other choices to deal with him. He already broke his legs, so Marco would've been entirely dependent on his help to survive. Reiner could've coerced him to keep quiet or else Bert would kill everyone with his shifter ability, or even force him to aid Annie with gathering intel in the inner walls. Reiner knew Marco wasn't stupid, he would've complied with his demands, if not to save himself, at least to prevent a disaster. And yet, Reiner still chose to murder him, a choice that only a monster could make, a choice that would ruin his mental health, a choice that would turn him into a shell of a man.

If there's one character that is bound to Marco by trauma and guilt, it's Reiner. He was no hero as his story was written with the blood of his many victims. Killing Marco forced Reiner realize he was the monster all along, not the people he was sent to exterminate. Not the people he didn't see as people. His trauma was so egregious because he couldn't face this monster that would murder someone like Marco, - and once he did - because he couldn't stand this monster that was he. Quite ironic to say that Marco symbolizes naivety while the hero that never was was falling apart as the realization of what he did started to kick in. Hard.

Combined with this realization, that choice would make him do the right thing in the end. To me, this was the whole point of Reiner's character arc. To stress the idea that a single choice fueled by hatred has an unmeasurable weight and only leads to unthinkable consequences. It's about doing the right thing after constantly doing the wrong thing. It's about showing that there is no us vs them and that the dehumanization of the Other only leads to mass destruction and self destruction. Change is not impossible as long as you keep moving forward and you give meaning to pain and guilt. Unless you stand for nothing, kill for nothing, and then die for nothing, like Bert did. A literal representation of the quote "Apathy is death". Or end up as self-centered as Annie, to the point where you'll unapologetically say you'd do it all again. Instead of saying you'd try to change your actions. But Reiner did change. He joined forces with Jean and the rest because he was finally able to see them as what they always were: human beings whose lives are just as precious as all the lives in the world. And that his own life might still be worth something. Reiner hurt Jean far too deep to fully reconciliate, but they were no longer divided by hatred.

Take away the impact Marco had on him and you'd do Reiner a great disservice.

Jean could've also chosen to do some things different. He could've returned to the camp and kill Reiner and Annie in their sleep. Cut off their heads and return back to Paradis as a hero, and finally have the quiet life that he wanted, but he didn't. Or he could've stayed in that forest for the rest of his life, to hell with everyone else, but he didn't. It wasn't because Marco's expectations had him on a leash.

Learning the truth about what happened to Marco, learning his final words made him realize that he became a man worth Marco's timely praise. And that man would never let resent, revenge, or retribution turn him into a monster. He is a man that always chooses to do the right thing because he strives against his own demons, and Marco is the person who helps him choose this life.

It's not trauma nor guilt that keeps Jean and Marco connected, it's love, be it platonic or romantic. How can it be anything else? Marco gave him this moment:

And before this, Marco told him he's cut out to be a leader. Marco told him "I'm alive because of you". Marco made him smile for real. Do you know how much of an impact just a few words of encouragement can have on a 15 years old boy with low self esteem and no real purpose in life? He'll never forget them for as long as he lives, especially if they're coming from someone who means a lot to him. How can you take something as meaningful as that and turn it into something ugly? Marco gave him clarity.

Marco's neither a blessing nor a curse. Especially not the latter. This is how Jean remembers him four years after he had found his lifeless corpse:

Of all his fallen comrades, Jean only sees him. This is the face that Jean turns to in his darkest hours. The eyes that look back at Jean are soulful, kind, sincere, comforting. Marco's facial expression is warm and tender. You wouldn't tell this was a 16 years old boy who had died a most gruesome death.

It matters too little they don't have cameras in Paradis, no picture could reproduce Marco's image with as much love as Jean's mind does. And it matters that much when you think about how much symbolism there is in aot. None of this is coincidental at all.

Jean always turns to Marco for hope, for strength, for solace, and to remind himself of his own kindness, that in a world as cruel as that of aot, there's still love and there's still light, if not outside, then within.

Marco's no curse, no blessing, no symbol, he is just a boy whose words and actions had a great impact on those around him, especially on his best friend (and dare I say, soulmate) who misses him dearly. He left his mark on the plot and themes of aot, whether you want to acknowledge that or not.

Edit: Forgot to add this (my drafts are a mess):

I do agree that Jean saving Reiner's life is important. No, they could never go back to being friends. Who'd be friends with their best friend's murderer? I'll say it again, Reiner hurt Jean far too deep for them to ever fully reconciliate. Besides, Jean himself stated that he could never forgive him for what he did. The logic is sadly not logic-ing with this one. But that doesn't mean he cannot see Reiner as a human being. The difference between Reiner and Jean is that Jean always saw everyone as people.

It's important because it shows how far Jean has come. It's important because it shows how much truth was in Marco's words right from the beginning. Jean is humanity's best - not because he is flawless, far from it, but because this flawed man will always find the strenght to do what's right. Because when good men go to war, they don't see sides, not really, they see the horrors of their actions.

In a way, aot is Jean's story. And Reiner's. And Marco's. I still have plenty of criticism for this series, but the web of complex relationships between these three characters is one of the things that Isayama did right.

#jean kirstein #marco bott #reiner braun #jeanmarco #jean kirschtien #jean kirschstein #jean kirschtein #marco bodt #aot #snk #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin

[dnd-smash-pass-vs]

Wait what's the thing about gold elves killing eilistraee followers as big eilistraee simp i never heard of this. What do I have to blame Corellon "Known Bitch" Larenthian with now?

...oh boy. I don't have the most time today, but I can always rattle off elven lore. idk why, I just got obsessed in the rabbit hole for a year for some reason, despite not being my favorite.

Ok, are you familiar with the evermeet debacle? Gold elves decided to make a new elf-only land by ripping out a chunk of heaven itself and throwing into the sea? Dark elves mentioned basic water displacement exists, and how every time gold elves try high magic it goes wrong and even wipes out entire elven species? Got banned for eternity even after being proven right, basically for insinuating that a Gold Elf plan is capable of fault. Well after everyone rebuilt from the widespread slaughter of most life on continents worth of coast, thier arrogance boiled over and the main gold elf nation tried to subjugate all other elves. Starting with the country which was Eilistraee's capital of worship. That was the start of the Dark Elf decent, as the country on the other side of the coast started fighting thier way through every nation between the two, using worse and worse means in a desparate attempt to get to dark/green elf nation they'd subjugated. Starting with fire, eventually leading to demons and undead. but. Um. Gold elves got sick of 3000 years of failed subjugation I guess, because they made a magical eternal nuke that wiped it off the face of the planet. Specifically with high magic, which comes through Corelleon and he has sole control over, able to just turn it off at any time. note that it took drow high mages running in and having to manually turn it off, even if Corellon somehow didn't register it happening he still had to approve for it to keep going endlessly. Remember, this nation that was vaporized was Eilistraee's place. The prime dark elf nation realized this was now a war for survival, went full feral cornered animal, and the other elves turned the dark elves into drow. Corellon even barred them from the afterlife, took away much of thier elven powers and cut them off from his love. like, for all elves and nations, even those in other planes or completely uninvolved. If you wonder why Lolth even has power, it's because when they made thier descent there was just her, a god of hedonism, and the slime god. Eilistraee had lost most of her influence because all her worshippers had been vaporized. The gold elves had destroyed all influences of good, so lolth had free reign. I made an unhinged video on it after like a year of reading up on every elf I could find and trying to boil the script down. not the most proud of it since I was barely conscious by the end of editing so there's weird pauses between some lines, and...holy shit looking back I forgot subtitles. I'll need to add those when I have a moment. but if you're interested in the full story. 13:05 for the war, 14:35 for the dark elf part. Or the whole thing if you want to hear a listing of all elves, as I learn that I'm not actually biased against them like I thought, just specifically against the Gold elves and Shadar-Kai. And the lythari, but I don't actually have anything against them, I just think the insistence that they aren't lycanthropes is a bit dumb.

#not tournament #answers

[hazbinfallinginaspiral]

Vox being protective of Retro in your stuff is kinda adorable. Plus the whole not wanting them to remember his protective actions or his stumbling works is too.

Poor Retro most likely cant remember all the flustered stumbling over words Vox did when they flirted with him. Plus he must have needed a lot of proposing do overs

Anyway wanted to say you think Retro would ever take Vox to a Hell's version of an aquarium? He's got those sharks after all, I completely think the Goofy TV man we saw watching the final battle would be a goof ball at the aquarium and Retro would surely enjoy seeing that I think.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, hope it gave an idea or two!

The gentle hum of excitement filled the air as Vox and I stepped into the aquarium, the vibrant colors and soothing sounds of the underwater world enveloping us in a sense of wonder and awe. Vox's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as he took in the sights, his excitement infectious.

"Look at that!" Vox exclaimed, pointing eagerly at a tank filled with colorful tropical fish darting to and fro. "Aren't they magnificent?"

I nodded, unable to suppress a smile at his childlike enthusiasm. "They're beautiful," I agreed, my gaze drawn to the shimmering scales and graceful movements of the fish.

It was when we reached the shark exhibit that Vox's excitement reached its peak. His eyes practically lit up with delight as he pressed his face against the glass, watching the sleek predators glide effortlessly through the water.

"Sharks!" Vox exclaimed, his voice filled with awe. "Did you know that they're one of the oldest species on Earth? And look at those teeth! Absolutely fascinating."

“They’re adorable!” I said, admiring them right alongside him.

“Did you know that sharks have been around for more than 400 million years?” He asked, pulling me over to the tank. “That makes them older than dinosaurs!”

“What? No way,” I said with a smile. “You can’t expect me to believe they survived the same apocalypse that wiped out the dinosaurs.”

“Oh, but they did! And, there are over 400 species of sharks, ranging from the tiny dwarf lanternshark to the massive whale shark,” he said with a grin. He was explaining it all so animatedly, with so much enthusiasm I couldn’t help but be intrigued. “As you probably know, sharks have several rows of teeth, and they can lose up to 30,000 teeth in their lifetime.”

“No! No, no, that one has to be a lie,” I said, shaking my head. He laughed and pointed to an infographic that proved me wrong. “What?! Where does it all go????”

“The ocean floor, where’s it turns to sediment, is eroded into sand over time, or fossilized,” Vox said matter of factly. “Oh! And they aren’t even bloodthirsty monsters, either.”

“Well I knew that part,” I said. I looked at the aquarium where a hammerhead seemed to be swimming around. “They’re adorable, they don’t mean any harm. Most shark attacks are purely accidental.”

“Exactly! Some species of sharks, like the great white shark, can detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, but they’re not interested in humans,” he explained. He walked up to the glass and looked at the sharks with me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me up against him. “Contrary to popular belief, not all sharks are apex predators; some species feed on plankton and small fish. Sharks have an incredible sense of smell, enabling them to detect prey from miles away, which is why they’re such great hunters! If they smell human blood they won’t pursue it, they have better things to do. Fish taste better, and honestly, I can’t blame them.”

“Despite their fearsome reputation, sharks are more threatened by humans than humans are by them, primarily due to overfishing and habitat destruction,” I said, reading off another sign. “Huh. That’s interesting.”

“I know! They’re just the most amazing little things, aren’t they?” He asked, the same big grin on his face. “Did you know that some species of sharks, like the Greenland shark, have incredibly long lifespans, with some individuals living over 400 years?”

I couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm, finding myself caught up in his excitement. Together, we spent hours exploring the various exhibits, marveling at the diversity and beauty of the ocean's inhabitants.

“Oh my god!” I squealed and dragged him away from some coconut crabs to look at sea bunnies. “I love them!”

“Ah, I see I’m not the only one with an interest in marine life,” he said with a small laugh. He looked through the glass at the little guys, less excited than he was about sharks, but curious nonetheless. “So, what makes these little guys so interesting?”

“Sea bunnies are a type of sea slug found in the waters of the Indo-Pacific region. They are known for their cute appearance, with fluffy ‘bunny ears’ and a soft, rounded body, as well as vinbrant colours and intricate patterns,” I explained, pointing to a few. “This one is more common, see its white with little black spots? These are the ones people know best.”

“Oh! They look kind of like you,” Vox said with a smile. He looked between my ‘bunny ears’ and the ones the sea bunny had. “Actually, you guys look a lot alike…”

“That��s because I’m a sea bunny demon,” I said with a laugh. I stood right beside the sea bunny in the tank so he could make the comparison. “You know, like how you’re a TV demon and Val is a Moth Demon. Alastors a deer demon, Velvette is a doll demon. I’m a sea bunny!”

“Oh! I hadn’t thought… wow, okay, that makes a lot of sense,” he said with a nod. “So are those actual ears? How does that work?”

“The ‘bunny ears’ are actually sensory organs called rhinophores, which they use to detect chemicals in the water,” I said with a shrug. I reached up and touched my own for a moment. “It’s a trait we share. Not particularly useful since there’s not an ocean in this ring of Hell.”

“Sea bunnies feed on algae, using their radula (a tongue-like organ covered in tiny teeth) to scrape it off rocks and other surfaces,” Vox said, squinting at a sign as he read it off. He turned to me, looking bewildered. “Do you… do you have that?”

“Nope! I don’t have a need for it,” I said with a grin. I dragged him to a different tank with more colorful sea bunnies. “Anyway! Despite their adorable appearance, sea bunnies are toxic. They absorb toxins from the algae they eat and store them in their bodies as a defense against predators,” I said, matter of factly. “It’s super cool! They’re, like, immune to everything! The toxins can be released into the water if a sea bunny is threatened, making them unpalatable or even harmful to predators.”

“Huh,” he said, thinking about it for a moment. “I never made the connection before. Does that mean you’re poisonous?”

“Sometimes, maybe,” I said with a shrug. I paused for a moment and thought about it. “I… actually don’t know. Huh.”

“Well then.”

“Holy shit! Is that a sting ray?” I asked, running over to another tank, immediately distracted again. “I fucking love stingrays!”

Vox followed along with a smile. Despite how he would rather be with the sharks, still talking about them, he was seemingly content looked at the other exhibits with me. As we made our way through the aquarium, Vox's enthusiasm never waned, his childlike wonder infectious. I found myself grinning and laughing right along with him, every step of the way.

#hazbin hotel #vox #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin vox #writing #vox x reader #my writing #x reader #thanks anon!

[theladyregret]

Wow, I...vastly underestimated how much you guys would vibe with the whole The Walking Dead in Space thing lol ok well...now that I have a day off from work here's some of the ideas I've been thinking about while bored this week.

----------

Human Diplomat: Hey, is there a reason all the water access areas don't allow humans anymore? Don't you guys know we have high water requirements?

Alien Space Station technician: Oh! No one told you?

Human: Told us what?

Alien: Sorry, they were supposed to tell you. Our apologizes, this must look terrible.

Human: Tell. Us. What?

Alien: Our bio filters detected the disease you all carry in the stations water supply after you visited last. Our scientists ran some tests and found that it can survive almost indefinitely in water and is highly resistant to our water treatments. We had to purge and decontaminate the entire system. We created a separate system for your use that is more isolated. You can use those....I....uh...are you ok? Is this sufficient?

Human, frantically writing in a log book: Oh? Yes, fine...that's fine!

Second human: I think you guys just solved a centuries old mystery for us.

Alien, looking confused: What mystery?

Second human: How our species all became infected so quickly.

Alien: You never found out?

Human: It wiped out 99% of our population during the initial outbreak...the how and why of it kind of stopped mattering after a bit, you know?

---------

Galactic News Reporter: Tragedy today after the recent excavation of the lost human mining crew in sector 92. Against human recommendations, rescuers continued their efforts throughout the week. The human deceased, commonly referred to as Walkers, attacked and killed several rescue parties before the site had to be bombed by air support military. Diplomats from several species met once again today to discuss the risks of open contact with the Humans and whether stricter protocols need to be put in place.

Video feed cuts to a human diplomat standing in a room full of multiple different aliens: We told you what to do! You didn't listen! You never listen to us! If you had, none of this would have happened!

Alien Politician: You recommended that the tunnels be collapsed before any excavation be conducted prior to the time frame denoted by safety regulations which would have condemned any potential survivors-

Human, hitting the table in front of him with his fists: YOU'RE STILL NOT LISTENING!

--------

Transport ship pilot over PA system: Our ship is currently on approach to the Human home planet of Terra. Be aware that we will be passing through the debris field left over from the Human Colony Wars which will require us to drop out of FTL. Our ship is specially equipped for this journey so rest assured we are in no danger from the debris. It is recommended that any windows be shielded for the duration of this time, thank you.

Human passenger pulls the shade down for their window with a sigh.

The alien next to them looks curious: Why do the windows need to be covered?

Human: Some people find the...debris...disturbing. *the way they said debris sounded sarcastic*

Alien: ...humans find broken ships disturbing?

Human: You didn't do very much research before coming here did you?

Alien just looks confused.

Human reaches over and opens the window cover. They pass close by one of the wrecked ships and at first it looks like any other debris field...then something moves and they realize it's a body. A human body floating in space. It jerks and twists as they pass by. Mouth opening and closing. The alien jerks back in surprise.

Human: The vacuum of space means they don't decompose so...all those people who didn't die properly...they're just out there...like that. Thousands of soldiers. Ships just full of Walkers.

They pass by another ship. This one looks intact and newer.

Alien: That's not human...

Human: Pirates...scavengers. Sometimes they try to come in and take metal from the ships...but...without the proper shielding.

They pass to the other side and there's a hole torn into the side of the ship.

Human: Just another corpse in a field of corpses. Food for the dead.

Alien looking horrified: Why not clean it out?

Human: Why take the risk? Besides...it keeps out the unwanted.

They pass by the corpse of an alien floating in space that still has a walker clinging to it, idly chewing on what still has flesh attached to it. This walker looks more decayed then the other one had. The alien looks like they might be sick so the human shuts the shade again. They don't talk the rest of the way.

#The Walking Dead #The Walking dead in space #humans are space orcs #zombies in space #humans are deathworlders

[fandom-zoomer]

I think I may have come up with the best worst tma time travel “fix-it” au (imho)

Inspired by Ketakoshka's 'dread spawn' idea in their dread child jon series, Dribbledscribbles' origin story for the dread powers and extinction entity interpretation in their extinction!jon fic (and some more of the latter in their post-eyepocalypse fic too), as well as my own love for making unholy (aka fun) fusions of things and sandboxing eldritch interactions with the 'mundane' . . .

. . . I have created a post-canon, Somewhere Else, time travel ""fix-it"" story that I think might be unique (at least I've never seen any fics like it– but if I'm wrong then please please share the link!! or dm me if it's your own work hehe but no pressure!!)

(mag 160+ spoilers after this point!)

(i'm about to wax poetics here (hopefully coherently)—so you can read the story-ramble OR you can scroll to the TL;DR at the bottom to skip it & spoilers to read the nutshell & see if you're interested :3)

so get this...

The big Change happens right? But this time the Extinction is a bigger player in the game than canon, and ultimately deeply marks Jon throughout the eyepocalypse.

So when the finale happens, since Jon is now connected to the epicenter of the whole show, his 'death' and the panopticon's destruction has the simultaneous effect of baiting the Dread Powers into the Hole (via his voice in the spools of tape)– and also killing everyone trapped by the Dread Powers in the world via Jon the walking detonator thanks to being entrenched in the Extinction's influence. —Combining both his best and worst plans and realizing his worst nightmare: killing everyone and spreading the Powers to an unknown number of worlds to wreak even more havoc.

How did this happen?

Simple—but first some backstory for context.

The Extinction was more of a 'lurker', much less "outgoing" than its 'siblings'. And when it was "grandiose", well. . . it tended to leave no survivors. Thus its unrecognition by those like Robert Smirke or Jürgen Leitner.

To go back even further, the Dread entities were originally one cohesive entity with many faces and limbs. Its faces reflected the same developmental complexity as the sources of their manifestation. So those with the most diverse species feeding them held the widest capacities. Namely: the Hunt, End, and Extinction. But being a singular entity, it didn't mean much.

But as human species' family lines develop and grow more complex cognitive ability, more esoteric Dreads developed, and more faces become more complex. And the Extinction was right there from the beginning as more species died out one by one. Quietly. (...maybe? 👀)

Over time humans discovered the Powers and bonded with them, then started to classify them. From here, the Dread entity fragmented into Dread entities.

They developed their own 'consciousnesses' distinct from the hive 'mind' they once were. And, eventually, sapience. Self-awareness. Desires. Personalities. But they were still connected, part of the 'system'.

The Extinction and the Web (newer, but always sapient) are a quirky pair, the Web seeking control over everything and the Extinction seeking ultimate entropy and change upon its catastrophe.

It's hard to distinguish the Extinction exactly, its work misidentified for others with few under its own unique umbrella. Things 'unique' to it get missed due to being a misnomer and not getting clocked. (But that is the nature of the Dread Powers after all.. being a fragmentation of their original singular mass.)

...

The Extinction represents the fear of disaster that will bring about the end of everything—everything you know, love, need to survive. Everything you built, worked for, hoped for. The destruction of stories and of life, of the very history written by your land—your home.

Your community. Your society. Your species.

You.

Annihilated in totality.

The Extinction represents the fear of those that come after you to replace you—worse than you, different from you. Leaving you and your history and stories (the driver of your continued existence) forgotten forever. The fear of life moving on after you, ignorant and apathetic. Your story meaningless, irrelevant.

Your community's story. Your society's story. Your species' story.

Your story.

Erased and written over.

The Web represents the fear of being controlled, fate being out of your hands—by malevolent authorities out of reach, by abusive companions or relatives, by invisible forces far beyond the human comprehension. Spinning, winding, twisting, pulling each decision in your life made for you. Until destruction of the self by your own hand.

Your struggle for change futile. Your feet following the same path. Your fate determined for you.

You forfeit control—your feet march you to your bitter demise.

The Web represents the fear of being conspired against. Scheming, plotting, planning your downfall. The loss of everything you hold dear, worked for, bled for. Spinning, twisting, scripting lies about you. Your credibility falls to pieces, your world shatters, and your story distorts.

You are kept alive by the spreading of your story. And the people have decided to trust the manufactured tale.

You are forgotten—twisted into an image of something wrong.

...

Sometimes they're at odds. Where one seeks to manipulate the threads of everything endlessly, the other seeks to destroy it all so thoroughly, with such finality, as to mutate it– the schemes, the pawns, the gameboard itself.

Sometimes they're complementary. Where you watch as you lose everyone you cared for one by one, spiraling down a path darker into entropy, the irreversible nightmare, and wondering if you ever really had free will in the first place– if anyone did.

What if the end for you really was just another game to them? What if this wasn't their first round? What if you're just the next step in the grand scheme, larger than even your own universe?

Alright, now with that out of the way, let's bring back the question.

How did the Extinction change Jon, and how did this cause the altered result of the finale?

The Web has been there since the near beginning, pulling Jon along and guiding him to his next milestone in the plot. She had known the world would come to an end one way or another, and wanted to bring it about on her own terms so that she—they all—could escape it.

So when the Web saw what the Eye was doing, she had an idea. So she aided their acolytes, seeing her sibling as the perfect way to bring all of them together for the final step. And the Web set her own card onto the board: Jon.

Jon had a natural disposition for the Eye; from stubborn curiosity to the reckless pursuit for answers to even the coldest cases. Whether he knows it or not, his mind is a gaping maw for horrible knowledge—chasing after experiences disguised as answers to his burning questions so dreadful they leave scars on him like sigils of a looming doom.

While he has no affinity for the Web's machinations, he is still hers. She has no issue with guiding agents from across the court, she knows how to share. Especially when it benefits her. Jon archives each event, every little detail, with such care and readiness that he makes the perfect vessel to pull them in—to guide them out. He'd flourish best as her tool in the Watcher's sphere.

After the Watcher's Crown and the Dread Powers came into the world, the Extinction started to make its presence known. It seeped into other Domains and fed on the people's dread for permanent catastrophic change, on their fear of ruin and total desctruction. And as Jon traversed them and lived through their fear, so was he marked by the Extinction.

It seeped into his skin like oil and burned through his veins like acid. It tainted his trails with the radioactivity of human hubris and greed, twisting and mutating both the mundane and Dreadful as he passed. It closed its grasp on him with the tightness plastic rings and infected his Perceived routes with the stench of mountainous landfill and the thickness of city smog.

The Web and the Extinction had a complex relationship, but in this moment they guided the Archivist in synchronous song like a soldier being led to his final mission: dropping the nuclear bomb.

Did Jon know?

...

No.

The twines of manipulation layer labyrinthine over everything, above and below and through every angle and dimension. Even the Nigh-Omniscient Antichrist and his All-Knowing God will never fathom its depths.

He might never know that he helped start the Extinction's ritual: Raze the Earth.

Or that both the Web and the Eye knew and did nothing. (honestly, the latter's only there for the show)

So when Martin stabbed Jon and Melanie lit the gas mainline, the threads around the world snapped and the glowing light of humanity's greatest sins exploded over everything—

—and they prayed—

—and they wept—

—and the Dreads rushed out torrentially. (pulling a few strays with them)

Now for the part you were all waiting for (well I was)—the Heart of this AU

The Dread Powers and the ones who were dragged with them were transported Somewhere Else– a parallel world in a parallel universe. But they were. . . Changed from their previous/original selves.

The tag-alongs—Martin & Jon of course, but also Annabelle Cane, Oliver Banks, Simon Fairchild, and Arthur Nolan—replaced their parallels at birth, and gained partial or full amnesia to their past lives. But their personalities are altered, reflecting some aspects of their pre-finale personalities.

Except for Jon. Jon, the Pupil of the Eye, the Warhead of the Extinction, the Spools of the Web, the Archive of the Dreads and linchpin to their escape. . . was significantly destroyed in the center of the storm. He got it and so much worse—a stick so short its existence was inverted.

While they did get reach the new universe, they had to reconstruct their linchpin/Archive that they're still connected to so that his total destruction doesn't tear them apart as well (being an Extinction avatar that's now deeply connected with them, he's capable of "taking them down with him").

When Jon was reborn, he was literally thrown into the world like a meteorite, landing with an explosive blast that rendered the surrounding area a lifeless wasteland in moments. High radioactivity and a deathly curse left few flora or fauna returning before wasting away soon after. Those that 'survived' did so by being infected by the Extinction or Corruption.

It would permanently remain uninhabitable, and it would take months before the withered stillborn spawn of the sapient eldritch Dread Entities would crawl out of the jagged crater on its own, none the wiser to its tragedies.

TL;DR

The Web manipulated Jon's attempt to put a stop to the Entities' reign, utilizing the Eye's easy influence to help the Dreads escape the world and into a fresh new one before they were also destroyed in the Extinction's "Raze the Earth" ritual (set up by using Jon to weave toxic-filled veins throughout the world he was traversing that'll explode at once 'grand finale' style).

Jon, now deeply binded to the Entities' purest forms and still an Extinction time-bomb, was mostly destroyed during the trip to Somewhere Else and the Entities had to reconstruct him so his death wouldn't destroy them too. This led to Jon being reborn a near completely different being (with some of him preserved) as functionally the direct spawn of the Dread Powers, replacing his parallel counterpart from the new world.

#yes i made him So Much Worse ur welc <333 #if you couldn't tell this is my favorite self-indulgent au #i love jon he's my favorite ragdoll /aff #so sorry for the length i honestly thought it'd be shorter :8 #i have a name for this au but it's also the name of a collection of au's so lmk if you have a name for this one specifically! #i'd love to hear any thoughts! #don't be shy but don't feel obligated #tma #tma au #yafc au #yafc-j au #tma time travel au #tma somewhere else #it's not really a 'fix-it' au i'm just used to that being part of the name lol #ig it'll depend where the au goes whether it's a fix-it or just me using jon as a sandboxing dummy #tma jon #jonathan sims #tma entities #jonmartin #to-be #(sorry for the clickbait jonmartin consumers they're not in this post just the au hehe) #tma writing #my writing #god i'm probly gonna cringe at the mess of these tags later but whatever i'm too busy riding my high to care atm #future me's problem #my post

[south-sea]

i've been promising it for ages, so here are finally some notes on the two iterations of black arms/doom i write for. in this house we ignore the "black doom is an evil space tyrant for the sake of being an evil space tyrant" thing and have fun exploring his motives from different angles

(it's because i had no idea that was even a thing until like a week ago. i've always thought the motivator was Just Food, and i like that significantly more.)

i like to think of eclipse's paternal qualities as something telling to black doom/the species as a whole, at least outside of canon instances. so that's an intentional trend across both.

it's also intentionally implied the alt arms are more or less what aruna's hive could/would have turned out like if he were less traditionally stubborn and foolhardy.

as for their plans and how things ended up:

alt doom started out as generally interested in how humanity might progress. once in contact with gerald, his plan was to trade his DNA for the chaos emeralds as a source of energy for the black comet, as its at-the-time power would have been mostly depleted by the time it circled back around in 50 years. this agreement was doomed to fail; both he and gerald almost immediately realized how badly it could backfire, got paranoid, and mutually planned to destroy each other. the fact humans are good sustenance for the black arms was just a convenient bonus at that point.

given shadow didn't make it past SA2 on this timeline, it left sonic to defeat the black arms. and in sonic fashion, this meant putting them in their place and sending them packing without properly destroying them.

alt doom is not so much one to accept he's been beaten, and more one to re-approach something from a different angle once he realizes his methods were flawed. this leads to him picking up and just going Somewhere Else. he's a scientist too, on some level. he can figure it out. and he does. rather than being all traditional and stubborn, he learns to work with other species, which in turn leads to securing better/more diverse materials, more ethical/convenient food sources, etc. the arms' population booms and advances at breakneck pace from then on. they diversify and spread out. without having to fight for survival, things are chill. it's considered the good end.

aruna's is the bad end. shadow is present on this timeline, and summarily wrecks his entire shit (for good reason).

the trouble with aruna's hive is it was in a constant state of nutritional deficit. they were the multiverse's scavengers, tending to pick planets clean whose populations were already critically low. not for any moral or ethical reason, just that the hive itself was so comparatively small in numbers, they didn't much have a choice.

this led to desperation. he got Tired of it. his last ditch effort to secure some means of easier travel/means to acquire food was to obtain the chaos emeralds. so he struck a deal with gerald, as these things always go.

he comes back 50 years later, finds his son has sided with the humans, and just snaps. just goes absolutely nuclear. if the deal isn't going to be upheld, and shadow sees the black arms as The Enemy, then he's just going to take the emeralds (and by extension the whole planet itself) by force. he's done playing nice. he and his people are starving. have been starving for enough years he's lost count.

this ends with the entire comet being blown up, and that's the last thing he sees as he's falling back to earth.

what all goes on after that point is between nobody but him, the multiverse's worst and, somehow, eventually, a familiar fallen god. (it's going in another aruna-centric post, some day, maybe, i hope.)

there's even still more i could say about how their respective hives operated and how they interacted with them personally, but that also needs to go in another post because this one's already long enough. but oh man is there more to say.

(and a shoutout/direct link to @motobug as always for the mobian design)

#black doom #mobian black doom #shadow the hedgehog #second chance au #semi-modern au #art by sea #i made exactly one too many shitposts about mobian doom and then somehow ended up making him my newest redemption project. oops #don't worry he still gets Bullied (excessively) #but that post became so ooc almost immediately that it's been bothering me ever since #he was originally meant for a throwaway background au but then THAT was made canon so i rerouted into making runa's stuff Also make sense #and now here we are #with still lots and lots and lots of details omitted because i couldn't format it correctly and csp hates processing text #and because i'm sitting on a whole pile of relevant sketches wondering how to format Those/continually adding to them #i'm in too deep (please send help i'm drowning)

[etherealspacejelly]

ok so. i am currently working on a fic. its a story that has been rotating in my brain for years about an avengers OC. idk if i want to start posting it as a WIP or wait until it's finished.

what im gonna do is post the prologue here, under the cut. it is entirely worldbuilding because. i came up with a new alien species with Lore™️ that i made as canon compliant as possible because im a fucking nerd. so you kinda need to know all of that before i can tell the actual story.

if you're interested, please give it a read and tell me what you think and whether you would want to read more! if it gets enough attention i'll start posting the chapters i have to ao3. i have a tag list for my fics so lmk if you want to be added to that too.

quick summary of the fic as a whole: The last surviving member of the Light Elf race, Einar, is taken in by the Avengers when they are orphaned at 10 years old. They nurse Einar back to health, and slowly form a bond with them, helping them to process their grief and heal from their trauma. There's a lot of fluff, a lot of angst, a lot of hurt/comfort, and of course found family.

It starts during the events of Thor: The Dark World and follows the storyline of the MCU from there.

Prologue:

In the beginning, there was only darkness. The only world to exist in that darkness was a tiny, desolate rock named Alfheim. This was the home of my ancestors, the Elves, before time, before space, before light.

No one knows how long they lived like that, alone in the dark. All we know is that at some point that darkness ended. The universe began, and light and life exploded into existence. For most of the Elves, this was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. They swore to protect and nurture all life and to serve the light. But others believed that this was a perversion of the natural order, that the universe belonged in darkness and should be returned to that state. They vowed to destroy the light by any means possible.

War broke out between the two opposing sides, an Elvish Civil War that lasted for many billions of years, with both sides only ever coming together to kill each other. And so, they evolved separately into two species: the Dark Elves and the Light Elves. Each side became stronger and stronger with each generation, evolving new abilities and traits to give them an edge in battle.

A few millennia ago, a great battle ensued between these two sides on Svardalfheim. The Dark Elves tried to use their most powerful weapon, the Aether, to destroy the universe. The Light Elves fought with all their might, but the Dark Elves had the upper hand. That is until the Asgardians arrived.

Odin's father, King Bor, and his army tipped the scales and won the battle for the Light Elves. They confiscated the Aether and sealed it away where no one would find it. Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, fled in his ship and bombed the planet behind him hoping to destroy what remained of the Light Elf army, not caring if his own perished as well.

Only two Light Elves survived.

They fled to find a place to hide, to recover their strength for what they knew would be the final battle of the War. They needed a primitive, unknown, safe planet to seek refuge. They found one.

Earth. Dominated by a bipedal, fairly intelligent species descended from tree dwellers. No one would think to look for them there. It was on this planet in the middle of nowhere that these two Elves decided to take a risk, one last desperate attempt to give them an edge against the Dark Elves. They had a baby.

That child, the last Light Elf baby to ever be born, came to be in England, Earth, in the spring of 2003. They named the child Einar, an old Norse name meaning 'the lonely warrior', for that is the future they believed their child was destined for. Little did they know how wrong they would turn out to be.

#fanfic #fanfiction #space jelly writes #marvel fanfiction #marvel #marvel mcu #mcu

[dangermousie]

Farscape rewatch: Look at the Princess Part 2, 2x12

I just love this shot of Crichton:

Farscape summed up:

This ep has one of my favorite scenes: Crichton in space, out-crazing Scorpius, and rescuing himself through sheer insanity. He goes full-on unhinged, using the fact that yes, he is willing to die rather than submit, than be tortured and experimented on.

He takes this and runs with it...and it’s probably the most unhinged we’ve seen him so far tho not as unhinged as he’s going to get and just...

The whole scene is miles more unhinged than my few caps can do it justice but also, only Farscape can get away with rotating between dark despair and pure unhinged hilarity at the speed of light - I mean here is John forcing Braca’s gun towards his right hand yelling “kill my sex life!” UMMM god this show!

PS They are literally gonna have this as ep title later.

Also, yet another instance where dark humor is his lifeline and coping/defense  mechanism. He never loses it, this is how he keeps semi-sane.

This is the first time he hears the chip, isn’t it? That scene is amazing, and heroic, and all sorts of heart-breaking. Because it saves him now but also this is a small appetizer of what it will be like for John to have the voice of his torturer control him, to remove volition. Crichton’s will is extreme, can-move-mountains kind of quality and the chip will strip it from him, just as it will force him to go against all his instincts and feelings and it’s going to be a horror.

Of course, what Scorpius, who has notably recognized John as another individual by now, even if that recognition is in shape of wanting to triumph over him, it’s still a step up from ‘lab rat’ view of the rest of the world, what Scorpius isn’t reckoning with, yet, that Crichton would rather die, literally, than surrender himself, so he better find some other lever, because threatening his life would never work. He eventually does, in s4, Aeryn, and I always found it telling that Grayza, overall nowhere near as brilliant as Scorpius, figures that lever out faster because Scorpius is hampered by his considering any genuine emotion as not worthy of consideration.

But yeah, this really does put Crichton through a ringer and I really love that his falling apart does not make him weak, it makes him human and makes any triumph all the more worthy.

I find myself both understanding Aeryn in this ep, and being very frustrated by her. She wants all these things from Crichton, but she won’t give an inch, or a hint, or a hope in return. The only reason this marriage bugs her is because she loves him because from every other vantage point, it’s a good good thing, and it’s not as if she is from species which believes you can’t marry without romantic love. And Crichton can fight even when broken, as he proves over and over, but he needs something to fight for and now he doesn’t have anything and she is not willing to provide it. The scene where he wants something - some hint that she will return his feelings and she can’t give it to him due to her own demons gets me. He is at a low point and he has nothing to cling to and she can’t give him that something because she herself is not sure she can survive giving any piece of her heart away.

I do love her ‘diplomacy’ with Katralla and Jenovia:

And the awesome putdown line to Casanova guy of ‘it’s not you, it’s me. I don’t like you.’ Heh.

But she didn’t even show up at the wedding. Oh Aeryn. So brave in battle, so good at running away emotionally. And D’Argo is being an awesome friend in this one - willing to back up John in whatever,no agendas (unlike Rygel and Aeryn, tho those two have them for different reasons) and his ‘good news/bad news’ cracks is one of my fave things ever but also really does leave John on a happy note going into a crazy situation:

and John bitchslapping Prince Clavor and the story with Zhaan and Moya and Pilot that makes me cry in the sheer defenseless peace and resignation of the ship and pilot and righteous rage of Zhaan.

In conclusion. Yeah, it’s Farscape all right.

#farscape

[godtierwallflower]

The Blue Knight was basically a fever dream of Aoyama. He had nightmares about some terrible fate befalling Ichigo, he daydreamed about being able to be there for her, and from that simple indirect wish, a consciousness was created with a single goal from its first breath, practically an algorithm: protect Ichigo.

He was still a unique personality that wasn’t an exact copy of Aoyama’s (more short-winded and reserved), although some feelings of his bled through in its creation.

Namely, his affections for Ichigo.

And... Aoyama was more-or-less the same thing for Deep Blue.

Despite being a god-like being that can reshape planets in a day, he needs a physical body to meaningfully interact with the world. He custom-built a host body, something that’s at least partly composed of pure Mew Aqua. And the body needed an artificial personality to “babysit” it until it was finally big and strong enough to host Deep Blue’s soul when he awakened.

An artificial personality born of a fever dream with a single purpose for existence: survive and grow enough for Deep Blue to awaken.

Hence the fact that, even as a child, he sees his life in the very un-childlike view as “something to survive, at any cost”.

And why Aoyama himself was blase about the idea of disappearing along with all of humanity.

“Something to survive, until I’m finally allowed to die like I and all humanity deserve to.”

He was an algorithm created by the dormant Deep Blue, and part of that seeps out in his own personality, too. That’s what it means for a god to create in his own image.

When Deep Blue says that Aoyama “never existed”, he’s not kidding. Aoyama was never supposed to exist, and at most, he should have logically just been a fragile daydream that falls apart as easily as the Blue Knight persona did, a quiet, unremarked upon death of a personality.

If he and Ichigo had never fallen in love, Aoyama would have had no qualms about giving up his whole existence and stepping aside for Deep Blue to take over the body.

But he did fall in love with Ichigo. He wasn’t supposed to be able to, but he did.

And what was essentially meant to be a very simple AI autopilot program, suddenly began thinking about things beyond simple survival.

Both thinking about wanting to protect Ichigo, and thinking about what sort of life Aoyama would want for himself, too.

Things he’d never even considered before, because he was supposed to just think of his life as something that should disappear with everyone else.

He thought that it’d be fun to travel and study for preservation. He thought that it’d be nice to actually be part of an affectionate family.

He thought that it was okay to stop trying to survive at all and stop standing out of the way for Deep Blue. That was when he decided it was okay if he died, even if it interfered with Deep Blue’s survival.

And then, he thought that it was okay to live for himself, to follow his dream, to fight for a better future where he and Ichigo both still get to exist and help the species of this planet.

Aoyama never existed.

Aoyama was never meant to exist.

His existence was tentative and artificial and meant to be temporary, but he personally hi-jacked the body from the living god that made it to begin with.

And then, he taught that living god the same things that Aoyama himself had learned.

#Tokyo Mew Mew #Masaya Aoyama #Deep Blue #Blue Knight #Ichigo Momomiya #ichisaya

[brandwhorestarscream]

starscream x shockwave

I'm imagining this as TFP Shockstar, post war: the whole mess with the predacons and Megatron abandoning them, he does the most logical thing to guarantee their survival: bends Starscream over the nearest flat surface and frags him so full of transfluid there's no way he's not sparked up. The autobots won't execute or even imprison them if they're expectant parents: sparklings without healthy parents don't grow up well, and with any luck the baby will come out with their sire's original alt mode. Shockwave may be a warframe now but his CNA is completely civilian. If their baby is going to have a good life, they'll need to get lucky and inherit his alt.

Starscream knows it's the most accessible failsafe they have: not even Arcee would lay a finger on him so long as he has an innocent newspark nestled close to him . Theyll have access to energon and shelter and the autobots won't be able to protest because they're prioritizing rebuilding the population over everything else. They're an endangered species, after all.

But despite all that, Starscream bitches constantly. He's got monstrous cravings and his fuel tank is a bottomless pit: it's pretty obvious he's eating for more than just two. In true seeker fashion he's got multiple infant sparks orbiting his, 4 of them: assumably 3 seekerlings and an extra civilian. He's sore everywhere, in his pedes and ankle joints, in his wings, even his wings are aching. He's always starving but the bitties pressing on his fuel tank means he throws up if he drinks too fast, for the entirety of the carrying cycle. It's really rough on him, honestly.

Shockwave, just by nature, isn't anywhere near as emotionally available as Starscream needs him to be. But he does his damn best to take good care of him: he may not be able to feel love and joy like he used to, but he has a sense of muted pride and appreciation. Starscream is preserving his future and giving him a legacy all at once. The intense demands on his body are clearly taking a great toll on him. So he tries to make it as comfortable as he can for him, the highest quality energon they can manage and even using his technological know-how to make some comfy fibers for a few wing cushions.

Starscream doesn't know how to show his appreciation because he has -5 points in his Emotional Intelligence stat, so he just grabs Shockwave and demands affection. Usually late at night, creeping into Shockwave's room. The two of them are living together in light of the sparklings, and as time goes on Starscream abandons his room entirely. Moves into Shockwave's space and always worms his way under his arm, demanding him to, "Hold me like I deserve! I'm carrying your spawn, the least you can do is rub my wings."

When the sparklings are born, Shockwave was right: three tiny, scrawny little Vosians with a single civilian ground frame. He struggles to hold them, only having one arm, but tries his best. Starscresm is preening like a peacock because look at how beautiful they are! The first new citizens of New Vos, brought into the world by their Crown Prince! Take that autobots! As soon as he's able to walk again he's strutting around with all 4 of them--even the grounder--and showing off so smugly to everyone. He doesn't trust the bots around them but wants them to know now he's truly invincible for the next several million years. They won't hurt a carrier with dependent children so political immunity, here he comes!

Eventually, I like to imagine that the shadowplay and empurata are reversed or at least treated, alleviating some of the symptoms and allowing for the regaining of further emotional range. When it happens, and Shockwave gets to hold his children for the first time? You'd be hard pressed to find a more radiant smile anywhere on Cybertron, and Starscream is honestly floored at how handsome he is. He's only ever known Shockwave post-empurats: he had no idea he had such a beautiful face! He'd of course seen pictures of Senator Shockwave, of course, but they never did him justice. Shockwave looks so bright and cheerful softly cooing at his babies, poking their cheeks and holding their little servos, bouncing them and making them giggle. Shockwave is too enamored with them to notice him staring, but afterwards when they climb into berth that night, Starscream suggests perhaps giving Shockwave some political immunity too 👀 besides, an aerie isn't an aerie without at least a few dozens sparklings running around, so shouldn't they get to work making more?

They take turns, going forward, on who carries: Shockwave second, Starscream third, Shockwave fourth, etcetera etcetera until they're satisfied 🤭 as it turns out, these two really, really like making and having sparklings, and are a better match than they ever thought possible.

#ask game #shockstar

[blueper-saiyan]

Despite not enjoying reading Planet Vegeta survives AUs very much, I still end up spending a fair amount of time thinking about what Vegeta would have been like if he’d actually grown up in the role of prince like he was supposed to. Obviously, he would have still been a tyrannical mass murderer except with far less insecurity and trauma, but that’s not really what I find interesting. I’m curious how he would view his role. In the regular timeline where basically every other Saiyan dies, he’s clearly (imo) decided that he needs to embody the absolute ideal for a Saiyan (or at least the version that he’s come up with, which is strongly biased by the fact that he grew up with only one adult Saiyan, was surrounded by people who hate his whole species, and was influenced by Freeza who both enjoyed messing with him and could directly profit if Vegeta was wrong about his own culture. So uh, probably not a particularly accurate version. But that’s a different concept to explore.). I’m not even sure if it was a conscious decision by Vegeta or not now that I think about it. Being very likely to be the last member of his species puts a very strong pressure to live up to or down to the expectations that everyone who met him would have. Beyond that, he’s royalty, and that means he’s supposed to be held to a higher standard, so he’d feel that pressure to leave a final impression even more than Nappa or Raditz. (And they both seem to care about it too, especially Raditz, which is interesting, but I’ll leave that sort of meta to the hardcore Raditz fans since I mostly just care about Raditz for the way he impacts Vegeta and don’t think as strongly about him)

So in contrast to the canon timeline, if Vegeta was growing up in a timeline where there were plenty of other Saiyans, would he feel that same pressure to be exactly what everyone expects of him? He’d have a more accurate picture of those expectations as well. I can’t decide whether or not I think that alternate version of Vegeta would still want to be the perfect Saiyan in quite the same way. Would he chafe against the actual ideal if it wasn’t more or less a framework he formed for himself? Would being able to actually be judged against it make it less appealing? What if some of the ideas about what makes a good Saiyan were things he disagreed with? Or would he still be loyal to his species and do the best he could to be the perfect Saiyan prince and then king, regardless of how high that standard might be or how much he dislikes some of it? He’s certainly canonically willing to subject himself to an impossible standard that causes him and everyone else a lot of problems. But is that only because it’s a standard he constructed himself?

Admittedly, at that level of divergence in experiences between canon Vegeta and a Planet Vegeta lives AU Vegeta, it’s hard to even really call the resulting character Vegeta still (the reason I don’t enjoy Planet Vegeta lives AUs) but I do feel like something about this question has relevance to actual Vegeta’s characterization and motives. Does he care so strongly about being Saiyan only because they’re all dead and therefore he’s forced to represent the whole species whether or not he wants to, and he’s embraced it at this point? Or is it because his father did a good job of instilling pride in him during the brief time they were together (for all the good and ill that his pride has caused)? Is he only so devoted to his “Saiyan pride” because he’s the one who came up with his version and no one else can truly decide how well he’s following it? Or does not having any external validation of how well he’s doing just make his self-imposed (and generally self-destructive) task harder? How much of why he’s so insistent on it is due to Freeza?

Freeza has a line shortly before he starts torturing Vegeta that I think about sometimes, where he basically says that he thought Vegeta was special and better than the other Saiyans. Up to your interpretation of Freeza whether Freeza genuinely believed that Vegeta is special somehow or if he was just doing some particularly cruel emotional manipulation there. Regardless of the intent behind it, if that was the attitude that Freeza was demonstrating most of the time, maybe Vegeta doubled down on being Saiyan because Freeza kept trying to claim he wasn’t like them, and he was able to see the insult. There’s also an alternative interpretation of Vegeta that he was convinced he was better than the rest of his species because of the way Freeza treated him. It’s an extremely good way to isolate him after all. In which case Vegeta only started (I often mentally call it “performing Saiyan pride” but I’m sure there’s a better way to refer to the behavior) after realizing he’d been lied to and manipulated for the majority of his life. So embracing being Saiyan so aggressively is a sort of penance for discrediting his people in the past. Or if he’d been performing Saiyan pride all along, the reveal that Freeza killed the Saiyans just spurred on a more intense performance.

Seeing a version of Vegeta with different pressures on him might give answers to some of these questions I have about why he behaves the way he does (yes it’s because he was never meant to be inspected this closely and he takes the roles he needs to for the sake of the plot, no I do not care I’m taking him seriously anyway), so I end up thinking about that version of him where he knows for sure what it means to be a Saiyan.

#Vegeta #dbz #long post #More or less a long post at least #I also think that how few other Saiyans Vegeta has really met is absolutely part of why he was willing to wait #Three hours to meet Goku like yeah he says he wants to torture him but there’s definitely some curiosity there #He just can’t admit to it because that goes against his idea of what a Saiyan is supposed to be #There’s also definitely still more to explore in why Vegeta performs Saiyan pride so aggressively that wasn’t relevant to an AU where #Vegeta knows a lot of other Saiyans #Like in the canon timeline how much did meeting Goku #Who is not at all like what Vegeta thinks a saiyan should be #Cause Vegeta to double down on his saiyan pride? #I barely even touched the surface of whatever the fuck was up with Vegeta and Freeza because that’s at least another essay #That I tend to leave to people with more qualifications to write